Locked On Penguins - Daily Podcast On The Pittsburgh Penguins - Penguins start the DADS TRIP in Ottawa!

Episode Date: December 18, 2025

The Penguins are traveling with the dads this weekend and they’ll start the annual dad’s trip in Ottawa! Hunter and Patrick first take a look at the Ottawa Senators, a truly confusing team that looks like they should be better than they are, but are struggling as of late (1:40). They discuss why, who to watch, and what’s been the cause behind the Sens’ struggles. Then, they give their keys to victory for the Penguins (11:00), who needs to step up, some ideas to kick-start the power play, and more! Finally, with the news of the Hoffmann Family purchasing the Penguins, they lay out a couple of ideas of how the new owners can endear themselves to Pittsburgh. (22:30).Support Us By Supporting Our Sponsors!IndeedNow, you can speed up your hiring process with a $75 Sponsored Job Credit. Just go to https://indeed.com/lockedonright now and support our show by saying you heard about Indeed on this podcast. Terms and conditions apply.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.MonarchTake control of your finances with Monarch. Use code LOCKEDONNHL at https://monarch.com/lockedonnhl for 50% off your first year.FanDuelToday's episode is brought to you by FanDuel. So if you want to be right in the middle of the action this season, visit FanDuel.com and place your NFL live bets all season long. 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 will kick off their annual dad's trip tonight in Ottawa, and the Penguins, Pat, they need to win in the absolute worst way. Your Locked-on Penguins, your daily podcast on the Pittsburgh Penguins, part of the Locked-on Podcast Network, your team every day. Hello, and welcome back to another episode of the Locked-on Penguins podcast. I am one of your hosts, Hunter Hodes. You can follow me on Twitter at Hunter Hodes. Joined by my host, Patrick Damp, you can follow him on all social media platforms at

Sendin for Wet. You can also follow the show's Twitter at L.O. underscore Penguins. And you can find us on Instagram at Lockdown, underscore Penguins. Of course, thank you all so much for making this your first listen slash watch today. We are free and available on all platforms. And finally, today's episode is brought to you by Fandul if you want to be right in the middle of the action this season, visit fandul.com and place your NFL live bets all season long. As I said in the intro, my friend, this team needs to win super, super badly.

And what we talked about on Wednesday, maybe it's the best thing to get out of town, go on the trip with some of your family, and just play a really good road game. And the Penguins will have an opportunity to do that tonight in Ottawa against a senator's team that has not been very good this year. they've taken a bit of a step back. Yes, Brady Kachuk missed a good chunk of the start of the season, was out for a month and a half before coming back at the end of November. He has 11 points and 12 games.

But this has still been a very inconsistent team, despite having very good underlying numbers, Pat. This is so strange to me because if you look at some of their five-on-five metrics, there are seventh in the league and shot attempts per 60 minutes at 52.3%. They are third in the league and expected goal share, but they're 18th in the league and actual goals. And then when you go to their scoring chances full rate, they're fourth in the league.

So the process has been there, but the actual results haven't, and their goaltending has also not been good this year. Linus Olmark, rocking an 879 savers. And she's going to get the start tonight for Ottawa. But this is a team that had some higher expectations for this year, especially after making the playoffs last year, at least pushing the Leafs to six games in that series.

But this has been a very inconsistent team, five points out of a playoff. spot before they won on Monday in Winnipeg, a three two overtime win. They had lost four of their last five. I know the penguins are struggling, man, but it seems like this Ottawa team is kind of still right for the taking. This is a truly confusing Ottawa team because like you said, you look at all their analytics, you look at even some of their top line numbers, and they seem like they should be better than they are. But for some reason, they just can't figure it out. And You've got Tim Stutzlow leading the way with 33 points at forward.

You got Drake Batherson right behind him with 30 points. Dylan Cousins has been really good for them with 24 points. On the back end, Jake Sanderson, who if I am Bill Guerin and Mike Sullivan, I am putting him on the team USA roster because he is really, really good. But again, like you said, it all comes back to goaltending like it usually does. I love to use the Jeff Merrick quote of they should just call hockey goalie because if you don't have a good goalie, it kind of derails the entire operation. And Olmark, 879 in 24 appearances, and then their backup goalie, whose name I'm not even going to try to pronounce, because I am going to get that completely and utterly wrong, eight appearances, 87. So the thing is, they're not getting a ton of scoring.

but they're also not getting saves so if there was ever a team for the penguins to get back on track against it would be this ottawa senators team then again and this is just me trying to find some fun in the absurd i also had the thought of how ridiculous can this losing street get at this point because you look at the six games you have a couple of blown leads a loss that came in a tie that happened with 0.1 seconds left on the clock. You had a 5-1 lead blown. You had a 3-0 lead blown. You had two games where you got skated off the ice.

What crazy thing can happen tonight against Ottawa? I don't want it to happen, obviously. I want the penguins to get back on track and get a win. But at the same time, there's a part of me, a very morbid part of me that goes, just how ridiculous can we make this stretch of games? Don't even put that out there. God forbid they take a 5-9. nothing lead tonight and they blow that. I mean, that's even more morbid than what you were saying,

but I don't want it to get any crazier. Just win. That's what I care about. Just end this losing streak. Get off this road trip on a high note. The dads are in Ottawa for this. You're getting away from Pittsburgh. You're going on the road as a team. Find a way to get a win over a team that has been very meh this season, despite, again, some good underlines. But as a team, they have an 8.78 percentage between the two goaltenders. They're finishing in terms of their actual goals is a little bit below league average compared to a really good expected goal share. So if you can find a way to, again, keep their finishing in check,

which it has been all season, they're going to have a really good shot to win this. Though I will say this is an Ottawa team that the Penguins have really struggled against in recent years. Last year, they did beat them at the end of the season. That was that 1-0 win. Sydney Crosby got the overtime winner. March 30th of earlier this year. But again, last season. Before that, though, Pat,

Penguins have lost six straight games to Ottawa in seven or last eight. In fact, the Penguins only have three wins in their last 10 games against Ottawa. Something about the Senators team, whether it's last season, the season before that, or the season before that, they just haven't matched up well. Part of it, if I had to, again, take a stab at it is their team speed. They've been very quick, even though last year they got to the playoffs. in the two years before that. They didn't get to the playoffs.

Those two teams before the playoff team were still really quick, which were giving the Penguins fits. And I think that combined with the size of the Senators have, the way that they can mix it up during games, I just think the Penguins, it didn't match up well against them. So that needs to change. It changed again at the end of last season,

but it needs to continue because Penguins have just not played well against this team for the most part lately. They haven't. The one thing I will say in favor of, Ottawa right now is it's the thing that I was so concerned about with the senators up until the last couple of years is that yes, I know they had their ownership struggles and everything and we have seen what a bad owner can do to a franchise, how much damage it can do to the product on the ice, is they have finally picked a direction of where they want to go, the kind of team

that they want to be. When you look at them for the past five or six years, there were bits and pieces of, okay, are they going to be a fast, talented team? Are they going to be a big physical team? Are they going to be a defensive team?

What are they? You look at a lot of their team now. Stutzla, cousins, Drew, obviously Kichuk, Zub, Shabbat. They have got guys who are going to get under your skin. They have guys who are going to be pests.

They have guys who, are going to try to knock you off of your game and take advantage of it when they get the opportunity, which is something they do, because they have a 25.5% power play, which is good for sixth overall in the league. So this is a team that for all of their other woes, you give them a man advantage, they take advantage of it. So for the penguins tonight,

you know Kachuk's going to be Kachuk. you know Stutzel is going to be Stutchla. Same goes for Dylan Cousins. Don't sync to their level. Laugh them off, skate away, and play the game. Tim Stutzel will always try to get any call he can. He's arguably the biggest diver in the NHL. If you want to put him number one, I wouldn't argue with you.

But he's right up there. So you know he's going to do that. Brady Kachuk, we all know how physical he can be. He's obviously very offensively gifted. too but again pat just like his brother he knows how to mix it up so you got to watch out for that batherson again is having a great year i love that you mentioned jakes anderson he is a defenseman that does not get talked about enough in the nchl 26 points in 32 games he was greater the four nations and i will be upset if he is not on the olympic team i think he should be a lock for it

i know the u.s has some really good defenseman but he's right in there i don't know if he's going to be in the top six, he might be scratched a little bit to start, but he 100% should be on that team no matter what. But I think that's going to do it for this first segment. Coming up in the second segment, Pat and I are going to get to some keys to victory. He kind of already teased one of them with Ottawa's hot power play and how the Penguins P-K needs to be a lot better than it was against Edmonton earlier this week. We're going to discuss that, plus how the penguins can potentially take advantage of a very weak Senator's penalty kill. That's all coming up right after this.

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All right, we're back here on this episode of the Locked-on Penguins podcast. I'm one of your host, Hunter Hodes, joined by my co-host, Patrick Camp and Pat. You teased it at the end of our first segment. Penguins Penway Kill has to be a lot better. They were taken to school by the Oilers Power Play earlier this week. And that's still really the first time I've seen the Penguins PK get obliterated like that. They had passed every test available to them this evening. season, except that one.

And yeah, I know, the Oilers, they have the two-headed monster themselves of Connor and Leon, Bouchard from the point is ridiculous. Zach Hyman, the Tappen merchant right around the net. Nugent Hopkins is very good, but they were sipping the puck around and making the Penguins PK unit, which is elite. They made them look like an HLPK unit, that entire game, just really crazy. So I want to see a big bounce back tonight against another top power play in the Ottawa Senors, but another matchup to really watch out for tonight.

night is the Penguins power play versus the Senators penalty kill. You look around the league right now, the senators ranked 31st in the league in penalty kill percentage. Only the Seattle Cracken have a worst PK than them this season, obviously for the Penguins. They are third in power play, 31.1%. So really big mismatch there, special teams always matter very much. And then one more thing before I hand this over to you, I want the top line to play a lot better. That has been flying under the radar a little bit to some people in the fan base.

I think some people don't want to talk about it a lot. But this top line needs to be a lot better in all three zones, especially defensively. They're not getting enough out of some of these guys right now. I'm not trying to really, you know, crap on them too much. I know Brian Rust has the production, like the counting steps to the season, and that is great. Don't get me wrong. But I think his play away from the puck needs to be better. I think Cindy Crosby coming into this game, six points in his last six games, his play away. from the puck also needs to be a lot better. I want to see Ricard Raquel get on the score sheet a little bit more.

He has two points of those last three games, but he hasn't scored yet since coming back. Small sample, but overall points still sands, the top line needs to be a lot better until Malkin's ready to come back. Starting with the special teams part of it, I will say this about the Penguins P.K. Through the last month or so, yes, they got absolutely embarrassed by the Oilers power play. as kind of expected, as I've said about a lot of things. When you have a power play like Edmontons, the penguins aren't the first team,

nor will they be the last team to get taken to school by a power play like that. You would like to see a better effort, of course. I'm not sitting here letting them off the hook, but at the same time, we do have to remember it is another NHL team on the other side of it, and they are also trying to win. So sometimes they get the better of the play. but over the last month it's kind of been up and down throughout where they have really good efforts and then they have not so great efforts we've seen some some examples where they

kind of hold on for dear life and survive rather than do really well i want to see them get back to what they were doing about a month ago when they were just a really good front foot aggressive penalty kill that gave the other gave the opposition nothing they get back to that i'm not going to be worried about it at all after this point as for the power play if you are going to keep anthony mantha on the top unit the one thing that needs to change is this everybody else can continue their role of moving around being active keeping the puck moving mantha shouldn't leave from the front of the net just park him in front just say everybody else make sure you're moving the puck make sure you're moving bodies getting the movement

going mantha park yourself in front don't let the goaltender or the defensemen see anything and i think that's an okay thing to do because it is going to pull a defender away from the rest of the power play unit because you have to respect that guy in front of the net if they abandon him and he wants to get into the soft spot just as good but park him there use his size to the advantage and try to get everybody else working around. If you're not going to do that, it needs to be Ben Kindle again on the top unit. He absolutely proved he belonged on it and it was working.

So if you're not going to make that change, then Mantha needs to be parked in front all game long. And you're right about the top line. The production and the analytics offensively are mostly there. They're doing exactly what you expect them to do offensively for the most part. defensively however they're a black hole they are not playing well defensively and while we don't expect them to be shut down locked down forwards they can't be this they can't be bleeding chances they can't be bleeding scoring chances and they can't be giving up as many goals as they are

they've either got to tighten up or muse has to make a change with the top line right that's the biggest thing if you're not going to tighten up defensively might be time for someone to come off Crosby's wing and go down further in the lineup. There was a play that really stood out to me was one of the Oilers' goals in bad pinch, bad breakdown, but then the top line was really slow getting back. I'm not trying to single out anyone, but I did see, like, you know, one of the players was Brian Rust, and he was just really, really slow getting back. I mean, Sid was as well, but Russ was especially slow, and I'm like, come on, man,

I need to see a better defensive effort there, you know, late in that game against Edmonton. so I just want to see them play better defense in their own zone. I'm not trying to sit here and say like, oh, they need to be Selky trophy contenders because that's not going to be the case. Sidney Crosby has not been a Selky trophy candidate in years now. Let's just to say the least, Brian Russ has never been a Selky trophy candidate. No, or will he ever be a sulky trophy candidate. Ricard Raquel will not be either.

But you need to be at least passable defensively, and they're not getting that from the top line right now. As you mentioned, the offense, yeah, I mean, Sid went for game recently, the county stats very much there for Brian Russ. I want to see Raquel get on the score sheet, you know, goal-wise, but they got to be better overall outside of that, or else Dan Mus, I think, should be potentially considering other changes to the top line. You mentioned Anthony Mantha on the power play. I'm going to disagree a little bit.

I might as well just take them off right now. I think you can put Ben Kindle on the top power play, just especially after the way it performed last game. I'm not trying to overreact to small sample sizes, but even for a little while now, I know he scored against San Jose this past weekend. I like Anthony Mantha. I think he's been a very good fit for this team this year.

I just don't think he's top power play material, even with Evgeny Malk and Her. I think Ben Kindle, as you mentioned, he has shown what it takes to play well on that top unit. He has the playmaking ability. He has the vision. He's good with deflecting pucks. As you've seen, his release, especially his one-timer,

is especially great. Put him on there. keep him on there until if Gennie Malkin is ready to return, you can have Anthony Manta be on the second unit. That's a change that I would make if I were DMUs. I'm not sure if he's going to do it for tonight. But if he doesn't, I am in your camp that he has to be in front of the net, but I would still just take him off right now.

For sure. And just to clarify, I would immediately make the change of putting Kindle back on there. But I'm looking at the way this team has operated the past few games. And it appears they're dedicated to keeping him there. And if you are, that's the change that you should make because he's massive and he's going to take away the eyes of just about any goaltender. So use that to your advantage because we've seen that the other four players on the top unit are extremely good at puck movement.

You're not taking anything away if you just plant him in front. So you can give yourself that added advantage of you're essentially tying up another defender on the opposition and it gives you a four on three and more ice to operate with with your four players. So if you're able to continue that fluid puck movement with those four players and you let Anthony Mantha just own the front of the net, I think you're in a good spot. And as for his game overall, I'm right there with you. I think he has been a better fit than any of us could have imagined. But the problem right now is he's lost his Batman to his Robin. He had really good chemistry with Hvgeny Malkin, and that elevated his game.

Without Evgeny Malkin, he's been fine. I don't think he's been as good as he was with Gino. But if once Gino gets back, I do think he's going to get right back to what he was doing because I really, really like that big man line of Hvgeny Malkin, Justin Brzoe, and Anthony Manta. They were tearing it up early. The chemistry was there, and it looked like a line that could do a lot of damage. So the sooner Gino gets back, the better. Yeah, obviously, it's not going to be tonight for Gino, probably not this weekend.

I doubt before the Christmas break, but we'll see. I'm guessing, and this is a pure guess, it's going to be after the Christmas break, maybe going into New Year's, he's already been skating before practices. But once he gets, you know, a full practice or two under his belt, I imagine he'll return. So hopefully over the next couple of weeks, he'll come back. Same for Blake Lizard. The penalty kill is also really missing him. And the six on five situations, Pat, they're also really missing him for those just with how much of a puck hound he is, how aggressive he plays.

It's been a bigger loss. I think other people want to mention just with how good of a season he had been having before going down with his injury. But that's going to do it for the second segment in the keys to victory. Coming up to end the show, Pat and I are going to spend a few minutes talking about the hopes for the new owners, aka the Hoffman family coming in as they are set to by the team. expected to be announced over the next few days. So stick around for that. That's coming up right after this.

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All right, we're back here on this episode of the Lockdown Penguins podcast. I am one of your host, Hunter Hodes. that's my good friend and coast, Patra Dam and Pat, I'm going to let you cook to start this one because you were texting about how you had some good ideas for this. I got a couple as well, by the Hoffman family. They are set to officially buy the team for $1.7 billion per sports net's Elliott Freeman.

Again, pretty nice return on investment for FSG. They are basically getting double for what they paid for just four years ago. And this is expected to be finalized for the next few days. Something like this always leaks. on Twitter first before there's an official announcement from the Penguins, the league, you know, all the governors have to approve it as well. That's going to happen really soon, but this is happening. I think my biggest thing, give Mario a call and see what he can do just because,

you know, he'd been away for a little bit while FSG was owning the team. You've seen him a bit more as of late. I know other people have also said that as well, but it's the obvious one. Give him a call. I'm sure he would love to be around the team a bit more. more. But Pat, I also know you have other ideas. So I'm going to let you cook here. This is the downside of my work schedule in us recording this show late afternoon because I'm going to say this and I know he listens to the show. Josh Yohe, I promise I'm not ripping you

off. I had this thought. And then this morning I'm sitting at my desk at work and I read your column on the athletic and I go, oh, I was thinking the same thing. So Josh, I promise I am not ripping you off. I had this same thought as well. it's more of an abstract point than anything. It needs to be a more familiar, familial atmosphere with the penguins again. Because I have no gripes with Fenway Sports Group. I thought they did perfectly fine as owners. Were they great?

No. Were they bad? No. You said it to me when we turned the microphones off yesterday after our episode. They were just irrationally hated because they weren't the Lemieux group. And that's understandable. Mary O'Lamue is bigger than the Pittsburgh Penguins. I know that's crazy to say, but he is.

He is just a giant when it comes to the NHL and the Pittsburgh Penguins. But FSG was a sports ownership group. They are a sports ownership group. To them, it is a business. Yes, they're dedicated to winning. And yes, they will pour resources into their teams. to win, which winning cures all. But as we know, with just about every league they're involved in, one team wins it, everybody else goes home disappointed, and it's really difficult

to win. So when you're not winning, they were a bit cold, a little bit more business-like. And while that's not great, when you follow up the Lemieux group who kind of reestablished, not even reestablished, started a really good familial atmosphere within the penguins, both for the people who worked for them and the fans, that kind of went away. It needs to come back in a way. I don't know exactly how they do it. Again, you said it. I said it yesterday.

Lemieux has to be involved in one way or another because he really just is the Pittsburgh Penguins. And whether he's on the quote unquote board, if he's a team ambassador, hell, if you just tell him, show up at games, go in your suite, have a couple glasses of wine, we'll put the camera on you and people will go crazy because it's Mario Lemieux. That is going to mean something. So that is something they should do. The other thing I really want to see from them. And the Lemieux group, it was kind of tough because of the battles. and I'm actually rereading the book now, breakaway that's about the process of how the Lemieux group

was able to go about getting Consol Energy Center now PPG Paints Arena. When you come in as a new ownership group now, they have to establish a better relationship with the city of Pittsburgh government because the area around PPG right now isn't great. And it needs to get kick started in one way or another. There needs to be more of an atmosphere like there is on the North Shore, where there are bars and restaurants. We know that the concert venue is getting built near PPG Paints Arena, which will be really nice. But it needs to become almost a mini district inside uptown.

It needs to be a place where, yeah, if you're going to a penguin game, you're not just going to PPG Paints Arena, walking in, scanning your ticket, seeing the game, and going home. You should want to get down there early to go get dinner, to get, drinks or just to hang out down there because nowadays when you go to a penguin game or a Pirates game or a Steeler game, you're going to spend a good amount of time down on the North Shore because there's a lot to do down there. There are bars, there's restaurants, there's stage A.E. There's places to shop. There are apartments being built. There are already apartments down there as it is. For the Hoffman family, they have to really establish a good relationship with

the city itself and really start to develop that area around the arena because it is so overdue and so desperately needed. I agree. And going off that, the parking situation down there is especially brutal. I mean, the traffic situation as well is also a nightmare a lot of times. I always see people complaining about attendance and it's just like, I mean, the parking and the traffic is really bad. And that goes into my next point here with the attendance. Ticket prices, I think, also need to be lowered a little bit, especially with where the team has been over the next few years, where the team is going as well. I think you could get away with it when the team was a Stanley Cup contender. I'm not really sure you can get away with it. Now, I keep seeing again,

there are certain people that are like, why there's so many empty seats, why there's so many empty seats. And, you know, going to games, it's expensive now, man. People just don't have the cash anymore like getting the ticket going down there parking eating drinks all that stuff like it adds up so that's just the reality of the situation it's why i think you know if i'm then again this is just me i would lower ticket prices that is also something that has kind of been a hobby horse of mine for a long time and it goes back to all the memes and everything from pre console energy at Consul Energy Center slash PPG Paints Arena is,

oh, the team was going to move. The team was going to move LOL, Pittsburgh doesn't care. The problem was, one, they had bad ownership that just had no idea what they were doing. But it wasn't a lack of fan support.

No. People want to support this team, but you look at the greater Pittsburgh area. It's not Philadelphia. It's not New York. It's not Chicago or L.A. There's less entertainment dollars to pull from

in western pennsylvania so to your point it's not that fans don't want to go they're going to support this team you can see it in the amount of people who listen to our show this team has been in a rebuild for a year and a half and we're still growing as a channel so people care about the pittsburgh penguins this is a great fan base i'm not trying to say otherwise no no i'm this is the point i'm building to hunter is people will go okay the penguins aren't great right now i only have a limited amount of entertainment dollars, I can sit at home and watch them on TV and have a couple beers at my house, cook dinner, and enjoy it from the comfort of my own home. When they're good, you'll shell out that money for tickets.

You'll shell out that money for parking. You'll shell out that money for food and drinks. When they're building their way back up, you got other things you want to spend money on. You got other things you want to prioritize and you can watch them at home. They're always going to have good television ratings because it's a great fan base. but they have limited entertainment dollars. So you're right. Right now they would really benefit.

And that also kind of takes it full circle from what the Lemieux group did in their original ownership. They started the whole student rush program because they said, we want to get people in the building. And where our team is located, there's Duquesne, there's Pitt,

there's CMU. They're not too far from where our arena is. If we say, hey, show us a college ID, you get a ticket for 25 bucks people are going to go not saying they got to revive that instantly but if you want to get people in the building right now you got to start lowering your ticket prices a little bit and you've got to establish a good relationship with the city proper because if you do that people will be more willing to show up because they will feel more attached to the team

in the organization right and you can also throw a point park in there by the way because that's also pretty close to the arena all those colleges yeah my dad's rolling over in his grave right now because i forgot his alma mater sorry pops but no like i agree with all those points i think these will be really good ideas we just have to see you know what happens when they officially take over the team when this is officially announced but i think that's going to do it for the thursday edition of the locked on penguins podcast coming up on the friday edition we're going to recap this game against ottawa and get you all set for the home home with the Montreal Canadiens this weekend.

First up, Saturday in Montreal, the second half of the dad strip, Sunday in Pittsburgh for the final meeting against Montreal this season. So for Patrick Damp, I am Hunter Hodes. Thank you all so much for tuning in. We appreciate it. We will be back on Friday.