Locked On Penguins - Daily Podcast On The Pittsburgh Penguins - Penguins STAY ALIVE with a game four victory, can they do it again tonight?

Episode Date: April 27, 2026

The Penguins were able to keep their season alive for at least one more game with a game four victory over the Flyers! Patrick and Hunter begin the show recapping the Penguins' massive victory on Saturday night in Philadelphia, and how a bold decision by Dan Muse to turn to Arturs Silovs proved to be the correct one. They also discuss the play of the fourth line and how a small tweak to the breakout helped the Penguins find some offense. (0:00) Then, with their season hanging in the balance, as they have done for two decades, the Big Three of Sidney Crosby, Evgeni Malkin, and Kris Letang stepped up when it mattered the most. Crosby had one of his vintage Philadelphia classics, and Letang scored a much-needed goal, as the Penguins' leaders live to fight another day. (14:46) Finally, the Penguins will have to do it again tonight at PPG Paints Arena in game five. How can they get a repeat performance and start to turn the pressure on Philadelphia? (23:22)  Everydayer ClubIf you never miss an episode, it’s time to make it official. Join the Locked On Everydayer Club and get ad-free audio, access to our members-only Discord, and more — all built for our most loyal fans. Click here to learn more and join your team’s community: https://lockedonpodcasts.com/everydayerclub Support Us By Supporting Our Sponsors! Indeed Now, you can speed up your hiring process with a $75 Sponsored Job Credit. Just go to https://indeed.com/podcast right now and support our show by saying you heard about Indeed on this podcast. Terms and conditions apply. Gametime Download the Gametime app, create an account, and use code LOCKEDON for $20 off your first purchase. Terms apply. Download Gametime today. What time is it? Gametime. FanDuel Today's episode is brought to you by FanDuel. Right now new customers can bet just five dollars and get two-hundred and fifty dollars in bonus bets if your first bet wins. Visit https://FANDUEL.COM to get started — Play Your Game. 5-Hour ENERGY The Cotton Candy flavor is HERE on https://5hourEnergy.com or Amazon, crack open Cotton Candy 5-hour ENERGY®️ shot today!   Hims To get simple, online access to personalized, affordable care for ED, hair loss, weight loss, and more, visit https://Hims.com/LOCKEDONNHL.   Warby Parker It’s the perfect time to upgrade your glasses for spring. Buy one prescription pair and get 20% off any additional prescription pairs at https://WarbyParker.com/LOCKEDONNHL.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.

Go ahead and keep those Pittsburgh Penguins obituaries in the drafts for now because they are alive after a game for victory. Hunter and I are going to recap that game and get you ready for game five right after this. You're locked on penguins, your daily podcast on the Pittsburgh Penguins, part of the Locked-on Podcast Network, your team every day. Welcome in to the Monday edition of the Locked-on Penguins podcast. I am one of your hosts, Patrick Damp. You can follow me across all social media platforms at Synonym 4 Wet. Joined as always by the one and only Hunter Hodes. You can follow him on Twitter at Hunter Hodes.

And what a Monday morning it is Penguins fans. The Pittsburgh Penguins are still alive. They might be on life support. But they are in fact still alive after a four to two victory on Saturday night in Philadelphia in game four of their opening round series against the Flyers. We got plenty to talk about on this Monday edition. We are obviously going to get you set for tonight's matchup back in Pittsburgh at PPG Paints Arena for game five.

We will obviously talk about Sidney Crosby finally putting his stamp on this next chapter of penguins flyers. But let's start with the 10,000 foot view. The penguins come out and get a victory to keep their season alive, four to two over the flyers. And let's start with what looked like it was a bit of a curious decision by Dan News, but turned out to be the right one. Arters Shilovs gets the start over Stuart Skinner.

And I'll say this much, he didn't totally win them the game. but in the second period, when the flyers started to push, he was there to make the stops he needed to make. And it was a big reason the Penguin season continues into Monday night. Yeah, we got a couple of questions in our DMs and on a couple comments saying, would you continue to start Skinner for game four? I said yes, because I felt like he was not the problem in the first three games. But DMU said, hey, I'm going to shake things up.

We did this goalie rotation during the season. We gave Skinner three starts. see what Artie can do. It was an act of desperation. I mean, your team is facing an elimination. You're potentially looking to get swept. So why not just change the goal? You'd already changed a couple of things around with your lineup.

So Dan was like, you know what? Let's see how this goes. And I'll say it, Pat, I was skeptical because Artie did not play that well down the stretch. But in this game, he was really good. And the penguins were testing him way too often, especially when they had power plays. We'll get into that a little bit later because the power play, even though they scored a power play goal in this game, Pat,

it was still not pretty overall when it comes to the process that's continuing to be a theme of this series where the power play is just not looked comfortable. But throughout this game, already made a lot of really big saves, looked cool, calm, and collected in the crease, was very confident. It was his best start in a little bit.

And he should be getting the start in game five. There's really no question about it, especially after the way he played on Saturday. right now, you know, could he potentially regress in that game, considering what we saw at times during the regular season? Sure, but after that performance, I don't think you're just going to take him out and go back to Stu. I think you have to ride already at least for the second game in Roe, considering the goal to inning that he gave you on Saturday. The two goals that he gave up, Pat, not his fault at all. I mean, one of them was a heck of a shot.

The other one was just piss poor net front defense, which has also been a bad theme for the Penguins of the series. But when he needs you, he made some big saves. Give him the start tonight on Monday. Oh, I definitely would put him back in the net for game five. Because I don't want this to come off as an indictment of Stuart Skinner. I thought Stuart Skinner was fantastic in game one. He was solid in game two. He was a little shaky in game three.

You can say that as the series has progressed, he got quote unquote worse. He didn't play poorly. He didn't play bad. But with each successive game, there were questions starting to mount. The performances were not as good as the previous performance. So I can understand Dan Mews looking at his goaltending in saying, hey, we did this rotation all season long.

It served us well. It got us to second in the division. It got us a playoff berth. I might as well give it a show. in game four if we're facing a sweep and facing the end of our season and it pays off. Let's also get into the power play because that way to get into that real quick, I was going to say because I know Skinner allowed a softier to in game three. When it comes to a list of players who have not been good in this series,

he is far, far down the list. I just want to make that clear to everyone. Right, without a doubt. Close to the reason why they were down 30. without a doubt. He was, like you said, so far down on the list of the reasons the penguins were down 3-0 going into game four. I won't say a big reason why they were down 3-0 going into game four is their power play. Yeah.

It scored a couple of goals over this series, but I said this on our Friday show when we were talking about the lack of changes to the top unit. We pretty much just have to accept, I guess, that this top unit is boom or bust. They're either going to score a goal or they are going to be an abject disaster because that is exactly how game four went. And here's the thing that is keeping them from being effective. It's not like the Flyers are playing a very aggressive style of penalty killing. It is a great embodiment of how this series is going as a whole. They are just letting the penguins make mistakes and then pouncing on the mistakes. and where the big mistakes are happening is they are trying so desperately to have a high zone cycle,

and the flyers are not allowing that. The Penguins, however, in the moments where they have played well in this series across all four games, have found success with a cycle down low. There's no reason for that to change on the power play. And if they can make that change, they're probably going to have more success in game five. Honestly, Pat, a lot of it just also comes down to really. really bad puck decisions. Like they're playing way too casual in the offensive zone.

They're making bad reads. They're forcing passes that aren't there. They're allowing the Flyers to get way too many odd man rushes. That was a huge theme of the second period. Remember on that Power Play bat? They were up to 2-0 in the second. Oh, you have a chance to potentially really put this game to bed. You gave the Flyers momentum during your own power play.

So there's just been too many times during this series so far where the Penguins have gotten a Power Play, even when they've scored three PowerPy goals in this series, there have been too many other PowerPoys where they're just giving the Flyers momentum because they can't get anything going and they're making really bad decisions with the puck. I do think part of it is coaching,

but also part of it is, you know, these veterans, you know, they're going to keep doing what they're doing on this PowerPoll unit. They're in their late 30s, a lot of these guys are. And, you know, I think asking them to make, you know, wholesale changes. I'm just not sure how successful, that's going to be. Pat, we can talk about changing the personnel, and I do think that's valid.

I would change some of the personnel on this top power play. You have talked about that a lot, you know, maybe moving someone like Malkin off the unit, or we've talked about moving Igor Chinokov, up onto the top powerplay unit, even Ben Kindle, up on that unit as well. You know, you can do that, but as long as you have, you know, a lot of these big guys on these units, it feels like, you know, they're just going to keep doing what they've been doing throughout their careers. So, again, it mainly comes down to trying to play more safe on the power plate, not feeding the flyers in transition because RDG loves how to make way too many saves in the second period on on on man Russians, excuse me.

And that was completely unacceptable to me. It was. And I saw some people say like, oh, this penguins team, this iteration of the penguins doesn't have a killer instinct. And I disagree with that much. but the point I will give them is that the Flyers penalty kill generated more momentum for the Flyers than the power play. They score on one of those and make it three nothing. That is probably game set match and we're not white knuckleing this one to the end because,

and this will transition into the last thing I want to talk about. While I do understand that the young legs on the Flyers have done really well in this, series, they still don't have the totality of the talent that the penguins do on their roster. And this was a big change, at least it was subtle in game four. We talked about it ad nauseum. They had to beat the Flyers defense. You got to gain the red line, dump it in and go to work. They didn't really do a lot of that in game four.

Now, they took what was given to them. And there were times where they dumped it in. There were times when they carried it. But if you noticed a subtle little change, they increased the puck support in the neutral zone and on the breakout, but they also increased the speed at which they were doing it. They weren't attacking one or two at a time, kind of making their way through the neutral zone and surveying the options. It was bang, bang, passes. They were a lot more crisp, and they were finding better options to pull the flyers away. That is another way to beat this breakout.

and the penguins can keep that crispness on their breakout, that could be huge, especially at home with last change. I agree with that because in the first three games you saw, they were really struggling to complete hell, not even three passes, Pat, two straight passes together just because of the way the flyers were just clogging everything up in the neutral zone. But the penguins, they were starting to get past it,

end game four, completing passes consecutively. They were gaining the offensive blue, line a lot easier and they were going to work a bit more, especially in the first period, Pat. I felt that was their best period of the season, of this, not the season, excuse me, of the series. Today, they've had plenty of other better periods. Of course, we've seen that throughout the full 25, 26 season.

But of this series, I felt that was their best period overall. They didn't let the flyers generate much in their own zone. They were able to dump it deep, work at low to high, get the cycle game going. You got that first goal from Cindy Crosby. That was great. but even at five on five, yes, that one was on the power play. They were still getting some good chances of their own. The fourth line was really getting the cycle game going.

I thought the Malkin line with Chena Caw that Novak was getting the cycle game going too, and the top line. And that was also a theme throughout the whole game. I love the way the top line worked. The one that Dan Vlodar messed up behind the net. That's all due to Ricard Raquel being aggressive with the four check. Yes, Vladar definitely made a mistake. And I don't think he's going to do that again for the rest of the series.

but Raquel caused it by, you know, forechecking deep, making Vladar make a mistake, and then he pays for the mistake, making it a 2-0 game early in the second period. So I just thought they were forechecking a lot more aggressive in this one. Yes, they let up a bit in the second period, even in the third period as well. But the last thing, Pat, I want to say, even when the Flyers made it 3-2 in the third, Penguins locked that thing down in the final 10 to 11 minutes of that third period. They went into a little bit of a neutral zone trap of their own and really didn't let the flyers get much of anything going in their own zone.

That was a really nice job by the penguins to just lock things down with a one goalie because that has been a problem for them this year. But I really liked what I saw when Kine after Kineg made it 3-2, I should say. For a team that has the defensive deficiencies that the penguins do, the final five or so minutes of the third period was a thing of beauty for them because they locked it down. Now, we as fans, white knuckled it because when you're facing elimination in the playoffs against one of your biggest rivals, anytime the puck gets on their stick, your heart rate increases. But for the penguins on the ice, they locked it down pretty well.

And it led to them keeping their season alive. But if there is one man who finally put the cape on and arrived in the series, it was the captain, number 87, Sidney Crosby. More absolutely torturous moments for Flyers fans brought to you by Sidney Crosby. We will talk about those when we come back right after this. But first, we've got to tell you about today's sponsor, and that is five-hour energy. If you have got a sweet tooth like I do, you know how tough it is to find that perfect treat without all of the sugar. That is why cotton candy five hour energy shots bring the nostalgic flavor back in a whole new way.

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and then I'm going to the gym or I'm going to play hockey or I got all kinds of other stuff to do around the house. And I need that boost between the sweet taste and the energy boost. Can't recommend these shots enough. So bring on the sweetness with cotton candy five hour energy shots available now at five hour energy.com or on Amazon. We're back here on the Monday edition of Locked-on Penguins. I'm Patrick Damp right alongside my good pal hunter hoodies. And before we dive back into it, don't forget about locked on's everydayer club.

If you never miss an episode, it's time to make that official. Make sure to join the Lockdown Every Day. or club and get access to add free audio and our members only Discord and so much more, all built for you, our most loyal fans. Check out locked onpodcast.com slash every day or club to learn more. Sidney Patrick Crosby. The guy loves playing hockey. He apparently loves bird watching.

He loves his girlfriend and his family. And he loves torturing. the Philadelphia Flyers and their fans gets his first goal of the series, which nice little goal gave me those Connor Sheary Stanley Cup final vibe flashbacks. But it was the assist on Chris LaTang's goal that stole the show. Just it was like he said, hey, you know what, Hunter? I know you're a big soccer fan. So I'm going to get a soccer assist on Chris LaTang's goal, a thing of beauty.

Another thing, Pat, every time Arsenal wins, it feels like the Penguins get the good vibes from that, and they end up winning. But when Arsenal loses, the Penguins also lose. I'm not just saying, but I kind of am saying. It's just something I'm noticing, observing just a little bit. But yet, the way that he just kicked that puck to Latang after winning that board battle really nicely was a thing of beauty. I'm going to get to Chris Letang in a second because I thought he was marvelous in this game to the Penguins, guns really stole the show in this game, but Crosby was everywhere in this one. The goal that he scored, vintage Crosby goal, again, the assist was fantastic, but he was also a lot more involved

than he was in the first three games. He was going to work down low, trying to get the puck from those battles along the boards. He was playing a bit better in his own zone, excuse me, as well. He was really going to work with his linemates, Brian Rust, and Ricard Raquel, establishing some zone time, getting the cycle game going a little bit. I thought the first line was the Penguins' best line last night. I like the fourth line quite a bit too because they were also understanding the assignment. But I really loved the way the top line was humming and was mainly due to Sidney Crosby. It's about time that he arrived in this series.

His first three games were not very good. If he's able to sustain this level play tonight, they will have a shot at winning this second straight game and sending the series back to Philadelphia, which, you know, I kind of do wonder, if the Flyers don't close this out here tonight, does the pressure really start to ramp up for them to close it out in Philly so that they don't have to go back to Pittsburgh for a winner to take all game seven. Again, I don't want to get too far ahead. Step one was, you know, winning game four.

Okay, step two is now winning on home ice in front of your fans. And this is another thing, Pat, you know, could be, you know, a weird take, whatever. You can't go 0 and 3 at home in the playoffs. Like that's, especially when you have home ice, that's not good enough. I know the penguins were a bit of a better road team this year than at home, but you still can't go 0 in 3 at home. Got to win this one. Get it to 3-2. And then, you know, we'll see what happens from there.

But Sid, man, he was on a different level in this game. And the penguins are going to need a lot more from him if they do want to somehow pull off this miracle and win three more games. in this series. And that takes me to my next point as well, Pat. Chris LaTang was a man on mission last night. He uncorked that sucker to make it three one and the third gets credit for the game winning goal in this game. He was a menace in all three zones, was getting after it. In his own zone, he was breaking the puck out a lot cleaner in this game. He was making the right reads, making the right pinches. His partner Sam Gerard, I also thought played a bit better as well. but if there's anyone that needed a goal,

it was Chris Frick and Latang. He was awesome in this one. If we are going to be as critical as we have been of the Latang Gerard pairing throughout this playoff, we have to give them credit when it's due. That was a fantastic game by both of them. Gerard had a couple iffy pinches,

but here's the thing I'll say about that. When you're feeling it, you're feeling it. That was a game where those two had boatloads of confidence and they were playing like it. And both times Gerard pinched didn't lead to anything against. So we can excuse it for now. We can file it away and think, hey, let's clean that up because it didn't burn us this time. But it could later on. But I loved both of their games against the Flyers in game four.

I mean, in all honesty, I liked everybody's game in game four, not just Sid. I thought Sid stole the show, obviously. Letang scores on an absolute rocket of a shot that ends up being the game winning goal. But I do think this kind of connects into the whole narrative of this season. What was the whole narrative going into the year? Is this the end of an era? Is this everything over? or is it time to move on from the superstars?

What happens on the off day? Who steals the headlines of Genie Malkin talking about he wants to retire here, but it's not his decision. He loves Pittsburgh. He loves playing with this team. And what happens the very next game? Crosby, Malkin, and Latang go out and have themselves a night as if to send the message to both the front office and the rest of the league that,

hey we are not done yet and they'll have another chance tonight for a game five in Pittsburgh inside pbg paint arena you know it's going to be rocking the crowd is going to be behind you if they have another big game and maybe the depth steps up that's something I'm going to talk about a little bit more in the final segment you'll have a shot here at truly being alive in this series because right now I would agree with you bad it's still kind on life support, you're in it, but you win this game, you're alive. You're only down three, two. You're potentially one more win away from a winner take-all game seven next weekend. But all that matters is tonight in Pittsburgh. You lose this game, you're done. You win this one,

though. Again, as the title for Friday's episode was, you live to fight another day. So, you know, the big three really stepped up when they needed to. And I'm going to, I'm going to, That was a big difference. I thought Ricardo, Raquel also had a good game. I loved the fourth line as well, Pat, the way that Connor Dewar was able to ice the game late, beautiful job. And I also like that Dan Mews had enough trust in the fourth line to say, hey, I'm going to put you all out there, go play the six on five, see how you do.

And they did it to perfection. That fourth line was great. They didn't really allow the flyers to get any strong scoring chances right after Tocket pulled Vladar at the end of game four. and what do you know? Connor Dewar, Ices it, gets his first goal of the series. Nice job overall from that line as well. Fourth line had themselves a night.

They did that, that, I don't know if we can call a line that's only been together for a season, this, but I'll do it anyway. That was a vintage Penguins fourth line game, the way they played. They played hard. They were physical. They were good defensively. They got a couple looks, and then they get the empty net goal at the end of the game. that was exactly what they needed from that line in that moment in that game.

But the old saying goes, all you can ask for in life and in sports is a chance. In the Pittsburgh Penguins earned themselves a chance tonight in game five at PPG paints arena. Hunter and I are going to get you ready for that game when we come back right after this. We're back here on the Monday edition of Locked-on Penguins. I'm Patrick Damp running right alongside my pal-hunter Hodes. Game 5 Penguins Flyers tonight at PPG Paints Arena 7 o'clock PM Eastern Standard Time, even though it wouldn't be anything else. The game will be on ESPN nationally in Sportsnet, Pittsburgh, if you are in the viewing area.

And you hinted at it in the last segment. I am going to do this right now and pick up the ball or take the puck, whatever metaphor we want to use on this here show. I'm going to throw some names out here, Hunter, and I want you to tell me what they all have in common. Justin Brzo, Anthony Mantha, Samuel Gerard, Igor Chinikov, and Ben Kendall. What do they all have in common? They all have no goals in this series.

They all have no points in this series. So for the penguins to keep pressing, to keep picking themselves up off the mat, one or more of those players are going to have to get on the score sheet. I agree. And we did see Soder Blom come back in for Justin Brzo. So, you know, we're recording this on Sunday evening. So as of right now, I don't think Brazo is going to come back in for game five. But you know who I want to see how the big game for this one, Pat?

Anthony Mantha led the team in goals, has no. goals in 18 playoff games. He continues to take bad penalties, and he has been just a shell of his former self from the regular season. Now would be a great time for him to really put his stamp on this series. Have a big game after scoring so many big goals for this team during the regular season. I'll say the same thing for Igor Chinochokov. I think that he is going to get, you know, at least a short-term extension, if not maybe a bit of a longer-term extension, this off-season, and deservedly so. You know, he has been fantastic for this Penguins team. He's going to be in the top six for the foreseeable future.

But every time he has gotten a chance to score in this series, Pat, he's fired the puck wide or high of the net. I want to see him have a big game tonight. It's been too long because, you know, we've seen him play super well since the trade. I know he has a much higher level to get to. So those are two that I want to see more from. First, I do want to, sorry to step on you here. do want to say this about Chinikov, and it's one of my many Pat Dampisms that our longtime listeners have come to know. With players like him, I get worried when the chances stop coming. And in games

one and two, I was worried because the chances were not there. And game three, I should say as well. One through three, I was worried. The chances were not there. Game four on Saturday night, the chances were there. He's just got to keep pushing. It feels like a player that is on the verge of a breakout. He was getting looks. He was getting open, he was getting to open spaces. He was looking like the Chinikov we have seen since he became a penguin. And it just feels like there is a goal or two lurking, but we're running out of time here. So it's got to be tonight, because if it's not, you're out of time. And I'll say this for Mantha. Games one through three, putrid, terrible, awful, didn't hate his game in game four.

Now, the bar is not very high after the first three games, but I thought the call he, the penalty he took was a weak, week, week call. It was a bit weak. And it's the thing we always say that never happens of, well, if that's the standard, they don't have a standard. There is no such thing as a standard for NHL officials. That's all I'll say about officiating. It's been terrible on both sides and a discussion.

he played better in game four. Everybody did. But to your point, he led the penguins and goals in the regular season. He has yet to score a playoff goal in his career. Game five, that has to change. I agree.

And I'd like to maybe see a goal from the fourth line at five on five. Again, I liked what Connor Dewer did to ice the game in game four. But give me a five on five goal from that line. I feel like that line. line has been doing a lot of the dirty work in this series, working at down low, getting some chances in the offensive zone at five on five that has haven't been rewarded yet. I'd like to see that change in game five with again, the season on the line. You mentioned Ben Kendall. I actually

liked his game a bit more in game four. The first three games, I wasn't too big of a fan, but I noticed him winning some more puck battles in game four. He was getting back a bit better defensively as well. I'm hoping that game five he can really build on that from game four and you know get going a little bit more offensively because we haven't just seen that big playoff moment yet from Ben Kendall and I know he's 19 years old these are growing pains with a rookie but I know he has more to give and hopefully we can get it here in this game obviously R.D. She loves assuming he starts what I think he's going to Pat. It's got to continue his strong play from game four gave them a shot to win that

game, the two goals that he let up, as I said, were not his fault, made a lot of really big stops. That has to continue here in game five. The power play has to be more simple, has to be more safe. You ought to stop giving up the odd man rushes, whether it's short-handed or at five-on-five because there were times in the second period where they were giving up odd-man rushes at five-on-five. You've got to have your pinches be a bit better. So those are just a few keys for me. I think the PK, for the most part, outside of a couple times from game three, has to be a little bit. has been mostly solid in this series. The flyers only are two for 11,

two for 11 on the power play if I have my notes right for this series. So the PK, for the most part, is doing their job. That has to continue in this game. And again, just need more players overall to step up. And you still need the big guys to obviously continue doing their thing as well.

Going to be another tall task. But when this game, you're alive. And as I said, I wonder if that pressure could potentially start getting to the flyers, going back to game six, assuming that is you win this game. All that matters, though, is tonight. When that game, you fight, you live to fight another day.

And my final one for game five, and this is a bit of a response to our good friend from the athletic Josh Yohe. He tweeted out on Sunday morning that he said, I think we're all making too much of the penguins in the post whistle stuff, probably a reaction to 2012, but the penguins aren't down in this series because of the stuff. They're down because they have eight goals. goals in four games. And I think this is a both and from what Josh is saying. The post whistle

stuff is not a reason that they are down. It's not the reason that they're down three one going into game five. But I will say this. Now with games three and four in the rear view mirror, there is a pattern emerging because games three and four were the only two games of the series but the penguins had a lead. And as soon as the penguins got a lead, the Flyers started with the poking. Now, that's not to say that they weren't playing physical in games one and two.

They are playing a physical type of game, a defensive game. They're a pesky team. They've always been a pesky team. But it ramps up when they're down because they want to drag you into the muck. They want to make you retaliate. They understand how playoff officials, works. Rarely does the aggressor get called. More often than not, the retaliatory gets called.

So if we have a third straight game where the penguins get out to a lead, stay out of it. Now, I know easier said than done. We're two clowns sitting here with podcast mics, and we haven't been in the intensity of the Stanley Cup playoffs and someone mugs you in the jaw. but you got to keep an eye on the task at hand. You're trying to keep your season alive. You're trying to reverse the pressure on the Philadelphia Flyers who jumped out to a 3-0 lead. So the extracurriculars, tone them down as much as you can, laugh at them and skate away. If you got to get a jab in, keep it within reason because you know they're going to let it go.

But it can't be something that derails your effort. Hunter, anything left. for you to add as we await game five at PPG Paints Arena. I'm excited. We'll see if they can extend their season for at least a couple more days. You know, they at least have a little bit of momentum coming off game four, that four to two victory. Let's see if they can sustain it. You know, the Flyers are going to come out pretty hot. I feel like in this game in terms of, you know, they're going to try to match the Penguins'

desperation since the Penguins are playing for their season. I think the Flyers got to see how hard it is to win that four. game in the series, it's always called the hardest to win for a reason. And the Penguins were the more desperate team in game four. But in the Penguins, they have to keep that desperation. And again, if they can clean up a few more things that they didn't do that well in game four, all the shot here to extend this series back to Philadelphia and be alive. And to your last point as well, Pat, I do agree.

I think it's been both where, you know, you've seen some of those extracurriculars, you know, go a little bit too far. Also, the penguins have only scored eight goals in four games, and that is two goals for per game. That is not good enough when you are third in the league and scoring during the regular season. So it is both, but penguins, again, they'll have a chance to, you know, keep trying to flip the script here in this series. Let's see what happens. I'm excited for it. PPG is going to be rocking tonight on Fifth Avenue at 7 o'clock for game five penguins and flyers.

but that is going to do it for us here on the Monday edition of the Locked-on Penguins podcast. Hunter and I hopefully will be back on Tuesday talking about a Penguins victory and getting you set for Game 6 back in Philadelphia. But if not, we will still be back on Tuesday to talk about the end of the season and what comes next. Make sure you're subscribed. Make sure you're following us everywhere. because just because we're in the midst of this doesn't mean we're done.

We got a lot more to get to. But for Hunter Hodes, I am Patrick Damp. Thank you, as always, for tuning in. And we will talk to you again on Tuesday.