Locked On Penguins - Daily Podcast On The Pittsburgh Penguins - Penguins STINK IT UP on Monday, will look to respond in a must-win

Episode Date: February 3, 2026

The Penguins played arguably their worst game of the season on Monday night, losing 3-2 at home to the Ottawa Senators. Patrick and Hunter begin the program discussing a no-show, low-effort loss by the Penguins to the Senators. What went wrong for the Penguins? Well, just about everything. From defensive zone coverage to offensive production, the Penguins could do nothing right on Monday, and a lot of it came back to haunt them. (0:00) Another big aspect of Monday's loss was the officiating and another annoying lack of consistency. However, it wasn't all bad, just mostly bad, as the penalty kill, Arturs Silovs, and Ben Kindel tried their best to pull the Penguins out of their slumber. (13:45) Finally, the Penguins will play their biggest game of the year tonight when they head to Long Island for a mid-season Metro matchup with massive implications. (23:12) 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/lockedon right 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 LOCKEDON for $20 off your first purchase. Terms apply. Download Gametime today. What time is it? Gametime.FanDuelIf you’re a new customer, bet just $5 and get $200 in Bonus Bets if you win. Make it count — because after the Super Bowl, the season is over. Last call for football on FanDuel, an Official Sportsbook Partner of Super Bowl Sixty.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.

in three, two, one. The Pittsburgh Penguins allegedly had a game on Monday night losing three to two to the Ottawa Senators. Hunter and I are going to recap whatever that was and more 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 another edition of the Locked-on Penguins podcast. I am one of your hosts, Patrick Damp. You can follow me across all social media platforms at Synonym 4Wet.

Joined as always by the one and only my partner in crime, Hunter Hodes. You can follow him on Twitter at Hunter Hodes. You can give our show's Twitter account a follow at LO underscore Penguins. You can find us on Instagram at Lockedon underscore. Penguins and TikTok at Locked-on Penguins. Of course, as always, we appreciate you making us part of your daily routine. Don't forget, we are free and available wherever you get your podcasts as well as YouTube, plus if you follow us on YouTube, which you should be.

Make sure to turn on the notifications. That way you can be among the first to know when we drop our daily Monday through Friday episodes. Three to two against the Ottawa Senators, the Penguins' six-game losing streak comes to an end. And there's a lot to parse out from this game. You would think a three-to-two game against the Ottawa senators would kind of just be ho-hum. This is what happened. But there's plenty to talk about from Monday's game. First and foremost, before we get into the senators, before we get into the officiating, which, yes, we are going to have. have to get into. I look at last night's game and I look at a game for the penguins where

they beat themselves. Ottawa deserves credit. Yes, we will get to that. Ottawa did the things they needed to do to get two clean points. Yes, but watching the game as a whole, the penguins played right into Ottawa's hands. They did not have a ton of effort or energy throughout the majority of the game. Arter Shilovs tried his ass off to get the penguins at least a point, but his team, with the exception of maybe one player, did not do a whole lot to help him. And this is what I was saying to you, Hunter, before we hit record. I said this on social media after the game last night.

The Ottawa senators don't do anything overly complicated. They don't do anything that is new and unrecognizable. In the offensive zone for them, they play a puck side overload. In the neutral zone, they stack the blue line to give you no entry. And throughout the game, in the defensive zone, the penguins decided instead of reversing the puck in trying to beat their forecheck, they were going to try to pass through it, which led to plenty of turnovers. In the neutral zone, the penguins refused to put the puck deep and go to work, causing turnovers at the blue line. and all of that came back to haunt them.

Well, Pat, before I get into my overall thoughts, I got to correct you, you said six game losing streak at the beginning. Yeah, yeah, winning streak. That is shame on you for six weeks, my friend. But yeah, I know people aren't going to want to hear this. The penguins have been due for a stinker for the last five to six weeks, and it was on display all of Monday Day against a team that they have really struggled against for the last few years.

They couldn't get anything going out of their own zone. Watching them break the puck out last night was comical to say the least. They could not do it to save their lives. Watching them go through the neutral zone was also equally comical. And then watching them get into the offensive zone, which was pretty rare, was also bad because they were overpassing. They were handling the puck like a grenade, weren't getting really any good scoring chances. They were just trying to pass the puck into the next.

they weren't really trying to outwork their opponent, which they had been doing really well last five to six weeks. And I get it. You're not going to have your A game every single night during a two game season. There are going to be nights like this where you just don't have it. But I still want to see more pushback, even in a game like this. Artie Shilovs, shout out to you. I mean, they were the, you were the only reason why the Penguins had even a remote chance of getting a point out of this game. This was a 2-2 game with 530 to go, only because of Rney Shewacken.

Like he was sensational all-game long. Basically, everyone else, maybe outside of the penalty kill and Ben Kendall, everyone else stunk up the joint bat. Eric Carlson, that was his worst game of the season. Cindy Crosby, where was he? All game, the top line was really bad. Thankfully, they get Brian Russ back tonight

if three-game suspension is over. Evgeny Malkin outside of that pretty feed to Igor Chenekov, who can't stop scoring. He was not very good in this game. Ricard Raquel was not very good. None of the defensemen were particularly very good either. Just a total game where everyone basically stunk up the joint. And I'll give credit to Ottawa. They did what they needed to do.

They are very annoying to play against. Watching them pat stack the blue line with four guys, getting their stakes in literally every single lane, I'm just like, oh my God, you guys play so annoyingly. But that's what they do to teams. They've been doing that to Colorado recently. They did it to Vegas. They did it to New Jersey.

So again, credit to them. They're playing really good hockey right now. They're playing good defensively. Their offensive metrics have always been good. Their goaltending has just not really been good this year. But Allmark, as always, against the Penguins, was very good last night when he needed to be, even though the Penguins really didn't pressure him that much. But I will give Ottawa some credit.

Pat, because God, that's an annoying team to play against. You can tell in the first two minutes, I was like, oh, my God, they're just going to get their sticks on everything tonight. They do play a very good, aggressive brand of defensive hockey. And it's not to be confused with your 2000s late 90s trap era hockey. They are aggressive everywhere, but they're aggressive and responsible. And when you play that correctly, it's going to frustrate even the best of teams. and it's not boring hockey to watch.

They were puck hounds in the offensive zone. Sticks, bodies, you name it, they were everywhere. So it's a really frustrating style of hockey to go up against. But you brought up a really good point here. Because I saw a lot of people saying this. I've even seen some analysts say it that, you know, you go on that six game winning streak. Got it right this time.

The level of expectations get raised. And that is true. And that is fair. But let's also keep this in mind. This is their first regulation loss since January 11th. It's the first time since early January that they failed to get at least a point out of a game. So this was, like you said, well overdue, but it doesn't negate them from responsibility because this was a poor showing.

And Dan Mews for the first time this season, and I'm just going to read his quote because is this is the first time Dan Mews, surprisingly, given what they went through in December, opened up on his team saying, we have to be better than this. For me, this is so far off the mark of where we've been playing and working to get to. It's an opportunity tomorrow to show ourselves there's a much better game that we have the ability to play than that. The only reason the game was close was already. So this is a coach who looked at his team last night and said,

you have set a level of expectation that is much higher than what you did tonight. And let's finish this segment with this. Ardars Shilovs, we said it was great. He did everything in his power to keep the penguins in that game. And not to mention, I said this as well. I know that we have kind of been lobbying for the goaltender rotation to end and give it to Skinner, or at least give more starts to Skinner. But this competition really has brought the best out of both,

and that was evident last night. And the same thing for Ben Kindle. It was another really good game for him. He was good in all three zones once again. He's playing with so much confidence, had a couple of chances in a game where the Penguins didn't get a lot of chances. So he also deserves a lot of credit. for being a lone bright spot in what was a terrible night for the penguins.

Yeah, I really liked Ben Kindle's game once again. His hockey IQ was very much on display. He at least was able to get a couple of chances. Obviously, they didn't go in the back of the net, but, you know, I thought he was skating with authority once again. The penalty kill, I'll throw in there to Pat. I thought the PK was once again, excellent as it continues to be all season long. We touched on Artie, you know, going back to your quote about Muse,

you know, he sees what this team is capable of. Like, he wants to make the playoffs. And this group has shown that when they're playing their best, they are capable of getting into the postseason. That last night was not even close. And he basically said, we got to look in the mirror. What are you prepared to do about it on Tuesday in what is probably the Penguin's biggest game in two seasons since the end of the 23, 24 season when they played Boston with all their playoff hopes

on the line. It is their biggest game since then. So he's challenging his team and rightfully so. That's, I think, actually the second time I've seen him, lokey call up the team, there was that back-to-back member when they lost to Seattle. They got one out of four points that weekend. And Mews basically said, hey, that's not good enough. Like, we need points right now. And so this was really the first time I've seen him call out his team

since that back-to-back when they lost that second half against Seattle at home. So good on him for doing it. I think it was deserved, especially with the way they played. You saw Eric Carlson also really eat it to the media after last night. He even said, yeah, we were not very good tonight, myself included. I don't think we deserve to win that one. Ricardo Rale even said, yeah, I don't know what it was. We were flat at the start and we could never really get momentum after that,

even when Tommy Novak tied the game with 11 minutes left. I remember when he tied that pad. I'm like, how in the hell is this game tied? Are they even somehow going to get a point out of this? you get to the five minute and 30 minute mark of the third period. I'm like, they actually have a legit shot to get a point out of this. And then we all know what happened with that called Jerugel. And we'll get more into that in the second segment.

But yeah, it has to be a complete 180 tonight. And it should be because this is their biggest game of the season to date. It is. And we will get into that game later on in the show. We still have to talk about this putrid effort against the Ottawa senators, which includes some officiating that we are going to have to talk about, but you might be, at least on my end, I'm unaware of what Hunter is going to say, but you might be a little surprised at the take I'm going to have when it comes to the

officiating in last night's game against the Ottawa senators. So stay tuned for that, and we will be back right after this. Before we do that, though, we've got to tell you about today's sponsor, and that is indeed. If you've ever hired someone who looked good on paper, but just wasn't the right fit, you know how important that is. When you want Canada, who truly match what you're looking for, you need to trust Indeed sponsored jobs. If you're hiring, Indeed is all you need. Stop struggling to get your job posts seen on all of the other sites. Indeed's sponsored jobs puts your post right at the top of the page and helps you reach the right candidates faster.

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Indeed sponsored jobs. Listeners of this podcast, get a $75 sponsored job credit to help give your job the premium placement it deserves at Indeed.com slash locked on. Just go to Indeed.com slash locked on right now and support this very show by saying you heard about Indeed on this podcast. terms and conditions apply back here on the tuesday edition of locked on penguins i'm patrick damp right alongside hunter hodies and let's just rip the band-aid off and get right into it the officiating on monday night was bad it starts with the fact that the penguins get four

penalties will also say five because of the challenge by muse but i'll talk about that in just a second. The Ottawa senators get called for all of one penalty. And I'm of a couple mindsets of this. First, I want to say this about the challenge and just get it out of the way. It was not a good challenge, but it wasn't about the challenge itself. It was a message from the coach to the team to say, yes, I'm with you. I'm upset. I'm frustrated. Now I need you to go do something about it. It might have been too little too late, but when you're on the end of a six-game winning streak

and you've been playing the way you've been playing, you can waste that challenge. You can say to your team, listen, I hear you, I get it, but whatever, we'll put that to the side. What bothered me about last night more than anything was that the four penalties that the penguins were dinged for were all penalties.

I'm not going to sit here and say they were bad calls because they weren't. The problem I have is let's take a look at the Ottawa Senators roster. Okay. You look at a team that has Brady Kachuk, Tim Stutzla, Nick Cousins, so on and so on. Through 40 minutes, they had not taken a single penalty. Are you really going to convince me that team is playing perfectly clean hockey for 40 plus minutes? And they weren't. They weren't.

They were definitely some miscall. that the referees just didn't see for some reason. And this was so funny in the third period, Pat, when the Penguins got that power play after Tommy Novak tied it. Nick Cousins, blatantly cross-checked Eric Carlson twice. He then looks up with the ref, like, what did I do when he got called for a penalty? I'm like, dude, you blatantly cross-checked him right there in front of the ref.

Did you think you weren't going to get called for that bounty? That was as blatant as it gets. Before that, there were plenty of other circumstances where you saw legit call, and the refs, he had his whistle in his mouth, just decides not to blow it. And I feel like this has been the case more than it should be for the penguins this year. I remember there always used to be a talking point for some people.

Oh, the penguins get all the calls. The penguins get all the calls. Yeah, that has not been the case. It's not. And it's really never been the case. It's just usually when, you know, rival fans just think there's a bias when there's just not. Penguins have been bowed by officiating

more often than some people want to admit this year. And it feels like there's just been a really big penalty discrepancy where another team gets a lot more calls than the penguins do. I don't know why. It's very strange to me. But yeah, that game last night was very poorly officiated. I saw numerous instances where the senators were getting away with just blatant penalties on the ice, whether other cross checks, trips, hooks, etc.

The rest just had no interest in calling it. Yet every time the penguins committed an infraction, which there were infractions, they called them. So again, just give me consistency with NHL refs. That's the last thing I really want to say about that. When it comes to the goalie interference situation, I hear you when it comes to Damuse having his teams back. At the same time, though, that was a really stupid challenge. He had no chance of winning that, especially right after the officials reviewed it.

They called it a good goal. There was no way he was going. going they were going to reverse that call. And you saw it literally took a minute for them to review it. And they kept it a good goal. It's funny. When they were going to commercial break, I was like, they're not going to call this a good goal because I actually kind of thought it was a good goal right when I saw it.

And I get why Artie Shelovs is upset. Drewb just barrels into him. He feels like he illegally pushed his pads. That's what Sheloves said after the game. I get why he is frustrated. But at least when I saw it live, Pat, when I watched a couple more replays, to do more prep for the show today. People may not like it.

I think that was a good goal, though, overall. I do think they got that right. That's just me, though. I know this is going to sound, real quick, you're right about the power play percentages and the power play opportunities. Penguins are near the bottom of the league. 142 power play opportunities.

The only teams behind them are New Jersey with 140, the Rangers with 139, Columbus with 134. and the Maple Leafs, surprisingly, at 131. So this is a team that doesn't get a lot of calls. They make the most of their opportunities when they get them, but they're not very frequent. But to the goal for Drew, this will sound like hedging

because this gets into the whole, what the hell is goaltender interference discussion? I understand the continuation part of it, where if the net comes off and the puck was going in, as the net was coming off, you consider that a continuation play and it becomes a goal. But I look at it as it wasn't as if Eric Carlson cross-checked them, checked them, pushed them, shoved them, whatever into Sheelovs. And then the puck goes in and you go, well, there's no way you can avoid that.

It was a slashing call. And it wasn't as if Eric Carlson went Paul Bunyan on him and wound up and whacked up and whacked. him and knocked him over. Drew went down pretty easily. And when he goes, yeah, when he goes down, the puck wasn't slated to go in. There was a bit of a second effort there by Drew. So I get R.E. Shelov's complaint. And I think he's right because this wasn't a case of the defender pushed him in. the defender cross-checked them, and there was nothing he could do to avoid it. Now, the rate of speed he's going. I don't think Drew was going down and went, oh, yeah, I'm going to push the puck in and I'm

going to show them, but there was a little bit of a chance he could have at least slightly avoided it or at least turned his body to make the impact a little bit different. But at the end of the day, like the penguins got what they deserved on Monday night. They didn't deserve a point, let alone too. So overall, I mean, the thing that annoyed me most of all was just the lack of consistency, the lack of a standard, the lack of any sort of, I guess I'll just say consistency again. Because all the penalties the penguins took, you didn't see me sitting there going out. I got jobbed on that one. Oh, they got screwed on that one.

They were all legit calls. There were multiple instances where the senators did the same or worse, and it went on call. because there's no standard for NHL officiating. It's been like this for years on end and it continues to get worse. But all right, enough about the officiating. I really just don't want to talk about it too much because I feel like we could say that. We've said this about, it feels like quite a few games this year, which is weird because last year, even when the team was way worse, we weren't talking about it as much.

We were mainly just talking about how bad the team was overall. But yeah, just a lack of pushback as well. I didn't really see that at all from anyone. And it allowed to also really get to the dirty areas and outwork their opponent. For the last five or six weeks, the Penguins, they've been a determined, focused, hardworking team.

None of those traits were on display against Ottawa. And I understand people, you're going to have nights like this during an 82 game season, especially when a team plays the way Ottawa does and just frustrates the hell out of you. Two shifts into this game when I was watching and I'm like, oh my God,

This team is going to be an annoying team to play against. Just the way they were forechecking the penguins in their own zone, the way they were getting their sticks on literally everything. I'm like, oh, boy, here we go. And it didn't stop for the rest of the game. And now it is on the penguins to respond tonight in what is going to be their biggest game of this season to date. You throw this one in the garbage.

You watch the film on it first to make some corrections. After that, throw it in the garbage. Get ready for a big game tonight against the Islanders. Yeah, this is the biggest game of the year to this point. And there is a lot on the line. The Penguins still remain, luckily, two points up on the New York Islanders because the Washington Capitals did us a little bit of a favor on Monday night, beating the Islanders in regulation.

But none of that matters because tonight you can really make your mark and make your move in the Metropolitan Division. And we are going to get you ready for the nationally televised Metropolitan Division showdown against the New York Islanders. Closing out the Tuesday edition of Locked-on Penguins. I'm Patrick Damp right alongside Hunter Hodes. And get your popcorn ready. Get your favorite seat ready.

If you like to indulge in them, make sure you got a couple cold ones ready as well because 7.30 tonight on long. Island. It is without a doubt the biggest game of the year for the Pittsburgh Penguins, as they will take on the Islanders. And this one, as I said before we went to break, is massive. The Pittsburgh Penguins currently hold the second spot in the Metropolitan Division with 67 points in two games in hand on the New York Islanders, but they are also two points up on the New York Islanders who only have 65. So for the penguins tonight, you said it before we went to break. Monday's game against the senators, crumple it up, burn it, throw it out the window and forget about it. It's in the

past. It's over. You've still got to hold a second place. And now you can take an even bigger hold of second place. And you hinted at this earlier in the show, Hunter. Big shot of adrenaline tonight because the Penguins will get Brian Rust back in the lineup as his three-game suspension has been served. Yep, he's back tonight. He'll be back on the top line, which, man, they desperately need right now because the top line was out of sorts once again on Monday, as I said, Crosby was out to lunch. I don't think Raquel played very well, and it's very obvious that Justin Brazo needs to go back down to the third line with Anthony Manthan Ben Kendall. No disrespect to Brazil. He's had a great season. It's just, especially last night, was not fitting in on the top line. So you can move him down, bump Brian Russ back up.

Hopefully, that can kickstart the top line a little bit. And I really want to see Crosby and Company have a big game tonight for his line. Crosby's just been a little out of sorts for the last weekish, week to 10 days, kind of. So getting him back off the Schneid tonight, especially against a team that he loves to feast against, by the way, when you see his scoring history against the Islanders, that would just be. crucial just because he hasn't fully looked like himself. So hopefully we can see the big Crosby game tonight against the team that he really loves to crush. And then again, the lineup will just be filled out a little bit better. I know Rucker McGority is probably going to be the odd man. Although,

you know, I do think for two of the three games, he was very good. But he's probably going to go back down very soon here to Wilkesbury. And then he'll definitely play down there during the break. But yeah, man, you're also getting a pissed off Islander team tonight. They did not look good in Washington last night. They also did not look good against. it's Nashville over the weekend. They've strung together two really bad performances in a row. So not only is there going to be a pissed off Penguins team, you're going to see a pretty pissed off Islanders team as well.

And I do want to say this about the Islanders coming into this game. Again, I made the joke yesterday. I will make the joke every time I have to talk about this. The NHL schedule, it's not a restaurant. You can't send it back to the kitchen. But you look at their last 10 and they have got, five wins in their last 10. They're five and five in their last 10. Their wins are against the Rangers twice, the Flyers, the Vancouver Canucks and the Edmonton Oilers who are still pretty

damn good. But then you look at their losses, Calgary, Seattle, Buffalo, Nashville, Washington. They're feasting on some bad teams. And I don't want to say they're playing poorly against good teams, but they're coming up just a little bit short. So this is a Islanders team that very much can be had because you, again, you look at their last 10, they're struggling against playoff teams and they're feasting on non-playoff teams. As for Sid, I get why everybody's frustrated, including us with his performances over the past two weeks or so. I have seen this movie so many times that I am the annoying friend who, quotes it and bumps people and goes,

oh, check this out. You're going to love this next scene. This next scene's going to be awesome. When Sid is in a slump, he starts to overpass. He starts to overthink. And it takes one. It takes one to go in for him. And he remembers, oh yeah, I'm Sidney Crosby. That's right.

I can do this stuff pretty easily. So tonight against the team he has feasted on in his career. No better night than tonight. for him to get it all back together. Right. And it's really only a matter of time because once he does get that first one to go in, the seas are going to part because you're just going to see him go on another heater because this happens all the time. When he's in a slump, one goes in, he goes on a nice little 10 to 14 day heater, if not

longer. And you're like, oh, yeah, this is why Cindy Crosby is a top five player of all time. So none of us are concerned. This has happened to him throughout his career. I think tonight though, especially with how big the game is, I do think you're going to see him show up in a big way tonight. But this Islander team, they played last night too. So both teams are on the second half of the back-to-back tonight,

going back to Long Island. All starts to me with Ilya Sorokin. He got the night off last night, which obvious reasons. Why wouldn't he start tonight against the penguins? Ilya Sorokin has been the best goaltender in the league this year. He should win the Vesna right now. He has saved 27 goals above expected that is first in the NHL, has a 2.44 goals against average and also a 916 percentage per money puck. He is on fire because this is an Islander's team that ranks in the bottom half of the league in terms of scoring chances against at 5 on 5.

And Pat, they have given up the second most high danger chances at 5 on 5 this year. They're not a good defensive team, but they have been kind of carried by Ilya Sorokin doing his thing. He's been a top five player ever, a top five goaltender, excuse me, for the most part, ever since he came into the league. I know some Islanders fans were, I guess, quote unquote, down on him over the last year plus,

which never really made sense to me. You're seeing what Sorokin can do when he is on top of his game. And this is a goalie who is very positionally sound. He doesn't give you a lot of room. You've got to really get a lot of traffic in front of them if you want to beat this guy. He is a lot of fun to watch when, you know,

he's not playing a team like the Penguins. So traffic going to be very paramount for this one. All starts to me with Ilius Seroquin. Matthew Schaefer as well. He has been unbelievable for this Iowner's team this year. 15 goals and 37 points. He skates like the wind. He's offensively gifted.

He plays really well in his own zone. You can make a legit case that he should be on the Team Canada Olympic roster. That is how good he has played as an 18-year-old this year. Matt Barzell has 15 goals and 47 points. Bo Horvatt has had a really good year with 21 goals. always have to watch out for Anders Lee, who loves playing the Penguins. There's no Brock Nelson anymore. Kyle Palmary is hurt, but Anders Lee still loves playing the penguins overall.

You got Anthony Duclair, who's having a decent year there, Simon Holmstrom. So, again, they have quite a few double-digit scores. And even though, A, they're not good defensively, and B, a lot of their offensive metrics aren't really that good either. Like, you know, their 28th and expected goal share at 5-on-5. money puck you know they still have guys that can make you pay especially du claire barzel andersley with the way he plays in front of the net bo horvatt with the way that he's playing so this is going to be a really tough challenge for the penguins especially because going up against your

boogeyman michael meyers if you will i mean we we would probably be here for an hour talking about how many big games this penguins team has lost over the years to the islanders but man this is what you dream of man it's a big one tonight i know that was it sounds weird to say that in early february but biggest regular season game in two years let's have some fun with this the games are only going to get bigger from here especially once we get back from the olympic break because embrace it penguins fans i know he's not the coach anymore but he is given me one of my all-time favorite quotes when it comes to this time a year, Mike Sullivan said it during the 16 run. They are in the race.

They are in it. And tonight is a chance to get a little bit further ahead of a team that has been historically a thorn in your side. So 7.30 tonight, it is a nationally televised game. You can catch it on TNT or HBO Max. Penguins, Islanders, for second in the division. division in some really good leg up as we head to the Olympics. Hunter and I obviously will be recapping this game for you on our new episode tomorrow

on Wednesday and you know what Wednesday is. It's one of our favorite days of the week. It's Warrior Helmet Wednesday where we give out our MVP of the week. We'll also cover any other news that happens between now and then. So for Hunter Hodes, I am Patrick Damp. Thank you as always for tuning in and we will be back on Wednesday. Thank you.