Locked On Penguins - Daily Podcast On The Pittsburgh Penguins - Penguins SWEEP THE WEEKEND, now inch closer to a playoff berth!

Episode Date: April 6, 2026

The Penguins showed up against the two-time defending champs and even knocked them out of playoff contention! Patrick and Hunter begin the show recapping a successful weekend for the Penguins, one that saw them beat the Florida Panthers by a combined score of 14-6. They talk about a potential goaltending issue, how the Penguins' depth players stepped up, and played a complete game. (0:00) Then, the Penguins' biggest stars had themselves a big weekend, as well. Sidney Crosby extended his point-per-game season streak, Evgeni Malkin hit 1,400 points, and Bryan Rust earned his 500th point! (12:41) Finally, the Penguins will have a chance to clinch a playoff spot this week. Hunter and Patrick break down the numbers and how the Penguins can guarantee a spot in the playoffs! (24:06)  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. Robinhood You’re no longer just a spectator. Play by play. You decide. Trade Every Play with Robinhood. Now available across the U.S. Download the Robinhood app now to begin. Futures and cleared swaps trading involves significant risk and is not appropriate for everyone. Event contracts are offered by Robinhood Derivatives, LLC., a registered futures commission merchant and swap firm. 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. During the tournament FanDuel is offering $300 back in Bonus Bets every day for ten days. Visit https://FANDUEL.COM to get started — Play Your Game.   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 Pittsburgh Penguins have officially eliminated the Florida Panthers from going for their third straight Stanley Cup with a weekend sweep, knocking them out of the playoff contention. And for the Pittsburgh Penguins, a playoff berth is within their grasp. We are going to talk about all of it on a brand new locked on penguins. 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 on all social media platforms at Synonym 4Wet.

Joined as always by the one and only Hunter Hodes. You can follow him on Twitter at Hunter Hodes. You can give our show's Twitter account a follow at L.O. 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're 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 you've hit the notification

button. That way you can be among the first to know when we drop our daily Monday through Friday episodes before we get started. Today's episode is brought to you by Game Time. Download the GameTime app, create an account, and use the code locked on for $20 off your first purchase. More on them later. What a friggin' weekend it was for the Pittsburgh Penguins Hockey Club. They get two wins in a row back to back at home against the Florida Panthers by a combined score of 14 to 6. They demolished the two-time defending champions who, yes, are banged up. Yes, are now going to miss the playoffs.

Yes, have done a whole hell of a lot of good over the past couple of years. But this is less about the Florida Panthers and more about the Pittsburgh. Penguins. They played as close, I think, to flawless hockey than they have in a very long time. There were some hiccups that we will get into over this episode. We also will talk about how later this week, the penguins do have the opportunity to clinch a playoff spot for the first time since 2022. But let's start with Saturday and then we'll get into Sunday 9 to 4. on Saturday, an absolute butt-wopin for the penguins.

And because the vibes are so high, because we are going to talk about so much good, I do want to start with the negative, unfortunately. I did not like Archer Shilov's game on Saturday. You score nine goals, your goaltender, he's got some room for error. But I will say on Sunday, because of an unexpected injury to Stuart Skinner,

Shilovs was put back in the net to start on Sunday, and he rebounded quite nicely. But on Saturday, did not like his game. That's fair. I didn't like, especially the first goal that he gave up on Saturday, too juicy of a rebound. I felt the Penguins could have played it better defensively in their own zone, but I didn't like that rebound overall. Second one, that's purely a bad bounce. Not really going to give him too much, you know, criticism there.

But then Patty gave up a couple more in the third period. the game was out of reach, but I still felt like, and maybe this is a nitpick, I wanted him to be a little bit better, four goals on 19 shots for someone who has struggled as of late. Again, that's just still, for me, not fully good enough. I know you won 9 to 4, and that's amazing. We're going to get to all the accomplishments here very shortly

because there's plenty of them. But to his credit, because here's the positive, he bounced back on Sunday. That was one of his better performances of the last couple of weeks, gave up a questionable first goal, he was lights out the rest of the way. That toe save, especially on Matthew Kachuk, in the second period when the Panthers were trying to push to really get back into the game, that was a huge save. He had a couple of other really big saves diving across the crease, getting his body on the

puck to knock it out. Really nice job. He looked comfortable in the crease on Sunday. And the Penguins will need more of that as we end the regular season and go into the playoffs. So I thought that's a nice step in the right direction. So start off a little bit negative for him on Saturday, but turned out positive because of the way he played on Sunday. I liked his performance today.

I did as well. I also don't want to dive too deep into it just because there's so, so much more positive worth talking about. But I will say, I do think he got a little bit aided by being thrown into action at the last minute. Stuart Skinner was seen with a black guy. He was apparently hitting the face on the bench during, Saturday's game at some point or another. So the penguins held him out. I do think there's something

to be said for last minute, unexpected start, just go in, play. He doesn't have to think about, hey, do I, do I got to play up to the level of Stuart Skinner? Do I got to hit certain marks? He just has to stop the next shot. And he did that on Sunday. Here are some positives, though, that we got to get into. First, let's talk about the special teams. They had themselves a big weekend. The PK goes five for six on the weekend. Somehow Florida got no power plays or anything on Saturday, which was very odd,

but I digress. And then Pat, we saw all the special teams happen on Sunday, especially later in the game when you saw the Panthers were fed up with the way things are going. And they did typical Florida Panthers things, especially when you see the way Matthew Kachuk plays, see the way Sam Bennett plays. Parker Waltersman especially had enough of Matthew Kachuk's

antics, my friend. Well, Matthew Kachuk this offseason is going to get to do what we always do. And he's just going to get to whine on his podcast with his dad because he's not going to the playoffs. But, you know, anyway, Penguin's power play goes four for 10. And I know that on the surface doesn't sound great, but a 40% power play is probably putting you atop the league. So they had themselves a good weekend. And I will say, with the exception of one or two moments, I liked the power play all weekend long. They were moving the puck well. They were shooting the puck. They were getting looks. Obviously, you score four goals for power play goals in two games. That's a nice little bit of work. And then the PK goes five for six on Sunday. Good day for them. Again, I know that Florida's

banged up. I know that they're struggling, but you can only play the team in front of you and the Penguins did a pretty damn good job. Yeah, I think with the PK, I mean, the only goal they gave up was when the game was basically out of reaching garbage time on Sunday with 545 left. And that was a really nice shot by Carter Verhege. Really no chance for Archer. She loves there puts it through track. really nice. But the PK, otherwise, I thought did a great job. They were selling out to block shots. I still think they could have done maybe a little bit better job with some zone entries, but I don't want to be really too nitpicky. Overall, they got the job done this weekend. And I thought it was a step in the right direction for a unit that has struggled quite a bit since Blake Luzot went down. Power play. I'm also with you. I thought the movement was great. The zone entries were looking better.

The shoot first mentality was there. They were also crashing the net quite a bit, whether it was Terrasov or Babrovsky, another. big step in the right direction for a unit that has slipped a little bit in the rankings. And when you watch it, you can understand why. But they're working out some of those kinks. So I liked what I saw from both special teams units. But I also especially liked how professional these performances were. You had the champs coming in, as I said on Friday. Everyone wants to get a piece of them.

And the Penguins sure did on both these games. Is half of the lineup out for the Panthers? Yeah, but you know what? You went out there and you took care of business against a team. that is not making the playoffs this year. You got all four points. And now you are looking at a clinching scenario this Thursday against the Devils where if you win in regulation, you are going to the playoffs, unless my math is somehow wrong here.

I wasn't a math major, but I took a lot of notes for the clenching scenarios before the show, Pat. I am like 99.999% sure that they are in with a win on Thursday in regulation. That's just the way I looked at when I was doing some of the math. But overall, for the weekend, all four lines contributed, all three, pairings were great and R.D. She loves really stepped up to the plate on Sunday. These are two professional performances from the Penguins and they are now on the cusp of ending their four-year playoff drought. That really is the best way to describe this weekend. It was professional. It was cold-blooded is really one of the best ways I can put it because especially on Saturday,

By the time the third period came, it was already, the Penguins had already had eight on the board. It would have been really easy for them to feel some pity to do that kind of unspoken sporting thing where, you know, we did enough. We don't need to embarrass them. We don't need to do any of that. And to an extent, they did that. But they also didn't really take their foot off the gas either. They continued to play hard. They continued to push the Panthers and basically looked at it as we're trying to clinch a playoff spot.

We're trying to get back to the postseason. And we're trying to get into the postseason with some momentum. So we're going to keep this rolling. Hey, you guys filled your boots the last three years. You went to three straight Stanley Cup finals. You won two of them. you had your fun. So we're going to do our thing now.

But at the end of the day, the penguins did exactly what they needed to do. They got two clean regulation points, and they are one step closer to getting back to the Stanley Cup playoffs. But we're not going to go there just yet. There is still so much to talk about from this weekend, including just a plethora of milestones for the Pittsburgh Penguins. We are going to go through all of those accolades when we come back right after this. But first we've got to tell you about today's first sponsor, and that is Game Time. There is nothing like being in the arena for an NHL game, especially since the Stanley Cup playoffs are just around the corner. The crowd, the energy, the moment.

Getting tickets, though, that part hasn't always been so simple. That is why Game Time has become the go-to app for scoring tickets fast. without the hassle. It puts the advantage back where it belongs with us, the fans. You guys know, come on, what more do I got to say about game time? Game time's the best, man. It's gotten into Penguins games, WWE events, Sabrina Carpenter, Pittsburgh Pirates games, Pittsburgh Steelers games. It's great.

I see what I'm paying right up front. I don't get hit with any of those annoying checkout fees. I got a seat view right in the app. Even though I've been to these arenas a million and a half times, I still like to know what seats look like. It's pretty fantastic. And one of the best parts that I leave out every now and then, but I probably shouldn't, is the last minute deals. You and some friends, you want to go check the game out last minute. There's going to be deals in there for you. You can save some money. It's fantastic. I love game time. I don't think I need to save much more,

except that you need to take the guesswork out of buying tickets with Game Time. Done on the GameTime app, create an account, and use the code locked on for $20 off. That's code L-O-C-K-E-D-O-N for $20 off your first purchase. Download the GameTime app today. And remember, it's gametime.com. Not GameTime.com. We're back here on the Monday edition of Locked-on Penguins. I'm Patrick Damp right alongside Hunter Hodes.

And it was a weekend of achievements for the Pittsburgh Penguins. Not only did they knock the Florida Panthers, the two-time defending cup champions out of the playoffs. But everybody was getting in on it. And here's, I'm going to start with one that I had no idea was a thing until pregame on Sunday. If Getty Malkin became the oldest player in Penguin's history to record a hat trick when he scored three goals on Saturday.

So let's talk about that though, overall, not just the hatcher. because along with getting the hatcher and becoming the oldest player in Penguin's history to do that, he also eclipsed the 1400 point mark on Saturday. And on Saturday, it was the Russian bear. It was the bully. He was owning the puck.

He was galloping. He was physical when he needed to be. It was, dare I steal, a Hunter Hode's phrase, a vintage of Gennie Malkin. performance. When Navegeny Malkin gets going like that, I don't care how old he is. There is nothing anyone in this league can do about it. He was puck hunting. The entire game, the deflection goal was awesome. The way when he stole the puck right off that Panthers defenders, they basically just gave it right to him. And then he tucked it right past Harassov. That was great.

But Malkin was on another level in that game. Four-point game overall becomes the 23rd player in NHL history to hit 1,400 points. Congratulations to him. Again, he's 23rd on the NHL's all times points list. He is four away from tying Dale Howardchuck for 1409 on 22nd, and then nine away from Doug Gilmore, who's at 21st. And then Adam Oates is at 1420 for 20. Overall, he is going to hit it probably not by the end of the season, but definitely next

season, assuming he is here. And I'm still operating under the assumption that they are going to sign him to a one-year contract. this offseason, at least they should. He continues to show Kyle Dubus and the rest of the foreign office, Pat, why he should be brought back for at least a one-year contract extension. He was everywhere in this game. And I absolutely loved his performance.

Also, of course, a couple more big milestones. Sidney Crosby, 21st point per game season, most in NHL history. There was a weird tweet from a Twitter account that I don't really want to shout him out on here. that was just trying to discredit that, ignore random idiots like that that just want to engagement farm. It is an awesome accomplishment. And I thought this game on Sunday, best Crosby has played since coming back from the MCL. He was dialed in from the opening puck drop.

That goal that he scored, vintage Crosby goal, also got a couple of other points in this game, too. He was everywhere on the ice. That's the level of Cindy Crosby that we are all used to. and we just, we hadn't been seeing Pat since he came back from the MCL. Sometimes it takes him a little bit to get going. We have both said that sometimes it doesn't look like he's healthy. Well, he looked the part on Sunday. And that's the level that I want to keep seeing, excuse me,

to end the regular season and then obviously into the playoffs, assuming this team finishes the job later this week when they have a chance to clinch in Jersey. And then he also passes Steve Eiserman, seventh all time now on the NHL's points list, passes his idol. Congratulations to him. him. He's also gone in for top five. He's only 12 points away from tying Marcel Dion. And then he's probably going to hit Ron Francis next season. So a couple more big milestones there. I'll let you hit on that. And then the other one with Ryan Russ, too. I will say about Crosby. And this was

becoming more and more noticeable throughout the weekend. His timing is coming back more than anything. even though we were very critical of him the last week or so because it was deserved. The one thing I noticed was with 87, the effort is always there. There are so many things you can talk about when Sidney Crosby struggles when the production is not there. But the one thing that is always in forever there is the effort. The effort was there the whole time. His timing was just off, whether it was defensively in the offensive zone, you name it. The passes were just missing by a couple inches or even less.

The shots were missing the net, whether he was stopping up or making cuts. They were just a little bit behind. But as the games progressed over the weekend, especially Saturday into Sunday, you could see the timing returning. He was getting, he was finding players in the open space. He was making the correct decision on whether to stop up or to drive the net, whether he needed to curl or drag or whatever he had to do, you really started to see that coming back into his game over the weekend.

And that is a really good sign for the Penguins. And on top of it, the production becomes his NHL record of point per game street continues up to 21. He now sits more than alone atop that record. Now, like you said, he's up there, seventh all time in points, has a legitimate shot going into next season to enter the top five all time, which considering the era he came in and that is truly remarkable that he is going to hit the top five. And like everybody else, I can only imagine how much further up the list he would be

if it weren't for the concussion and if it weren't for a work stoppage and a work stoppage and the pandemic in his career. So he continues to marvel. He's getting his timing back. He's getting everything back and it could not come at a better time. And then finally, the last milestone of the weekend, which might be my personal favorite. Brian Rust hits 500 career points.

We talk about Brian Rust on this show a lot because he personifies this organization all the way through. His work ethic, the fact that he was a throwaway late round pick that nobody really thought about, nobody had any expectations for. He is a leader on and off the ice. He developed his way from a fourth line grinder to a top line scoring winger, and he's rewarded by scoring 500 points. in the national hockey league.

I know that there are a lot of teams out there, including one that is kind of sinking like a rock right now in Detroit that would give up the sun and the moon to get Brian Rust. But I continue to stand 10 toes down and say, no, that is our guy. We're holding on to him. Nothing was ever given to Brian Rust, you know, coming into the NHL, you said it,

mid-round picked. He's had to work his absolute ass off to get to where, he is. Came in, won two Stanley Cups as a pretty young player, but he continued to work on his game, just craft his game a little bit more, and now you see where it is now, Pat,

where he is a consistent 20 to 30 goal score in the NHL. He now has 28 goals in 64 points in 70 games. He's three away from hitting his career high, which he set last season of 31 goals. He is also only one

point away from tying his or high in points, which he also sent last season. I think that's going a little under the radar for this season. Yeah, we all know how great Eric Carlson has been, and he had another big weekend too bad. He's getting closer to that 70 point projection that I had going into the season. So close there. We all know that Evgeny Malkin had his weekend, too.

That was also his 14th hat trick tied for the second most in Penguin's history with Sidney Crosby. No one's ever touching Mary Lemieux's 40 hat tricks unless there's a, That's just not happening. There's just no way. But Brian Rust has been one of the penguins' best players this season. Shows up every single night, plays his tail off in all three zones. And, you know, has he had a couple of stinkers?

Sure, the Tampa one. But every player on this team has a couple of stinkers every season. But he shows up all the time. And he's one of my favorite penguins to watch. Again, there's going to come a point where he has a full-time A, on his sweater. Obviously, Pat, it's not an out because you have the big three, but there is going to come a point in time when he does have that full A on his sweater. And it's going to be deserved, man. Just considering the type of leader he is both on and off the ice, how consistent he's been, all that good stuff. So, congratulations to him. Also, congratulations to Dan Mew is a 40 win season in his first season as head coach. Another nice milestone. He is going to get a lot of Jack Adams consideration after this season. Don't know if he's going to win it. I think Lindy Ruff has a really good. case for him, a couple others,

but great job by Dan Muses. He continues to push all the right buttons. And this isn't, no, milestone stuff, but I wanted to get this in. Elmer Soderblom, have a weekend, man. All over the ice,

the deflection goal was great. Teresov gave him a goal today on a silver platter. I still don't know what he was trying to do there, but Pat, he's been great. Three goal, six points in his last few games. I'm beginning to, wonder, is there a way that he stays in the lineup when everyone is healthy?

But who is coming out? That continues to be the big, big question. I'm sure some people are going to say Tommy Novak because he's not playing well as of late. And I do understand that. The one thing I would push back on is how great of a fit he is with Evgeny Malkin. I do think he needs to play a lot better. But Sotom is making his case to be in this lineup on a full-time basis, even when

Blake Lazzata is coming back, because you're not scratching that guy. I mean, without dive in too deep into it. because this is a conversation we can have coming up this week because there's only so many games this week. We're out of the crazy vortex. So now we got to come up with stuff to talk about. But I'll say this much. I think if there's an odd man out right now and it's not any fault of his own, it's more just the short straw that's getting drawn. It's probably Conor Dewar. But at the end of the day, these are very good problems to have. especially with the Stanley Cup playoffs looming

because the Pittsburgh Penguins have the opportunity to go back to the Stanley Cup playoffs this very week. Hunter and I are going to make sure you are prepared for that, let you know what the clinching scenarios are and everything else when we come back right after this. Finishing up the Monday edition, a great vibes Monday edition. of the Locked-on Penguins podcast.

I am Patrick Damp right alongside Hunter Hodes and Hunter. There are not that many games this week, but there is a big one, and it's the next one. On Thursday, Pittsburgh Penguins will head to Newark to take on the New Jersey Devils at 7 o'clock, and should they win that game in regulation, well, I am just going to quote every Penguins fan, old friend, Mike Lang. They win that game in regulation.

You can spit, shine your shoes because we'll be going dancing with Lord Stanley. I just can't believe we're talking about this, this late in the season, considering the expectations that both you and I had a whole bunch of other people, a lot of the fans. This has been such a magical season in every single way. And the fact that it's looking very likely to continue into the second half of April, potentially even deeper into early May, mid-May, and something else, man. I am having so much fun this season.

I'm not even close to being ready for it to end. But yes, so let's look at the standings right now. Penguins have 96 points. The teams that have clinched, Tampa Bay, Montreal, Buffalo, and Carolina, We all knew that those teams were all getting in. Pittsburgh at 96. So the Capitals are down 6'1 right now to the New York Rangers going into the third period. Should they lose, and that's probably going to happen here, the Capitals would no longer

be able to pass the Penguins in the standings. They will have played 78 games. They are nine points back. So you do the math there, they come up one short. So now we go to Columbus. They have 88 points. They can only get up to 98 points. So if the Penguins win on Thursday, they'll be.

up to 98, but people are probably going to wonder, can't the jackets tie them? They can tie them, but the penguins would have the tiebreaker of regulation wins. Columbus can only get up to a max of 32. On Thursday, that penguins one would be 34. So Columbus cannot pass them. Then you have the New York Islanders. So the Penguins and Islanders, they are tied 78 games. Penguins are seven points up.

So if Penguins win that game on Thursday, the Islanders, they can only max out at 97. They could not pass the Penguins. So there is your clinching scenario. Penguins win on Thursday. They are going to the Stanley Cup playoffs. And Pat, are we going to potentially get a battle of Pennsylvania here? I want to shout out someone who had this on Fan Take Friday a couple weeks ago. Landon Bartels, please step forward.

You said it's a very hot take, but it's a fun one. Penguins Flyers first round, both Columbus and the Islanders are the wildcard teams knocking out Detroit in Boston. TBD on that second point, but I kind of threw. cold water on that first one. I said, I don't think it's going to happen because the flyers were a bit out. They have gone on quite a run. Porter Martone gets his first career goal today, and they are right now in third place in the Metro. So this is a real possibility, Pat, that we get the battle of Pennsylvania this year. Now, you mean Porter Martone, the sixth overall pick who couldn't make the team out of camp and, you know, only needed a five on three to score his first overtime goal while

11th overall pick Ben Kindle scored a 5-1-5 goal against Igor Shasturkin. Yeah, I'm real impressed by-Harton. That's a dedicated hater here, guys. Come on. Just saying, you know, Ben Kendall made the team out of camp. Port-a-Martone didn't. But anyway, I mean, I'm curious to see what happens with the Flyers overall, just because they do have some challenging games on the docket coming up.

They are about to embark on a three-game road trip, and the flyers have actually been pretty damn good away from Xfinity Live Arena, 21, 13, and 4. So they do pretty well on the road. But they also finish out the season with the hurricanes and the Canadians. Granted, both of those teams have clinched playoff spots. So by that point, they might not be playing anybody. But at the end of the day, the flyers still got to do it. And you look at the Eastern Conference right now, there are four spots.

left. That's it. There are four spots left because Tampa, Montreal, Buffalo, Carolina have all clinched, which means second and third place in the metro are still up for grabs, though. The penguins are very close to putting a strangle hold on it because their closest is Philly, and Philly is still six points behind the penguins. Penguins need two wins to clinch home ice in the Stanley Cup playoffs. Philly can only get to 100, and the penguins have the tiebreaker. over them because the flyers don't have any regulation wins. So Pat Penguins need two wins to clinch the home ice in the first round, which I think would

very much benefit the city because the NFL draft is coming up here in a couple of weeks in Pittsburgh. You think the NHL is hoping that they get home ice? I sure do. I think we're all hoping they get home ice because this city is going to be impossible to navigate in general when the NFL draft is here. And if you put a Penguins home playoff game on top of that, just walk everywhere.

It'll be faster, I promise. But anyway, yeah, I mean, it's, let's end it with this. You brought it up at the start of the segment. It is crazy to think about where we are right now. We are talking about the Pittsburgh Penguins potentially hosting the first two games of the first round of the Stanley Cup playoffs. When we came into this season,

The hope was just to be entertaining. That was our bar. We know you're probably not going to be good. We know you're not going to make the playoffs. Just don't be a doorbat. Just don't show up and get your doors blown off every night. And now here they are with a legitimate shot to finish second in the division. They've got a goal differential of plus 30.

They have won 40 games. If you saw this coming, no, you did not. I mean, you're right, though. Like, I know people who expected them to be even better than what you and I said. But I can't find many people who expected them to be a playoff team this year with a legit chance to host home ice in the first round of the playoffs, depending on who it's against. And, you know, right now of the matchups and, well, you know what, I'm going to save that. for when they hopefully clinch.

I don't want to get too far ahead of myself in terms of who I would rank the teams that I think match up best against the Penguins. I don't want to put any bad karma out there. But it really is nuts, man. Like this has been such a magical year fully. And I hope all of you are having just as much fun as we are because Pat and I can't wait. Assuming they finish us off on Thursday, we got a lot of really fun stuff coming for the playoffs. And we're going to change up our recording schedule, all that good stuff.

I've already talked to Pat about it. It's going to be a lot of fun. But yeah, man, Penguins get a few days off. They get New Jersey this Thursday, big back-to-back over the weekend against the capitals. Caps might be fighting for the playoff lives. And then assuming, Pat, they have clinched by next Tuesday, they finish off with the St. Louis Blues. And again, assuming they are in, I would expect a pretty big healthy Wilkesbury line up there. I think you're going to see some veterans sitting out for that game, assuming they're in.

I think Sergey Murshov is potentially going to. to get the night. Hopefully, it's not too serious with Stuart Skinner, had a little bit of a gash near his eye. I think it got hit in the puck, but from what it sounds like. Miroshov has arrived to the Penguins, so they got a few days off. We'll see how it is by Thursday with Stu Skinner, all that good stuff. But yeah, man, vibes are great. All four lines were awesome this weekend. I wanted to shout out Ricard Raquel, too, because he can't stop scoring right now. If he wasn't healthy, oh, if he wasn't injured, excuse me, earlier in the season, he probably hit 30 goals this year. He's been great lately.

So good. And to end it, I'll just give myself a little bit of a pat on the back because technically my one of my preseason hot takes was correct. I said that they would not be mathematically eliminated from the playoff race until the final two weeks of the season. Not that right. I'm half right, but they're not going to get mathematically eliminated, at least not for now. For now, they're still in it. But at the very least, it does look like hopefully we are going to see our Pittsburgh Pankham. Penguins back in the Stanley Cup playoffs. But that is going to do it for the Monday edition of the Locked-on Penguins podcast.

Hunter and I will be back on Tuesday with the latest news and whatever else happens between now and then to make sure you're ready for this push to the Stanley Cup playoffs. So for Hunter Hodes, I am Patrick Damp. Thank you, as always, for tuning in. We will talk to you again on Tuesday.