Locked On Penguins - Daily Podcast On The Pittsburgh Penguins - Penguins to close out the season against one of their biggest rivals!

Episode Date: April 17, 2025

The Pittsburgh Penguins will end their 2024-25 season on Thursday against the Washington Capitals. Hunter and Patrick preview the final game of the season and discuss what they are looking to see from the Penguins even though their season is coming to an end. They discuss milestones that could happen tonight for the Penguins and how the Capitals play has been falling off a little bit recently. Finally, they discuss how it was a rough night for WBS and Wheeling on Wednesday and why we need to see what the young kids are made of down the stretch and in the playoffs.Support Us By Supporting Our Sponsors!Monarch MoneyTake control of your finances with Monarch Money. Use code LOCKEDONNHL at monarchmoney.com for 50% off your first year.Wonderful PistachiosGet snackin’ and get crackin’ with the snack that packs a protein punch. Visit WonderfulPistachios.com to learn more!GametimeDownload the Gametime app, create an account, and use code LOCKEDONNHL for $20 off your first purchase. Terms apply. Download Gametime today. What time is it? Gametime.FanDuelToday's episode is brought to you by FanDuel. Right now, new FanDuel customers can get TWO HUNDRED AND FIFTY DOLLARS in Bonus Bets if your first FIVE DOLLAR bet wins! Amazon Fire TV Stick 4kDid you know your Fire TV is also an Xbox? Turn any TV into your gaming and entertainment hub with Fire TV Stick 4K devices — no console required. Head to Amazon.com/firetvlockedon to get started. Xbox Game Pass Ultimate subscription and compatible controller required.UpworkVisit Upwork.com right now and post your job for free. With Upwork, you can find specialized freelancers in marketing, development, design, and more—experts ready to help you take your business to the next level. 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.

Folks, we have made it to game 82 of the 2024, 2025 Pittsburgh Penguin season, and the Penguins will end their season against one of their biggest rivals, the Washington Capitals on Thursday night. On today's episode of the Locked-on Penguins podcast, Pat and I are going to preview that game, plus get into how rough of a night it was on Wednesday for both Wheeling and Wilkesbury. You're Locked-on Penguins, your daily podcast on the Pittsburgh Penguins, part of the Locked-on Podcast Network, your team, every day.

Hello and welcome back to another episode of the Lockdown Penguins podcast. I am one of your host, Hunter Hodes. You can follow me on Twitter at Hunter Hodes. Join by my co-Camp. You can follow him on all social media platforms at Send him for Wet. And you can follow these shows, Twitter, at L.O. Understore Penguins, of course, thank you all so much for making this your first listen slash watch of the day.

We are free and available on all platforms. And as I said, Pat, we have made it. Game 82 of the regular season. This is the final night of the regular season across the NHL before the Stanley Cup playoffs opened up on Saturday. The entire Stanley Cup playoff schedule was revealed a little bit earlier today. So if you want to check that out, go on social media, go on NHL.com. Go to wherever you want to in terms of your full NHL news. But the entire schedule is out with the Penguins.

They will end their season, trying to get a season split against the Washington capitals. The Penguins won the first meeting in the year. and then they have gotten blown out in these last two games against them. They just really have not played that well in these last two games. The Penguins look to get a season split. However, Pat, if you look at the amazing tankathon standings, this is a game that the Penguins should probably prefer losing because as of right now, Pat, the Penguins had the eighth best lottery odds,

78 points, Buffalo, 77 points ahead of them. They still have one more game left, as does Philadelphia, who has 81 games. But Boston and Seattle, they are at 4 and 5 or spot. respectively, they have 76 points. But as of right now, Pat Penguins have the eighth best lottery odds. And if that holds until the draft lottery, which will be in a few weeks, Penguins will get a fairly good prospect if they get the eighth best pick.

And they can potentially move up a little bit if they do get a little bit of lottery look, excuse me. So again, it would behoove them to lose this game, preferably in regulation. But as we have been saying, players are not wired like that. They want to play for pride of this last game. and they want to try and go out on a good note heading into what will be another long offseason. The Capitals. They'll be playing some of the regulars tonight.

Alex Ovechkin will be in the lineup. So Cindy Crosby will get to congratulate him on breaking the NHL all-time goals record. There will be some of their other regulars playing. I'm sure Tom Wilson is still going to suit up for them as well. But Spencer Carveray, the Caps head coach day, he said that they were dealing with some things on the blue line. So we're not really sure which defensemen are going to be in, which are going to be out. John Carlson's been a little bit banged up recently. I know Jacob Chirkin's being a little bit banged up,

but they'll be good to go for the playoffs. We just have to see if they play in this one. And same with Martin Fiverr, RV as well. But the caps will have a new goaltender. It will not be Logan Thompson. It will also not be Charlie Lindgren. They will be starting Clay Stevenson. He is their third, fourth string goalie,

whatever you want to call it. He's been in Hershey for the entire 2024, 2025 season. And he's been okay. I mean, he has a two-persefew. point nine four goals against average 18 wins, but he also only has an 888 percentage. I do have to make the joke pack. This is the type of goalie that is going to have a 50 save shutout against the Penguins

to end their season because that's how these things go, my friend. But Capitals, they're going into the playoffs as the best team in the conference, but they haven't really been playing that well down the stretch. They've been giving up, especially these last couple weeks, almost three goals per game, it feels like they're not playing well in their own end. They're not getting the offensive contributions. Yes, Logan Thompson has been a bit banged up. I expect him healthy for the start of the playoffs.

But this is still a campus team that's kind of going through the motions a little bit. I mean, they've had their playoff spot locked up for the last few weeks. They've had the top seat locked up for the last week and change two weeks as well. But are you concerned about the way they're playing heading into the playoffs? A little bit. I mean, I've always been kind of suspect of the capitals this year. I think that they are very good. Like, let's not get that twisted.

This is a very good team. I'm not sitting here telling you not to believe your lying eyes. You don't win the Eastern Conference and the regular season by accident. That doesn't happen. But you can see some holes in their game the last few weeks. I do think, and rightfully so, they got a big boost from the Alex Ovechkin chase to win the goals record. And I don't think. it was their primary motivation, though I think it was a huge motivation.

And I can't remember which player it was when on some podcast, either split and spit in chicklets or empty netters or one of them and basically said, yeah, it was, it was a distraction. It was something we were all watching. It was something we were all doing. And, you know, despite all the post game interviews and everything that they give, we're like, no, we're not worried about that. We're worried about winning. We're worried about the team.

We want to make the playoffs. We want to win the Stanley Cup. up all that kind of stuff. One player goes out and just completely blows that out of the water and says, yeah, no, we were thinking about it all season. But yeah, I mean, I look at this team and I'm trying to decide, and this is a bit of a cop out here, I'm trying to decide if this is just a team that knows it was going to the playoffs and is now just trying to get through the rest of the regular season until the Stanley

Cup playoffs begin, or if this is a team that's starting to, look a little wobbly and we will find out once the playoffs begin and they're going to have a team that has absolutely nothing to lose, a team that's ahead of schedule and a team that they don't have to go in there with any sort of weighty expectations. You win the Eastern Conference, a lot of people are going to pencil you in to get through the Eastern Conference playoffs and you go up against a team like Montreal who's got a pretty good track record of playing spoiler. we'll see what happens. I mean, the Capitals are second in the league this year

and goals for per game at 3.5.1. Only the Tampa Bay Lightning are ahead of them. So they're writing, A, a very strong shooting percentage that has been the case the entire season. And B, they are writing also some outstanding goaltending from both Logan Thompson and Charlie Lingren. My concern with them is if both of those metrics go down a little bit in the playoffs, are they going to get exposed?

That's the biggest thing for me with Washington. As for this game tonight, the Penguins, we could see a few milestones tonight. That's the big thing I want to see. Win or lose, I still want to see some big milestones at tonight. Number one, Pat, Cindy Crosby needs one point to hit 90 points once again would be another incredible accomplishment for him, especially at 37 years of age. The fact that he's still producing like this is outrageous. Also, Ricardo Kelly has already set his career high in goals, but he can also hit point

number 70 tonight if he gets a point on any penguins goals that are scored. He has 69 points in 80 games this season. He has been, as always, tremendous. Brian Rust also could hit the 30 goal mark for the penguins if he notches a goal tonight. So some pretty good milestones that we could see hit tonight for the penguins. Also, Alex Nadelcovic will be on the hill in the final game of the regular season. So that means we'll have to see if Tristanjari has made his last start as a member of the penguins or if he is on the team come next September and October when training camp and then the next season starts.

So just wanted to point out those few milestones. P.O. Joseph, he will not be available tonight. He's been skating, practicing with the team a little bit these last few days, but his season is officially over. And Kevin A's, he is also a game time decision for the penguins who just wanted to rattle off some of the injuries and look at some of the milestones that we could see tonight. For me, what's successful for the penguins tonight is if we get some of those milestones And I know we have been very against this team, you know, just playing like utter crap.

But if you can do a hard fought game where you don't get the two points in regulation, but you at least show that pride, show that effort. And it helps your draft lottery position, especially for this one game, Pat. I will take that along with a few milestones. That's a success for me. Yeah, I think I mostly agree with you. I'm going to wait until our second segment to really go into what I'm looking for because I have quite a few. thoughts on this game, the season at large.

Obviously, we've got a whole offseason ahead of us to talk about it. But there's one thing I want to see happen tonight. And I think it will happen. But I just want to put my, my flag in the ground on this one. They are going to acknowledge Alex Ovechkin tonight. The arena staff, the production staff in the arena is going to acknowledge Alex Ovechkin breaking Wayne Gretzky's record. Absolutely.

I know you're going to be in the building tonight, Hunter. I'm not, sadly. I think I've only made it to one or two games this year, but I will put it this way. When that happens, don't boo. If you don't want to cheer, I'm not going to tell you to cheer, but you should because I have been beating this drum

for a couple years now. We have lived through one of the best eras of hockey with Sidney Crosby and Alex Ovechkin, two guys who had the absolute, absolute most ridiculous expectations placed upon them when they came into the league. And not only did they meet them, they exceeded them. And we only have a couple of seasons left of these two guys playing in the National Hockey League. So we're not going to see Alex Ovechkin much longer.

We're not going to see Sidney Crosby much longer. We have had more than our fair share of battles between these two teams. It's not me saying you got to be an OV fan. It's not me saying you got to suddenly like the caps. They're obviously still rivals. They're obviously still our competitors. But we got to show respect for two absolute living legends. And one of them will be in the building tonight.

100%. I do think they're going to honor him. I'd like to think the crowd is going to mostly cheer. I'm sure you'll hear a few booze from your TV when you're watching it home or even if you're going to the game. I'm sure you'll hear at least a few fans boo. I think the same would probably be said for some Caps fans. I think for DC, if this. were the case with Crosby, just throwing that out there.

If he were the one to do this and they were playing in D.C., I think you would mostly get cheers, but you would also get some booze there as well. But I do think you're going to see a pretty good environment tonight. Final game of the regular season. I know the vibes aren't, you know, at an all-time high because the Penguins are missing the playoffs. But I do think most Penguins fans, at least my prediction is that they will at least acknowledge it, stand up for a couple seconds, clap a little bit, and then they'll sit back down.

At least that's what I think is going to happen. Could be dead wrong on it 100%. But again, that's my opinion on that. But I think that'll do it for this first segment. Come up in the second segment. We're going to get into what else Pat is looking for from the Penguins in their final game of the regular season. And I'll get into a couple other things of what I'm looking for as well for the final game. But before we get to that, we have to tell you all about our first sponsor.

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Head to Fandle.com and claim your $250 in $1.5. bonus bets today. All right after you on this episode of the Locked on Penguins podcast, I'm one of your host, Hunter Hodes, join my co-oist Patrick Dam. So Pat, I kind of outline what I'm looking for in this game. I probably did a little bit of a segment too early because I was just so amped for this one. It's weird, man.

Like, we're already at Game 82. Like, we're already in mid-April. The weather's starting to get a bit nicer. This season flew by. Once again, it honestly blows my mind how all of these seasons continue to like, it feels like they're going by even faster. Like last year's I felt like went by quick. This year it's even quicker.

I think next year it's probably going to be even quicker than this one. It really is nuts. But I outlined what I want to see tonight, some milestones, you know, preferably just for this one game, a regulation law. So it helps your draft lottery position so they can get an even better prospect. But I still want to see that fight and that pride that we've seen these last few weeks. Pat, what are you looking for from the Penguins in their final game of the season? Well, Mr. Hodes, welcome to getting a lot.

because this is how it always goes. You feel like a season lasts forever when you're a teenager and in college, and then once you become an adult, every season goes by in the blink of an eye. But I want to start with something you said. This is Game 82. This season has flown by. And I kind of want to look at it from a perspective of the last three seasons combined.

The end of the Hextall era was, it was terrible. It was painful. It was a rudderless ship. And you really couldn't figure out where the organization was going. Were they still trying to contend? Were they trying to tank? Were they trying to retool on the fly? They seemed to change with the wind.

And they missed the playoffs by a point. And you're like, okay, it's one point in a not so strong Eastern Conference. They make a couple moves here and there. They're right back in the mix. last year they miss again by a couple points and at first you're like, okay, it is time for this organization to admit that it's over. And from the Jake Gensel trade on, you started to see a plan formulate. We've talked about it on the show relentlessly that they're going for a youth movement.

They're going to try to do what their opponent tonight has done over the past few years. They're going to identify who they want to hold on to, who are their cornerstones, everybody else is either going to be here for a short amount of time on short-term deals or they're going to be used for assets at the trade deadline or in the off season. This season, we knew that was the plan going in. And we said, hey, making the playoffs wouldn't be a catastrophe, but you probably shouldn't. But at the same time, you look at the guys you have on the roster. And it's a good, it's a team that has at least an potential chance of getting to the postseason.

But then you get to the vibe at the end of this season. For the first time in a while, at least in the last few years, there's hope. Because we have seen that it looks like Rutger Magrorty and Vili Coivinen are for real. Now, it could be a flash in the pan. It was only a few games. But you and I have talked about it. You see a lot of fundamentals in their game that make you think these guys are going to be able to hang. They're not just playing off of adrenaline and had a few hot weeks.

They look like they could be players in this league. You look at Philip Tomasino. You look at his body of work before he became a penguin in Tommy Novak. You look at a couple other players in the pipeline now who are doing pretty well. And you look at this season and you go, yeah, it's a disappointment that for the third straight year we're not going to get to see the Stanley Cup playoffs in Pittsburgh. We're not going to get to see Sidney Crosby in the playoffs for the third straight year. But you look at this organization and you think we might not go through that.

dark of a time post Sidney Crosby, post of Gennie Malkin, post Chris LaTang. But at the end of the day, you're still disappointed that they're not going to the playoffs because there's no better drama in the world than the Stanley Cup playoffs. As for tonight, yeah, this might be the first time of my life that I'm with you or I'm like, you know what, if you losing regulation tonight, ain't going to bother me. I'm not going to be firing off posts on blue sky about how it was a terrible performance and they should be ashamed. But I don't want it to be an outright flop.

I don't want them to no show. I know it's game 82. I know you can see the beach and the golf course, in the cabin, all on the horizon. Cancun on three, baby. But put up a fight. You're playing a rival. And I don't mean anything dirty.

I don't mean take cheap shots, something like that. Take a chunk out of your rival before they go to the playoffs. and just the last thing on it, it's game 82. You're not going to the playoffs. They are. Let it hang out, man. Just go play.

Have fun. Play fast. Play fun. Enjoy the game. There are people who, including Hunter, who are going to be in the building. There's going to be an audience on ESPN watching the game.

Give them something to watch. Just give them something to watch. Don't go through the motions. Make it a good game. The have fun part, I was going to say that if you weren't going to say it. That's another thing I want to see them do tonight. Like, look like you're having a blast,

even though it's the last game of the season, even though you're not going to see some of these guys after the season, just because we're going to see changes from Kyle Dubas. Like, change is inevitable, especially when you miss the playoffs for our third straight year, especially when you're doing this retool slash rebuild on the fly, you're going to see changes made by the front office. So some of these players that you see play tonight are not going to be on the team.

Come next fall, like that's just the nature of the beast when you are going through this transition period as a team. You're not contending just yet, but again, Kyle Dubas has stated the goal is to try and get this team back to contending for Stanley Cups as early as possible. So I just go out there, have a blast, put on at least a little bit of a show for the fans,

since it's the final game in this arena for the last six months. And I also echo Pat. They lose in regulation. There's no reason to get mad people. It literally helps their draft lottery position. It's one game. Just still show that fight, show that effort,

show that pride you lose. Okay, not the end of the world at all. I just don't want to see a really good game between two better rivals, just because the rivalry has also kind of gone a little bit downhill these last few years. It's not nearly at the height that it was 2016 to 2018, even a little bit before then. But I still want to see a fun game between two rivals tonight before Washington goes and takes on a pretty pesky Montreal team,

a team that has already exceeded expectations and a team that really has nothing to lose heading into the playoffs. Now, I think the Canadians are going to give them the bigger fight than some people expect. In my opinion, I'll take the capitals to win that series in six, but I think the Canadians are not going to make it easy on the caps. But I think that I'll do it for the second segment coming up to end the show. It was not a good night for both Wheeling and Wilkespray last night.

And Pat and I are going to give you all the details of what's to come for both of those teams coming up to end the show. But before we get to that, we have to tell you all about our final sponsor, and that is Amazon Fire TV. Did you know that your Fire TV is also an Xbox? turn any TV into your gaming and entertainment hub with fire TV stick 4K devices. No console required. Just grab your paired controller, subscribe or sign into Xbox GamePass Ultimate with EA Play included,

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You need to stay competitive. With 4K streaming, watch more than 1.5 million movies and TV episodes from your favorite subscribe services like Netflix, Prime Video, Disney Plus, Max, and so much more. Head to Amazon.com slash Fire TV locked on to get started. Xbox GamePass Ultimate subscription and compatible controllers. required. It's available on select devices, including Fire TV Stick 4K for the second generation, Fire TV stick 4K max, first and second generation, and Fire TV Cube. That is the third generation. All right, we're back here on this episode of the Locked-on Penguins podcast. I'm one of

your host Hunter Hodes. Join by my co-s, Patrick Dam. That deal sounds really good, by the way, but also, Pat, I'm a PC guy. I think if you're not on PC, you're doing it wrong. I know. That might be a hot take to some people. I have an Xbox downstairs. A very old gym. generation Xbox still love it to death, but I don't know what I would do without my gaming PC. I've had it for a few years now. And trust me, I love it. I get 240 FPS. I love playing on controller, though I'm still learning how to play keyboard a little bit.

I love my PC, even though the consoles now, especially the new Xbox and the new PlayStation, they are good. And they can still come close to matching PC. But hey, I used to be one of those console players that hated PC players, too. So that's okay. I'm not too much of a gamer anymore. I have an Xbox. The next game I'm looking forward to is Doom the Dark Ages because I'm still stuck in my elementary school days where I love Doom.

But yeah, that does sound pretty good, like a pretty good deal. But I got to start here this segment with my old employer, the Wheeling Mailers. And there is one word coming to mind for their game one effort against Norfolk Admirals. And it is goalie. they got goalied in game one. They out shoot the admirals 16 to 8 in the first period. And the first goal that Norfolk gets, you cannot blame on Sergei Murashov. It just beats him, hits the post, then hits him, and goes in.

And at the end of the day, the final shot totals were 29 to 29, and they lose 4 to nothing to Norfolk in game one in Norfolk, Virginia. But realistically, they had a couple of unlucky bounces against them. They really did seem to play pretty well against them. And this is getting into what I said about Murashav going to the ECHL for the Kelly Cup playoffs. There's not anybody behind him, really, in net. So while he wasn't. bad. There is no world where he played poorly. He, a couple bad bounces here and there, got past

him. But now he's got to pick himself up tonight for game two. It is a back to back situation. And the more I think about it, the more I actually agree with this decision, is he probably too good to be in the ECHL still? Absolutely. But now it's time to see what he does with a pressure cooker on. Yeah. They're down one nothing in the series. They're on the road. It's a back-to-back situation. Can you be the guy? Can you rebound tonight? Can you come out and help this team tie the series?

And then you've got five potential home games against this team in this series. So I don't think it's any sort of panic. You see four nothing. You see a one-nothing series deficit and think maybe this team's cooked already, but numbers don't tell the whole story. I think that they're going to be in good position tonight to pull even in this first round series. And if they do pull even, the rest of the series will take place in Wheeling. So you have the home ice if you pull even here because we've seen Wheeling be a pretty fun atmosphere in the playoffs.

Especially last year, Pat, like the atmosphere there was tremendous. You even up the series tonight, it's going to be a raucous crowd coming back to Wheeling for the rest of this series. So I'm also curious to see how Murshov responds after last night. I thought he was fine. Wasn't at the top of his game. But if he can get back to that level, I think Wheeling will tie up this series tonight. And I think they'll go back and win this series in Wheeling.

As for Wilkesbury, though, things got a little bit worse for them. They were up two to one pat in the third period. Amiel Benstrom gave them the lead with about 12 minutes left. But then they gave up a tying goal. And then right as the game is about to go to overtime, They gave up the game-winning goal with less than 30 seconds to play. And because of that now, Pat, that loss combined with the Charlotte win means Wilkesbury will be hosting an opening round,

Best of Series, best of three series, excuse me, like we saw last year where small sample size happened and they lost. It will be against either Lehigh Valley or Springfield. We were trying to hopefully avoid them playing in the opening round series. but because they blew that lead in regulation, they will play a best of three series against one of those two teams. And the dates and the opponents will be finalized

this upcoming weekend. So a brutal way to lose for Wilkesbury after playing really well for most of that game, but they gave up a tie and goal and then gave up the game winner with less than 30 seconds to play. Very similar to what I was saying about Sergey Murshov. This is now some real prove it time

for a lot of the Penguins, young players in the system in Wilkespa. because it really looked like they were going to challenge for the top seat in the division about a month ago. It really looked like they were going to be one of the teams to beat going into the Calder Cup playoffs. And now they find themselves in a situation where they're going to have to fight out of a really tough, really coin flippy series in that best of three to open the Calder Cup playoffs. So now you want to see what these guys are made of because the last couple weeks for Wilkes Bear have been a struggle. They have been kind of panting and jogging towards the finish line rather than sprinting to sprinting towards or to the end of the tape. So now they've got to find a way to pick themselves up off the mat when it really starts to matter.

And we're going to find out what a lot of these guys are made of. Now, don't want to make any grand proclamations about them because at the end of the day, most of them are still very young. They're still learning how to be professional hockey players. But this is part of the learning process. This is part of becoming a professional hockey player. This is part of proving that you are a worthwhile investment by an NHL team because this is how the NHL goes. I mean, we have seen it with the penguins themselves. We've seen it the last few years.

You've seen it with a lot of top tier teams where the expectation is sky high. You fail to meet it. And where do you go from there? So this will be big for the baby penguins. Can they rebound from this? Can they go into this best of three series against whoever they end up playing? And again, I don't want to put unreasonable expectations on them, but would go a long way if they can just finish that off in two games.

You win both games, you get yourself a break, and then you go into the next round ready to go. So really curious to see how the baby penguins bounce back because for both teams now, both Wheeling and Wilkes Bear, the pressure is starting to turn up a little bit. The pressure is starting to, it's starting to be put on. So how do you respond? Yeah, especially in these high stakes games when you want your young players playing in these games and seeing how they respond. And, you know, Wilkes, they're going to get some guys back.

after today, remember Pat Dilley Coyvin, he's going to go back down there, hopefully have a nice run with them in the playoffs. Yonokopopopin is also going to go back. Voltaire Pustin will go back, I think, Philip Krawl. And then at some point, hopefully, Rock and McGority will also return in the playoffs if Wilkesbury does go deep enough. And I do want to say this. Wilkesbury did announce the home game dates for the best of the three series a bit earlier

today, did want to amend a little bit. So game one will be Wednesday, April 23rd, and then game three would be Sunday on the 27. So it looks like Pat, we're going to get a classic one in Wilkesbury, one in the other place. And then if needed, game three will be back in Wilkesbury. So again, just still don't want to repeat of what we saw last year where felt like Wilkesbury was a better team. But when you get those short sample size playoff series, best of three, anything can happen. So we'll just have to see who Wilkesbury plays once the bracket gets finalized here in the coming days. But that will do it for this episode of the Lockdown Penguins podcast. Thank you all so much for taking the time to listen to slash watch this episode.

Pat and I will be back with another show for you all on Friday to recap the final game of the regular season and give you all some updates on Wheeling. And then Wilkesbury as well. The next week, people, don't worry. We're still five days a week next week starting our season reviews, giving our playoff picks. That'll be more on a Friday episode. But we'll also discuss what the Penguins will look to do this offseason. We'll just look to see what Kyle Dubis will try to do. whether it's free agency or whether it's via trade.

We have a ton of time before the draft and then free agency to get into all of that. But again, that'll do for this one. Thank you all so much for tuning in. We appreciate it. We'll be back on Friday.