Locked On Penguins - Daily Podcast On The Pittsburgh Penguins - Penguins TOP 25 of the 2000s: Guys who gave us the BEST moments!

Episode Date: August 15, 2025

We’re continuing the Locked On Penguins Top 25 of the 2000s today, and we’re remembering five players who gave us the best memories of the last 25 years! Hunter and Patrick start the show off talking about two massive moments from the last 25 years, including Bryan Rust’s game seven heroics and Jordan Staal’s MASSIVE shorthanded goal in 2009. Then they remember Nick Bonino ending the Caps’ season, Chris Kunitz sending the Penguins back to the finals, and Patric Hornqvist winning the Stanley Cup! Finally, it’s Frida,y and that means another round of Fan Take Friday!Support Us By Supporting Our Sponsors!GametimeToday's episode is brought to you by Gametime. Download the Gametime app, create an account, and use code LOCKEDONNHL for $20 off your first purchase. Terms and conditions apply.Monarch MoneyTake control of your finances with Monarch Money. Use code LOCKEDONNHL at monarchmoney.com/lockedonnhl for 50% off your first year.FanDuelToday's episode is brought to you by FanDuel. Football season is around the corner, visit the FanDuel App today and start planning your futures bets now.IndeedNow, you can speed up your hiring process with a $75 Sponsored Job Credit. Just go to Indeed.com/LOCKEDON right now and support our show by saying you heard about Indeed on this podcast. Terms and conditions apply.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.

It's Friday, which means Pat and I are continuing our Penguins top 25 of the last 25 years with our own spin on it. Today, it's the top five moments, guys, and that's coming up right after this. Your Locked-on Penguins. Your daily podcast on the Pittsburgh Penguins. Part of the Locked-on Podcast Network, your team every day. Hello and welcome back to another episode of the Locked-on Penguins podcast. I'm one of your host, Hunter Hodies. You can follow me on Twitter at Hunter Hodes.

Joined by my co-st, Patrick David, you can follow him on all social media platforms at Sandin Verwet. You can follow the show's Twitter at L.O. underscore Penguins. And you can follow us on Instagram at Lockdown underscore Penguins, of course. Thank you all so much for making this your first list and slash watch today. We are free and available on all platforms. And finally, today's episode is brought to you by GameTime, town the GameTime app, playing account and use code locked on NHL for $20 off your first purchase. I'm glad to be doing this show today because we have some bats living under our fascia

right outside of our house. Thankfully, they're not inside our house, but I'll see it'll be becoming Batman and just putting on my suit and just going up there and spooking them out so they can go live somewhere else. So we're going to have to get that fixed here in the next couple of weeks. Never have dealt with that before. But saw a few fly out there this week. And I'm like, I don't think that's supposed to be a thing.

So perks have been in fairness though Hunter you got to remember You know you are the nerd of this podcast says the guy who's a pro wrestling fan But Bruce Wayne's afraid of bats He doesn't scare him so you got to face your fears and you got to go scare those bats away Well to crawl up into where they are under the fascia which is kind of under the roof You have to be like almost like an aunt so I'm just going to be like Perfect job for me exactly you're like five foot nothing you could be you could pass her photo Baggins from Lord of the Rings, but that's okay.

I'm going to be like Ant Man, except I'll have my Batman suit on, and they can just swarm around me, and then I can just get them to leave and go to a cave. But hey, that's fun. Perks of being a homeowner seven months in, we got to drop a good chunk of change to get these things out of here. And that will happen in the next couple of weeks. But hey, it's why I'm glad we're doing a show today. Talk about some players that had some really good moments over the last 25 years, Pat. And let's start with the first player on this list.

Brian Rust, Mr. Game 7 of the 2010s. Two goals against the Tampa Bay Lightning in Game 7, 2016, including the game winner. That one, a little bit of a squeaker past Andre Vasilevsky. The first one, what a rocket of a shot. That was absolutely beautiful stuff. And then, remember back, 2017, Game 7 against the Capitals. He gets the goal to open the scoring for the Penguins before they eventually won that game

to nothing. So Mr. Game 7 right there, just two awesome moments. Hell, not even two, three, just because he has three goals. Three goals in four total game sevens throughout his career. Easy one to start with considering how big those goals were for the Penguins. Right. And a fun thing about that is when you go back and you watch the 2016 Stanley Cup DVD, whatever we're calling it these days, that's me showing my age that I'm saying DVD, holy crap.

but he recalls that game and he says, I can't remember who it was that said it to him, but someone was like, you know, you just became a Pittsburgh legend, right? You scored two game seven goals to send us to the Stanley Cup final. And that was,

I don't want to say that's where the legend of Brian Rust was born or when he really jumped onto the scene, it's probably hard to quantify when Brian Rust became who he is now. That's kind of been a gradual build over the, last almost decade with him. But it was when you really started to see the seeds being planted that he was more than just a bottom six player. He was going to be hopefully a pretty significant contributor to the penguin's success in

the foreseeable future. But like you said, the second goal, that's just good, hard work. He just stays with the play, season opening and puts it in the net. The first goal, just an absolute snipe by him. And yeah, Andre Vazelowski wasn't quite Andre Vazelowski yet, but the way he stepped in in that series, very similar to Brian Rust in the sense where you went, this might be a guy here in the near future.

And sure enough, he's one of the top five goalies in the National Hockey League right now. 100%. I mean, I remember when he came in for Ben Bishop. And I still remember Pat watching that game when he got hurt. And you could hear the scream so loud it came like right through the TV. I can't even imagine how it must have been in the, arena like that injury was really brutal to see and remember being like who the heck is the backup we all quickly found out who andre vasilevsky was i'm like yeah i think this guy definitely has a future

in the nchl considering how good he played in that series still would have been awesome to see bishop play that entire series because he was having a tremendous season for the lightning but vaselowski was also real good coming in relief for him but yeah just great shot by russ to open this morning gets the a little bit of a garbage goal for the game winner and then as we mentioned for the game in Washington a game that it felt like a lot of people were not picking the penguins who win just because of how the previous two

games win but penguins were still the Capitals daddy at that point until you know they beat them when it mattered penguins were the favor and then obviously that changed in 2018 but there you go like

the penguins best players in their heroes especially Brian Russ stepped up when it mattered in that game. And that's what mattered, obviously. Next up on the list, Jordan Stahl, his shorthand goal against Detroit, 2009, game four to tie up the series at home. I mentioned this a couple of weeks ago where the series going into game four was going exactly the way it did in 2008.

That wings went to the first two games of the jokes. The Penguins could barely win there. Penguins win game three. They cut that deficit in two games to one. but then you don't want history to repeat itself. You don't want to go down 3 to 1 against this Red Wings scene because if you do, it's curtains. You saw what happened in 2008.

Well, Jordan Saul gets one of the biggest goals of that Stanley Cup run, probably the biggest goal outside of Max Talbot's winner in game seven in that series. The way that he was able to take the puck short-handed, go right around Brian Rolfowski, who I still think is one of the more underrated defensemen in NHL history, the way that he was able to do that power move, you know, go backhand, forehand to the stick side, past Chris Osgood, who was playing very deep in his net, just gorgeous stuff. And at that moment, and then right after with the Crosby goal, that was when I was still like,

okay, this was different. Like, I can see them actually pulling this one off because he doesn't score that. goal, Penguins probably lose that game. They probably don't win the Stanley Cup. Yeah. Yeah. I'm right there with you. And it's appropriate. We're bringing this one up today because not, I don't want to bring the mood down, but stay with me. Yesterday was 16 years since my father passed away not long after the Penguins won the Stanley Cup in 2009. But when they were on that run in 2009, you know, me being a 17, 18 year old around that season and being the hockey fanatic that I was, my dad being the hockey coach and hockey fanatic and former

hockey journalist that he was, you know, we were battling during that run, you know, debating the penguins, debating hockey. And, you know, at one point, my mom banished the two of us to the basement to watch certain games because we wouldn't shut the hell up. But I remember that was a moment where him and I were hand in hand because Stahl scores that goal. They go on to win the game. And I say to him, they've got a legit shot now because the Detroit Red Wings, especially those Detroit Red Wings, did not give up short-handed goals. No.

They were almost automatic on the power play. Forget giving up short-handed goals. They were either going to score on you on the power play or at the very least, they were going to hem you in for two minutes and run you ragged. So them being able to score that goal, stall scoring that goal specifically, that was the first moment both him and I went, this is different. Like they may not win the Stanley Cup,

but they are closer than they were last year. This is a team that is meeting the moment. This is a team that is not scared of the spotlight like they were last year. and I know that you and I try to be analytical. We try to be rational, but that is a moment where momentum was a real thing because he scored that goal in Mellon Arena was deafening. And for the rest of that game,

the momentum from the fans, the momentum from the building really pushed that team to win the game. And yeah, they go on to game five and get absolutely, smacked around, but we know how it ended. But without that goal from Jordan Stahl, I really doubt they win the Stanley Cup in 2009. They probably don't even win that game in game four,

to be honest. They probably go down three games to one. And who knows that series may end in five games, because up until that point, Pat, they could hardly ever win at the Joe. Like it was kind of a house of horrors for them in these two playoff runs where a win there, very rare for penguins.

They obviously had that, Socorah game winner, which was awesome. But you know, you lose games one and two at the Joe in 08. You lose games one and two in 2009. Just history was not really on your side there. You probably needed another miracle if you were to lose game four and then going into game five. But hey, I guess we'll never know. The Penguins won that series in seven games.

That's what matters at the end of the day. But still, massive goal from Jordan Stahl. And I know he's been gone a long time. I'll still always have great memories of Jordan Stahl. growing up as a kid. I'll never blame him for wanting to go play with his brother. The Penguins offered him a big contract. He said,

hey, I appreciate it, but I want to go play with my brother. So he signed a long contract in Carolina. He's going to retire there. His family's there. I wish him not thinking about the best. It's been a while.

And while he's not a true number one guy, he's definitely better than a third line center. And if he remained a penguin for the majority of his career, he was never going to crack into the top six, save for injury. So totally understand, along with the family stuff, why he wanted to move on. Yeah, I don't think he'd ever get into the top six full time unless they somehow, you know, move someone like Gino, but that was never going to happen regardless. He was always going to retire a member. The Penguins, same for Sid. So he would have just been a third line senator here. And hey, I get it.

He wants to go pay with his brother, gets a long contract in Carolina. I'll never not fault him for that. But that would do it for this first segment. Coming up in the second segment, we're going to continue this list with three other awesome moments from the last 25 years. That's coming up right after this. Before we get to that, though, we have to tell you all about our first sponsor, and that is game time. We have all been there logging on early and waiting forever for concert tickets to go on sale, only to lose your spot for a show you've been dying to see. Live music should be about making memories, not dealing with the stretch of ticket shopping.

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take the guestwork out of buying tickets and show tickets with game time down the game time app create account and use code locked on NHL for $20 off your first purchase terms of apply again crane account and redeem code locked on NHL for $20 off down the game time app today last minute tickets lowest price guaranteed all right we're back here on this episode of the locked on penguins podcast I'm one of your host under hodies joined by my co-host patry dam and pat number three on this list in terms of the top five moments, guys. Chris Kunitz, game seven against Ottawa, effectively ended the Senators franchise for almost the next decade.

I have to at least joke about that a little bit because it's just fun to talk about. No disrespect to our locked on Senators faithful, who do a really good job with their show and all the Ottawa Senators fans out there. But, you know, gets the first goal of the game. You have Justin Schultz with an amazing celebration. I felt like at that time, oh, this is the game winner.

pat they never blow leads that late in the third period i'm celebrating like hey he's going to have the game winner and then eric carlson does his thing and he was absolutely tremendous throughout that entire playoff run played on one leg that whole time i think if the senators had won the stanley cup that year he easily would have gotten the con smite would not have been close but chris kunitz is the hero in double overtime with the kind of knuckle puck that went past craig anderson what a celebration that was actually my wallpaper during the part of my time in college. I changed that several years later. But one of my favorite Chris Kuhnitz moments out of so many during his Penguins tenure. It's funny, you know a moment I actually just saw

on my Instagram a couple days ago? Do you remember his big hit on Kimo Teeminen when the Flyers faithful just got up out of their seat? They were just like, what the hell was that? Probably one of the biggest hits I've ever seen while watching a game. So I wanted to bring that up as well. But when you needed a hero, I know this was towards the late stages of Kunitz's career. But when they needed him the most he was there and you know always hear it pat fresh from the benches crosbie and then doc takes it away and i know that a lot of penguins fans have soured on him since he's moved on on with mike sullivan but this at the time you know this is obviously only his second season as the penguins head coach at the time and it showed what a good pulse that he had on the team because

Because if you look back on that 2017 run, I don't want to say that Chris Kunitz was a liability, but he was certainly a shell of his former self. He was not the guy who won the Stanley Cup with them in 2009. Hell, he was barely the guy that played in 2016. He was really coming up towards the end of his career. But he knew Sullivan, that is, that the guy still has something to offer this group. He is still going to be a part of this team's success. And yeah, that's a bit of a knuckle puck goal by Kunitz.

But that was the chemistry he had developed with Sid. As soon as he saw Sid go behind the net and then cut back, he knew exactly where to be. And it was right in that soft spot, right in that no man's land in the top of the slot. And what do you know, Crosby puts it right on a platter for him. and seemingly against all odds,

the Penguins go back to the Stanley Cup final for the second straight year against an Ottawa team that gave them every bit they could handle for seven games. It's funny. I remember going into that series. I'm like, I feel like this is going to be the quote unquote easiest

of the series so far. I was way wrong on that one. It was just a completely different style that the penguins were going up against. You could tell they were getting really frustrated in the early part of that series, especially at home, where they were just not generating much of anything.

And the adjustments that Mike Sullivan was able to make after the Penguins went down two to one to the senators in that series were really good. The way they were able to actually generate offense, the way they were able to get past the trap that the senators were setting in their own zone was really good. So it was just a good showing of the adjustments that Mike Sullivan was able to make

at that point during his penguin's tenure. Next up on the list are top five moments, guys. Nick Benino, 2016, Game 6, the game winner over the Washington Capitals, the game that probably should not have went to overtime. Let's be real here. Too many self-inflicted wounds in the third period where I wanted to grab my hair and just pull it out with all these stupid delay of game penalties. And everyone in the arena I could see was just like,

what in the hell is going on? but in the end it didn't matter the penguins were able to win that game thanks to nick minino and pat originally because my memory apparently was almost fading i was like oh wait this was the benino benino benino call but no that was the game one against the sharks that was the nick benito benito call from the hockey night in punjabi team which they were at the stanley cup parade later on that year they were able to do the benino benino benino thing for all the penguins fans at the parade fantastic they all did such a great job throughout that run.

I believe the play-by-play commentator who was on that team is now doing a lot more other games for Sportsnet on their main team. Not the Punjabi team. He does stuff for the main team now, which is awesome. He's a great play-by-play announcer. But still, what a moment for Nick Benino and that one. Big redemption, too, for him. Yeah. Like you said, the third period, they took all those delay of game penalties.

And Beninos was kind of a fluke where. He just kind of batted a puck out of midair and it just hit the right exact angle to go out of play. And he was one of the people who was penalized. So big redemption for him. And like you said, that game, that was maybe the truest 50-50 game between those two teams in that run of all three years where there was really no clear advantage. It was 51, 49, 50-50, you name it. because both teams were just heavyweights throwing haymakers for three straight series. And my favorite thing about this goal,

and I don't know if anybody who was working for game operations during that series, if you listen to this show, you know where to find us. I won't burn a source. Did you guys blare the siren louder than normal? because I think you did. Because every time I watch that goal back and I hear them hit the siren a second time, I'm like, you know what?

That's louder than it normally is. And I love that kind of petty when it comes to a rival. So if you did that, it can Saul Energy Center at the time, feel free to reach out to us and let us know because I think you did. I think so too. The siren man, oh, I, even outside of that, just whenever they play this is different whenever they play

the Jam Siren at PBG Paine's Arena it's just so nostalgic like just keep playing that they do it during all the big moments in the third period keep that up especially when we get more big moments in PBG in future years not going to have it this year probably

also probably not next year but a little further down the line keep bringing that in I love the Jamest Iron I had to go on a little bit of a tangent about that Pat I'm sorry but No, I get it. Go ahead. No, no, I'm agreeing with it.

It's such a great thing. It's so fun. It's so nostalgic. I hope when this team is back in the postseason, we get more of those moments because, God, are they fun. Absolutely. I agree. But rounding out this top five before we move on to Fan Take Friday for the final segment, Patrick Hornquist, Game 6, 2017, Stanley Cup winning goal over the National Predators,

where he just banks it off Pecoranay and then just a textbook. Patrick Hornquist type goal. I still kind of wonder to this day if that game had gone to overtime or the ref had not blown that call like as let's be real. The Penguins got a little bit lucky with that.

If the Penguins had lost that, if that game had gone to overtime, would they have still won that game? Again, I guess we'll never know. But Patrick Hornquist, game winner when you needed him the most against his former team. Come on, man.

you really can't make it up. And then his best friend, Carl Hagelin, gets the empty netter to seal that win and the penguins back to back Stanley Cups. Just amazing. But that goal was textbook Patrick Hornquist. It was everything Patrick Hornquist ever was. It was right at the net front, side of the net,

you name it, but he's crashing the cage. And my favorite thing about it is when they were getting ready to wrap the game up, when they're trying to defend the lead and not give up a goal to get a, have it tied. Sullivan wanted to put Hornquist out there and he basically looked at Sullivan was like, no, I can't. Like I'm way too overwhelmed for what just happened. I'm not going to be able to play. I'm not going to be useful. And like, how could you not be? You just scored what is a potential Stanley Cup winning goal against the team that made you Mr. Irrelevant as the last pick in the draft. And again, just the perfect Patrick Hornquist moment stepped up when you needed to.

and underrated part of Patrick Hornquist in those two Stanley Cup runs. Yeah, he gets all the accolades for being the energy guy, for being the guy who everybody said, I'm pretty sure he shows up to the rink screaming. But in both of those runs, 16 and 17, just a highlight reel of clutch goals or big goals, when you needed someone to step up in those runs, more often than not, it was Patrick Hornquist.

100%. I mean, you go back to even 2016, for example, game for it against Capitals. Remember, Pat, Chris LaTang was suspended for that game. And I was really nervous because I'm like, without the way that, the way that Le Tang is playing, I don't know if they're going to be able to,

you know, fill his shoes even for one game, just because he was playing at such an elite level that season. But the overtime winner literally came out of nowhere off a broken. in play honestly it was it was the puck went right to him off of a capital player stick and he just made no no mistake again he was so clutch throughout both of those runs and just it was for jim brother to make that trade it was the how do how do you describe it the perfect trade at the perfect time to really have it be like a trend center for the organization kind of also like a reset like you're

getting out james neil who during his prime of the penguins was a very very really good goal score. You'll bring in a different player who he can still score, but he can be a bit more of a rad. He can energize the locker room. He's great both on and off the ice. It was everything the penguin is needed in a, like a type of trade that maybe shakes up the room. It did and it made the culture what it needed to be. And I'll say this. A lot of people point to the Chicago game a couple years ago as the reason why everything in the NHL has changed and the Florida Panthers are now the mini dynasty that they're putting together. But I will ask you this, Hunter, and I know you know the answer.

Bill Zito took over his general manager for the Florida Panthers. What was the first move he made? Hornquist for Matheson. He traded for Patrick Hornquist. The guy knows how to reset a culture and make the team better. And I know people will say, oh, it's just an energy guy like Patrick Hornquist. No, no. That man sets a.

culture and people follow it. And he was a big part of the foundation. Florida Panthers becoming what they are now. And he was a huge part of the penguins becoming Stanley Cup champions. 100%. So that wraps up this part of our top 25. We have two more parts to get to Pat over the next couple of weeks. Next week we're going to do the top five of the Stanley Cup wins.

Really looking forward to that. And then the week after to round this up, the top five of the last 25 years overall, you guys probably have a good idea of who is in that top five. It's very easy to guess, but we're going to get to that in a couple of weeks. But next week, people, we got the top five of the Stanley Cup wins. But that'll do it for this second segment coming up to end the show. It's Friday. Gends know what that means.

Fan take Friday, we're going to get to your takes, your questions, right after this. However, before we get to that, we have to tell you all about our first or second sponsor, that is, and that is Fandle. August 26th is officially Fandul Futures Day, a brand new holiday for football fans who live for bowl predictions and preseason hunches. For just 24 hours, Fandle is giving new deals on NFL season predictions. So whether you are calling your MVP, eyeing a long-shot division winner,

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the Super Bowl this year, you can do that as well. Or you can even parlay your division winner dark horses. Visit the Fandle app today and start planning your futures bets right now, because Futures Day is one day in one day only. That is Fandle, play your game. All right, we're back here on this episode of the Lockdown Penguins podcast. I'm one of your host, Hunter Hodes, joined by my co-host, Patronamp, this first one comes from Penns fan 0082 who asks,

do you think the Penguins will ever do a wee brand? Maybe at some point down the line, I think that's a long-term question. Right now, there is no reason to do it. I love the colors that they have right now. The jerseys they have are awesome. The home and away jerseys right now are beautiful. I still think there's some rumor

that they might get a new third jersey at some point this season. There have been a couple of rumors connecting it to be, a throwback version pat of a different robo penguin. I'm not sure if that's fully confirmed, but we'll have to see. But they're home and away jerseys, one of the best in the league. So I don't think a rebrand is coming anytime soon, long term, potentially, but there is no need to do it. I love these jerseys.

It's entirely possible. I mean, every team does it for the most part, save for original six teams who just kind of tweak and change what they have. But I'm with you. I mean, the current setup is perfect. Like the skating penguin logo with the golden triangle, it doesn't get any better than that. I know I'm not a fan of the robo penguin. I know some people are, but like, it's such a perfect.

What they have now is just perfect. Like those are the two best jerseys in the team's history. I know that they won in 09 in those weird Vegas gold jerseys. But I mean, but. But in the history, though, they've had some really good jerseys even before. They had the Vegas gold I don't like. The Vegas gold was a mistake, but that was that weird Reebok edge era where everybody was doing weird rebrands. I don't hate the diagonal Pittsburgh as much as some do.

I know it's a rip off of the Rangers. I actually didn't hate their early 2020s, late 2010s gold that they had that they wore for a little bit. The thing I didn't like about them, though, was like using the skating penguin without the golden triangle. Like, I don't know why you would do that. It's weird. But yeah, I mean, long term, like, it's entirely possible, but I don't see them doing a rebrand anytime in the near future. I hate saying this, those jerseys you just talked about, though, they look like P. Like, I'm sorry, they look like P.

So I just, I did not really like this. I mean, they go with them at home games for the playoffs. And I'm like, we don't need to be doing this right now, guys. Just switch back to the regular home jerseys. The problem with the problem with that is though, I look at it this way, is their yellow, gold, whatever you want to describe it as that they have. It's really difficult to do a primary yellow gold jersey without it looking like a disaster. And that's probably the best they were going to get with a primary gold jersey. Right.

That's fair. Again, I just like when they wore those alternate ones, I believe that was that. series against the Islanders. Yes, that was the one. They wore those for the home games. I'm just like, we, we don't need this. You don't need to be different for the sake of being different. Just go back to what works. We don't need, thankfully they did. I just like, it was just so ugly to look at. So I don't want to spend too much more on it. They were just ugly. This one, this next one comes from Theodore Belmont. How long do you think Chris Letang will play? His game really stunk last season after the all-star break. His game definitely did go downhill.

after the Alls break, his game was going down to know throughout the entire season, in my opinion. I think he's going to try everything in his power to finish out this entire contract with the Penguins. Whether he does, that is to be determined. I think at least the next couple of years he is going to play. After that, we'll see. I'm not fully sure he is going to finish this entire contract with them. But I think at the very least this year and I think next year as well, so I would go at least two more seasons. This year is going to be a massive indicator.

for how much longer he's going to play. I know hot take by me, but I said it on a show earlier this week. I want to see how he changes and adapts his game because you can see that he doesn't have the foot speed that he once did, but you can still see a lot of the raw talent is still there. He just has to find a way to adjust.

If he can make some tweaks and changes here, because of the kind of shape he keeps himself in, I can see him finishing out the contract. Is he going to be prime Chris La Tang? Absolutely not. But can he be a useful, valuable defenseman for the majority of the contract? If he adjusts the right way, I absolutely can see that being the case. Health with health being a major question mark because we know the ringer he has been put through both injury-wise and just straight up health-wise.

So we'll see what happens with all of that. But again, I want to see how he changes and adapts his game this season. And that to me will be the biggest indicator of how much longer he can play in the NH. That's fair. Again, at least this season, maybe he'll have a decision to make after this year, even though he'll be under contract with Penguins. But I'm going to go out on limb, say at least two more seasons after that, to be determined. But that's my answer on that.

A couple more to get two years before we wrap up today. this one, what are your guys' expectations for this season with a new coaching staff and how will the team finish in the standing? So if you're talking about in terms of Metro division, anywhere between fifth to eighth is probably what I'm looking at right now. You look at the top of the Metro, Carolina, New Jersey, I think you're the two best teams in this division right now. I would put Washington at third. I think the capitals are going to have to be a playoff team. I don't think they're going to be a serious contender. after that.

Fourth, maybe the Rangers, blue jackets, TV on the Blue Jackets, though, but I probably put the Blue Jackets in the Rangers right there. And then, you know, Islanders, Flyers, Penguins somewhere down there. But I would say fifth to eighth in the Metro, if you're talking overall standings, I would say bottom six to 12 in the league.

I think there's a path to them being mid, as the kids like to say, but I think a lot of things have to go right. goal attending has to be a bit better. They can't be as bad as we think they're going to be defensively. They got to get all the depth scoring and all that. We have to still have to see if they make any more trades. New coaching staff, though, I still want to see how these guys develop some of these younger players.

I want to see how Damues does with Barker McGorri, Dillac Gleik-Glovenin, some of these other young players that are going to be pushing for spots, Philip Hollander. I want to see how a player like Tommy Novak does in Musis' system just because we've really got to see him last year. So, you know, I'm excited for the fresh. innovative ideas. And then again, as for the standings, somewhere for Metro in that fifth to eighth range, if they could tell four, I'd be pleasantly surprised.

Yeah, it's about where I'm at. And I would say my expectation for this season is no expectation. Yeah, I don't want to pretend like there are going to be some sleeper candidate that goes on a run and surprises everybody. I also don't want to get people's hopes up that they're going to tank and get Gavin McKenna next summer. But I look at this team and my main expectation or I guess wish for this team going into next season, put on the lab coat, get out the big goggles and be a mad scientist, Dan Mews.

Try everything. You're not a Stanley Cup contender. You're probably not a playoff contender, a very, very long shot of making the playoffs. Try everything. from line combinations to putting players in certain positions to experimenting with the goal tending just try whatever you want because you need in the near too far term you need to find out how good these young guys are and you need to see what you still have left with this veteran core and throw everything at the wall see what sticks and then once this team starts

to develop some of its prospects. And once you see how much these older guys got left in the tank, then you start applying that in two years when you hope this team is going to be a little bit more competitive. And when you hope you have a top prospect to look forward to it, when I mean a top prospect pack, I mean like a potential franchise changer that could be on your team for years to come. But still, we have to see if they're able to get that player over the next couple of years.

last one this comes from Ben on YouTube he goes I know this is last week's post but why are our big names like Elliot Freeman still talking about said like he is going somewhere heard on 32 thoughts when they did their summer update it just keeps circulating he wants to be traded and all this stuff even though he has never said that why do people think this is going to change Ben people are bored like they want clicks people are bored they're talking about it when there's no need to talk about it I don't want to waste any more time on it than we already have it's a non-story he's not going anywhere and yeah that's all I really have to say on it. So it's the off season. I mean, look at us right now. We're doing fan take Friday in the top 25 of the 2000s. Like the content beast demands fed. And nothing is going to get you better clickbait than Crosby's miserable. Crosby wants out.

Crosby's going to be traded. Again, I wrote about this a few weeks ago. I'll say it here. Is there a possibility it could happen? Yeah. There's a possibility. anything could happen. But at the end of the day, I look at it this way.

And this is obviously the end of it for us, because we're not going to spend too much time on it. The Penguins traded Jake Gensel before Crosby signed an extension. If there was no better sign that they were going into a rebuild, it was trading Jake Gensel. If Crosby didn't want to be around for that, he had every opportunity to not extend with the team and ask to go elsewhere, or just walk to free agency.

He did neither thing he extended with the team. That's it. People got to get over it. But again, people just need their clicks. They need their talk because they're bored. I don't want to spend any more time on it. And Sid will also get very mad at you if you even try asking about it. But that is literally true, by the way.

He will start getting pissed off. So I hope no one asks about it this year because it'll be ridiculous. But I think that'll do it. Actually, though, Pat, one more thing. Congratulations to Susie Cool, who's the penguin's new in-game arena host taking over for Jaden Becker. Pat, you know her personally a little bit. You worked with her. I'm going to hand this over to you just to end the show.

Susie rules. I can't overstate it. I worked with her for a season when I was with the nailers. She was one of our part-time in arena hosts crushed it, absolutely crushed it. She's done play-by-play for minor league baseball. She's done all kinds of other media, including she had a streaming show with KDK TV about the Steelers, Every Blade of Grass with Cool and Cass. Awesome show.

Her and Cassidy would do a hell of a job on that. She's going to do a phenomenal, phenomenal job as the Penguins in Arena host. So congratulations to her. I don't want to say a good friend of mine, but we are friends. So congrats to my pal Suz. Happy for you. looking forward to seeing you do your thing at PPG this season. And just like how we had Jaden on the show,

we're going to have to get Susie on the show at some point as well. But that'll do it for today's episode of the Lockdown Penguins podcast. Thank you all so much for take the time to listen to slash watch this one. I know we went a bit long today, but we just had quite a bit to say when it came to our top 25 and then fan take Friday, of course. But again, that'll do it for this one. Thank you guys so much for tuning in. We hope you guys have a wonderful weekend.

We'll talk with you all again on Monday. day.