Locked On Penguins - Daily Podcast On The Pittsburgh Penguins - Penguins will need some help with a win tonight against the Preds

Episode Date: April 15, 2024

The Pittsburgh Penguins lost their chance to control their own destiny on Saturday and they'll now need to win out, plus get some help if they want to make the playoffs. They discuss the standings as they stand right now and who Penguins fans will have to be rooting for outside of the Penguins tonight. They also discuss how this game against the Predators is a must-win if they want to keep their season going. After that, they recap Saturday's loss to the Bruins and how the Penguins got let down by their goaltending and their play in their own zone. They detail which goals Nedeljkovic would want back and how he was gassed in this game before breaking down how 58 and 65 had rough games. They then break down how great Drew O'Connor was as he continues to mature into a great top 9 player before they preview tonight's massive game against the Predators. Support Us By Supporting Our Sponsors!Monopoly GO!Get in the game and join your friends. Download MONOPOLY GO! now free on The App Store or Google Pay. The mobile hit twist on classic MONOPOLY.eBay MotorsFor parts that fit, head to eBay Motors and look for the green check. Stay in the game with eBay Guaranteed Fit at eBayMotos.com. Let’s ride. eBay Guaranteed Fit only available to US customers. Eligible items only. Exclusions apply.PolicygeniusCheck life insurance off your to do list in no time with Policygenius. Head to policygenius.com/lockedonnhl to get your free life insurance quotes and see how much you could save.SleeperDownload the Sleeper App and use promo code LOCKEDONNHL to get up to a $100 match on your first deposit. Terms and conditions apply. See Sleeper’s Terms of Use for details.GametimeDownload the Gametime app, create an account, and use code LOCKEDONNHL for $20 off your first purchase.FanDuelFanDuel, America’s Number One Sportsbook. Right now, NEW customers get ONE HUNDRED AND FIFTY DOLLARS in BONUS BETS with any winning GUARENTEED That’s A HUNDRED AND FIFTY BUCKS – win or lose! Visit FanDuel.com/LOCKEDON to get started. 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.

Well, the penguins no longer control their own destiny, but here we go. You're Locked-on Penguin, your daily podcast on the Pittsburgh Penguins, part of the Locked-on Podcast Network, your team every day. Hello, welcome back to another episode of the Locked-on Penguins podcast. I am one of your hosts, Hunter Hodes. You can follow me on Twitter at Hunter Hodes. Join him on my host, Patrick Damp. You can follow him on Twitter at Cinderfrew Wet, and you can

follow the show's Twitter at L.O. underscore penguins. Of course, thank you all so much for making this your first lesson slash watch of the day. We are freely available on all platforms. And finally, today's episode is brought to you by Sleeper.

Dialed the Sleeper app and use promo code locked on NHL to get up to a $100 match on your first deposit. Terms and conditions apply. See Sleepers. Terms of use for details. And by the way, I hope everyone enjoyed that new intro music

for the show. Today is the first day of using. it and I think it's pretty solid to say at least. It still has that rock feel that I really want the intro to have for our show. Yeah, it took us a couple weeks to pick that one, a lot of back and forth between me and you on picking which song to change up the intro for. But end of the day, we settled on a solid one. I think so. It's also pretty clean, pretty fresh overall, but enough about the intro. Let's dive into the playoff race because the penguins, as I teach to start the show, they no longer control their own destiny. You look at the standing

right now. The Washington Capitals have the final playoffs behind the Eastern Conference at 87 points, but they are tied with the Detroit Red Wings at 87 and the Philadelphia Flyers, though both teams have a game in hand on the Flyers, as do the Penguins, and then the Penguins are at 86 points with 80 games played 37, 31, and 12. For the Penguins, it's quite simple at this point. You have to win your final two games and get a little bit of help. Now, what help is that? You've got to have the Red Wings lose one of the final two games,

the Montreal Canadians, and you've got to have the Washington Capitol to lose one of their final two games to A, the Boston Ruins, or B, the Philadelphia Flyers. If both those things happen, and the Penguins win out, they are in the playoffs at the end of this week. Well, here's the big thing. You already said it. They have to win their final two games. If they lose any of their final two games, either of their final two games, it's over. And it's never been more over. And tonight is quite literally a must win for the penguins because thanks to our friends at Moneypuck who do a tremendous job tracking the playoff odds, they have it set up for tonight. A win in any fashion, regulation or overtime bumps the penguins playoff chances up to 41.7%. If they go to overtime,

get a point and lose their playoff odds don't really change. They stay pretty much stagnant. They go to 23.2 down from 23.7. So not much of a change should they lose. in overtime. If they lose in regulation fail to get any points at all, their playoff hopes fall to 0%. So if they lose in regulation tonight, it's over, it's done, and then the game on the island is meaningless. So they have to get at the very least a point tonight to stay somewhat alive. And if they get two points tonight in regulation or in overtime, they are very much still alive. Agreed.

And this game really isn't going to have that much meaning for the predators. I mean, they do need a point to clinch that top loud card spot in the Western Conference. I don't expect them to sit a lot of their top players. I still think they're going to play just because they have that to play for. But I still don't know if they're going to obviously play as hard as the Penguins will have to in this game. The Penguins are going to have to show their most desperation that they've had all year, if they want to win this game overall. Yeah, we're going to recap or preview the game here at the end of the show.

But the main thing for the penguins tonight, more so the Predators, is that they're pretty much locked in to playing probably Vancouver in the first round. And this is their last game of the season tonight. This is game 82 for the Predators. And by the sound of it, if they rest guys tonight, they are going to have guys going on, maybe a week of rest going into the first round, going into game one of their first round series, especially if it's Vancouver.

So I don't expect them to sit a lot of guys, mainly because they want to clinch that first wild card spot in the West. And they don't want to have that much time between games for some of their big guns. So I would be genuinely shocked tonight if they were sitting guys for rest going into the playoffs. because they have clinched a spot. There's no world where they fall out of the playoffs. They are in there.

It's just a matter of who they're going to play. So if I'm Andrew Burnett, I'm playing my guys tonight just to get them one more piece of game action before the playoffs start. If Vegas had lost in any fashion yesterday, this game would have no meaning for the predators because they would have clinched the top wildcars spot in the Western Conference. And Vegas was down 3-0.

Heading into the third period, Colorado was all over them, but then they just mounted that massive comeback. They scored the tying goal with less than five minutes to play. They win the game in overtime. So now this game does still have at least a little bit of meaning for the Predators. But we'll talk about that later on in the show when we preview this whole game for the Penguins and the Predators. Outside of that for this race, I hate saying it, but Penguins fans, you probably will want to root for the New York Islanders tonight. Because if they win, they not only clinch a playoff spot, but they clinch third place in the Metro and will play one of the Rangers

or the hurricanes in the first round. And what else does this mean? They'll have nothing to play for on Wednesday at home against the penguins, and they may actually rest some players in that game, even though it might have a lot of meaning for the penguins if they're still alive heading into that game. So I wanted to throw that out there for fans as well. Also for the Red Wings, if you look at the odds for Money Puck,

if they lose to the habs and regulation, you know what their odds go down to, Pat? A goose egg, zero percent, to make the playoffs. if the capitals lose in regulation to the Bruins, their odds go down to 10.9%. These are all must wins for these teams, but just wanted to throw all the out there, and I'll, of course, hand it over to you. I think the biggest game to scoreboard watch for us Penguins fans tonight is Bruins and capitals just because the Bruins still have something to play for. They can move closer to winning the Atlantic Division with two points tonight.

Yes, the capitals are still fighting for their playoff lives. They're in the same exact position as the Penguins as to where they have to win their final two games in order to get into the playoffs and losses pretty much put them back to maybe not being dead like it will for the penguins, but it puts them very much out of the driver's seat like they are now. And you look at the Atlantic Division right now, that is a very tough division. And if I'm the Bruins, I actually do want to get that top spot. bot in the Atlantic because that would set you up with Tampa Bay, who they match up very, very well against. And I know this is going to sound crazy to say,

considering how much they have tortured the Toronto Maple Leafs over the past 15 years. But at this point, the way, in my, and this is my opinion, you can tell me I'm wrong. I've been wrong plenty of times. I'm going to be wrong plenty more times. But I don't like the matchup totally this year for Boston against Toronto. I think Toronto is a bit of a deeper team.

I think Toronto is set up to actually play the kind of hockey that Boston is going to want to play against them. Now, I think Boston still has that nasty edge. They're always going to have that. That's just in their DNA. But I've been saying it about Toronto all season. They went out and got guys who play playoff hockey. They're not going to jump off off the page at you in the regular season. But when we get that playoff rule book, that's when those guys are going to start cooking.

So if I'm Boston, I want to beat the Capitals tonight and move a step closer to winning the Atlantic so I can take on a team like Tampa. I hear you, but I'm still not going to take Toronto to beat Boston and so Toronto actually does it. Because I've seen that movie so many times before, it's a classic if you want to call it that. But yeah, I'm not picking Toronto to beat Boston until they actually do it. I don't know if I would say that like Toronto could beat them, but I think it would be a much hard. harder series for Boston than they want to admit. But at the same time, you would rather be top of your division, home ice in the first round, and hopefully home ice into the second round.

So if I'm Boston, I have a lot more a play for tonight because then you look at the Montreal Detroit game. Montreal's got nothing to play for, nothing whatsoever. Their only motivation could be to play spoiler. And even that, it's not. that great of a motivation. In Detroit, even after losing to the penguins in OT, they look like they're starting to get back to where they were around the middle of the season when they were kind of looking

like they were going to make the playoffs again. So that's going to be a very, very difficult one to watch if you're a penguins fan, get your antacids ready and get ready for indigestion because that one's going to be a very tough watch if you're a penguins fan. So if nothing else, you want to root for the Bruins tonight. you want to root for the islanders tonight. And yes, you want to root for Montreal, but that one might be more disappointing than you're willing to admit.

It's funny. The Red Wings were in a pretty similar situation to where the Penguins were in last year, right? The Penguins, all they had to do was beat a couple of bad teams to make the playoffs. Now the Red Wings just have to beat a bad team twice to really get in because I just don't really think Washington is going to go four for four over these next two games points-wise. But hey, you know, crazy things have happened overall. But I think that would do it for. this opening segment coming up in the second segment, Pat and I are going to recap that

disappointing 6-4 loss to the Boston ruins before previewing tonight's massive game against the Predators at home. But before we get to that, we got to tell you all about eBay Motors. Passion Drive and Patience, the formula for winning championships is also who keeps your ride or die alive. eBay Motors is everything you need to maintain your vehicle and level it up to peak performance, superchargers, roof racks, exhaust kits, LED headlights, and more. Whether you're into speed, power or style eBay Motors has got you covered with over 122 million parts for your number one ride or die, you'll always find exactly what you're looking for. And with eBay guaranteed fit, your part is guaranteed to fit your ride every time or you're getting your money back

because with eBay Motors, you're burning rubber, not cash. With all the parts you need at the prices you want, it's easy to make your car the MVP and bring home huge wins. Keep your ride or die alive at eBagmotors.com. Eligible items only. Exclusions apply. eBay Guarantees fit is only available to US customers. All right. We're back here on this episode of the Locktime Penguins podcast. I'm one of your host, Hunter Hodes. Join on my host, Patrick Dam.

So Bruin 6, Penguins 4, and a pretty disappointing loss overall. You knew they weren't going to be fully perfect down the stretch here. Losing and regulation just stings just because everyone around them won on Saturday, which obviously sucks overall. The first period I thought was evenly played between both teams, but the second and third, that's where the Penguins just really didn't get the goal tending that they needed to win this game.

You could tell Medelkovich was gasped by some of the goals he was giving up for example. I didn't like the Pavel Zaka goal, the Kevin Shattenkirk goal, way off his angle there. I need a save from Nadelcovich in that situation, especially after Brian Russ just scored to make it two to one. In that game, you give up a goal, excuse me, about a minute later, come on.

I need a timely save there from Ned, even though that's his 11th straight start. And then even after that, you get on the power play, and Brad Marchand, who has killed the Penguins throughout his career, gets a pretty easy, short-handed goal. I have no idea what that pass was into the corner,

and then everyone stopped playing defense, and then Jari, who comes in. I need to see a poke check there, man. I feel like he was way too passive his net there. And Marchand just said, okay, thank you very much. I'm just going to fire this five hole and make it four to one. And then, of course, the Penguins are able to score a few moments later in the power play. But it's like, yeah, if you didn't give up that shorthanded goal, it's potentially a different game.

But their goaltending and their play in their own zone really cost them in this one. And overall, I just hate the way the Penguins match up against the Bruins. I've hated it going back to the Claude Julian days. It doesn't matter if he's the head coach or if it's Bruce Cassidy or now that it's Jim Montgomery. The Penguins just never match up. well at the Bruins just because their structure gives the Penguins fits and you saw that again in this game. Yeah, there's a couple things you hit on all of them that I think led to the loss. I think A1 is goaltending. Alex Nadelcovich clearly gassed, did not play very well. I think

they waited a little too. I think Sullivan waited a little too long to pull them. And then Tristan Jari, man. I mean, you can, you, I agree that you can, you want to poke check there to get a save on Marchand, but at the same time, I mean, this is just something we've seen from him before in huge games where he makes a baffling decision with the puck. Now, yes, you can blame Eric Carlson, you can blame the power play. It's all extremely fair. But Tristan Jari has to be aware of the situation. He's got two guys coming back. and there's pressure coming from the Bruins. Leave it behind the net.

Because if nothing else, you get a contested puck behind the net. You have your support come all the way back into the defensive zone. And yeah, maybe you lose a lot of time on the power play, but he sends it up the wall where there's nobody to be found.

Now that you can blame on whatever forward it was that didn't come back to the zone in time on that rush or dump in, whatever you want to, however you want to describe it. Jari has to be more aware that there's nobody there. And that essentially is what kicked everything off

because he just made a baffling play with the puck. You know, that gave me flashbacks to the playoff round against the Islanders where he passed it right to the Islanders in overtime. But yeah, I mean, the Bruins have never been a good matchup for the Penguins, for whatever reason, whether it's structure,

whether it's system. It's just not a matchup that goes in the Penguins, in the Penguins way very much. And then at the same time, I liked the effort overall because Boston still is one of the best teams in the league. I thought the Penguins did play with a solid amount of desperation and played like they knew their season was on the line. They just got failed by goaltending. And I set it on the pod in the preview episode. I think it should have been Jari regardless.

I know he's cold. I know he hadn't played in a couple of weeks. but you could see it happening in the lead up to this game that Ned was starting to lose some steam. And I get it. It was another must-win game. He's won the net. But even if that's the case, when you're running on fumes, that's not going to lead to good outcomes. I hear you.

And I was fine with Indelkovich getting this start just because I knew this game was going to be bigger at the time in the Predators game. But I could tell after the second goal that, okay. I think it's only a matter of time before he allows another howler. And honestly, after they made it to nothing, that's when I would have pulled in Delkevich because that just wasn't a good goal to allow. I would have put Jari in before the Shattonkirk goal went in. And I'm not going to blame Jari for the Morgan Geeky goal. I didn't like the play from Riley Smith in his own zone.

And I tweeted this. I got a little bit of backlash where I wasn't dumping on the trade. for the return for the Riley Smith trade. I was just dumping on how Smith just hasn't been able to make a big play for the Penguins all year. And it's been really frustrating to watch overall. But I agree with your overall assessment. Goaltending really killed them in this game and the way they especially defended. I also thought they gave the Bruins way too much time and space in their own zone.

Press up a little bit. Take away that time and space. And for some reason, the Penguins weren't doing that. I didn't like the efforts from Chris LaTang or Eric Carlson in this game. I thought they were both pretty lousy in their own zone. And that's just not acceptable, Pat, with your season on the line. You need your best players to play like your best players. And both 58 and 65 in this game were not good enough.

No, they weren't. And real quick here, just saw this come in from West Crosby, who covers the Penguins for NHL.com. Alex Nadelcovich is the first goalie off at Morning Skate. looks like he will start tonight against the Preds. I hope he's not gas, man. I really hope he's not gassed. Yeah, that's the biggest thing here.

And I want to add to something you said, if he wasn't shooting cold that night, they gave David Posternock way too much time, way too much room. And if it wasn't for him being snake bit in that game, that could have been an eight four game because he had multiple grade A chances. And it's to what you said. They gave him way too.

much room and way too much respect. Now, he's one of the best goalscores in the National Hockey League and he's going to find a way to score, but you have to neutralize him in any way you can and giving him that much time and space as they did. They played with fire and didn't get burned, but if they play that game 10 times, nine of those, he's getting goals. Oh, agreed. And he also could not stay on his skates for whatever reason in that game. He was going down kind of easily quite a few times. That's all I'm really going to say on that. I'm not going to compare him to tin Stutzla or anything like that.

But it was a little weird seeing him just go down quite easily when he, there was a little bit of contact with him. Hey, I mean, I said that on the Carlson trip because while I get it, when an official sees a stick in the skates, he's going to call a trip. But with the cutback that Posternak made, it wasn't Carlson's stick that took him down. it was momentum. And it is the stuff of legend how bad the ice at PPG Paints Arena is. So I don't think it was Carlson that tripped him. Now, I get it. You're a ref in an NHL game. You see a stick near skates and a guy goes down. Your arm's going up. But in that moment,

I watched it and went, man, that wasn't Carlson tripping him. That was momentum taking him down and probably some not so great ice at PPG paints arena. Right. That one was soft. There was a couple other ones that I thought were also soft in that game overall. But hey, again, I digress. They lost the game. They lost their chance to control their own destiny, at least for right now, whatever. But I do want to hit on some positives from this game. The first one, Drew Connor, man, the way that he has matured throughout this season,

I will continue to say it, is nothing short of extraordinary. The pass that he had to Brian Rust to get the penguins going in that game to cut the deficit in half was awesome. And I love the way he also won the puck along the boards before getting that puck to Rust. And then the move on that short-handed breakaway, he dusted Brad Marchand and then goes top cheese past Linus Allmark, one of the best goaltenders in the league. I'm like, buddy, where has this been throughout your career? Just the way that he has played throughout this season has been awesome.

I knew that he was going to be a pretty sound player for the Penguins this year, but I didn't expect him to get close to 20 goals this season for this team. The kid's a player, man. There's no two ways about it. They've got something in him. He's 25 years old. He'll be 26 going into next season. And this is the exact kind of player that they're going to need if they want to take one more kick at the can in the next year or two.

I don't think you got to pay him a bunch of money. You don't got to lock him up to a long-term deal, but you got to keep him around for a couple more years because he's young. He's fast, and he's starting to show he's got a little bit of an offensive upside. I don't think he's going to be some perennial 25, 30 goal score, but he chips in what he does this year, 15 to 20, plays well in all three zones and is just an absolute puck hound. That's a guy you keep.

Oh, great, 100%. I also thought, Evgeny Malkin and Michael Bunting had pretty sound games as well. Bunting right in his area for, he originally had a goal, but it was then credited to Evgeny Malkin. He could have had a two-gold game in this one, but I guess the first one didn't go off his stick. But he's still right in his spot, net front, the greasy area. That's where you want him to go.

And then his other goal came for about 20 feet out, really nice shot overall, even though that was kind of garbage time at that point. But I again loved how that line operated in this game. Every time that line went out there, it felt like the Penguins were going to score. And I'm just really happy about that, heading into these final two games and into next season, when they were on the ice, the penguins had 59% of the shot attempts.

They also had almost 50-50 in terms of scoring chances. High danger was a little below 500, but they still had quite a few shot attempts, and they were in the offensive zone a lot in this game. I really liked that line overall yet again. Yeah, I keep saying it buntings everything this team needs, and that was the kind of game that he's built for, where you know that it's going to be tight checking, it's going to be a physical game, it's going to be a hard-nosed game,

And those are the games he's built for, and he passed with flying colors. I think it's something you and I have spoken about that one of their biggest offseason priorities this summer needs to be getting somebody for Malkin consistently. I think that's now that box has now been checked. Now you've got to find somebody to ride with him and bunting for next season, and you've got yourself the making of a pretty good second line. I don't know if it continues to be Ricard Raquel because he's been up and down. but at the same time, I like that pairing of those two together. They complement each other very well, and Michael Bunting is going to be worth his weight and gold moving forward.

100%. And one more thing I'll say about this game before we head into our final segment. I know a lot of people were really upset by this result. I understand just because they control their own destiny. Heading into this game, you win this one. You get the two points. You control your own destiny for the final two games. If you win, you're in.

That said, it's hard to be that upset. based on the way they've played throughout these last few weeks, they were going to screw up at some point. The Bruins are one of the best teams in the league. My problem lies with all of the multi-goal blown leads in the third period that they had prior to this amazing stretch over the last few weeks. If you don't blow those third period leads to Vegas, Buffalo, Calgary, Colorado, and Columbus, you are very comfortably in a playoff spot,

and you probably have already clinched your way into the playoffs, if not maybe even needing a win tonight to clinch your way in the playoffs. And that doesn't even go into other games that they should have easily won as well, like opening night against Chicago where you have a two-go lead. The game against Anaheim earlier in the season, when you had a five on three for basically the last minute and a half of the third period, and you still lose in regulation. It's those losses and those missed points that will leave the penguins out of the playoffs

if they don't get in, not those two points. against the Bruins against a really, really good team because in all honesty, that game against the Bruins probably shouldn't have mattered that much if they had just taken care of business in some of those other games that I just mentioned. So I just wanted to put that out there for everyone to end this segment. But overall, I think that'll do it for the second segment.

Coming up to end the show, Pat and I are going to preview this massive game against the Predators on Monday night and how the penguins can get a win in this one. But before we get to do that, we got to tell you all about Sleeper, the official daily fantasy app of the locked on NHL network. Sleeper is our number one choice for daily fantasy sports,

and especially daily fantasy hockey because with Sleeper, you can win 100 times your cash in daily fantasy hockey contest. You can do this by yourself, you can do this with your family. Heck, you can even do this with your significant other, and it's not even limited to just hockey. You can do NFL, NBA, MLB, and college football, all on Sleeper. All you have to do is pick weather studs like Connor McDavid, Sidney Crosby, Alex Ovechkin, Nathan McKinan, Nikita Kutrov will record more or less their stats.

Goals, assist, plus minus. You can throw saves in there if you want to throw goalies in. And to win a 100-time-times bet on Sleeper, you need to correctly predict the outcome of eight-player stats. You heard me, Penguins fans, you can win 100 times your money playing daily fantasy hockey with Sleeper, start paying attention, and nail your picks so you can start winning big. Use promo code locked on NHL, and you'll get up to a $100 match on your soccer. first deposit, terms and conditions apply. That's code locked on NHL, C-Sleepers, terms of use for details, and locational availability.

All right, we're back here on this episode of the Lockdown Penguins podcast. I'm one of your host, Hunter Hodes, join by my co-host Patrick Dam. So, Pat, it all comes down to this, my friend, you win in any fashion, you're still alive heading into Wednesday against Islanders, but if you lose in regulation, it is, in fact, over. I know we kind of said their season was over a few weeks ago. We're kind of looking like clowns, at least right now. but if they do lose this game in regulation of the Predators, it is in fact over, my friends. And to win this game,

they're going to have to shut down a couple of really talented players on the Predators. First and foremost, Philip Forsberg, 47 goals, 93 points in 81 games. He is one of the top goal scores in the NHL. I know when you look at this Predators lineup, you don't see a ton of speed and skill, but Forsberg is one of those players, a true game breaker in the NHTS.

Shale, you have to account for him every time is on the ice. Roman Yossi, one of the top defensemen in the NHL, 23 goals, 85 points, 81 games. By the way, 23 goals for a defenseman, that's kind of nuts overall. But he's one of the 10 best defensemen in this sport. I would probably argue that he is still top five, in my opinion. Gustav Nyquist, he's also been really solid for the Predators, 74 points, 80 games. Ryan O'Reilly has been a really seamless fit overall. Those are their four best players.

After that, you have Colton Sizzins, you have Evan Jalista, you have Tommy Novak, decent good depth players overall for the Predators. But it all starts with those first four. And then, of course, UCSarros and not assuming he gets the start, and I do think he's going to get the start. He's been a lot better as of late. Also has a 906 percentage for this season. This is still going to be a really tough game to win, despite the game not having as much

meaning to the Predators, but I hand this over to you. How do the Penguins get two huge points tonight? It starts with desperation. obviously we've talked about that for the last two weeks. They have to be the more desperate team. They have to play exactly as we've said, like their season is on the line because it very much is. But then you look at the Predators.

And yeah, obviously there's Nyquist and Forsberg who are two absolutely tremendous talents. Ryan O'Reilly continues to be one of the best two-way forwards with a scoring touch in the NHL. But this is a really well-balanced Nashville team. They've got 10 players with 10 or more goals. they've got 10 players with 20 or more points. So they have people who can get it done. They have players who can score from all around the lineup and produce all around the lineup. And I actually, I misspoke there.

It's 10 forwards with 10 or more goals and 10 forwards with 10 or more points. So this is a really well-balanced team. They get production from just about everywhere. Yes, you said they have UC Soros. I imagine he starts tonight. he has a pretty good season. He's had a pretty good season so far, 35, 23, and 5, 906 save percentage. But behind him is Lankinen, who also in his appearances has been good, 11, 6, and 0, 908, save percentage.

So they've, again, it's the Nashville Predators who are just a goaltending factory. When you play the Nashville Predators, chances are they're going to have one, probably two very capable goalies. So this is going to be, again, a Michael Bunting kind of. of a game to where you've got to get in front of UC Soros. You've got to make him uncomfortable. You have got to score dirty goals. You're not going to score tick-tac-toe, top shelf, unscreened goals.

This is going to be right at the edge of the blue paint. You're hacking and whacking away at the puck. You're looking for tips and deflections. And they're going to have to do what they have done fairly well outside of the Bruins game for the last two weeks. And that's commit to defense. they have played very solid defensive hockey the last couple of weeks to where they're not giving their opponents more than one opportunity when they get in the zone.

It's a lot of one and done. It's a lot of quick breakouts. It's a lot of closing the passing and shooting lanes. So they do those things tonight. I think they can beat this Predators team. Agreed. I don't want to see them give the Predators so much time and space like they were doing against the ruins and kind of like they were doing to a degree against the Red Wings at times,

especially Lucas Raymond who killed the Penguins in that game. just a few days ago. Also, just for lineup purposes tonight, this just came through from Mike Sullivan, according to the amazing Joss Getsoff, who has done an incredible job play-by-play for Sportsnet, Pittsburgh this season in his first full year on television. Jensen Harkins is available to play in this game. I honestly hope he doesn't, just because I don't think he's going to do much on the bottom six. And then Latang and Eller are also available, even though they miss the morning skate. Elr has been dealing with some sort of sickness, it feels like, for the last several days. I think he must have the bug that everyone just had for the penguins, but probably

to a much higher degree. Latang, he's had quite a few maintenance days recently. I don't know what's fully going on, but it seems like to me, he's not fully healthy. And honestly, at this time of your pat, who is healthy? I think it's safe to assume at this point that Chris Latang is dealing with some kind of injury. It's not severe enough to hold him out. Just between the amount of maintenance days that he's had, we know how legendary his fitness is. is he is one of the best fit players in the National Hockey League. It's stuff of legend, the type of shape he's in. So he's not a guy who they're just giving days off to rest.

I think he's dealing with something. And then you look at the play he's had as of late. All signs point to he's dealing with some kind of injury that's hampering his game. So we'll see with that. And then with Eller, I mean, yeah, I think whatever bug or illness is making its way through the team, hit him pretty hard. So they're just letting him rest until the games come. Agreed.

And just one more point about the Predators. This isn't the typical defensive-minded Predators team that you saw under John Hines. No. Andrew Brunette as a coach loves to push play. And you're going to see that tonight. It's, I think, one of the biggest reasons why Philip Foresburg has had the best year of his career is because they play a more running gun offensive style. And that's just who Andrew Brunette is as a head coach.

The Penguins, they are going to have to be pretty disqualification. disciplined in their own zone and not allow the predators to have free reign in the offensive zone, especially with the Forsberg line on the ice. That's, I think, my biggest key for this one. You said it for UC Soros. Despite being a smaller goalie, he has great athleticism. He can move like it's no tomorrow. And if you want to get pucks past him, you need quite a bit of traffic in front of them, just because if you're going to give him unscreen shots, whether it's 15, 20, 25 feet away, he's just going to gobble those up like it's nothing just because he's one of the five best goalies on the planet.

And we kind of saw how that played out in the last meeting against them. Soros was pretty solid, and the Penguins just didn't get enough traffic in front of them. And that was one of the reasons why the Penguins lost that game. They got a point out of it. The overtime, I could talk about that for days just because I think the ref screwed it up. But I don't think that for the Penguins got enough traffic in front of Soros, that needs to change in this one.

Yep. I mean, no doubt about it. that the success of the predators, while it's no longer totally contingent upon their goal-tending, it's a huge reason there as good as they are. Agreed. And again, all comes down to this, people. Let's see if the penguins can keep their season going for at least a couple more days heading into that game on Wednesday against the New York Islanders.

And hopefully, penguins are able to get some help tonight. Because if they do win and the Red Wings and the Capitals lose in regulation, even though it might be a slim possibility, it is still one. If all that happens, the penguins are back in a playoff spot heading into Tuesday, and they will then control their own destiny heading on Wednesday. Because no matter what happens, the Red Wings play again on Tuesday. So do the Capals and so do the Flyers. In fact, the Capitals and Flyers actually play each other on Tuesday.

If the Penguins win today, get the results they need. It doesn't matter who wins those games on Tuesday. Say both the wings and the caps win. There'll be a point ahead of them again, but that's it for their seasons. The Penguins play on Wednesday on the island. If the Penguins were to win that game in this scenario, they are in the playoffs. All those other teams, they're gone.

So just wanted to throw that out there for everyone to end the show. But again, that will do it for this one. 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 Tuesday. And hopefully we're talking about a win and we're talking about this team, maybe being back in a playoff spot heading into that final game. But for Patrick Dan, I am Hunzer Hodes. Thank you all so much for tuning in.

We'll talk with you all on Tuesday.