Locked On Penguins - Daily Podcast On The Pittsburgh Penguins - Penguins with a "Golden" opportunity in Vegas this weekend!

Episode Date: January 19, 2024

The Pittsburgh Penguins are finally about to play again for the first time in almost a week. They're going to play in Vegas against the Golden Knights, which means it's time for another preview. They start the show by previewing the game as the Penguins try to continue their winning ways against the Golden Knights. They look at how banged up the Knights are and how this has to be a game where the Penguins get two points. They can't afford to take nights off, including this one. They give their keys for how the team can win and how the Penguins will have the edge in multiple areas before looking at the opportunity the Penguins will have over the next two days. Finally, they update everyone on the playoff race in the Eastern Conference and why the teams in this conference may not be as good as some people think.Support Us By Supporting Our Sponsors!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.IndeedIndeed knows when you’re growing your own business, you have to make every dollar count. Visit Indeed.com/LOCKEDON to start hiring now. Jase MedicalEmpower yourself when you purchase a Jase Case, providing you with a personal supply of 5 antibiotics that treat 50+ infections. Get yours today at jasemedical.com and use code LOCKEDON to get $20 off your order.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 LOCKEDON for $20 off your first purchase.FanDuelRight now, NEW customers get ONE HUNDRED AND FIFTY in BONUS BETS – GUARANTEED when you place a FIVE DOLLAR BET. 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) Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

The Penguins are finally set to be back in action on Saturday night against the Vegas Golden Nights. And on today's episode of the Locked-on Penguins podcast, Pat and I are going to preview that game, plus go into detail on what they need to do to get the two points. Your Locked-on Penguins. 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 host, Hunter Hodes, joined by the best host in the world Patrick Dam. You can follow me on Twitter at Hunter Hodes. You can also follow Pat on Twitter at Center for Wet. And you can follow the shows, Twitter, at L.O. Orm for Penguins. Of course, thank you all so much for making this your first list and slash watch of the day. We are free and available on all platforms. And finally, today's episode is brought to you by Fand will make every moment more. Right now, new customers get 150 bucks in bonus bets. Guarantee when you place a $5 bet, visit fandle.com slash locked on to get started. So, Pat, our national nightmare is finally over after five days that penguins are about

to be back in action against the Vegas golden nights, Saturday night, 10 p.m. Face off, for those living on the East Coast, at least. And for someone who loves late night hockey, this is a dream come choice. Stay up late watching hockey every single night. This is picture perfect, I think. And for those that don't have work on Sunday since this game is on a Saturday, there is no excuse to not stay up and watch this game and stay up till, you know, 12.30, maybe closer to 1 a.m. as well.

But this is a big game for the Penguins after their five-day break, going up against a Vegas going a night's team that is very much in the playoffs in the Western Conference. But a Knights team that's also severely banged up right now. Though I will say, despite that, they did just crush the New York Rangers on Thursday night by a score of 5 to 1. And that Rangers team obviously has been one of the best teams in the Eastern Conference. this year. But when you look at this Vegas team overall, they had that really hot start to the year. They barely lost it all in regulation through their first 10 to 12 games. But then

ever since then, they've kind of been a 500 team, just middling a little bit. It's allowed the Vancouver Canucks to surpass them for first place in the Pacific Division. But when you look at the Knights roster right now, no Jack Eichel, no Shea Theodore, no William Carlson, Aidan Hill is on injured reserve. there aren't too many excuses for the penguins to not get two points out of this game, especially with where they sit in the playoff race in the east right now and with how healthy they are right now too. Yeah, the knights are banged up and there's no two ways about that. You look at their injured list right now and it could very well be a close to a starting five

in the NHL and be a darn good one too when you got the likes of what you said, Shea Theodore, William Carlson, Eichol, Michael Amadio, Ben Hutton, William Carrier, and then Aden Hill, who we've, or we may have, we discussed this before we hit record. He looked like he was a flash in the pan, like he was that goalie who got hot going into a Stanley Cup run and that everybody fell in love with. And he has followed that up by being just as good as he was in that playoff run. So that's a big loss for the Golden Knights. And then the other thing to keep in mind here for the Penguins, which is a big thing for them going into this game to get two points is this is a Vegas team that like you said has kind of been middling. And they've really started poorly to start the new year.

They get shut out in the Winter Classic by the Cracken. And they don't look much of a threat against the Cracken as it is. The Cracken was a better team. Then they lose to the Panthers. They've lost to the Avalan. and then they've lost to some other teams like Calgary. And yeah, they've gotten wins against the Islanders and the Predators. And the Rangers win is solid because they went out and dominated the Rangers.

But at the same time, Rangers have kind of also been fading despite still being one of the better teams in the National Hockey League. But all that said, this is a night where the Penguins, and we're going to talk about this more in a second segment, this is a game where the penguins have a really good opportunity to put two points in the bank, regardless if they go to overtime or not, because it's a game against the Western Conference opponent. However, pretty much everybody they needed to lose, lost during the five-day layoff until last night, because when they started this five-day layoff, they were a point out of the playoffs. They were one point out of the second wild card spot. Now they're all of three.

So basically everybody they wanted to lose or in some combination wanted to start falling down the standings, fell down the standings. So still a lot of opportunity, no pun intended. It's a golden opportunity. I like that. You just said that. And we'll discuss that a little bit more in the second segment. But the penguins have an opportunity here to really pounce on a pretty inconsistent golden knights team this season. And if there's one fear that I have for the penguins in this game, Pat, it's just that it's going to maybe take.

take a little bit to get their legs under them again, just because they haven't played in almost a week at this point when you're off for this many days. Sometimes it's hard to, you know, get your foot back in the game, you know, those first five, ten minutes especially. That's what I'm really worried about for this game, right? Those first five, ten minutes because the knights have been playing a bit more often compared to the Penguins, I don't want them to go out there those first few minutes of the game and just get dominated in the shots and give up a goal or two.

That's the big thing I'm nervous about for this one. They can go out there, play a pretty solid opening road period against Vegas where maybe you take a one-nothing lead or even if you're scoreless heading into the second period, I'll feel pretty good about their chances for the rest of the game just because they're able to get their legs under them a bit more, just overall. If you're going into a pretty hostile environment. Yes. Vegas is a great place to play regardless, Homer away. It's an incredible atmosphere. It is Vegas personified because it.

It's an absolute show. It's more than just a hockey game. You know, the pregame, the whole pregame show is literally a show. And then the people there are diehard fans. If you've seen it, I believe it's on Amazon. There's a documentary that followed the team in its first season. And it's not what we all predicted. It's not casinos buying up a bunch of season ticket seats and handing them out to rewards

members at casinos. It's people that live in the Las Vegas area and around it. And these people were diehards for hockey. So this is a tough place to play. So if you, I say this about a lot of road games, especially in the postseason. So you have to say this about a place like Vegas that has a postseason atmosphere. You have to come out and survive the first five to seven minutes. Don't give up an early goal. Yeah, you might get caved in a little bit. You might give up more shots than you want. You might not have possession as long as you'd like. But if you can only play in the National Hockey League on adrenaline for seven to eight minutes and then you got to dig in and play hockey. So you survive those few minutes. You push back. Like you said, if you can play the game

to an even, a little bit of an even strength going out of the first period, that's an advantage to you because you don't want to give that T-Mobile arena crowd life. The minute you do, you are asking for trouble. And it's why, no matter which goalie starts for the Penguins, whether it's Chari or Adelkevich, that goalie is going to have to be really strong to start that game in Vegas. And no matter what, the Penguins should have the edge in that just because it looks like Aidan Hill's not going to be playing.

It looks like it's going to be Logan Thompson for the Knights. He's played in 28 games this season. I will say he's no slouch. 2.64 goals against average, 9, 10 Sabres. Those are average to sometimes a little above average numbers. depending on what season you are in the NHL. He's a pretty decent one B to back up goalie, Pat. So Penguins,

this isn't just a total, what's the word I'm looking for for, journeyman goalie that they're going up against. They're going up against someone who has shown an ability throughout the season to make timely saves from the night. He played really well against the Rangers on Thursday. They're going to have to be dialed in and be firing pucks from everywhere if they want to win this one.

And the other thing is the penguins have to, at some point in this, game established possession in the Vegas zone for an extended period of time. Because if you look at the underlying numbers, when it comes to shot attempts, Vegas is in the bottom half of the league. So they get you in transition. They get you with quick strikes. So you have to keep them from getting that opportunity. You have to make them play defense.

You have to make Thompson make saves. So to build off what you said, get shots from. everywhere, get extended zone time against this Vegas team and make them defend. And I know that sounds silly because they have a very good defensive core and they've got maybe one of the best two-way forwards to ever play in Mark Stone. But if you tire them out, they aren't a team anymore, at least not so far this season. Maybe they are at full health, which was we have said they are not. They're not a team that's going to out-possess you and pin you in your zone.

They're going to try to take advantage of your mistakes in transition and on turnovers and things like that because you see where their shot attempts are at 5-on-5. So stay out of the box, hem them in their zone, and don't let them get to that transition game. And that's basically what the Penguins did in the first matchup about a couple of months ago when the Penguins won that game in Pittsburgh 3-0. I was there at PPG-PG pains arena. And I felt like that was one of their best performances of the season. They held Vegas to 10 high danger chances for that whole game.

Only 0.53 expected goals against in the first period, followed by 1.07 expected goals against in the second, then 1.04 in the third. The Penguins played a very stingy style against Vegas in that game in Pittsburgh, and they're going to have to bring that now to Vegas. They kept them to the outside. That's actually one of the games that I keep listing on the show here as the blueprint for how the penguins need to play against some of these top teams in the league. you can just do that again. You get some depth scoring from some of your other players that aren't in the top six or just your top players of Rawl and you get the solid goaltending. They should be able to win this game comfortably and also maybe not have to rely on the

power play to even bail them out of a situation. Essentially, do what they did during the Locked on Penguins field trip early this week against Seattle. Just don't ever give them a chance. Don't give them life. Establish your forecheck. Hold on to the puck. And when you don't have the puck, play solid defense, keeping them to the outside.

And the way the two goaltenders have been playing this year, keep them to the outside, they're probably going to make the save. Right. I agree. And by not giving them any time, yes, please do not give Mark Stone anytime the offensive zone. That guy is an absolute psycho. He's one of my favorite players to watch in this league, 15 goals, 46 points in 45 games. Jonathan March or so has been very good.

19 goals, 32 points in 45 games. Chandler Stevenson has been also very good this year. Despite the injuries, this. team still does have a lot of talent. It's going to be a challenge for the penguins, but they still need to get the two points in this one. That would do it for this first segment of today's show. Coming up in the second segment, Pat and I are going to look at how these next two games, we should say, provide a big opportunity for the penguins to really make another major move in the standings. They just really can't take even a week off in this league, or they might find

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of the Lockdown Penguins podcast. I'm one of your host, Hunter Hodes, joined by my coach, Patrick Dam. So this Western swing overall here, no, it's not the Western Canada swing that comes a little later on this season. That's honestly one of my favorite road trips of the year, especially with usually how good the Western Canada teams are

and especially a couple of them are very good this year outside of the flames. But this Arizona-Vegas trip provides a big opportunity for the penguins to continue to make a move in the standings. They've won 10 over the last 16 games. They've been able to claw their way back into this thing. But as I said before the second segment, the penguins can't afford to take even two games off during week because you saw what happened with the New York Islanders over the last week to 10 days, right?

they were top three in the metro. Things were going good even with all those loser points that they've accumulated with all their overtime losses. But they've been really struggling ever since then. And now they find themselves out of a playoff spot, not even in top three in the metro. The Flyers have won five in a row. The Hurricanes, excuse me, continue to play well. And despite the Penguins really good hockey over the last month, they still find themselves not in a playoff spot right now.

But they could potentially find themselves in a spot if they win these next two games. plus get some help. Overall, it gets in the standings and we'll get to the standings a little later on for this episode. But you're going up against two teams, one of which is pretty banged up, another of which is a bit better than I thought. They would be also a team pat where the Penguins have beaten them already this season. And they can definitely do it again for both of these games, I should say. Right.

And to what you were saying, the top teams in the Metro, I mean, at this point, it's hard to say who it is. Obviously, you got the Rangers, but now the Flyers are breathing down their neck with a five-game win streak. The Flyers are 6-3-1 in their last 10. Carolina is 7-2-1 in their last 10. And then you have the caps, 5-4-1, Penguin, 6-2-2-2-2. Even the devils are starting to come on at 5, 4-1.

So it's to the point where while nobody is really taking the Metro Division in running away with it, everybody is starting to play better hockey or at the very least more consistent hockey. So points are precious right now. Here's the other thing that we got to keep in mind. They're coming off a five-day layoff here, right? They're coming off a five-day or four, but you know what I'm, you know what we mean.

But they play Vegas on Saturday. Then they play Arizona on Monday. And then they're off until Friday when they play Florida. and then they have the Canadians the next night. Luckily, both of those games are at home. Yeah, but then it's the All-Star break. So they've got four games to go until the All-Star break, the Kyle Dubas deadline, might we add.

And all of these points are huge, because if you can get, let's say, six to seven of the eight possible, you're probably in a playoff spot come the break. if not making a little bit of a move to third in the metro. And they're all very winnable games here. Obviously, we've talked about Vegas in the last segment and how they're banged up. This is a team that is ripe for the picking in Vegas.

Arizona is a fun young upstart team. Their rebuild looks like it's finally going the way it should be. All their off-ice stuff is mostly resolved, save for getting a true blue arena. But they finally have an ownership that looks like they know what they're doing. And it's an exciting young team with a lot of talent. Then you go to Florida,

who has obviously been one of the better teams in the league, but they have shown they can hang with that team. And then it's Montreal to end the stretch before the All-Star break. And that's just not a good hockey team. So you have to take advantage. So if you drop the one to Florida, nobody's going to fault you for that. That's a darn good hockey team.

But Vegas, I almost said Phoenix, Arizona and Montreal, those are all games you can and should, win. I would agree with you on that. I think even two and one in one wouldn't be that bad. Five out of eight points heading into the all-star break. You at least get points in three of the four games, but obviously I'd rather have the team win all four, or go three in one or three oh and one. Even three-oh and one, I think, would be perfectly fine as well. You get points in all four

games. But the biggest thing is you're right. All four of these games are extremely winnable. The hardest one, I feel like the Panthers game, is at home for the Penguins, even though they have a four-day layoff for that one as well. But if they can find a way to sweep this road trip, go two and oh, come back to PBG Paints Arena next weekend, and then even if you split that back to back, I think that will be good enough, or even if they go two and one-and-one, that will be good enough, I think, to show Kyle Dubis that this team deserves extra help at the trade deadline because you and I have been talking about a lot these last couple of weeks.

he's going to use that big break to really evaluate this team and see, okay, am I going to buy a little bit, or am I going to start thinking towards, okay, maybe I'm going to sell off some assets and we're going to do what Washington did at the deadline last year, near the St. Louis Blues and a couple other teams as well. Right now, if I had to guess, he's leaning towards buying. And I think when he challenged them about a month ago, they heard that and they've played really sound hockey. Now you just have to finish this off. If you can bank these points, potentially get back into a playoff spot, that's going to make the front office really happy heading into the break overall.

And I think the penguins for this schedule too, they need to take advantage of a lot of these off days where you're maybe not playing that much because you've seen the Mark schedule. It's daunting. You got a lot of metro games in there. A lot of East games in general at the beginning of the month or late February, you have the Western Canada trip. That schedule is going to turn into a gauntlet.

fairly quickly. So if you can finish off this month strong, you can play well in February where you also get a decent amount of days off as well, not as much as you would have January, but still a decent amount there heading into March and you continue to bank points, that's going to make it really good for the Penguins in terms of their final push for the playoffs in March and then of course in April where maybe by that point they're in a playoffs about, but they will just have to solidify it. You kind of took my last point is that the schedule, like, while the schedule takes away their ability to climb the standings consistently because they're off for so long,

while everybody else isn't, it also helps them because you've got Vegas on Saturday, you're off on Sunday, then you're back in Arizona on Monday, but then you're off for three days. So, yeah, you finish with a back to back here, but then you have the All-Star break and everybody else is off. And then you go to March, seven of, if you liked the COVID shortened season,

if you liked the lockout shortened season, March is going to be a throwback because if you go to March's schedule, they pretty much play every other day in March. If you look at that schedule, they play just about every other day. They start the month on the second and third with a back to back. And then it's off day game, off day game, off day game, off day game.

and they don't they get two days off in a row one time in March and that's the 20th and the 21st. So this is a, the next month or so is huge for this team getting into the playoffs. Plus, it's a light schedule in terms of talent and who you're playing over the next month. When you get to March, it's a gauntlet like you said. Edmonton, Boston. Rangers, Red Wings, Devils, Dallas, Colorado, Carolina, a lot of really good teams coming up. So that is my final point for this.

You have to bank the points in front of you right now because if you don't, you're going to find yourself in must-win games against teams that you are chasing and are very, very good hockey teams. They'll be up a creek if they can't bank these points at the end of the month here and then in February before the schedule really just turns nuts in March. And again, they'll want to have those rested legs now so that they'll be ready to go for all those games in March. But that will do it for the second segment. Coming up to end the show, Pat and I are going to take a look at the playoff race right now.

Even though the Penguins didn't get some help on Thursday, they got quite a bit of help earlier in the week. But before we get to that, we got to tell you all about the Jays case. I know we come to sports to escape from some of the crazy realities of real life, but, can we talk just for a minute about preparing for real life? According to the FDA, pharmacies are running out of antibiotics right in the middle of the worst flu season over a decade. This is scary. I can't imagine a more helpless feeling than if my girlfriend got sick while a supply chain issue kept them from the lifesaving medication that they needed. Thankfully, will be okay because of Jace medical.

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All right, we're back here on this episode of the Lockdown Penguins podcast. I am one of your host, Hunter Hodes, joined by my host Patrick Dam. So, Pat, let's go around the Eastern Conference. right now to end the show here, just end the week for the episodes of the Locked-on Penguins podcast. This conference continues to be absolutely ridiculous. Outside, I would say, of Ottawa, Columbus, and maybe Buffalo, I'd maybe throw Montreal in there.

I think everyone else in the East is gunning for a playoffs. I mean, I could put Buffalo Montreal in there, but Buffalo 7 points out right now. The Canadians are six points out. I think they're going to be probably selling at the deal line. But outside of that, you have the. Devils at 47 points. Islanders at 48, Penn's at 48, Washington at 50. I'm sorry, I don't know how the capitals continue to win games on a consistent basis

with their underlines and all that stuff. Then you have Tampa Bay and Detroit holding down the first, both the wild cards, excuse me. And then for the Atlantic, you have Toronto at 52 points and Toronto. They've been really struggling as of late. I will say it would be kind of funny if the least did miss the playoffs this year after William Nealander got his money and with all the money of the core is getting up there. That's a dog fight in the Atlantic. And then the Metro, Rangers at 58,

Flyers at 56, Hurricanes at 53. If the Penguins do win this game on Saturday, they will have the opportunity to pull potentially within three points of the hurricanes. It's crazy that the Flyers are on this five-game winning streak. I feel like I've been waiting for them to kind of tail off. But at this rate, I think they might just screw around and make the playoffs. And it's crazy that that might happen when you look at this roster and when you saw Danny Breer call this a rebuild right before the season, but yet they might make the playoffs. That's just absolutely crazy to me.

But the conference, it's very tight right now. But there are still plenty of chances for the Penguins to bank these two points and to potentially get a top three spot in the Metro. Yeah, they've played Carolina three times already. Excuse me, they've lost to them twice. But they still have one more game against them. If you can win that game against Vegas on Saturday, maybe get some help from Carolina losing this weekend.

you can pull two within potentially three points of them for a top three spot in the division. So that's also big. And then also if you can get some help from the wildcar teams, you can potentially pull within a point of one of those spots. So again, the playoff race right now, I thought it was tight last year. It's even tighter this year to say the East. The East, if I do say so myself, and it sucks as a fan and an analyst for a team in the East, It's aggressively mid.

It really is. There's no juggernaut in this conference. I will continue to say that on this show. Every contender in this conference has a flaw. The Rangers aren't playing that well as of late. And honestly, Igor Sesterkin hasn't even been himself this year. The Bruins,

you all saw what happened in the playoffs last year? They don't have Bergenregeon or tradecheek this year. The Maple Leafs have been disappointing. The Panthers, I would say, are pretty good. But also, what level of Sergey Babrovsky are you going to get in the playoffs considering his history? They're a very good team, but they still have their flaws as well. Carolina, they're a good regular season team, but they kind of flame out in the playoffs as well.

When you look at the contenders in this conference, there is no big juggernaut. And that's honestly one of the main arguments I say to Kyle Dubus in the front office to buy at the deadline if the penguins are in it, because you want to give this team as much kick in the cans as they can, especially this year, where, again, I don't think the East is that good. Yeah, and when you compare the two east and west, you look at the west. Vancouver is, this is hilarious considering who their president is. They're the 2016, 2017 penguins at this point, just without the generational talent in Crosby and Malkin. They are fast, they can score, and they can do that for 60 minutes straight, which is horrifying.

Winnipeg is one of the best defensive teams in the National Hockey League. Good luck trying to score against them. Colorado, yeah, they're a one-line team, but it's the best line in the national hockey league. Dallas, same deal as Winnipeg, one of the best defensive teams in hockey. Vegas, when healthy, maybe the best roster in the national hockey league.

And then Edmonton, they're starting to figure it out. And it's not just because... Oh, they have figured it out. They've won, what, 12 in a row right now, I believe it is what? Obviously, you won 12 in a row, you figured it out, but they had such a weird start that they're still getting it all together, but it's not just because of McDavid and DrySytle.

So those are a handful of teams I named that would likely be the best team in the division in any of the Eastern Conference ones. And then, yeah, like, again, the Bruins have 63 points, but after what they did last year in their roster taking a step back, they have, it's very much the capitals at this point. And let's be real here. There's been a lot of really good Bruins teams. in the last 15 or so years, they've had one Stanley Cup.

They're kind of like the Washington Capitals. Until they do it, they haven't done it, which I know they did, but they keep finding ways to blow it. Florida, like you said, if bad Bob shows up, they're not going anywhere. The Rangers, I like them,

but it's the Rangers. This is what the Rangers do. They look good, and then the playoffs show up, and they turn into a pumpkin. I like the fly. Go ahead and burn me at the, steak flyer or penguins fans but it's good flyers team but as much as i like them it's a young

team and i don't think they have the ability to win a stanley cup yet but they're going to be a problem for quite a while and so if you're the penguins keep stringing wings wins together and if you're kyle dubis it's a seller's market this year because i brought this up yesterday about the fact that the numbers have fluctuated a little bit but they remain mostly the same there's nine teams within five or so points of the playoffs and seven who you can say are probably out of it. So it's going to be really hard to make trades. But at the same time, why not? Because we thought, what, two weeks ago, that winning the Metro was just not a possibility

for anybody except the New York Rangers. And now the Philadelphia Flyers are two points out of it. So in three weeks, if the penguins keep playing the way they're playing, and all of a sudden the Rangers keep sliding a little bit. The Flyers maybe don't keep being the same team or maybe overtake the Rangers. Maybe you're up in second with a chance to take first. So this is a wide open race. And the way the penguins, listen, you make that face,

but the way the penguins have been stacking points over the last month, it's not out of the realm of possibility. That's true. I will give you that. I made that face just because I want to see it before I maybe. start believing into the hopium that I think you're maybe trying to sell me a little bit there on that. But I know what you're saying. But you think about it though, it felt like about a month ago or a little under a month ago, we were like, oh yeah, the Rangers are going to walk away

with the Metropolitan Division. And now they're only two points up. So this, but it gets to my original point. It's an aggressively mid conference because there is not a clear cut best team. There just isn't. Yeah, no, I totally hear you on that. But I think that I'll do it for this edition of the locked-on penguins podcast. It is good seeing John Ludwig and Riley Smith skating after practice on Friday. Hopefully they're getting a bit closer to returning to the lineup, especially Riley Smith, because the penguins, I know he's struggled a lot this year,

but the penguins, I do feel like could use him quite a bit in the lineup overall. But again, that would do it for this one. Thank you all so much for listening to slash watching this episode of the show. Pat and I will be back to recap this game for you all on Monday. Press preview the game against Arizona before we recap that game for you all on Tuesday. So again, thank you all so much for tuning in. We'll talk with you all on Monday.