Locked On Penguins - Daily Podcast On The Pittsburgh Penguins - Recapping Part 1 of Pens-Sens with Alex Metzger!

Episode Date: January 19, 2023

It wasn't the Penguins' night on Wednesday night, though they did get a point. Hunter is joined by Alex Metzger of the Last Word On Senator's podcast to recap this thriller as the officiating really dictated this game. They start the show with some ticky-tacky calls on both sides of things and how it's super rare when you see a team get 9 opportunities on the power play. Alex breaks down how the Senators could dictate terms on the man advantage against one of the best PKs in the league and how the Sens have had one of the best power plays in the league all year. After that, they look at how goaltending also played a big factor as Cam Talbot was a bit shaky while Casey DeSmith could've had that last one on Brady Tkachuk. Alex goes into which goals from Talbot were a bit shakier than others and how it's unlikely he gets the start for Friday's game. Hunter also again addresses the lack of depth on the Penguins as Jeff Carter probably had his worst game of the season. Heck, he even whiffed on a shorthanded two-on-one odd-man rush in this game. He also praises Jason Zucker and Evgeni Malkin for strong efforts before ending the show with a quick look ahead to Friday's rematch. What do the Penguins have to do to win it? What do the Senators have to do to sweep the home and home? All that, plus much more on this episode of Locked On Penguins.Support Us By Supporting Our Sponsors!Built BarBuilt Bar is a protein bar that tastes like a candy bar. Go to builtbar.com and use promo code “LOCKEDON15,” and you’ll get 15% off your next order.BetOnlineBetOnline.net has you covered this season with more props, odds and lines than ever before. BetOnline – Where The Game Starts!Athletic GreensTo make it easy, Athletic Greens is going to give you a FREE 1 year supply of immune-supporting Vitamin D AND 5 FREE travel packs with your first purchase. All you have to do is visit athleticgreens.com/NHLNETWORK 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.

Happy Thursday Penguins fans, January 19th. The Penguins were not able to continue their winning ways from Monday. They dropped a loss to the Ottawa Senators 5 to 4 on Wednesday night, a very chaotic overtime loss. They get the point, but maybe didn't deserve it, but they lose another one. And this one will sting because they could have won this game in regulation. To be honest, even though they didn't deserve to win,

they had chances towards the end of the third period to win. And Jake Gensel hit a post, had a couple of other chances. but, you know, Brady Kachuk's overtime winner was the main difference. I have a guest for this episode, Alex Metzger, of Last Warm Hockey, and he also hosts the last word on Senator's podcast joining. He has not joined the show before, but we're going to recap this game and then do a small preview for Friday's game as this will be a home-and-home, of course, between these two teams.

It's all coming up right after this drop. You're Locked-on Penguins. Your daily podcast on the Pittsburgh Penguins. Part of the Locked-on Podcast Network. your team every day. Hello and welcome back to another episode of the Locked-on Penguins podcast. I am your host. Hunter Odees,

we're going to follow me on Twitter at Hunter Hodes. Follow the shows, Twitter, at LRS4 Penguins. And, of course, thank you all so much for making this your first list in the day. Today's episode is brought to you by Ben Online. Ben-on-on-line has you covered with more props, odds, and lines than ever before. This is online where the game starts. Joining me now, though, is Alex Metzker of the last word on Senators podcast and last word of hockey in general.

Femian enough, I used to write for the site about a few years ago, but, you know, changed some things up. But, you know, we've saved in context since. Alex, thank you so much for joining me. What a chaotic game between these two teams, a five to four win for the senators in overtime. Brady Kitchuk's goal was a difference. I feel like we got to start with the special teams.

I think that was the main difference in this game. Penguins had a couple of power boy goals, but senators, you know, they had more powerful goals. and the Penguins, and they also made the Penguins penalty kill, looked pretty foolish at times. This was a unit that coming in ranked fourth, excuse me, in the league, and the Senator's Power Play took it to school throughout this one.

What did you make of the special teams battle tonight? What do you think the Senators were doing to really take the Penguins' P.K. Out of it. Hey, Andrew, thanks for having me, first of all. Yeah, it's been a while, but I'm really happy to be joined the podcast. And, yeah, absolutely crazy game tonight. You know, it's funny enough, I think there. This is, you know, for people who haven't followed the Ottawa senators this year,

the power play has been the one thing that they have been able to rely on throughout games to win them some hockey games, especially as they have, they've gone through a bunch of injuries, their bottom six. Frankly, doesn't have a bunch of guys who should even be in the NHO, if we're being completely honest, those full-time players. But despite that, it's been a hot power play that's helped them get to where they are, and that happened tonight as well. They're ranking fourth in the league at 27.38%.

And yeah, they added so many weapons this year that it's the ability to have not only just a good top unit that moves the puck around efficiently, but also now with Josh Norris making his return tonight, have a second unit with guys like Brady Kachuk on the second power play at times. Claude Jureau, obviously, you know, Pence fans will be very familiar with him and how he moves the puck around. And even, you know, a guy like Jake Sanderson, who's a rookie in the league, and not many people might know, but, you know, he's a really good puck distributor as well. So, and then on that top power play, you have Alex De Brinket, who's just got a lethal shot. Drake Bafferson on the other side who's got a shot. Josh Norris is another great shooter. You know, you have Kachuk who can mix it up in front of the net. This sense power play has just really been able to provide themselves with a lot of weapons that makes them so multidimensional.

And I think that showed tonight against the Penn's penalty kill, which, you know, as you mentioned, It's not like it's a bad unit or anything like that. But when you have so many options for who can shoot the puck, it just makes it so hard to defend. And we really saw that tonight. Yeah, I definitely noticed that as well. I thought the Penguins also played a little too passive for my liking. It was kind of like similar to the way they played against the Rangers in the playoffs

where they go up against what was, I think, the best power play in the league last season. And they just kind of backed off of it. They let them do what they want. And that's what I kind of saw from the center tonight. They weren't really blocking shots, getting into the shooting lanes. the senators were making it very easy with their zone entries. I honestly found it so funny watching the Senator's PowerPlay gain the zone with ease because the Penguins, that's the exact opposite of what they're doing on the powerplay.

It's just, you know, they make it so hard on themselves with that drop pass. And then they go to the boards and the Buck is just going down the other way. With the Senators, their zone entries were so clean. I think they took the Penguins by surprise and they were able to do whatever they wanted. Sure, they got a couple of bounces, but, you know, they were red-hot on the Power Play tonight. And it was also very rare that you see a team get nine to ten powerplay opportunities. The penguins, funny enough, Alex, they did have nine power plays against the devil just a couple of weeks ago. And, you know, everyone's saying, oh, my God, this, oh, my God, bad.

Well, you know, they got karma in this one, nine to ten power plays. Fishing, definitely suspect. But, you know, that's just, it's typical NHL stuff. I'm not really too surprised. What I was surprised, though, was nine to ten power plays for a team. It's just something you don't see every day. and it just makes this game so hard to truly evaluate because half the game I felt like was spent on special teams because the Penguins, I think, believe, had almost four to five power plays

as well. So, you know, definitely a weird one overall, just in my opinion. Yeah, it was a trip to the box tonight, right? And, you know, I thought there was definitely a couple of weak calls that crosscheck on Joseph there, Pierre Oliver Joseph. that was that's how one of the one of the weaker goals i have seen in a while um you know and then it's weird too because there was the the double minor for high sticking um the double minor for the hook which i get you know not happy about but um it sounded like he was chewing out the for about two minutes there so maybe you shouldn't be surprised when you get an extra two for that

um but yeah it was a bit of a mix of i definitely don't think the refs were great that's for sure um but there was also some undisciplined hockey on both sides of uh uh of tonight. You know, I thought the, um, the play, uh, Josh Norris hitting Malcolm, that was a pretty bad hit. Um, you know, you don't, you know, I know, people will try and say, oh, he turned at the last second. The onus is on the hitter. You can't, you can't be hitting a guy, you know, shoulder to, like, almost back in, you know, and head version of the boards. Uh, and then even on the power play there, uh, you know, wasn't the most viscous trip against Malcolm to set up a five on three? No, but when a guy's coming through with speed, you know, you got to know,

you can't stick your foot out to, you know, trip the guy. So, yeah, it was a weird one in terms of it didn't really feel like we got much flow at five on five either way. You know, like it was with so many penalties, it kind of just felt like they were chipping and chasing and getting the chances here or there at five on five. But then we were ultimately almost just waiting for the next penalty to happen and come around, you know, a couple minutes later, which really made for, yeah, a very strange game at the five on five level, that's for sure.

Yeah, when the game was F5E5, I still thought the Senators were the better team. You know, I go on natural statrick, obviously, and check every game. At 5.5 of the Senators had 63% of the shot attempts, 50% of the scoring chances and 63% of the high danger chances. You know, even when the game was at 5-5, I thought the Senators were the better team. But, you know, the Penguins did push back in the third period, especially after they tied it. I was saying to my intro, Alex, you know, Jake Gensel probably buries that chance 9.9 out of 10 times at the end there. I think they got really lucky that he did not bury that. He's just had a little bit of a weird year by his standards.

I predicted him he was going to get close to 50, if not 50 this season, but it doesn't look like that's going to happen right now. But, you know, I think Friday's game will probably feature more five on five plays, so we'll really get to see just, you know, how good they stack up against each other at evens and not with special teams, to say at least. But, you know, that was the big story of this one. coming up in the next segment, we're going to get into the goaltending and how I thought,

you know, both goalies tonight were, you know, I would say Cam Talba was a bit iffy, but, you know, Casey to Smith, I didn't really like, excuse me, that last goal that he gave up in overtime to Brady Kachuk. So we're going to get into that coming up right after this. But first, if I can get my beautiful bet online promo up here, it's your number one source for sports spending infestats, news, and analysis. You can give the latest on and trends for every professional and amateur league out. there for pro football to college bowl season to basketball in the world cup we've got it all at betonline.net and if you love sports podcasts you can even find those up online as well we're always the

fastest and easiest way to get your betting info you can head to the website today or use your motor device to learn more that has been online where the game starts all right i'm back on this episode of the lockdown penguins podcast i am your host hunter hoodies and follow me on on twitter at hunter hoodies all the shows twitter at l ors square penguins this is alice metzger of last word on hockey and the last word on hockey and the last word on center's podcast. So Alex, goaltending,

I also think was a big story in this game, as IT is going into this. Cam Talbot definitely looked a little shaky. And I did not like that Mark Friedman goal that he gave up, just kind of flubbed in, to be honest. I thought he could have done maybe a little bit better on the Malkin goal early on.

And then honestly, the Raquel one, you know, kind of, I wouldn't say it was a fortunate to balance with the penguins because it bounced right off of them. And I don't know how much

to Talbot could have done with that. But definitely looked a bit weak. And then for Casey DeSmith, I understand that puck deflected off Marcus Pedersen. I did not like Pedersen kind of backing off Kachuk there. He needs to be more aggressive, I think, on that play and actually step up, because that's when he's at his best, in my opinion. But, you know, what did you think of the goaltending in this matchup? Yeah, I think it's probably fair to say, even though, you know, as you talked before the break there, the Penguins had that three-minute shift right at the end

where I can't believe they didn't score, you know, they were all over. But I think it is fair to say Cam Talbot gifted the Penguins a point tonight. That was three of some of the worst goals I've seen a goalie let up in terms of, it looked like there was a hole in his glove for the first and third goals, like the Friedman goal especially. I don't know how that went in. I still, I watch it three times and it hit his glove straight and just it went in. I was like, I'm watching her, what on earth?

And then, yeah, the fourth goal, I get it's tough. and the broadcast here on Sportsnet that I was watching, they were trying to defend Talbot for it as well. And they were like, well, it takes a deflection, and then the shot comes. It's like, okay, but the shot was still at his shoulder. Like, I don't know how that one went in either. So, yeah, it was not a good game for Cam Talbot.

For Casey Smith, I thought he played all right. I saw you were on Twitter. You weren't too happy with this game. Definitely, I think it's a case of you might want him to have one of the couple that he gave in in terms of it'd be nice to get a save. But I do think he made a couple really big saves throughout as well in terms of Thomas Shabbat got in on a break, a half break away at one point. He made a nice save.

Pinto had a nice chance right in the slot as well in the third period. He made a really nice save on. There was three or four in the second third period, especially where I think, you know, it was kind of a lot of the times when the penguins had some zone control and then the counterattack of Ottawa caught them the other way. and it came back on an odd man rush that I thought the Smith played a made made really nice stops on those so yeah the the last goal definitely wasn't ideal it was a decent shot but I thought overall Talbot I mean he's not getting a start on Friday night you guys the Pittsburgh Penguins will be seeing Anton Forsberg I can almost guarantee that but from the the Casey the Smith side of things you know he played fine I think like he made some good stops you know I don't think most of the goals were to blame of him but you know, like it wasn't, it wasn't like he was absolutely standing on his head either,

I guess, is how I would, I would phrase it. Yeah, I think that's fair to say. You know, I think some of the goals tonight, he really did have no chance. Especially I think the two power play goals that when Ottawa, they had that double minor, and that was the one that they made it two to one after Jason Zucker opened the scoring, who's just been fantastic this season. Those two, I definitely did not blame him on a couple others, you know, all right. I just didn't personally like, excuse me, the Brady could.

Chuck one because I thought he was just playing, I think, a little too deep in his crease there, just wasn't as aggressive enough. And trust me, I get it. Pedersen, it went off him and in kind of a little bit of a flub shot. But still, I feel like he probably would want that one back. I think Charlie, if he's in, I don't know if that goes in just because, you know, he's the starter, dismissed the backup. But, you know, it's just unfortunate that he couldn't make that save to see if he could

give his team more of a chance to, you know, go back down the other end because, you know, the Penguins, they've really struggled in overtime this season. and coming into this game, Alex, three and six in overtime slash shootouts, three and seven now. Very uncharacteristic for a team with all that firepower to say the least. So I definitely understand where you're coming from with that. From a true penguin's perspective, some of the line-up choices for Mike Sullivan tonight, or just deployment issues, I should say, we're very odd. Continuing to ICE, Jeff Carter just makes me do this, basically every single shift,

especially late in the third period. Ottawa's pushing, and they're having a really good shift in that final minute, and you're icing Jeff Carter in his line out there. Are you trying to intentionally tank when you're in a playoff race? I know the Islanders are losing to the Bruins at the time, and they did end up losing to them, so the Penguins are now one point ahead of the Islanders, and they're three points behind the Capitals,

and they have a few games in hand on both. But it's just like, why are you not icing one of your better lines at that time so you can roll the other line to start. over time. It just did not make any sense to me. And then Carter got walked. I believe that was by Shabbat. If I'm not mistaken, and they get a beautiful scoring chance with about 30, 45 seconds left. That could have ended the game right there. So I just don't understand what goes through Sullivan's head with that. I think he's just catering to the veterans a little too much for my liking. I just, you know, I didn't understand that. Much like Ottawa's bottom six,

Alex that you were talking about, I think you said a lot of those players are just not NHL players. It's not that bad with the penguins, but it's close because Jeff Carter should just not be in this lineup right now.

You know, Gisbury Capon has a few good shifts every now and then, the fourth line, and just both lines are totally non-existent. And it just makes the penguins rely on their top six to win every night, and it's just not a sustainable form of success.

Yeah, it's funny because, you know, you're telling me everything I've heard with Ottawa this year too. You know, if their top six isn't running this year, they're not winning games. It's as simple as that. And, yeah, I look from a Pittsburgh perspective tonight and, you know, like just something that flashes, right, even when you're just on national, natural statrick here is there's a guy in Jonathan Gruden. And I'll be totally honest, you know, I don't know much about him as a sense fan,

but he played a minute 55 at 5-on-5 in this game. Like, it just, if you can only be playing a guy, a minute 55 in the game. And I get it. Like, there was a ton of power plays and stuff like that. So, you know, I'm sure that did disrupt the game flow a little bit and all that stuff. But like, if you're playing a guy under two minutes at five on five in a game, it's like, man, you're almost lighten up a roster spot there. Yeah, I don't know what the point of that was. Like, you call him up for his first game against Anaheim. You're actually playing him in a third period when the game is really close. But yet tonight, even though there's a lot of special teams,

you're icing him for three to four minutes. What is the point? And, you know, I love Mike Sullivan. I think he's a great coach. That said, I have been criticizing him a lot more this season. Just because of his deployment issues, he still thinks Brian Dumlin is 27-year-old, Brian Duneland and not the 30 to 31-year-old that he is now. He still thinks Jeff Carter is is prime Jeff Carter and not the almost 40-year-old version that he is now. And, you know, just the refusals who play some of these younger players and, you know, And I know there's not a lot down in Wilkesbury, trust me. I'm not naive to the fact that the Penguins don't have a lot of prospects.

It's just not been the case in this, the Geno era. But when you have a guy that you call up two games into it and you're playing in three minutes, that does not make any sense to me at all. I just, I don't understand that at all. But, you know, I was, speaking from an Ottawa perspective, Alex, was impressed by their top six. And I said that on my preview for Wednesday's episode, you know, love their top six. bottom six is a bit weak. Their defense is a little weak outside of Sanderson and Shabbat, I felt like their goaltending has been a mixed bag, but man, that top six can play. I felt like

they had a good scoring chance. Every shift, those top two lines were out there, to be honest. Yeah, it's the strength of their team, no doubt about it. And yeah, you mentioned their defense. The right side of the defense is an absolute tire fire. Artem Zub is their best defender on the right side, and he's hurt right now. And, you know, I like Zube, but he's at best a number, an okay number two guy and when he is like head and tails above everyone else like Travis hammondick and the key to zaita zaytsev play normal minutes on the right side for them uh you know zytev's into this year too jacob bernard docker was playing and i and you know he looked pretty good as a young guy out there but yeah their top six is it's the strength

of this team and um you know it's funny just as someone who gets to listen to just other people talk sometimes about Ottawa they've obviously struggled they had the summer up here all the hype heading into the year and they haven't lived up to that at all. And, you know, totally fair, you know, that they, they felt flat. And I think some of the expectations were a little high anyways. But the top six has not disappointed. You know, I feel like, you know, look around the league, whether it's Calgary, you know, Hubertos not performing.

You know, in Vancouver, they were disappointing. And, you know, J.T. Miller wasn't having a great year. There's no one in the top six for Ottawa you can point to that's having a disappointing year, unless you want to say Josh Norris. and it's simply because he dislocated his shoulder five games into the season and physically could not play until tonight. But yeah, like, Claude Giroux has been an amazing pickup for this team, both on and off the ice.

You know, he's playing at about a point for game. And, you know, he's playing second power playing minutes, which he has never done in his career and hasn't said a word about it. You know, I know I got to tread carefully talking positive about Girou on a Penguins podcast here. But then, but aside from that, you know, Sorry, yeah. Was weird to see him without that gross orange on. I will say that.

I wonder to know if the hate is still there from Penguins fans for Giroux, or if now that he doesn't have a Philly jersey, is it a little different? It's gone down, I think for some people, you know, it just felt so weird. I'm like, look and happen out there. I'm like, sure he's not a flyer? Like, I saw him for 14 years. I saw most of my childhood in my teenage years. I'm like, wow, that's just looks weird.

Yeah. It's still something strange to me too. But yeah, and then the top six, I mean, De Brinket's been a great pickup. You know, there was an narrative that he started slow in the year. And, like, he didn't score a ton, but he was still point per game. And now he's getting his goal scoring touchback. He's back on pace for just under 30 goals this year. And, like, I think he could easily hit 30 goals if he keeps getting hot.

And then Tim Stutzler, who was just flying tonight. He, mark my words, he is going to have the Jack Hughes breakout next season. The hype that Jack Hughes is getting. getting this year, Tim Stutzel will get next year. He's a year younger than him. He was a third overall pick in the 2020 draft, but he's on pace, I think. So he hit 20 goals tonight. He's on pace for, I think, 85, 86 points now on the year. He has also become more of a defensively responsible center too. He's not going to win Selke anytime soon, but he's crafting his two-way game. Tim Stutzel is the real deal, and he has been a treat to watch every single night this year.

Yeah, and then Drake Batherson as well. The top six is just, it's a tough top six, especially when they're going. They can play with anyone in the league. Yeah, it's loaded. And, you know, I love that trade for to bring it over the off season. They traded up late first. And I forget what the other thing was. It might have been just the first.

It was a seventh overall pick, which is a high enough pick. Oh, yeah, my apologies. Yeah, but for a 24-year-old 40 goal score, I mean, that's a price you're more than willing to pay. And then, yeah, it was a mid-second round pick. and a late third, I believe, as well. And the third is next year. Yeah, I mean, that's, you know, even though it's the number seven overall pick,

I'm still doing that for a perennial 40 goals goal school who potentially hit 50 at some point. He is worth that. And then, I'm just surprised they didn't get a roster player in return for him. But yeah, their top six is loaded. It showed tonight. And, yeah, Stutzel is awesome.

Would not be surprised in the slightest. Alex, if he does have that Jack Hughes breakout next season. But that wraps up this second segment. Coming up to end the show, we're going to do a small preview for, Friday's game and know what to expect and, you know, just the keys for both teams to come out with a victory. But before we get to that, if you're looking for a delicious treat but don't want all the fat and calories, then you've got to try a bill bar. We just got through the holidays. And I know my

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Real chocolate and they come in unbelievable flavors like churro, peanut butter, brownie, and coconut almond. I'm not sure how they do it, but these bars taste like a candy bar while maintaining amazing macros. And what's even better is that they are healthy, only 130 calories and 4 grams of sugar with a whopping 17 grams of protein. If you're close to maybe like a Walmart, Sam's Club, anywhere, any of that kind of store, just running right now and grab a 13 bar box with our history. flavors brownie batter and churro you can thank me later all right we're back here on this episode of the lockdown penguins podcast i am hunter hoadies that is alice maxer of the locked on senators senators the last word on that senators podcast i apologize about that um it's all good the guys of lockdown senators do great work as well yes no they have a very good show um i will

definitely say that um well let's wrap up this show alics so these two teams meet again on Friday at PBG Paints Arena. Thinking about going, not sure. I'll take a look at the tickets. But, you know, this is the second home or home that the Penguins have had this year. They had one prior against the Buffalo Sabres. They actually swept that one. They beat them both times.

This one, they'll be looking for a split. From a Senator's perspective, what do you think they have to do to get a win in this one? Because I feel like the Penguins are going to be pushing a lot harder in that game. And Alex, I do think they're going to get some guys back. Jeff Petrie is getting really close. Crystal Tang is getting close. And Tristan Jarry is also back on the ice. Would not be surprised to see all three in the lineup for that game.

Yeah, for Ottawa, I think it's consistency. They have really struggled to put multiple efforts in a row that, you know, like again, tonight, you know, we mentioned that the Penn said some really good chances at times, but I thought Ottawa controlled the game for the most part. And I haven't seen Ottawa play that well multiple games in a row too many times this year. So if they want any chance on Friday night, you know the penguins are going to come out much hungrier. You know,

it's going to have to be consistency in trying to repeat what they did tonight. And, you know, a big thing that I'm worried about personally as a Sendsman on Friday, that I think they're going to struggle doing Friday night that they did tonight is shut down Sidney Crosby. You know, he had a couple really good passes still. But for a Sydney Crosby game, especially that I'm used to watching,

it feels like he torches the Sends every time he plays them. He was relatively quiet tonight. Now, that's still an impressive compliment considering he had two passes that easily could have gone in for assists at the end of the game there. But, you know, he got, you know, not completely shut down, but he was on the ice for 21 shot attempts against and only 9-4. I don't think he's going to be posted a 30% course he 4% again on Friday night. I'm worried about that as a sense man. He's a guy that they obviously have to focus on. I mean, that's stating the exact obvious.

But yeah, for the sentence, it's consistency playing like they are tonight. And then, you know, looking for that goal, the save here there that they didn't get tonight. If they get the goaltending that they had tonight again on Friday, they don't stand a chance. Yeah, it's funny. You do bring up Crosby. He's been struggling a little bit, Alex, over the last week, 10 days, just not playing like himself. I predicted on my Wednesday episode that he would be a force tonight. That did not come true.

He just looks lost a little bit, which is very unusual. He's going to snap out of it. He's Sidney Crosby, after all. But I liked how you brought up yet. He usually torches the Senators, I believe, of all the teams that he's gone up against around the league, some of his best numbers have come against Senators. It's not the Flyers level or the Islanders or the Rangers, but, you know, when he plays the Senators, he usually plays very, very well.

From a Penguins perspective, you know, I'm saying the obvious special teams. They've lost a special teams battle each of the last couple of games. They were very fortunate to win on Monday. You know, they had all of the numbers in their favor. when you look at natural statics, but they were also very sloppy on the ice. John Gibson played really well. Penguins almost lost to probably the worst team in the league.

And they gave up two power play goals so the ducks, that's unacceptable. The ducks have one of the worst power plays, if not the worst power play in the league right now. And then, you know, I know you're playing up against a top five, top six unit in Ottawa. Still, giving up three power play goals, that's unacceptable.

You know, you need your penalty killers to bail out other players when they take penalties. They did not do that in this one. I think they're going to be fired up coming into this one. right now they've only killed off eight of their last 17 penalties, not good enough for a team that is top five in penalty kill right now. Early in the season, this unit really struggled, but since then, you know, they were number one in the league for a few weeks. It's gone, it slipped down a little bit, but, you know,

that needs to be a lot better in the power play. Woke up a little bit tonight, but still, I want to see, you know, some better zone entries. Jesse Marshall, the athletic and a great article on Wednesday, looking at just the issues of the zone entries and how that drop pass is just not working because, you know, teams are really doing their tape. And I saw Ottawa was doing their history. And they're being more aggressive coming at the penguins and it's throwing them off their game.

They need to just be better with that. Also, just getting some bodies back. You know, they're getting some points right now. That's big. That's three out of four points. They could have gotten the extra one tonight. It stinks that they didn't. But they're still in a playoffs spot right now.

If they can get some of these bodies back on Friday, that should help some things. I think once they get a bit healthier, some of the problems are going to correct themselves. That said, they still need a better bottom mistakes. You need a third line center. Right now down there, it's not good enough, at least for me. I don't think they have this trouble of, you know, struggling against younger, faster teams.

I think it's just, you know, they get off to slow starts and I don't think they can ever just rebound from it. I thought at times on Wednesday they were fine at 5B5. I thought other times they got smoked. that's just the ebbs and flows of a game. But I want to see them get off to a better start. I want to see the power play and penalty kill be better. And if Tristan Jari starts and plays well,

I think they can do enough to win this game. We'll have to see. I think they practice today from what I remember seeing in the PR email. So we'll have to see if some of those injured guys get a full practice in. So, yeah, I mean, I think that basically covers this one. Alex, if you have anything else to add, I'm not really going to probably fully make a prediction for this one. If I had to, I think the Penguins bounce back,

but I'm not really going to fully make one right now. Yeah. Anything else to add? Go ahead. I'd probably lean. Penn's probably get one back here, but I just hope it's a good game. You know, that's kind of, I mean,

as a sense fan who has watched some really bad, bad hockey over the past four or five years, it's nice just trying to cheer for a team that you feel like might have a chance, even if they're still, I don't know, seven, eight points out of a playoff spot. But, yeah, I think it'll be a tightly contested game. I think it'll be a lot like tonight in terms of back and forth. But I think it'll be more in five on five on five than tonight. Oh, yeah, for sure. I don't think you're going to see that many power.

Power plays called again. That's for sure. But Alex, I really appreciate you coming on for this Thursday edition of the Blockton Penguins podcast. We'll definitely have to do this again, especially after, you know, they play for the third time. I'm not really sure when that game is. I have to check the schedule. But we'll definitely have to do this again when they play for the third and final time.

I believe that one is in Pittsburgh. This was their final game in Canada tonight from a Perman's perspective. But Alex, this is your first time on the show. Let all the listeners know where they can find you and where they can find your work. Yeah, absolutely. Yes, all my work is at last word on hockey.com. I have a podcast there called The Last Word on Sends podcast, which Hunter and I are actually going to go hop on to right now

and record a second part of the back-to-back here. We're doing a home and home as well. So if you want to hear us talk probably more of a macro level than the specific games, I think, is what we're going to do there. And then I also have another podcast called the M&M Hockey podcast with my buddy Chase McCallum. We cover everything that goes on in the NHL weekly. So that drops every week around Wednesday or Thursday. But you can find all my stuff just on Twitter at NHL sends and stuff. I love talking hockey there, tweeting hockey.

You know, it's send stuff. It's football stuff, all kinds of stuff. and that's where you can find all my work. So thank you so much for having me today, Hunter. This is absolutely blast. Yeah, I really appreciate you coming on. Please, everyone, go follow Alex. He does a tremendous child covering the Sanders

and the league as a whole. And yes, his podcast with Chase is also very good. Chase is a great follow. I'm on Twitter if you're not following him already either. But again, thank you so much for listening to this one from a penguins perspective. Stink, they couldn't get the results tonight, but they'll have another chance. On Friday, we'll see if they can play better in both special teams and five on five.

So, again, thank you all so much. for listening. I'll talk with you all on Friday when we do a full game recap episode for that one. Talk to you all that.