Locked On Penguins - Daily Podcast On The Pittsburgh Penguins - Ron Hextall is saying all the right things!

Episode Date: June 4, 2021

Ron Hextall didn't pull a Jim Rutherford at his end-of-season press conference and Hunter is THRILLED about it. He goes into what Hextall said about this season and the series against the Islanders, plus what he's looking for in the offseason. How can the Penguins accomplish getting tougher and getting some size into the lineup? Who are some options in free agency? Hunter also explains why it's the right call from Hextall to bring back most of the team next season, while also improving around the edges. After that, he gets into some Brian Burke comments from the last few days before finishing the episode calling out the people defending Mark Scheifele for no reason.Support Us By Supporting Our Sponsors!BetOnline AGThere is only 1 place that has you covered and 1 place we trust. Betonline.ag! Sign up today for a free account at betonline.ag and use that promocode: LOCKEDON for your 50% welcome bonus.Built BarBuilt Bar is a protein bar that tastes like a candy bar. Go to builtbar.com and use promo code “LOCKED15,” and you’ll get 15% off your next order.Rock AutoAmazing selection. Reliably low prices. All the parts your car will ever need. Visit RockAuto.com and tell them Locked On sent you.WealthfrontTo get your first $5,000 managed for FREE, for life, go to wealthfront.com/LockedOnNHL. 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.

Your Locked-on Penguins. Your daily podcast on the Pittsburgh Penguins. Part of the Locked-on Podcast Network. Your team every day. Welcome to this Friday afternoon episode of the Locked-on Penguins podcast. I'm your host, Hunter Hodes. Remember to follow me on Twitter at Hunter Hodes.

Follow this show's Twitter at L.O. underscore Penguins. Today's episode is brought to you by Lockroom, download the app, and join me this week. I think I'm going to be doing something tomorrow around 8 p.m. Did you get in on the action? Lockroom changing the way we talk sports. So, apologize for having an episode yesterday,

had a couple things come up, but we are back today with another episode of the Lockdown Penguins podcast. Finally had a scoop for you all the other day when Ron Hextall spoke to the media. I found that out from someone close to the team in the, what was about 10, 10.30 in the morning, and then it was confirmed about an hourly

that he would be speaking at 1.30. So it's not often I get to do that, but, you know, my scoop came through, finally, and hopefully I can give you guys more scoops about this sort of things in the future. But Hextall said all the right things when it comes to the offseason with this team. In case anyone did not see, spoke to the media for about 15 to 20 minutes, just the other day. And again, everyone, he didn't overreact. You know, one of the big things that I agree with what he said, he felt, and I think Brian Burke felt the same way.

I know he wasn't there that, you know, they both felt that they both felt that they, deserve to win the series and if you look at the underlying numbers and you watch the series in with just your eye test um excuse me that would support that i mean you know they they led in high danger chances they led in shot attempts they led in shots on goal and in scoring chances four versus scoring chances against um it was um a total clinic by the penguins and you know that they understood what happened with the goaltending i know a lot of people are going to freak out because of what hextal said about tristan jari i mean i get it everyone you know he he didn't I guess, what's the word I'm looking for here?

He didn't waver in his confidence from him, but this also shouldn't mean that they probably aren't going to go out and get a goalie. Because I definitely think they will. I think they are going to go out and get someone who can push Tristan Jari for that number one role. It doesn't sound like if they're going to send Jari to the minors, which was an option I was discussing on the podcast earlier in the league with West, and then, of course, with Jeff and last week as well. It looks like Jari will be on the main team next year.

And, you know, though I will disagree with Hextal on this, that, you know, he keeps saying, and I've seen other people say this too, that, oh, my God, Tristan Jari is this young goaltender, and, you know, we've got to give him time. I mean, people, he's going to be 27 years old this year. He is in the prime of his career. This is not some, you know, 22, 23-year-old, like Carter Hart, you know, who obviously had a really bad season in Philadelphia. You know, he has a lot of time to bounce back.

And honestly, if I'm a betting game, he probably will because he had a really good first year with them the season before that. But, you know, Jari is older. Like I said, he's going to be 27 this year. I just, I really don't know how they can continue to keep putting that point down our throats. It's just, he's in the prime of the street. He's closer to 30 than he is to 20 at this point. You know, Hextall also said they see a future with the core.

He expects them to be back again, everyone. In case people thought that they were going to trade Chris LaTang and of Gennie Malkin this offseason. You're wrong. And if you still think they should trade. Genie Malkin and Chris Letang, I really don't know what to say to you at this point. They were never going to do this. I mean, it makes no sense to. He also confirmed that they are starting to have some contract discussions with their agents,

it sounds like. And I expect both of those players to retire as Penguins as well as Sidney Crosby. I don't see any one of those three players ever leaving Pittsburgh. It's probably going to be a three to four-year deal. I don't know what the money is going to come in at. I think Letang might have to take, I don't know, a little bit of a discount. I'm not really sure what Gino's going to want, maybe around $9 million. Because I think Nicholas Baxter, he negotiated his own contract with the Capitals,

and I think his is around $9 million per season as well for the rest of his career. So would not be surprised if Gino kind of stuck around that number for his next contract negotiations. But yeah, they see a future with the Corps, and they're not going to just disband them just because of what happened in the playoffs. I'm just looking for other quotes here that I can find. You know, he obviously, I know, Hextall's been saying this ever since he got here. They want to add some size and toughness. I'm okay with adding some size. You know, you look at Jeff Carter.

He's, what, 6 foot 4 or something like that? He's a big body. Obviously, he had 13 goals in the 20 games that's coming over from Los Angeles. You know, maybe he's tough, in quotation marks. But, you know, you can find a tough player that has a lot of size that can actually play in free agency on the trade market. they're just, they are hard to find. You know, like I said, you can find them, but they are very hard to find. A player that has been, you know, I've had King Clarkie in my DMs about this,

is Blake Coleman. That makes a lot of sense for the Penguins. Plagues with a lot of toughness is a big body, and he can produce goals and assists. You know, his counting stats are really good. His underlying numbers have always been good. I definitely could see a team overpaying for him, though, but if you're looking for a player that fits what Ron Hexton,

and Brian Burke want to bring to the team during this offseason, he fits that to an absolute T. Another player that I can see being a fit, Zach Hyman, though, I think someone is going to overpay Hyman, way too much money that the Penguins just do not have. I mean, I think Hyman's probably going to get $6 million per, if not maybe even close to $6.5 million per on the open market. I don't think the lease are going to be able to bring him back due to their financial cap

restrictions, but I can see a team like Edmonton giving him a lot of money. That has Jim Benning's name all over it, I think, as well. I just don't think the Penguins will have the money to pay him. Though, again, that sort of player makes a lot of sense for the Penguins, and they want a big body who's tough, has a lot of size, and can also play. You're not just plugging in Ryan Reeves here as a big, tough body and playing ugly and all that. You know, you're going to bring in a player who can produce, but also can be a bit nasty and can punch someone in the mouth as Wesley Euler was talking on my Wednesday episode.

You know, I've always been saying this for the last three to four weeks. I am perfectly fine with bringing in that kind of player. It's just, one, how much is it going to cost in the open market if there are a couple there or two, how much do you want to part with assets-wise to go get that player? You know, is Hex-Dall and Burke? Are they comfortable doing that? That's going to be, I think, the big question this off-season that they're going to have to answer. They also said they're very pleased with the coaching staff.

Again, everyone, if you thought Mike Sullivan deserved to be fired after this series, you're just not paying attention. and I honestly just think that you really didn't watch this series overall because this was not Mike Sullivan's lot. I thought he honestly out-coached Barry Trots in this series. Again, we all know what the main difference was. It's goal-tending, you know, and right now the Islanders are still down two games to one again because Simeon gave away the game last night to the Bruins with Brad Marrcheon.

We'll have to see if they go back to Ilius Sorokin, core game four, even though it doesn't look like that they will. But Sullivan did a great job this season, led them to their first division title in seven years, and the toughest division in hockey navigated through so many injuries when five of their top nine forwards were out of the lineup. I thought Tar Reardon did an excellent job this season.

The power play struggled out of the gate, but I really thought as the season went on, it got so much better finished top five in the league. Mike Volucci, you know, I don't really know too much about him. You know, that the PK definitely needs a lot more work. I'll be curious to see what he can do in the offseason for that. I'm not ready to fire him just yet just because it's been a season, though. But they did cut ties with him.

honestly probably wouldn't care that much. If there is a coaching change to be made, though, it probably is the goaltending one, as I've talked about with Mike Buckley. That's now two goaltenders that have regressed under his coaching. Matt Murray during the last couple of years after he got promoted, he regressed. And now Tristan Jari, after a wonderful first season in 2020,

regressed the season with how he played in the playoffs. But, you know, again, speaking of Tristan Jari, you know, Hextal seems pretty confident that he's going to bounce back and be the number one next year. But again, everyone, I've said this probably a thousand times Already this episode, expect them to bring in a goalie on the UFA market. Peter Marazek makes a lot of sense. You know, Linus Omark, if they want to give him a multi-year deal,

but if they want to give Marazik a one-year deal as a 1B stopgap option, just to make sure that Jari doesn't screw up in some big moments, or honestly, in just any moment of next season, I would not be surprised at all if they did do that. Looking a couple other things here, he did confirm, Hextall that is, that they are going to lose a good player, and expansion. Again, that's nothing new if you've been listening to my podcast. I've been saying it's probably going to be one of Zach Asson Reese, Teddy Lugar, if they don't protect him,

Caspera Kappin, if they don't protect him, or Brandon Tanna. They are going to lose a very key contributor to this lineup in expansion. And, you know, it all plays into who do they protect with the seven forwards. Again, I disagree with them protecting Jeff Carter. Hextall did confirm that they have not finalized their list yet. I mean, you still have. You still I think over what, like a month, month and a half until Seattle makes their picks. I think the expansion draft is in mid-July to late July, if I'm not mistaken. I'll have to double-check that during their commercial break, but I believe it's in mid-to-late July, so they have not finalized it yet.

But again, everyone, if they do protect Jeff Carter, I do think that will be a mistake because I really don't think Seattle is going to take Carter as he's going to be 37-year-old old. I understand he played really well at the Penguins, but if it's starting out your team from scratch, I don't think taking a 37-year-old center to play in your top six is a good idea. I think that was mainly it from his press conference. And, no, I thought Chad from the 4-12 sports talk basically said it best on his Twitter account.

You know, I understand that people are going to overreact to Hextal saying that, you know, the team is going to look similar next year, minus a few changes along the edges. But as Chad says, this is the right approach. People, if you're still here, he would probably have already made a trade already. That is basically the reality of this situation. He probably would have made maybe two trades already. He probably would have nuked this team as year 7 Rutherford would show no mercy on anyone, basically. But again, you don't overreact to a playoff series where, one, you were the better team,

and two, you lost it due to just one reason. Make the necessary changes that need to be made along the edges of the roster. Bring the core back and a lot of the supporting pieces back. Go make another run at this next season. And then after that season is where the big discussion about where the franchise is going to go moving forward will have to take place because a lot of those contracts are up. Remember, Brian Russ is up after next season as well as Malkin and Latang, though I do think both of them will be back. Kisperi Kappenden's contract is up after next season. I think there's a couple others that are up as well.

So that will be the big year where Hextall and Burke decide if they want to continue to be in Win Now mode or if they want to retool a bit or even start a little bit of a mini rebuild. So I'm definitely glad that they're not overreacting. You know, as Chad says in a follow-up tweet, you know, overreacting is signing Jack Johnson to a five-year term. Overreacting is trading a solid bottom six-forward and Oscar Sunquist for Ryan Reeves. Overreacting is also trading Patrick Hornquist for literally no reason. Overreacting is also trading for Eric Good Branson when there was no need to trade for Eric Good Branson. So I am totally fine with what Ron Hextel and Brian Burke said.

I mean, Adam Gretz also had a great tweet I thought earlier today as well. you know, we don't really know what they're going to be looking for with getting bigger and uglier, but they definitely have a measured response to the playoffs and the entire off-season. I'm going to get to Brian Burke's comments from this morning a little bit later in the episode. But before we do that, it's time to talk about a couple of things. One of them being wealth front stonks, memes, rocket chips, day trading can be a lot of fun. But if you want to grow your long-term wealth and make it to the moon, you should open up a wealth-front investment account today.

They can create a portfolio of globally diversify low-cost index indexed. funds personalized just for you in minutes. No manual trades, no picking stocks, no watching the stock market every day. They automatically handle all the investing based on preferences you control. They are trusted with over $20 billion of assets. You can get your first $5,000 managed for free by going to wealthfront.com slash locked on NHL to get your first $5,000 manage for free for life. Go to wealthfront.com slash locked on NHL to start growing your savings. one more time, Wellfront.com slash Locked On a shell and get started today. We also cannot forget about Bilt Bar. Did you know that Bilt Bar has nine delicious flavors

plus the occasional limited time flavor? When you talk to a Bilt Bar fan, they are definitely passionate about their favorites. If you don't know the flavors, well, you are missing out mint brownie, raspberry, cherry, cooking and almond. And of course, my favorite that I say all the time, the peanut butter brownie. If you haven't tried all the flavors, you can get a mixed box where you'll get two of each of the nine flavors. Most of the flavors have a sense. 17 grams of protein, only 130 calories, only 4 grams of sugar and only 4 grams of net carbs. A couple of others have 18 grams of protein, just 180 calories, just 5 grams of sugar and 5 grams of net carbs.

You can go to Billbar.com and use promo code locked 15, and you'll get 15% off your first order. That's morning code locked 15 for 15% off at Billbar.com. All right, so we're back here on this episode of the Lockdown Penguins podcast. I'm your host, Hunter Hodes. I'm going to follow me on Twitter at Hunter Hodes. Follow the show's Twitter at L.O. Orn's War Penguins. So it seems like Brian Burke's brain has still continuing to be hacked because the stuff

that he has been saying to the media these last couple of days have not lined up to what Brian Burke has said in the past when he has rain teams, whether it's been in a GM role or a president of hockey operations where he was with the Calgary Flames when Brad Trellivine was there. But yeah, his brain has definitely been hacked the last couple of days. Bob Pompey and he tweeted out this quote from Burke earlier today when he was on the Cook and Joe show when he was asked about the Penguins Eye. physicality. He says we're not going to change who we are, which is speed and skill, but we are not ugly enough. So what that means, again, Ron Hextall said this in his press conference.

They want to go out and get a player who is a bit tough, can punch you in the face if need be, but also is skillful. So they don't want to deviate from speed and skill. And that's probably something I did forget to say in the first segment. Someone, I don't know which media member asked this, but they did ask Hextall, like, you know, do you and Mike share the same vision for the team? Because, you know, of course, you know, Brian Burke is, someone who loves the physical hockey, loves to have some goons in there and stuff like that, just have players who don't have some skill in the lineup.

And, of course, everyone's speculating that Burke and Sullivan were going to butt heads, but it does not seem to be the case with this new regime of Mike Sullivan. Hextall confirmed that they do share the same visions for the team with speed and skill, and they just want to skate away from when teams want to make it ugly, and they just want to try to get the penguins players in the box. You know, Hextall talked a lot about that in the media press conference, and he said he thought the team did a great job. mainly just skating away and letting the islanders just be stupid for the stake of being stupid.

And, you know, I think Brian Burke basically said the same thing in the series as well. You know, we got to learn to skate away. We can't get suckered into it. But now he is pushing the narrative that they do want to get more ugly. I've seen some people saying they should go after Zach Cassian. That's a hard pass. I mean, Cassian, he is a bit tough and he plays a bit of an ugly style. But he is not that good of a player.

You know, if you do a quick Google of his hockey. reference page. I don't remember the exact numbers that he put up this year with the Edmonton Oilers. Let me just find this here real quickly. Okay. So he only played 27 games, five points in those 27 games a year before that. 15 goals, 34 points and 59 games. 15 goals, 26 points and 79 games before that. So yeah, he had a couple decent seasons for a bottom six forward, but I mean, he's also 30 years old right now. I don't want to be giving a player like that a bunch of term. He's only been on the ice for 46% of the shot attempts this season for his career. He's only on the ice for 48% of the shot attempts when he is on the ice.

So again, that is a hard pass. I really don't think they should go out and get someone like Cassian. Same thing with Milan, Lu Cheech. It just, that doesn't need to happen. I mean, I've also seen people say Leo Komorov, probably not either. And also, I also thought this was a great tweet from CK404 Response Code. He tweeted this. If they had taken over last summer, Burke and Hextall, that is.

I have a feeling that Hornquist would still be here. Finding someone like him is probably the top of the. list this summer. And I 100% agree with that. Someone that can go to the dirty areas, be in front of the net, be a menace like that Tomas Holmstrom clone that Patrick Hornquist was. And also, you know, Hornquist was a very physical player, tough to play against. He would piss off everyone night in and night out. He never took any BS from any player. So I think that they're definitely going to try to replace him this summer. And again, Blake Coleman makes so much sense. It just comes down to can the penguins afford him. And you know, Zach Hyman would

make sense too, even though I doubt they could actually afford him. Blake Coleman, I think is a lot more affordable than Zach Hyman. Burke also had a couple other things to say. He says if Jari and DeSmith throws two goaltenders next year to start the season, he is good to go. I mean, what else do you expect him to say? People, yeah, yeah, Tristan Jari sucks. He's not going to be my goalie next year.

We're going to trade him. Oh, yeah, Casey DeSmith. Kind of fell off a little bit towards the end of the season and got hurt. We're going to trade him too. He sucks. I mean, I think people are just looking to be mad for the sake of being mad when, you know, a plet of hockey operations. or general manager says, those kind of things.

They're never going to openly go out and trash their players. That just brings their market down. I'm sure they know that they have to bring in another goalie that has starting experience to push Trish and Jari, but they're not going to say that out in public because it kills what they're planning for this off season. So I just had to tell everyone that, so hopefully no one gets mad.

Burke also says he used the term self-help multiple times in reference to the lack of calls by officials in the playoffs. He says you just can't rely on refs making the calls. making the calls. I mean, he is right. I mean, we all know the officiating has been pretty dog shit for most of these playoffs. I mean, honestly, not even most of them. I would say basically the entire Stanley Cup playoffs, but this is par for the course every single season. And I think Down Goes Brown from the athletic wrote a great article on this. I think it was last Friday when he talked about it. We don't notice some of this during the regular season because a lot of the casual fans don't

tune in for these games, you know, or when some of them do tune in, it's just the games don't mean as much because there's not as much on the line. But now when your team is in it, you're watching every single second of every single shift. You're going to pay a lot more attention. And that is why the officiating is getting called out a lot more in the playoffs. Because, you know, they obviously let a lot go. But, you know, they're also under a bigger microscope, I think is the word that I am looking for. But, you know, and again, I think Elliot Freeman, I was listening to 31 thoughts.

I'm so sorry for Suttering today. Everyone. I don't know what the hell is going on. But I was listening to 31 thoughts I think it was today And they were talking about The officiating Kenim and Jeff Merrick And my entire thought the whole time

It's like everyone This is how the league Wants these games to be called You know, the officials are just doing What Gary Bettman And his crew of miscreets want That is the reality Of the situation here

The league likes the way these games are called And they're going to keep telling the officiating To call the games as such I mean it doesn't get any more clear cut than that, in my opinion. Sure, you know, you're seeing some more power plays in overtime. You know, Miko Ranton and won the game. Game two against Vegas the other night in overtime on a pretty soft call that usually

they would let go in overtime, but they did not. I mean, you saw last night in a Tampa Bay Carolina game, Tampa Bay got a power play late in the third, and then going into overtime, it killed it off. And then Carolina gets a makeup call because that call was not good. And then Carolina wins it in overtime to get back into the series. But at least for those calls, you know, they're actually. actually doing their job of it and they're not letting some of these

calls. Go, even though, like I said, the Rainston 1, they let go 9 out of 10 times, but this one, I guess they heard some of the criticisms that, you know, Dom from the Athletic was sharing in an article and a whole bunch of other media members that cover the sport, you know, including myself, of course, basically on a nightly basis on Twitter.

And it does suck again that they are not made available to the media after the game. That is the biggest thing here. The N-Shell, they could 100% if they wanted to make the officials talk to the media after the game about, you know, non-calls and calls they made and everything in between, but they don't make them do that for, you know, a bunch of reasons.

Most normally that they're a bunch of cowards, in my opinion. So that is my little mini rant on the officiating and just everything going on. With that, and then, of course, with Brian Burke's quotes, coming up in the next segment, I'm going to touch a little bit on the playoffs right now, as well as that Mark Schifley suspension and just why I'm kind of sick and tired of all these Neanderthals, dirty hits for the sake of defending dirty hits. Before we do that, it's time to talk about VET Online. The fastest and easiest way is to bet on all your sports action.

Baseball season is in full sweet. You can track all the action at BetOnline. Get all the latest nudes and info for all your sporting needs, including MLB, NBA, and H&H on all your UFC action. Before the next pitch, head over to that Online on your laptop or phone and check out all the great story news. Send out bonuses and contest information. Don't send on the sidelines anymore as this is your chance to get into the game

as teams prep for their runs to the playoffs. Head to the website or use your phone to send up today and receive your 50% off welcome bonus on your first deposit. That's better online, your online sportsbook experts with promo code Lockdown. All right, welcome back to this episode of the Lockdown Penguins podcast. I'm your host, Hunter Hodes. Remember to follow me on Twitter at HonorHodys. Follow the show's Twitter at L.O. underscore Penguins.

So I wanted to just touch on some of the series around the league right now and also talk about the Mark Shifley suspension. I'm kind of sick and tired of doing this stuff with, you know, whether it's Shifley or Tom Wilson or, you know, his Nazim Khadri. basically on a weekly basis because, you know, I am glad that the Department of Player's Safety got this semi-right. You know, they gave him four games, which is almost the max for a phone hearing. Probably should have been an in-person hearing, you know, a competent player safety overall. Probably doesn't let him play the rest of the playoffs going into next season.

But I still think, you know, four games, almost five games for that hit. That's good for them because usually they would only give that like a one to two game suspension. They show that they were serious and that they want to get that kind of hit out of the league. I'm just really sick and tired of these Neanderthal redneck people with trucks in their bios on Twitter saying like, oh yeah, man, like that's just a clean hockey play. Like, this is how it was in the 80s. Like, who gives a shit? It's like you people just couldn't be more out of touch with the game even if you tried. And I am just so tired of those people commenting on hockey.

You know, these old-time hockey fans just really pissed me off. And that is not where this game is now and it's not where this game is going. So you either, basically, you know, for moneyball, adapt or die. So I'm really just tired of seeing all these bootlickers just always try to defend whatever dirty hit comes around. You know, whether, like I said, that's for Tom Wilson or Nazim Kod, or you're now with Mark Shifley. Or when any time a player makes a dirty hit, you know, there's always so many of these weirdos defending the player who made the hit when there really is no room to defend that player. You know, you're just as bad as George Perros and all the people like Colin Campbell and stuff like that for defending them. So I just, I'm really sick of it.

I don't like when that happens. But, you know, like I said, good on the Department of Player Safety for giving him a four-game suspension. He might be out for the rest of the series. We will see Montreal, of course, took game one. And I do think the HABs will get to the Stanley Cup semifinals, which is basically just pretty embarrassing that they're going to get that far, considering in a normal year that they would not even be in the Stanley Cup playoffs

if we had the regular divisions. Though we'll be back to those divisions next year, of course. But I did want to share my thoughts on the Shifley's It was just a gross hit. I feel bad for Jake Evans. I'm not really sure if he's going to play again this series, but I'm glad that he's doing okay. I know he was diagnosed with a concussion,

but he's not in the hospital anymore. I'm just, you know, what's it going to take to get these hits out of the game forever? Because, you know, just eventually, you know, someone's going to die on the ice if this keeps happening. And, you know, I'm sure there's going to be some weird bootlickers that continue to defend the player who hit him, even if a player somehow dies on the ice.

So I'm just, I've grown numb to this. I'm tired of debating it. just get these kind of trash hits out of the game for good, I think is my main thing. But overall, with the rest of the series, Carolina, Tampa has been a lot of fun to watch. Please tune into that. Tampa Bay is up two games to one and no Carolina, one game three. That series just reminds me a lot of like a big brother, little brother element where, you know, Tampa Bay, what I don't want to say this.

Carolina is really good and they are built the same way Tampa Bay is. It's just that Tampa Bay's elite players are better than Carol. excuse me, they're better than Carolina's elite players. So I think that's going to be the main difference in the series. And oh, yeah, everyone, Andre Vasselowski is still the best goaltender in the world. He has shown it through three games. But nice to see Carolina, get that win in game three last night after losing home ice. Sebastian Ahra won the game in overtime last night on the power play.

Colorado Vegas, I mean, well, what's more to say? Colorado is a buzzsaw. They're 6-0. They're trying to match the Pittsburgh Penguins for the best start for Instantly Cup playoffs history as the Penguins went 7 and 0 in 2008. I mean, everyone I think forgets just how good the penguins were before they went up against Detroit that year. They went 12 and 2 in the first three rounds of the Stanley Cup playoffs.

Remember, they swept, I think it was it, they swept Ottawa, they beat Philadelphia in five games, and then they beat the Rangers in five games. So 12 and 2 through their first 14 games. It looked like a buzzsaw. Then, of course, they ran into an actual buzzsaw in the Red Wings. And speaking of those OA Red Wings, this Colorado team is probably the best team I've ever seen since the OA Red Wings. I mean, this is the evolution of our game. You know, if you're not watching the Avalanche, I think you're doing yourself a disservice at this point.

I understand they play late, but this team is so much fun to watch. There are like many others. They're my mistress team. I watched Peter Forsberg so much growing up. He was my favorite player overall as a kid. And when the five players on the ice are Cal McCar, Devon, and Miko Ranson and Gabriel Alainisnton and Nathan McKinnon. Good luck stopping them, man.

I mean, and their depth is just so good, too, with Tyson Yost and Brandon Sade, who they got for pennies on the dollar, at J.T. Comfer, and Yonis, Don Skoy, and, of course, they have Grubauer-Net and then Nazim Kadri when he's not being an idiot, et cetera, et cetera. This team is just so talented. I don't think they're going to lose four out of five to Vegas. I think they may challenge the Penguins from 08 and go at least 12 and two going to the Stanley Cup final.

I really do want to see Tampa Bay, Colorado, and the file. And as for the Bruins Islander Series, Boston up two games to one. It is so weird continuing to see how the Islanders have this horseshoe stuck up their butts. I mean, I'm serious. Like, they were outshot 39, 24 going into the overtime last night. I think the shot attempts were like, I got to go look at the tweet, actually. Give me a second here. I have the tweet from last night.

So the shot attempts, 70 to 49, Boston, 32 to 14 in the third period. I mean, it's just like, what the hell are we doing here? I mean, this team is just the luckiest freaking team I think I've ever seen, like I said. You know, the only reason I got past Pittsburgh was because of the goaltending. You know, Varlamov played well last night, but let in the stinker when it really mattered most. I think Trots is probably going to go back to him for game four. I still have the Bruins in five or six games. But it is really just so frustrating to see how the Islanders continue to be in this series,

even though they're down two games to one, but continue to get outplayed virtually every game. just in this series, but overall in these playoffs. But I think you'll see a final four of Colorado, Montreal, and then Boston, Tampa Bay, which would basically be an Eastern Conference final in a lot of regular years. And then you'll have the others going to have a semi-final basically probably be a sweep. I honestly don't even know if Montreal beats Colorado once. And if they do, it's basically carry price carrying them to a win. But that'll do it for this episode of the Lockton Penguins podcast.

I appreciate all of you listening to this one. I'll be back on Monday for another episode. for this podcast. I hope you all the great rest of your weekend. Go out, enjoy the sun, go to a brewery. Things are really starting to open back up. If you haven't gotten vaccinated yet, go get your vaccine. It's trying to sign up for in the United States,

and I think it's in Canada as well. You know, concerts are getting announced. I'm actually planning on going to Guns and Roses in late July at Hershey Park. So just, you know, be on the lookout for lots of things. You know, we're getting close to the end of this. You know, there's a minute left in the Stanley Cup final and we're up three goals in the elimination game. We're basically just about there, but like I said, thank you all so much for listening to this one, and I'll be back on Monday with another one.