Locked On Penguins - Daily Podcast On The Pittsburgh Penguins - Sidney Crosby and his new kids shine in Penguins OT win!

Starting point is 00:00:00 Today on Locked-on Penguins, Sidney Crosby is Captain Clutch. Once again, Rutger Magrorty returns to the NHL. Vili Coivinen makes his debut and things down on the farm. They're looking pretty good. Hunter and I are going to get into all of that and more on this edition of the Locked-on Penguins podcast. 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 edition of the Locked-on Penguins podcast.

Starting point is 00:00:41 I'm one of your host, Patrick Damp. You can follow me across all social media platforms at Synonym 4Wet. Joined as always by the one and only, the illustrious Hunter Hodes. You can follow him on Twitter at Hunter Hodes. You can give our shows Twitter a follow at L.O. underscore Penguins. And of course, we appreciate you making us part of your daily routine. don't forget that we are free and available wherever you get your podcasts as well as YouTube and the Roku channel. Plus, if you follow us on YouTube, don't forget to hit the notification button.

Starting point is 00:01:15 That way you can be among the first to know when we drop our daily Monday through Friday episodes. And Hunter, I have got to steal a line from our good friend Chris Carter at Locked On Steelers, because it is a victory Monday, ladies and gentlemen. gentlemen, Sidney Crosby wins the game in overtime on Sunday afternoon against the Ottawa Senators giving the Penguins a one to nothing win over the aforementioned senators. And let's start there. Sydney Crosby, absolutely vintage performance on Sunday afternoon. We know that this team is probably buried.

Starting point is 00:01:58 They're not going to make the playoffs. Ottawa was going to make the playoffs. In Sunday's game was a Sunday afternoon game against a team not in the playoffs and a team in the playoffs. But despite everything else being an absolute slog, that wasn't going to slow down Sidney Patrick Crosby. He was locked in from the time the puck dropped until he buried a one-timer on Anton Forsberg in overtime to give the penguins the win.

Starting point is 00:02:28 but aside from just scoring the overtime winner, this was a great Sidney Crosby performance. He was locked in and physically, he was getting mixing it up with players in front of the net. Artem Zub in the third period, both him and Zubb go off for a couple of minutes because Sidney Crosby tries to tip a puck in front and Zub gets annoyed at Crosby being very good at hockey. I don't know what happened there, but never ever poke the bear, ladies and gentlemen, because not long after that, he draws a penalty at the end of regulation, leads to the power play in overtime, and then Sidney Crosby just absolutely puts the force of God behind that shot

Starting point is 00:03:12 and wins it for the Penguins. So Hunter, what would we call this game by Sidney Crosby? This is a vintage performance by Sidney Crosby. He was locked in from the opening puck drop, and you could tell right away that this was going to be a much better performance than what we saw against both Tampa Bay and against the lowly Buffalo Sabres. Though I will say the Sabers, they opened up a can of whoop ass today against the Washington Capitals.

Starting point is 00:03:39 They played very well against the Caps today. So I will say that, but you needed to see a response from everyone in this game after how poor these last two were. And you got that and then some, especially from Sidney Crosby. You would think at this point, Pat, 20 seasons in, every NHL player should know yeah probably shouldn't poke the bear that is Cindy Crosby

Starting point is 00:04:01 especially when he's been the best player on the ice all night long what a dumb play from Artem's do because as soon as I saw him kind of punching him and be like you know what you're gonna you're gonna regret that at the end of this game at some point sure enough Cindy Crosby unleashes a monstrous clapper

Starting point is 00:04:18 that goes right past Forsburg absolutely no chance for him on that and I do want to shout out Eric Carlson before that goal as well because he just missed an opportunity on another, by the way, brilliant cross-lice pass from Crosby. He was doing this all night, by the way, people. He was putting these pucks on a silver platter for players on his line, whether it was Rucker McGority, Brian Rust, whether it was Eric Carlson playing with him, Crystal

Starting point is 00:04:44 Tank, it didn't matter. He was that locked in delivering insane pass after insane pass. One of the best games of his season so far. It is crazy that he continues to do this at 37 years old. But still, what Carlson was able to do, Pat, he just missed the puck. He then spins out, is on his back, fires the puck to the point to set up the goal. Really great play there from Carlson. I did want to shout that out at the beginning of this show.

Starting point is 00:05:13 But this game was won by Cindy Crossby. Yeah, I know people. The Penguins played really good defensively. The Ottawa Center has got shut out in our year-in-lord 2020-5 by Tristan Jari. I had to do it. I had to. He more than responded after that awful game against Tampa Bay in Buffalo. It really feels like at this point, it's all or nothing when you evaluate Jari. Gives you either really good starts, especially after coming back up from Wilkesbury,

Starting point is 00:05:38 or he's just plain bad. We've gotten more, at least as a whole this year, we've gotten more of the plain bad starts compared to the really good starts. But tonight, he was really good. I will give him kudos for that. He gets a shout out for this one. And one last thing before I give this back to you. I was listening to the Lockdown Senator's postcast because Ross and Brandon, they are two very good friends of the network.

Starting point is 00:05:58 They do a great show. They called that Sydney Crosby play at the end of regulation a dive. I don't want to hear it. Your team has Tim Suntzlo, one of the biggest divers in the league. You have no room to talk in that situation. And oh, yeah, by the way, the Ryan Grades, Brady-Kachuk play, that should not have been a penalty. Brady Kachuk went off looking like he was badly hurt, was totally fine for the third period. It was a complete accident.

Starting point is 00:06:21 The NHG should be. reviewing that play right now, to be honest. So I don't want to hear it. The senators, I know they're going to go to the playoffs. I wish them well. I don't want to hear about officiating complaints in this game. Sorry. No, it was a fine, finely officiated game. I didn't have any issues with the officiating one way or the other. I do think that let's be completely honest here. It kind of feels like the Crosby penalty at the end was maybe a little bit of a understanding head nod. from the officials that, yeah, we probably shouldn't have called that on Ryan Graves, but we did.

Starting point is 00:06:57 It's not reviewable. So you got one waiting and you can get mad at the timing, but that was pretty obviously a penalty. So at the end of the day, if the penguins are as bad as people seem to say they are as we say they are on this very show, don't let them score in overtime. Pretty simple calculus there. But back to the actual action at hand, I do have to give a hat tip to Dr. and Jari. I know that we have buried him on this show. We have talked about them and relentlessly on this show. But if we're going to be honest, if we're going to do what we're supposed to do here and analyze this team is a great bounce back performance from him.

Starting point is 00:07:39 And you hit the nail on the head with Tristan Jari. At this point, it is either Vesna caliber performances or he is subprofessional. And again, I keep coming back to this with this team. It's something you've said. It's something I've said. They know where they're going this year. They know that this season is going to be a third straight year where they finish the year and they are not invited to the Stanley Cup playoffs. But there are a number of players top to bottom who continue to battle.

Starting point is 00:08:14 And after the way they got embarrassed by both Tampa Bay and then Buffalo, it would have been very, very easy for this team to throw it in the tank to just say, we're done. We got embarrassed in consecutive games. We're not going to the playoffs. Crosby got his record over Wayne Gretzky. There's really nothing left to play for this season. So we're just going to lay down and play this string out until we can go off to our cottages in Canada or hit the golf course.

Starting point is 00:08:48 down south or go on our vacations or do whatever it is we do in the off season. And they haven't done that. They played what I believe is a pretty good Ottawa Senators team. You said it on Friday. That is going to be a team that's going to be an extremely tough out for whoever they get in the first round. And the Penguins went blow for blow with them. Again, yeah, kind of a snoozer of a game through the first 60, but that's kind of how this Penguins team has to play teams like Ottawa.

Starting point is 00:09:16 They have to play well defensively. They can't take a lot of risks. They have to get some solid goal tending. And Tristan Jari provided that solid goal tending on Sunday. Yeah, I mean, I texted you this during the game. It kind of reminded me a little bit of the series between them in 2017, Pat Game 2, where remember, one chance. That was it.

Starting point is 00:09:37 Buck went in the back of the net. That's what it felt like was going to happen in this game as it kept playing out. A team was going to get one chance, bury it, and then the game was going to be over. That's exactly what happened. I know that game in 2017 was more of a slog just because of how the senators were trapping. And this game, yeah, the neutral zone was pretty clogged, but it was still an entertaining game to watch. Like, I really enjoyed watching this.

Starting point is 00:10:02 The Penguins were really good, especially in the third period, by the way. I mean, they were blitzing the senators pretty well in the third period. You look at the score effects, Pat, 15 scoring chances for one again, set five on five in the third period. Penguins were fantastic in during those 20 minutes. Also, eight high danger chances for, not against. One of the best defensive performances I've seen from the penguins in quite some time. We haven't said that a lot on the show this year. And rightfully so, by the way, with how bad this team is in their own zone.

Starting point is 00:10:30 But I will give them credit for this game. Yeah, it was part of it because the Senators played yesterday. Sure, they had a big win against Columbus on Saturday. Back-to-back with travel. I get it. But I will still not take credit away from here from the Penguins. I thought they played a very structured game, a very discipline game, and they were rewarded with that Cindy Crosby goal in overtime.

Starting point is 00:10:51 They got the goaltending. They got everything that I wanted to see from this game, especially the response. That's the main thing I wanted to see. And we got that and then some. And I think we got to talk about the kids here coming up in the second segment, don't we? And Hunter, it's how you know we have done. I think we're coming up on about 400 of these shows together. So this is how you know we've been doing it.

Starting point is 00:11:13 this long because Hunter knew exactly what my transition was going to be. I know why you're here. You know why you're here. You want to hear about the kids who played in the game tonight. Well, Sunday, I should say, we're recording this on Sunday night because Hunter has to get on a plane early on Monday morning. So we're getting this done early and often. But when we come back, we will talk about the NHL debut of Billy Coivinen and the return to the NHL of Rutger Magrorty. We will do that when we come back. So stick. with us, but first we've got to tell you about today's first sponsor, and that is Fandul. March Madness is here, and Fandul is giving you the chance to get in on the action like never

Starting point is 00:11:53 before. Right now, new customers can get $200 in bonus bets when your first $5 bet wins. That's 200 extra bucks on everything from buzzer beaters to Cinderella stories and even who is cutting down the nets. If your brackets busted, Fandul is the best place for you to stay in on the action with the tournament games happening nearly every single day, there's always something exciting to bet on. So visit fandul.com and get it on the college hoops action all tournament long. That's fandul.com, America's number one sports book.

Starting point is 00:12:27 All right, we're back here on the Monday edition. That's right, Monday edition, Victory Monday edition, mind you. I'm Patrick Damp alongside Hunter Hodes. And no longer should we delay the inevitable hunt. the kids, they're starting to come up to the big club. And that started tonight, Sunday night, with Vili Coivinen and Rutger McGroherty. And before we actually talk about their performance, we have to talk about the comments of Kyle Dubus, who essentially, again, Kyle, Kyle, we appreciate you listening to this show, man,

Starting point is 00:13:07 and really just pushing back on us when we say things without mentioning us. Because I know we both said, we want this to be a cup of coffee for the two of them. We want them to play a couple of games and then head back to Wilkes-Bair and get ready for the Calder Cup playoffs. And Kyle basically said, no, that's not happening. These guys are pretty much going to be here for the rest of the season. And then they're going to go back to Wilkes-Bair, which Jay Caulfield brought this up, I believe either in the pregame or in one of the intermissions, he said pretty much

Starting point is 00:13:38 the way the schedule lines up, that's perfectly fine because the NHL season. will come to an end, then the Calder Cup playoffs will get going. So these guys are going to get a little bit of runway about nine or so games under their belt of NHL hockey. Obviously, McRourty got kind of, I don't want to say forced into the lineup early in the year, but injuries kind of made them say, okay, you know what? We can let him play a few games before we send him to Wilkes. And now Vili Coivinen comes up.

Starting point is 00:14:08 He's going to get valuable experience. So really excited to see what they bring. over the next couple of weeks, especially this is going to be one of the most silly, intangible things I ever say on this show. But look where the penguins put Rutger McGrady and Vili Coivinen in the locker room. They are both right next to Sidney Crosby. So that tells you what they think about these two kids. That is 100% by design and they want Crosby to at least sort of a little bit as a mentor to them because they see these two kids as contributors heading in the next season.

Starting point is 00:14:47 Now, I've said on this show a lot. I think they are going to make the team next season. I think they're going to be on this team full time next season with how they have developed in Wilkesbury this year. And in terms of both of their performances tonight, let me start with Willie Coyvenin. I loved his first period. He does all the little things, right? That's the thing I really noticed with his game, Pat.

Starting point is 00:15:07 Like, for example, he had a nice little stick lift on Drake Batherson in the first period that prevented a scoring chance. he was sniffing around the goal mouth on one of the power plays getting a couple good chances around there he showed also a little bit of that creativity in his game as well he also has great vision i saw that on display tonight too he was always in the perfect position every time he was on the ice i usually use this next term when i'm talking about like you know pro video game players and stuff like that but it's going to sound a little bit weird whatever he has such great game sense or hockey IQ if you want to call it that like You can tell he's trying to outthink some of these players on the ice.

Starting point is 00:15:45 And I saw all that on display tonight or last night as well. So I really liked Billy Coivinen's performance. I liked how many minutes he got at five on five. And the same goes for Rucker McGority. You saw at the end of the third period, Pat, Mike Sullivan put him out there at the very end with Cindy Crosby and Brian Ross. I know some people are going to be surprised by that with how, you know, some people think he's treated younger players and stuff like that.

Starting point is 00:16:08 And, you know, we do think he can definitely be better in that regard. But I think to me, at least through this one game, that shows me, okay, he's throwing him to the wolves a little bit. And he's seeing how he's going to develop at the NH level. You mentioned it, Pat. Both of them are next to Sidney Crosby in the locker room. They are going to be getting a lot of chances here down the stretch, mainly because these games really don't mean that much, just standings-wise. Like, yeah, players-wise, these guys are playing for contracts. either on the Penguins or on next year's team and all that other stuff.

Starting point is 00:16:42 But they're giving them these looks because management knows they're not going to make the playoffs. So why not bring them up, have them play here, they've earned it. And then you can go back down to Wilkesbury and continue that bond. It's funny, after we recorded that episode on Friday, we discussed like, oh, they're going to come up here for a cup of coffee and stuff. Josh Yulia of the athletic said that he heard like, oh, yeah, they're going to come up here for the rest of the season. It was literally 20 minutes after we post the episode.

Starting point is 00:17:08 So I love how that timing comes out. It's just really funny how it is. But still, I get the move, and I'm excited to see what they can do here down the stretch. As for McGority, more my thoughts on him. I think his skating is worlds better than where it was at the beginning of the season. You can see him really working on it throughout the year in Wilkesbury. And I still think that first first person needs a little bit of work. But he is by far and away, such a better skater now.

Starting point is 00:17:36 It's not even close. I saw him also going around the first. front of the net. I saw him getting mixed up with Zube also at the end of the third period. I loved that he took a little bit of a run at him, kind of saying like, hey, I know I'm the new guy here, but you're not going to treat my captain like that. There's no way you're going to do that. And I just felt he played a really, this is going to also get to sound like a very intangible statement as well, Pat. He played a really honest game. I never really say that on the show, but he was really good in all three zones. He had a couple of good scoring chances.

Starting point is 00:18:05 There was one in particular, though, Pat, where he passed up a goal. an opportunity deep in the offensive zone. And I'm like, Rucker, I know you're trying to help out Cindy Crosby here, but be selfish. Take that shot. I think he'll learn that as he keeps going here, but a really nice return to the NHL for him. And also, happy birthday. That was his 21st birthday today. Had a really good quote about this after the game. He said about playing NHL game and skating on the top line with Crosby on his 21st birthday. He says, I love my parents and my sister and my girlfriend, but no present they have ever gotten me could live up to that. Just a fan-tastic quote.

Starting point is 00:18:42 All in all, really liked their efforts tonight, man. Yeah, I was a big fan of both of them in this game. I thought they, they did, this will be another sort of intangible way of describing it. They did not look out of place. They looked like they belonged.

Starting point is 00:18:57 And obviously, it's one game. You know that they're going to have that adrenaline rush. They're going to be so excited to be playing in the NH on the big club and in prominent roles. They weren't just eased into it. They got thrown off the deep end as soon as this game began. And to your point, they did not get buried at all by Mike Sullivan tonight.

Starting point is 00:19:22 When you look at the Penguins time on ice tonight, Crosby leads the way 2135, Brian Rust, not far behind him, 2118, Ricard Raquel, 1918. So you expect those three to be in and around the ice time leaders when it comes to forwards. When you look at who is fourth in ice time, Billy Coyvenin, 17 minutes, 28 seconds. Whose fifth? Rutger Magrorty 1657. So these guys were given an opportunity and I really think they both,

Starting point is 00:19:55 they both showed really well that they deserved it. And just to add on to that, the underlying numbers for both lines tonight, whether Coyvin was on the Raquel line or Magrorty was on the Crosby line, they more than matched the eye test. Those two lines were living in the offensive zone all night. The Magrory Crosby, Russ line, Pat, 77% of the shot attempts at 5 on 5 when they were out there.

Starting point is 00:20:15 Also, 18 scoring chances for, three scoring chances against, 10 high danger chances for, one high danger chance against for the Coivvin line with Rickelle and Connor Dewar. They had 63% of the shot attempts. They also had six scoring chances for, four scoring chances against, two high danger chances for, two high danger chances against. They were, both lines were very strong tonight. There was also one point in the third period.

Starting point is 00:20:39 Billy Coyven had a nice deflection attempt off of an Eric Carlson shot from the point. Really nice saying from Anton Foresburg. Completely changed direction was going to the other side of the net, but I really liked that play from him as well. But both lines tonight, the numbers more than match the eye test. Give me more of it. And you brought up the chance in the third period deep in the office. zone where Rucker McGrady passes it low, tries to pass it low, at least to Sidney Crosby.

Starting point is 00:21:07 That is going to come with time. He is going to understand that. And I don't care who you are. We have seen it with every line mate that Sidney Crosby has had early on. Even Jake Gensel, even though he burst onto the scene with the two-goal performance, as the games continued and progressed for the first few weeks, you would see he would start, he would start to defer to Crosby. That conversation is probably happening right now when they go to practice.

Starting point is 00:21:37 And it probably happened after the game where Crosby's sitting there with an iPad next to McGority and just going, hey, right here, I don't exist. Shoot the puck. Yep. You don't need to get me the puck here. Go shoot. And as for Coyvenin, the thing I noticed more than anything, you brought it up a little bit. I'll put this in hockey terms.

Starting point is 00:21:58 Really good. hockey IQ. The puck was he never got behind the puck. He never got behind the play. He was always making the simple smart decision with the puck. And when he got scoring opportunities, whether it was the Ottawa defense or Anton Forsberg, they were there to stop it. It wasn't like he was getting, you know, crappy little shots from the outside, playing overly simple to where, I'm just going to flick this puck on net because it's the simple, easy thing to do. He was going for it. He had a chance early in the game where he was right in front on the power play, might I add, where he just posted up in front and got a nice little look and a little bit

Starting point is 00:22:40 of a net mouth scramble doesn't fall for him. But that's a good sign for a young player making his NHL debut that not only is he on the power play, but he's making impact plays like that with the man advantage. If we get more of that down the stretch, not only is it going to help Wilkes-Bare and their efforts to get to the Calder Cup final. When he comes up for training camp and we get into next year, he brings that level of smarts and confidence. I'm with you. This kid's probably going to be on the team.

Starting point is 00:23:12 100%. As of right now, I would pencil them in on next year's opening night roster. When you look at the free agents, you look at moves that Kyle Dubus might make. Rossarmo moving out a couple of veterans and all that. As of right now, I would have them on the team.

Starting point is 00:23:26 But yeah, you took the words right out of my mouth, man. They were both really good tonight, and I'm excited to see more here down the stretch. I can just only hope that they continue getting that same ice time from ice solvent. And I think they will again. Like, you as a team, you know, they know they're not making the playoffs. So you might as well just give them every single opportunity that they need before they go down to Will Experry and help the baby penguins try and win a Calder Cup. But yeah, that's all I have on that.

Starting point is 00:23:53 Unfortunately, we won't be able to get another look at them for a few. days because the penguins get themselves a nice little break here. They are off until Thursday night when they go to St. Louis to take on a pretty hot blues team. So we got to wait until Thursday to get another look at these guys. But our first look really solid, really, really encouraging look for Vili Coivinen and for Rucker McGrady really erased a lot of doubts for what we had early in the season what we wanted him to work on really seems to look like the process has borne the fruit we would like it to bear. But that is going to do it for our middle segment.

Starting point is 00:24:36 When we come back, a little bit more talk about what's going on in the farm system because there's a lot of news going on with both the baby penguins and the boys in the wheel, the wheeling nailers. We'll get into that when we come back. But first we got to tell you a couple sponsors. So stick with us. We'll be right back. after this.

Starting point is 00:24:59 All right, welcome back. It's the Monday edition of Locked on Penguins, a victory Monday, ladies and gentlemen, enjoy it. The week always goes a little bit better when you start it off with a win in the Steel City.

Starting point is 00:25:11 But let's start Hunter, this final segment. I have to, I got to talk about this one because it hits me right in the fields, because it's great news for the organization for the Wheeling Naylor's. Naylor's head coach, Derek Army, is now the winningest coach in the history of the Wheeling Naylor's franchise passing Clark Donatelli. That happened on Saturday after their win. They got another win on Sunday.

Starting point is 00:25:42 So his 148th gave him sole possession of first place. And then just a day after he adds to it with 149. Here's where this gets me. Army was a massive part of the Wheeling Nailers when I was still an employee of the team. He was a fan favorite. He was one of the best players on the team. The guy was a go-to guy when they made their run to the Kelly Cup finals in 2016. And just a genuinely good dude.

Starting point is 00:26:20 He is somebody who, when you think. quintessential nice hockey person you think of Derek Army he was the kind of guy who understood he was the kid who got the job at the candy store when it didn't matter that it was the ECHL it didn't matter that it was Wheeling West Virginia this guy knew how lucky he was to be a professional hockey player he got to know everybody in the organization including myself and he was always gracious, always a nice person, always grateful for the efforts we put in. I'll never forget,

Starting point is 00:27:02 I had a conversation with him. I believe it was when we were in Allen, Texas for the Kelly Cup final, after they unfortunately dropped it to the Allen Americans and were not victorious. Everybody was out on the town because we didn't fly out until the next morning, me and a couple of the staff for having a couple beers, having a conversation. And we see some of the guys on the team on the other end of the bar. He walks down.

Starting point is 00:27:29 He's like, oh, come on down and hang out with us and talk to us. I was like, Derek, we're not part of the team. That's you guys. You guys go do that thing. And he goes, guys, you're selling tickets. You're putting butts in the seats. You're making sure things run day to day. You're just as part of as much a part of this as we are.

Starting point is 00:27:44 Get down here. And we were just like, well, we can't say no to that. So congratulations to him and congratulations to the nailers who with a victory on Sunday have clinched a spot in the Kelly Cup playoffs. So a lot of good things happening in the farm system right now, Hunter. Yeah. So we have Wheeling and Wilkesbury to discuss once the Pittsburgh penguin season ends in a few weeks. We'll be tracking Wheeling throughout the Kelly Cup playoffs and then Wilkesbury through the Calder Cup playoffs.

Starting point is 00:28:14 For willing though, man, Taylor Godier continues to be awesome. one year after winning the ECHL goaltender of the yearboard. He has played in 27 games this year, one more than Sergey Mershov, who unfortunately, Pat, he has now lost an HL game, wasn't going to last forever. He still played very well today, but he did lose that 11-game winning streak in the HL today to the Charlotte Checkers. Petal Gordier, he has played 27 games. He has a 2.06 goals against average in a 9-28 Sabres for Wheeling.

Starting point is 00:28:45 He will be the guy for Wheeling in the playoffs. I'm excited to see what he can do once again for Wheeling once those playoffs start. Also do want to shout out Harrison Brunick. First H.L game on Saturday gets his first point on the game-winning goal to Vasily Ponamara. Really nice job there. It wasn't anything like spectacular or anything. They won the face off. He got it from the point, gave it to Pondamara who fired a wicked rister to win the game.

Starting point is 00:29:11 Just really nice stuff. Gets the point there. I will say he did have a pretty big welcome to the H.L-type moment. the second period. He tried to bank the puck off at the back of the net to himself. And one of the players was like, oh, yeah, you're not going to do that. I'm going to take that puck from you. And I'm going to score milliseconds later. The player was kind of like, yeah, you can do that in junior league. Welcome to the pros, though, buddy. You're not going to do that here.

Starting point is 00:29:33 And you can tell right away, like when that happened, he kind of looked up and it was like, oh, crap. Yeah, I'm going against pros now. So he learned from that. And he had that really nice assist to help win the game a bit later. but still had a pretty big welcome to the pros moment in that second period. But still, nice for him to get the assist for Wilkesbury. Yeah, I saw that clip. And then you could also see it because I went back and watched some of it after that. And you could kind of see like you said, he looked up after the goal like, oh boy, I'm in the pros now.

Starting point is 00:30:06 This isn't the W anymore. But then you could see he simplified his game. He started to really center himself. And that's another good sign. like we talked about in the second segment. He understood that he made a mistake. He learned from it. I played a solid game as well after that.

Starting point is 00:30:24 So we've got two minor league teams to track in the postseason. But I got to give this one last shout out for the nailers here. Clinching their spot, huge, huge couple of wins this past weekend for them. They get a two nothing win on Friday against the Cincinnati Cyclones. They follow that up with a four one. win over Cincinnati to give Derek Army the winningest record in Wheeling Naylor's history. And then on Sunday, three to win over the great, great name here. The Bloomington Bison, great name.

Starting point is 00:31:00 They get a three to win over them. They are in the Kelly Cup playoffs. We obviously know the baby penguins are in the Calder Cup playoffs. So the system is starting to bear a little bit of fruit here. so we're going to keep our eyes on all of these players, both of these teams, and make sure you are up to date once the penguin season ends. But that is going to do it.

Starting point is 00:31:23 I do have one more shout out to end this. I can't believe I most forgot about this. Penn State going to the Frozen 4. I know we have some Penn State alums that probably listen to this show, since we all know Penn State is very close to Pittsburgh. Massive school, I had friends from my high school that went to Penn State. I know how crazy that fan base is. But congratulations to Penn State.

Starting point is 00:31:43 They're going to the Frozen Four. That was an awesome game winning goal. I didn't watch the game, of course, because I was watching the Penguins game. But that was a fantastic goal to win it. There's one other thing that happened in that Penn State Yukon game. And Hunter, this is your homework before you get on the plane. And this is everybody's homework before they finish this episode. A player on Yukon tried to go for a Michigan and got blind.

Starting point is 00:32:13 blown up by a Penn State defenseman. One of the biggest, cleanest hits I have ever seen. And you've got to seek that out. It was awesome. So congratulations to Penn State for getting into the Frozen Four. But now that is going to do it for this edition of the Locked-on Penguins podcast. We will be back with a brand new episode for you on Tuesday. Hunter will be coming to you live to tape from the Dominican Republic.

Starting point is 00:32:41 I will still be in my beautiful office. here, but we will have an episode for you on Tuesday. Until then, thank you as always for tuning in for Hunter Hodes. I'm Patrick Damp. We will talk to you tomorrow.

Locked On Penguins - Daily Podcast On The Pittsburgh Penguins - Sidney Crosby and his new kids shine in Penguins OT win!

There aren't comments yet for this episode. Click on any sentence in the transcript to leave a comment.