Locked On Penguins - Daily Podcast On The Pittsburgh Penguins - Sidney Crosby delivers a VINTAGE goal for the Penguins on Wednesday!

Episode Date: January 30, 2025

The Pittsburgh Penguins ended their seven-game road trip on a high note as Sidney Crosby lifted his team over the Utah Hockey Club with a gorgeous OT goal. Hunter and Patrick break down the franchise's first victory over Utah and look at how Sid continues to kick butt with special moments like these. They also dive into Erik Karlsson's mixed performance and how he was able to redeem himself with a goal and a really underrated play in overtime. After that, they dive into the play of goaltender Alex Nedeljkovic and the timely saves that he made before looking towards the future with a WBS update! Vasily Ponomarev and Ville Koivunen were outstanding on Wednesday, could they be getting the call soon? All that, plus much more is on this episode of the Locked On Penguins podcast.Support Us By Supporting Our Sponsors! GametimeDownload the Gametime app, create an account, and use code LOCKEDONNHL for $20 off your first purchase. Terms apply. Download Gametime today. What time is it? Gametime.FanDuelSuper Bowl 59 is here, And there’s no better way to make every play more exciting than with FanDuel Sportsbook. New customers can bet just FIVE DOLLARS, and if you win, you’ll score TWO HUNDRED BUCKS in Bonus Bets. Download the app or head to FANDUEL.COM to get started.  Bet with FanDuel—Official Partner of Super Bowl Fifty-Nine. FANDUEL DISCLAIMER: 21+ in select states. First online real money wager only. Bonus issued as nonwithdrawable free bets that expires in 14 days. Restrictions apply. See terms at sportsbook.fanduel.com. Gambling Problem? Call 1-800-GAMBLER or visit FanDuel.com/RG (CO, IA, MD, MI, NJ, PA, IL, VA, WV), 1-800-NEXT-STEP or text NEXTSTEP to 53342 (AZ), 1-888-789-7777 or visit ccpg.org/chat (CT), 1-800-9-WITH-IT (IN), 1-800-522-4700 (WY, KS) or visit ksgamblinghelp.com (KS), 1-877-770-STOP (LA), 1-877-8-HOPENY or text HOPENY (467369) (NY), TN REDLINE 1-800-889-9789 (TN) Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

Cindy Crosby was the hero for the Pittsburgh Penguins on Wednesday night as they snapped their losing streak. Pat and I are going to recap that game. Plus recap Wilkesbury's crazy night against Hershey right after this. 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'm one of your host, Hunter Hodes. You can follow me on Twitter at Hunter Hodes. joined by my coast, Patrick Damp, you can follow him on all social media platforms at

Send him for Wet, and you can follow these shows Twitter at L.O. Understore Penguins, of course, thank you all so much for making this your first listen slash watch of the day. We are free and available on all platforms. And finally, this episode is brought to you by Game Time, down the GameTime app, create an account and use code locked on NHL for $20 off your first purchase. So, Pat, Penguins 3, Utah Hockey Club 2, as the Penguins were able to snap their losing streak and end this road trip on at least a little bit of a high night.

They end the road trip overall with a three and four record heading back to Pittsburgh on Thursday. And Pat, what type of goal was Sidney Crosby's overtime winter last night? I believe we call that a vintage Sydney Crosby goal hunter. What a beautiful, beautiful goal by him. We'll get to it. I don't want to jump ahead here. But man, that no one else can, well, I don't want to say no one else can do that.

but at the very least, no one else can resurrect his team quite like Sid comes right off the bench. Just a beautiful move cuts to the front of the net. Once he went to the backhand there, you knew it was over. Like you knew he was scoring there. He's not going to miss from there at all. And he made John Marino look like a pile on there, if I'm being completely honest. And he made the rest of the Utah skaters look also pretty silly there. And goaltender, Connor Ingram, just a beautiful move. and I'll also say this. I know this Penguins team is not very good.

I'm well aware of that. You are well aware of that. Everyone that watches this team is well aware of that. I will never get tired of watching Cindy Crosby do his thing at age 37. The fact that he is still able to pull off moves like this at 37 is crazy. He is still one of the best players in the league. And he has been fantastic for the last week plus really putting the team on his back. Yeah, I know.

they only had a three and four road trip, but he was, in my opinion, the best player of this road trip. Caps off that road trip in style, at least with this game, at least gets the game winner for the Penguins head back to Pittsburgh. Really beautiful stuff there in a game that the Penguins really needed considering how their last three games went. Yeah. Listen, this doesn't suddenly make the road trip success.

It still will go down as a complete disaster given the way they performed in California. but at the end of the day, we said it on the show yesterday, that they needed this trip to end with some good vibes. It's not a short plane ride back from Utah to Pittsburgh. So at the very least, they're on the plane right now or they were last night, and they're feeling a little bit better about themselves. Now, I will say this. Let's jump into the game here.

This had the makings of another disaster. They did not start particularly well. they give up the first goal again. And yeah, they battle back a couple times. But through about 40 minutes, this was not a very good performance by the penguins. And they deserve full marks for being able to pull themselves up and figure out a way to not only get one point, but get the second point in overtime. And they deserve their kudos for that.

But this was not some, oh, they got goalieed for 60 minutes and they were able to finally break through an overtime kind of game. It wasn't a, oh, these teams are trading punches back and forth and the team who scores last wins kind of game. This is a game where for about 40 minutes, man, the penguins just like the last couple games looked like they had minimal interest in being there. I will say, Pat, I'll push back a little bit because the first period, I agree. They were horrendous in that period.

They were stuck on four shots for what felt like in eternity that Utah was really taking to them. They get the early lead. But the Penguins in their second period, to their credit, really push back. They were getting a lot of good offensive zone time. They get the time goal thanks to a good bounce from Marcus Pedersen. Really nice shot, by the way, from Patterson. But then a couple of minutes later, that's all it really took for the Penguins to kind of brain fart in their own zone. Well, in the offensive zone at first, but then it turned into a brain fart in their own zone because it led to a breakaway. Eric Carlson, really not sure what he was doing with his awareness there leads to a breakaway. Ned makes the first save.

wasn't able to make the second save. And we'll discuss more about Eric Carlson's performance in just a second because I felt like he played the worst game of his season in probably the last four to six weeks, but then he gets to go and does some also really good things in overtime. So a little bit of a mixed bag, even though I still feel like in general, he really wasn't that good in this game. But again, going back to the second period, I felt the penguins deserved a little bit of a better fate heading into the third.

I don't think they deserve to be down after that period. They definitely deserve their fate after the first period. But to their credit, they battle back in the third. They're able to tie the game. Thanks to Eric Carlson, really nice release, by the way, the way he was able to come down the right side of the offensive zone, fire an absolute snite past Connor Ingram. And then they're able to get that extra point in overtime.

That's the first time they've come back from a third period deficit heading into the third period since last season. It's been that long. Yeah, it's a huge momentum boost. Again, I don't think this is suddenly going to propel this. team to some crazy run where they force their way back into the playoff picture. But at the very least, we talk about this all the time is there's a lot of guys here who are playing for the trade deadline.

Do you want to be a guy that other teams covet and you can go on a Stanley Cup run with them? Do you want to be a guy who's part of the short or long term solution in Pittsburgh over the next few years and show that you have value here? The team should take a chance on you. as for Eric Carlson, if this isn't the most Eric Carlson game to ever Eric Carlson, I don't know what is. Because you look at the way he played the majority of the night. It was like you said, probably his worst performance in four to six weeks, not making good decisions with the puck, not making good decisions with his positioning,

making very puzzling pinches and taking very unnecessary risks at times when he doesn't need to. you know, if they would have been down 2-0, 3-0, 4-0-0, I will give him all the wiggle room in the world because your job as Eric Carlson is to drive offense. You're not a stay-at-home, shut-down defensemen. But when you're in a tight game, you've got to make the correct decisions to keep your team within striking distance. And he made, I can't even explain what he did on Carconi's goal that was just it had you shaking your head. But then he makes up for it with an absolute snipe against Connor Ingram. And I loved, I loved his quote post game because this is the kind of confidence only an Eric Carlson type player can have saying, I probably could have passed it to pull Yarvey there,

but I have four goals on the year. I have to start scoring some goals. I don't get down there too often, so I decided to take my opportunity. And, you know, listen, we understand he has been somewhere between disappointing, frustrating, and below what our expectations were for him when he was acquired. But this is the kind of Eric Carlson confidence you want to see. You want him to say, hell, it was how we explained the power play struggles last year where we said, forget being nice to Sidney Crosby, forget being nice to Chris Latang. being nice to any number of players on this roster. You are Eric Carlson.

Go be Eric Carlson. No, I agree. And you saw that snipe. I want him to be more selfish. I feel like he hasn't shot the puck as much as he should this year. He has a really good shot. And I want him to utilize it more. And then you saw an overtime, too.

The Penguins were out there in their own zone for pretty long shift. Carlson, you could tell was gas. But I like the way that he was able to kind of pin his defender and the puck along the boards, force Utah to come out of the zone. He was able to get a change. And yes, Utah's still on the puck, but it was only for a few more seconds before the penguins got the puck back,

and then they were able to eventually win that game. Thanks to Sidney Crosby. I was a really underrated play. I felt like from Eric Carlson in that game, especially in overtime, because he was able to help eventually get the penguins, the puck back in overtime and help them get that extra point.

Also, I should clarify a stat pat that I just had a few minutes ago. This was the third win of this season, when trailing after two periods. Remember the King's game and the first Ducks game. So just want to clarify that from my notes. I was a complete more on in brain farted when I said that this was the first time they've come back trailing after two periods since last season. They've done it twice this season. So just wanted to have full transparency for all the listeners and watchers out there. But Pat, do you have anything else to add before we headed the second segment here?

Yeah, we appreciate you being transparent known in your mistakes. I think the stat you're thinking of, and I just pulled this up is from Bob Grove from last night where he said across all his social media is because I think Bob Grove doesn't actually write things down. It's all in his head. He just knows everything that happens ever because he's apparently just an encyclopedia. But he said even though Utah is technically a new franchise, the Penguins have never, have never won a game. They trailed after two periods against Phoenix, Arizona, Utah.

they are 012 and 1 with one tie in the previous 14. That's the one. I apologize. That was probably the stat that you had in your head. So it's easy to get those mixed up because, let's be honest, for the most part, this has been another pretty disappointing season for the Pittsburgh Penguins. Yeah, no, 100%. And you're right. That was the exact stat I was thinking of.

So I wanted to apologize to everyone. Pat had that stat. And then I was able to clarify the other stat that I had in my notes for today's show. But that would do it for the first segment. Coming up in the second segment, we're going to discuss Alex Ndilkevich's really strong game, plus a couple of other players who I felt were really good in this game as well. But before we get to that, we got to tell you all about our first sponsor, and that is game time. Attending NFL playoff games is an unforgettable experience

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So Pat, when we were previewing this game for the Wednesday edition of the show, I was kind of like, okay, I want to see what Y'all Blumquist can do for this game because Ned's been getting a lot of starts. he was fine against San Jose. He was not the reason they lost. But I still wanted them to potentially see what Blumquist could do to at least close out this road trip just because you know, you send Jari down to Wilkesbury, you bring Blumquist up.

But he hasn't really played too many of these games. I understand that Mike Sullivan has a plan. But I kind of want to see Blumquist get more starts considering the level that he's played at this year. So when they announced Ned, I was kind of like, oh, like, really? You're not going to give the kid a shot here. But hey, I will admit I was wrong about that one because Ned played really well last night. They made a lot of great timely saves, especially in the third period,

Pat were when Utah was trying to either, A, extend the lead when they were up two to one, or B, try to take the lead when the penguins were tied after Eric Carlson had his big goal. And he came up with timely save, and that's the type of goal toning again that this team really has needed throughout this season. They really haven't gotten a lot of these timely saves,

especially in the third period, where it's a tight game, and I feel like that's really cost the penguins, some valuable points in the standings. But to his credit, Ned was able to give them those saves last night, really good stuff from him. I just get a little bit worried because I don't want them to overwork him. I feel like when he gets overworked and you saw that down the stretch last season, even though the Penguins were winning more games,

his game kind of starts to deteriorate a little bit. So I just don't want them to play him too often. And then Blumquist is just kind of sitting on the bench like, hey, you know, I'm also here. But I'm sure they'll have a plan for these final four games before the Four Nations faceoff. But I will say credit to Ned really. strong performance last night. Yeah, a couple of things that I want to go over with Ned. First,

let's talk about the performance. I mean, Utah only gets, I believe it was nine shots in the third period, but you pull up natural statric and they got five high danger chances in the third period. So Alex Nadelkovich didn't get a lot of work in the third period, but he got enough work where he had to make a bunch of big saves to keep the penguins in it. And he passed that test with flying colors. So you have to be very, very encouraged about that. And as for the workload for both of these goleys, I kind of have an operating theory as we get closer to the four nations face off. One, I'm starting to get the sense that they think there's going to be a market for Alex Nadalcovic at the trade deadline. So they're probably

giving him the lion's share of the starts and hoping these performances continue because of the last week he has been very solid. Is he a bona fide number one goalie? No, but if you're a team that maybe needs a little bit of juice in goal or you need an insurance policy in case you have an injury and goal, there's an affordable deal waiting to be had in Alex Nadelcovic in Pittsburgh. So I had kind of starting to kind of have that thought as well. I also think they're probably doing this in the sense that they're probably going to put Blumquist back in Wilkes-Bair once the Four Nations face-off happens so he can actually play more rather than just take a vacation. So I wouldn't be shocked to see him sent back down come the Four Nations face-off. But obviously, we'll see what happens with that.

But at the end of the day, I loved his performance last night. there really can't you can't blame him for any of Utah's two goals and he made the saves he needed to make when he was called upon. So liked his performance and it wouldn't shock me like I said if they're showcasing him a little bit ahead of the first deadline before the Four Nations face off. And then if nothing happens then after and to wait when we get to the actual trade deadline. And then in that case, if they were to train Adelkevich, I'm guessing. your tandem would just be Jari and Blumquist. And I mean, I would still give Blumquist a lion's share of the starts considering what we've seen from Jari, especially for the final month of the season where, again, we don't think they're going to make

the playoffs. If that's the route that they choose, Pat, which I think for me, it's a little more unlikely, in my opinion, just because I think of the two you would rather trade Jari, but I understand that Ned is probably easier to deal. But if you were to have that as a tandem, I would want to see the young kid. in games down the stretch, even though I don't think they're going to make the playoffs. That's still someone that I want to see get meaningful reps heading into next season, where I feel like he could potentially get like a full split of the reps, maybe even a bit more,

et cetera. And if they do send Blumquist down during the Four Nations face off break, that does create a little bit of a logjam unless you're sending Marishaw back to Wheeling. And we'll get to Marischov in a second because of how great he played last night against Hershey. Pat, he's now lighting up the AHL. Like his AHL numbers are ridiculous. Hasn't lost a game.

His save percentage is ridiculous and only four starts. So that would create another logjam, but I at least get what you're saying, that he could potentially get more reps down there during that time. A lot of this, I feel like is pretty fluid, in my opinion. So, but overall, really like Ned's game, we'll have to see if he gets another start this weekend against the Predators. The Penguins will play four more games for the Four Nations faceoff. And I also want to shout out Marcus Pedersen for this game.

I felt like against the sharks had that really bad turnover that led to a goal against. He responded really well in this game. He was really good in his own zone. Gets a little bit of offense going, especially with that shot to first tie the game for the Penguins before Utah took the lead a bit later in that game. But I felt like he played a really strong game in all three zones, really liked his game. Also thought yes, he pulled Yardiv played totally fine in his return to the lineup. And then Pat, I know you wanted to discuss this before we head to our final segment. Bocawe Mama gets that fight.

under his belt. What did you see from that fight that you really liked? I mean, the thing for me is I don't love staged fighting. I have been pretty vocal that I think it's stupid. The one asterisk I will put on it is when you play a team that you had a violent physical game against within a two week span and you have that opening draw face off where you just go, all right, listen, this is the end of it. We're going to have this fight off the opening face off, and then we're going to play hockey. That even though I think that's stupid, at the very least, that staged fight, I can understand. This one, while again, not a huge fan of staged fighting, I think this was more of just a statement

from Boko and Mama to say, I don't want to go back to Wilkes Bear yet. Has he been really good for the Penguins? He's been fine. He's bringing a good forecheck. He's throwing some solid hits. And he's not hurting you when he's on the ice. but to me, I look at that as a message from a player who's in his late-ish 20s, who hasn't really carved out much of an NHL career,

saying to management, like, listen, I know the team that I'm on right now. I know where this team is. Keep me here for a little bit, and I'll be a spark plug. I'll throw some big hits. I'll occasionally get in a fight. And if nothing else, you can say this much about it. it brings some entertainment to a team that might not be that entertaining because are you going to buy a ticket to watch him? No, not on a team with Sidney Crosby, of Gennie Malkin, and all the other players.

But you certainly won't forget about that. You'll certainly think, yeah, maybe if this kid's in the lineup tonight, we'll see a fight. And again, I don't think a staged fight because that's pretty much what it was because they were just at center ice throwing them. It wasn't much of a fight. But it's those little things from players like that that send messages. to management, the coaching staff that say, hey, I'm not quite ready to go back to the American League. Give me a little bit longer of a look.

Yeah, and just to add a little bit more to that fight, you can tell the players on the bench really appreciate it. You could tell they got a bit fired up after it. Even though the Penguins, again, start out the game pretty poorly, you could still tell that they were pretty fired up to continue playing that game after Bocaway Mama got into that fight. We'll have to see if you keep staying in the lineup for these last four games before the Four Nations face off break.

I will say I did not like that Philip Thomasino came out of the lineup. They didn't really say too much about it, Pat. I don't think he's hurt. Don't think he's sick. It looks like he was just a healthy scratch, which I'm not okay with that. I think he's one of your top 12 forwards when this team is fully healthy. Even with,

especially with Afghani Mal can hurt right now in week to week. I think he's probably going to be back after the break with the Four Nations face off. But why are you scratching him? Just in general. I don't get that at all for Mike Sullivan. I think that's a really dumb. thing to do, but hey, yeah, that's just my opinion. But that will do it for this second segment coming up in the final segment. It was also a great night for the Wilkesbury

Scrant Penguins because they absolutely whooped Hershey on Wednesday and had big time performances from Billy Coivinin, Fascily Ponomerov, Pat and I'm going to recap that game and discuss whether we could get some call-ups from that team, especially Coivinan Panamerov, right after this. All right, we're back here in this episode of the Locked-on Penguins podcast. I'm one of your host, Hunter Hodes. Join my host, Patrick Dam. So, Pat, what a night for honestly the entire Pittsburgh Penguins organization, including Wilkesbury. They whooped Hershey last night and shout out to Vili Kovinen and Vasily Ponomerov. Ponomerov gets a hat trick. He was sensational. How about

Vili Coivinen, man? Four goal performance. The last one, he made the Hershey goalie looked like an absolute full in that. That move was sensational. He leads all HL rookies in points this season. He has 14 goals, 35 points in 37 games, right around a point per game. Vasily Ponomerov, 10 goals, 24 points in 28 games. We were kind of hinting at this conversation a little bit during our episode on Wednesday and that these guys, both of them, I think should get call-ups after the trade deadline. I think to this point, they have shown that they deserve a little bit of an

extended look at the NHL, and they're really heating up, Ghana Wilkesbury. And one more thing before I pass this over to you. I want to take an opportunity to kind of dunk on myself for the Jake Denzel trade a little bit. We both came on here to give our raw analysis, raw reactions right after that trade was made. And I'll fully admit to everyone, I gave that trade a bit of a low grade. I wasn't that happy with it just because I was so focused on getting one of a Scott Morrow or Jackson Blake or a guaranteed first round pick that I kind of let those things

blind myself to the overall return. I also personally did not think Michael Bunting was going to help that much. And I just want to say that so far, I have looked like a complete idiot when it comes to that deal. I have no problem dunking on myself. I actually encourage to be wrong about things.

I try to give the best analysis that I can for everyone on this show, while also knowing that I am going to be wrong about things. And so far, with that trade, I have been wrong. Michael Bunting has been a great fit. Ponomero has been awesome down in Wilkesbury, and I think he's going to be a solid bottom six player in the NHL.

And Billy Covenant in his first North American season has been fantastic. And I really want to see what he can do at the NHL level once he comes up, hopefully after the deadline. And also that second round pick that they got, Pat, turned into Harrison Brunich, who might really make this team next year. So just wanted to say that I have been a complete moron for my original take about that trade. And hey, I'm going to use that as a learning lesson to maybe not jump the gun so much on some jade reactions and stuff like that i'm i'm not going to dunk on you

for it because if you remember i was fine with the deal i didn't i wasn't jumping for joy i wasn't exactly upset about it either but i'm going to bring something up that i know in the city of pittsburg is going to be absolutely verboten because people will hate it if there is one thing Kyle Dubus does that is extremely smart. You know who is someone he learned from in a different sport? He learned from the New England Patriots in Bill Belichick. If you remember, obviously, I know a bunch of people are going to be throwing things at their TV or yelling at their their iPhones as I say this. Yes, I understand. They had the greatest quarterback of all time. And when you have that, it's pretty easy to win. But one of the reasons they sustained their success.

for so long was Belichick did something that Kyle Dubus is doing here in Pittsburgh. He's going almost quantity over quality when it comes to prospects and draft picks. If you remember, Belichick would frequently trade down in the draft. He would give up a second round pick to get two third round picks. He'd give up a third round pick to get two fourth round picks. And it's a lot easier for you to develop new talent in hit on picks when you have more of them. It's very easy and tempting to think, oh, I've got a second round pick. I'll get a great player with that second round pick. Well, if that's the only one you have and it doesn't pan out, you're left holding the bag. But if you pick two players in the third round where, yeah, it's going

to take development. It's definitely still a lottery ticket. There's more of a chance for those to hit if you've got two or three of them rather than one of them. And that's something we have seen from Dubus over the past 14-ish months is he's getting a bunch of prospects. He's getting a bunch of picks. And now you're going to have both a larger pool of players to look at and likely a deeper pull because these guys are going to develop and I'll be battling. one another to eventually become NHL players.

So you look back to where we started with this in the Jake Gensel deal. Yeah, he didn't get any of the big prospect names out of Carolina, but he got multiple and they're all starting to develop. And then that second round pick, like you said, turns into Harrison Brunich. So this is how you retool a team like this on the fly. It's real easy to say, oh, let's trade our top guy for a top prospect. in a first round pick. We have seen, especially when you pick outside of the top 10,

it's not a guaranteed thing that those guys in the first round are going to become something. Yeah, it's real enticing to have that high second round pick, but there's multiple players who never develop into anything significant in that round. But if you get multiple of them, you have more of an opportunity to develop them and bring them into the system. So at the end of the day, the Michael Bunting, Jake Gensel, trade with Carolina was kind of the first bullet fired in this retool rebuild. And it gave us an idea of where it's going. And because of how well Wilkes

Bear played last night with those guys being the catalyst, it's looking like a very good deal. 100%. And that was really the start. I feel like a really restocking this pipeline with legit prospects. If they get a top five pick this year, get some lottery luck and all that stuff, I think that could be the first true big difference maker to be in that pipeline in quite a while. And especially Pat, if they wound up deciding to tank again or accidentally tank, excuse me again next year and potentially try to go get Gavin McKenna, yeah, that's an even bigger difference maker for your team for not just, you know, the season after that, but well into the future as well.

So again, they have some good dudes in the system right now. But again, if they are able to get that top five pick this year and get, and get a true difference maker that's only going to really improve this pipeline even more. But I really like the moves that he's doing to try and restock the system. Again, Ponomera, he's playing great. Coyvin, he's playing great.

Hell, Pianney Nemi was great during the World Junior's pet. He was fantastic for Team Finland. Heck, you know, also, we should shout out Sergey Murshov, my friend. He has played great in Wilkesbury since coming up, four and O this season, only six goals allowed one shoutout 9 50 save percentage he's already too good for the he's now lighting up the hl so they're going to have to figure out something when it comes to this goal rotation my friend yeah they really are and he played well last night and the thing

that a lot of people i think got to understand about this victory for wilkes bear last night is this was not a bottom feeder that they beat nine to nothing this is the Hershey Bears. They are one of the best teams in the American Hockey League. They lead the same division that the baby penguins are in. As of last night, they were not before the game. They were nine points up on the baby penguins for first in that division. And the baby penguins came out and absolutely blitz them. Here's the thing that you may have mentioned it. I got so excited over the trade and prospect talk that it might have left my brain. But this wasn't, they came on late.

They were up eight nothing after the first two periods. So they only added a goal in the third. So they absolutely cruised against one of the best teams in the American League. And to bring it all full circle, yeah, there's a handful of career AHLers and guys who aren't going to be NHL, even contributors, let alone superstars, anytime soon. for the penguins, but this kind of brings it all together where there are a lot of players on this Wilkes-Bair team who look like they have bright futures and they went out and

played a very, very good Hershey team and made it look almost academic against a great hockey team. Agreed man. And again, it's going to be really fascinating to see after the deadline. Do they bring up all three of Coivinen, Ponomerovenority? Do they bring up two of them, one of them? Heck, if you're me, I'd probably just bring up all three, considering the level that they've been playing at this year, especially lately. And if you're able to move out, you know, extra forward or two, you know, and all that stuff,

I would 100% do it just to see what they can do for the final month and if they can really carry that momentum into the off season and then into the 25, 26 season. But I think that'll do it for today's episode of the Lockdown Penguins podcast. Thank you all so much for taking the time to listen to slash watch this one. Pat and I will be back with another show if you all on Friday to get you all set for this Bobblehead Night, Patrick Hornquist, Bobblehead Night

against the National Predators on Saturday, and we'll also do a look ahead to the other three games before the Four Nations face off as well. So for Patrick Damp, I'm Hunters-Hodys. Thank you all so much for tuning in. We both appreciate it. We'll be back on Friday.