Locked On Penguins - Daily Podcast On The Pittsburgh Penguins - Sidney Crosby was FED UP On Saturday night!

Episode Date: February 14, 2023

The Pittsburgh Penguins played perhaps two of their best games of the season last week only to have a terrible loss to the Los Angeles Kings overshadow them. Hunter starts the show by getting into the decision to start Casey DeSmith and why it had pros and cons. He looks at how DeSmith didn't do enough to keep the Penguins in the game, especially when giving up the second and third goals. In turn, that allowed Dustin Tokarski to come in ice cold, which showed in an ugly fashion since he hadn't played in a while. After those goals, even when the Penguins played well, it was hard for them to get back into it as the Kings took over. After that, Hunter dives into Sidney Crosby's game misconduct and why he got it. He looks at how the crosscheck happened and how Rickard Rakell didn't even come over to help him, which was a bit weird. He then explains how Crosby had every right to be upset and slams Garrett Rank for continuing to be a garbage official. Hunter also gives the latest practice updates and how Tristan Jarry looks destined to start on Tuesday. He then explains why Jan Rutta won't be activated just yet before circling back to Jarry and why a chronic hip issue could be causing these injuries. All of that, plus much more is on this episode of Locked On Penguins.Support Us By Supporting Our Sponsors!Built BarBuilt Bar is a protein bar that tastes like a candy bar. Go to builtbar.com and use promo code “LOCKEDON15,” and you’ll get 15% off your next order.Athletic GreensTo make it easy, Athletic Greens will give you a FREE 1-year supply of immune-supporting Vitamin D AND 5 FREE travel packs with your first purchase. All you have to do is visit athleticgreens.com/NHLNETWORKFanDuelMake Every Moment More. Place your first FIVE DOLLAR bet to get ONE HUNDRED AND FIFTY DOLLARS in Free Bets – win or lose! Visit Fanduel.com/LockedOn today to get startedFANDUEL DISCLAIMER: 21+ in select states. First online real money wager only. Bonus issued as non-withdrawable free bets that expires in 14 days. Restrictions apply. See terms at sportsbook.fanduel.com. Gambling Problem? Call 1-800-GAMBLER or visit FanDuel.com/RG (CO, IA, MD, MI, NJ, PA, IL, VA, WV), 1-800-NEXT-STEP or text NEXTSTEP to 53342 (AZ), 1-888-789-7777 or visit ccpg.org/chat (CT), 1-800-9-WITH-IT (IN), 1-800-522-4700 (WY, KS) or visit ksgamblinghelp.com (KS), 1-877-770-STOP (LA), 1-877-8-HOPENY or text HOPENY (467369) (NY), TN REDLINE 1-800-889-9789 (TN) Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

Penguins win a couple a row, and then they come back down a little bit with a 6-0 blowout loss to the Los Angeles Kings on Saturday. To start the show off, I'm going to go into what really set Sidney Crosby off, and just how the goaltending really let the penguins down on this one by Casey DeSmith, letting in a couple of softies, Dustin Tukorsky coming in cold and letting in a bad goal. All that plus so much more is coming up on this episode 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 episode of the Locked-on Penguins podcast. I'm your viewer, of course, the host. Honorhodes, want to follow me on Twitter at Hunter Hodes, follow this show, Twitter at Eleanorst for Penguins, and of course, thank y'all so much for making this show first listen. Of the day, today's episode is brought to you by FanDwell Sportsbook,

the official sportsbook of Lockdown, make every moment more. You can visit Fanduel.com slash, on the day to get started. As you can see, I've done a couple of little things to my office. There's some stuff to the right side of here, some stuff for the left, and then right back behind me, for those are on YouTube. Wonderful photo of the Steelers winning the Super Bowl in 2009, and then a very classic OG 2009 photo featuring Sydney Crosby, Evgeny Malkin, Jordan Stahl, and

Mark Andre Floree from 2009. I've had that photo for a good number of years. I was able to fix it up a little bit, and tomorrow we're going to stack those with bookshelves. So this whole thing is really coming together nicely. But I can tell you what did not come together nicely was the Penguins game against the Los Angeles Kings on Saturday, a 11 o'clock face off because for some reason the LA Kings had to bring out the Stanley Cup

for Dustin Brown, which is just ridiculous because this is a player who is not even going to sniff the hockey Hall of Fame. I get it. Did very well for them when he was there, brought them to Stanley Cups. But that whole ceremony just felt kind of cringeworthy. in some ways. That's like the penguins doing, you know, he's not the captain of this team. Obviously, he was never the captain of this team. But it's like the penguins doing a ceremony for Chris Crudence or something like that.

And just doing it for like 60 to 90 minutes. And that statue just looked really cringe. Face off starts 11 and the Penguins, you know, they were ready to play. I thought they were forechecking well. I thought they were playing well defensively. They gave up a little bit of an early goal kind of bad luck. But, you know, towards the late stages of that first period, They're trying to get some good chances, though they were kind of just put to the outside a little bit. But Casey and Smith gives up a really bad goal after making a good save with only a couple minutes left. And, you know, it just spiral from there that go down. 3-0 because of another bad goal in the second period.

Justin Joe Carson-Carsie comes in. He gives up a little bit of a softie. Then at that point, it's 4-0. Game's over. So, you know, that's just, that's how it goes. Phoenix Comply at one end made the saves on the first period. Casey DeSmith did not. Yeah, there was a lot of talk on Penguins' Twitter about, you know,

should DeSmith be given that second-again-second start, right? And I thought going into it, I was fine with it. I didn't really mind it too, too much. I kind of saw both sides to it. You know, part of me was thinking DeSmith was going to go again because he didn't get a lot of work against the ducks, and he also turned in two quality starts in a row, but also another part of me, a smaller part, it was just like, you know,

this is a player who's never started back-to-back games. he's the backup for a reason. If you don't trust Dustin Nukarski to start in this game, you know, why did you sign him in the first place? You know, why is he here? Also, I mean, you know, he's here, obviously, because Trish and Jory's her, but, you know, why are, you know, just what's the point, basically, is what I'm saying. And, you know, he had to come in anyway.

He was ice cold, gailed by bad goal again. It's made a couple of, you know, fine saves otherwise, but still his rebound control was lacking. I mean, I hadn't played in at least a couple of weeks. So, you know, definitely was rust. but again, you know, you easily could have made the case, and I saw a lot of you were doing it, that Tocarski should have started in that game against the Kings. He's the more fresh goalie to Smith banged you those points the next night.

You know, maybe Mike Sullivan went into it late and thinking, okay, I got to start to Smith in the first game because we got to bank those two points. You know, I don't really, it doesn't really matter who starts in this game because we're just going to get killed, just because the Penguins have only won two games on the second half of back-to-backs this season. And so he probably just winged it, said, you know what, Skut. I'm going to start DeSmith again. And, you know, sure, he paid the price for it because to Smith, you know, outside of that first goal, I didn't really like his game overall. I mean, the Kings were shooting 23%.

So a lot of that was on goal-tending. But I also will say this. Penguins, they did not play well after the first period. You know, they punched the Kings in the mouth a little bit. They were foreshacking hard. They were getting decent chances. The power play was getting some good chances. Phoenix Copley was making some good saves,

but they weren't able to crack them in. And once they exerted all of that energy in that first period, you know, the Kings had more of it because this was their first game in almost two weeks. Made it knock a little bit of rust off. Those fresh legs kicked into high gear while the penguins were just gassed after playing a game less than 24 hours later. Those are such tough back-to-back, especially after you beat a bad team like the Ducks. You go to L.A., a team that is very good this season,

a team that hasn't played in almost two weeks. And I said this on my Twitter. This was kind of a scheduled loss in my opinion. And I hate using that term because people will say, like, well, that's just excuses and stuff. But sometimes games are scheduled losses. Look at the Washington Capitals. It went up to Boston.

Gave what? The Bruins, their second home regulation loss of the season, something around those numbers. They had a really nice game against them. Commonwealth less than 24 hours later, you're playing a bad Sharks team. they didn't even show up. They lost four to one at home.

They looked like they were just going through the motions wanting to get home to watch the Zootroll with their teammates or their friends and family. So, you know, those kind of games happen to every team out there. It's just a shame that it happened after such a really good win against Doug. So again, goaltending is partly the way

and I don't think Casey DeSmith and Tolston Dokarski did a good enough job. I also did not think the penguins did a good enough job, you know, just getting to the high danger areas of the ice. they were being out chanced in those areas, 13 to 5, about halfway through the second period, it ended up being a bit worse if I have the number right here. Yeah, 16 to 7.

Overall, in terms of that for the Kings, the Penguins had the better of the Sean attempts. Scoring chances were close to 50-50, but the Kings also had 63% of the expected goals. So in terms of the expected goals and high-deanor chances, the Kings were a lot better there and rightfully so. But, you know, again, I said coming into this guys, four out of six points.

That's what I'm looking for on the California road trip. That was my minimum. Beep the ducks, check. Kings, you could have gotten it. Okay, you lost, you move on. You're still in a good spot on the wild card. Got the sharks, you got the sharks on Tuesday. Gotta win that game.

I'm sorry. I understand the sharks have been playing better as of late. Tampa Bay, they beat them down there. They just took Carolina to overtime before they beat the penguins. they be the capitals down in D.C. They are giving a lot of good teams fits.

And so it's definitely not a gimmee game. But it's still one where I feel like you have to get the two points there. In that situation before you go back to play the Islanders, two out of your next weekings and, of course, the Devils as well. So that sums up part of my thoughts on that. The Sydney Crosby thing, let's just jump into that real quick. It is very hard, I think. At this point in his career to really piss them off.

there's a reason why he's never received a game misconduct. He never just mouths off to the officiating. Doesn't really get into it anymore. You can say that he did early on in his career because he did. He was a whiner when he was 18 to 20 to 21 years old. What person that age was not still wine? The guy's 35 years old now. And he got the misconduct.

Garrett Rank is a garbage official who should probably not be working many other games a season. I think he stinks. I know he was the ref that gave the Penguins nine power plays against the Devils but he was also the ref that just kept that entire game of special teams and then this one was calling really

tickey stuff missing a lot of other things that were more blatant penalties he is an absolute garbage official just awful so when I saw Sid got the game misconduct I turned it off at that point just because there's just no point

looking at so I turned it back on and I was seeing the replay and I'm like what exactly did he do to get thrown out? I mean, he knocked off the official a little bit, but, you know, said basically got cross-checked right in front. Oh, actually, no, that was not said. I believe that was Ricard Raquel.

I believe so. Yeah, it was, I mean, he got a cross-tracked right in front of by Mikey Anderson. And actually, no, I believe, no, I actually, no, I apologize. That was that they got cross-struck. Then, Ricard Raquel, kind of just standing there, not really going to the defense of his captain. I'm not really super big on that.

I understand how other people are. But, you know, Sid hasn't, you know, he has a right to be upset about that. It's a blatant penalty that they, you know, it's just a joke that it should have given the Penguins a total, just a big power play in that instance. But Sid had to mouth back to the ref. And, you know, he ends up getting tossed.

And yeah, I mean, you see what happened there. Mike Sullivan is, I don't know if he was calling Garrett Rank this, or Todd McClellan, the LA Kings head coach, but let's just say he called him a D-bag. For those that are not familiar with that term, you can Google it yourself. I'm not going to say that word on the podcast here. He also used, he also dropped a giant F-bom before that,

before saying F-U to McClellan, or it was Garrett Rank. He was not happy with that. And Sid, he didn't want to get fined after the game. He said, can I really say what I really think at this point? So he was unhappy about it. You know, people are going to sit here and call him a cry baby. call him a whiner, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah.

Do not even listen to those people. It is total garbage. I mean, 2007's calling you back with the flip phones and the razors and all that. He's not a whiner anymore. I don't really even give that any of my attention. But still, very weird situation. I don't know why he got a misconduct. There was no reason to give him a misconduct there.

He was just, you know, standing up, you know, to the ref for what happened with Anderson. He was not happy with Anderson. Also, he went up to him and exchanged a couple of pushes. pushed and shoved him a little bit. And, you know, his frustrations are definitely starting to show a little bit more as of, like, just because I think the team's been pretty inconsistent. You know, he takes the playoffs very seriously am the streak. He wants to continue it.

He wants this team to start playing more consistent hockey. So I understand why he is pretty fed up right now. So those are my thoughts on my situation why goaltending just, I think, towards the end of the first period and into the early stages of the second period, Why that, I think, just really screwed the bank ones. In this game, coming up in the second segment, though, we are going to get into some practice notes and why finally, why finally, it looks like Trish and Joy,

but we're making his long-awaited return on Tuesday against Senatorsy Sharks. But before we get to that, our next partner has a product I use their league every day. I start taking Athletic Beans because, you know, I didn't have time in the morning to work out and do stuff. I wanted more energy when I would wake up as well. I'm not really big on taking pills and vitamins in the morning. I also wanted something that tastes good. So what is this stuff?

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Rohde's Murdo. Follow me on Twitter at Hunter Hodes. Follow the shows Twitter at our own store Penguins. And of course, thank you so much for making this year first listen of the day. So Penguins practice today in Los Angeles before flying to San Jose. I believe that's only like an hour or two flight. up there to San Jose, Santa Clara area where the 49ers play as well. And Penguins got good news today on the injury front.

Trishinjari making his way back, it sounds like, according to Josh Yoey, who was there, he said it looks perfectly fine, was taking the majority of the reps. That was confirmed by Dean Shirey, who was at practice. He said he was staying in one net while the Smith and Tokarski were rotating in and out of the other. All signs point to the Penguins' number one goaltender returning on Tuesday against the Sharks. that is massive. Getting him back, hopefully having him stay healthy

is so huge for the success of this team. He means to stay healthy for the rest of the season. They cannot rely on to Smith and Tokarski to get them into the playoffs and then win them around. We all saw what happened against the Rangers this last spring. So getting him back is massive.

I'll have more on an update on him a little later on in the show with an interesting article from Frank Sarabelli with some trade targets that he has. and a little report about Jari about what could be causing these latest injuries. That's coming up in the final seconds. A little bit tease for you there. But Yon Ruta was also there.

He is not going to play tomorrow, even though he's got a full practice. Another full practice. I'm going to tell you why. So Jari can be activated anytime. All the penguins need to do is send someone down because it's regular injured reserve. The cap does not matter with that. So with him, Tocarski will be sent down, assuming Jari is a good to go for tomorrow, which I think he will be. That will be the move.

Now, if Yon Ruta was going to return tomorrow, the Penguins would have had to send both Tokarski down and probably someone like Drew O'Connor and put someone else on waivers, because he's coming off long-term, in reserve. So the penguins, you know, with a Tukarski move, they'll have a full 23-man roster. With Yon-Ruda coming back, it'll be down to 22. to have an extra monster spot. But because Ruta is on a long-term injury reserve, you know, they have to send someone, they have to put someone on waivers.

It was looking like today, it was going to be Mark Friedman, but right now he's day-to-day with a knucker body injury. I do not have an update. I do not know where that injury really occurred. He finished the game on Saturday against the Kings, so I'm not really sure again with that. But, you know, he can still be put on waivers

and be sent down to Wilkesbury. but they also could opt to maybe put Danton Hinen on waivers and have him be sent down as well. So in order to activate Jan Ruda after Tristan is good to go, potential for tomorrow, and I think that's will have to send at least one player down to Wilkesbury and then put another one from the Octave roster on waivers. That's how that works. I did not know that coming in today. You know, shout out Taylor Haas for explaining that on her Twitter.

She is so great with cat-friendly and all that stuff. I am still, I feel like I'm very smart in a lot of things, especially when it comes to this sport. When it comes to part of the cap and cap-friendly and stuff, I'm not a newbie, but I'm definitely not an expert like she is. So I'm really glad that she was able to point that out, and I can tell you all about it on the show.

She is excellent with that stuff. It makes me smarter with it. That's for sure, because again, I'm not close to an expert with that. Well, probably a lot of things as well. But that's why Jan Ruda is not going to be playing tomorrow. Early I still probably come back is Friday or Saturday. against the Islanders, according to Devils.

Lines were the same today against O'Crossey, Rakel, Zarker, Malk, and Russ, McGinn, Carter, Captain, impaling, Blugher, Archibald, Duma, Le Tang, Peders and Petrus and Petrie, but Pio Joseph with Chad Ruudel. Mark Freeman obviously took Lerreel's place in the last game. I thought that was the right call

because Freeman had a really good game against the Ducks, but Ruehiel has struggled a little bit at times this year, but, you know, there's not really, I guess, too much of a difference between the two. But it looks like Ruehiel will be in the lineup for that game

against the Sharks. And then power play units remain unchanged as well. Crosby against Will Raquel Malcolm Latang. Carter, Russ, Zucker, Kappaninan, and Petrie for Power Play 2. And again, because Mark Friedman was not waived today, you know, he's hurt. So day-to-day with an upper body injury was not a maintenance day. Sometimes myself would like to say that. But no, not a maintenance day for him.

He is banged up. So, you know, a soul for a soul, Tristan Drive will be coming back. Mark Freeman gets hurt. And then, you know, Jan Rudolf. will be activated here pretty soon. It's good that Freeman is usually an extra, but we're just about there for having the full team healthy. Knock on wood, at least.

And, you know, that's really all I have in terms of practice updates for you all. I will say this. We can end the show with this little nugget from Frank Saravilli. We're going to get into the rest of it in the second segment here. the final seven, excuse me. So Frank writes, the Penguins' back end has been a mass unit

with the injury suffered, but more concerning than that is the status of Trisha Jari who has missed 13 in the Penguins' last 15 games with upper and lower body injuries. Here's the kicker. Those injuries are believed to be related

to a chronic hip issue that has had a compounding effect on other injuries as he attempts to compensate it. He's also a UFA. When healthy, he's been outstanding with a 921 same percentage, the reliability, and dependent. had an ability are two of the biggest abilities when it comes to that position.

Okay. That is the first time I have ever heard about a chronic hip issue with the sculli. I heard that he's had a nagging groin issue at times. I think that was what happened with the first injury. I don't know what the second injury was. But, you know, it would make sense, you know, in a way, especially, you know, if it was a hip. Because, you know, the groin, you know, it affects different things. in the body.

But, you know, it would also, I mean, without explain the foot injury that he suffered against the Islanders, I'm not really sure about that one, just because that was a freak accent when Anders Lee just barrel right into and broke his foot. I think this has to do more with these latest two injuries,

the first one being the groin, I think, which what I heard, and then the second one, I don't know. But, you know, that's scary. If he has a chronic hip issue that is forcing him to miss, a lot of these games, it's also just forcing a couple of injuries on his hand. I actually had one of my followers reach out to me and say,

the Josh Banks, who is great from Penguin Stewart, and he even says, you know, as a goalie who has actually had four hip surgeries, I know all about this condition. You can play through it, but you have to stay super stretched out, but if he's got impingement, any random move can be bone on, bone on, excuse me, and that hurts like just, you know, biocs, excuse my language there. He goes, I wonder if he's getting cordostone shots. So that makes it sounds like, again, I've never had any hip injury in my life.

I know people have had hip injuries of their own. That makes it sounds like it is really painful to play through. And, you know, it sounds like maybe the slightest of movements might be causing this. So, you know, I wouldn't be surprised every game. I'm not a medical expert here. I've never claimed to be, you know, is he getting a shot before every game to really just play through this and make sure that this is not causing other injuries? I mean, Mike Sullivan keeps saying like, oh, yeah, he's making progress.

He's making progress. I mean, people who say, during practice say he looks good. He's making the right saves. His movement looks good. But, again, is another situation going to flare up with him where he just gets hurt in other weaker due or something because it's chronic hip issue flared up? And it caused another injury in his body. That's what I'm really afraid of based off that report from Frank Cerbellion.

That also goes into what happens with him after this season against. Do the penguins feel that? he is the right guy to lead them for the next several seasons as the franchise goal center because again, you know, the market for the goalies this summer, not good. Frikernda Anderson's out there, but he has an injury concern of his own. Outside of that, there's not a lot of starters out there. So, you know, if that report from Sarajelli is true, they're going to have a big decision to make when it comes down.

You know, that's not good news if he has a chronic hip issue because, you know, that those are really tough injuries. for goalways. So I'm going to end the second segment on that. Coming up in the final segment, we're going to dive more into Sarah Valley's article and some potential trade options that he has listed. For the Penguins, I'm going to go over,

some of them that I have not gone over myself. And if that makes sense, and look at some of the access to the Penguins can give up at what he has as well. But before we get into that, we have to touch on Fandul, Fandle, of course, which is the official sports book partner,

of locked on. The midway point of the NBA season is here. And now is the perfect time to download Fanduil of America's number one sports film. Because do new customers get a no sweat first bet up to $1,000. Again, that's bonus bets if your first bet does not win. Just download the app right now. It's safe, secure, and super easy to use. Then you can bet on everything from the money line to point scores and three's drain. So I don't follow the NBA too too much anymore. I used to just back when I was I'm a little bit kid. So I don't really have the best bets right now for you all. But, you know, if I had to make one for one of the games, I would say coming up, you know,

now I would, you know, the wizards who have just been horrendous this season, I would pick them to lose against who they're going up against. I think that's an easy money line slam dunk right there again. I don't follow the NBA as much as I used to. But I'm hopefully going to get more into it. I feel like if the Lakers had LeBron James back right now, I would put a little bit of a money line on them, despite them not being that good right now.

But they also just did make a couple of really big trades that I'm hoping we'll get them back to the playoffs. They used to be my childhood team. And I'm hoping that they're able to get back because LeBron just broke the scoring record. Last week, so congratulations to him. Plus, Fandle even lets you combine your bets for a chance that it could payout with the same game parlay.

So don't miss a chance to get your no sweat first bet up to $1,000 in bonus bets. You go to fandoo.com slash Lockdown. That's Fandul.com slash Locked On. Make every moment more with Fandul, the official sports partner of the NBA. I'm back in this episode of the Locked on Penguins podcast. I am your host. Hunter Hode's going to follow me on Twitter at Hunter Hodes, all the shows, Twitter, at Nandalsar and of Penguins, and of course, thank you also much for making this your first listen of the day. So let's get into the rest of Sarah Valley's article here. So just goes into itself,

like, you know, how do we get here? Dead by posture should be buyers. Yes. He thinks the top objective should be a second-line scoring winner, scoring winger, excuse me. He does say the hanglets have to find a way to increase the productivity outside of Crosby, Malkin, and Gensel. Yeah, Frank, but Jason Zucker has been, I think, one of their best winger. Brian Russ is starting to heat up. I don't know if they fully need a second-line scoring winger as their top need.

I don't know how you can say that when Jeff Carter is eating third-line minutes for you every night and you don't have a good third-line center. I understand the need for it, but the top six is also loaded right now. I think anything more to the top six will just be a bonus. And then the second objective he thinks is a defenseman. He goes at pure sense of the position, but not merely defensemen, the injuries to Latang and Petri. Sure, the Peng is thinking about a way to beef up the blue wine.

Okay, again, I don't think they should be in the market for a defenseman, unless you're getting rid of Brian Daimlin or something like that. But right now, they seem pretty set. Dumont-Littang, Pedersen, Petrus and Petrie, P.O. Joseph, Jan Ruda, Chatter-Reedles, your extra, I don't think they're going to go out there and get another defenseman. I mean, as I'm going to get to just a second, there's a couple options that he lists, but I just, third-line center, third-line winger, you can even make an argument for second-line winger. Those are fine, but I just don't see a need for a defenseman unless you're going out and getting Jacob Trippon.

It doesn't look like the Penguins are even in on that right now. After that, he does have potential targets. He lists Tim O. Meyer. I've talked about him exclusively on my show last week. They can definitely make that work, especially when it comes to, you know, all their picks. They can send back some cash in a mantel. They can hopefully get the sharks to retain a little bit.

Yeah, I know he's due a massive qualifying offer. As Frank notes, it's $10 million. But he could be signed long term because, again, he's a RFA after the summer. The penguins are going to have cap space. He makes them better. You know, sure, he's been leading to Carolina and New Jersey, but why not the penguins?

Why can't they step in and try to go. get my, you know, that's a great bird. That's a great way for them to go all in. He also lists Brock Besser. You know, I know he's at an increased role. He's not a bad player. He'll be less expensive. You can probably get him first in a prospect, first on a roster player,

something like that, maybe even a second in a roster player. I don't know how far his value has fallen or risen. But again, you know, he's also do a massive qualifying offer, I think, next season. And, you know, he's just, he's kind of, he's fine, but. You know, I probably wouldn't have him on my top five list of targets. You know, that's just my opinion, though. He does list Tyler Bertuzi. That is a very Ron Hextall, Brian Burke player,

a player that can put the puck in the back of the net, very well, a player that is a good playmaker, a player that is a good defender. You know, his contract can be affordable with the wings, willing to take back some money. Also, willing to retain some money. You could put him on the third line. He would make a lot of sense.

Seeing Tyler Bertuzi, maybe next stick is very captain. and if he's not in the deal, seeing him next to, you know, maybe he can help amplify Jeff Carter up a little bit if they want to somehow have him be the third-line center, which would be insane. Bertuzi does make a lot of sense, especially if Steve Eisenman wants to part with him as the deadline nears, because the Red Wings are not going to be making the playoffs here. This team is too far out of the race at this point.

The math is not good. They're getting a bit closer, but, you know, Bertuzi does make sense when it comes to me. Then he lists the other two. Jake McCabe from the Chicago Blackhawks, he's probably going to go for a good, you know, he's going to, he's going to get at least a first or prospect and maybe a roster player. I'm not giving that up for a second or third pair defender. Luke Shen, I understand that he played in Philadelphia, under Ron Hextall was there. You know, sure he would be low cost.

But again, they don't need a defenseman of my eyes against. They don't. I don't, I would put third blind center is my top need. I would put, you know, a scoring winger for the second or third line is my second need, and then maybe a backup goalfender, if you're not confident Casey to Smith. Then I would put a defenseman. I just don't see it as one of their top three things they need, especially when this decor is healthy. Chris Luton, hopefully can stay healthier the rest of the year.

Jeff Petrie's just came back. Yon Ruta is coming back in the next week or so. Pedersen's been having a good year. P.O. Joseph has really blossomed. He's been great lately. they don't need another defenseman right now. What's so what happened when they signed Jan Ruda over the offseason deal that, you know, you're looking at it right now,

do they really need that money on their cap? 2.75 million for three years when you easily could go just replacing with Chabar Riedel or Mark Friedman? I mean, fine, player, don't get me wrong. I don't think he's been a detriment to the team this season. But could have allocated that cap to potential other scoring wear like Evan Rodriguez. Had to do it. because again, that deal this summer was just weird.

I don't really know. I mean, it was kind of fine at that time, but then the more you think about it, and the more do you see some of the defensive of how they play this show on Rood has been out, like Charito, Mark Friedman, P.O. Joseph has been in the lineup all year. Ty Smith's been in it.

Did they really need to go out there and sign him during free agency when they could have signed another four to make their bottom six better? No. Definitely, definitely a weird one to say, and then he lists their trade ships, full compliment of picks,

Obviously, the Penguins have their first and second for the next few seasons. He does list Kisbury Kappen with $3.2.2 million for one more year. He also lists Teddy Bluger. He does say, problem at the end, problem is many think Bluger is a guy who will help you win in the playoffs. Okay, well, how the Penguins are playing with how he's playing this season. I don't think he's going to help any team win the playoffs. Maybe the Penguins can sell someone on that. He also does list Owen Pickering, but I don't think he's going to be on the table for any trade.

And then he does list go-thending prospect Joel Blumquist because they did trade, Cali Klang last year. He said he's 21. He's put up solid numbers. And they finish lately, they have other goalie prospects, but Blumquist is the best. And he could fetch a nice return in a league. Star for goaltenders. Yeah, I honestly would not be surprised if he's included a deal just because they took a goalie. And this, in this past year's draft, and he looks like he's on a better career trajectory

on than Blumquist at this point. That's really all Sierra Valley has in this article. Again, my top objective is a third line center. my secondary objective is maybe a second or third line winger, then a goaltender, and then a defenseman. I just, I look at the rumors where they say, the Penguins are on a defenseman. I saw that with Jimitu Kulikov,

and now Sarajev, he's putting in potential targets with Luke Shannon and Jake McKay. I just laugh. I just don't see it. You know, I could very well get old takes exposed with that. Don't get me wrong, but I just don't see it. I just disagree that they could use another defenseant at this point, especially when they're paying their defensemen,

their defenseman a lot of money right now. But these next 18 days should be fun. About two and a half weeks away from the deadline, we'll have to see if things start to heat up in Penguin Land. They got a lot of big games coming up to really see. At this point, you know, can the Penguins do enough so Hextall wants to reward them, excuse me, with a trade.

Heck, it shouldn't be about that. He should probably just make a trade because they need the help overall. But again, that'll do it for this episode of the Locktime Penguins podcast. coming up for tomorrow's episode since the game is so late, 1030 start time on Tuesday. I understand. You cannot make it through a full game on a Tuesday night at 1030. When you have work early the next day, you know, you are fun in my book. You know, that's, that is late. I'm honestly going to do it because I don't have work the next day until 11,

but I understand that people want to go to bed before 11, 11, 30 midnight on a Tuesday night with work the next day. But Penguin Sharks on Tuesday should be a fun game. of a full preview episode coming out during the day for that one. It was the thing we tried to get the revenge after losing to the Shark 6 to 4 and was probably their low point of the season just before the All-Star break. So again, thank you all so much for listening. Really appreciate it. I'll be back with another episode for you all on Tuesday.

It was a preview Penn Sharks before recapping that one on Wednesday. Talk to you all on Tuesday.