Locked On Penguins - Daily Podcast On The Pittsburgh Penguins - Team USA takes down Sidney Crosby & Team Canada

Episode Date: February 17, 2025

It was an outstanding night for hockey on Saturday when Team USA played Team Canada for the first time in nine years and it more than lived up to the hype. Hunter and Patrick break down the game and how it got started with an absolute BANG with three fights in nine seconds. They then discuss how Team USA suffocated Team Canada in the third period and how Connor Hellebuyck answered the call with some big saves. After that, they discuss Mike Sullivan and the job that he is doing before shouting out Erik Karlsson and Rickard Rakell for their performances. Finally, they wrap up the show with a WBS update!Support Us By Supporting Our Sponsors! IndeedNow, you can speed up your hiring process with a $75 Sponsored Job Credit. Just go to Indeed.com/LOCKEDON right now and support our show by saying you heard about Indeed on this podcast. Terms and conditions apply. FactorEat smart with Factor. Get started at factormeals.com/lockedonnhl50off and use code LOCKEDONNHL50OFF to get 50% off your first box plus free shipping. Wonderful PistachiosGet snackin’ and get crackin’ with the snack that packs a protein punch. Visit WonderfulPistachios.com to learn more! FanDuelToday's episode is brought to you by FanDuel. Right now, new FanDuel customers can get ONE HUNDRED AND FIFTY DOLLARS in Bonus Bets if your first FIVE DOLLAR bet wins! 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.

On Saturday night, it wasn't four nations facing off. It was two nations squaring up. Hunter and I are going to recap the U.S. Canada game, talk about all the penguins at the four nations face off, and more on this edition of the Locked-on Penguins podcast. Your 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.

I'm one of your host, Patrick Damp. You can follow me across all social media platforms at Synonym 4Wet. Joined, as always, by my partner in crime, the one and only 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. Plus, if you follow us on YouTube, go ahead and hit that notification button.

So you'll be among the first to know when we drop our daily Monday through Friday episodes or any of our breaking news, bonus episodes. And before we get started today, today's episode is brought to you by Fandul. Right now, new Fandul customers can get $150 in bonus bets if your first $5 bet wins. So Hunter, all of the hype, everything we were looking forward to on Saturday. Saturday night against the United States in Canada at the Four Nations face off, lived up to all of it. An incredible game top to bottom. So much for us to discuss and break down from that game, which saw Mike Sullivan's Team USA get a very impressive 3 to 1 victory over Team Canada. But let's start where everybody wants to start.

In my opinion, I got to be honest on it has changed since last night, Saturday night, excuse me. And it's the three fights in nine seconds in the moment because I, you know, you and I, we talked about this on the show. We talked about it via text message. It's something that you and I as analysts talk about all the time is the game itself, right? what you need to do to win, the strategy, who you've got to keep an eye on. And we have talked about this, especially that Canada's power play is absolutely lethal. Even if you still count when they had Kail McCar before Saturday night's game, the lowest pick overall on Canada's top power play is fourth.

So it is an obscene amount of riches. So you never want to take penalties against them. So initially I thought the two staged fights like, right off the rip and then the third fight after the net mouth scramble i was like guys i'm a wrestling fan i watch wrestling on mondays and fridays i don't need to watch it at the four nations face off on saturday as well but with more time passed and now the game behind us and everything else i got to say my opinion on that's changed it was awesome because staged or not you want this entity to be something that brings people into the sport of hockey. And while it's not the

1970s or the 1980s when you're going to see a bunch of fights, but it is something that is still unique to hockey. And for the first time in nearly a decade, we get best on best hockey. Two of the best teams at the tournament are playing in prime time, in Montreal with all this talent. And it just boils over right away. It was a ton of fun. I'll leave it at that and then I'll get your thoughts and then we'll dive into the game itself. Right. I mean, with me with fighting, like my opinion on it has changed over the years.

I used to love it as a kid, you know, as a teenager, once I grew up, I started to kind of get away from it. And even as someone who still isn't that big on fighting in this sport, I will admit this to you, Pat and to everyone listening. That was awesome last night. I can fully admit to that. After the third fight, though, I was still kind of like, okay. I want to see the whole game now. I want to see the best players do their thing. But still, it was awesome seeing the Kachuk brothers do their thing,

them both high-fiving each other, going to the press box, just fired up the crowd a little bit. Like, that was great. Like, I will fully admit that. Those were three really fun tilts. It set the tone for the game. And then after that, you didn't really have to worry about it. Sure, there were some skirmishes.

There were some big hits. But after that, they got it out of their system. And then we saw some really great plays from a lot of really good players in this game. So, again, totally fine with it for this one, even though I know in recent years, my opinion on fighting has kind of changed a little bit. Also, Pat, we should announce to everyone. We have a free Roku app that we're going to be on going forward as well for Lockedon Penguin. So you can put us on your TV. That's launching, I believe, this week.

So a lot of fun. But this game, going back to that, was everything I wanted and so much more. It had been nine years since these two countries squared off. This is one of the best rivalries in hockey, especially international hockey, of course might be the best rivalry in international hockey. You had the entire country watching. The NFL is not in season anymore. It's NBA All-Star weekend, but the ratings for that league right now are a bit lower

compared to other years. Baseball hasn't started yet. You had this in prime time. Everyone around the country is tuning in, and they were treated to one heck of a game. I saw people tweeting about this game on my timeline that have never tweeted about hockey before. This is how you grow the game. This is how you get more fans into the sport of hockey and it delivered last night.

The ratings came out. 4.4 million people tuned in in the United States to that game. It's one of the most watched games of the last six years. Actually, going off the ratings. If you take away the Stanley Cup final games, it's the most watch game in the U.S. and six years hockey wise. Like how many people watched it.

And again, they were treated to an outstanding game. It was awesome. Yeah, from Richard Deich at the Athletic. The overall was 4.4 million. It peaked at 5.2 at 1045. So right as the game was starting to wrap up as the U.S. was putting the final touches on a 3-to-1 victory over Team Canada.

And it was the most watched NHL game in the United States, if you count the Stanley Cup final since game seven of Panthers. Oilers last year, which actually had a whopping 7.67 million. So who knew you put hockey in prime time on a network. People are going to watch. But let's get into this game. It was top to bottom, a fantastic game.

Three to one win, as I said for the United States. And that means three unanswered goals because you winced when Connor McDavid scored about five and a half minutes in. And it was an absolutely gorgeous goal. Drew Dowdy hits him in stride. He puts the burners on backhander over Connor Hellebuck. Nothing really anybody could do on that one. Just a great player being great.

But then the U.S. responds about five minutes later. Everybody gets 50% off Jake Shakes with Jake Gensel tying the game at one apiece. Wait, the milkshake factory on Monday, guys. Tell them to bring back the Jake Shakes for this game. He had two goals in this one. We need half off Jake Shakes. shakes for this week. Come on. And this is where you can tell the biggest difference between the United States and Canada is goaltending because in the ensuing five minutes, Canada gets a few more

chances. Connor Hellebuck makes a few big saves. And then Jake Gensel scores in not taking anything away from Jake Gensel. Great hockey player. We in Pittsburgh know this all too well. He is not a product of the people around him. He is a great goal scorer. That's a bad goal. for Jordan Bennington to give up. And you could feel that goal kind of deflate the arena. And that started the comeback trail for the United States. About 13 minutes into the second, Dylan Larkin, with this one you can't put on Bennington,

absolute snipe on the game winning goal in the second period. Then Jake Gensel puts the finishing touches on with about two or a little under two minutes left to go. Empty net goal makes it three to one. USA walks away with that win. Here's where I want to start, Hunter. I said this on social media last night. This tournament is doing a lot of things for two people in the Penguins organization who have been under a microscope quite a lot lately. Eric Carlson, who we will talk about later on in the show, and Mike Sullivan. I said this last night. This is a USA team that could be going all gas,

no breaks and nobody would blame them for doing so because there's so much talent on this roster. But he has this team bought in with all this skill playing 200 foot hockey. They were great in all three zones. Their forecheck was relentless and physical. They really bottled up the neutral zone well to keep Canada from really getting going in their transition game. And when Canada was in the offensive zone, this was the most impressive thing to me, last night. The defensive structure and the stick work. You might as well have called the United

States's defensive zone, the Squirrel Hill tunnels at rush hour, because all lanes were closed off. It was an incredible defensive effort by Team USA. I loved that comparison that you just made, because anyone that has gone through the Squirrel Hill tunnel at around 5.36 o'clock knows exactly what Pat is talking about. You literally cannot move. You're probably in there for like 20 minutes, at least. That's how bad it is for the city. But you know what that third period reminded me of for Team USA? The 2015-16 Penguins in their run to the Stanley Cup. The way that Team USA was able to suffocate Canada, that entire third period. Mike Sullivan utilized his one-two neutral zone trap to a beautiful degree. And Canada could not get past it. John Cooper was trying everything in his power

load up the lines. He put McKinnon and McDavid out there for a time. He put McDavid and Crosby out there for a time with Marner. He was doing everything he could to load up his top two lines. Nope, didn't matter. They were playing so disciplined away from the puck. There was a reason why I wanted to see what Mike Sullivan could do with a team like this at this tournament, because I wanted to see if he can get a team this good to play his system. Well, he finally has a personnel that can use his system. granted, I still have had concerns about him over the last couple years with the Penguins because he hasn't had the personnel to use his system right. Some of his roster decisions with the front office have not been the greatest. But I think at the very least, this tournament has shown so far,

he is still a good coach, but he still needs to change some of his ways with the Penguins coming out of this tournament going in for the rest of this season and then probably going to the next season because at this rate, I think he's probably going to return for next season. He's going to be the head coach of the Olympic team in 2026. but I still want to see him tweak some things to his system with this penguin's team because they can't run his system like this team USA has been able to, Pat. Like this team USA team, it's so stacked, it's so fast, so much skill, a lot of young players.

That's why they can run his system. You look at this penguin's team, they can't do that because they're not nearly as quick. They don't have nearly the amount of great players that they have. And with Sullivan, he hasn't been able to adjust to that. And that's why I've been a bit critical of him, especially with also the way that the teams have played in the defensive zone. So I guess to really sum this all up, he's doing a really good job with Team USA. But I want to see him take some lessons from this tournament and apply them to the penguins going forward. So I think you and I can stop kind of going at him.

Because again, there is a good coach in there. You've seen that in these two games. And if they can really finish this off and win this title this coming Thursday, that'll be even better. But he still has, in my opinion, at least for the Penguins, a little bit of work to do going forward. But really nice third period, great effort overall. And I'm really liking the way this team is playing right now. You know, Jake Gensel continues to do his thing. Dylan Larkin was great.

Connor Hellabuck answered the call in this one. He beat the big game allegations in this one. He was tremendous throughout a lot of great timely saves, showing why he is arguably the best goaltender on the planet. My opinion, it's him and Shasturkin. And yeah, man, this was such a fun game to watch. And I can't wait for potentially the rematch this Thursday. Yeah, USA will be there. That 3-1 win punches their ticket to the championship.

We will see what happens on Monday when the rest of this tournament shakes out throughout the rest of the week. But Team USA, very impressive win. I'm going to send us to break here. So stick with us, everybody. I want to add one more kind of little monologue. here about Mike Sullivan and then we will also get into Ricard Raquel and Eric Carlson, who are both having themselves a fantastic tournament despite the struggles of Team Sweden through

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All right, welcome back to the Monday edition of Locked on Penguins. I'm Patrick Damp. That's Hunter Hodes. I'm going to add one more quick thought here before we jump into Ricard Raquel and Eric Carlson about Mike Sullivan. The thing that I noticed and I wanted to kind of expand upon in this segment is what you were saying about how the adjustments have to come for the Pittsburgh Penguins, because the roster is not nearly the same as Team USA. Obviously, I said this to someone last night on Blue Sky who asked, well, why aren't the penguins playing this way? defensively under Mike Sullivan. And I said the answer is that if you were to take all of the players

on Team USA and plug them into Puckpedia, you'd be just under $200 million. And that's more than double the NHL salary cap at this moment. So there's your answer as to why you have a much wider talent pool when it comes to Team USA. But the overarching point that I wanted to make on Sullivan is this. You can tell how good of a leader he is in the respect that he commands as a coach. And I understand that people have their frustrations with them. I do, you do, Pittsburgh does. But in a league where it may not be the same as others like the NFL or the NBA where it's much more popular, there's so much more money, there's so much more media attention. So the egos are a little bit more inflated. You're still

talking about a professional sport. These guys have been the best of the best for their entire lives, and then they get to the next level, and that's where everybody else is the best. So being able to take a team like this, with all this talent, with all this speed, and telling them, listen, you have to play a disciplined, 200-foot game if you want to come out and win this tournament. And getting them to do that is valuable in and of itself, because I, like the way this rebuild is going for the penguins. I think you do as well. And I think a time's

going to come where you're going to have not a team USA level team. Let's not get carried away. But you're going to have a lot of very talented players, guys who have speed, guys who can play really well offensively. And you're going to have to be able to rein that in. And I think to this point, Sullivan has shown he has the ability as a leader to get players to buy into his system. And we're seeing it with team USA. Yeah, you saw that last night. Like what his system last night, that's what it looks like in a perfect world. But you're not going to get that with this Penguins team because you said, like they're

not nearly as talented as that team USA team. They're obviously a bit older. They're not nearly as quick as that team USA team. So the main thing I want to see is can you adjust to the team that you have in Pittsburgh? So far, I don't think he's been able to do that or he hasn't been able to do a good enough job of that. Yeah. So that's what I want to see the rest of this season and potentially into next season.

If he is still the head coach, though, again, I think at this point, he probably is going to be after our conversation with Josh Yewee last week. So again, it doesn't take away from, you know, his failures with the last few years, hasn't won a playoff series since 2018, hasn't been to the playoffs since 22, all that stuff. But I think it's totally fair to want him to try and adjust to his system, excuse me, to the team that he has currently in Pittsburgh, even though what you saw on Saturday in a perfect world. That is a system that he wants to run with the penguins,

but he's not able to do it right now. Like that's the biggest thing. For sure. And let's keep it moving here about the other members of the Pittsburgh Penguins who are part of the four nations face off. And that is Ricard Raquel and Eric Carlson. Another gut-wrenching loss for Team Sweden on Saturday, four to three in overtime, another overtime loss, another blown lead.

but another marvelous game for both Eric Carlson and Ricard Raquel. Both of them have, I don't think they had anything to prove per se going into this tournament. We know how good Ricard Raquel has been this year. We understand that Eric Carlson, for whatever reason you want to use, has been disappointing as a penguin, but still has had a lot of very bright moments. scored a beautiful goal against Finland on Saturday. And the main takeaway that I have, well, let's go with two quick ones here and then I'll let you cook because I know you got a lot on this one too, Hunter. I compared Ricard Raquel on Saturday to a better version of Chris Kunitz.

He's a player who has a lot of speed. He's not afraid to be physical. He can play with top talent. and then the biggest difference to me, unbelievable shot. He has one of the better shots I've seen in quite a while. So I really think that's a good archetype comparison for Ricard Raquel. And he has been showing it in the two games for Sweden. As for Carlson, I mean, if you're Kyle Dubus at this point and your plan is to hold on to Eric Carlson for the duration of his contract,

you have got to your priority has to be to go find a partner for him. that can just let him run and let him cook because he's been absolutely tremendous for Sweden. Well, Pat, is Matias Ekom available? Because if so, I'd like to go get him out of Edmonton, right? So I said it last week, I'll say it again here. He is the perfect partner for Eric Carlson. Pedersen last year was really good for him, especially in his own zone. This year, not so much, just because I think his play kind of went down a little bit this year.

I still think Marcus Pederson is a above-average defenseman, but he's not having as good of a year this year compared to last year in the year before that. At home, though, he is great in his own zone. He's very physical, and he lets Carlson do his thing in the offensive zone. And going off that, look at what the Sweden coaching staff is letting Carlson do. They're letting him cook in the offensive zone. He's not really pinching as often.

He's not really out of position too much either. And I really do think Mike Sullivan needs to sit down with Carlson, watch the film of these two games and take some lessons. Like you want Eric Carlson to cook for the penguins after this tournament. Those two games, the film of those two games, man, that's what you got to put on. Because he has been a completely different player in those two games compared to a lot of his penguins tenure. And I feel like Mike Sullivan really needs to sit down with him and see like, okay, this is

what you're doing. Let's keep this going here in Pittsburgh. And he was phenomenal in that game against Finland. That goal that he scored beautiful. shot off the rush. He's not making too many ill-advised pinches, as I said. He's adopting that shoot-first mentality. He's making a lot of great plays with the puck on a stick, driving so much offense for Sweden. And yeah, I know. Sweden has lost both games in overtime, by the way. Shout on Mikhail Granlin. Really nice goal for Team Finland, and it's nice to see him playing well after

how bad of a tenure he had with the Penguins. But with Carlson, man, it's really been night and day for him. And I think this year, he's mostly been fine. But he can get to this level that we've seen in this mini tournament for the rest of the season. And then who knows after, I'll be very happy about that. Because you can see, he is still a very, and I mean a very good hockey player. You just have to coach to his strengths. Sweden is doing that. I don't think Mike Sullivan has throughout his penguin's tenure.

And I think that needs to change. Yeah, I'm right on board with you on that. I think you brought up something for me that I have been saying about Carlson pretty much since he became a penguin. And that's that he's got to be a little selfish, a little bit more selfish. And we kind of started to see it in the lead up to the Four Nations face off in the last few weeks. He is kind of starting to play that game a little bit more with the penguins. It's not to this level, but he's more willing to shoot the puck. he's more willing to score some goals.

And you're seeing that happen for him with Team Sweden. And you have to hope that we get both what you're saying, where Sullivan sits down with him and says, hey, you were doing this really well up in Canada and in Boston. And now we want to see you do it here. And you also have to hope that it's a little bit galvanizing for him in a lot of these players. I think that's an underrated part of this tournament as a whole,

is especially if you're on Team USA. say you're on Team Canada, hell, even Finland or Sweden. If you're on all four of the teams, there's a lot of galvanizing moments for players that I think can carry them through the rest of this season. And you want that to happen for Ricard Raquel and Eric Carlson. And if we want to go full cynic here on this and look at it from the perspective of what the penguins are trying to do over the next few years, I would say that coming out of this tournament,

Rickel's stock on the trade market has only continued to rise. And now Eric Carlson's stock's probably going back up. Now, it's still going to be very difficult to move that deal. But it's a little bit of a renaissance for Eric Carlson. If he can keep that rolling once they get back to Pittsburgh, that puts you in a good spot because there are probably three, four, maybe five teams who could look at an Eric Carlson contract right now. and with the cap going up next year and go,

he might push us over the edge and we can afford it. So we'll see what happens. And also with the UFA crop of defensemen potentially not being as good this year, that could maybe entice some more teams, be like, hey, let's look at the trade market. Yeah, this guy's a bit expensive, but the cap's going up. He is still a very good player with a puck on his stick. Let's see what we can try and give up for him, even though, you know, he's still over 30. Contract's a bit big.

but I can still see at least a few teams looking at that contract over the summer. You mentioned Ricardo Raquel as well. He's been great in these two games. Probably should have scored in the first game. He was great in the second game as well. I saw a weird tweet on Saturday from, I believe it was Greg Wysinski of ESPN, basically saying that Raquel and Philip Forsberg and Elias Pedersen

have become invisible in these two games. I'm not trying to disrespect anyone out here, but I'm not really sure what Greg is watching in those two games. Ricardo Raquel has been one of Sweden's best players in these two games. He was one of the three best players in the opening game against Canada, in my opinion. He was forechecking his butt off, setting up chances, getting chances of his own. He was fantastic in that one. And then the same thing against Finland.

He was getting chances for checking his butt off below the dots, setting up players. Him and Zabinajad have formed really a nice chemistry in these two games. He's been awesome. It just sucks that they haven't gotten the results. But he is still playing very well. Yeah, I'll hear it for Elias Pedersen. and he has been kind of invisible in this tournament. That's fair.

Him and Forsberg, I can at least understand. Don't put Raquel in that conversation. He's been very noticeable. No, I absolutely. I agree. But that is going to do it for our second segment. When we return, quick look at the baby penguins and what they've been up to.

And just some quick chats about what the penguins need to do and what we can expect from the penguins once we get out of the four nations face off. But before we do that, we got to tell you about our last sponsor of the day. and that is Select Quote. In sports, having a winning strategy is everything. It's how the best teams make it to the Super Bowl, the World Series, the Stanley Cup final, and the Olympics.

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at selectquote.com slash locked on NHL. Go to selectquote.com slash locked on NHL today to get started. That's select quote.com slash locked on NHL. Select quote, they shop, you save. All right, welcome back to the Monday edition of Locked on Penguins. I'm Patrick Damp alongside Hunter Hodes as always. And got to start the quick look at Wilkes Bear with a shout out from Sunday night to Sam Poo-Lan in a 4-3 victory over the Lehigh Valley Phantoms, Sam Poulan records a Gordy

Hal Hattrick goal, assist, and a fight. And the thing that makes that nice, and I know that we were kind of talking about fighting off the top is Wilkes-Barre was in a little bit of a slide in the lead up to Sunday's game against the Lehigh Valley Fantoms. They had lost early in the week on Tuesday to the Hershey Bears, five to four. Then they dropped a two three decision to, or three two decision, excuse me, to Lehigh. And then Hershey again with a four to three win over the baby penguins. So three game losing streak, but great performance from them on Sunday to get up off the mat. They are kind of in a weird position right now with the senior penguins, I guess is the way to describe it on break for four nations.

And so the roster is a little bit in flux. Some guys are down. Some guys are going to go back up. But overall, we're still seeing good performances from a lot of the players that we have our eyes on with the baby penguins. Yeah, it's nice seeing that from Sam Poulan. I think he played very well today. Also, though, how about Rucker McGority? He had another very strong game today to assist.

And if you look at his point total this year, six goals, 25 points in 43 games. I know that's nothing. He's not close to a point. point per game. But if you really sit down and watch the tape, I was watching some of that game today, he was all over the ice. This is a player right now that is playing with a lot of confidence. And he would have right around a point per game season if he got a bit more lucky. Like he is setting up chances virtually every time he's out there. Buck just hasn't been going in the back of the net. He's getting chances of his own path. Puck's just not going in the back of the net. A lot of great

saves are being made on his shots. He is playing really. And I mean really well these last few weeks to the point where I do think a call-up could be coming after the trade deadline in March. So I just want to shout him out. I know people always want updates on him. He's playing very well. And I do think he's going to be an effective NHL player at some point, hopefully the entire 25-26 season, but we'll have to see if he gets the call-up after the trade deadline. I know I would if I were Mike Sullivan and Kyle Dubas, but hey, that's just one man's opinion.

But for Poulan, nice seeing him have that type of success. I'm still not sure what it means for his long-term NHL future, just because I don't think he's shown that much so far. Again, I know it's been a small sample size, but I still think if he's going to get a shot in the NHL, it's probably going to have to be with another team at some point, in my opinion. But Nicene Marker McGority continue to play well. Covenant also continuing to play well. I know some people are also upset about Marashov going back down to Wheeling. Phil Varson's healthy people.

Like, they're going to have to make a move here at some point. I would expect Blumquist to come back up to the NHL squad after the first. Four Nations face off is done. So I think with that situation, Murashoff might come back up to Wilkesbury with Larson and kind of do a tandem there. And then, or also, well, they could do that, but they also could send Jari back down to Wilkesbury

and have him get starts and all that. So a situation that is very much in flux. I just would not overreact to Marashaw being sent down to Wheeling is my main point. He's laying it up down there. Gassie's playing well in Wilkesbury, but they're just really stacked with goalies right now. and they got to figure out something at some point. And the main thing is they want to make sure that

Murashov is getting playing time. That's the main thing is they want to make sure he is starting games. They don't want him to be in a full-time tandem or in a backup role or on a three goaly rotation, which you might get into right now with the NHL on the Four Nations break. So again, you don't need to freak out about him getting sent back to Wheeling. they're giving him opportunities to start. They're seeing what kind of workload he can handle

and where his level of consistency is as a starter. You don't want to obviously burn him out, but you also need to kind of tighten the screws a little bit, especially now that we're into February, March, and April. You want to see, okay, can he keep this level of playup into March, into April? If Wilkes and or Wheeling go on a run, Can it go into May? Can it go into June?

And I know that I said you don't want to burn him out, but these teams will start to see if his performance starts to slip. He's going to get less starts. They're going to play the other goalies because it's the one position right now where the organization has a whole hell of a lot of depth. So essentially they want him to play. As for McGority, I mean, I really hope that at this point, and I would imagine it's what they're doing,

he's got to be working on the skating because the points are showing up. He is involved in the play. He is assisting on seemingly every single goal that Wilkes-Bare scores. So he is a solid distributor of the puck. And eventually, once the skating finds its way, he's going to be a very effective NHL player. I don't want to get anybody's hopes too inflated and think that, oh, he's going to be a superstar.

But middle six forward who can fill in in the top six really feels like where he is headed. So very encouraging progress from him. And I had to give that shout out to pull in. I'm with you. I think a fresh start in a new organization is where he's likely headed. But you like to see somebody who has been working their butt off to stay at least in the conversation, get rewarded for it. But Hunter, unless you've got anything left to add, I think that'll do it for the Monday edition of Locked on Penguins. We appreciate you guys tuning in. We will be back with some more Four Nations talk on Tuesday and with anything else that may happen between now and then. But for Hunter Hodes, I'm Patrick Damp. Thank you,

as always for tuning in. And we will be back on Tuesday.