Locked On Penguins - Daily Podcast On The Pittsburgh Penguins - The Penguins are BACK with a BIG Metro matchup!
Episode Date: February 26, 2026The Penguins return to action tonight against divisional rival New Jersey, and it’s a chance to start the back half with a win. Hunter and Patrick begin the episode by taking a look at the New Jerse...y Devils, who, despite being mostly healthy, are having a disappointing season. (1:00) They look into why the Devils have underperformed and identify the cause. Then, the Penguins will have some new-look lines in the absence of Sidney Crosby, so who has to step up and carry the load in the captain’s absence? (10:45) Finally, they go over some keys to victory for the Penguins tonight at PPG Paints Arena. (21:00) Everydayer ClubJoin the Everydayer Club for ad-free audio, access to our group chat on Discord, and more. Use code DEADLINE ahead of the trade deadline for one month free. Tap here to learn more: https://lockedonpodcasts.com/everydayerclub Support Us By Supporting Our Sponsors! Indeed Now, you can speed up your hiring process with a $75 Sponsored Job Credit. Just go to https://indeed.com/podcast right now and support our show by saying you heard about Indeed on this podcast. Terms and conditions apply. Gametime Download the Gametime app, create an account, and use code LOCKEDON for $20 off your first purchase. Terms apply. Download Gametime today. What time is it? Gametime. FanDuel Use your Profit Boost on an NBA future and get entered for your chance to win a trip to the NBA Finals. Play your game with FanDuel, the official sports betting partner of the NBA. Visit https://FANDUEL.COM to get started. 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.
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After three weeks off, the Pittsburgh Penguins finally returned to action on Thursday night against the Devils.
And Pat and I are going to preview that game for you all coming up 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 the Thursday edition of the Locked-on Penguins podcast.
I am one of your host, Hunter Hodes.
you can follow me on Twitter at Hunter Hodes.
Joined by my co-host, Patrick Damp,
you can follow him on all social media platforms
at Cend and Fruwet.
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Of course, thank you all so much for making this
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We are free and available on all platforms.
Pat, our long national nightmare is finally over.
That's right.
everyone. The Pittsburgh Penguins are indeed back in action tonight for the first time in three weeks,
as they will take on the New Jersey Devils from the Metropolitan Division. These two teams
have split the two previous meetings this year. The Devils won the first matchup in a shootout,
and then the Penguins blew out the Devils at PVG Pins Arena back in January. This is the
devil's team right now. That is extremely fragile. They have lost four in a row, including Wednesday,
a two to one loss to the Buffalo Sabres. This is also a Devils team that, frankly, they can't
score. They have three goals in their last four games. They also rank dead last in the league in
goals four per game at 2.48. That's also backed up on money puck. And they're also 24th in the
league in terms of five on five expected goal share. So Pat, not only are they not scoring at five on five.
They're also not really generating much offense either, which I can't lie. I'm a little surprised by
considering the potent talent that the devils have up front. Jack Hughes, Jasper Bratt,
Nico Heeshire, Tim O'Meyer, Dawson Mercer.
Those five right there are all really good,
but still, this is a devil's team that can flat out not score this year.
They have, their expectations were high to start the year.
They have not even come close to meeting them.
They are the second worst team in the Eastern Conference.
This is the first of two games of the next few days, Pat,
that are extremely winnable for the Penguins.
They are.
And I mean, the thing that I got to say about the devils,
I feel kind of bad saying it because what have we talked about with the devils for the last few years is that they got so unlucky the last few years with injuries.
So many of their big time contributors were out of the lineup for extended stretches.
And you looked at this roster the way it was built.
And you went, man, if they stay healthy, this is going to this is going to be a really good team in the East.
This is going to be a team to reckon with in the Eastern Conference.
And the thing that I'm going to say that I feel kind of bad about is we probably have to put them on fraud watch because they have been mostly healthy this year.
They've had some injuries here and there.
But for the most part, this team has been healthy.
And right now you look at post-Olympic break, they're not really missing anybody big.
Zach McEwen is out.
Shout out one of my old quote unquote coworkers at the Utica Comets.
He was with them when I was with them.
them. Stefan Nason is out and he's solid, but not someone that's going to derail your lineup.
And Luke Hughes, who has been okay at best.
He's never rated by, I think, a lot of people around the NHL.
I think some people, I mean, they were thinking about putting him on the team USA roster.
I'm like, yeah, he's not that player, at least right now.
So you look at this team and there is a lot of talent there.
And I'll put this out there.
You would probably say their weakness is goaltending, right?
Jacob Markstrom and Jake Allen, but here's the caveat to that.
You look at their defense, you look at their offense, they don't need a Vesna caliber
goalie.
They just need a goalie who can play to league average, and that's pretty much what they have.
So I look at this team, and they are genuinely confusing because they should be good,
and yet here they are, and they are deeply mid.
but also not well coached.
I don't think Sheldon Keith has done a good job with them at all this season.
And personally, I wouldn't be surprised if you see a head coaching change for this team at the end of the season.
I also think the GM is on the nice there.
I think Tom Fitzgerald might also be on his way out at the end of the season.
I think you might see some really big seismic changes.
Which I think I think the Sheldon Keith part of it is fair because again, you look at this roster.
It's extremely deep.
It's extremely talented in their not getting the results, which I think really points to
the head coach. It kind of feels like Fitzgerald's just going to be the guy left holding the bag
because I don't think he's done a poor job. You can talk about not getting Quinn Hughes.
He's okay. He's fine. But I also think that you look at the package that got Quinn Hughes to Minnesota,
the devils didn't really have something comparable. So it was going to be really difficult
to get Quinn out of Vancouver the way Minnesota did. So I think he might just end up
as a tough luck guy who loses his job because he didn't achieve the goals they should have.
But overall, I look at this roster and I think he's done a pretty good job putting together
a talented team. The problem is they're not getting the results.
Yeah, I think he's done a so-so job. I think in my opinion, he's more of an average GM in the
NHL. I just think all signs are leading to him potentially, you know, getting canned at the end
of the season as well as Sheldon Keeb. I would not be surprised if the devils are looking for both
a head coach and a general manager at the end of the year.
So time will tell on that.
Again, this is an extremely fragile team right now.
They've lost four in a row, six over the last seven games.
They can't score to save their lives.
So, you know, in terms of the way the Penguins have been playing defensively,
especially as of late, I do think this is a totally fine matchup for them,
as long as they, again, just keep showing those same defensive improvements that they
have been showing throughout the last several weeks.
I know we've had the Olympic break for the last three weeks, but before then,
I just really like the way this team had been defending.
You touched on New Jersey's goaltending, and Allen has been totally fine this year.
9-07, he played last night, so that's probably means that Jacob Markham is going to go tonight.
He's been the worst of the two goaltenders this year, only an 882 say percentage this year
and a 3.20 goals against average.
He did play a little bit better at the Olympics.
I actually thought he played really well against Team USA in the Sweden-US game.
So he has the ability to play that well.
It just hasn't come out that much this year.
in New Jersey.
And he has played that well against the penguins before.
So just watch out for that.
If he does indeed get the start, which I do think is likely.
But hey, maybe they go back to back with Alan, who knows.
Which again gets back to my overarching point about this devil's squad is just, yeah, it's not,
it's not team Sweden.
Like team Sweden on paper was probably what, the third best team at the Olympic game.
So he had a lot more in front of him with Sweden.
But this is still, again, the way the roster.
put together, he doesn't need to be great.
He just needs to be league average.
And for the most part, he has.
882 is below league average right now.
He hasn't been good.
Alan is the one that's been fine.
For sure.
For sure.
But it's going to feed into this is you look at the way this devil's team has played this
year.
They are 14th in goals against per game and 32nd in goals for per game.
So he is just another victim to me.
of this team's problem they can't defend and they can't score and usually the worst victim of that
ends up being your goaltender now again jake allen has been pretty good 907 264 g aaa but at the end of
the day when i look at this devil's team the goaltending on paper is the weakness but their overall
play has been the big problem yeah they just haven't really been able to find any consistency
I remember when, you know, Hughes came back from that freak injury.
I was like, okay, maybe the devils can at least start to turn it on.
Nope, they just haven't been able to do it all year.
And they're virtually cooked at this point.
They're 11 points out.
You have less than 30 games remaining, month and a half left in the season.
Your odds to get to the playoffs are basically 0.05% if that,
it would take a miracle for this team to get into the playoffs.
So I think you're going to see them sell off with a deadline next week.
But again, that would do it for this first segment going into the
devils a little bit. Even Teddy was getting a little excited about that here to end the first segment here.
Coming up in the second segment, we're going to discuss the Penguins lineup for tonight,
who is starting in net, plus the lines and all the defensive pairs.
That's coming up right after this.
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All right, we're back here on this episode of the locked on Penguins podcast.
I'm one of your host, Hunter Hodes, joined by my co-host, Patrick Dampen.
Well, Teddy decided to get out of the room.
My German Shepherd was having fun at the end of the first segment, but she decided to, okay, now she didn't want to hear the good stuff, Pat, with the Penguins talk.
But all right.
I was a yaping out of you two chuckleheads.
I'm out.
She was like,
all right,
I heard what I wanted to hear about the devils,
but I don't want to hear about the team that you root for in this house.
But okay,
whatever, Teddy,
that's okay.
Let's get into the lineup for tonight.
So Igor Chinochinov is set to play.
He is available after he and his wife welcomed their first child yesterday.
So congratulations to them.
Yor Chinochinov do not practice on Wednesday,
but he will be on the second line,
with Eviannie Malkin and Tommy Novak.
Kevin Hayes was filling in for Chinatkov
during Wednesday's practice.
The top line will say the same outside of No Sydney Crosby.
Rickel will be centering it with Avery Hayes and Brian Russ.
I got to say, man, I am excited for Avery Hayes to get another crack at the NHL.
Obviously, his NHL debut was fantastic on February 5th against the Sabres.
Two goals was one of their best players.
And now he's set to play on the top line with Raquel and Russ Pat.
That's really what I want to start this.
segment, I am stoked to see what he can do in a second ageal game.
He has been lighting up the HL over the last few weeks.
And now he kind of gets an opportunity of a lifetime, especially without no
Sidney Crosby for the next three to four weeks.
I'm really excited for this kid.
You and me both.
And for the people watching on YouTube, you see this?
This is me drinking an energy drink during this show.
That is Avery Hayes.
Avery Hayes is a human energy drink.
He just does not have an off switch.
He plays the game at a million miles an hour.
And the penguins, I do think a little bit are going to need that because they'll never come out and say it.
You know, obviously our good pal Josh Yo, he had a little bit of an interview with Brian Russ today where Rust basically said, hey, people can come out and doubt us and say that we're going to fall off without Sid.
they're not whether they're going to admit it or not losing sidney crosbie after the
olympics especially when you're in this playoff race human nature is going to be a downer
that's just you lose your captain for a little bit he's always been the leader and the standard
bearer of this organization for the last 20 years that takes a toll on you but then you bring in
a guy like abry hayes who has one game of experience his first game was absolutely
electric. This guy is going to bring it for however long he gets to remain with the big
club. And that's also a credit to the general manager because he has done a good enough job
building up this roster that some of these young guys who he said they weren't going to block
are getting blocked simply because the team's playing really well. So on the other side of that
coin is when these guys get their opportunities, they can't just come up and be happy to be here.
they have to come up and earn a way to be here and earn their way to stay here.
And if anything in Avery Hayes's NHL debut showed us,
it showed us that he is a guy who you give him that opportunity.
He is not going to waste it.
And I also like they're kind of throwing him to the wolves right away in his second
stand.
Like, oh, you had that great debut.
We're putting you on the top line with two of our better forwards.
Have fun.
And I'm excited to see what he can do.
with this opportunity.
I also do think part of it is because
D.MUs doesn't want to
disrupt the chemistry that the other three lines have.
Chinoakov and Malkin are obviously great together.
Same with Novak and Malkin
and then Kindle the way that Brazil and Manta weed off one another
and then the fourth line, arguably the best fourth line in hockey.
Dame Euse just doesn't really want to mess with those three.
But it does show how much trust that he already has,
at least in my opinion, in every Hayes.
Even though Hayes has only played one game in the initial,
told this year where he's like, hey, I'm putting you up on the top line.
Let's see what you can do.
And it'll be on the lookout for his straightaway speed, his release, just how smart of a
player he has been blossoming into throughout the year.
Again, really excited to see what he can do here in this stint.
And as it just discussed, it will be Kindle on the third line with Mantha and Brazil.
You're going to see more than elevated role with Ben Kendall.
I also think he's probably going to be on the top power play as well.
Now that Cindy Rosu is going to be out.
for the next three to four weeks, which is deserved.
I mean, he has been one of the best forwards all year.
The way that, you know, he just thinks the game on the ice,
the way that his vision is, especially on the power play,
it's second to none.
So I think he's really going to cook there.
And in general, he has passed, as I said on Wednesday, Pat,
he has passed every test this year with flying colors.
What's one more?
Now the captain is going to be out for a little bit.
I think he's going to be really good during the stretch.
And then, as I said, the fourth line, it's going to say the same,
rightfully so.
defensively, Watherspoon Carlson, very normal.
Sam Jarre with Crystal Tang, which I think is going to be feast or famine.
It's going to be a peak chaos pairing.
We'll see if it goes well or if it goes poorly.
If it's the latter, I think you're going to say,
Damuze switch up that pair pretty quickly and put Ryan Shea up there.
But right now, Ryan Shea is going to be on the third pair with Connor Clifton,
and that means Elias Oliviov and Ryan Graves will be scratched.
And then in goal, it will be an artie party tonight in Pittsburgh.
Archer Sheelovs will start for the Penguins tonight.
the devils and I imagine it's probably going to be Skinner against the Rangers and then
she loves against the Golden Knights that they keep to this 50-50 rotation but we'll have to see
but Pat it will be already tonight for the Penguins.
This is going to be a classic, a genius move if it works, stupid if it doesn't, putting in
Archer She Loves and obviously I'm not saying defines Dan Muses as a head coach. He has done a very
fine job in his first season. I thought you were going to say that statement for Gerard
Letang. I wasn't expecting you to say that for.
She loves. Well, it applies to that as well, because as you said, that is going to be a feast or famine pairing.
It's either going to work out great or it's going to be a disaster. But I look at it from the
Sheelov's perspective as Stuart Skinner didn't go to the Olympics. Stuart Skinner got the time off.
He got the practices in. Artie Sheelovs was in Italy. So it shows that they've got some confidence
in Arter Sheelovs as a goaltender to play him in the first game out of the break after he played for Latvia,
though it wasn't very often at the Winter Olympics.
And I know that people say, like I said, he didn't play much there,
but you still got to factor in.
Travels all the way over to Italy.
He's involved with Team Latvia throughout.
He's got to travel back from Italy.
His body's got to readjust to the North American time zones.
And he didn't get much time off.
He was in those practices, in those games,
part of the whole pomp and circumstance of the Winter Olympics.
So if this works out, it's a huge check in Archer Shilov's corner in his column.
And then another thing that I noticed, and I want to see how it works out tonight overall with this lineup,
a little bit different for the defense.
You went over the pairings.
But I look at this forward group.
And what if we always said has given the penguins fits against the devils for the last
few years?
The devil's speed.
Yeah.
But I look at this forward group tonight.
Avery Hayes and Rust on your top line.
Rust doesn't have the same speed he once did,
but he's still a pretty quick player.
Avery Hayes, we know, plays at a million miles an hour.
Igor Chinikov and Tommy Novak,
they can play a pretty fast game.
They can take some of the pressure off of Malkin.
The third line, a little more cerebral line with Mantha, Kendall, and Brazil.
They're not exactly speedsters, but they're not slow either.
And that fourth line with Dewar and Lazot,
those two guys played a million miles an hour.
Our, Achari, yeah, not the fastest player, but he knows where to be when those two take off.
So there's a chance this lineup, at least at forward, might be able to counter a little bit of
the devil's speed in this game.
And I think you've seen that in the previous two meetings as well.
The penguins have really skated well with the devils, even though the devils haven't been
that good this year.
You're right.
Even when, you know, you go back a few seasons when the devils were still kind of on their
way up, but they weren't a playoff team yet.
those teams were still giving the Penguins fits all over the ice.
And the Penguins, their speed just hadn't caught up.
At that point, they were still really slow.
Now, especially this year, I think, in my opinion, it has caught up.
And you've seen the Penguins kind of skate circles around the Devils that time.
You saw it, especially during that game back in January, where the Penguins,
they were kind of just bullying New Jersey throughout that game.
And so we'll see if that also continues tonight.
That is going to do it for the second segment.
Coming up to end the show, Pat and I are going to discuss a few key.
to victory for the Penguins tonight to try and get two big points in the standings.
That's coming up right after this.
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All right, we're back here on this episode of the Locked-on Penguins podcast.
I'm one of your host, Hunter Hodes, joined by my co-s, Patrick Damp.
And Pat, let's get into some keys to victory for the Penguins tonight.
I think the first one for me, got to get an early one or two.
And yeah, I know some people are going to be like, well, that should be a key for every game that the Penguins play.
Yes, to a degree, but especially against a team like the Devils that has been very fragile as of late.
They cannot score to save their lives.
it's kind of similar to the Rangers game before the break where yeah i know it got a little bit
dicey at the end but when you saw the penguins were taking it to the Rangers at home
that team just really didn't have a lot of energy until the final 10 minutes of the third period
i guess when they got a few garbage time goals but if you pop an early one or two tonight
i think the devils you're really going to see how fragile they are and this is also a devil's
team that's playing on the second half of a back-to-back with travel the penguins are waiting for
them here. And to a degree, I think you'll see a little bit of rust. The penguins have not played
in three weeks. So you're going to have to dust off some of that rust in the first five,
10 minutes. But you do have the advantage because the other team played last night. But my first
key man, got to get the early one or two because of just how poor the devils have been as of late.
It's something that our everyday listeners have heard me say a million times. But it always rings true.
Like you said, this is a fragile devil's team that is having a really disobeyed.
pointing season. And it is the kind of team where you score one or two early on them,
their shoulders start to slump, their heads start to go down, and they start to question
whether or not they're ever going to win a game again. So that is huge for them. The other thing,
to build off of what you said, this is the second half of a back to back for them. And yeah,
the penguins do have three players in the lineup who did go to the Olympics, but the majority of
their roster was not there. This is your first game out of the break. A fast start should not be off
the table, even if it's a little bit sloppy, even if it's your passes are just missing,
your shots are missing the net, whatever, you've got to come out fast, just in general,
just play a fast game, blitz this team early. Again, if you're missing some passes, you're not
as crisp because there's some Olympic break rust, that's fine. Yeah, but you should be ready and
raring to go because you have been off for three weeks and this is your first game back
against the team that played last night. So if nothing else, you want to put them under a little
bit of duress early in the game just to really put the squeeze on them because if you do that,
good chance they're going to make some mistakes and they're going to turn the puck over.
They're going to give you some opportunities and you can get those early goals that will give you
the advantage. I agree. Another key that I have for victory. I know Cindy Crosby is out,
so this part of it stinks, but I want to see the power play start to really get cooking. I'm going
to keep saying this until the power play really starts getting back to basics. I haven't really
liked a lot of that unit, you know, going back to before the Olympic break, those last two, three-ish
weeks where everything has just looked really difficult. The zone entries haven't been crisp.
they're not getting to the high danger areas.
And I really hope that Todd Nelson's taking a lot of time over the break here to really
fine tune a few things.
And yeah, I know not having Cindy Rosaries out there is going to stink.
But I still want this unit to be a lot better because, you know,
that unit was really helping win some early games earlier this season.
And, you know, it can really help win some games you're down the stretch when you're playing
playoff team after playoff team when March starts coming up here on Sunday.
So I want that unit to be really.
you know, much better tonight.
You're playing against the devil's PK that is right around weak average.
They're not bad, but they're also not good.
So if the power play is humming, I think it can have its way against the devil's PK.
I do think without Sidney Crosby, and this is not a mark against Sid.
We know how great he is.
When you lose your key piece, say you're Sidney Crosby or whomever for a unit like that,
you're going to simplify things a lot more than you normally would.
you're not there's always a little bit of overthinking when you have a truly elite unit because
you have so many options at your disposal you take one of those away it forces you to
oversimplify your power play so whether it's ben kindle rickel even eric carlson and brian
rust they're going to take the simple plays a lot easier because you're not sitting there going
is sit open, is sit around for that tip, is sit around for that one-timer,
you're just going to take what the game gives you a lot more naturally.
So that actually could be a little bit of addition by subtraction.
Again, a power play with Sidney Crosby on it is better than a power play without
Sidney Crosby on it.
But the way this power play had been operating in the lead up to the Olympic break,
it did appear that they were trying to look for that one extra pass or that one
one extra move or that one extra setup where now when you take that option away, rather than looking
for it, you're just going to go, all right, I've got the lane, I can shoot, I can get it to the guy
for the one timer, I can just put it on net for a deflection or a rebound. So this is a really good
opportunity for that unit to simplify their game and get back to what was making them so successful
earlier in the year.
That and, you know, also simplifying their overall game, too,
especially defensively.
This will be a nice little test right out of the gate against some true game breakers.
You know, Jack Hughes, obviously, with the golden goal.
Nico, he's sure with the offensive capabilities that he has.
Dawson Mercer, the way that he has played against the Penguins before,
Timo Meyer, again, I can keep going down the list.
And this will be a good test for the Penguins to see if they can also simplify in their own zone
and just play a really clean 16-minute game.
game we're trying to paying two points in the standing. So again, those are just a few of my keys
for tonight. Obviously, you know, a consistent start from R.D. Sheelovs, a big one as well.
I think, you know, in terms of forward lines, I think the third line is a big X factor for me tonight.
If that line can keep cooking the way it was before the break, I think you could see it
have a really big game tonight against the Devils.
Pat, do you have anything else for this one before we send it to Friday?
But we'll recap this game and we'll get set for the weekend.
as well. Just so happy we're back, man. Don't get me wrong. Love the Olympic hockey. Love that we got
best on best back. But man, feels real good to have our Pittsburgh Penguins back in action.
This is our bread and butter. We're super excited for this stretch run and we're really hoping that
this team can make the playoffs because it's been a while since the show has gotten playout
content. I've seen the way, you know, our views go up when the Penguins make the playoffs. So
we're really hoping that this team can get in because it's been a really special season.
season so far and we're just really appreciative of everyone that has listened to slash watch this
show, whether it's one episode 10, 20, even 100 throughout the season, all that good stuff.
And one more thing, Pat, trade deadline promo.
You can join the everydayer club for ad-free audio, access to our group chat on Discord and more.
Just use the code deadline ahead of the trade deadline next Friday for one month free.
You can join now at locked on penguins.supercast.com.
So for Patrick Damp, I am Hunter Hodes.
thank you all so much to take the time to listen to slash watch this one.
Pat and I will be back with a fresh episode for you all on Friday,
recombing this game against the Devils and getting you all set for a weekend
back-to-back against the Rangers and the Golden Knights.
And hey, we'll see if Pat decides to do a fan take Friday poll or question.
Time will tell just because tomorrow's show is pretty busy.
But again, that will do it for this one.
We will talk with you all on Friday.
