Locked On Penguins - Daily Podcast On The Pittsburgh Penguins - The Penguins are BROKEN after two AWFUL losses, can it be fixed?

Episode Date: December 15, 2025

The Penguins blew not one, but two multi-goal third-period leads this weekend, and they look absolutely broken, so can it be fixed? Patrick and Hunter are bringing you a different kind of Locked On Penguins show this Monday because the Penguins choked away a 5-1 lead to the San Jose Sharks and followed it up with choking away a 3-0 lead to the Utah Mammoth. The episode begins by exploring the question of what went wrong. Is it coaching, is it mental, is it talent? What is leading this team to surrender so many wins? (0:00) Then, it's time to explore yet another question: Can this be fixed? How can Dan Muse, the veteran leadership, and Kyle Dubas go about fixing this problem? (12:07) Finally, it's time to do some spitballing. Are there players to be called up? What about demoted? Should Dan Muse go nuclear on this team? All of that gets discussed in the final segment. (23:56) Support Us By Supporting Our Sponsors!GametimeDownload the Gametime app, create an account, and use code LOCKEDONNHL for $20 off your first purchase. Terms apply. Download Gametime today. What time is it? Gametime.MonarchTake control of your finances with Monarch. Use code LOCKEDONNHL at https://monarch.com/lockedonnhl for 50% off your first year.FanDuelToday's episode is brought to you by FanDuel. So if you want to be right in the middle of the action this season, visit FanDuel.com and place your NFL live bets all season long. 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.

The Christmas season is upon us, and you can't say that the penguins aren't in the spirit because they're given everything away. Leeds, games, points, and wins. So let's talk about it on 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, day. Welcome in to the Monday edition of the Locked-on Penguins podcast. I am one of your hosts, Patrick Damp. You can follow me across all social media platforms at Synonym 4 Wet, joined as always by the one and only Hunter Hodes. You can follow him on Twitter at Hunter Hodes. You can follow our show's Twitter account at LO underscore Penguins. You can find us on Instagram at Lockedon underscore Penguins. We are also on

TikTok at Locked-on Penguins. Of course, as always, we appreciate you making us part of your daily routine. Don't forget that we are free and available wherever you get your podcasts as well as YouTube, and if you're following us on YouTube, which you should be. Make sure to hit that notification button. That way you can be among the first to know when we drop our daily Monday through Friday episodes. Before we begin this therapy session on a Monday morning, this

This episode is brought to you by Fandul. If you want to be right in the middle of the action this season, visit Fandul.com and place your NFL live bets all season long. Our dear listeners, let me just give you the roadmap for this episode. It's not going to be a traditional locked-on penguins episode. Given the events of the weekend, the penguins blow a 5-1 lead to the San Jose sharks and then a 3-0 lead to the Utah Mammoth to lose 6 to 5 in overtime,

and then 5 to 4 in overtime against the mammoth. There's not going to be a ton of analysis here today. There's not going to be a ton of X's and O's. There's not going to be a ton of philosophy talk. This is, as I said before the presenting sponsor, mostly going to be 30 or so minutes of therapy for us Penguins fans, because this is embarrassing. this is unacceptable i don't have many more words to describe it but i know that this is bad i know

that this is maybe not rock bottom but we may be one more shovel away from it being rock bottom it is an unacceptable weekend and i will start with this this isn't a coaching problem this isn't a systems problem. It is a mentality problem. This team is mentally soft. The second something goes wrong, they crumble. It happened against San Jose. It happened against Utah. I'm not sure how you fix it, but you know what, Hunter, I'm going to let you off the leash because I know you've got a lot to go with, but I do know that this little snowball could very soon turn into an avalanche. Unacceptable is the word I keep coming back to. This is not okay. I don't care how good you are, how bad you are. You cannot be giving up leads like this, like they are pieces of candy. You are up

five to one with less than 13 minutes to go. That should be a regulation win a hundred out of a hundred times. Hell, you gave up a power play goal there. Okay, five, two, less than six minutes to go, you're up three goals. Should be a regulation win a hundred out of a hundred times. But when something went wrong, they crumbled because they are a mentally fragile group that doesn't know how to respond to adversity. And you know what? They were taking it to San Jose for a good majority of that game on Saturday. They were the better team. But when something bad happened, the rest of it just went awful and it's on everyone

everyone in this organization needs to eat this every coach needs to eat this every player especially needs to eat this because I will give DMUs and his staff a little bit of a flack pat because some of the deployment decisions make no sense

you need to stop icing Carlson let's hang at the end of games it doesn't work you saw what happened against Anaheim you saw what happened here against the sharks it didn't work. So I think with him, he's got to be a little bit better there. But I think a good majority of this, it is on the players.

Step up and show some freaking pride. It is embarrassing that this continues to happen on a nightly basis, at least the last week, against the ducks. 17 seconds left. All you got to do is play keep away, skate out that win. You have a power play to end the game. Nope. Point one seconds left.

It feels like that moment has broken this team. right now they have not responded at all since then today against utah you don't have your best it's clearly obvious we can go on natural stat trick i mean i looked on it after the game ended they got caved in but you know what you had a three nothing league going into the third period it's on you to change the narrative and you know what as soon as something bad happened in the third period a minute in they made it three one here you go again and they don't deserve any sympathy they played like absolute crap for a majority of that game and even though they were up three nothing they had a chance to at least try and change the narrative and they didn't come close

it is embarrassing it is unacceptable it's disturbing and flat out it's disgusting something needs to change here because i'm not going to sit here and accept this i totally understand and i'm sorry to make light of your frustration because i'm right there with you but that felt like a Stephen A bit right there with the ways you were describing it. Listen, if we don't laugh, we're going to go insane here because this weekend has been absolutely horrific for the penguins. But to your point, I'm not going to make any excuses here. And I know this is going to come off as sounding like I'm making an excuse.

Against Utah, if you've watched hockey for any period of time, you knew that that three nothing lead was paper thin. they got a lot of puck luck against Utah to get to a three-nothing lead. The first goal goes in off a skate. The second goal somehow trickles behind Vamalka. The third goal, great goal by Ben Kindle. Awesome decision-making on his part on that breakaway. But the majority of that game, they were the worst team.

Utah was taking it to him. Sergei Murashov was holding the fort as best as he could. And what makes San Jose the worst of the bunch is that for 55 minutes, they weren't just beating San Jose. They were dominating San Jose. Yes. San Jose did not look like they belonged in the same league, let alone in that game for 55 minutes. And you give up one late power play goal and you fold like a lawn share you buy at the dollar tree. It's just absolutely unacceptable.

And to your point, it's. it's pride that's what it comes back to for me is pride it's you have heard me say this dear listener on this show a million times it's the national hockey league i know that this is a penguin centric podcast i know that we are penguins analysts i know that we are penguins fans and that means that the penguins to us are always the protagonist they're always the main character and we're going to analyze it from that perspective but i've always said said, it's the NHL. The other team on the other side is always trying to win as well.

As much as you may say, oh, this team's tanking, this team's rebuilding, whatever, they're playing to win too. And a lot of losses this season, I have come on this show and said, listen, did the penguins play great? No, but they played an NHL opponent. And sometimes an NHL opponent is going to beat you. This weekend, they beat themselves, plain and simple. They beat themselves. because like you said, three nothing going into the third period against Utah.

All that you have to do is hold on. You've got to make a couple of adjustments. You've got to put a little bit of energy toward it. And you can win this game because Sergey Murshov was playing one hell of a game. If there is one player from the Utah game that doesn't deserve any smoke, it is Sergey Murshov. He did just about everything in his power to keep them in that game and win that game. and they failed him.

I will give you another one, actually. And I know he had a bad turnover and overtime. It was not good. Ben Kendall played his ass off all game. One of his best games of the season. You have to include him there. The breakaway was great. His playmaking was off the charts once again.

He continues to be such a great player for this hockey team. So I will give him mostly a pass as well. Again, the turnover and overtime was not good to say the least because, you know, Utah had the puck right after and never gave the puck back because Marishab allowed that howler. let's be real pat that needed to be a save but he was great in 40 minutes i will give him that he was absolutely spectacular hell you and i were texting for a while if he was going to if he was going to keep this up you and i were going to have a conversation about you know should they keep him up and

figure out what to do with she love slash skinner but you know in the third period he along with the rest of the team crumbled so just not good enough there and you're right you need to play for pride. You need to show some fight, show some effort. There needs to be a closed doors meeting something. And the veteran leadership of this team needs to step up because this is completely unacceptable. Sid, in overtime these last two games, man, oh my God. That's some of the worst hockey I think I have seen Crosby play throughout his career. Got absolutely dusted by John Clingberg. Don't really know what he was doing there. And then, in this overtime today, too, got dusted. His play also needs to be.

a bit better. And I don't use this word lightly. I have hardly ever used this word on this show. They are playing like a bunch of losers right now. And that needs to change fast. You're right. And let's keep that going in the second segment. What has to change? Can it be fixed? How do you fix it? Is it even possible? We're going to keep this conversation going right here on the Locked on Penguins podcast. So stick with us. We'll be back right after this. but we've got a sponsor to tell you about here in the first break in that is indeed welcome back to the show indeed you just realized your business needs to hire someone yesterday so how can you find amazing candidates fast easy just use indeed when it comes to hiring indeed is all you need stop struggling to get your job posts seen on other sites indeed sponsored jobs put your post at the top of the page and helps you reach the right candidates faster As I have said, when Indeed has been a sponsor on this show, while I may not have been in the position of needing to hire someone, I have certainly been someone who is on the job hunt, and my full-time job, I found it thanks to Indeed, it also got me plenty of interviews, plenty of emails, plenty of things that help me find the job that I need. Indeed, it's an absolutely fantastic service, so I highly recommend them.

Now, you can speed up your hiring process with a $75 sponsored job credit. just go to Indeed.com slash locked on right now and support our show by saying you heard about Indeed on this very podcast. Terms and conditions apply. Hiring, Indeed is all you need. We're back here on the Monday edition of Locked on Penguins. I'm Patrick Damp right alongside Hunter Hodes. And again, seeing your traditional episode of Locked on Penguins, we're not going to go over plays. We're not going to go over moments. We are going to talk about them, but it's not going to be for analysis.

It's going to be just to talk this out because it's been rough. It's been really rough. And I want to add one thing to kind of put this in a little bit of perspective. And I know that you're going to disagree. I know that our listeners are going to shake their heads at me. But I really want to put the last week into context. Against Dallas. Let's start with the Dallas game.

It's a genuinely great team in Dallas. You're not the first team, nor are you going to be the last team that gives up a lead to them and loses to them. That is a Stanley Cup contender, a bona fide top team in the NHL. Was it good? No, it was not good. You got to finish the game out. You got to get the points. But at the same time, great team in Dallas.

Anaheim, everything you said was correct about 17 seconds, power play, play keepaway, but at the same time you get that goofy ass bounce off of Carlson's glove and there is not a coaching maneuver, there is not an effort, there is not anything that saves you from a weird bounce. Yes, it shouldn't have gotten to that point, but hey, things happen. Then against the habs, you know show. You can't no show after those two games. They just did not show up for the Montreal game. From start to finish, they did not put forth a good effort. We went over San Jose. You crumble. When one thing goes bad, Utah, you don't play well, but you jump out to a three nothing lead and then you blow it at the first sign of trouble. That's unacceptable. So I look

at it this way, Hunter. I have it on the rundown as our third point, but this is where I want to start. It is time for Dan Mews to hurt some feelings. It is time for Dan Mews. It is time for Dan Mews. to assert himself this is his moment whether it's benching a veteran i'm looking at you chris letang he has been absolutely awful for the last week and that hurts me to say because i have defended chris le tang for years but the last week plus he has validated his haters complaints by a multitude of a thousand and if i'm him this is what i'm going to throw to you about hunter The line of Ben Kindle, Rutger Magrorty, and Justin Brzoe should be your first line. Sorry, Sid, sorry Rust, sorry Raquel.

I love all three of those players, but guess what? That's the only line that has given you anything for this past weekend. And it's time to reward them and tell the old guys, you want that spot back, go out and earn it. Well, that's the nuclear option. And hey, the way that the Kindle line is playing, doesn't matter who is on his, you know, left and right. I hear you, just because Ben Kindle, he was the best forward on the ice for the Penguins today. And I don't really think it was close. So if you want to do that, sure, be my guest.

Brian Rust, I know the process hasn't been there, but at least he's been producing Pat. I can say that for him this season. I'm not really sure what change you're going to make on that top line if you're going to move Raquel down. but, you know, they got to figure something out, man. I mean, I hear you on the top line. With regards to Latang, can they bench him? Yeah, will they? No, there's no way they're actually going to do it.

I would be very surprised, but does his play deserve a game off? Absolutely. He's been flat out awful for the last week or two. And you know me, man, it hurts me to say as well, Chris LaTang has been one of my favorite penguins throughout his entire career. I have defended him from a lot of people who have said for 15 plus years oh he's washed he's overrated

and now all of those takes that these people have had for 15 plus years they feel like oh we're vindicated because he's now playing bad no you're not vindicated for that he's just now old and father time comes for us all he's not the player that it used to be that's the fact

like he's playing in too many high leverage situations and you can't keep doing that I know Brett Kuwack hasn't played yet. Do you try him with Lettang? I mean, I wrote about this for the hockey news. Kuwak throughout his career has been a very solid defensive player. I'm not trying to crap on Ryan Shea too much, but do you give that a try? Again, I don't expect Latang to be scratched.

Should he, at least for a game, probably just with the way that he's playing? But if you're not going to do that, give him a different partner in Brett Kuwack and I guess see how that goes. going to move Watherspoon and Carlson. The bottom pair kind of is what it is. You waved Matt Dumbo, which was the right call, by the way. He's been really bad. Connor Clifton is what he is. Ryan Graves is what he is. I guess if you want to give

Jackson Ivany a look, go for it. Be my guest. I mean, he's shown a couple of flashes at times, but that's really it. So if you want to look at that, sure, at the end of the day, nothing about this is acceptable. I know some people have said, Pat, oh, you know, fire someone on.

the coaching staff. They are not going to fire anyone on the coaching staff. I would bet a lot of money that they would not. I've seen people say make a trade. They did just make a trade with Tristan Jari, but if you want them to make another trade, something like that, okay, sure. That's, I think, totally fair, invalid. But I know that there needs to be a closed doors meeting and there needs to be some sort of Michelle Tarian type rant here. Am I going to be happy to play 40, 48, 50, 55 minutes? No, I'm not going to be happy to play for that many minutes because you keep blowing leads. And you said for the Dallas game, you know, that stuff happens. You're playing a Stars team.

That's a Stanley Cup contender. Okay, you move on. Against the Ducks, unacceptable. I know part of it was fluky, not good enough. The HABs, that's how you respond? Gross. And then these last two, you have big leads like that. And you just fold like a lawn chair.

It's, this is the culture. that you're creating for some of your young players needs to change, man. Everything about it needs to change. And the veteran leadership especially needs to step the hell up here and say something. That's the biggest thing is we have four years on this show or wherever else we have talked penguins

have gone to the mat for this leadership. And this doesn't negate anything that they've done in their career. They're not suddenly tarnishing their own legacies because their legacies are so set in stone that future generations are going to find the fossils of it and still not be able to move it because of how good they have been over the past two decades. But the problem is, is that is also self-serving in that they have been this good for this long. We, before the season, what did we say? we understand with where this team is in its franchise moment right now

you can lose games it's fine if you lose games we almost expect it because they're in the middle of a retooling which means the phrase you texted to me that I absolutely love now this team is going to have a bunch of jags

just a guy because that is where they are right now But don't play like this. Compete. Be in games. If you lose a hard fought one, again, the Dallas game. You're playing a genuinely great team and they decide to be genuinely great in the last five minutes. You are not the first team that's going to happen to. You're not the last team that's going to happen to.

But be in the game. This past weekend was the opposite of that. You can't fold like this. And you brought up Muse. along with hurting some feelings of some veterans, you're right. We're recording this not long after the game, so I haven't seen any of his comments. But if he does anything other than go to the mic

and not go nuclear on this team, he's doing it wrong. Because you can go out there and say, oh, you know, we played well from the most part, but we got to clean some things up and, you know, we got to look ourselves. No, you have to go out there and say, this team sucked.

They were terrible. They blew it. It's unacceptable. because they need this is going to be so self-serving for me in this show. There's a reason I don't go nuclear very often. There's a reason I don't have episodes like this very often.

Because if I do it all the time, it loses any and all credibility. I can't react to every loss in every game with, oh my God, they sock fire, everybody, train everybody, this is terrible, blah, blah. Because then people are going to go, what the hell does he even do here? For Dan Mews, he doesn't seem like the blow-up type, and that's fine.

But eventually you have to press that button. Eventually, you have to do something that perks everybody's ears up. And even if it's not going to the press conference and calling your team out, it's what I started this segment with. It's walking into practice on Monday and going, let's hang, you're on the fourth pair. Or, hey, Ben, Rutger, Justin, first line. first line duties and everybody goes oh he's not kidding around anymore because something has to happen to shake them out of this slumber and if there's one other thing that they can do and we're going

to talk about this to close the show out there are some players down on the farm that need an opportunity and as much as we have been saying we got to be patient it just might be time so stick with us. We're going to talk about that when we come back right after this. We've got one more sponsor to get to, though, and that is Fandul. NFL Sundays, they move fast. We're recording this in the middle of a crazy NFL Sunday when the Kansas City Chiefs are no longer going to be in the postseason. Who would have ever thought one big play and suddenly everything feels different? That's what makes live betting with Fandul so exciting. You're not just watching the game. You're reacting to it.

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The penguins are on a five-game losing streak. We're miserable. We need answers. This sucks. But you just did that meme, by the way, which that guy, you made, you did the meme there, which everything sucks. It's from the 961, um, Mikey and Bob show when they do the Facebook comments. And then it's at the end, everything sucks.

But yeah, I mean, I'm going to make. this suggestion and this is going to be my first shot my first suggestion i like his game i see the potential there i think it's time for villi covenin and to go back to the a hl and it's not even because i think he's playing poorly then again just about everybody in a penguin sweater has been playing poorly for the last week it just feels like he needs a reset it feels like he's just a little bit of a step behind whether it's shots decision making i think i think think he just needs a confidence boost he just needs to go to the a hl for a week or two really cook down there get his swagger back and come back to the n hl and you know who i would

bring up at this moment boco and mama because 99 times out of 100 i think the whole oh they got to get a tough guy in to really mix things up and and get this team going 99 times out of 100 it's dumb it's just lazy it's it's pandering to the lowest common denominator But right now, with everything we've talked about, the lack of effort, the lack of pride, you name it. A mama's a guy who is going to play every single shift like it's the last one he's ever going to get because it very well could be. And eventually you need that guy to just go out, put someone into the fifth row, and have

this team go, all right, let's go. We got to get back in this. I hear you. I mean, he'll show some effort. He'll show some fight. He's never afraid to get physical along the board. I mean, heck, when he was up here earlier this season, he was close to scoring a goal, especially in that game against Philadelphia.

He was a lot of fun to watch. Why not? At least for a game or two or three, if you want to keep it going, Avery Hayes is also playing really well down there right now. If you want to waive a veteran player, that also works to bring in a potential younger piece from Wilkesbury. I hear you. I really do.

So if you want to do something like that, that's okay as well. And again, you said something in the last segment that really resonated with me as well because it's rare when I come on here and I'm also nuclear. I pride myself on being very objective, very level-headed. I'm not the hot take person that just comes on here and says, oh, after every loss, oh, these guys are terrible. There's no effort or any of this. But when I see a trend like this happening, it's hard to not go nuclear and call this out. for what it is. And it's a team that's playing soft, that is mentally fragile, and you eventually have to play for pride and actually show some fight at some point. So I wanted to get that off my

chest. And the thing is, what makes it so frustrating is that you see the capabilities that this team has. You see that when they're on, they're capable of being a good team. And they play and dominate teams for long stretches. But when it comes down to the nitty gritty, and when one bad thing happens no matter what, it snobles and they are unable to get their confidence back. I don't know what the answer to getting that back is, but all I know is that they need to find it and find it quickly.

Because, again, like everything about that, I've just never seen something like this before, even during the late stage Mike Sullivan era. And you've been listening to the show for a while, you know, I was ready to move on from him. But they didn't do this at the end of the Mike Sullivan era. They were able to hold on to four goal leads with 12 minutes to go. They were able to at least hold on to most three goal leads in the third period.

They weren't coughing up six on five goals like free pieces of candy. They were able to do that. But especially this week, in six on five situations, they're making all the wrong leads. They are puck watching way too much. And again, I'll throw Dan Musil, you know, a little bit of scrutiny here because he needs to be better with some of his personnel decisions in those situations. Again, I'm trying not to go really off on the coaches, but they still need to eat some of it because they're not getting the most out of the players. But also at the same time, a lot of this is on the players because they're not playing to their full capabilities. I know that might sound weird to everyone towards the end of this episode. But as I said earlier, everyone. needs to eat this. And what you said there, I can build off of for myself, is part of the reason on this show,

especially last two years when we were having the constant conversations about Mike Sullivan that I was hesitant to go towards it is exactly what you said. The coaches can only do so much. The players have to play. And when you're at the professional level, you're at the top level, a coach is essentially nothing more than a manager like we can talk x's and o's we can talk strategy we can talk whatever when you're the when you're in the n hl you have played just about every system there is to play in hockey you've been in every situation there is to be in hockey you

don't have you it is rare that you have a coach come in and unlock something or do something new that no one has ever seen before it's a pretty simple game at its core The best coaches are able to figure things out like chemistry, like motivation, et cetera, et cetera. They're better at management than they are actual coaching. And I don't mean that in a negative way because it's the tip top of the sport. You don't need somebody there to really just put it all together. You need someone there who knows what buttons to push and when. But like you said, the part of this that Muse has to wear,

and it's also something that I will give him credit for that I noticed in the Utah game, he started giving the kid line more playing time because they were playing well. He was telling that line, go do your thing. You were playing well enough. So you're going to keep getting shifts. Now he needs to, as we said in the last segment, take that a step further. That line needs to start getting, it's sink or swim time because people go, and I know we've said it on this show.

We don't want to spoil their development. We don't want to rush them. But at this point, one, they. have said that they have some designs on getting back to the Stanley Cup playoffs. If that's the case, you got to start acting like it. Yeah. And if that line is the only line given you anything, you elevate them. And you use that as a message to the older guys that if you want to get back in that position,

you have to go out there and earn it. You have to go out there and out play them. I look at this roster and we can end with this because we don't want to go too long today because we don't want to stew in this misery any longer than we have to. I have defended this player quite a bit on this show since he became a penguin. I have seen enough of Kevin Hayes. I, listen, I do still think he has good vision, good puck protection. He makes the right decisions, or at least did quite a bit.

But this past weekend, it was more than apparent that his foot speeds a problem. He was behind plays. Offense fell apart when he had the puck on his stick because he wasn't able to keep up with the play. listen guy put up a hell of a career guy is a very solid player but he just can't keep up anymore and if there's a veteran that you might have to wave say it's him i hear you i really do i mean when he was on the second line and i'll be quick here so we can end this but when he was on the second line that line wasn't getting anything and i was saying on even on the show i was saying it to kelsey who i work with and a few other friends i text with during games but justin brizzo was

just getting totally cooked with him out there. Now that he's being centered by Ben Kendall, it's been going on. Rizzo had two goals today, and he was also give him, I guess a little bit of a pass as well, because I do think he played fairly well. On a fourth line role against San Jose,

I thought Hayes was fine, but that's really it. Today, he wasn't good. I think when Evgeny Malcon especially comes back, I think Hayes comes out of the lineup, and he should come out of the lineup. It's time if you want to, if you don't wave him, for example, Pat,

and you have him around as a 13th forward. Okay, whatever, but I would be okay with them waving him. I know that he's very popular in that room. I know a lot of the younger guys. I know the other veterans like him, but there isn't really much that should be off the table right now

when it comes to this team. And I want to end with this. I don't think this team sucks. I don't think this team is really bad because bad teams and teams that suck don't get to these type of leads and dominate teams for the stretches that they have dominated these teams what this is in my opinion is a team that when push comes to shove they're playing like

losers when something goes wrong and it's a mentality and it's fragile if you fix that i do think some of this is reversible but they need to find an answer to that because we've seen them dominate these teams a lot this season what no matter if it's at the power play or at five on five but until this mentality is fixed this is going to keep happening as crazy as that sounds because i've never seen something like this before so i'm going to end with that i would agree and i'm just going to add one quick thing on top of that and this might kind of fly in the face of what you said but what the hell i'll say it anyway there's also the possibility that this is kind of what we expected this team to be we knew that there was

going to be peaks. We knew that there were going to be valleys. We knew it was going to be a journey. We knew it was going to be a season where you weren't really going to get a good feel for them. But like you said, as we have said after a couple of losses this season, what's ailing them is fixable. It's not a fatal flaw. The more I look at this team, the more I watch this team, I see the bones of a competitive, potentially good team. They just have to put it all together for 60 full minutes, find some resolve, and who knows, maybe going into 2026, we're talking about this team getting back on track, or maybe we're dreaming about a high draft pick. We will see what happens in due time.

But that is going to do it for this Monday edition of Locked-on Penguins. Hunter and I will be back on Tuesday to get you set for Tristan Jari and the Edmonton Oilers. but for now for hunter hoodies i am patrick damp thank you for hanging with us after a tough weekend and we will talk to you on tuesday