Locked On Penguins - Daily Podcast On The Pittsburgh Penguins - The Penguins are still alive but need more help!
Episode Date: April 16, 2024The Pittsburgh Penguins did their job on Monday night with a dominant victory over the Nashville Predators, but didn't get any help from the teams they're in the playoff race with. In this episode, Hu...nter and Pat discuss what needs to happen for the Penguins if they want to make the playoffs on Wednesday and have that game matter. Yes Penguins fans, you have to root for the Flyers tonight. After that, they recap the win against the Predators and how Sidney Crosby and Erik Karlsson both had great efforts. They also shout out Alex Nedeljkovic for his performance after a rough outing against the Bruins. They then analyze how Jack St. Ivany played before ending the show with how the Penguins got to this point. Support Us By Supporting Our Sponsors!Monopoly GO!Get in the game and join your friends. Download MONOPOLY GO! now free on The App Store or Google Pay. The mobile hit twist on classic MONOPOLY.eBay MotorsFor parts that fit, head to eBay Motors and look for the green check. Stay in the game with eBay Guaranteed Fit at eBayMotos.com. Let’s ride. eBay Guaranteed Fit only available to US customers. Eligible items only. Exclusions apply.PolicygeniusCheck life insurance off your to do list in no time with Policygenius. Head to policygenius.com/lockedonnhl to get your free life insurance quotes and see how much you could save.SleeperDownload the Sleeper App and use promo code LOCKEDONNHL to get up to a $100 match on your first deposit. Terms and conditions apply. See Sleeper’s Terms of Use for details.GametimeDownload the Gametime app, create an account, and use code LOCKEDONNHL for $20 off your first purchase.FanDuelFanDuel, America’s Number One Sportsbook. Right now, NEW customers get ONE HUNDRED AND FIFTY DOLLARS in BONUS BETS with any winning GUARENTEED That’s A HUNDRED AND FIFTY BUCKS – win or lose! Visit FanDuel.com/LOCKEDON 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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The Penguins' playoff hopes partly rest in the hands of an old enemy.
You're Locked-on Penguins, your daily podcast on the Pittsburgh Penguins, part of the Locked-on Podcast Network, your team every day.
Hello, welcome back to another episode of the Locked-on Penguins podcast.
I am one of your hosts, Hunter Hodes.
You can follow me on Twitter at Hunter Hodes.
Join on my host, Patrick Dam.
You can follow him on Twitter at Sinford, and you can follow the show's Twitter at
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So the Penguins, they do their part on Monday night,
extending their season for at least another day
by defeating the national predators in regulation
by a score of 4 to 2.
I really liked how the penguins played in this game.
They showed that level of desperation that we really wanted them to show.
And I thought they were the better team throughout the entire 60 minutes,
even though the Preders pushed back a couple of times.
The Penguins were still in complete control of that game throughout those 60 minutes.
We'll recap that game more in depth later on.
But first, the Penguins did not get any help on the scoreboard last night.
The Montreal Canadiens had a commanding 4-1 lead over the Red Wings
late in the second period, but the Red Wings are able to come back a little bit late in the
second. They make it four to two heading into the third, and then they score two goals in the third,
including one with less than 90 seconds to go with their season on the line, thanks to Lucas
Raymond, and then Raymond won it in overtime to keep the Red Wing season going into tonight
against the Canadians, though that game will be on the road for the Red Wings. And then the
Washington Capals shut out the Boston Bruins, two nothing in D.C. And the Bruins, they didn't even
have 20 shots on goal for that game. Of course, the Bruins want to play their tails off against
the penguins over the weekend and put a six spot up on the penguins, but they can't even
put 20 shots and even one goal on the capitals on Monday night. Thanks a lot, Boston, truly.
So for tonight, the penguins will be rooting for both the Montreal Canadians and, yes, my friends,
the Philadelphia Flyers. The penguins have to get wins from both of those teams if they want
game 82 against the Islanders to matter on Wednesday.
Yeah, it was a tough night for scoreboard watching.
The one thing that you did not bring up there is that the Islanders did get a win,
which keeps this playoff race for the final wildcard spot with less traffic now,
because the Islanders now are locked in to the third position in the Metropolitan Division.
They will take on the Carolina Hurricanes and our old pal Jake Gensel in the first round.
And now this is a matter of finding out who,
is going to take on the New York Rangers who clinched the president's trophy last night as
the best team in the regular season. So they will have home ice throughout the Stanley Cup
playoffs for however long they are in it. And then you get to tonight, and this is going to be
a very stressful night of scoreboard watching for us Penguins fans because Washington and
Philadelphia is the main event, basically, because these are two teams that do still have
something to play for. Obviously, Washington wants to get that spot. Philly still has
has a very outside chance for it, though it's much more slim than everyone else,
but they are still technically alive in the race despite falling as hard as they have
over the last month or so.
So that game is going to be very stressful to watch.
And then you have Detroit and Montreal, who obviously Detroit still has something to play
for.
Montreal's got absolutely nothing to play for.
So we will see what happens in that one.
So it's a pretty simple task at this point for the penguins.
they get the results they want.
If the Red Wings and Capitals both lose in either regulation or a shootout or overtime,
the Penguins are still alive and all they'll have to do is win on Wednesday on the island,
which as we know has not exactly been the easiest of tasks for our Pittsburgh Penguins.
Yes, there are two main scenarios for the Penguins heading into tomorrow if they do get the
results that they need tonight.
So if the Flyers and Canadians both,
win in regulation over the capitals and the red wings, all the penguins will need is a single
points against the islanders. They will just have to go to overtime through Kuncha playoff
first pat because they will have the tiebreaker over both the capitals and the red wings.
Now, if the flyers in Canadians still win, but it's an overtime or shootout, the penguins
will have to win on the island against an islanders team that has nothing to play for.
Those are the two main scenarios. If the capitals win, they are in no matter what. They are
they actually right now, the only team that has a win in incinerary. They just have to beat the
flyers and they get that final playoff spot in the Eastern Conference. But if they lose and the
Red Wings win, it's the Red Wings that make the playoffs. Either way, if either one of these teams win,
the Penguins are officially eliminated from playoff contention. So there's the, there's the good news,
Penguins fans. We will know by the end of tonight where this season stands. We will know if game 82
is at all relevant.
We will know if the penguins are still alive
or if they are officially dead,
despite you and I having declared them officially dead multiple times,
and they laughed in our faces about it.
It would be very penguins if they did get the results that they needed tonight,
and then they just laid an egg on the island just because they struggle playing the islanders on Long Island.
I know, I'm sorry I put that out there, everyone.
I think it would just be very peak penguins.
if that were to happen.
But hey, as we have found out quite a few times throughout the season,
it's not over until the Fat Lady sings.
And Penguins fans, get ready to wear orange tonight.
Yes, I'm wearing orange for those watching on YouTube.
I have my Virginia Tech shirt on, though.
But if you are in a good mood, put an orange shirt on,
doesn't you have to be a Flyers shirt, please?
I'm not asking anyone to do that.
But, hey, put something like that on and go out there and cheer for your cross-state rival
because you have to root for the Flyers to win this game.
The good part is for the Penguins, at least both the Flyers and the Canadians are at home.
The Washington Capitals also did just play yesterday.
The Flyers were waiting for them in Philadelphia.
So that's good news, at least for that the Flyers have to take care of business at home.
But the Canadians, man, blowing a 4-1 lead late in the second period into the third period.
How much do they really want to play for with this game in Montreal?
That's going to be something to watch for in that one.
Yeah, that one's going to be tough overall just because there's one, like I said already,
there's one team that has everything to play for and another team that has nothing to play for.
So it's kind of a, I don't want to say low stakes game, but the stakes kind of all rest on one team's shoulders.
So you know that they'll be motivated.
Then you look at Washington and Philadelphia.
I mean, this is a game that I really can't handicap because the capitals are getting better, so to speak, down the stretch.
they've looked a lot better than they did in the early part in the middle part of the season.
They're getting good goal tending. Alex Ovechkin has again laughed in Father Time's face and
shown that he's still an elite goal score. They're getting good contributions up and down the lineup.
But then you have the specter of the Philadelphia Flyers and John Tortorella.
And if there's one thing John Tortorella is absolutely great at, it's getting blood out of a stone.
He can take a team that is by all definition mid and make
them good. And I think there's also a lot of youth there in Philadelphia that these guys
kind of weren't ready yet. They had a lot of early success. They surprised a lot of people.
And it's very much a thing when you're a young team that when you have unexpected success,
you get a little bit of afraid of it just because you're not supposed to be in that situation.
you don't really know how to keep it going.
You maybe psych yourself out and think, oh, maybe we aren't actually good
and everything starts to spiral.
But again, as annoying as he may be, Torrella gets teams like this two places they need to go
in places they probably shouldn't be.
And you know that the game is in Philadelphia.
They are still technically alive.
That is not going to be an easy environment for the capitals to play.
Yeah, I agree with you.
And honestly, the Flyers, they're kind of playing with house money at this point because
no one even expected them to get to this point this season.
We all thought they were going to be one of the worst teams in the league.
Now, Game 82, they still have at least a shot at getting into the playoffs,
even though it looked like a sheer lock just a couple of weeks ago, even though they had that
big losing streak towards the end of the season.
But they still have at least a puncher's chance of getting in if things were to
fall their way after beating the capitals in regulation.
But I think that I'll do it for this first segment.
Overall, get ready to root for the Canadians and the Flyers yet again tonight.
Penguins fans coming up, though, in the second segment,
Pat and I are going to recap this game against the Predators and go over a lot of things
that we really liked about the Penguins effort in this game.
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the Locktime Penguins podcast. I am one of your host, Hunter Hodes, join by my host, Patrick Dam.
So penguins for Predators 2 in a game that the Penguins really dominated from start to finish.
I know the Predators did push back a couple of times, especially in the second period.
But the Penguins were never in danger of letting that game slip away.
They were all over the Predators from the opening puck drop.
They were out shooting the Predators 20 to 5 at the end of the first period.
They probably should have had four goals on UC Soros in that first period.
That's how badly he was under siege in net.
And they had a couple taken away.
We'll just start with that kind of with Michael Bunting.
At the start, I didn't understand why that goal was taken away.
But then after watching the replay quite a few times,
bunting does step on Soros' sticks.
So I'm like, okay, you want to call the goal back for that?
I understand.
But the Lars Eller one, I'm sorry, Pat.
They lose me with that one.
It looks like to me when I watched the replay numerous times,
and yes, when I put on my glasses,
it looks like Soros initiates the contact with Eller.
Yeah, Eller is kind of right around.
on the blue paint a little bit,
but I still don't think he made enough content to contact,
excuse me,
to warrant that goal being taken away.
I just,
I struggled to understand what goaltender interference is in the NHL still.
Yeah, full disclosure here.
I didn't get to watch the game last night.
I had Beer League and it was my championship.
Shout out to CIA for getting a championship.
But I was listening on the radio and Mears and Bork brought up a really good point
during the second disallowed goal, the second challenge.
And I have to agree with what they were saying in the sense that we're getting back to the
1990s when it comes to goaltender interference and things like that,
because it is a lot like the Brett Hall skate in the crease with the Dallas Stars
because there's no consistency here.
And Mike Sullivan is very vocal about not liking the goaltender interference challenges
because there's no standard to it.
Now, this is the NHL's big challenge.
They have to put a standard in place for these calls,
for these challenges,
in what constitutes goaltender interference,
in what does not.
Because it's a meme, it's a joke of the whole,
oh, spin the wheel,
we'll find out what goaltender interference means this time.
But, like, they have to better clearly define this
because, yeah, it didn't end up swinging the outcome of the game.
last night. Like you said, the penguins were thoroughly dominant throughout most of that game.
It looked like the Predators didn't have any interest in even being there, let alone winning the
game. But you know good and well with the postseason approaching, there is going to be a
coach's challenge on a goaltender interference that swings a game. And that is going to become an
issue. And I'm all for replay. I'm not an anti-replay, anti-challenge guy because, yes,
we should get the calls right.
You should not have something swing on a missed call.
But if you're going to do this, it needs to have a standard.
It needs to have a bar.
And it has to be able to,
you have to be able to explain to the coaches,
to the fans, and to the players,
this happened so it's not a goal.
This didn't happen.
So it counts.
And the NHL as it stands right now,
can't do that.
Agreed.
Even when I was reading the explanation for the second disallowed goal,
I'm still like, really?
Because I've seen goals like this count numerous times for as long as I've been watching this sport.
So I just want to see some sort of consistency with the league when it comes to allowing goals
versus disallowing goals for goaltender interference.
Outside of that, Cindy Crosby did get things going.
And by the way, what a beautiful goal that was by Crosby,
the way that he was able to dive for the puck to get another goal this season.
That was his 42nd goal overall.
and again, he is so dialed in right now for this team trying to do everything in his power
to sneak this team into the playoffs as the number eight seed in the conference.
That was just an amazing individual effort.
Soros had no idea where the puck was.
And hey, puck don't lie, baby.
No, no, it does not.
And aside from being a Penguins fanboy that wants to see his favorite team in the postseason,
I want to see Sidney Crosby in the playoffs right now.
just for the way he's playing.
I have no idea if this team could handle the Rangers in a series.
I like their chances, you know, and get,
I don't want to put the cart too far ahead of the horse here.
But if they were to get in and take on the Rangers,
I don't know if they could win,
but I think they're a better matchup than most people think they are for the New York Rangers.
But the main thing is the level at which Sidney Crosby is playing right now,
I want to see that in the playoffs because he is having the kind of,
of second half of a season and really just a full season, if we're going to be honest here,
of where he is pretty much dominant and he is taking games over and he is making such an impact
that there is a world where you could see him willing this team to a couple of wins in a
playoff series and the opposing coach just goes, what do you want me to say?
Sidney Crosby is the best player. I can only do so much.
Right. And I think when you look at all the other teams that are fighting for that final
playoff spot, I still think the Penguins would put the biggest scare into the Rangers. I don't
think the Capitals pose that much of a threat to the Rangers. I mean, Charlie Lindgren-Shur and
goal, Alex Obedevich can score any time. But I still like the Penguins overall as a team more
than the Capitals. I think they're also more consistent than the Red Wings. I think the Rangers
would also have quite an easy time with the Flyers. I know the Rangers,
would probably beat the Penguins in a playoff series,
but I still think the Penguins have the best shot at completing an upset
just because of the way Crosby is playing.
And based on the way a lot of the top players on the Penguins are playing right now.
But hey, they've dug their own grave at least right now,
and we'll have to see if their season continues into Wednesday.
But completely agree about Cindy Crosby.
And also, Rangers fans don't even want to see Cid.
They know that Crosby has cooked the Rangers numerous times.
throughout his career. I think they would rather see any other team than the Penguins overall.
I also thought Eric Carlson had a tremendous effort in this game. After having a pretty
lousy performance against the Bruins over the weekend, he was awesome in this one,
great in all three zones. His slap shot goal was awesome. Soros had no chance on that.
And then did you see his slap pass to Emil Ben Shroom in the third period? That was vintage stuff
from Eric Carlson.
I also reminded me of 2017 Eric Carlson with the way he was skating in the offensive
zone, the way he let that pass go.
Benstrom had a Alex Ovechkin, like, release on that one time.
I don't know where that came from when it comes to Emil Benstrom.
And I see him the fourth line contribute.
But all in all, Carlson was great.
The numbers backed that up.
And it was a much needed balanced back performance from 65.
Yeah, that was a great game by Eric Carlson.
He would, like you said, I can't really add a ton to that.
He was very good in all three zones.
As for the Bemstrom goal, I mean, that was the thing we heard about him when they got him was that his biggest asset is his shot.
And we saw it on that goal.
He had a very good release.
He timed it perfectly.
And I don't have any misgivings about him suddenly becoming a key contributor or even a good depth piece.
But when that is your biggest strength is your shot and your release, you have to do that more often.
And we saw that there.
And I think the clock has pretty much run out on him on becoming.
some sort of a contributor moving forward with the penguins.
But that is kind of a missed opportunity for him that he didn't get a lot of shots.
He didn't put a lot of shots to the net.
And if that's your strength and everybody knows that's your strength,
fire everything at the net and see what happens.
And last night we kind of saw that from him.
It was good to get some fourth line contributions.
I also got to give a little bit of a shout out to Nadelcovich for a bounce back last night.
I don't think he was tremendous.
I don't think he was stellar or anything like that.
But, you know, the last couple of games that he started,
he looked positively gassed.
And last night, he was back in control.
He did what he needed to do.
Was he the reason they won?
No, the skaters absolutely skated circles around the predators.
But when he needed to be there, he was there.
There were no back breaking goals.
There were no bad decisions.
He seemed like he could see the puck once again,
which is his biggest strength.
he has great vision on the puck so overall i thought he had a solid bounce back as well i agree and if i want
to nitpick just something really small i think he could have had that philiporsberg shot but that's
again something really small in the grand scheme of things he had a nine 33 say percent
really good performance with a delcovich and i assume he will get the start on wednesday on the island
against the islanders another player that i did want to shout out just because we have to be fair on
the show i thought riley smith had a really strong effort in this game that was
release that he had to make it 3-1 for the Penguins. Really nice job taking that pup from
Eller and firing that top cheese past sorrows. It was one of Smith's better games this season.
And it still leaves me wondering where this has been for most of the season. But I will shot him
out. I thought he had a good performance in this game. Yeah, it's it's kind of the tale of the whole
season. Riley Smith does kind of Riley Smith and even Eric Carlson to an extent kind of sum up this
entire penguin season where it's just missed opportunities. And
wondering what could have been as they have these games where they look really good,
but then they have these stretches where they're somewhere between disappointing,
pedestrian, and even bad.
And I feel bad because I feel like Smith had a lot of potential, had a lot of upside.
He should have been a key contributor in the top six, and he just wasn't this year.
Agreed.
And I loved the trade of the time.
I didn't really care that they gave up a third to get him,
but the trade is just turned into a disaster based on the level that
he's played at for most of the season.
I know not last night, but for most of the other games overall.
One more player, I do want to shout out before we end this segment and look at how
the penguins got here overall.
Jackson and Avenue, man, he's continuing to play like a better version of Chabre Weedal
as this team's number six defensemen.
There were countless times where a Predator's player was coming in one-on-one on him,
and he was able to take the puck away like it was nothing.
He used his active stick beautifully.
He was great in his own zone.
zone, new one to pinch in the offensive zone.
He's really growing on me as a player.
And as of right now, he should be the favorite to get that number six job for the
Penguins next season.
Yeah, absolutely.
I think he's been one of their better defensive defensemen of the last few weeks.
It's a typical sixth defenseman.
He doesn't do anything extraordinary.
He doesn't jump off the page at you.
But he's a guy that when you get to the end of the season,
you look at his body of work and you go, you know what?
He was solid all year long.
And he's a guy that I bring a player like him all the time.
He's a player that they are at their best when you don't notice them.
You don't think about them.
They just do their job and that's it.
Very similar to Chad Ruehle.
And when Cody Cici was here, it was the same with him as well.
But I think that I will do it for the second segment.
Coming up in the final segment, Pat and I'm going to take a look at how the penguins got to this point.
and honestly how if they had just kept a few leads in the third period,
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All right, we're back here in this episode of the Lockdown Penguins podcast.
I am one of your host, Hunter Hodes.
Join on my host, Patrick Damp.
So we're going to look at for this.
How do the penguins get in the situation where they find themselves one point out?
I know we could spend probably 30 minutes diving into every single reason,
but we don't have that type of time for this episode.
I do, however, want to bring up a few games that really stand out to me
that could be differences in the penguins making the playoffs versus them not making the playoffs.
Number one, that ducks game at the beginning of this season.
They basically have a five on three for the final minute and
a half of regulation. Heck, they had that same five on three with less than 30 seconds to go.
They give up a shorthanded goal with less than 15 seconds in regulation.
They don't even get a point out of that game. If they just get a single point out of that game,
they are in that playoff spot right now and they control their own destiny heading into Wednesday.
It doesn't even matter if the Red Wings or the Capitals win tonight, Pat.
If the Penguins just win that game on Wednesday, they will be in the playoffs.
off spot because they own the tiebreaker over both the Red Wings and the capitals.
You have the 4-0-0-0-blown need to the avalanche.
If you're able to get that extra point, that's two more points overall.
If you have that extra point against Columbus after you blew that 3-1 lead just a couple
weeks ago, boom, you have three more points.
We can keep doing that for Calgary as well.
You lost that game in regulation.
You didn't even get a point out of that game after having a 3-1 lead with less than half a
period to go in that game against the flames.
just so many wasted opportunities in the third period where they're not even getting to overtime,
that's going to be one of the main reasons why they don't get in if they don't get help tonight.
And I know it's a horse we've beaten to death, resurrected, beaten it to death again,
and then resurrected it a third time and beat it to death a third time.
But I'm going to do it once more.
I got to give a shout out to Matt at Yenzer on Twitter.
He has this up a couple days ago.
I had it booked marked in just in case.
And I want to go through how bad the power play was this season.
Obviously, we know the top line numbers of it being in, I think it's still 30th or 31st,
one of the two.
I didn't look this morning.
But again, Chicago in the opener, they lose four to two.
Power play goes 0 for 2.
The Anaheim game that you brought up.
They went two for seven.
They lost four to three.
They lost to the Rangers, won nothing in November.
Power play goes 0 for 5.
They lose to Buffalo.
in November.
They lose 3 to 2,
power play goes 0 for 2.
They lose in a shootout to Philadelphia,
the Penguins blow a third period lead,
power play goes 0 for 5.
And then another Philadelphia lost,
the power play goes 0 for 3,
and they lose 2 to 1 in overtime.
They lose in overtime 5, 4 to Ottawa,
the power play goes 1 for 7.
They lose 4 3 to Vancouver in overtime.
Power play goes 0 for 4.
They lose an overtime 3 to 2 to Carolina.
Power play goes 0 for 4.
They lose 3, 2 to Vegas,
Power play goes 0 for one and they blew a third period lead.
So there were so many opportunities.
This power play didn't have to be first in the NHL.
It didn't have to be the best unit.
It should have been top 10, but if they're even average,
if they get one or two more power play goals in these games,
they're stacking even more points.
And they're probably in the position that the New York Islanders are right now,
if not in the position where the Carolina hurricanes are right now.
So at this point, it's blown,
leads in the power play that pretty much derailed this season.
You can talk about any other myriad of problems.
You can say, oh, Carlson wasn't a good trade or Jari wasn't great all year and he
wasn't.
You can talk about the coaching staff.
You can talk about Kyle Dubus.
But at the end of the day, in the biggest moments of this season, when this team needed
their biggest players, and I include Sidney Crosby on this because he's part of it,
even though he's having a tremendous season, they didn't show up.
another big thing that you didn't hit on during that is their play in overtime.
They have lost nine of 13 games, just decided in overtime.
I'm not even counting shootouts when I say that.
I did not think their overtime struggles were going to get worse after how bad they were last year.
I also did not think that they were going to blow this many multi-goal leads,
especially in the third period after the way they struggled last year.
I was wrong on both accounts.
And if they end up missing and don't get the help,
those are going to be the two main reasons,
along with the power play,
why they are not in the playoffs for a second straight year.
They've been there for quite a bit of the season.
I know they've had a great comeback over the last three weeks,
but I also did say when they were thinking about maybe pulling this off,
you couldn't lose in regulation.
Well, yeah, lost that game to Boston.
That was the one thing they really couldn't afford to do
just because of the situation they put themselves in is losing regulation.
I know 8-1 and 3 throw their last 12 games, that is awesome.
But that regulation, lost man, it's such a killer overall.
But those two points, sure in a vacuum,
that could be at least a bit of the difference for the penguins getting in.
But I'm not even thinking about that game overall,
just because they've needed to be perfect throughout these last few weeks.
I look at all of the multi-gold-blown leads, especially in the third period.
I look at their play in overtime where it looks like they have no idea what they're doing.
And I look at the power play, especially when they had ample opportunity to make a change behind the bench in terms of Todd Reardon for a power play coach.
And they decided to stick with their guns and keep the coaching staff intact.
I think that's another reason why they may miss the playoffs as well.
Just a lot of waste of opportunities this season, just like last season.
That's really the best way to describe it is it's just a season of missed opportunities because,
we see it right now.
The Metropolitan Division is garbage.
There's two good teams.
There's the Hurricanes and the Rangers.
And everybody else is fighting for third place and fourth place and fifth place.
And this was a season where, yeah, maybe that, maybe the core isn't as great as it once was.
I think that's fair to say.
But you had a wide open division.
You had a third spot there for the taking.
Let's not pretend like the islanders are still the ironclad islanders that they were just a few years ago.
They're a completely different team now.
And there's no reason for them logically to be in third in the Metropolitan Division,
but they are because it was a season of missed opportunity for teams like the Penguins
who just would not take advantage of being in a weak division and getting themselves into the postseason.
100%.
And as Adam Gretz said on Twitter Monday night, help yourselves.
And they sure didn't the season.
And now you've got to rely on two teams to help you out and extend your season for at least
another day heading into Wednesday on the island.
But I think that would do it for this episode of the Locked-on Penguins podcast.
Thank you all so much for taking the time to listen to slash watch this episode.
Pat and I will be back on Wednesday to preview this game against the Islanders,
see if the Penguins are still alive, and touch on everything else relating to this hockey team
as we get to the final game of the regular season.
I can't believe I'm saying this.
But go Canadians.
and yes, go flyers tonight.
Yep, I know Pat just vomited on live recording, everyone.
But again, that would do it for this one.
Thank you all so much for taking the time to listen to.
So watch this one.
We'll be back on Wednesday.
