Locked On Penguins - Daily Podcast On The Pittsburgh Penguins - The Penguins get a much-needed victory over the Hurricanes

Episode Date: December 22, 2023

The Penguins point streak continued on Thursday night as Sidney Crosby willed the Penguins over the Hurricanes in the shootout. Patrick and Hunter break down that game and why Alex Nedeljkovic's performance is good news. They then get you ready for Saturday's showdown against the dreadful Ottawa Senators, what they need to do to get two points and more. Finally, the boys discuss who has been standing out on the Penguins the last month.Support Us By Supporting Our Sponsors!eBay MotorsWith all the parts you need at the prices you want, it’s easy to turn your car into the MVP and bring home that win. Keep your ride-or-die alive at EbayMotors.com. Eligible items only. Exclusions apply. eBay Guaranteed Fit only available to US customers.SleeperToday's episode is brought to you by Sleeper. Download 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.FanDuelScore early this NFL season with FanDuel, America’s Number One Sportsbook! Right now, NEW customers get ONE HUNDRED AND FIFTY DOLLARS in BONUS BETS with any winning FIVE DOLLAR MONEYLINE BET! That’s A HUNDRED AND FIFTY BUCKS – if your team wins! 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) Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

The penguins were able to overcome the hurricanes for the first time in a long time in the shootout. Hunter and I are going to discuss that and more on this edition of the Locked-on Penguins podcast. You're Locked-on Penguins. Your daily podcast on the Pittsburgh Penguins. Part of the Locked-on Podcast Network. Your team every day. Welcome back, hockey fans. It's a victory Friday here on the Locked-on Penguins podcast.

I am one of your host, Patrick Damp. You can follow me on Twitter at. synonym for wet, joined as always by the illustrious, the one and only Hunter Hodes. You can follow him on Twitter at Hunter Hodes. You can follow the show's Twitter at L.O. underscore Penguins. And we thank you for making this your first listen slash watch of the day. We are free and available on YouTube or wherever you get your podcasts. And today's episode is brought to you by Sleeper.

Download the Sleeper app and use promo code locked on NHL to get up to a $100 match on your first deposit. Terms conditions apply. See Sleeper's terms of view. use for details. So like I said, it's a victory Friday. Might not have been the best victory we could have asked for. But hey, when you're scratching and clawing to get into the playoffs, two points are two points. And the penguins were able to overcome the Carolina hurricanes last night in the shootout two to one,

largely thanks to another absolutely absurd effort from the captain, number 87, Sydney Crosby. What do we call it? What do we call it? A vintage Sydney Crosby. must be performance. That's right. So, I mean, I do have to give the penguins a lot of credit for last night's victory because, listen, that's the kind of game that even this season, we have seen them get frustrated and lose because that was not a high event hockey game. It was not a back and forth battle. It was not any sort of offensive juggernauts going after one another, anything like that. It was, it was quite literally the, I got to give a shout out to a friend of the show,

Matt Geica, who said, it's not as boring as the 2000s devils, but the hurricanes are a very similar style team in that they are incredibly defensively accountable and they don't take a lot of chances. Right. And it's funny, I said on a preview, they weren't playing that total defensive style for a lot of their games this season. Well, they sure brought it in this one against the penguins. But you know what the penguins did?

They said, okay, you want to play like this? We'll show you a taste of your own medicine. And that's what the penguins did, did in the hurricanes on this one. They only allowed seven high danger chances at 5-on-5, and only 1.69 expected goals score at 5-on-5 in this game. Again, the blueprint is there. And I apologize if I'm not 100% today.

I woke up with being a little sick. I'm a little under the weather. but hey, wanted to grind this out for you, you won't get this last episode out there before the holiday break. But I thought the Penguins played very well defensively in this one. We've seen the blueprint a lot of times this season. It goes away against a team like the Maple Leaf. You saw it go away against a team like the Senators, which we'll get to a little later on in this episode. But it came back in a big way against the hurricanes in this one.

The only goal the hurricane score was a lucky bounce. Went off Crystal Teng skate and in there's no chance for Alex Adelkevich there. Other than that, the Penguins played very, very clean. defensive hockey and they were finally, excuse me, able to snap a five-game winning streak against the hurricane. Cindy Crosby, vintage stuff. I hope people just realize what he's doing at 36 years of age because he has been unbelievable for this team this season.

And Alex Adelkevich, take a freaking bell, as I tweeted last night, man. What a performance from, I would say, I guess, the one be goalie of the Penguins now. And I texted you in and I'll say it on the show. I think he might have earned another start on Saturday for the Penguins against the senators. And I don't mean that as a disrespect to Tristan Jari. Jari has mostly been very good this year. This is a great problem to have when two of your goalies are playing at a very high level. Agreed.

And if you set a five game win streak, let's go with five, they snapped a five game losing streak against the hurricanes. Herkins had a five game winning streak. That's fine. I mean, listen, that team has been low-key torture. us. I texted it to you, I texted it to you last night because we talked about the rivalry thing from J.Fresh at the end of yesterday's episode. But I mean, I'm starting to kind of dislike the hurricanes just because we can't cleanly beat them. So that's, that's where I'm on that. But if you're going to mention the sick thing, I also want to give a quick shout out here to YouTube commenter Zoltan Vamos official. My framing's a little weird today because they pointed out to me that I have not been using this microphone correctly. And, uh, I, Shout out to them for letting me know because I want to make sure my sound is clean because that's what you guys deserve. But yeah, to build on the thing you said about Ned, I think this is huge because we have seen this with Tristan Jari over the past few years is that he struggles with finding consistency.

But more than just struggling to find consistency, he trails off as the year goes, gets deeper. And we have seen him make an all-star game and start the year strong and look really good early on. And then as the year progresses, he starts to backslide a lot. And a lot of that is usage because, as you said yesterday, he didn't have a whole lot behind him the past few years in Casey DeSmith and Louis DeMing. So now you've got a guy who's starting to look like the 1B. And if you can take that workload away from Jari and have a guy that you can depend upon to play, 30, 35 games in a year, that puts your starting goalie and Tristan Jari in good shape because you're not going to wear them down. It lessens an injury risk and it keeps them fresh going

into the postseason. Now, lastly, one of the things I want to say about last night's game is we have to talk about this once again. The power play failed them once again. And it looked a lot like the power play had looked when they were struggling because they weren't getting good looks. They were struggling to get into the zone. And it was the same old, same old. Now, they got some chances in the overtime four on three and just didn't go in for them. And that happens every now and then. But overall, there were moments for this power play last night to come out and put this game away. I think the biggest thing when it comes of the power play struggles last night, and they were really, really bad.

Let's put that out there. I don't think the penguins have seen a penalty kill that aggressive all season. They were challenging them at the blue line. The penguins could not gain the zone to save their lives. It honestly looked like the top unit was spooked as they were trying to enter the zone. And also, every time it felt like the penguins were dumping the puck in to try to have numbers over the hurricanes, the hurricanes, they would have the numbers over them, and they would have easy clears.

That PK is honestly, I think, one of the most under- rated penalty kills in the league. And for a powerful unit that had come into this game, six for the last 16, it wasn't good enough in this one. There were multiple opportunities for this team to extend the lead to 2-0, heck even maybe 3-0 if they had scored on one of those opportunities, and they weren't able to get it done. And that's why you saw them give a loser point to Carolina.

But I do really want to credit the hurricanes for their penalty kill just because it threw the penguins off balance. And I just don't think they were ready for that aggressiveness of a unit. Which I will say is a bit confusing to me because the Penguins power play or penalty kill is aggressive. And that's who you're practicing against every game. Now, I am fully aware that this is a sport where no practice can simulate a game. It's just not possible. The intensity is not there.

The speed in randomness is not there. So even with an aggressive Penguins penalty kill going up against their own power play, it's not going to be the same in practice because you're not going to have guys throwing hits. You're not going to have guys drop into block shots in practice or anything like that. But you would hope that some of that simulated aggression from the Penguins PK in practice would help the Penguins power play in games, but I digress. So that was the only real critique I have from last night's game is that the power play had to be better. the PK came up huge at the end of the game to keep the game tied to get it to overtime.

And again, Sidney Crosby, just an absolutely incredible performance away from the top line numbers. Hell, even away from the analytics, you just look at the way he played and the way he's been playing. This is a guy who is playing like he's telling his team and everybody else. At the very least, I'm going to do my best to make sure this team does not miss the playoffs two years in a row. He's trying to wheel this team into the playoffs. And they've won four of their last five now. He had that brilliant shootout goal. And it's funny, I haven't been saying that much about Sid in shootouts lately just because he usually tries to do that same thing, come down, fire at five hole.

But he went top shelf glove side on Peter Kachkoff. That was one heck of a shot by Crosby. And then that deflection to open the scoring path. That was a hard deflection, but he made it look so freaking easy. Still one of the five best players in the game today is going to be. going to go down as one of the five best players to ever play the game as well. I can't say enough about what Sidney Crosby is doing right now. If I had to give one more critique, I guess.

The officiating was very mid in this game. The overtime officiating in general, there were missed penalties galore, I would say, on both sides. And then the Penguins finally got a power play in overtime. And I know I saw Hurricane Stans kind of going out the officials for that. That was a textbook penalty people. I mean, I understand they were a little upset because the Penguins definitely got away with a penalty or two in overtime.

but I think the refs, they got to that point, we're like, okay, we're not going to let anything else go. Next person to do something gets penalized. And that's exactly what happened in this one. But it felt like for a while, just when I was watching this, these games tend to go the same way against this team where the penguins lose a coin flip. Well, they're able to come out on the right side of this one and snap that five game losing streak against a team that has had their number for the past year and change. Yeah, the Crosby shootout goal too. And I know you've lamented it in the past. and so have I that he's not deeking a lot.

But he did the thing last night where he stick handled so quickly that he froze Kachekoff to make him think, is he going to deke? Is he going to shoot? He's going to deke. And then he just snapped one almost while still moving, which is to shout out a former penguin, I'm going to say great, whether you agree with me or not. Phil Kessel. That was why Phil Kessel's shot was always so deadly because he shot on the move.

And goalies weren't expecting a shot. So that's why that was a good move by Sid. So that's going to do it for this segment. When we come back, we're going to preview tomorrow's game when the absolutely woeful Ottawa senators are when the penguins meet up with the absolutely woeful Ottawa senators. But first, we have to tell you about one of today's sponsors, and that is Sleeper. A new NHL season brings all sort of possibilities, including Sidney Crosby could possibly score 50 goals or the Pittsburgh Penguins could hoist the Stanley Cup.

and you could win big by playing Daily Fantasy Hockey on Sleeper, the official daily fantasy app of the Locked-on NHL Network. Sleeper is our number one choice for daily fantasy sports and especially daily fantasy hockey, because with Sleeper, you can win 100 times your cash in daily fantasy hockey contests. Now, I don't know when he's going to get his start, but when he does, I think one of the players I'm going to be looking at again, Alex Nadelcovich, because, man, has he been beating the numbers

and beaten the projections all year long, making himself the Penguins 1B goaltender. So if you're looking for a sleeper on sleeper, I think Alex Nadalcovic is your guy. All you have to do is pick whether studs like Sidney Crosby, Connor McDavid, Alex Ovechkin, who I'm going to talk about later in this show, or Nathan McKinnon will record more or less than their sleeper

projections for things like goals, assists, saves, plus minus, and more in any given game. To win $100, 100 times bet on sleeper, you need to correctly predict the outcome of eight player stats. heard me Penguins fans, you can win up to 100 times your money, playing daily fantasy hockey with Sleeper, so start paying attention and nail your picks so you can start winning big. Use promo code Locked on NHL, and you'll get up to a $100 match on your first deposit. Terms and Conditions Apply. That's Code Locked on NHL, see Sleeper's Terms of Use for Details

and Locational Availability. We're back here on another edition of the Locked on Penguins podcast on a victory Friday, and celebrating it with me, Patrick Damp, is one of the best co-hosts. in the business hunter hodies so penguins want to keep this train rolling here this weekend because they've won four of their last five they are on a pretty solid point streak starting to string together some wins here at the very least they're stringing together more wins than they are losses which is a much better place to be to uh to them right now to where they started the month of december and they're going up against the ottawa senators on saturday and boy oh boy this team they are an absolute train wreck.

This is a team that you and I talked about in the preseason as a team that we didn't think was going to make any sort of run. They weren't going to be contenders. They weren't going to win the Atlantic Division or anything like that. But they looked primed to take the next step. A lot of talent, young talent coming up and developing. They've got a really good leader in a guy like Claude Jureu. They went out and got Vlad Tarasenko.

And you would think, with all the, those pieces that this team would be able to put it all together. But right now, they're literally last in the Eastern Conference, which is just not at all where this team was supposed to be. To say that they're the most disappointing team in the NHL this season, I think will be a massive understatement. I know Buffalo's been super disappointing. You can throw a few other teams in there, too, maybe Seattle, especially Edmonton,

but I don't think there's been a more disappointing team than this unders. expectations were a lot higher this year considering the core they had. I mean, this is, you look at their top six, Pat. This is a very good top six. Brady Kachach's awesome. Josh Norris is part of their core. Claudeau, Jake Batherson, Tim Stutzelov, Vladimir Tarasenko. Ridley, Greg, is their third line center.

You got Dominic Kubolik, who they got an Alex Sabrinkit trade. Defensively, they got Sanderson, who's good. They got Jacob Tricklin, who, you haven't heard his name too much this season, even though I know a lot of other people wanted the penguins to trade for him at the trade they had on last year, but if they have done that, I don't think Eric Carlson is on the team right now. Normally, you have Shabbat in the lineup, but he's out right now. Matthew Joseph is day to day. Shane Pinto is obviously out with the suspension.

There's quite a bit of talent on this team, but it's been such a mess. You have the whole Pinto situation that came up, the front office situation where everyone was fired. Then DJ Smith gets canned this week. Old friend Jacques Martin is the interim head coach going forward, and I'm so happy for him. I thought he was a tremendous coach when he was on the penguin staff. He's more of a defensive-minded coach, so I'll have to see how the senators maybe adjust to that. But I'm super happy for him with this opportunity.

But they just can't seem to get anything going. And if the penguins want to make the playoffs this season, these are two points that you've got to bank. The penguins were already embarrassed by the senators once. What was it? Just about six, seven weeks ago, the penguin's, play them in Pittsburgh, and the senators came in there and absolutely dunked on them that entire game. They're going to want to get a little bit of revenge on that, considering how the senators were just not playing well at the time. And especially now with how they've lost six in a row and seven of their last eight, you've got to keep getting these results.

Make it five out of six, make it three in a row and have the good vibes heading into the holiday break. Yeah, you look back at that game against the senators. I mean, it was just, it was an embarrassing effort. They, they couldn't get a save that game. Once again, that was one of the problems. Almost two months ago, I said about six weeks ago, I was close, but it's almost two months ago at this point. Yeah, couldn't get a save.

And I mean, that was just, you have to remember that. And now you would look at where this Ottawa team is. You look at the standings. And I mean, if you go to the standings for the entire league, they're only a point ahead of Chicago and San Jose, two teams that are actively tanking, two teams that are trying to get a high draft pick and here sit the Ottawa Senators.

Now, I have to give a shout out and I have to make a reference to one of the best hockey analysts out there, and that's Jeff Merrick. And he always says, the game of hockey should be renamed goalie. because just like we've talked about with a couple other teams, you look at the Ottawa Senator's goaltending, Jonas Corpusolo, 891, Anton Forsberg, 876.

Do the Ottawa Senators have a lot of problems right now? Yeah, their special teams are completely unimpressive. They have the worst penalty kill in the National Hockey League. They can't defend a lead. They can't defend really at all, but all of it is nearly moot because both goalies, have a goals against average above three. And Jonas Corpusollos is pushing four.

And this is just a team that for all their warts and faults, they cannot get a save. And it's not like the guys on their team who are supposed to be driving this train aren't producing. Stutzel has 31 points. Bathurston's got 25. Jeru has 25. Chickren has 22.

And Brady Kachuk has been going in and out of slumps, but he's still got 21 points. So eventually you have to ask your goalie, make a damn save. And while I said they do have their warts, I think DJ Smith just got sacrificed to the goalie gods. I think you're right. And out of 81 goalies who have played five on five this year, Yonis Corpusala ranks 75th. And he is allowing almost seven goals above expected. Anton Forsberg, he's at almost nine.

That Corpusato contract has aged like milk so far. And I remember, man, I was someone who was potentially down to sign Jonas Corpersburg. Pasolo over the summer, not to that kind of contract. And I'm glad that Kyle Jubis, at least right now, he's made the right bet with both Tristan Jari and Alex Adelkevich. Because the senators, it feels like they've been trying to fix this problem for a long time. Right. Every season with this young core, they're never able to get the goaltending that they can't even get average goaltending. They sent, they've signed guys, they released them, they trade them, all that good stuff. And now the same thing I think is going to happen here with Foresburg and Corpassolo at some point.

going to have to restart for this position. Now they say that, I'm sure one of those goalies is going to go out there and stome all the penguins on Saturday night, right? Oh, I mean, like clockwork. But, you know, the thing is, I agree with you on, I think Kyle Dubus made the right bet because his best season, he had a 920, 920 save percentage, but that was almost a decade ago. And ever since then, it's been low 900s in the 800s for. He was good for L.A.

last year at least. Like he actually looked like a good goalie, but I think also that had to do with how good the kings were and what type of defensive system that they play to hide his inefficiencies. With Ottawa, it's different because they're not as good of a defensive team and they're also leaving him out to drive a bit more often.

But still, allowing, excuse me, almost seven goals above expected this year in the first year of a long-term contract, that's unacceptable, especially for a team that's trying to make the playoffs. Yeah. And to what I was building towards there, he made the better bet because there was more of a chance of Alex Nadelcovich just being on a woefully bad team and being part of a woefully bad team than him being the problem. So I got to give it up for Kyle Dubus on this one.

And last thing I'll say before we had to break here, worst PK in the league for Ottawa. And this is where, you know, we can, the penguins can make last night's power play. struggles a blip on the radar on Saturday night. If you go out there and score two power play goals against the team like Ottawa, which you should do because this is just a team that has lost their last six games. They have fired a head coach. They are just completely dead in the water and add in that they have a garbage PK. You have to have to get two points here and your power play has to bounce back.

Absolutely. I mean, you, I don't honestly think I have that. much to add to what you just said. These are two crucial points. The Penguins struggled with some bad teams last year. That's part of the reason why they didn't make the playoffs. Just look at the end of last season against Chicago and Columbus. But they also lost a game to the Sharks.

They didn't beat Montreal last year. This Ottawa team, it's in a similar boat compared to those teams from last year right now. You have to make sure that you can go out there and beat the bad teams, especially when they are down. There's no excuse not to win this game. Agreed. So when we come back, we're going to talk about a couple of players. over the last few weeks who have stood out to us,

as well as I have a fun stat that I have been saving to give to Hunter today that I think you all will enjoy a little hint towards that. We talked about rivalries yesterday. It's going to have something to do with rivalries, but you're going to have to stay tuned for that because we have to tell you about our next sponsor, which is eBay Motors. Passion, drive, and patience.

What brings home the winning trophy is also what keeps your ride or die alive. eBay Motors has everything you need to maintain your vehicle and level it up to peak performance from superchargers to roof racks to exhaust kits, LED headlights, and more, whether you're into speed, power, or style, eBay Motors has got you covered. With over 122 million parts for your number one ride or die, you'll always find exactly what you're looking for. And with eBay's guaranteed fit, your part is guaranteed to fit your ride every time or your

money back, because with eBay motors, you're burning rubber, not cash. With all the parts you need at the prices you want, it's easy to turn your car into the MVP and bring home that win. Keep your ride or die alive at eBaymotors.com. Eligible items only. Exclusions apply. eBay guaranteed fit, only available to U.S. customers. Welcome back hockey fans to this edition of the Lockdown Penguins podcast.

I'm Patrick Damp, joined as always, by the absolutely illustrious flu game moment Hunter Hodes on this one. He is crushing it on a day where we probably could have put him on the IR, but he said not today. I'm coming back. And he sent it in the facts and just said two words. I'm back. And here he is crushing it. So we obviously got to talk about right off the top who has been booing this team and keeping them above water and dragging them kicking and screaming into the fight. And that's none other than the captain.

Just absolutely incredible performance. If we look at the stats, a couple of goals, a bunch of assists. He's been absolutely money in the playoffs. He's still second in the National Hockey League after last night in five-on-five goals. So when the majority of the game is being played, Sidney Crosby is producing. And again, should anyone be surprised by this? I mean, you shouldn't, if you have been watching this team for quite a long time now. Again, man, there's going to be a day when Sydney Crosby is not producing at this level

or not even with the Penguins. And that's going to be a very sad day. No one should take this for granted at all. it's kind of at the point where I feel like he's just turned into the I'll make another sports comparison here the LeBron James of the NHL or maybe even the Tom Brady of the NHL at this point I honestly maybe lean towards LeBron right now but I could see an argument for Brady if he plays well into his 40s the greatness that he continues to show

on an every night basis and it's not just offensively it's his defensive work as well he's sprawling out to block shots almost every shift he's willing this team back into games when they're not showing their best, for example, the Montreal game. And you can tell that the team, they build off that. Even when they don't have their best, they know that Sid is going to do everything he can and also bring his best every night to get this team into the fight every single game. And I don't think he's going to win the heart this year. I don't think he's going to win the Selke, but I do think he should be at least one of the top candidates for the heart.

I think for the Selke, it's probably Sasha Barkov and everyone else. I don't think he's probably going to get that lifetime achievement award. But for the heart, he would be on the short list. You know, you got Nathan McKinnon. I mean, we can throw Barkov in there. Artemi Panarin, all these. I mean, we can put Nikit Kutrov, obviously in there, too. I could probably name so many other players as well.

But those are just my short list, I would say, for the heart right now. But he has been fabulous, man. It's been really awesome to see. And we can say the same for Alex and Delcovich. I was a bit skeptical heading into the season. about him just because of his previous numbers last year, year and a half. But I think he has blown every single expectation out of the water for this team. And he has earned the right to get more starts moving forward and to just keep Tristan Johnny

fresh, which is a big deal considering his injury history and how when he plays too much, his play kind of goes down a little bit. Yeah, I was also going to, for Crosby, five goals, four assists, nine points and nine games in the month of December so far. just an absolutely renaissance of a performance. And yeah, I was going to go with the goalies next as well. I mean, just Alex Nadelcovich raised his season save percentage last night to 927. And that's just you can't be upset at that.

And then you look at Tristan Jari not far behind them with a 913 on the season. And both of them outside of the Toronto game have put up just somewhere between masterful performances and doing everything they're asked of. You know, it's been a while for us as Penguins fans where we can just say, the goaltending is not a problem. Like the goaltending, we're not worried about it. We have no issues with the goaltending. It's not on our,

it's not on our radar. We're not worried. We're not freaking out about whether or not we're going to get what goalie shows up or not. Another guy we got to talk about here, Jake Gensel, man. Listen, I talked about this on my solo episode earlier this week. If this team is not in a playoff spot come the All-Star break and Kyle Dubus wants to do a quick rebuild or a quick retolling,

dangled Jake Gensel out there, man, because this dude is just doing it again. 14 goals, 21 assists, 35 points, had an assist last night, two points against Minnesota, goal against Montreal, all two against Arizona. He just, he is a bona fide top scoring winger in the national hockey league. It's always funny.

I laugh when I see lists that don't have him on the U.S. Olympic team whenever they go back to the Olympics just because he's one of the best goals scorers in this country. And I would say in the league. And if people don't have him on the next team USA roster,

I don't think you're paying enough attention to the league as they're not just a product of Sidney Crosby. He is one heck of a player. He's also, just a very smart player too. And I agree with you. If they are out of the playoff picture by the Ulster Brakes,

have their six, seven points out, try to dangle him to the highest bidder, see if you can recoup that first round pick, maybe get a top prospect, maybe get a roster player as well. And I'll honestly say this too. He'll be a free agent this summer. I wouldn't be surprised if the Penguins

try to re-sign him once his rental, I guess him as a rental is up, excuse me. I'm assuming he doesn't sign an extension with that team. I would definitely be interested in bringing him back. I mean, you don't see it, I guess, super often in the NHL, but it has happened a few times over the years where a team will trade one of its better players to a team, get a decent haul, and then re-sign that player during the off-season.

I definitely think the Penguins would be very interested in doing that just because there is no true replacement for this player on the roster right now. Lastly, but not leastly, I got to mention just because I think, he's been catching an unnecessary amount of heat because if you remember if you guys remember earlier this week i talked about how i think the it's time for the penguins to hit the rebuild button is a bit of an overblown narrative uh eric carlson has been exactly as advertised he has been tremendous and everybody lit their hair on fire over the summer with the washinski article where he quoted mike sullivan who said we know he's a great offensive defenseman but we're going to challenge him to be more

nobody in the Penguins organization was going to make him a defensive defenseman, but they were going to better round off his game. They weren't going to have him just be a fourth forward, and he has not been that. He still has his warts because he's 33 years old. He's, you know, he is who he is, but he has been much better defensively than any of us thought he was going to be. Does he still have some issues on the rush?

He still have some issues defending one-on-one. Of course he does, but that's never been his game. but overall defensively, he has been pretty darn good. If people don't think he's been as advertised this year, I'm not really sure what people are watching. To be honest, six goals, 22 points, and 31 games. This isn't a 100-point pace like last year, but he also doesn't have to do as much with the penguins like he did with the sharks.

Because when he was on the ice for the sharks, they looked like an actual playoff team. But the thing is, when he was off the ice, they looked like a lottery team, which they ended up being one of the worst teams in the league last year. he's been totally fine. He's been great in the offensive zone. Defensively, he's been passable.

He's not into zero percent's how anymore for five-on-five even straight defense on Jayfresh's chart. I would like to see the Penguins probably go away from that pairing with Ryan Graves. I don't think Graves has really done too much next time. I'd rather see them put Pedersen back there, but they're giving this, I guess, a little bit of wiggle room right now to see how Pedersen does what it's saying. I still think Pedersen's there in Carlson.

The numbers just haven't been good with Graves next to Carlson. but he's been totally fine this year and the trade was still worth it. People can argue what they want. The trade was very much worth it, in my opinion. If I had to put one more player out there, at least more recently, I will say, I think Nolan Chari has been a bit better these last couple of games. He's blocking a lot more shots. He's not getting some of those chances offensively that I'd like him to get,

but he is, I think, solely transforming into one of those glue guys for the penguins playing really well in his own zone, playing well on the PK. I think he's probably playing at least some of his finest hockey of the year. And I know that's not a high bar to cross, obviously, just because he hasn't been that good this year. But I'd at least been decently impressed with him so far these last few games ever since he returned. Yeah, I can't be mad at the effort he's been given. One last thing on Carlson, these would be the two stats, including the one I said I was going to give us a surprise at the end of the episode. So if you're still here, thank you for sticking around.

I know it's a stat people don't like. But for Eric Carlson, his career plus minus is a. a minus 94. He's a plus nine this year. Like, that's a pretty marketed improvement. So when he's on the ice, the penguins are scoring and they're not giving up goals. Finally, we talked about rivalries yesterday and how a lot of people didn't think of the caps when they thought of rivals.

I always do. I need to give a big, big, big congratulations to Alex Ovechkin. Got his goal list drought broken last night against the Columbus Blue Jackets. And since November 30th of this year, Alex Ovechkin has tied Tristan Jari and goals. So congratulations to Alex Ovechkin for finally catching Tristan Jari and goals. Happy to see it for you, buddy. And, you know, maybe, just maybe you can pass him soon. They were feeding OV all night last night for the one timeers.

I was at a bar watching the game before. Of course, I came home and got a little under the weather in the middle of the night. but they were feeding him all night long, the capitals it is, trying to get him that goal. And sure enough, they got the power play goal from him in overtime after the hilarious situation with Elvis Mers-Leakins and Tom Wilson. That was peak theater, disarranted. But yeah, congratulations to Obie finally gets out of that goalish drought.

And, hey, maybe this leads to him going on a pretty nice one here, considering how good he's been throughout his career. We'll just have to see the capitals continue to be a pretty big surprise this season. I didn't expect them to be full. in the playoff race right now, especially without Alex Ovechkin, not really doing much this season. Yeah, joking aside, the caps have been a very nice little surprise here in the NHL, but I just had to get that little jab in.

So that is going to do it. That's going to do it for us on this edition of the Lockdown Penguins podcast. We wish you guys a very, very happy holiday because we are going to be taking Monday off for the Christmas holiday. Hunter and I are going to work out the schedule for next week, but we will be back with some kind of episode on Tuesday the 26th. We'll recap that game and get you ready for the week ahead. So thank you, as always, for watching or listening to Locked-on Penguins podcast for Hunter Hodes.

I am Patrick Damp. Have yourself a very Merry Christmas should you celebrate, and we will talk to you next week.