Locked On Penguins - Daily Podcast On The Pittsburgh Penguins - The Penguins get BACK in the win column against the Kings!

Episode Date: October 17, 2025

Despite a slow start on Thursday night, the Penguins battled back and earned a hard-fought 4-2 win over the Kings! Hunter and Patrick begin the show recapping a gutsy comeback win for the Penguins over the Kings. (1:40). While the Penguins fell into an early hole, they stuck to their guns and battled back to get a victory. Then, they'll finish their California road trip on Saturday night against a young San Jose team, who has a lot of young talent, despite still rebuilding (15:18). Finally, it's Friday, and they react to your hot takes, answer your questions, and provide an update on a Penguins legend who laced up the skates once again in another edition of Fan Take Friday! (26:20).Support Us By Supporting Our Sponsors!GametimeToday's episode is brought to you by Gametime. Download the Gametime app, create an account, and use code LOCKEDONNHLfor $20 off your first purchase. Monarch MoneyTake control of your finances with Monarch Money. Use code LOCKEDONNHL at monarchmoney.com/lockedonnhl for 50% off your first year.FanDuelDownload the FanDuel app now by visiting FanDuel.com and win $300 in bonus bets if your first $5 bet wins.FANDUEL DISCLAIMER: 21+ in select states. First online real money wager only. Bonus issued as nonwithdrawable free bets that expires in 14 days. Restrictions apply. See terms at sportsbook.fanduel.com. Gambling Problem? Call 1-800-GAMBLER or visit FanDuel.com/RG (CO, IA, MD, MI, NJ, PA, IL, VA, WV), 1-800-NEXT-STEP or text NEXTSTEP to 53342 (AZ), 1-888-789-7777 or visit ccpg.org/chat (CT), 1-800-9-WITH-IT (IN), 1-800-522-4700 (WY, KS) or visit ksgamblinghelp.com (KS), 1-877-770-STOP (LA), 1-877-8-HOPENY or text HOPENY (467369) (NY), TN REDLINE 1-800-889-9789 (TN) Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

Well, at least one Pittsburgh sports team understood the assignment on Thursday night as the Penguins get a 4-2 win over the Los Angeles Kings. Pat and I are going to break it all down. Plus, get Yin set for Penguin Sharks on Saturday right after this. You're Locked-on Penguins, your daily podcast on the Pittsburgh Penguins, part of the Locked-on Podcast Network, your team every day. Hello and welcome back to another episode of the Locked-on Penguins podcast. I'm one of your host, Hunter Hodes. You can follow me on Twitter at Hunter Hodes. Joined by my co-Pachry tape, we can follow him on all social media platforms at

Cend and Rulette. You can also follow the show's Twitter at L.O. underscore Penguins. And you can follow the show's Instagram at Locked-on underscore Penguins. And of course, thank you all so much for making this your first listen slash watch of the day. We are free and available on all platforms. And finally, today's episode is brought to you by GameTime. the game time app, crane account and use code locked on NHL for $20 off your first order. Pat, the Pittsburgh Sears decided to piss everyone off in this town on Thursday night.

But then the Penguins were like, hey, we notice everyone here is upset. Let's get Yins at least a little bit happier going into Friday, going into the weekend. And they did exactly that. A come from behind, four to win to snap a two game losing streak to get to three and two on this season. a really impressive third period, more on that in the second. But penguins in this game did not start out very well. They were brutally outclassed in the first period.

We weren't playing well in their own zone, did not have their legs, didn't get their forecheck going. The Kings made it look very, very easy in the first 20 minutes, getting two quick goals to go up to nothing in the second period. And then the Penguins, Pat, they slowly started to chip away in the second period. You could see them finding their legs as the game went. on. Gennie Malkin makes it 2 to 1. Really nice goal in the power play.

A little bit of a stinker allowed by Forsberg, in my opinion. But hey, you'll take those. And then Connor Dewar, congratulations to him. He gets his first goal of the season. A little bit of a jam play around the net front. Kind of a little bit of a greasy goal, stinky goal for the Kings goal tender as well. You take that.

Penguins tie it. And then they're able to get to the second intermission tied. And then we get to the third period, which is, in my opinion, by far the best they looked all night. congratulations to Philip Hollander. He gets his first career NHL goal on a really nice play around the net, never gave up on the play. Rickel started it with a short-handed chance,

rings it off the pipe, and then Hollander is right around the net mouth and just jams away until the puck is in the back of the net. Really nice play from him there. And just a nice job by the Penguins to get that goal short-handed. And after the Penguins took the lead especially, I loved how they played the rest of that third. They were playing fairly good, those first, you know, seven, eight minutes.

But in those final 12 to 13 minutes of the third, they took the fight to the Kings, they never sat back, they didn't play pre-ven defense, they were forechecking really aggressively, didn't really give the Kings a lot of great high danger looks in the back half of that period. I was really impressed with what I saw in that third. Again, the Penguins, they got better as this game went along. Was it their best performance? No, not even close.

but those are two hard-earned, very gritty points by this hockey team. You know how, and before I say this, maybe I'm in the minority here. Maybe it's a hot take. I had fun watching Steelers Bengals on Thursday night. You know why? Because Thursday night games are a circus by nature. And we got two unks just battling it out on Thursday night football. So I had fun, but I digress.

Anyway, you know how we have been saying that, with this Penguins team this year, with where the expectations are and what they're trying to do, we want them to play competitive. We want them to be competitive. If you lose, but you go down swinging, no worries here. We're not accepting losing. We're not wanting it to become a losing culture, but we want you to battle. This was kind of the inverse of that. They started terribly. You using the word outclassed is almost charitable with how poorly they played in the first period, but they picked themselves up off the mat, they battled, they worked, and they scratched and clawed their way back into this one, and they get two big points.

I do think a lot of it, they were aided by some really, really subpar goaltending by the Kings. Anton Forsberg, man, I think you can't count the empty net goal because, well, he wasn't there. But the other three, they were all pretty ugly goals. So you take them how you get them, but full marks to the penguins for just battling after a really bad start. Right. And I agree. It's nice, Pat, being on the opposite end of that spectrum where, you know, we've been on the show a bunch complaining about the goal tending here, especially when Jari has started.

And it's nice getting, you know, that type of performance from the other teams starting Netminder, because Forsberg, you're right. He was not very good. Honestly, on any of those goals, like, yeah, Hollander had a really nice jam play, but I still felt like he could have made that side if he hugged the post a little bit tighter. And then the Malkin goal, I felt like that was a bit weak. Even the Duergo, I think he could have done a much better job there. So, hey, you'll take those when you get them. Penguins are now three and two on the season. I also wanted to shout out one more player from this game, who I felt like had a great performance. And that is defense in Parker Watherspoon. He was sensational in all three zones. And I will say this about the first

five games of his season. Outside of the delay of game penalty, I think he has been steady as a rock on the top pair. He's always in the right position, making the right reads. He's been shutting things down in his own zone. Got a couple of points last night. he's been fantastic so far. I've loved his game quite a bit. We've talked about it that he has been a very steady partner for Eric Carlson, which is exactly what Carlson has been missing in a defensive partner since he came to Pittsburgh. I've said that on the show before that the Penguins got and Kyle Dubus got the first part

of the assignment of acquiring Eric Carlson right, which was acquiring Eric Carlson and not giving up a lot to do it. but then they failed to get the second part right where you find him a suitable partner. Still early, but early returns are good for Watherspoon. I also want to give more of a hat tip to Philip Hollander and not just because he scored his first NHL goal, which goes down as the game winner, but just the level of play he has been at since this season began and he got into the lineup, there's nothing overly exciting about the way he plays the game.

He doesn't dangle through people. He doesn't have a devastating shot. He's not the fastest guy, but his hockey IQ is really, really good. If you ISO his game and just watch him when he's on the ice, he's rarely out of position defensively. He is always in the right spot offensively and on the forecheck. And I think if he keeps this up,

I'm not expecting him to light the world. on fire, but becoming a productive forward at the NHL level is very much in the cards for him because you look at the way he is always positioned. He makes the smart play. He's in the right place. And if you continue to do that, especially if you get some looks with some more talented players, the points are going to come for him. Right. I think he has the potential to be a double digit goal score for the Penguins this year. He's been solid on the penalty kill since coming in. You saw some of that playmaking ability when he dished out that beautiful pass to Harrison Brunick. He's good around the net mouth.

He also, I think, is going to start utilizing his release a little bit more. You haven't seen it yet. But over the last couple of years, you know, when you would see clips from him in the SHL, his release is definitely a part of his game that's not using up. But when he uses it, it's good. So I want to see him bring that over here to the NHL. But so far, the early returns with him are strong. And I want Dan Euse to keep playing him no matter what.

There is definitely a place for him in this lineup. Also do want to say penalty kill last night, much better compared to what we saw, the previous two games where, you know, it was a bit passive, stagnant. Last night, very aggressive. That's what I want to say. You don't need to be too aggressive, but the aggression I saw last night, that was the perfect amount. Power play.

Also thought the power play was good outside of the one late in the third period, but I think they were just kind of trying to bleed clock a little bit more. we do should mention Pat, Sidney Crosby gets the empty net goal, even though I felt like he didn't really play that well last night, but he's got to have done this a couple years in row now where he starts the season a little bit slow. He's still a point per game, people,

so we're not here obviously dumping on it. We never would. Cindy Crosby is one of the five greatest players to ever play. But I'm still waiting for like that vintage Cid performance where he takes over a game. It's coming. And I think you're going to see plenty of them this season, but still, a little bit of a slow start.

far for the captain. It is, but like you said, we have seen this the last couple of years out of 87. He takes a little bit getting out of the starting blocks, but once he gets up to speed, he's Sidney Crosby again. You started the segment in the show talking about the Steelers. So I'm going to steal a Mike Tomlinism when it comes to the penalty kill. I would rather say, whoa, than, I would rather say, whoa, than sick them, because they were very aggressive last night. I would rather have to tell the penalty kill, hey, reel it in a little bit because you might get burned here than saying, go get them. The last couple of games, you were watching a very passive, very stagnant penalty kill and it burned them. Last night, yeah, maybe you get

burned being aggressive on a penalty kill, but if you're putting your opponent under pressure in forcing them to make bad plays, if you eventually have to take, tip your cap from an event, aggressive power play because they make a really good play, that's life in the big show, baby. Sometimes your opponent just makes a really good play and you got to tip your cap. But I would rather it be, hey, they were going a little too hard here and it burned them than they gave them all the time in the world and it came back to bite them. So last night's effort on the PK, I really liked the aggression.

I want to see that continue. that said, I do think when they start moving on to playing some even better teams here later on in the month and then in the next month, you may have to dial it back just a bit because if you get caught and find yourself in those mismatches, that could be a world of hurt. But if nothing else, picking it up to where it hasn't been over the past few games is an encouraging sign. Agreed. And just a couple more things to get to before we head to our second segment and preview this game against the sharks. I have noticed a pretty intriguing trend these first five games. So in the third period of each game outside of one, the Penguins have been by far the better team, especially in expected goals.

Here are the Penguins' expected goal rates for the first five games in the third period. First game against the Rangers, in the third period, they had about 69% of the expected goals. Nice. Second game against the Islanders in the third, they had about 73% of the expected goals. Third game against the Rangers,

they lost 6 to 1, 27% of the expected goals. five big goals. Fourth game against the ducks, they lost late in regulation, 73% in the third period. And then last night, 62% in the third period. Where I'm going with this is they have been the much better team in the third period in four of these five games. And I'm curious to see if that continues for a good chunk of this season. It's definitely at least something to monitor. It's only one metric, but I think I test-wise, the Penguins have been the better team in four of these five third periods in these games so far to start the season. One more thing, Archer Shilovs, I thought he played really well after the first period,

looked a bit shaky. His rebound control looked a little bit shaky as well, but really settled into, made some big saves to end the game in the third period, especially the one off the rush shorthand when the Penguins had a power play late in the third. Really big save there. If I am damn use, I would give him the start on Saturday, but they might keep doing this rotational thing. So We'll have to see. Pat, do you have anything else to add? I'll just say, I'll save it for the preview, but it is about the goal tending. But I agree with you that they got to keep this trend up where they keep their foot on the gas in the third period. Because it's better to be on your front foot than be on your back foot regardless of situation.

So that's a very encouraging early season sign. Agreed. They're not really turtling. And they're taking the fight to all these teams when the game is either tied in the third or, they're leading by one goal. So that's really good. And all those metrics, by the way, at five on five. So that'll do it for this first segment. Coming up in the second segment,

Penguins are going to end this road trip with a game against the San Jose Sharks, and Pat and I are going to preview that one, and that's coming up right after this. But before we get to that, we have to tell you all about our first sponsor, and that is game time. Hockey season is here, and nothing beats being in the arena for those opening games. But let's be real.

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Create an account and use code Locked-on NHL-N-H-L-O-C-O-C-E-O-N-H-L-K-E-D-O-N-H-L-T-E-O-C-T-O-N-H-L-E-T-E-L-T-E-L-E-T-E-L-E-L-P-T-E-L-P-E-W. All right, we're back here in this episode of the Locked-on Penguins podcast. I'm one of your host, Hunter Hodes, joined by my co-s, Patrick Dam and Pat. The Penguins will end this California road trip. Saturday night in the Shark Tank. Love that arena. It just looks so cool when you see it on television. I love when they come out of that shark when they're coming out of the tunnel.

It's so cool, man. But this will be the third and final game of the Road Trip, excuse me, against the Shark's team that is still looking for their first win as it stands right now, they do play the Utah mammoth on Friday. So by the time you're potentially listening to this, they might have their first win. We'll have to see if they can beat Utah. And then they'll come home to play the Penguins on Saturday. Sharks 0.1 and 2 to start the year.

They have a bunch of players tied for first in scoring with three points. Macklin Celebrini, no surprise, Will Smith. And then Demetri Orlov, defenseman also has three points in three games. But for this Sharks lineup, it starts with Macklin Celebrany, who there's a chance that he could be on the team Canada Olympic roster in February. He is going to be an absolute stud once he reaches his full peak. He had a great rookie year last year. I never go out of my way to really watch a lot of bad teams. I would go out of my way at least at times last season on ESPN Plus to turn on the sharks because they were fun to watch, especially when Macklin Celebrini was doing his

thing. And I'm really excited about his feature. Will Smith, I think, is also going to be really good once he hits. I like him a lot. They have Jeff Skinner. Tyler Tofoli is still very much there. They brought in John Klingberg. William Eklund has two points in three games. I think he has a really good future as well. So, you know, there's a lot of good young talent here. They're surrounded by some vets, but this is still an organization that's trying to learn how to win again. They're still very much in a rebuild. They're not going to be very good this year. This game is very much there for the Penguins to win to come out of this road trip with a two-on record. But again, all starts with stopping the shark's young talent, kind of what we said about the ducks, even though the ducks are

further along in this process and the sharks are. You're forgetting their biggest offseason acquisition. They've got Kerry Price, Hunter. Yeah, we know. We know he's on LTIR. It was a cap dump. I'm kidding. I thought you were going to say Alex Nadelcovic, but Kerry Price works. That is where I was going with that. They are getting the full Alex Nadelcovic experience with the sharks where there are moments where you watch Nadelcovic and you go, how is he not a starting goaltender in the NHL? And then five minutes later, you go, oh, that's why he's not a starting goaltender in the NHL. So you do have to look at this Sharks team as a franchise and a team that is selling hope because you brought up Celebrini. There is one way for me to describe

this kid. He's the truth. He is that good. He is going. to be that good. And you brought it up. I wouldn't be shocked if he makes team Canada because he has been sticking to Sidney Crosby like Velcro this past off season. And who better to learn from than that guy. But he's just a really good player. You obviously have Will Smith, who is really good. And at the end of the day, this is a game where if you're the Penguins, you have to keep in mind that both figuratively and literally, this is a Sharks team that has nothing to lose. If they lose games, they don't care. They are still very much at the beginning stages of a rebuild.

They are still very much looking to get high draft picks and develop their young talent, which is on the way. And then if you go to their puckpedia page, anybody who's not one of their young players, they're jettisoning after this season, whether it's at the trade deadline or in the offseason. They are fully in this. But it's a team that is going to play fast.

It's a team that is going to kind of throw caution to the wind and let their young players go. So you have to lean on the fact that, if nothing else, for the past five games, the Penguins have done a pretty good job staying structured in playing a good organized kind of game. if you can do that against a young team, play a more mature game, let your top tier talent take over. It's a game that is very much there for the penguins taking.

Right. And the sharks are still not very good defensively. You brought up what we've seen from Ned so far, the game where he gave up that crazy tying goal. And then if you're a goaltender pat, tend the goal when he comes all the way out and just absolutely bungles that. I thought he was going to throw his stick trying to stop the fuck from going in. I have never seen Ned do that before, but just I felt bad for our good friend of the network, JD Young, who had to watch that. I even tweeted him. I'm like, that doesn't usually happen with Ned Engel.

Usually he's at least a little bit steady, but kind of lost his mind there a little bit. But I do like the other young goalie. They have Pat Ascarov. I think he is going to be good in the NHL once he gets more consistent. Michael Mesa has only played one game so far this season. I have a lot of high hopes for him. I think he's going to be a really good NHLer for a long time. If you look at Daily Faceoff right now,

they have them listed as a third line center, playing with Will Smith. And then, of course, you have former Ranger Barkley-Gudrow on the fourth line. You have tied to Landria. Jeff Skinner is getting the Anthony Bavillia treatment on the top line, where I think the sharks are going to try to drive up his value quite a bit to maybe flip him at the trade deadline, TBD,

but that's the vibe that I'm getting right now. And then defensively, they have Nick Letty, Demetri Orlov on the top pair. You got Mario Ferraro on the second pair. Dickinson, who I am also decently high on. They have them on the third pair. So there's a lot of really good young pieces there. But again, it's a team that's trying to learn how to win again.

They're trying to get some good seasons out of their young players. And maybe they'll surround them with some more depth once next offseason gets underway. This is still the very early stages. But you still got to watch out for all their young pieces with where the penguins are in their rebuild. No game is going to be easy this year. So, you know, that that's where I kind of am. this game. I would personally start

She-Lovs if I am Dam-Us, but I also understand the need to kind of do a rotational thing here where you don't want to overwork She-Lovs in the regular season, but I would give him a second straight start because I really like the way he played in the final 40 minutes. Have to see if Ben Kindle comes back in. I imagine he will pat just because Brunick was out in the game. He came back against the Kings. I would imagine that Kindle is going to come back in

for this one as they continue to assess whether that he is going to stay up for the rest of the season or if he's going to go back to Calgary for the WHL season. So as for keys to victory, we have already talked about the special teams. I don't need to repeat myself on that. I want to see Sid get going. It's crazy that he's at a point per game right now when he's not playing at, I would say, an elite level yet. It's coming, people. It's definitely coming. But I still want to see him have a really big time performance here. I want to keep seeing a lot more from Malkin. He was great on Thursday against the Kings.

He continues to have a great start to the season. So we're really excited about that. And if I wanted to offer one more, I didn't like his game again on Thursday, Pat. They got to get Chris Lut's hand going, man. He struggled once again against the Kings. That's two really bad games in a row. They got to start figuring this out a little bit.

Again, I know Ryan Shea is what he is, and I actually did think he was totally fine on Thursday. but sooner or later they got to get Latang going on the second pair here. For sure. And I don't have a ton to add for Keys to Victory. That's pretty much where I'm at. I'll add in one thing that I already hinted at. You just got to play a more mature game because you're a more mature team.

Regardless of where this team is right now as a franchise, you have the players to play a more mature game than the Sharks, which can aid you quite a bit. I teased it at the end of the first segment. And I don't want to keep our beautiful fans waiting for Fan Take Friday. So I'll go through this quickly, is the Shilov's Jari thing. I think you stick with the rotation. It's not an indictment of Arter Shilov's.

I thought he was perfectly fine against the Kings, but he was a little shaky to start like the rest of the team. He continued to struggle a little bit with his rebound control, but that's kind of been the book on him, his entire career. At the end of the day, I think you just stick with the rotation, simply because good as she loves or good enough as she loves was last night, he hasn't, he didn't put up a sublime performance against the Kings to the point where you go, okay, he gets an extended look.

You go back to Jari. If Jari does well against the sharks, then we start having the conversation just because neither of their starts, and we talked about it with studs and duds yesterday, they're right there in the center. They haven't been great. they haven't been bad eventually one of them needs to start teetering towards one of the other lines and neither of them has so I'm fine with sticking with the rotation if you go to Jari I felt like she loves was starting to go towards the line of maybe being a little bit of a stud

that's why I just kind of ride the hot hand a little bit so I would personally still give him a second start in a row we'll just have to see what Demuz decides to do once we have the morning skate on Saturday and yes people it is a 10 o'clock start time. There are no excuses. It's a Saturday night, people. You got nothing to do on Sunday. The Steelers don't play.

Stay up and watch this game. Tuesday and Thursday, totally get it. You got work the next day, school and all that. But it's a weekend. Stay up to 10 o'clock. Be a sicko like Pat and I are going to be on Saturday night. But that will do it for this second segment. Coming up to end the show, it's Friday.

Gens know what that means. It's time to react to your takes and your questions for Faintec Friday. And that's coming up right after this. But before we get to that, we have to tell you all about our second sponsor, and that is Fandall. The NFL season is here, and Fandall has an offer you don't want to miss. Right now, new customers can bet just $5 and get $300 in bonus bets if you win. That's right. Pick a bet, put down $5, and if it hits, you will unlock $300 in bonus bets to use across the app.

I love how Fandle gives me so many ways to play. I have built parlayers, try to play our prompts, and even follow the live lines during games. It makes watching football even more exciting when you've got a little something riding on the action. Whether you're a casual fan or love diving into the stats, excuse me, Fandall makes the game day experience so much better. So what are you waiting for? Visit fandle.com to download the Fandle app today and get started. All right, we're back here on this episode of the Lockdown Penguins podcast.

I'm one of your host, Hunter Hodes, joined by my co-Cost, Patrick Dam, and Pat. There's some good ones on here today. Let's start with Penn 68 on YouTube, who asked a couple of questions. How long before you guys think Ville, Covenant will be back in the NHL? And when Rucker McGority comes back from his injury, I think he's going to get an HL conditioning stand, but I do think he will make the NHL team. Where do you think he will slot in on the Penguins once he is ready to return to action? As for Coivnan, in my opinion, maybe a couple weeks, a little bit more.

I don't think it's going to be any longer than that, but I've been wrong plenty of times before. could be dead wrong on this, but I don't think it's going to be long until he is back up and rightfully so. As for Rucker McGority, I do think he will be back on this roster at some point this year. And I kind of do think he is going to get a look in the top six. He should, considering the chemistry that he had with Sidney Crosby to end last season, but I also know how much they like the Russ Crosby-Rekle line right now. They were liking it a lot at the end of last season before they brought McGority and coven enough from Wilkesbury. But I would still at least give McGority another look with Sid to see if he can build off that chemistry. I like

Marjority with Sid more than I like Coivin with Sid, which is why I want them to try it again. I would rather have Coybin with Malkin. But still, TBD, that's what I would personally do, but I also could see them potentially putting him on the third line. For example, Pat, if they keep Kindle past nine games and they start his ELC, what do you say putting Rucker McGrody with Ben Kindle on the third line? That would I think be really fun. So you could see that too, but one of those for me. The key to the key to all this is who you just talked about. It's Ben Kindle.

What are they going to do with Ben Kindle? Is he going to stay past the nine games? How long is he going to stay if he stays past the nine games? Because right now you don't have any other good options on your roster for people that you can send up and down. And that really creates a bit of a log jam on the roster. So it's really dependent upon what happens with. Kindle. And with McGority, I agree. You give him a shot in the top six. He seemed to look like he had some chemistry with Sid.

You're more than able to move Raquel and Rust up and down because they've shown they can play in any of those, either of those roles. So I think you have flexibility there. But again, all comes down to what they do with Ben Kindle. And I do have to add this to Fan Take Friday. Unfortunately, I don't want to interrupt people's questions. but the person whose question you use there was Penn 68. So I have to bring up some news about 68. The Yarmir Yager Hall of Fame induction clock has officially reset because the 53-year-old Yarmir Yager has played another game for his team in Shekia with Kladno.

So the man is still not officially resett. retired and I'm just going to add this and we'll move along. This is not about business for Yarmir Yager anymore. He is now a minority owner of Cladno. So he's not doing this to goose ticket sales to help with advertisers. The man just loves puck. He is a sicko to the highest degree and you have to respect him for it. So he'll eventually get in the Hall of Fame.

But if he keeps playing in some of the. these games, it's just going to keep getting pushed further and further and further back. But it's going to be awesome once he gets into the Hall of Fame. As for the next takes last question here, this one comes from Christopher Hart. Have you guys gone from watching Penn State and Gavin McKenna to Michigan and Will Horcoff yet? I have not watched a full game of Horcough yet. I will be fully transparent about that on the show. I have seen the highlights.

I've seen some of the clips. He has looked really good to start the year, which is what you want to see. he's in a really good spot at Michigan. Now the question is, can he build off it? And how does he do in a full season and one of the top college hockey programs in the country? So nope, haven't watched a full game yet. It is on my list of things to do,

especially when penguins are off for one of these weekend days. But from the clips and the highlights I've seen, he has been really good to start this year. Have I watched Gavin McKenna? Forks down. What an un- Unbelievable moment, and I am a well-known and well-documented Penn State hater, but him scoring that goal and having that performance and shoving it up the butts of Arizona

State and doing forks down after they yelled at him that he was overrated. Oh, be still my heart. I love that stuff. But yeah, I've seen the clips of Horkov. I've watched some condensed games from Michigan, and the start is great. find the consistency, continue to build on it, because we have talked about it. That is a great program for him to be in. And having a full season there, I think is going to be great for him.

And he is going to be a little bit of a project as a prospect. But if he continues this solid work at Michigan, I do think he can make his mark sooner rather than later at a penguin's training camp. I agree 100%. this one's kind of funny. We're going to get to a couple funny ones to end the show here to go off into the weekend. This one comes from G-Tots. Crosby will have over 100 penalty minutes this season.

Either the refs are moving away from him or he truly lost his step. He hasn't lost a step, but it is funny. So far this season with Sidney Crosby, he has six penalty minutes and five games. Do you know what his career high in penalty minutes is? I don't. Was it his rookie year? Yes. 1-10.

I don't think he's going to. get to that this year, it's still very, very early. I appreciate the hot take. Don't think he's going to get to 100 plus, but it is funny. You're seeing him take more penalties than normal at least to start this season. But again, it all goes back to what Pat and I have talked about today. He is going to get going very soon. Wouldn't be surprised if it's in San Jose on Saturday.

And once he does, the points are going to come in bunches. He's already at a point for game right now, which is obviously fantastic. He got the empty net goal on Thursday. But once he gets really going, good luck stopping him. Bum, absolute bum. He's slowed down. No, but yeah, I mean, just bad luck. Rough start.

He'll be fine. He'll be fine. I'm not worried in this life. Anyone that's worried about sending Crosby so far, please. It's okay, guys. He is going to be totally fine this season. And this one comes from Ryan Evans. we'll get to a really funny one right after this too.

I need to know your guys' final thoughts on Vasily Ponomerov. Do you think he will play in the KHL until his contract expires or do you think he will come back to Pittsburgh a bit sooner? TBD, honestly, this could very much go to Philip Hollander route where he goes overseas and then comes back. But I'm not fully sure. So it's anyone's guess, honestly. It depends on how good he does in the KHL

and what opportunities he sees for himself in the organization. If there's a lane for him to make the team, wouldn't shock me for him to come back. But if it kind of feels like he doesn't have a lane to make the team, wouldn't shock me if he stays in the K, especially if he plays really well over there. Right. And I think he probably looked at the situation going into training camp this summer

and was like, I don't know if I'm going to be making this team right out of camp just because of how many players are still on the team, how many other players are pushing for spots. Let me go over here, see if I can cook a bit. And then maybe just maybe I'll come back when. there's not as much of a long jam. But again, I'm not in his head. That's just me speculating a little bit to end the show.

And then one more, Pat, this one is hilarious. This comes from our good friend Hayden. He asks or says, with Justin Brzo's hot start this season, the Penguins no longer have any need for Sid. And as we know, Sid is definitely getting traded. So the Penguins will trade him and name Justin Brzo, the captain. There is one big Justin Brzo super fan in our YouTube comments all the time. I forget what his full name is.

I think it's Northern. swamp rats, something like that. And he's been going crazy just because Justin Brazo is off to such a great start. But Hayden, you are an absolute sicko for that comment in the best way. Thank you for it. But he's not getting traded. Brazo bunch, join the club. We're all here.

The water's fine. It's great. What have I been saying? Good offseason pickup. I'm going to go ahead and myself one of them. But yeah, I mean, Sid's not getting traded. but, you know, if he wants to take a lesser role, I'll definitely put the C on Brzo's shoulder for sure.

We can give Sid the A just for like one night and see how Justin Brzo does is the C. Heck, we still got to get everyone Brasor shirts to Pittsburgh Clothing Company. Just awesome stuff once again. I love the shirts that they make. And he's going to be more, even more of a fan favorite if he continues this hot start as well. I love, again, it's Justin Brzo's world right now and we're all just living in it. but I think that'll do it for today's episode of the Locked-on Penguins podcast.

Thank you all so much for taking the time to listen to slash watch this one. Pat and I will be back with a fresh episode for you guys on Monday, recapping this game against the sharks and getting in set for Penguins Canucks early next week. So for Patrick Damp, I am Hunter Hodes. Thank you guys so much for tuning in. We appreciate it. And we will be back on Monday.