Locked On Penguins - Daily Podcast On The Pittsburgh Penguins - The Penguins get some forward help after another tough loss...

Episode Date: December 11, 2023

Happy Monday! The Pittsburgh Penguins have been busy over the last few days and Hunter and Pat are here to catch you all up on the news. They first start with the game recap from Friday as the Penguins couldn't get a result against the Florida Panthers. They analyze how the Penguins came out and played a couple of strong periods before not being able to play in the third. Why did they stop playing in the third? They give their reasons before crushing the PP yet again for not capitalizing on another opportunity late in a game. They then get into the Jesse Puljujarvi news and what it means for the team going forward. Is it a good signing? Is he going to get a contract after the FA PTO expires? Where does he fit? They analyze all of that before ending the show with a look at the week ahead.Support Us By Supporting Our Sponsors!AG1If a comprehensive solution is what you need from your supplement routine, then try AG1 and get a FREE 1-year supply of Vitamin D AND 5 free AG1 Travel Packs with your first purchase. Go to drinkAG1.com/NHLNETWORK.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.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.GametimeToday's episode is brought to you by Gametime.Take the guesswork out of buying tickets with Gametime. Download the Gametime app, create an account, and use code LOCKEDONNHL for $20 off your first purchase.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 extended their losing streak on Friday night. And for today's episode, the Locked-on Penguins podcast, Pat and I are going to recap that game, plus how he was right about a certain someone joining the team. 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'm one of your hosts, Hunter Hodes, you can follow me on Twitter. at Hunter Hodes, joined by my co-host Patrick. You can follow him on Twitter at Center for Wet, and you can follow these shows Twitter at L.O. honors for Penguins. Of course, thank you all so much for making this

your first lesson slash watch the day. We are free and available on all platforms. And finally, today's episodes by to you by Sleeper. Download on the Sleeper app and use promo code locked on NHL to get up to a $100 match on your first deposit. Terms and conditions apply.

See Sleeper's terms of use for detail. So before we get to how Pat was right about, Yesy Poole-R-V joining the Pittsburgh Penguins, even though it was a few months late, of course. We got to discuss the Penguins losing the Four Panthers on Friday night, a three-to-one loss for the Penguins. I will admit, I love the way they came out in that game, man. They looked like a team that was upset, pissed off, mad, whatever word you want to use to describe it. And they were playing inspired hockey. Those first 20 minutes, they were by far the better team over the Panthers.

I thought in the second period, even though it was tied heading into the third, I thought the Penguins were the better team. You saw Riley Smith get his first goal since NOM. Really nice pass from Afghani Malkin to Smith and then went forehand backhand pass Sourke Gavlovsky. That was a really nice play overall. But then in the third, they reverted back to what we saw on Wednesday against Tampa Bay. They got the crap kicked out of them in that period. And obviously it wasn't good. You extend your losing streak. I think part of it was that they're just so short-handed right now with all their injuries. But with how close that game was, for some, so long and you're only averaging one goal a game, that's not good enough even though you're

still under man. And then also, the Penguins had ample opportunity after opportunity to either take the lead or tie the game in that period and they didn't do it. They had a power play with less than three minutes to go in that game to try to squeeze out a point. They even had a six on four opportunity after the goalie was pulled. Nope, nothing. Poof, that goes away. Panglin's powerplay continues to be historically bad. But that third period, man, when you're tied heading into that period, that final frame,

it's not good enough. Even though they were short-handed, it's not good enough, and it needs to be better going forward. I like some of what they did, those first 40 minutes. They were the better team, but you have to continue into the third,

and they didn't do it. It's part of the same consistency problems that we've seen all year. The power play continued to be bad, and they're continuing to waste these really good performances from Tristan Jari, I really feel bad for him because he's doing everything in his power to get this team at least a point, if not two, on a nightly basis. And the skaters are not helping him out.

You kind of beat me to something I was going to say. Like, I was very happy with the way the team played in the first 40 minutes of the game. First two periods, I thought they were, especially in the first period, like you said, they were the far better team. They controlled play. They controlled possession. They controlled the tempo and the pace of the game. game, which is something you really wanted to see after what had happened in the previous

three games. I, but at the same time, you know, we do have to keep in mind that there is, the injury bug is back and biting as it always does for this Penguins franchise. So in the third period, you could tell that a Tampa, a Florida team that just has a deeper roster and is healthier took over, but you really should have been ready to adapt to that reality that this is a you're just you're playing a healthier team that's deeper than you right now. So you may have to make some adjustments, which they didn't. And like you said, there were multiple opportunities throughout the night for this team to

extend or take a lead on special teams. And it's really become an issue. And I can't get too upset about the six on four because we have a recent example of them scoring with the goalie pulled. So again, it's, it only got mad because it was a powerplay opportunity. So of course, I'm going to take the liberty to destroy that unit every time I can on this show for everyone. As well, that you should and that they should just because it's been so bad. And they refuse to change.

And it's becoming a huge issue for this power play. And Rossi wrote a story this morning talking to Sid about everything that's going on. And I appreciate the stick-to-itiveness, the flowery language of, you know, we're doing the right things and we just got to get one, the dirtier, the better. Something's just got to go in and we got to get the dam to break. But at this point, I think we have ample opportunity that the dam is not going to break. They're not going to, if they're not going to change what they're doing when it continues to not work, this isn't like early in the season. Early in the season, very much so. the process was there, the chances were there.

The puck just wasn't going in, and that's part of the life cycle of hockey. But as of late, the process isn't even there. Something has to give here. And I figured this weekend would be the opportunity for Kyle Dubus to make a move for this coaching chaffer, or just something in general. We saw what happened with yes, he, Pauli Arvi, but I figured maybe something else was going to come. And speaking of that, Kyle Dubus is going to speak to the media,

potentially while we are recording today's episode. So if there's anything important happens, we'll get to it or we'll go live right after. But if nothing really comes up, we'll just discuss what he said on the Tuesday episode. But back to my original point, I thought that this weekend would provide that opportunity for him to make a big change, I think to send a message to the unit. And based on, you know, recording right now, we're about six and a half, seven minutes into this episode. He is keeping the coaching staff intact, at least for right now, which, I mean, it's bold. I'll say that. I honestly, with the four-day break, I would have cut reared and loose after that game against Florida,

especially with the opportunity at the end. You saw the video of him drawing up a play at the end of regulation, and all the memes are obviously out there about that. But it's interesting that he is being really patient with this unit, even though there's no time to waste at this point in the season. There are only four points clear of the Blue Jackets for last place in the Eastern Conference. it's past time to really go on a winning streak here. And I wish I could count on overall how many points this power play has cost this team this

year. It's a good handful. An average power play probably has this team way up there, I would say. Second and third, probably. Yes. I agree with how a lot of the teams in the Metro struggle. I mean, Carolina is only a few points higher than them. And they've been really bad this year.

So it continues to, I guess, Bathom, a little bit that he won't make a big change to send the message to those players on that unit and he wants to keep at least reared in in place. You know, I know Sullivan definitely a big talking point in this town. I still wouldn't be surprised if they made a move. But I think it's obvious right now that Kyle Dubus, I think, believes in him and his vision for the team. Well, before we get to how correct I was a few months ago, here's a couple things that I want to put in, put in some people's heads here that you might not like.

One, I don't think outside of maybe reared and big changes are needed, because we've talked to, like you just said it, if the power play is even average, this team is comfortably in a playoff spot. They're not fighting for their playoff lives. So that tells me when there's one issue and it's that glaring, it's not something that you can just snap of a finger and make better. Everything else is going well. We, you know, we, for some reason, I decided, Twitter decided to take.

me viral because I put a meme up about how good Jari has been thanks to a J. Fresh chart. And again, you're all sickos for liking and retweeting it. So, like, the goaltending is good. The 5V5 play isn't as good as it was a couple of weeks ago, but it's still decent enough. Yeah. The penalty kills a legitimate strength. Goaltending is a legitimate strength. So you don't need to root and branch this team right now. You don't. The other thing is, and I kind of hinted at this last week. I do think there's a part of Kyle Dubus that looks at this year as almost a wash because he was able to get rid of just about every bad hexthole move with the exception

of Jeff Carter in the Carlson trade. And then at the end of this season, he gets rid of Jeff Carter because his contract runs out and there is no way that they're going to resign him. And if they do, it's going to be for nothing. But I would put all of my chips on him not resigning. they're also going to get almost $17.5 million in cap space this summer. And the only notable free agent they need to bring back is Jake Gensel. So you figure you're probably going to have in the realm of 10 to 12 million,

maybe a little less of cap space. So he can really do more next summer, which doesn't even get into. There's a good amount of teams that have a lot of big name free agents to sign next year and not a ton of cap space. So like just like he got Riley Smith, there's a couple other players he could go out and theoretically get to build the depth around Crosby and Malkin, Lattang, and Carlson. So you might not want to hear that as a Penguins fan. I know it sucks to say, but there's a very real possibility that they're not, they're going to come out and say, yes, we're competing for the Stanley Cup.

We want to get back for the Stanley Cup. But internally, there might be some talk of like, you know what, whatever happens this year happens. And next year we put our foot on the gas. That wouldn't be surprising, especially if this season went south because they may do something like, for example, what the capitals did towards the late stages of last season and then in the all season where they kind of sold off some of their assets like they knew they weren't really going to make the playoffs. And then they made some, I guess, some smart signings throughout the off season, got a new leader in place. And now look at their playoff team right now and they might be a playoffs team at the end of the season. The blues were kind of similar. They're at least off to a decent start.

You have a couple of a couple teams as an example like that. I could see the penguins following in that path. If things continue to go south and they're not a playoff spot at the deadline, they could look to sell off some of their assets. And I know they don't have a ton of assets to sell off, but, I mean, Jake Gensel would be one of them if they don't want to re-sign him or lose him for nothing. They could probably get a decent package back for him.

But that's also months down the line. We have to see what the standings look like at that time. I'm just using what you said as an example for what they could do, like the capitals did in the blues and a couple other teams did last office. season or last, abandoned last season too, but that'll do it for this first segment of today's episode. Coming up in the second segment, yes, we're going to get into how Pat was right about yes, he, Paul Yarby, signing a free agent trout, even though it was four months later. But, hey, we're going to give Pat his flowers on that one. But before we get to that, we got to get to eBay Motors.

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the MVP and bring home that win. Keep your rider die alive at eBaymotors.com eligible items, exclusions apply. All right, and we're back here on this episode of the Locked-on Penguins podcast. I'm Hunter Hodes. Join on my co-s, Patrick Dam. So, Pat, I know you're really excited for this segment because you called this back in August when we're looking at potential PTO opportunities for players. You said, yes, he'll probably, but of course, you forgot that he had that massive surgery

over the offseason. Well, he's back. He's been skating for a while, and now he has a opportunity with the Penguins on a free agent professional tryout. What do you think of this signing? and do you think he can make a difference with the penguins? Because when I look at it right now with all the injuries, he's one of if not their best option for the bottom six.

He has a history of producing in the NHL. It's just two seasons ago. He had 14 goals, 36 points, and 65 games before that. 15 goals, 25 points and 55 games with the Oilers. He's always had pretty strong underlines. He's good with his 5-on-5 offense, good with his 5-on-5 defense. His finishing, though, has not really been there. But honestly, that works all the penguins

because the penguins have not been able to finish their chances for the last two or three years. But overall, he can drive, play well, and he plays well in his own zone. I really like this if he can get back to the level that we've seen and play at a couple of years ago. Yeah, I was on 937 last night with Josh Taylor, a friend of the show who we've had on before. And he asked me about this. And I'm not going to take a ton of credit just because I told him, like I've told you and our listeners, we were in full off-season mode and we were trying to find any and any content we could do. And I was literally just scrolling through cap-friendly, like, oh, that's a nice name.

The Penguins could try him out. It doesn't know a bad guy. And then I saw Poi Arvi's name. And I was like, how was a 25-year-old fourth overall pick of UFA? And then I realized, oh, he had double hip surgery. Carolina did not qualify him. So he was a free agent. and for good reason because double hip surgery is tough.

And as we've seen, it's a coin flip. There are a lot of players who have come back from this surgery and not been the same. Like we saw it with Baxterm in Washington. Right now, Patrick Cain with Detroit doesn't look terrible, but doesn't look quite like the Patrick Cain of old. The thing I will add in, though, about that, the difference between the Baxterms and Cains of the world to the Poole-Rvies of the world, But we're always 25.

Now, age doesn't really play that big of a factor when you have to get your hip bones resurfaced because that's a bone. It's not like anything else where it's just a weird injury that you could maybe come back from because your body's younger and heals quicker. This is still a major surgery. But I also said here's the way I look at this is how many times have we seen this in Pittsburgh in the Crosby-Malkan era? where they go get a guy who had high expectations elsewhere, kind of underwhelmed, came to Pittsburgh. Was he the top guy? No, was he the second guy?

No, was he the third guy? No. Once he was in that fourth, fifth, or sixth guy category, less pressure, less expectation, lesser role able to produce. We have seen it time and time again. And Jesse Pooley-RV is a prime candidate. do this with the penguins. Now, to clarify what you said, he is not on a PTO. He's not on a contract. He's on a free agent trial, free agent tryout offer. And the way I described this to Josh last

night, the way I've heard it described is this is like being a walk on in college football. Right. You can do everything but playing a game. You can go to practice. You can go to meetings. You can go to workouts. And for 10 days, it's nine now because this went, this came into effect on Sunday. next nine days the penguins cover all his expenses meals, bored, food, all of it. He is, the penguins are taken care of him. And at the end of 10 days, if they want to sign him to a contract, they can sign him to a contract.

But given what the surgery he just went through, how he wasn't that productive last year, I don't think they're going to sign him all that long year or two at max, I would guess, and the salary is not going to be very high. So this is really no risk all reward, because if he shows up and outperforms, that's a net positive for the penguins. I think he absolutely can. He's going to be, he's going to be like somebody we just saw on Friday.

He's going to be like Evan Rodriguez in an ideal world to where you can put him up and down the lineup. You can play him in the bottom six. You can play him in the top six in a pinch. You don't want him to be in the top six consistently. But when there's a couple injuries like there are right now, pretty good fill in. And if he can be like Evan Rodriguez, man, I will be a happy man for the rest of this season, honestly. And now that we've gotten all the positive and in future look aheads at it and optimism about it,

let's bring a rainstorm to this brainstorm. This probably means Brian Rust is pretty badly injured because the penguins have next to no salary cap space, even with Raquel still on LTIR, with everybody else that is injured. nobody has really been placed on any sort of LTIR to get cap relief. So this tells me Brian Rust is probably ticketed for the LTIR. And they're going to get some cap relief. And then they can sign Puy-RV to a deal. I wouldn't be surprised about that.

And just speaking about practice right now just started. Brian Russ is not practicing again. They continue to say that he's being evaluated, which it's crazy. They've been saying that for the past three to four to five days. That's usually not that good of a sign, in my opinion. I've heard a couple whispers from a couple people that the injury is not good. So hopefully that's not true. It's just a couple of whispers that I've heard

from a couple people who I checked in with regarding the injury. Just figured I would put that out there on the show. So if he does have to go to LTIR, you're right, they'll have the money to sign Paul Yarvey. And he may, if everything works out of these next 10 days and they sign him to a contract and it'll probably be league minimum or something like that, you could see him playing with Sidney Crosby and Jake Gensel. He was on that line during practice on Sunday rotating with Roe O'Connor. Poo Yardy is not practicing right now on Monday, it looks like, according to Matt Bensel and a couple other reporters that are there. I think they're just taking it easy with him right now, but also not many of the other injured players are also practicing right now either. So, okay, this team is super banged up.

But in a perfect world, when everyone is hopefully back healthy and this works out, Paul Yardv is, I think, a player who you can stick on your third line with Lars Eller, maybe with Drew O'Connor as well, something like that. And then you have the makings of a better third line with Eller, who has been your best player on the bottom six by far this year. O'Connor, who I think is starting to wake up at least a little bit. And Paul Yarby, who is a young player, has had success in the past, hasn't lived up to the hype yet. But if you can put him on a team that you don't need him to produce on every night, I think that can work, especially if he is back to the level that we saw from two years ago. That's in a perfect role, of course, in my opinion.

And you look at the way he plays the game. I think this also speaks to an issue that has been getting solved in recent years, but in the past was a very big problem that the Edmonton-Ellors had. They were not good at scouting and evaluating talent. Because is Yessie Poo-Yarvey a great player? That's yet to be seen. Is he a good player? Yeah, probably.

Is he fourth overall pick-worthy? probably not. So, you know, the expectation is always going to be there. And the supposed pedigree is always going to be comparable because you get taken forth overall. You get taken in the top five. There's always going to be weighty expectations on you because that means more often than not, the team that is taking you is putting an expectation on you to bring them back

to competitiveness and contention. And when you fall short of that, that's more on you than the team, which is something we as sports talk people should probably reevaluate because rather than just saying, oh, hey, this guy was taken fourth overall. He must be great. We should probably look at his body of work and go, was that really worth a fourth overall pick? What is this team doing?

Because Edmonton has a track record of taking guys way higher than they probably should have ever been selected. I mean, we can just throw Neil Jakobov, excuse me, in there as one of them who I think probably went a lot higher than he should have, and look where he is now, Pat. So there's just one example out of many for the Oilers on that. But, you know, this move still has me at least excited. It's, I explained it to some of my friends yesterday.

It's a low-risk, high-reward move. Kyle Dubus knows that the team is not scoring enough right now. He knows that the team doesn't have enough depth, especially with the injuries. So he's like, you know what? I'm going out there, give this kid a shot, see what he can do over these next seven to ten. days. And if he impresses enough during practice and everything else, I'll give him a short

contract. He can play in games and all that good stuff. So we'll have to see what happens. But still, I'm definitely at least a little bit excited when it comes to that. But I think that will do it for the second segment. Coming up to end the show, Pat and I are going to do a quick look ahead for this week because the Penguins do have a couple of really tough games, also sandwiched in there, a game against, honestly, not that good of the Montreal Canadiens team. but Penguins also struggled against the Canadians last year for some divine reason, even though the Canadians were not good. But before we get to that, we got to tell you all about Sleeper.

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So three games for the Penguins this week, Pat, starting on Tuesday against the Arizona Coyotes. They had won five in row and beat the last five Stanley Cup champions, actually, during that winning streak, very impressive by the Coyotes. Though they have lost a couple in a row, so that winning streak is over. But I've been pretty impressed with the Coyotes overall this year. Clayton Keller is absolutely spectacular. They're getting solid goaltending.

They're getting contributions from everyone. I feel like in this lineup. And the coyotes for the first time, I feel like in quite a while, they are more fun to watch this year. And they are a dark horse to potentially make the playoffs in the Western Conference, which I can't even believe I'm saying right now because I didn't think the coyotes were

going to be that good this year. But they definitely surprised me and some other people. This is not a team to take lightly on Tuesday. No, they're a fairly young team as well. So the way I described them to Josh yesterday, was that classic coaching cliche of they don't know what they don't know. They're just a young, fun team. This is something that I think a lot of people got to get out of their heads about Arizona this year.

All of the off-ice drama, the arena, the ownership, all that stuff, it's secondary because the front office, the hockey operations staff and everything else, they've done a really good job of putting this team in a position. to be successful for the next six, seven years. You know, Logan Cooley, the Pittsburgh native, is going to get the headlines because he was the third overall pick. And he's been absolutely incredible to start his NHL career. But you look up and down this lineup, Lawson Kraus, good hockey player.

You already said it. Clayton Keller, really good player. Alex Kerfoot, good depth. Jack McBain, good depth. Nick Schmaltz, good depth. Jason Zucker, our old pal. Matt Dumbah, Travis Dermit, Sean Dersy. This is a good hockey team and they're young and they're going to probably

Sean Jersey was a good pickup by them over the off season. I love that trade for Arizona. He's good. They are probably going to do something very similar to what the New Jersey Devils have done recently to where they are going to get a bunch of young players who are very talented signed ahead of the end of their ELCs, lock them in to a very valuable deal as a salary cap rises, and then. they're going to be a player in the Western Conference, whether that's in Arizona, whether it's in

Phoenix, whether it's in Houston, wherever it may be. This actual hockey team is very good and is going to be good for a good while here. Yeah, I mean, I agree with everything you said there. And just getting the arena stuff out of there, I don't think they're going to be playing in a college arena for the next seven to 10 years or something like that. This is a actual fun team to watch. And even former Pittsburgh penguin Nick Bukstad, He has been really good for the coyotes this year. Six goals, 17 points, Nick Schmaltz, nine goals, 20 points, and 26 games. I feel like I've been wanting the Penguins to acquire Schmaltz for the last couple of years.

I feel like he's been exactly what the Penguins have needed, but the Coyote has decided to keep him, and he's been pretty solid throughout his tenure there. But overall, again, this has been a really fun team. Outside of that, you have the Montreal Canadiens later this week, a team that the Penguins really struggled against last season. they lost a season series against the Canadians. That's one of the reasons I think why the Penguins didn't make the playoffs is because if they would have won one of those games, Pat,

they would have been in at the end of the season. It was one of many reasons why they didn't make the playoffs, but they just couldn't beat some of the bad teams. And this is one of them right here. The Canadians, they're still obviously in a we build right now. I mean, they have some talent. I mean, I like Nick Suzuki. I like Cole.

Caulfield, just signed a massive extension over the offseason. But this team is still not ready to contend right now. probably won't be ready to contend for at least a few more years. Even though the Penguins are not that good, this still should be a game where you would think and hope that they can get two points just because the Canadians have not really been that good this season. They sold talent, and the Penguins have to take them, obviously just as serious as they take any other opponent,

but of the opponents that they play this week, this is the one that I guess is the easiest. And I say that. Obviously, with everything going on, easiest to get two points against. Yeah. And if the, if the Arizona Coyotes are ahead of schedule, Montreal is right on schedule. Yes.

They are, they're very much where they are expected to be. And they're ahead of the Penguins right now. They have two more points in the standings, but they've also played two more games. I mean, you look at this team's, this team's not even analytics, just their baseline, top line numbers. They're a minus 21 in goal differential. They can't stop goals and they can't score them. So this is going to be a chance for the penguins to get a good,

get a solid two points. They're going to Montreal, which is always a tough place to play. Just, you know, as much as he is a goofball, Peter La Villalette when he was on 24-7, absolutely nailed it. You know there's going to be one or two calls up there that the crowd buys. Oh, yeah. Somebody on the penguins is going to brush against a Montreal Canadian. they're going to all start booing and the refs arm's going to go up and it's going to be Montreal

typical. But that's this, that to me of all the games they have played, and I know everybody wanted to get up in arms because it was a rivalry with the, it's a rivalry game with the flyers. The flyers are better than I think a lot of people are giving them credit for. And Montreal is a game that if they lose that outright, it doesn't go to overtime, then yes, we have to start having some difficult conversations because. that is a bad hockey team. That would be one of, I mean, there's been some bad losses this year.

That might be the actual bad loss this year if they lose that game in regulation. After that, they end the week with Toronto, the Kyle Dubus Bowl. They go up to Toronto and I'm sure Dubus is going to get booed once they maybe pan to him in the arena or maybe do a video tribute to him or something like that. But that's going to be a big game. The Penguins have already beaten the Maple Leafs. Once this year they played mostly well in that game, a third period, I think they could have played a little bit better, but still, that's a big game and another opportunity for the

Penguins to be the Leafs for a second time this year. We'll preview that game a little later on in the week, but that will wrap up this week. And I believe that will also wrap up today's episode of the Lockdown Penguins podcast. But Pat, I know you wanted to say something to end the show from both of us. Two quick things. One, this one is from both of us. The news came out in the last 24 hours that former Penguins coach, Tony Granato, has been diagnosed with non-Hod. He is currently an analyst for NBC Sports Chicago as well as NHL Network. All of our thoughts are with you, man. That is a diagnosis that is absolutely devastating and hits very, very close to home for

Penguins fans. So there's that. Tony, we're pulling for you, man. Go kick it spot, Tony. You got there. You did a whole hell of a lot for this organization in your time here. So we're right behind you. The other fun thing that I actually am going to spring on you at this moment because I forgot about it until just now.

But today is a very monumental anniversary in the history of the Pittsburgh Penguins. On this day in the year 2000, Mary Olamy announced he was coming out of retirement and was going to return to the ice as the owner and captain of the Pittsburgh Penguins. So big day for number 66 in La Magnific. It's a day that I remember I was only about seven years old when he retired. And I don't like I couldn't quite comprehend that my favorite hockey player was no longer going to play hockey. So it just kind of happened and it happened. And then I remember I was about 10 years old when he came out of retirement.

And boy, I was crying in my living room watching that man play hockey again. So big day in the franchise. Obviously the first one, Tony Granato, we are pulling. for you, man. And, man, it was fun watching Lemieux play hockey again once the millennium turned. I'm happy I at least got to see him a little bit as a younger kid. I'm still mad. I didn't get to see him in his heyday, though.

I always wish that I was born earlier than when I was. So I could go back and just reminisce on watching him in his prime. But once that happened in 2000, the rest was history, got Sidney Crosby, team became really good again. Get the cup in 09. You get the back-to-backs. And then he gets the Stanley Cup ring the one for the thumb, Pat. Because obviously, two as a player, three as an owner.

And I'll say it on this show for everyone to know. Mario Lemieux is the greatest hockey player in the league has ever seen. And I will die on that hill. Sorry, Wayne Gretzky. Mario is and always has been better than you. And if he were able to stay on the ice, I think he would have shattered Wayne's records. I will stamp that, I think, on this show.

But I would agree with you on that. And I also do think that Connor McDavid's going to take that mantle sooner rather than later. That's bold of you to say that with Cindy Crosby still producing at the level that he is right now. But I wouldn't be surprised if by the end of McDavid's career with how he's going right now, he passes Cid on the all-time goals list or points because, I mean, I feel like he is a Cindy Crosby clone, to be honest. We can have this full debate later on like when there's a break in the schedule. But I'll just say this. If there was like a Hall of Fame of the Hall of Fame, like the greatest of the greats,

Crosby's going to be in there. I think McDavid's going to climb his way up just because he does things we haven't seen since Mario Lemieux. I wouldn't be surprised. I do want to see him hopefully win a championship if he can, but we all know how dysfunctional the Oilers have been for a long time now. So we'll have to see what happens with that. But again, that would do it for this episode, The Lockdown Penguins podcast.

Thank you all so much for listening to slash watching this episode. Pat and I will be back on another episode for you all on Tuesday to preview the game against the coyotes, see if the penguins can snap this loser streak. And we'll also get into comments made by Kyle Dubus after practice on Monday. So again, thank you all so much for tuning in. Really appreciate it. We'll be back on Tuesday.