Locked On Penguins - Daily Podcast On The Pittsburgh Penguins - The Penguins power play saves the day...again?!?!

Starting point is 00:00:00 The Penguins got a big win against the Wild on Monday night. And on today's episode of the Locked on Penguins podcast, Pat and I are going to recap that game. Plus get in to how the power play continues to stay hot. 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.

Starting point is 00:00:39 I'm one of your hosts, Hunter Hodes. You can follow me on Twitter at Hunter Hode. joined by my co-ist Patrick Damp. You can follow him on Twitter at Sendin and For Wet. And of course, you can follow the shows, Twitter at L.O. Ernestore Penguins, of course. Thank you all so much for making this

Starting point is 00:00:52 your first lesson slash watch today. We are free and available on all platforms. And finally, today's episode is brought to you by Game Time, down the GameTime app, create an account and use code locked on NHL for $20 off your first purchase. So, Monday night, that was a wild win. No pun intended.

Starting point is 00:01:10 There, but the Penguins escape with a game. a four to three win over the Minnesota. Wow, they jump out to a three-nothing lead in a typical penguins fashion. They blow it. But the power play saves the day in the third period. Sydney Crosby with the game winning goal to lift the Penguins to a four to three win. This was a massive win, Pat, because if they had blown this game, I don't know how you come back from that.

Starting point is 00:01:33 And I also don't know how the coaching staff is even employed heading into today. To be honest with how this season has gone. So far, that was a must win, especially. in that situation where you're up 3-0, your controlling play, and boom, you let the wild get back into it. The penguins fell asleep for the final five minutes at the second period,

Starting point is 00:01:52 and then for the first, I would say five minutes of the third. But once Crosby was able to will the penguins to a four-three lead on the power play, the penguins took control the game, and then the wild really didn't see that many good chances the rest of that third period. Overall, I thought the penguins were the better team

Starting point is 00:02:08 in this game outside of a 10-minute lull, late in the second, earlier in the third, and those were two very much needed points with where the standings are right now. For sure. I also don't want to excuse blowing a three-goal lead because it's not a good thing to do. But just given the way this team kind of dominated the first period and most of the second period to jump out to a three-goal lead, I mean, it really did look like this was going to become a laffer once Malkin scored. because you look at that, and we'll talk about him here in a minute,

Starting point is 00:02:43 but you look at that Gino goal, the pass from Pustinen in that, Gino having literally the entire net to put the puck in, that's the kind of goal you score when you are just whooping a team, when you are just taking it to them relentlessly. And that's kind of what the penguins were doing last night. So what I'm building towards here is, while I can't fully excuse blowing a three-gole lead, I can understand the human nature aspect of playing that kind of a game

Starting point is 00:03:15 and thinking, man, we are just going to walk all over this team. And this is going to be a laugh or we're going to just get an easy two points and the wild are going to head home or up to Boston with their tail between their legs. So I get it to an extent. I would have rather seen them just keep the pedal to the metal. bury them. I also think there might have been, and this is just more of a joke than anything. I also think they didn't want to see their old pal flurry in the net. So they kind of took their foot off the gas a little bit. So John Heinz didn't have to replace his goalie, but I digress.

Starting point is 00:03:51 It's a good two points. And there's there, aside from the blown lead, there is a lot of positive to take out of this game last night. Yeah, the blown lead is my biggest negative, obviously, from this game. Against a better team in the league, you may not win that. game, the Penguins still just need to be a lot better when they have leads. You can't take your foot off the gas pedal the way you did late in the second period. And yeah, I know the first goal about the wild scored. They got a little bit of a lucky balance. But then the second goal, a few minutes later, you can't give up that one either. You need to start playing when that first goal goes in. It's just not good enough overall. This team continues to be a little bit lackluster

Starting point is 00:04:29 with defending leads the season. And it needs to still get better. Going back to And that was my first thought after the first wild goal. Like immediately by my one, okay, that's a fluky bounce. Like sometimes that happens in a game. Just get right back to work. Right. And they kind of didn't. Right.

Starting point is 00:04:48 That's what I was hoping for as well. I'm like, okay, bad bounce. Go make it for one to end the second period. Then you'll be feeling confident hitting into the third. Instead, the wild make it three, two. And it's like, okay, feels like at that point, it's only a matter of time before the penguins fully blow this lead. And sure enough, Vinny Letary gets the tying goal before Cindy Crosley, wins it. Overall, again, it's not good enough. It needs to get better. Going back to something

Starting point is 00:05:09 you said earlier before the blowing lead, though, Val-Trey-Pusinen, what a game from this kid. Two assists. His four-check created that Riley Smith goal to open the game. That was amazing behind the net. And then that passed to have Genie Malkin and make it three-nothing, man, that this kid is continuing to grow on me. You said it on the Monday show. The pieces are starting to fall in place for him to potentially stick around after Brian Rust is ready to return from his injury. Again, I just want to trust everyone. I hope that this isn't just a flash in the pan like we've seen from a couple other Wilkesbury players where, okay, you can play well for three to four to five games,

Starting point is 00:05:46 but then you tail off a little bit. I hope that doesn't happen. I hope he continues to play at this level for the next week to three weeks or honestly the rest of the season where he can stay up and have a full-time role with this team. because this team badly needs more depth in the lineup right now, and he is providing a much-needed spark and just much-needed strong play in the top six when they have one of their best wingers out.

Starting point is 00:06:11 That's four points in five games, Proustin, still searching for that first NHL goal. But I'm really liking the chemistry that he has with Evgeny Malkin and Riley Smith. I like the chemistry that he has with the top power play unit. He's been really impressive, despite being a little bit of an undersized player at the initial level, but he's not letting that affect him at all.

Starting point is 00:06:28 He's been awesome. Kyle Dubus, Mike Sullivan, if you're listening, I am open to finding a front office job with this team because I just can't miss lately with a lot of these suggestions and predictions between the power play and now Valteri Pustin. But kidding aside, I mean, the biggest thing I've noticed with him is that he is making definitive plays that show he's a top six forward. And you and I discussed this after we stopped recording yesterday. I didn't want to prolong our episode too long in the discussion of Valteri Pustinan and some of the other Wilkesbury guys. I'm with you in that we have seen this happen dozens of times in the Crosby-Malkanara where a guy comes up, he has two or three good games, and we're all making memes about

Starting point is 00:07:15 him, and he's the next big thing, and then all of a sudden he disappears. But I think a lot of what Pustanin is doing is sustainable, because he's being very definitive with the puck. You watched the power play last night, even on the opportunities that it didn't score, the three others that they didn't score on. He was making good decisions with the puck. He wasn't just deferring to the big guns. He wasn't trying to just get out of the way.

Starting point is 00:07:41 There were times where he got himself into a shooting position and was calling for one time. That's a confident kid. That's a confident game. And I think that is kind of what has separated him from some of the other Wilkesbury call-ups so far is that he's playing a confident game. And we can get into the numbers. We can get into the analytics of it. But he's playing a game that is saying, I belong here. And it is an intangible thing that I don't think you can discount because it's, I've said it before. It's a skill to play with highly skilled players. Yes. We joke about Pascal DePuis and Chris Coonitz of the world.

Starting point is 00:08:22 It's the, it's the acting of Fulham in tweet, the Mark Donk and Buzz was flibit guys who come up that you've never heard of. But it is a skill to play with elite players because you have to know where to go. You have to know how to read off of them. You have to think the game on a similar level that they do. And while I'm not going to sit here and say that Pustin is that just yet, a lot of the signs that he could be are there. I agree with you.

Starting point is 00:08:48 And the best word is he's playing at the closer to the level that we saw from Brian Russ and Jake Gensel when they came up from Wilkesbury, compared to some of these other players who have come up for Wilkesbury. Yeah, I know fans attach themselves to the next big thing every time a player gets called up for Wilkesbury. But I feel like this is closer to that situation with Russ and Gensel. And even Connor Sherry, when he first came up from Wilkesbury as well to give this team a jolt that it really needed in 2016. And with Puson, if he can keep this up, this forces potentially other players down lineup. For example, maybe Brian Rust has to play on the third line.

Starting point is 00:09:25 it's Rickele. I don't really think Raquel played that well. And he was returned last night, but I'm willing to give him at least a couple of games to get his feet wet again because he was out for so long. But this is a good problem for the Penguins to have if he continues to play well. And everybody's going to point to the forecheck on Smith's goal last night, which deserves the flowers and attention that it does. Yes. But the thing that was more impressive to me was the assist on the Malkin goal because like we said, this guy hasn't scored an NHL goal yet. And young people, players or first-time NHLers or young NHLs, however you want to categorize it, tend to

Starting point is 00:10:02 overshoot. They tend to take a little bit more of a risk to get that monkey off their back and score the first goal. But he had the foresight to see if he had the foresight to see that the defenseman and the goalie were playing shot for him all the way. And he had Malkin cutting in completely unchecked and completely looked off the goalie and the defenseman and got the puck to Gino for a tap-in that just was a no-douder. And that's a confident, smart, offensive top six kind of play.

Starting point is 00:10:35 He could have been a little bit selfish and took the shot there, but he saw that Malkin was wide open, threaded a beautiful pass to him, boom, the puck's in the back of the net for a 3-0-0 lead. I'm just really encouraged by his play right now. And speaking of him of Gennie Malkin, we've been both a little tough on him last week or so, but I thought he enjoyed his best game in quite a while last night. I thought Malkin was engaged throughout, had that goal. But even throughout that, I thought his defense work was a bit better.

Starting point is 00:10:59 I thought his playmaking ability was a bit better. He was zipping the puck around on the power play, like it was his duty to do that. And just overall at five on five, he enjoyed a much better performance next to Puson and Riley Smith. I want to see this level of Gino more often than not. Because if he plays like this in a lot more games, the Penguins, I do think are going to win more games this season. So, coincidence, that one, again, Malkin plays like. like one of their best players, heck, they tend to win. So this was a good bounce back from Gino.

Starting point is 00:11:29 Yeah, who could, who could have ever thought if Gennie Malkin plays well, the Penguins play well? Right. Breaking news here on the locked on Penguins podcast. But I texted you last night during the game, uh, when he got the penalty with Gologoski at first and said, oh, he's got to settle the hell down. But in when they showed the replay, I watched it back and went, what, what are we calling here? Like they ran in there.

Starting point is 00:11:50 No, no, Riley Smith, I thought. I don't think Gino tripped them at all. No, no, not the tripping. I was talking about when they came off the bench and collided. No, but that one, that wasn't even a penalty. The guy tow picked. He just lost his balance. But regardless.

Starting point is 00:12:05 But when Goligowski and Malkin came off the bench and got tangled up, I was like, they just collided. Like, Gino didn't go after him and Gologoski didn't go after him either. Like the other thing I texted you last night was that was a burn the tape kind of game for officiating. It was bad. Bad on both sides. I don't really understand what the rest were calling.

Starting point is 00:12:22 Half the time, it felt like they were just doing these tickey-tacky calls for the sake of it. I don't know what Chris Rune and his was a rough night. We were doing. But Penguins got the two points. That's the big story here. And coming up in the second segment, Pat and I are going to get into Sidney Crosby's effort and how, once again, he will be penguins to another win. But before we get to that, we got to tell you all about Fandah. As the weather gets colder, the NFL offers stay hot on Fandle.

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Starting point is 00:13:16 We're back here on this edition of the Locked On Penguins podcast. I am one of your host, Patrick Damp, joined as always by the one and only Hunter Hodes. and we thank you as always for making this your first listen slash watch of the day. So you, once again, Hunter, are vindicated as you have been like I have been for the past week or so, because what do we call last night's game other than a vintage Sydney Crosby performance? I just didn't call it like I normally do. I feel like I should have to this one because he's playing at this level every night. I was going to say at this point, like it's just assumed it's like, okay, they're going to drop.

Starting point is 00:13:53 the puck. There's going to be at least three periods. And yeah, there's going to be two teams playing. Oh, there'll be a vintage Sydney Crosby performance as well. How could we forget that? But he gets the game winner on the power play. And it was such a great effort by him. And we're going to talk about the power play in the final segment today. But it was a really great effort by him because one of the things I have been talking about, you have been talking about, Penguins fans in general have been talking about is the lack of a net front presence when the power play was struggling. And Sidney Crosby last night decided to go full Thanos and just say, fine, I'll do it myself and went to the front of the net and buried one to give the team the lead. Yeah, man, it's almost like, wow, when you have a net front presence on your power play, no matter who it is, you're going to score more goals.

Starting point is 00:14:45 I love that Cindy Crosby was not in his normal spot behind the net, making things happen. As you said, he was like Thanos. I'll do it myself or I'm not going to be denied. And I'll post up in front of the fellow Gustafson, and I will jam that puck past him. And sure enough, he did that, got the Penguins the lead, that they would not squander the rest of the third period.

Starting point is 00:15:04 Just a beautiful Crosby goal there. And the level that he continues to play at, 33 points now in 30 games, 18 goals this season. he continues to be a strong candidate for the heart trophy this year. The Penguins, again, they cannot waste these types of games from their captain. And honestly, they can't waste this season from their captain. What he's doing at age 36 is absolutely crazy, man.

Starting point is 00:15:32 And this was another amazing game from the Penguins captain. He will them to that win. And I love that he was net from presence there. Maybe we'll see a little bit more of that as the power play continues to stay hot. and we'll get into that in the final segment, but I loved the effort that he showed in front of the net on that final goal. The biggest thing for me, away from just the effort by Crosby on that goal,

Starting point is 00:15:55 was that it happened a minute, less than a minute after they lose the lead in the game's tied. It was a great response because you look at the way last night's game went. You look at the way this season has gone. and that had the makings of here comes a collapse. This is going to be, you know, we're going to be here today talking about this game and how they blew a three goal lead. This is an unacceptable loss. People got to be fired.

Starting point is 00:16:24 People got to be traded. And instead, less than a minute later, they go on the power play. The power play comes through and they score a goal with Sidney Crosby in an incredible effort to retake the lead that they would never surrender. So that is a, you know, it shows you how quickly. things can flip because it looked like it was going to be disaster. It looked like we were going to have to talk about people getting fired in the whole nine yards. Instead, we talk about how they bounce back big. They take, they retake control of the game and close it out and get the win. So it really shows you how much of the national hockey league exists on a razor's edge.

Starting point is 00:17:03 And again, with the power play, we were potentially going to talk about how in a big time situation, the power play failed to come through. Well, news flash, the power play came through, once, but twice in that game last night, especially in that high-stakes situation in the third period. I've said this on Twitter for the past week or so. The power play has been finally coming through in those big situations, and it's been really nice to see. And I'll say it again, I wish the power play was at this level earlier in the season because they would be in a playoff right now. That's for sure. But, you know, even after that power play goal, I love the way the penguins defended the rest of that third period. They didn't really give the Wild anything, the rest of that

Starting point is 00:17:39 period, to be honest. The Wild only had two high danger chances. at five on five in that third period. They only had 0.42 expected goals at 5 on 5 that period. And honestly, for the whole game, the wild only generated 1.3 expected goals who were at 5 on 5. The penguins defended really well in that game. And again, you can see the blueprint people. It's there.

Starting point is 00:18:00 You saw it in this game. And yeah, I know they blew the three goal lead. They took the foot off the gas battle for those final five minutes of the second period, the end of the third period. But outside of that, the blueprint was there. The penguins are doing a great job. limiting Minnesota's chances to the outside, playing committed team defense. When they want to play like this, they can.

Starting point is 00:18:20 They know they can do it. They just, for some reason, go away from it numerous times during the season. But you know the blueprint is there. When they play a little more, I guess, conservatively or a little less run and gun, if you want to call it that, they tend to win more. If you can combine that plus generate the offense that we've seen them. rate, this team can win games. We've seen them do it, Colorado, Vegas, Washington. We've even seen them do it against Tampa Bay a little bit this season. Even the Toronto game I felt like

Starting point is 00:18:52 at home, outside of the third period a little bit, they did it. The penguins have been able to do this. They did it for a lot in this game against Minnesota. They just need to do it on a more consistent basis. And it starts with the captain. It starts with Malkin. And you, I think, you know, we made the joke about like, oh, Gennie Malkin and Sidney Crosby play well. the penguins play well, breaking news, who would have thought? But when the rest of the team sees those two guys committed to 200 feet, 200 foot play, it rubs off. It sends a message that if these guys are doing it, everybody has to do it.

Starting point is 00:19:28 And then you look at Crosby's, you know, just the, you got the top line numbers, right? You got a goal and assist for two points. He comes up big with the game winning goal on the power play with a great effort. 74% in the faceoff dot last night. We talked about that. And I know, like, you know, we're all, it feels like we're just cherry picking and talking about stats here. But it's huge. In an era where you need possession of the puck, the fact that your top center is winning three out of every four draws is a huge deal.

Starting point is 00:19:56 And then you look at his analytics, 64% of the shot attempts when he's on the ice. And I think it's 55% of the expected goals when he's on the ice. Like, that's, that is driving play and playing a 200, foot game because you're getting scoring chances, you're getting shot attempts, you're winning faceoffs, but you're not giving up shot attempts and you're not giving up goals. And I know we're talking about Crosby for the heart and we should be. I don't think he's going to win it. But I do think now with Patrice Berseron gone, maybe it's time for the Lifetime Achievement Selke Award for Sidney Crosby. Well, that's going to require one thing.

Starting point is 00:20:39 And that's for Sasha Barkov to stop playing like Patrice Bergeron this year because he's in what, the 98th, 99th percentile for even strike defense this season. I think he's been the best 200 foot forward by a mile this year. So I think it would require Barkov to have a little bit of a drop off and we're going to give Cindy Rosby the Selgi. That said, I do think Sid could be in the conversation by the end of the year. It'd be nice seeing him get that lifetime achievement. But in terms of who the favorite is right now, my opinion, it's probably Sasha

Starting point is 00:21:06 Markov. Yeah, that's totally fair. I mean, it just felt like it might have been time. But before we head to the final segment here and give the power play, it's flowers, we do got to continue to talk about Sidney Crosby's effort, especially at five on five. He still sits second in the NHL with 14 even strength goals. He's tied for fourth in the league with 25 even strength points.

Starting point is 00:21:30 So as much as we are about to talk about how the power play has found its rhythm here over the past week, Sydney Crosby just. keeps getting it done at 5 v5 at this age. And I mean, like you said, you can't waste this effort. You just can't. Like you have to figure something out here. You got to start putting together a string of wins. You got to make a run here to get into the playoff picture or even climb up the

Starting point is 00:21:59 metro standings because when you have this kind of effort for Crosby, it doesn't come around often. I know we're used to it. but this kind of extraordinary effort where he is among the elite, it happens every few years and the Penguins would be wise to not waste it. Yeah, man, I agree with you. And slowly but surely, that's now three wins in their last four games. There are three points out of a playoff spot.

Starting point is 00:22:25 This game on Thursday, and we'll preview this later this week, that is a massive game against the Carolina Hurricanes. If you can win that one in regulation, finally win one of those coin flip games against the hurricanes, you can have something cooking here heading into the weekend against Ottawa. Then you have the Islanders to end the year twice. You have the blues again as well. The schedule, I wouldn't say it opens up,

Starting point is 00:22:49 but there are some winnable games to end the year for the Penguins. If they can go on a nice little streak here to end 2023, they will be in a good spot entering the new year. And we are going to talk about how that power play is something, and they could really help them get right back into this playoff picture. But first, we've got to talk about one of today's sponsors, and that is game time. It's the holidays. We're coming right up on Christmas time, and what better stocking stuffer is there than some penguins

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Starting point is 00:24:40 the heroic hunter hoodies. And man, got to get into it because what a difference a week can make. Because around this time last week, we were on this show lamenting that Todd Reardon needed to be fired into space and the power play needed to just start rolling lines, forget about even doing a setup and get rid of everybody, throw the baby out with the bathwater. this power plays historically awful. And one week later, all of a sudden, it's woken up and it looks like a strength because last night, two different times and in the last week, it has come through in the biggest moments and won games for the penguins rather than lost them. And that's the biggest thing, right?

Starting point is 00:25:24 It's now winning them games compared to not getting them two points where the penguins badly need those two points. It's funny. When you watch the power plate for the last. week, it looks like a completely different unit than the one we watched for a month when they went over 37. They're zipping the puck around the offensive zone with authority. They have the shoot first mentality. They're going to the front of the net. The zone entries also look a lot better. I'm not seeing that drop pass nearly as often as I used to. It actually looks like a

Starting point is 00:25:54 functioning power play the way it was supposed to look when you have all of these sure fire Hall of Famers on it. Eric Carlson is running things really nicely. You have Crystal Tang running things really nicely on his unit. Evgeny Malkin has been looking much more comfortable on the power play, whether it's at the right half wall or the point. Cindy Crosby, as we discussed earlier, he going to the net front a little bit more often. He's also been behind the net a bit. You also have Jake Gensel being a little bit of a net front presence. He deflected in Eric Carlson's bomb from the point to get the power play rolling for the first one. And honestly, I still, I don't say I don't have a conspiracy, but I felt like at first it was Carlson's goal

Starting point is 00:26:28 because I thought it went off the wild player, but I guess we'll give it to Jake. It was a really nice deflection. But I mean, it did look like that. It did. look like Carlson's goal. It looked like it hit the Minnesota wild player on skate. It didn't look like Jake tipped it. And then they showed the one angle and it was clear as day that Jake did tip it. And the thing is, we got to talk about that real quick before we can, sorry to interrupt you, by the way. That is an incredible deflection by Jake Gensel because that was a bomb. Like, I would, if, if that hits somebody, they might disintegrate. Yeah, it was a beautiful slap shot from Carlson from the point. And you said it that the way that Gensel was able to get his stick on that puck, get it past Phil Augustusin. That was the thing of beauty. But again, it continues to show how the power play is humming lately. There's six for the last 16, Pat. That's crazy. Did you ever think they were going to be six for their last 16 in a stretch after they went over 37?

Starting point is 00:27:28 No. And if you and I, before the show started, I ran those numbers six for 16 since they got. the power play going again against the coyotes. And that averages out to about 37.5% which if you were to just take that percentage number and drop it into the power plays for the year, that would be first by a mile. The top power play in the NHL right now is just a shade above 30%. So if you're operating it, and who knows if this is sustainable or not, it might not be. But if you're operating within a 20, 25% as a power play, it's going to, win you more games. It's going to get you more points in the standings. And it's going to keep you in a

Starting point is 00:28:09 power playoff spot, a power play spot, which is where they kind of are right now. Right. And it'll also potentially win them some games where maybe they don't deserve to get the result. Now last night, I thought the Penguins for most part, they deserve to get the two points. But say you have a night where you don't have it at five on five, you're struggling to maybe kill penalties as well. what if your power play is there to bail you out of that and get you to points where you maybe don't deserve it? If the power play can keep up this momentum heading into those types of games, Penguins will be able to win a game or two where, heck, maybe you don't have it. And you can be like after, yeah, we stole it.

Starting point is 00:28:46 Our power play got hot. That's what happens sometimes. Penguins haven't been able to say that really at all this season. But with the power play continues to hum, maybe they can say that at some point later on this season. that will be a big deal for this hockey team. And the thing that's that's crazy about this is they didn't make a ton of sweeping changes. It wasn't like they ripped this power play out root and branch. Honestly, one goal went in and then everything else started going in the net.

Starting point is 00:29:17 It feels like at least. But they made a couple subtle changes. Carlson really isn't the quarterback anymore. He's the guy up top. He's the guy who he's going to be one of the trigger men from the top to, you know, like we saw with the with the Jensel goal. But they've kind of made Crosby the de facto quarterback. And instead of giving him one position from what I have noticed, he's allowed to roam. Because if you watch a lot of the power plays last night with him up there, he's behind the net, he's on the half wall, he's up top, he's all over the place.

Starting point is 00:29:51 And that subtle little change has actually made them more successful because I brought this up in a previous episode. It kind of pulls the penalty kill out of whack because they can't really check them. You can't really keep an eye on him if he's roving all around the offensive zone. You can keep, we saw this when the power play struggled. It was real easy for them to just keep opposing PKs to keep the penguins to the outside because everybody got to their spot and didn't move. Now Crosby's moving all over the place and so is the rest of the power play because

Starting point is 00:30:25 guys are filling in lanes, guys are filling in areas. and it's opening up mismatches and opportunities for the power play to put the puck in the net. I was going to say that because it looks like I'm getting Malkin is also roaming around a bit more as well. He's not on just the right half wall, right? He's at the point. He's on the left half wall. He's behind the net at times. You're seeing Eric Carlson not be at the point either.

Starting point is 00:30:45 Sometimes he's on the left half wall on the other side. So they're moving them around a little bit, keeping the penalty killers honest and kind of making them guess, I would say, a little bit as well, to where the puck is going next. And that is paying massive dividends because the penguins are getting more shots through. The penalty killers aren't able to block a lot more shots and just know what's coming. And that's another big reason I think why the power play has been really heating up as of late. Yeah, it's, listen, if fair is fair, because we were all ready to kick Todd Reardon out the door,

Starting point is 00:31:21 we have to give them some credit for this resurgence because the changes were made and they appear to be working. Now, if it doesn't keep up and this is a flash in the pan, yes, maybe they do got to make some changes. But if we are going to be fair and honest brokers here on the show, if we're going to go after him when it struggles, we have to give him credit when it starts to thrive. So we will see if this continues to be a strength for the penguins. It needs to be if they would like to get where they would want to go this year. But last week, signs are very encouraging, but that is going to do it for this edition of the Locked-on Penguins podcast. We'll be back tomorrow to talk a little bit more about what's going on in Penguinsland.

Starting point is 00:32:03 As always, we thank you for joining us for Hunter Hodes. I am Patrick Damp. Thank you for joining us on this edition of the Locked-on Penguins podcast.

Locked On Penguins - Daily Podcast On The Pittsburgh Penguins - The Penguins power play saves the day...again?!?!

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