Locked On Penguins - Daily Podcast On The Pittsburgh Penguins - The Penguins will face one of their TOUGHEST tests yet tonight in Tampa!
Episode Date: December 4, 2025The Pittsburgh Penguins will face their toughest test to date against a red-hot Tampa Bay Lightning squad. Patrick and Hunter begin the show by taking a look at a Tampa Bay team who has won 8 of their... last 10 and 15 of their last 19 (2:06). They discuss how good their top six has been and how they're doing this without some key veterans in the lineup. How can the Penguins blunt their momentum? Then, the Penguins are getting healthier, but it might be a little while longer than expected. Kyle Dubas gave an extended update on Justin Brazeau and Noel Acciari on Wednesday during the GM show and the two hosts react to it (12:45) before discussing how good Tristan Jarry has been, but can he sustain that play? (23:45)Support Us By Supporting Our Sponsors!DripDropRight now, DripDrop is offering podcast listeners 20% off your first order.Go to https://dripdrop.com and use promo code LOCKEDONNHL.GametimeDownload the Gametime app, create an account, and use code LOCKEDONNHL for $20 off your first purchase. Terms apply. Download Gametime today. What time is it? Gametime.MonarchTake control of your finances with Monarch. Use code LOCKEDONNHL at https://monarch.com/lockedonnhl for 50% off your first year.FanDuelToday's episode is brought to you by FanDuel. So if you want to be right in the middle of the action this season, visit FanDuel.com and place your NFL livebets all season long. 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.
Transcript
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The penguins will face their toughest test to date tonight when they take on the Tampa Bay Lightning.
And we're putting the focus on the boys between the pipes.
We'll do that 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.
Welcome back to another edition of the Locked-on Penguins podcast.
I am one of your hosts, Patrick Damp.
You can follow me across all social media platforms at Synonym 4 Wet,
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Hunter, big, big game tonight down south in Tampa, Florida.
When the Penguins take on the Atlantic Division leading Tampa Bay Lightning.
And I don't have a creative way to say this.
I don't have a snappy or fun way to say this.
Tampa is back and they are back in a big way.
Eight and two in their last 10.
They're coming off a seven-game win streak.
This is arguably the best team that the penguins have seen to date.
And this is a team that is absolutely rolling.
And the good news is the penguins are catching them at a time where, yes,
Tampa Bay is really hot right now.
But the penguins are starting to find their footing again.
They're starting to get a little bit of momentum back.
They're starting to look a little bit more like they did at the start of the season.
But this will be a game where we're going to find out,
have the last couple weeks been a bit of a mirage or the penguins really starting to find themselves again?
Right.
It's a great measuring stick game.
It's a game that should be really easy for them to get up for,
especially because you're going up against one of the top teams,
not just in the Eastern Conference, but in the entire league.
I remember bad at the beginning of the season,
I saw some people on Twitter and other places.
Oh, no, the lightning may not be the same.
They've lost six of their first seven games.
They're at the bottom of the east.
And since then, Pat, they have won 15 of 19 games.
They are still very much a great team.
They've gone out a bit early in the playoffs these past couple of seasons.
But when you play a team like the Florida Panthers, when they're rolling,
it's a very hard team to be.
And you saw last year, hell, Pat, I pick a lightning to win that series.
I look like a complete and utter idiot.
It didn't hurt that in the lead up to the playoffs, Florida was pretty much playing Pawsome.
And then the calendar flipped to the playoffs.
And they went, oh, right, we're the Florida Panthers.
We're just going to do what the Florida Panthers do.
It's so funny.
Like before the season, I was like, you know what?
I'm going to predict a rematch.
And then I saw the way the Panthers are playing going into the playoffs.
And I was like, I like the way Tampa's playing a bit better.
So I switched it a little bit.
And I looked like an idiot then.
I should have just stuck with the Panthers because they still got to the back to the final.
And they beat the Oilers, of course.
but still, I think the East is right for the taking for the lightning.
And so far this season, their superstar players are still playing like superstar players.
Nikita Kutrov, one of the best Russian players of all time already,
still going to go down as one of the best Russian players ever.
11 goals, 32 points in 24 games.
He has been unbelievable.
Brandon Hagel, he's been quite the player since they acquired him.
He leads a team with 15 goals also has 27 points.
Jake Gensel, he's a point per game player, obviously, former penguin.
He has 14 goals.
He's second on the team and goals.
And honestly, Pat, the craziest thing is they're doing a little bit of this right now,
excuse me, without Braden Point, who usually would be off to a great start,
but he only has three goals and 11 points so far this season.
Usually they'll load up that line with him, Kutraub.
They'll put Gensel up there sometimes.
Obviously, they'll have Hegel up there other times.
They can load up that line whenever, when everyone is healthy,
obviously right now point is day to day so there's that but the top six even without him is still
rolling once he comes back they're going to be even tougher to beat depth wise you have yani gore
on the third line who they got back they still have nick paul oliver bork strand is there
pontus holmberg is in a third line role the fourth liners they aren't much to write home about
in my opinion they still are up without you know ryan mcdona who is on injured reserve
Victor Headman is also on
injured reserve. Headman
was on the ice for the morning skate
today, which was good news. But once
they get back pat, some of these
top defenders, they're going
to be even better, which
hell Pat, they're rolling right now
even without a lot of their top regulars, which
says something about this team. This is going to be
a very tough test. It's an extremely
good team and it speaks to
how well they have built this organization
over the past. I guess at this point,
we can say decade plus.
They have done a really good job remaining atop the NHL for the better part of 10 years.
We've seen that hell going all the way back to when the Penguins won the Stanley Cup in 2016.
They were coming off a Stanley Cup final trip.
They were in the Eastern Conference final in 16 against the Penguins.
And that was a Razors Edge series, as good as the Penguins were, Tampa gave them everything that they could handle.
And it came down to a game seven.
which none of us were really excited about until they got the win.
But since then, they have continued to be one of, if not the best teams in the NHL since.
And they do a lot of the things right.
They draft and develop well.
They go out and acquire the talent they need to acquire.
They move on from players that they know are at the end of their,
end of their peaks and replace them with players who step right in.
Case in point, Jake Gensel, he.
We know all about Jake Gensel.
We don't need to run through his resume.
He's genuinely one of the best American goal scores of the last, let's say, 10 to 15 years,
continues to be an absolute force.
One thing, though, that is going to be a nice little break for the Penguins is Andre
Vasilevsky, excuse me, will not be in the net tonight.
It will be Jonas Johansson, 5 and 2 record 2.91 goals against average 895 save percentage.
So if there was ever a night for the penguins to really have a shot,
it taken on a team like Tampa with Johansson and net,
that is probably the quote unquote weakness of this Tampa team.
But I'll also say this,
historically, even during this little downstretch that the penguins have been going through
the last few years, they still play Tampa really well and really tough.
That has to continue tonight.
I agree with you.
outside of last year pat where two of the games the penguins got blown out and i guess lightning there
was one that was five to two there's another one that was six to one the other game the other game
was actually a really competitive game but outside of last year the penguins play the lightning
really tough every year under john cooper i've even seen some tweets from lightning fans before
that's like why can't why can't this team ever figure out mike solvin when he was still the head coach
and the penguins and you look at the past history the last 10 games against tampa bay pat penguins are
six, three and one. If you go back a little bit further, they've won seven of their last 12 against
the lightning. They also have wins in four of their last visits to Tampa Bay, four and two,
going back the last four years. So not only do they play them well on the road, they play them
well overall, again, outside last year, but it's a different season now. The lightning are rolling.
They look like right now the best team in the Eastern Conference, even without some of their
key regulars in the lineup. And once they get some of these guys back, they're going to be
rolling even more. And you know
Julian Brisball has the tendency
to say F them draft picks. I think he's going to
do the same thing again at the trade
deadline because he's always all in.
Great point about Vasilevsky. The fact that
he is not playing tonight is pretty big. He's been
one of the best goaltenders on the planet
once again this season. Yonos
Johansson, Pat, I've already seen the memes.
So the no-name goaltender who gets a
shot out against the penguins because it's happened
countless times before.
However, penguins do have a pretty
big goaltending edge in this one when you compare the
numbers this year. Tristan Jari has been very good, one of the better
goaltenders in the league. He is getting the start in this one,
rightfully so as Dan Mus, excuse me, starts to move a little bit away
from the platoon that he had going for most of the season. Obviously,
special teams are going to be big with the way the Penguins, P.K.
Tampa's power play, Kutrov, the way he sees the ice,
that is going to be one of the biggest tests yet for this unit.
how do you defend against Nikita Kutrov when they'll let you get a power player too especially because of his vision it is unlike almost anything you'll see around the NHL he has vision that only a small handful of others have that is how good this player is so that's going to be a really big key for me tonight 100% and trying not to be cynical trying not to be nihilistic but you see the backup goalie in and it's one you haven't heard a ton about
and you get a little bit scared as a penguins fan.
But now that we've given you our rundown on the Tampa Bay Lightning,
it's time to focus on the team that you're here for.
Pittsburgh Penguins will talk about some news from them,
notes from Morning Skate and some more keys to victory
that the Penguins will need to do to get a win at Benchmark International Arena,
as it's apparently called now.
Penguins, Lightning, 7 p.m., benchmark international arena in Tampa.
but we've got to talk about the penguins, and we will do that when we come back right after this.
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Back here on the Thursday edition of Locked-on Penguins, I'm Patrick Damp right alongside Hunter
Hodeys.
Penguins in Lightning tonight in Tampa.
And I want to start with this.
We talked about this yesterday, Hunter, about the penguins starting to get a little bit healthier.
And Kyle Dubas didn't throw cold water on it, but he kind of tempered expectations when it comes to Justin Brazo and Noel Achari.
They are still making the trip.
They are going to be with the team in Tampa and then again in Dallas.
So the door is not totally shut on them return.
But Dubus did kind of say the window is maybe a little bit longer.
It might not be until the penguins get back to Pittsburgh next week.
But just wanted to say that we might have to temper expectations on seeing them
either against – we're definitely not going to see him tonight against Tampa,
but might not happen against Dallas either.
Yeah, we'll see on that one.
I still think maybe part of it could be a little GM speak where he doesn't want to tip his
hand a little too much.
DMU's confirmed after Wednesday's practice that neither player was playing tonight.
And I even wrote that for the hockey news.
I said, this would be the first opportunity, but it's probably going to be a little too soon
because this was their first full practice back.
If you get a few more practices in, could be Sunday, but if not, sometime during the
five-game homes and that they have coming up after this little road trip here against
Tampa Bay and Dallas.
So still, not going to say Dallas is a full note, because I'm not going to say Dallas is a full no,
because I think part of it could be a little GM speak,
but it's still not at the end of the world if they miss that game
because they'll be back at some point during this five-game homestand,
which is big.
I saw some negative reactions for that update.
They're going to be back really soon.
And for Justin Brzo's case, especially,
that's huge just because of the way the second line was going,
even with Achari, who Pat and I, of course,
are sometimes a bit negative about on the show.
He was playing, I think,
some of his better hockey with the Penguins next to Connor Dew and Blake LaZotte.
so I do think that will be a little bit of a welcome return,
but he's still going to have to battle some like Boko and Mama,
who I thought played really well next to Doer and Lazotte on Monday in Philadelphia,
and he's going to be in the lineup tonight against Tampa Bay,
and I would assume against Dallas on Sunday.
So that's going to be a little bit of a battle.
He also confirmed Pather Ricardo Raquel, as we expected, still a few weeks away.
Yeah, he's doing some skating, but he's not practicing with the team right now.
The three to four weeks is kind of on par with the timeline that they gave
when he was first out six to eight weeks so by the end of the month if not into early january is
when you should expect him but we're getting closer i'm cool with that little bit of extra time
for rickel because if you are a sicko like me and you enjoy wasting your time scrolling ticot
ricard rickal's wife is great on ticot and he makes a lot of appearances and it's broken
contagion because even my girlfriend who doesn't pay attention to hockey has been like,
do you know who this guy is? And I'm like, yeah, I know who that is. He's great. He's
a penguin. He's awesome. But anyway, that is neither here nor there. A couple things about
tonight's game. You brought up the special teams in the first segment. One thing is the power
play has got to continue. The thing is as good as the talent is for Tampa. They are pretty
low down there when it comes to power play. So it's going to be a big night for the Penguins
PK to continue their success being a top five unit against what is on paper,
and no pun intended, an electric unit in Tampa Bay. So they have to keep that momentum going,
that they don't want to let tonight be a get right game for the Tampa Bay Power Play.
So continue doing what you're doing. Pick your spots to be aggressive. Pick your spots to close
the lanes and clear the puck every chance you get.
Also, two players that you got to keep an eye on tonight.
And I know this is bordering on painfully obvious, the big dogs,
87 and 71.
Now, a little bit of this is skewed because in the early parts of Crosby and Malkins' careers,
Tampa wasn't that great.
They were still rebuilding.
They were still becoming what they are now.
But in 54 games against Tampa Bay, Crosby has 24 goals, 44 assists, Malkin in 48 games, 29 goals, 35 assists.
Those two, as always, have to be drivers of the bus tonight.
Because at the end of the day, when the Penguins and Lightning get together, it very much is a best on best matchup.
And they need to be the better of the best.
I agree with that.
And I think you're still going to see Sid continue to cook here.
I mean, he's really, over the last, I would say,
week we've seen Vinge's performance after Vinc's performance from him.
I know that the Toronto game was a bit of a stinker,
but he's been heating up for the past week.
And don't be surprised if that continues in the night,
because this is usually the time of year when Sid really starts, you know, getting going.
And I think we are a little bit due pat for a vintage Gino game.
I know he still doesn't have Brazil on his line,
but he does have Novak, and I think those two have shown some chemistry a little bit together.
Mantha has been playing a little bit better, especially going back to the Flyers game,
I thought he was much better compared to a couple games prior to that.
So I think you can definitely see a little bit more from Gino, but Sid, you know,
he's played great against Tampa throughout his career, so I agree with you on that.
Also, Tristan Jari, he has played very well against Tampa Bay,
65 and 1, 2.84 goals against average 9, 10, 7%.
engine. Oh, yeah, Pat, he also scored a goal against lightning, if you recall, obviously.
So maybe he'll try to squeak out a second one tonight, obviously very unlikely, but the first one
is also very unlikely as well. And one more little stat here, Tampa Bay has the best penalty
kill in the league right now. That's going to be a pretty fun go at it between the number one
penalty kill and the number one power play. Really excited for that one. We will get into Jari in our
final segment because my dear co-host here wrote a great piece on the hockey news about Tristan Jari
in the goaltending situation for the Pittsburgh Penguins. So keep that in the back of your head.
One of the funnier things that I found getting ready for today's show, and I got to shout out
the Penguins for putting this together, there are only three goalies that have more career
points against the Tampa Bay Lightning than Tristan Jari. Jari has a goal, obviously, and an assist.
Olaf Colzig has four assists,
Martambrador, three assists,
Henrik Lundquist, three assists.
That's a pretty good company to be in
if you are Tristan Jari going up against the lightning.
One last thing,
and it does relate a little bit to special teams
that I want to say that the penguins need to do tonight,
is we know what kind of game Tampa plays.
They are,
I don't want to say dirty,
because that is not the correct word,
but they are a very on the edge team.
They are a team that will try to provoke you.
They are a team that will try to goad you into retaliatory penalties.
And John Cooper, there's a reason he was a lawyer in his past career
because there is no, and I say this extremely complimentary.
There is no better coach at working the officials, working the league,
and getting favorable calls.
So if you're the penguins tonight, discipline is paramount.
You know who taught the Panthers how to be the Panthers?
The Tampa Bay Lightning.
They were the first ones to do it.
They were the big bullies.
Florida learned from it.
They got their own rats and bullies.
And they bullied them right back.
You saw them hit the growth spurt.
And they punched right back multiple years in a row.
Tampa Bay was the original rats before Florida caught onto it.
And obviously, you know, they get chuck, Sam Bennett.
etc etc so you're going to you're going up against the og here and you said it pat they know
how to get calls there are stars know how to get calls they're going to have to be really disciplined
and i make sure they're not taking stupid penalties like you saw on monday against the flyers where
there was just too much stupidity going on yeah i know the connecting one i know i did the diving
motion during the game you're where i was like yeah that's probably a dive the other ones though
they were legit so got to make sure you're not playing stupid hockey
Absolutely. And as we said, Tristan Jari will be in the net again tonight.
Dan Mews appears like he has gone away from the platoon he was working with at the start of the season.
And that is probably for the best.
We will dive into more about Tristan Jari when we come back right after this.
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Finishing up the Thursday edition of Locked on Penguins, I'm Patrick Damp,
right alongside Hunter Hodes, who is both of this podcast.
and the hockey news.
And you might as well call him Seamus from WWE
because it is just banger after banger after banger on the hockey news.
And he dropped one early today.
Is Tristan Jari's early season success sustainable?
And I'm going to let you cook here, Hunter,
because it's your article.
But because I like to consider myself a student of the game and a student of history,
I'm going to say no,
because seen this film before wasn't a big fan of the ending.
I hear you, and I think that's a totally fair answer to have.
I think I fall in there as well just because you look at his career splits, right, Pat,
and I included this in the article.
He is a different goalie at the beginning of the season compared to the second half of the season.
And what do I mean by that?
So from October through December throughout his career,
He has posted a percentage between 9-11 and 9-20, depending on what month you look at.
But once the calendar flips to January, the same percentage, depending on what month you look at, Pat, is between 897 and 905.
It's way different compared to where it is at the beginning of the season.
So until he shows a full season's worth of consistency, I'm going to be in your camp where I'm skeptical that he can do this for a full.
season. Now, I will say this. He has been a big part of the Penguins' early season success.
He has had a tremendous start to the 25-26 season. He deserves to be the 1A for a little bit and
get a few starts in a row. But if he starts to falter, which he has a lot throughout his career,
you've got to be willing to go back to Shilov's or, God forbid, worst case scenario, you're going
to have to call up someone from Wilkesbury or something like that. So for now,
Now, I'm happy with the way it's going.
He's making a lot of very timely saves on a nightly basis.
He's keeping the penguins in games.
He's playing confident in net, challenging the shooters, but I still got to see it to believe
it when it comes to a full season.
But I wanted to write this article because I wanted to dive into the numbers, what he's
done, how he's playing, but also look at his career and be like, there's still some serious
questions just because we've seen this movie a few times before.
Right. The thing I will say that you brought up there that I think is a little bit different for me. And while I'm still skeptical, given the way his career has gone up to this point, is the difference is when you look at the way he played when he came back from Wilkes Bear at the end of last year, the numbers were better, a lot better than they were before he got sent down. The difference, though, was we set it on this podcast.
quite a bit.
While he was playing better, there were still several moments where you went, you know what?
Wasn't a bad game by Jari, but there was that one goal where you go, man, you needed a
save there.
A save would have been nice there.
We haven't had that really this year with Jari.
There has been a couple, but at the same time, there's been a lot more examples in games where
you go, he wasn't making that save last year.
He wasn't making that save down the stretch last year.
year and obviously still very skeptical because he has to prove that this isn't a flash in the pan
and that this isn't the typical jari experience where okay he starts the season well we get to
the back half and he completely falls apart the other side of this that i think is actually
beneficial to the team is arthur she loves has fallen off pulled in his last two starts
he's given up eight goals on 20 shots in his last two starts and that's a problem but he's still
very young he is still a developing goaltender and sometimes a goalie at that age needs a break
needs just a reset and that doesn't mean you send him down to wilkes bear it doesn't mean
you scratch him or anything like that you just let them work in practice you let them work with
the goaltending staff you let them play a couple games here and there and you let him find
his center again. With Jari playing as well as he has been playing lately, you now have the
opportunity to kill two birds with one stone. You can see, all right, is Tristan Jari turn in a corner
here? Is he getting better? Is he finding a better form? And we can let Artur Shilovs figure this out.
We can let him recover, recoup, and reset. Right. And also, some of these games in the early
portion, even though they're in a
playoff spot, the stakes are
still not super high
right now. Obviously, every point
is precious because the Penguins are in the playoff race
and, you know, the star players and the coaching
staff are talking about a team that wants
to make the playoffs. I would expect nothing
else, even if management is saying, like, yeah,
we don't have really high expectations. Management, of
course, is going to say that because, you know,
they have their plan in place. But
what happens when the games
really get to high stakes? How
are you going to respond to that? We've
seen that countless times bad throughout his career where when the games meet a lot he falters he
shrinks when the pressure ratches up so is that going to be the same here when we go into the second
half if the team is still in the race for example and you have a big game against a team that's
either chasing you or you're chasing a team in the standings that's going to be something that
we're going to have to figure out as well so for a lot of it it's wait and see but i still want to write
the article because i'm happy with the way he's playing
It's surprising.
I don't think anyone in the fan base expected this,
but I still got to see it to believe it for a full season
because we've seen the history.
But he very much deserves the start tonight,
and he deserves to be the 1A at least for a little bit here.
And I also got to say this.
You look at Money Puck.
He's got 8.2 goals saved above expected,
which I know that goaltending is voodoo.
I know it's hard to do analytics on a goalie,
but given his track record in history,
as we get into this really rough December,
having that level of goals saved above expected to this point.
Again, I'm still skeptical.
It is wait and see.
I want to see what he does when the games get bigger and we get deeper into the season.
But even when you look back at the last few years,
you can see the warning signs as the season progressed even early,
that it was like, all right, he's playing well, but it's wobbly.
It's a little bit wobbly.
This year hasn't really been the case.
But again, the onus is on him to continue this play and continue to play this well as the season progresses.
But I will say again, the early returns have me a little bit more hopeful than I would have been over the past couple of years.
And one last thing that I wanted to add on this is what you said about when the games get bigger.
We're all excited and happy that Kevin Weeks is sending out the goofy selfie.
of like hearing that the Edmonton Oilers are interested in Tristan Jari.
That's going to be another thing that the Oilers are going to have to wait and see unless it gets really dire is can he shake off these ghosts?
Can he exercise these demons?
Because we know what Edmonton's got their sights set on.
They got a couple more years of Connor McDavid, hopefully longer, but we know what his extension is.
Their goal is to win a Stanley Cup.
And they're not going to go and get Tristan Jari if they know as soon as the playoffs.
start he turns into a pumpkin right i agree and we all know how rough the oilers goaltending has
been this year skinner and pickard have not been very good continuing to run it back with that tandem
is a fool's errand but you know the oilers i guess like that skinner doesn't make much money same with
pickard okay whatever they also have deeper problems with their defensive issues and they're not getting
scoring when connor and leon are on the ice what we're not we're not on the locked on oilers podcast
if you want to check that out you can go listen to my good friend and coast of the locked on national
Thursday, Nick Soros, he does a great job with that show. But yeah, that's also part of it.
If he continues this play, he can maybe boost his value, because as we know, Elliot Freeman
talked about it, that the Penguins have a surplus of goalies and that they could be looking
to move one of these goaltenders in the future. It's not going to be Murshov. Don't think it's
going to be she loves unless he really, really continues to falter. Blumquist is also an option just
because of how many goalies are in Wilkesbury, but I'm sure, you know, with the contract that
Jari has, dubus would be very open to getting out of it and opening up even more
cap space that they're going to have this summer. So again, a lot of this is wait and see,
but at least the early returns are good so far. And that's the definitive ending that
everybody loves is we don't really have an answer. Just wait and see. But that is going to do
it for our Thursday edition of the Locked-on Penguins podcast. Penguins and Lightning tonight
in Tampa at 7 o'clock.
Hunter and I will be back on Friday to recap the game
as well as get you set for Sunday's matchup against the Dallas stars.
And assuming there's no big shenanigans or big news between now and then,
fan take Friday will return for our Friday episode.
But for now, for Hunter Hodes, I am Patrick Damp.
Thank you as always for tuning in.
And we will talk to you on Friday.
Thank you.
