Locked On Penguins - Daily Podcast On The Pittsburgh Penguins - The Pittsburgh Penguins are officially eliminated from playoff contention

Episode Date: April 7, 2025

Well, it's official: The Pittsburgh Penguins will miss the playoffs for a third straight season after falling to the Chicago Blackhawks on Sunday. Before Hunter and Patrick discuss that game, they recap Saturday's 5-3 wild win over the Dallas Stars. They discuss how Sidney Crosby was once again the best player on the piece, scoring a hat trick and compiling four points in the win. They discuss how his play continues to fly under the radar nationally before discussing how the kids continue to impress in these games. They look at how their game sense continues to shine before recapping Sunday's dud against the Blackhawks. They look at how the Penguins really had no energy for that game and the mistakes that they made before looking at the week ahead.Support Us By Supporting Our Sponsors!Monarch MoneyTake control of your finances with Monarch Money. Use code LOCKEDONNHL at monarchmoney.com for 50% off your first year.Wonderful PistachiosGet snackin’ and get crackin’ with the snack that packs a protein punch. Visit WonderfulPistachios.com to learn more! 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.FanDuelToday's episode is brought to you by FanDuel. Right now, new FanDuel customers can get TWO HUNDRED AND FIFTY DOLLARS in Bonus Bets if your first FIVE DOLLAR bet wins! FANDUEL DISCLAIMER: 21+ in select states. First online real money wager only. Bonus issued as nonwithdrawable free bets that expires in 14 days. Restrictions apply. See terms at sportsbook.fanduel.com. Gambling Problem? Call 1-800-GAMBLER or visit FanDuel.com/RG (CO, IA, MD, MI, NJ, PA, IL, VA, WV), 1-800-NEXT-STEP or text NEXTSTEP to 53342 (AZ), 1-888-789-7777 or visit ccpg.org/chat (CT), 1-800-9-WITH-IT (IN), 1-800-522-4700 (WY, KS) or visit ksgamblinghelp.com (KS), 1-877-770-STOP (LA), 1-877-8-HOPENY or text HOPENY (467369) (NY), TN REDLINE 1-800-889-9789 (TN) Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

The Penguins got a weekend split in their final back-to-back of the season against the Stars and the Blackhawks. And Pat and are going to recap both games, plus get you all set for the week ahead right after this. You're Locked-on Penguins, your daily podcast on the Pittsburgh Penguins, part of the Locked-on Podcast Network, your team every day. Hello, welcome back to another episode of the Locked-on Penguins podcast. I am one of your host, Hunter Hodes. You can follow me on Twitter at Hunter Hodes. joined by my coast, Patrick Camping, follow him on all social media platforms at Cinder and Verwet. And you can follow these shows, Twitter, at L.O. Ernest for Penguins.

Of course, thank you all so much for making this your first listen slash watch of the day. We are free and available on all platforms. And yes, people, I am back. I'm in my wonderful office. I got back from my vacation on Friday. It was everything that I needed and more. It was just really nice to get away for a few days, still do the show a little bit at times, watch the Penguins on Thursday.

but tropics are like a really how do I want to call like a safe space for me Matt I just I love the beach man I love here in the ocean I love going in the ocean I love sitting on the beach and reading so it was everything I needed for a few days but I am glad to be back doing the show here this week and of course next week as we really round out the season here four games left my friend this thing just absolutely flew by but we'll start today's episode with the recap of the game against the Dallas stars one of the penguins best efforts of the season if I do say so myself a five five to three win by the Penguins. And we got dueling hat tricks by Sidney Crosby and Evgeny Dadamov, of all people.

Just a very fun dueling hat trick game. I love the way the Penguins played. And this one, I thought Tristan Jari was really good in that. Obviously, Cindy Crosby, Pat, 12 game point streak. I know it came to an end on Sunday. We'll get to that a little bit later. But during that point streak, 11 goals, 20 points in those 12 games. He was sensational on Saturday, four-point effort.

I think he's going to hit 90 points this year, by the way. I know there's only four games left, but Pat, I say he does it. I think with the way he is playing, I think he is going to hit 90 points by the end of the season. He was the best player on the ice in that game to me. He started things off with a wonderful finish off of an again. Malkin pass. Ruckerman Gworty has a gorgeous pass of his own for Cindy Crosby to finish off his second goal.

And then he gets an awesome empty net later on in the game. We're going to touch on the kids in a second because the kids were, I think, really good in both these games. And they've provided a lot of youth, a lot of really strong energy since coming up. And they look ready for the show. In my opinion, we'll touch on that in a second. But I wanted to start with Sidney Crosby because what he's doing right now is not

getting enough praise, enough attention throughout the league. The fact that he is having this kind of season at age 30, is ridiculous. And yeah, people, congratulations to Alex Lovechkin. He just broke Wayne Gretzky's goal record. Awesome stuff. But we also need to be talking about the type of season that Sidney Crosby is having, my friend. He was, again, the best player on the ice on Saturday. He was everywhere in all three zones. And he has been playing some electric hockey since the Four Nations face off break. It has been a pleasure to watch. The focus is rightfully on Alex Ovechkin breaking Wayne Gretzky's record on Sunday, which if you have seen or will see the national show, you'll see me make a little cameo talking about everything that this means from the perspective of a Penguins fan.

But obviously that is worthy of all the attention that it's getting because that was a once thought to be unbreakable record. Alex Ovechkin breaks it, which is so, so cool. But you're right. There is not been understandably a lot of focus on the way Crosby. is playing because it's it's almost to the point where because he's not chasing a sexy record like the goals record it's almost just an expectation at this point there's no like oh my god look how good crosbie's playing it's like yeah crosbie's playing really well that's what we expect sidney crosbie to do but when you add it all up and talk about what's been going on with sydney

crosbie and the penguins and the four nations face off it's really remarkable because right before the Four Nations face off, he misses two games with an injury. And everyone's looking at him going into the Four Nations face off and thinking, well, it's not that big of a deal. Canada has all the kids. They've got McDavid. They've got Marner. They've got an embarrassment of riches like they always do. So a little bit of a banged up Captain Crosby is not going to be that big of a deal.

And then Crosby goes out and shows that he's still one of the best players on the planet in that tournament. granted, doesn't win MVP, doesn't lead in points or anything, but makes his presence known in every single game. And then you expected, at least we did, when he comes back from that tournament, that he's probably going to miss a game or two to recover to catch up. And he says, no, screw that, I'm playing in every game. And he reasserts himself as one of the best players on the planet. And he just continues to chug along at age 37 as one of the best players. in the world. And we saw that on Saturday against Dallas. Now, I do want to make this point about Saturday's game. If you're a Dallas stars fan right now, there's got to be a lot of flashing red lights

because this is a very good team. I said it on our Friday episode. I think they're one of the best teams in the West, at least when you look at their roster on paper and who they might get back for a playoff run to make them even better. It's a team to be reckoned with in the West. However, we have talked about this on the show. You have to give full marks to the penguins because even though Sunday, and we'll talk about it later in the show, officially eliminates them from playoff contention this year,

yeah, they battle and they work hard and they're rarely ever going to give you an easy two points. But the penguins were the better team. all game long on Saturday against a very good Dallas team. And this is, even though Dallas was on a winning streak, you could see that the wheels were starting to shake a little bit. But, you know, when you're a team that's pretty well into the playoffs, they know they're going to make it.

You expect to see some nights off. But to get dominated by a team like the penguins, the way that they did. And I know the score says differently, but if you watch that game in its entirety, the penguins were mostly the better team. they just weren't getting a ton of puck luck and because they're not a very good team, they weren't really able to capitalize on dominating.

So if you're Colorado right now and you're looking at Dallas and thinking this is going to be our first round opponent, you got to be licking your chops because this team, unless they figure it out in the next two weeks and really get back on track, they might be able to beat Dallas. I don't want to say handily,

but it might not be as tight as people think. See, I understand what you're saying, though the stars should hopefully get Hayeskinen back for that series, they are still very much missing him right now. But I will say this about the stars. The right side of their defense is disgustingly bad. Like you have Ilya Lubbushka and Matt Dunba and Cody C.C. on your right side.

You need Mero Hayskin and back because you cannot call yourself a serious Stanley Cup contender and have a right side of that going into the playoffs. And with Colorado right now, they're red hot and rumor has it, Pat. Gabe Landisog might give this a shot in game one. And that is going to be an electric scene. If Colorado can somehow get the home ice for the first round, that's going to be, I was crazy because you look at the standings right now,

but top three in the central, it's really close. Obviously, you know, you have Winnipeg up top with 108 points. Dolls is at 105. Colorado's at 98. So it's more unlikely right now. But still, if they can get Landis Cod back,

they have a person that looks like a documentary at all of his practices, I think just filming whatever it is that he's making. But if they can get him back, that's going to be such a big addition for them. I know he hasn't played in a while, but getting your captain back for game one of the playoffs. Like that just sends out such a big energy to the room. But, you know, we'll discuss the playoffs when the playoffs come around here in a couple of weeks. But completely agree with you. I thought the penguins were by far the better team in this game.

The underlying numbers also support that. I mean, they let in Sean attempts. They also let him scoring chances, 11 high danger chances for, eight high danger chances against. They were living in the offensive zone, basically all game against stars. He also had Brian Russ get his 28th goal of the season. That matches a career high. Hopefully he is able to notch his first 30 goal season here down the stretch. He also, Pat, has a new career high in points, 59.

So congratulations to Brian Russ. Setting a career high in points needs one more goal to set a career high in goals with 29. I do think he's going to hit 30 in these last four games of the season. We also saw Blake Lazotte get the game winner. hilarious play by former Pittsburgh Penguin Cody C.C. I even tweeted, imagine playing Cody C.C. In our year and Lord 2025, I had to put the joke out there, people. I did.

Just a really funny play at the blue line. He had no idea where he was going. Blake Lazotte's like, okay, thank you very much. I'm going to capitalize that on the two-on-one. And I will also shout out Casey to Smith for playing really well for the stars. He made a lot of really good timely saves for them. And going off that, especially on the kids, Billy Coyviden could have had a goal or two in this game.

You and I were texting about this during the game. I felt he was all over the front of the net. He got a couple of glorious chances from 5 to 10 feet out that Casey DeSmith saved. I also thought Rucker McGrody, again, had a really good game in that one. And the biggest thing with me with McGrody and Coyvenant is their game sense is, off the charts. They are ready for this, in my opinion. They will play out these last four games. They will go down to Wilkesbury to help them for a deep playoff run potentially. And I think that's the last you will see of them in the AHL. I think so far, very small sample people, don't get me

wrong. So far, they look like they are ready for the National Hockey League. Rucker McGority looks like a completely different player than the player that we saw at the beginning of this season. His skating is miles better. He's going to the front of the net a lot more, just like he was doing in Wilkesbury. His playmaking has been really good as well. His decision making has been really good. And I can say the same thing for Billy Coivinan. They're always in the right position in all three zones. They're making the right plays, getting quality chances, setting up quality chances. As I said, Coivin was the victim of some brutal luck on Saturday against the stars. But I can't say enough about the way these kids are playing right now. They have

injected so much energy into this team before that little bit of a downer against the Blackhawks. they had brutally outplayed three bona fide playoff teams in a row. They were the better team against Ottawa, which they won. They were the better team against the blues, in my opinion. I know they lost it over time, but I still felt they were the better team in that game. And then they were the better team against the stars. It's just really nice seeing them play like this with the kids up. I thought they were sensational in that game on Saturday and on Sunday.

We'll get into that in the second segment, though. You hit on the one thing that is the most important about those two throughout the last week or so, is their hockey sense is unbelievable. They're very much in the right place at the right time. The biggest thing I noticed along with hockey sense, and I think you can probably fold it into that category, is that they play within their own abilities. They're not trying to do too much.

They're not trying to take over games. They're not trying to become the next big superstar. They're fitting in with who they're playing with, and they're working really well with who they're playing with. I joked with you when Crosby got his second goal against Dallas off that pass from McGrory. I think when they celebrated the goal and Sid hugged him, he went, nice pass, Jake. I mean, wait, you're not Jake. You're Rutgers. Yeah, good pass kid. Because that's chemistry. That was just chemistry. It was a great pass. Let's, you know, not underplay that,

but that's just a good chemistry play. It shows that you know where this guy's going to go. You know where he's going to be and you know how to set him up. And that doesn't come easy. So I agree with you. I think these guys are going to stick the rest of the way, these last four games. They're going to go help Wilkes Bear. And then when we get to October,

we're going to see the, we're going to see the opening night roster and their names are going to be on it. So we'll talk a little bit more about them in the second segment. But through the first week of them being on the team together, a lot of really positive signs. 100%. And they'll get a rematch against the Blackhawks on Tuesday. but before we discuss that rematch and preview it later on this week,

we got talked about the first matchup of the season against the Blackhawks and how the Penguins really didn't have any energy for that game. It was a pretty, let's just say, lackluster effort by the Penguins. But again, it was the final back-to-back of the season. They just really did not have anything for that game. We'll be discussing more about that in the second segment. But before we get to that, we have to tell you all about our first sponsor. And that is indeed.

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If you're hiring, Indeed is all you need. All right, we're back here in this episode of the Lockdown Penguins podcast. I'm one of your host, Hunter Hodes, joined by my co-s, Patrick Dam and Pat Penguins, fall three to one to the Chicago Blackhawks on Sunday in a pretty lousy effort. I felt like the first few periods, very low event for both sides until Eric Carlson made a really stupid pinch late in the period. That's just one of those quote unquote hope plays that I want the Penguins defensemen to get out of their game.

And you saw it really bit Carlson there. There is no need to pinch on that play. He needs to pull back, do the two on two with Crystal Tang and play it that way. You cannot pinch in that situation. That was a 20 to 80 puck, 30, 70 puck, whatever you want to call it. There was absolutely no reason to pinch there. And once that goal was scored,

you can kind of tell the bench was a bit deflated. after that with the way they were playing. Also, we'd have to mention, Pat, the Penguins were officially eliminated from playoff contention on Sunday. We knew this was the case several weeks ago. It was made official on Sunday. Three straight seasons of the Penguins have missed the playoffs. I predicted them to miss the playoffs before the season.

You on the other hand, I'm going to make fun of because you predicted them to make the playoffs this year a little bit. I'm going to make fun of you a little bit for it. But you know what? It's okay, Pat. We still love you on this show. But three straight seasons. and I know for me this was expected.

It still stings, though, just because, yeah, I'm spoiled. I grew up with this team making the playoffs a lot of years during my childhood. So it stinks that this is now three straight seasons where we're not going to get playoff hockey in this wonderful city. So we'll see if that changes next year, but it was made official on Sunday. As for the overall game, as I said, teasing into this segment, Penguins really had nothing for this one. You can kind of tell they started the game, okay, they got a couple of good chances on Spencer Knight. By the way, Spencer Knight was sensational in this one.

I thought he was going to record a showout with the way the Penguins were playing. And if he were to record that shoutout, if the Blackhawks did, it would have been their first shutout, Pat, since December of 2023 against the Anaheim Ducks. And no, I'm not joking. I looked that up before the start of the show. That Blackhawks have been that bad throughout these last few years and they haven't had a shut out all season again,

not since December of 2023. But they get the scoring started 1-0 late in the second period. Really poor pinch from Eric, you can't do that there. And then they make it 2-0 in the third period. Ricardo Raquel matches his career high a bit later with his 34th goal. Congratulations to him. One more goal.

He will set a new career high in goals with 35. I say he does it with the way that he has played this year. But even outside of Carlson, I don't think any of the defensemen played well in this game. I thought especially Pat, Connor Timmons, was awful. I have said a lot of good things about Connor Timmons this year. But he was brutal in this one. his foot speed was out to lunch, losing a lot of these battles in the corners, just was not playing a sound game at all.

But by far, I think, his worst game as a member of the Pittsburgh Penguins. I thought Sid was a little bit lethargic, but you know what? I'm not going to blame Sid. He just had 20 points in 12 games. So that's okay. It just sometimes you have these type of efforts on the second half of back-to-backs. The team isn't that good. Yeah, I know.

The Black Crocks, this was only their second win since, March 7th. Yes, people, that issue. They had lost five in a row and 12 or their last 13 games. But Penguins really didn't have much for this one, my friend. No, they didn't. And I got to get, I got a lot to respond to as well as I got something that I got to add about Chicago and this. But let's start where we, where it began. Yeah, I was wrong about playoffs this year. But I will say I hedged a little bit to where I said like, I can see them sneaking in as a second wild card or missing again by a couple of points. So at the end of the day, I really was wrong because right now, as we record this on Monday morning, they're 11 points out of the second wildcard. I thought that maybe it would be

similar to the last two years where they sniff around. Maybe they get lucky and sneak in. Maybe they miss by a couple points. I didn't think it was going to be this much of a miss. So I'll wear that one. As for everything else, I mean, the Carlson pinch, here's the thing. Here's the thing. and this isn't a defense of him. It was a bad pinch. Le Tang also has to wear it because he played that horribly. Good call. Yes.

You've got to take away the pass on that. He didn't. And it led to the goals. So both of them have to wear that. I can at the very least, if Le Tang plays it correctly and they still score, I can take some blame off of Carlson because it's on the power play. You're trying to be aggressive.

You're trying to score. and then that happens, which is a risk on the power play. But then you compare, then you pair it with how Latang played it. And that's just, it's unacceptable from both. Because if you're Latang and you see that your partner on the power play is about to pinch, you have to understand you got to come back at that point. And he just didn't.

So horrible play by both of them. Connor Timmons, yeah, he, he's built up a lot of goodwill since becoming a penguin when he's played pretty well. That is a game where if I'm Connor Timmins, burn that tape forget it happened and get back to work because that was just just absolutely brutal but yeah i mean i i said it to you yesterday i had to remind myself that these are this was two not good teams yeah playing each other you know we're so used to the penguins being a good team that when you have games like this you're you're kind of confounded like what what is going on here

today but then you're like oh wait a minute penguins aren't good this year so this is two bad teams playing one another this is what happens when too bad teams play one another. And at the end of the day, you know, this team has done really well relatively with back to backs this year. They've been for some reason really good on the second half of back to backs. So that was a little bit of a letdown. But, you know, we're at the end of the year. They have officially been eliminated from the playoffs. So you were, you're, you were waiting for a let down and you finally got it. But before I throw it back to you for whatever we want to do to end this segment. A quick note about Chicago. I'm not going to go on another

tanking rant because I've done that. I have felt the fire of our fans and of the internet for my anti-tanking stance. But I want people to look at Chicago as a cautionary tale. They are in the second year of Connor Bedard. And he has no help whatsoever. The kid's going to be very good. He is going to be one of the best players of this new generation. It's there for him, but he's got no one with him. And you look at how long Chicago's been doing this. This is at least year four of them trying to figure this out because you don't have Taves anymore. You don't have Kane anymore. You don't have Duncan Keith anymore. All those guys who made that mini dynasty of the 2010s are gone. And now they're on an island. They don't really have anybody except for Connor

Bidar. And that's a risky run when you tear it all down. I like the position in the Penguins room. We just talked about McGority and Coyvenin. You still have a handful of other players who I think are going to make a difference. You still got all these draft picks coming. So the Blackhawks are a cautionary tale of what happens when you tear it all down because they might be better next year, but I don't think they're going to be a playoff team next year. They might be, they'll be even better in two years. Still don't know if they'll be a playoff team. And at that point, you're going into year five of Connor Bedard. So I get it.

But the one thing I will say, and I brought it up on the Friday show, to bring this back to yesterday's game, takes a while usually in rebuilds for teams to find their goalie. They have it in Spencer Knight. He's 23 years old. He was damn good yesterday. He has been really good since they acquired him from Florida. So that's a very good sign for the Blackhawks.

Yeah, he was very good. He's been really good since coming over. in the Seth Jones trade, and he's got to be there for the long haul. He was making some dynamite saves for the Blackhawks. And I do agree with you about the Hawks. They need some more big dogs. That's the biggest thing, my friend. I think they need some more high-end talent in that lineup.

No disrespect to Ilya McHav, who had two goals yesterday, no disrespect to Ryan Donato, who is having a career year, 29 goals. He is shooting almost 20% this year, 17% to be exact, but he's having a really good year. But they still need some more horses in that top six. they're probably going to get one of the big two in this draft if I had to guess Pat and one of Mesa or Schaefer and one of those two players should make the team. Well, Pat, looks like Penny wants to go outside right now. So I think this is as good of a time as any to segue this to the final

segment of the episode, though. I do want to say one thing. I felt Rucker McGrady was really good on Sunday. I felt he had that nasty pass to Brian Russ in the second period that went just over the net. And then McGority got a good chance of the zone a little bit later from 10 to 15 feet out. He was great once again. And I will say you the same about Vili Kloyvnin as well. It's been nice seeing Coyvind also play with Afghani. Real quick, also with the numbers with Magority, Rust, and Crosby together. Five games, almost a 65% Sean Temes per 60 rate. Three goals for, two goals against, 64% of the scoring chances, 77% of the high danger chances when that line is on the ice. Keep feeding them for the rest of the season. And then we'll see what next season looks like as well.

But that will do it for this segment coming up to end the show. Pat and I are going to look at the week ahead for the penguins, the rematch against the Blackhawks on Tuesday, and then the final matchup against the New Jersey Devils coming up this Friday. But before we get to that, we got to tell you all about our final sponsor, and that is Monarch Money. Ever check your bank account and wonder, where did all my money go? Between dining out, online shopping and entertainment is easy to lose track,

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10 minutes here before we end today's episode. But we get the rematch, Pat first, on Tuesday against the Blackhawks, Penguins will look for a response in that one. And I expect them to show at least a decent response here. I'm not going to sit here and say they're guaranteed to win this game because the Penguins just lost to the Blackhawks. But I do think you're going to see at the very least a much better effort than what we saw on Sunday. They were pretty gas after that win against Dallas. They didn't really have much for the first couple periods.

Again, I thought if you want to argue it was a push against the Blackhawks in the first two periods, I can give you that. third period, though, they were just brutally outclassed by Chicago. So at the very least, I expect a response. And then they'll have a few days off before Friday against the New Jersey Devils, which is also, you know, Newark is a house of horrors for them. It's been like that, not even just these last few years, Pat, it's been like that for a lot of the crossby era, if I'm being honest.

So you always know you're going to get a big fight there against the Devils. This is a Devils team that, like, they're going to make the playoffs. I don't think they're going to win that round against Carolina. I know people are going to be hesitant to pick the hurricanes, and rightfully so, just because their style doesn't really work that much in the playoffs. But I think Carolina is healthier right now. Jack Hughes is not available.

I would take Carolina to win that series in probably 67 games, if I had to say. But still, the devil's team speed, even without Jack Hughes, Ducky Hamilton's a bit banged up. The devil's team speed gives the Penguins problems every time these two teams play. So you know that's going to be a tough. tough game. And then Pat, after that, we'll have two more games left, one against the Boston Bruins, who I got to say, man, elite tanking move here down the stretch. They legit might get one of the big four in their draft. Heck the pack, they might have an outside shot of getting one of the big two

in this draft. You have to respect the Bruins for that elite tanking job that we are seeing right now. After they traded Brad Marsh and the players are like, yep, we're kind of done with this season. And like, I can't really blame them too much. Like, yeah, possible. Rock is still there. You know, McAvoy is still very much prevalent in that locker room, of course. But it's like, I understand why they're playing the way they are. We knew they weren't good, but they just lost their captain. So I understand.

And then to end the season, Pat, next week, they will have the Washington Capitals. Should be a fun end of the season. I mean, I don't know how many players, the Capitals are going to be resting in that game, just because they're going to win the Metro and they're probably going to get the number one seed in the east. But those are the final four games, my friend, until we go enter full offseason mode here. It's an interesting end of the season. You got one road game left. And of course, like you said, it's the House of Horrors in Newark where the Penguins have not had a ton of success in the Crosby era. And that ruins game, by the way, is this Sunday in Pittsburgh. And then you

close the season out with two home games. And I look at tomorrow's game against the Blackhawks. and we'll dive deeper into it tomorrow on our preview episode. But I think that this is a game where if I'm Mike Sullivan, I am going to lean on the kids a lot more in this game. You know, you're out of the playoffs. These kids have shown they belong. So really thrust them even more into prominent roles and see what they can do and really give them a chance to respond

to see how they do in that kind of situation. When, you know, you come off a loss, they played well. I think they've earned even more ice time and looked like they deserve even more of a prominent role down the stretch now that you're out of the playoffs. New Jersey, man, I mean, I hate to say it for a division rival, but I just want to know what this team is like at full capacity going into the playoffs because the talent's there. The system is there. This looks like a team that's really ready to take the next step and they've done everything right. They just really can't stay healthy and you hate to see that because you want to see that. because you want to see elite talent thrive.

You want to see them play well on the biggest stage in New Jersey just can't stay healthy for whatever reason. So sucks for them. But I mean, at the end of the day, I just want to see some fight out of this team down the stretch. I know that it's four games left. It's been a miserable season. You're missing the playoffs for the third straight year. But you've got two divisional rivals. You've got a team that just beat you and another tanking team.

Real quick note on Boston, though, what might have been, and this is not a one-to-one direct comparison, obviously. But I look back at the 2010-2011 season, and obviously things went really well for this team. They win two Stanley Cups, the whole nine yards. But I look back at the 2010-2011 season, when Crosby gets the concussion, Malkin rips up his knee. I still cannot forgive Ray Shiro for still going for it. If I was in that position, kind of like the Bruins are now. It's a little bit different with guys aging out and guys not being as good. But they got to give Don Sweeney a little bit of credit.

He saw the writing on the wall. This team wasn't going to be a Stanley Cup contender. So he sells a few guys off. He gets some stuff back in return. They're going to get a really good draft pick. They still have a couple of young guys in Providence who could come up and make a difference. Are they going to be great? Probably not.

But rather than just hold on and try it, he was like, you know what, pull the shoot. Like, we'll trade Marshawn, we'll trade a couple other guys, we'll get a better draft pick. We can give these Providence guys a look next season and see what happens. Maybe Marshawn comes back in the off season. But to bring it back to the Penguins, when both those guys were hurt, just say, screw it. Don't go out and get James Neal. Just let it ride, miss the playoffs, get a better draft pick. and try to restart when those guys are healthy again.

So I got to give that, like, I think his overall body work, Don Swinney's done not a very good job, but he stinks. But in this moment, I will give him credit that they looked at it and went, we went in a Stanley Cup, not this year. So let's just pull the shoot and try to get a better draft pick. I mean, sure, but he also didn't have to sign the door all than Lynn home to those massive contracts last year. Right. It was ridiculous. And then he blamed Jim Montgomery for that awful roster that he gave him. He stinks, man.

He's not a good GM. I understand the point that you're making. You know, he realized that they weren't going to do it this year, decided to sell off at the deadline. But I'm sorry, man. I still am really not going to give him too much credit. He stinks.

And I know, again, as I said, elite tanking John by the Bruins, Marchand's gone. You know, Maccaboy is still hurt. But as I said, he's still very much around in that locker room, pat. But it really. it's been crazy to see how far they have fallen these last few weeks. Like they are just getting, you know, loss after loss after loss. It's been nuts to see.

So again, Tuesday, Blackhawks, Friday the Devils, Sunday, we get the Bruins here in Pittsburgh. And then next Thursday, people, 10 more days until the Pittsburgh Penguins' 2024, 2025 season comes to an end. But I think that will do it for today's episode of the Locktime Penguins podcast. Thank you all so much for taking the time to listen to slash watch this one. Pat and I will be back with another show for you all on Tuesday to get you all set for this rematch against the Blackhawks and discuss a couple other things relating to the Penguins as well. So for Patrick Damp, I am Hunter Hodes. Thank you all so much for tuning in. We'll be back on Tuesday.