Locked On Penguins - Daily Podcast On The Pittsburgh Penguins - Who needs to raise their game for the Penguins?

Episode Date: December 15, 2023

We've reached the end of the week, meaning we're one day away from the Kyle Dubas Bowl. The Penguins are in Toronto to take on the Maple Leafs on Saturday night and both Hunter and Pat detail how the Penguins can make it two in a row against the Leafs. They analyze how the Penguins can slow down the Leafs' top players and how they can potentially win the special teams battle. They also get into how the Penguins will have the goaltending edge in this game with Tristan Jarry likely starting compared to Samsonov and how he's struggled a bit this year. After that, they dive into Rickard Rakell's impending return and what that will mean for the top six. They discuss how this is his chance for a fresh start after his miserable start to the season and how Crosby could get him back on track. Finally, who do Hunter and Pat want to see more out of this season? They dive into that topic in the final segment.Support Us By Supporting Our Sponsors!AG1If a comprehensive solution is what you need from your supplement routine, then try AG1 and get a FREE 1-year supply of Vitamin D AND 5 free AG1 Travel Packs with your first purchase. Go to drinkAG1.com/NHLNETWORK.eBay MotorsWith all the parts you need at the prices you want, it’s easy to turn your car into the MVP and bring home that win. Keep your ride-or-die alive at EbayMotors.com. Eligible items only. Exclusions apply. eBay Guaranteed Fit only available to US customers.SleeperDownload the Sleeper App and use promo code LOCKEDONNHL to get up to a $100 match on your first deposit. Terms and conditions apply. See Sleeper’s Terms of Use for details.GametimeToday's episode is brought to you by Gametime.Take the guesswork out of buying tickets with Gametime. Download the Gametime app, create an account, and use code LOCKEDONNHL for $20 off your first purchase.FanDuelScore early this NFL season with FanDuel, America’s Number One Sportsbook! Right now, NEW customers get ONE HUNDRED AND FIFTY DOLLARS in BONUS BETS with any winning FIVE DOLLAR MONEYLINE BET! That’s A HUNDRED AND FIFTY BUCKS – if your team wins! Visit FanDuel.com/LOCKEDON to get started.FANDUEL DISCLAIMER: 21+ in select states. First online real money wager only. Bonus issued as nonwithdrawable free bets that expires in 14 days. Restrictions apply. See terms at sportsbook.fanduel.com. Gambling Problem? Call 1-800-GAMBLER or visit FanDuel.com/RG (CO, IA, MD, MI, NJ, PA, IL, VA, WV), 1-800-NEXT-STEP or text NEXTSTEP to 53342 (AZ), 1-888-789-7777 or visit ccpg.org/chat (CT), 1-800-9-WITH-IT (IN), 1-800-522-4700 (WY, KS) or visit ksgamblinghelp.com (KS), 1-877-770-STOP (LA), 1-877-8-HOPENY or text HOPENY (467369) (NY), TN REDLINE 1-800-889-9789 (TN) Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

The Kyle Dubas Bowl is set to take place on Saturday night in Toronto. And on today's episode of the Locked-on Penguins podcast, Pat and I are going to preview that game. Plus get into how the Penguins might be getting back one of their top six forwards for that game. You're Locked-on Penguins. Your daily podcast on the Pittsburgh Penguins. Part of the Locked-on Podcast Network. Your team every day. Hello, welcome back to another episode of the Locked-on Penguins podcast.

I'm one of your hosts, Hunter Hodes. You can follow me on Twitter at Hunter Hodes, joined by the best co-host in the world. Patrick Damp. You can follow him on Twitter at Sinom Verwet. And you can follow the shows, Twitter, at L.O underscore Penguins. Of course, thank you all so much for making this, your first lesson slash watch today.

We are free and available on all platforms, including YouTube. And today's episode is brought to you by GameTime, down the GameTime app, create an account, and use code locked on NHL for $20 off your first purchase. So Penguins Maple Leafs Saturday night in Toronto. Caladubis will be in the building for it. You know Maple Leafs fans are going to be booing in when he's probably shown him a Jumbotron is maybe like a video

for everything he did for the franchise. I assume that they'll probably do that, but it's Toronto. Who knows the Maple Leafs coming off a wild game on Thursday night to say at least. They were down 5-0 heading into the third period. They were all the way back to tie it in the final minute of that game, force overtime, get a point, and then Columbus beats them in overtime. That was probably one of the funniest collapses I've ever seen for as long as I've

been watching this sport. But then I think it got even funnier when the Maple Leafs lost that game in overtime, to be honest. But this should still be quite a fun game, even though the Maple Leafs are a bit banged up. We'll get to that in just a second. I'm looking forward to this one a lot. Yeah, this is going to be a big test for the penguins because even with a couple losses here in the last week for Toronto. This is still a hell of a hockey team.

And it's, they look just as good as they always do. And, you know, I've said it on the show before. The memes exist and they're fun and I enjoy them just as much as the next hockey fan. But this team has consistently been one of the top maybe five teams in the National Hockey League for the last five, six years. So they're, they're still very talented. but we'll get into their injury situation and everything here in a little bit. But I do want to say they do suffer from a similar problem that the penguins do

in that their top guys are absolutely tremendous. And then there's a big drop off because you look at Nealander, Matthews, Marner, Tavares, you know, 38 points, 35 points, 32 points, 28 points, 20 points for Riley. And then it's 16 for Yarn Croke, 14 for Domi. 11 for Nyes, 9 for Bertuzi. And those are all guys who... But Jusis turned out to be, by the way, he has not been that good this year. Well, see, that's kind of the opposite, though, for them.

And listen, if you haven't figured out, this is one of my other favorite teams away from the penguins. Nobody's ever going to take over the penguins, but they're a team that I watch quite often because they're damn fun to watch. Bertuzi's kind of coming on as of late. He started extremely slow, where it looked like they spent a bunch of money on a guy. for one year that was going to do nothing. And now he's starting to find his game a little bit, but still nine points in 27 games isn't acceptable at all. But it's kind of the same deal where their top six is elite,

their bottom six, not that impressive. Right. It is funny when you look at how good their top players have been in, you know, Nielander, he should be in consideration for the heart. Austin Matthews had another heck of a game last night. He has 23 goals and 27 games this year. shouldn't even be legal, to be honest, 23 goals in 27 games. He is an absolute freak of a I mean, we talked about it last time the Penguins and Leaves played. At this point in his

NHL career at his age, he is scoring at a faster pace than Alexander O'Betchkin. We discussed this as well. And when it's all said and done, there is a chance. I'm not saying that's a good chance, but there's a chance if he keeps up this production that by the end of his career, he could pass Alex Ovechkin on the all-time goals. Maybe not Wayne Gretzky, because Ovechkin has slowed down a little bit this year, to say the least. But he keeps this up for a long, long time.

And still, that's a lot to ask for considering what Ovechkin has done over the years. He could potentially pass him considering how good Matthews has been to start his career in Toronto. But the Maple Leafs, like the Penguins as well, Pat, they come into this game, decently banged up.

There's no John Klingberg. He's done for the year. They got Mark Giordano's on I, Joseph Wohl, one of their goalies. He's out. I'm guessing we're going to get Ily a Samsonov in this one. Matthew Nyes is also day-to-day. Timothy Lingren, he is also out as well.

So this is a pretty banged-up Leafs team right now. Ryan Reeves had to be taken off the ice. He had to have help come off the ice in that game on Thursday night. So both teams come into this one pretty wounded. But for the Penguins to win this game, I kind of want to see exactly what they did against Leaves in that last game at home. They played an okay first period. they played a really strong second period against them,

took the lead into the third. But the third period, they kind of shrugged off a little bit. That's the one area where I want to see them improve in this one. When you have a lead in that third period, and if they do, make sure you're doing a better job of defending it and also getting more chances on the offensive side of the rank. Because I felt like with the Penguins in that game against Toronto a few weeks ago, they were kind of just being hemmed in a little bit.

They defended the lean finally, but it wasn't as good as we've seen it. other games this year. That's where I really want to see improved for this game for the Penguins if they want to win this. Agreed. It has to be a full 60 minute after. I will say that when you compare a lot of the injuries here, the injury situation, I think it's unfortunately for the penguins, it's addition by subtraction for the Maple Leafs because a lot of the guys who are out were looking like active liabilities for Toronto. Then you compare it to the Penguins and yeah, Ru-Weedle, take her to leave it. Achari and Nieto, that's a, that's a, that's a, that's tough for the PK.

Ricard Raquel, regardless, he was a, he's a good top six asset when healthy. And then Brian Ross, too, is having arguably the best start of his career. So you compare that. And it's, it's tough because the penguins are missing some big pieces. And we'll get into Raquel here in the next segment. But yeah, the biggest thing for me with this Leafs team, if you're the penguins, is you kind of have to go back to playing the kind of hockey you played in late October, early November. And again, it's not boring hockey. We're not telling you to become the 2000s devils.

We're not telling you to become the 2010s, early 2020s, New York Islanders, where you have to slow it down, turn everything into a defensive quagmire, win one nothing. But regardless of how you feel about the modern day penguins right now, the current Leafs are a more offensively talented team. And if you try to get into a track meet with this Leafs team, you are not going to keep up with them because they can score and they can score a lot. Right. And another thing for this matchup that I'm really going to keep an eye on, special teams.

The Penguins Power Play has finally woken up these last two games, four for their last eight. Can they go up against a Leaves penalty kill that is at least fine this year? And then vice versa for the Penguins, can they slow down a Maple Leafs Power Play that's ranked sixth? in the initial this year at 25.6%. We all know how much talent they can put out there on their first unit. This is going to be a major test for the Penguins PK,

especially without the services of Nollachari and Matt Nietto. I definitely understand the PK has not been good as of late. It's reverted back to last year's home a little bit, but I also will stress to everyone that's listening to slash watching this. Those are two of their best penalty killers. And also Brian Rust, he kills penalties quite often too. He's now out for their foreseeable future. you take those three players out, it's going to affect a unit that was top 10 in the league

for a long time this season. Yeah, and to talk about the special teams there, one, you know, 25.6% is damn good for Toronto. Like, let's not try to get this twisted. But if you look at the Penguins PK, it's still hovering around the top 10. They're literally right at 10, 81%. But then you look at Toronto's and it's just sitting there just a shade under 80%. So it's fine. It's not good, but it's very average. But with the Penguins power play, the last two games operating at quite literally 50%.

This is another opportunity for the Penguins to keep this power play moving and get it back to a level it needs to get to. Because also, chances are, like you said, we're probably going to see Ilya Samsonov tomorrow night. And even though scoring in the National Hockey League as of late is up, still has an 878 save percentage in 13 games. And listen, we're not back in the 80s yet. Like, we haven't gotten to that level yet where the best goalie who wins the Vesna has about a 900 save percentage. League average is hovering around 910, 912.

878's not that good. So for the Penguins, you have a chance both with a middle of the pack PK in Toronto and a power play that's starting to find some confidence going up against a goalie who's struggling. And it's a mix where you may, yeah, maybe you get outplayed tomorrow night. Maybe Toronto has the better of the play five on five most of the night. But if you can win the special teams battle, you could probably walk away with two clean points here. And you combine that with, I think it's going to be Tristan Jari in net for this one, who has been fabulous for most of this season. The Penguins will have an edge in net with him

starting. Or honestly, even if they go to Delcovic, but I don't think that's likely. It's probably going to be Jari. No matter what, the penguins will have the edge in net with how both goalies have played this year. And earlier this season, when they played Toronto, I thought Jari was fantastic, especially in that third period where he was fighting off shot after shot, after shot, when the Maple Leafs were really pushing in that one. But that would do it for this first segment. Coming up in the second segment, it looks like the Penguins might be getting back

Ricard Raquel for this game based on practice on Friday. Pat and I're going to dive into what that means for the Penguins at both five-on-five and on the power play. but before we get to that, we got to tell you all about game time. You shouldn't have to worry when you're buying tickets to your next big event. Game time is the fastest and easiest way to buy tickets for all the sports, music, comedy, and theater events near you. With killer last minute deals, all in prices, views from receipt,

and their best price guarantee, game time takes the guesswork out of buying tickets. It's the only ticketing app that gives you complete peace of mind with your purchase, see the view from receipt before you buy, so you know exactly what to expect when you arrive. all in prices show your toll up front so you know you're getting a great deal without hidden fees. You can also buy tickets in seconds

with just two taps. Take the guesswork out of buying tickets with game time. Download the GameTime app. Prate an account and use code locked on NHL for $20 off your first purchase. Terms apply. Again, create an account and redeem code locked on NHL for $20 off.

Download game time today. Last minute tickets, lowest price guaranteed. All right, we're back here on this episode of the Lockdown Penguins podcast. I'm Hunter Hodes, joined by my co-s, Patrick Damp, of course. Thank you all so much for making this your first lesson slash watch of the day. So, Pat, it seems like Ricard Raquel will be making his long-awaited return to the Penguins on Saturday night. Mike Sullivan was a bit coy to the media after practice. And, oh, yeah, we were encouraged by what he did in practice and all that good stuff.

I'm sure he's going to label him a game time decision on Saturday after the morning escape. That's just what he always does. but Raquel was on the top line during practice today with Jake Gensel and Cindy Crosby. I love seeing Raquel up there, man. I wish they started the season with him on that top line. But I also can't be too mad at it because from what we've seen from Brian Russ so far this season. I know he's banged up right now, but that Gansel Crosby Rust line has been so men. But that said, I also love when Raquel is up there.

And granted, I know Raquel before he got hurt was really struggling. He hasn't scored yet this season. it looked like he was fighting it every shift when he was on the ice. But this is still a big deal for the Penguins because if he can get going, it just makes them that much of a better team as we head into the rest of December, January, and the rest of the season. We all saw what he did for this team last year, scored almost 30 goals. If he can find that level again for the rest of the season,

this team, I think, is going to be a good shape. Oh, I agree. And let's listen to, or not listen, read. you're listening to me, listener or viewer, of what Mike Sullivan said. And that's this is the first he, the first practice he participated in full capacity. We'll see how he responds. We'll take it day to day. But we're certainly encouraged with what we saw out there today.

And I understand. Right. It's Mike Sullivan downplaying it, not getting anything too excitable here. But then when you look under the hood here, they put Vinnie Hinoistroza on waivers, which shows the intent of sending him down to Wilkes-Ber. that's going to free up cap space in order to get him on the roster as a corresponding move to activate Ricard Raquel. So you figure there's going to be a couple other moves between now and tomorrow should

Raquel play. And I agree with you. I said it on the show before because I can't remember if we had it as a listener question or if we just talked about it. But I said the fix for Ricard Raquel before his injury was a promotion, basically. You put him on Crosby's wing because we know. we have known how good Brian Rust is going up and down the lineup. You can play him on the top line.

You can play him on the third line. You can play him on the second line. Play him on the power play. Play him on the penalty kill. He's a very versatile player. So putting him with Malkin wasn't going to be that big of a deal. So putting Ricard Raquel, who has a very good track record of performing with Sidney Crosby seemed like to be the get right.

And now that, you know, again, I said this the other day. I don't have any reporting on this. This is pure speculation. I think whatever was ailing him was there to start the year before he went out. And it wouldn't shock me if they finally went, go get this fixed and come back healthy. And now he's going to be at a better level. So we'll see with that. But smart move by Sullivan to put him on the top line today in practice.

And here's the hope and we can see him tomorrow night. And he's had a lot of success. with those two players. And with the house, especially Cindy Crosby is humming right now, getting Raquel back on track. I'm not going to say it's easy, but it should hopefully happen for this game.

And you also saw Raquel taking rushes on the second power play unit. He also will help that unit with his release. And I'll say this. When Brian Rust is eventually ready to return, obviously he's on a week-to-week basis right now, this is only going to help of getting Malkin, too, to find his game. And we'll get to that in the final segment, I think,

because I think they'll reunite Rust when he's ready to go. They'll go Gansel Crosby Rust, and then they'll probably go Riley Smith, Evgeny Malkin, and Ricard Raquel. Or if they want to put Raquel on the third line and keep Voluntary Pousson up there, if he keeps playing well, because he's been really good lately,

and he's potentially auditioning for a bigger role for the rest of the season. We'll have to see, though, it's only been a few games. But still, right now, I'm of the opinion that Raquel will go back to Malkin's line. I think that will also help Malkin a lot, because honestly, he's kind of looked lost since Raquel went out with that injury in a lot of the games.

It felt like even when Raquel was not scoring, Malkin was still playing his best hockey because Raquel was on his line, giving him the puck. And with getting Raquel back and then when Rust eventually comes back, whether it's later this month, whether it's January, whenever it is, that's going to help Gino a lot. Yeah, that's, it's funny because it's kind of. like a monkey's paw curls kind of situation where like you wanted to see more out of Raquel and you still want to see more out of Raquel, but it appeared like he was helping Gino. And now we want to see more out of Gino and Raquel is coming back, but we need to get him going. So it's a really tough catch 22 to figure out how to get them both going. But yeah, I mean, the other thing, you brought this up, his release on the power play is going to

be a lot of help. That one time is beautiful. Agreed. And I also think one of the things they have to keep going to keep the success is keep Crosby as that rover. Because if you watched the Montreal game, there was no set place for Crosby to be. He was all over the ice. And that made a huge difference because it kind of put in that wild card on the power

play that, okay, we know that we're going to have Carlson up top. We're going to have Malkin on the wall. We're going to have Gens. here and then whomever else was hanging around. But there was nobody to check Crosby. And it kind of took the penalty kill out of their structure. So if you can get a guy with Raquel's release out there and Crosby as a rover, then this power play is going to keep humming along, at least I think.

It also depends on whether they want to put Raquel back on the top power play in it. Obviously, the Altari Poussinan is there right now. And with the success that's had the last two games, I'm not really sure they even want to take Poussing off the top power play right now. but that's a discussion for a little later with Mike Sullivan, the coaching staff and Kyle Dubas and all then. But I'm just glad that he is coming back. I sincerely hope that that injury is behind him now and that he can really get started.

Now it's almost like a tale of two seasons, I feel like for him. You had the first part where he's maybe a bit banged up, just not playing well. Now he's coming back. It's a fresh shot. He got to get him away from the rink. Now he comes back. And let's see if he can get back to the level that we saw last year when he scored 28 goals for this team. This is going to be a big return for the penguins.

But that will do it for this second segment. Coming up to end the show, who do the penguins need more out of going forward? Well, Pat and I can discuss that. But before we get to that topic, we got to tell you all about Fandall. As the weather gets colder, the NFL offers stay hot on Fandle. Right now, new customers get $150 in bonus bets with any winning $5 money line bet. That's $150 if your team wins. If you've been thinking about joining Fandul, there's no better time to get in on the

action than right now. The app is so easy to use. There's a wide range of betting options, including spreads, player props, over unders, and so much more. So visit fandal.com slash locked on and kick off the NFL season. That's fandal, the official partner of the NFL. All right, we're back here on this episode of the Lockdown Penguins podcast. I'm Hunter Hode's joined by my co's Patrick Dam. So I'm actually going to hand this over to you to start. who do you want to see more out of on this team going for it? Because I have a couple that came to come to mind right away, excuse me, but I want to hand this over to you to see what you have.

I mean, I kind of hinted at it yesterday, and we just actually talked about it a little bit. Yeah. And it's Evgeny Malkin. It can be mine to you, but go ahead. And I have to reference what you said yesterday. This does come with the caveat that we have reached the point in his career and SIDS to a little bit because, you know, until he shows us that he can keep this pace all season long,

eventually you're going to see some downtime. You're going to see a few games stretch, a couple weeks stretch where he's not dominant. He's still good, but he's not what we have come to expect. But of the last couple of games, watching Hvgeny Malkin play, he hasn't been the Gino we have seen this season, not as engaged, not as aggressive, not taking as many chances. And I know that drives people nuts.

I know it drives people nuts. But that is the Evgeny Malkin experience. It's what you get with Fgeny Malkin. You're going to, there are going to be, you know, if there's 10 situations, six of, or five of them are going to make you want to tear your hair out. one of them's not going to really make any bit of a difference, and four of them are going to put your jaw on the floor.

And it's those four moments that make him better than everybody else. But right now, he has just not been good enough in the last week, week and a half. And we need to see more from him coming up here, especially since you don't have a ton of divisional games coming up. You have a ton of very winnable games. And the rest of the Metro is still kind of playing to that win, win, loss, win, win, loss, win, loss trend.

So you have a really good chance here to end 2023 to push yourself back into a playoff picture, if not the top three of the division. Yeah, I mean, I agree with you. And just going off that a little bit, Pat, I feel like he's also not that engaged when he's taking dumb or dare I say it, lazy penalties. Example, that game in Montreal, in overtime, he sticks his stick out, obvious tripping call. He can bark at it all he wants to the ref.

But, I mean, that's an easy call for. the official to make. And it's plays like that where he's stuck in mud and he's not really doing much and he just sticks his stick out. That's just a lazy penalty. You can't have that from one of your superstar players. And I feel like he's been in a little bit of a rut for these past few weeks. He did have that really good game I thought against Florida last week on Patrick Hornquist night. He had that beautiful pass to Riley Smith. You saw that connection come back for the first time in quite a while. But other than that game, it feels like he just hasn't had a true dominant performance in quite a few weeks. Maybe this is the time we see it in Toronto, but we just haven't seen it in a little bit.

And I'm hoping that comes back at some point too. I'll also throw out Eric Carlson. I don't think Eric Carlson has been bad this year. I'm not going to say that I'm not going to say he has been worth his cap hit and that good stuff. But I do feel like these last handful of games, he hasn't played at the level that I thought he would this year. And, you know, it's a little bit of a rut for a star player. He's also in his 30s as well. But that game against Montreal made some glaring defensive mishaps in his own end,

where I'm like, hmm, that's like not good, to say the least. And I know he had a couple assists, but those mistakes were just not good overall. I still want to see more from him. I feel like the Penguins haven't unlocked his true potential, even on the offensive side of the rank. And I feel like that could be coming here shortly too. We all know he's never been a good defensive player as a defense. and that's been well documented throughout his career.

But to start the year, it at least was decent. It's just gotten a little bit worse as the year has gone on. I want to see that improved too. Again, I don't think he's been bad or even mediocre. I actually think he's been as advertised for Penguins, but I still think he has another level to reach this year. I agree. I think, too, he's got to be a little bit more of a factor in pulling this power play

out of the doldrums. And I think he has been a little bit. I do think it's tailed off ever so slightly, but not enough to concern me. He has been pretty good defensively, which, you know, there's a couple, there's a couple gaps here and there are a couple highlights that you see that make you a shake your head. But again, similar to what I was saying about of Gennie Malkin, that's part of the Eric Carlson experience.

Like, you're going to see that from time to time. But I think overall, like I do need to see a little bit more out of him offensively, just mainly on the power play more than anything, because once he starts humming there, we're going to be in business. The other two, I'm kind of grouping them together because they were training camp and preseason standouts and they have yet to live up to that potential. And that's Redeems Zahorna and Drew O'Connor. Now, they've come on a little bit lately.

They've started to look better. But I don't want to say I had these guys penciled in as big time difference makers for this season because that would have been just wholly unrealistic. but they haven't been good enough. They haven't been, I don't want to use the phrase game wreckers because it makes it sound like they were going to be these big time stars on the bottom six. But they played with so much aggression.

They played so fast. They played so physical, I guess, in the preseason that I thought, okay, if this bottom six isn't going to score, if they can wear out the other team, that's a net positive. Because I would like to see the bottom six should they not score, at the very least, keep the puck in the offensive zone, tire out the opposing defense, get a couple shots on goal, set up a time for the top six to come out on a good line change

to a tired unit on the opposition. And I really looked at Zahorna and O'Connor as two guys who would be an engine behind that. and they really haven't so far. They're starting to come around. They have looked good the last week or so, but I need more from them. That was my big concern with Big Z

after he got the call up, because he played really well on the third line for those first five to six, seven games, gave it a spark that it badly needed. But since then, it's just been a lot of crickets, honestly. And you said it. The last few games,

I do think he's starting to find his storm a little bit. But this is, I feel like, what happens with call-ups from the AHL. They can provide that spark for a little bit, but then you go into that period where they're just not making that big of an impact. And the biggest thing with him is how do you get back to how you played in those first five to six to seven games? That's what we're trying to find out with him right now to see if you can get back to

that level. O'Connor, you're right. I had high expectations for him this year too. I actually think these last couple weeks he's been playing his best hockey of the year. But now with Raquel coming back and then Russ Connberg, back probably in about, I don't know, a few weeks to a month, he's probably going to be relegated back to the third line. Can he create offense next to Lars Eller, who has been pretty solid this year, and then maybe Sohorna or someone else, maybe it's Paul Yarvey if they sign him.

That's going to be the question for that one, too. One more player who I think I had as showing more, honestly, it's P.O. Joseph. He's only played a couple of games since coming back from his injury. I think has looked pretty solid. I do think he's a better option compared to Ryan Shea on the left side for the bottom pairing, but I want to see more out of them. We just haven't seen a lot from PO this season just because of his injury. I want to see if he's taken more steps offensively. I want to see if he can defend a little bit better in his own zone. I like the pairing with him in Ludwig because Ludwig brings that physical element to his game that can help out PO a little a little bit. And he's also good in his own zone that can help out PO a bit too. But I still want to

see more from PO this season to see if he can be, I guess, a little more consistent compared to what we saw last season because I do think overall last year he was fine he wore off towards the end i don't want to see that repeat this year though yeah i mean i can't really add anything to the p o one lastly but not leastly and it's one everybody's talked about it's ryan graves right um i still stand by what i've said about him that i think this is going to be a paul martin situation which is funny because it's a guy signed to a solid deal from the new jersey devils in the off season But you see this trend a lot with players like Ryan Graves. They switch teams.

They're a good two-way defenseman and their first season, they struggle. And then you put that season of struggle in the rearview mirror and it's smooth sailing the rest of the way. Because the way I frame it is what's more likely? Struggles in a new place, in a new system in his first season, or completely forgot how to play hockey. and I think it's more likely first year struggles, gets it together the next. But the things I need to see from him, again, it's my Bob Airy,

they got to play physical North Star. He's just got to simplify here. You see him trying to do too much. His shot selection, and you and I talked about this in the preseason, we were like, oh, we like the fact that he's going to shoot it more than someone say like Brian Dumlin. Well, he had better shot selection in New Jersey.

when he was willing to shoot, the shots were there. He's not taking smart shots here with the penguins. He's just firing at any chance he gets. And it's a matter of just playing simple positional hockey. Keep the guy in front of you, one to two stick lengths, follow the chest, make the simple first pass. Don't try to do anything too fancy or complicated. And should he do that, you have a defensive partner in Chris LaTang who get him

the puck and let him go to work and he's going to make you a cool few million dollars. I will say at least Ryan Graves, his defending has been a bit better as of late. I think he's been a lot better in front of his own net, to say the least. Maybe the offensive part of his game will come later on this season or even after this season. But to say that it's non-existent right now would be an understatement, even though he has scored at least one goal this season. But I think that I would do it for this episode of the Locktown Penguins podcast. Thank you all so much for listening to slash watching this one.

Pat and I will be back with another episode for you all on Monday to recap this game. against the Maple Leafs, plus get you all set for another fun week ahead for this team. So again, thank you all so much for tuning in. We'll be back on Monday.