Locked On Penguins - Daily Podcast On The Pittsburgh Penguins - Who's ready for some Jeff Carter?

Episode Date: April 13, 2021

It's a late episode but an episode nonetheless as the trade deadline has passed. To start, Hunter has Locked On Kings host Sarah Avampato on the podcast to talk about the Jeff Carter deal and what his pros and cons are. What's the best position for him? Can he still skate and contribute? How is she coping with the loss of a two-time Cup Champ? Hunter also goes into some of the data surrounding Carter before transitioning to thoughts on the rest of the deadline, including that awful Taylor Hall deal and why GM's continue to be so confusing. He also touches on the Anthony Mantha deal before recapping Pittsburgh's win against the Devils on Sunday.Support Us By Supporting Our Sponsors!BetOnline AGThere is only 1 place that has you covered and 1 place we trust. Betonline.ag! Sign up today for a free account at betonline.ag and use that promocode: LOCKEDON for your 50% welcome bonus.Built BarBuilt Bar is a protein bar that tastes like a candy bar. Go to builtbar.com and use promo code “LOCKED15,” and you’ll get 15% off your next order.Rock AutoAmazing selection. Reliably low prices. All the parts your car will ever need. Visit RockAuto.com and tell them Locked On sent you. 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.

Your Locked-on Penguins. Your daily podcast on the Pittsburgh Penguins. Part of the Locked-on Podcast Network. Your team every day. Hello, welcome to this Monday evening episode of the Locked-on Penguins podcast. I'm your host, Hunter Hodes. Remember to follow me on Twitter at Hunter Hodes.

Follow the show's Twitter at L.O.R.S.4 Penguins. Today's episode is brought to you by BiltBar. You can go to Billapar.com and use promo code Locked 15 and you'll get 15% off your next order. So today, for this first segment release, we have a very special guest considering the Penguins made a big trade last night. Sarah Avampato of Locked-on Kings is probably a bit sad because Jeff Carter is no longer a member of the Kings

after he brought two Stanley Cups to the city of Los Angeles and that franchise. So Sarah, how are you today? Is the morning still, you know, in session here? You know, it's one of those moves where, As a fan, I hate it. And, you know, I'm still, the Kings just, just before we started recording this, they posted their like goodbye video. And, you know, it's full of Jeff Carter highlights.

And I was like, oh, man, I thought I had emotionally processed this. And then the highlight videos and the tributes and his wife tweeting and all this stuff. I was like, oh, no, now I have more feelings. You know, so it's been a rough day. But it is good to, as we have talked about before, I was born a Penguin's fan. I grew up outside of Pittsburgh. So if he had to go to another team, at least he's going to one that, you know,

part of me still roots for, you know, from those hometown roots. Exactly, yes. He is now on the best side of Pennsylvania, not on the east side, where, of course, he was with the Philadelphia Flyers for so many years before that. Huge trade happened that sent him and Richards there all those years ago.

You know, I'm sure you told me this before. I'm sure your family is obviously very happy since I think they're from Pittsburgh as well. I'm excited for this trade just because they're only going to be paying him $2.65 million somewhere around those lines. They gave up two conditional picks that, you know, who really cares? That's a conditional third that turns into a second. I think if they either win the Stanley Cup or if they get to the Stanley Cup final, it's one of the two. And then the conditional fourth becomes a third.

I think if he plays in over 50 games next year, if I recall correctly. So all in all, you're basically almost getting him. free. That's, I think, the best way of looking at it. And it addresses a need because they don't need to play players like Mark Jenkowski in the lineup anymore, Anthony Gangelho, if this team ever does get healthy. And it just gives them a lot of flexibility. But, you know, when he was with Los Angeles, just give us the lowdown. Was he, you know, mainly a right winger this year? Do he play center? Is his game still kind of there, even though he's 36 years of age now? Yeah, this year he mostly played right wing.

And I think it was kind of a decision to move him to wing based off of, you know, his performance. And he is getting older. And so he's not quite as spry as he used to be. So they moved him to wing where he could be a little more impactful. And also they have a lot of young players coming up who are going to be centers for the team. So it's worth it to kind of move him and start seeing how some of the young guys were going to do. But mostly wing, but we'll kind of move into the center role if needed or if the guy, on his line at center is struggling or anything.

It was kind of a hybrid sort of a position for him. When you would watch him come down the ice, sometimes he would slide into the spot where you would usually expect a center to be. So a little bit of a dual role for him sometimes. You know, I do think that he, this year has looked a lot better than he has the past couple of years. Whenever the preseason,

we don't have a preseason, But whenever the season started, you know, he had the speed back, he had the skating back, which had been an issue previously because of an injury he had a couple of years ago that it was basically he had a tendon in his ankle cut. And it's been a long road back to full health for him. But, you know, I think that he still, if you watch him skate, he still is very fast, you know, really good at getting into the zone and all that stuff. The shooting has maybe gone down.

a little bit, like shooting percentage-wise, but I'll be curious to see how much of that was just playing on a King's team that is chronically terrible at scoring goals and how much of that is him and aging, catching up with him. But he still has the feet. He still mostly has the hands.

I think that it was just, he wasn't quite getting the puck quite as much as he used to in years past. Yeah, the thing is, his underlying numbers really haven't dipped this year. If anything, I was looking at them this morning, a couple other of my Penn Twitter buddies as well. They've gone up.

I went to evolving hockey and stuff. His expected goals for, especially on the power play, is up over one. His expected goals four per 60, and even strength is about at one. His goals above replacement. It was way down in 2019 than last year, but it went up basically to even this year.

So it looks like his game has started to turn around a little bit, which is nice. I'm glad that he's still a fast skater. I think a couple people were tweeting out some videos. He can still gain the zone with authority. It looks like if you look at the numbers as well, he fires a lot of pucks, especially from the high danger areas.

I think a buddy, Jeff from Penn's blog wrote that I think now of all the players on the Penguins, I think he's taken the most amount of shots and especially he's a really good volume shooter. Is that, I think, the best way to describe him as well? I know his points total is only about 19 points in 40 games. don't say a lot and maybe his eight goals don't say a lot either but it looks like it's not from a lack of trying yeah he he continually I'm sure if you went and looked back at all the games

the kings played more games than not he will be one of if not the leader in shots on goal for the team and that that's just looking at things that are actually counted as shots not you know missed the net or anything like that so he is a guy who if you get him the puck he loves to shoot it. And I think that's where some of the frustration has come with him this season is that, you know, his shooting percentage has maybe fallen off a little bit. He isn't shooting quite as much as he used to, but it's still more than your average player, especially if you're talking about kind of a third line role. You know, you're not necessarily expecting those kind of guys to jump in and provide a bunch of offense. And now you're going to have someone like Jeff Carter,

if he's playing a depth role, yeah, just takes a ton of shots. And hopefully, starts converting on more of them now that he will be on a team that maybe has some more better players to set him up for goals. Yeah, absolutely. There's mainly two places I think that's best for him in the lineup. I think my top one is him moving to center where he's played most of his career. It looks especially with Philadelphia and I think a lot of prior years with L.A. and potentially centers Jason Zulker and Everron Riga's because I think that's a big upgrade then playing with Andreas Ethanus CU who aside from scoring goals in his past

is not very good if my valuation is correct and then the other player on that line Blake Lazotte who correct me if I'm wrong is not that good of a player either so I think it's a big upgrade there and then if they want to move him to wing they can just put him up with Afghani Malkin and Kaspari Kappan and then have the Zulker-McCann-Rodriguez line

as their third line which has been really good their expected goals for, I think it's been like 55, 56% in the small sample that they've been ever since Chino went out. So I think those are my top two places for him, but if I had to pick, I'd likely go up to center just because I think he's surrounded by two really good linemates and players who also shoot the puck a lot as well. Yeah, I think that, I mean, first off, the idea of him playing with Hvgeny Malk and just made, like, now I want to see that.

Like, that would be, there's two bigger guys who were both, you know, both, you know, competitors and both, you know, yeah, I want that. Even if, even if that doesn't happen, I want that to happen. But yeah, I mean, I think that I don't know much about Evan Rodriguez other than the name, but I feel like Jason Zucker is definitely an upgrade over who Carter has been playing with a lot. I'm going to see you has kind of turned around his season. Last year, he was really disappointing for Detroit and for Edmonton and then he got hurt. But this year, he, he's doing really well. And he and Carter really kind of, gelled very quickly in the first couple games they were put together because they both have the same

kind of speed. I think that if I were looking to pair Carter with anyone, it would be that he needs a player who can keep up with him. I have seen him on lines with players who are a little slower, who aren't particularly good at, you know, getting to the right spot on the ice. And it always seems like a frustrating experience. There's a lot of pucks into feet and stuff like that because they just aren't on the same page. But I think if you put him with a hockey player who has the same kind of IQ in terms of hockey and a good foot speed, you know, I think that'll be a really good matchup for him. Yeah, I'm really excited for that just because he is still really quick.

And Zucker is fast, too. And so is Rodriguez. He's really come into his own in the last few weeks, especially ever since coming back in the lineup. And, you know, he is what he is, a solid bottom six contributor. I mean, I think he's close to the lead in 5'y-5 points with. the team ever since Malkin went out. So I'm really excited to see

what those three can do together. And I think some people were kind of saying like, well, you know, this is kind of like the Patrick Marlowe deal from last year. And I'm like, I kind of see this as the Billy Garron deal from 2009 just because you have a lot more time to get him on a line where he can be comfortable with. Whereas

with Marlowe, it was two games. The season paused. And then they started back up again five months later. And then you put him on a line with Jared McCann and Patrick Hork was two players. he really hasn't played with before. And then you saw what happened with those results. And I also think Carter at this point is a lot better than Marlow is at this point.

So that I think makes me a lot more comfortable. But Sarah, is there anything else on Carter that you want to tell the Penguins fans here? That is anything going forward with him? I think the other thing that is important about this trade for the Penguins is, you know, if anyone who's listening to this was a fan and, you know, back in the day, quote unquote, and knew Jeff Carter during his tenure with Philadelphia, and he kind of got drummed out of town for several reasons among them, not necessarily being the best of guys off the ice.

If you are concerned that you are still getting that same guy, I have great news for you because Jeff Carter over the past 10 years has turned into an actual adult. He is kind of the dad of the team almost. He is really, you know, especially a few years ago when they gave him the A after they did all the things with changing around Dustin Brown and Anjicot-Protar and captain C and people retiring and all that. He has really,

really stepped up as a leader for this team, especially at a time that, you know, has not been the greatest for the Kings. And he has been, you know, one of those, like, quiet guys.

He hates doing media. He doesn't want to talk to you about anything. But in the room, he is really well regarded, especially by the young players. So I think that I was saying this on the national show. on our live show that we did today, that, you know, the, the, the, the young guys are going to learn a lot from him. And he is someone who just has really, really been important for the Kings in that respect.

So the Penguins I know are a team that I feel like every time I turn around, they've got six new guys on the roster who are all 21 years old, who I've never heard of before. And not that Pittsburgh has any shortage of leadership with Sidney Crosby and Malkin and Chris Latang and all those guys. but I think that it can't hurt to add yet another guy who has been really well thought of by his teammates and the young guys who he has helped mentor and get adjusted to the league. So you're not getting the party guy from 2010 or whatever. You're getting an actual real grown-up. Yes. This almost sounds like, you know, team dad, aka Matt Cullen from all those years ago,

when the Angman signed him for not only the 2016 Cup, with the 2017 Cup as well. So, you know, I'm sure the fans are probably going to take the team dad and run with it, just like they did with Matt Con all those years ago. But Sarah, I really appreciate you coming on for this segment. Where can everyone follow you on Twitter? And everyone, just please go listen to the Lockdown Kings podcast. That team is going to be good, I think, in the next couple years. Rob Blake is doing a really nice shot with asset management as, you know,

they're going through a rebuild. Yeah, it's going to be a fun time. I'm excited to see the Kings kind of return to being fun all. the time, not just sometimes. You can find me on Twitter at Wright, said Sarah. The Kings show is, of course, available Locked on Kings, wherever you get podcasts. Also on Twitter at Locked on L.A. Kings. I have lots of Jeff Carter feelings more than can fit in this show. So I will be talking about it on Tuesday's edition of Locked on Kings as well. So go ahead and find me there and just experience me being sad on Twitter and watching a lot more Penguins games than I have recently.

Yes, this team is fun to watch. So especially when they're going to get some players back. So they're definitely must see TV as this is a dog fight in the East Division right now. Like I said, Sarah, thank you so much for coming on and definitely go listen to that King's episode on Tuesday, which she shares all her feelings on Jeff Carter. So we still have a lot more to get to coming up for the rest of the show. Before that, it is time to talk about Bill Bar. There's 18 amazing flavors, six new flavors, cookies and cream, carrot cake, apple almond,

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You go to Bilbar.com and use promo code Locked 15, and you'll get 15% off your next order. That has promo code Locked 15% off your next order at Billbar.com. All right, welcome back to this episode of the Lockdown Penguins podcast. I'm your host, Hunter Hode. You know where to follow me on Twitter at Hunter Hodes, all this shows Twitter app, L.O. Ornersworth Penguins. So to get to the rest of the stuff for today, I guess I'll just touch on the rest of the trade deadline before I recap the Penguins big win against the Devils on Sunday.

A 5 to 2 win it was for Pittsburgh. It was pretty dull for the most of it until the very end. Washington makes a monstrous move acquiring a player that I had wanted the Penguins to get this trade deadline. Anthony Mantha from the Detroit Red Wings, but it did not come cheap. They had to part with their first round pick, their second round pick. their second round pick, Jacob Verona, who is probably one of the more underrated players in the league, and Richard Panic. I mean, Ponick is not that good, just basically a depth forward at this point in his career, but the underlying numbers between Verona and Manta are very similar. For whatever reason, this is the third coaching staff that did not really seem to like Verona. I guess his defensive impact was not that good,

but this is a good playmaker and a good goal score. I mean, it almost seemed like every shift he was out against the Penguins. he would score a goal, I think in 16 career games against them. He had seven goals, if I'm not mistaken. Of course, the big one, you know, game five of that series in 2018. Shears was tied in. The game was three to three with less than five minutes left, and Hopi had just made a monster save on Doom One. They come back right down the other way, and Varanosaurs,

and, you know, basically the series ends right about point just because it looked there that it was like, okay, this seems different for the capitals right now. And, you know, sure enough it was. They went on to win that series in six games. But I think that's obviously the big move of the deadline. And I think this shows that Washington is also all in for probably one of the final times this offseason. I mean, well, final times this season, excuse me, just because Ovechkin's like, what, 34, 35 now backstrom's up there in age.

I think Ovechkin's contract is up after this year. It's either up after this year or next year, and he's going to be wanting an extension. I'll be curious to see what that extension looks like. It's probably going to be no more than three to four years just to finish his initial career there. and then he maybe goes back to Russia and playing the KHL for a year or two before finally calling it quits for his hockey career. So, you know, they're getting up for one last run or two with the Ovechkin-Bachtrom era. I mean, that's not unexpected. They already have a cup for them, but, you know, one is probably not enough for them.

You know, they're obviously eating O for two. He's the best pure goal score of all time. Nicholas Bactrum is one of the more underrated players of this generation. They still have T.G. O'Shee, they still have John Carlson. Two decent goaltenders. I know their defense is not that good, and they may have some depth problems. problems at forward, even with Manta on there. I mean, I just, I think they overpaid for him, but I think in the long run, well, in

their short term, excuse me, I think Washington's going to be better off for it, but I think in the long run, Detroit is going to win that deal. Steve Eisenman did not just give away Anthony Manta. I mean, he's too smart for that. He did very well with the straight getting their first two picks, plus Jacob Rohn. I mean, you get those three assets for Anthony Manta. That's a very solid job. So like I said, I think it's an overpay, but with what the capitals are doing, I understand why they did it because this is wind-down mode and they only have a year or two left before they're going to have to strip down just like the penguins.

So those are my thoughts on that deal. Other deals from today, I mean, Sam Bennett being traded for a second round pick and a prospect, that's just pathetic. I don't know what the hell the Panthers are doing with that deal. I mean, he literally got more in return than Taylor Hall did. And let's just get to that Taylor Hall situation. The Sabers only get back a second round pick, PS plus under's. York, he had been healthy scratch, I think, the last five to six games. That's embarrassing that, you know, we have teams and general managers paying first-round

picks for Nick Falino and David Savard, but the Sabres can't even get our first-dunk pick back for Taylor Hall. Yes, I understand Taylor Hall is not having that good of a season. He only has two goals. His shooting percentage is below two and a half percent. I get that. But it's like, I mean, come on, people. Like, that's just stupidity to me that it's only a second-round pick, plus under's board,

plus they're eating half that salary. That is just really dumb to me. All the other deals today were really small. You saw Adam Goddette get traded. Jordy Ben got traded. Eric Gustafson got dealt. Scott Lawton was signed with the Flyers. Talk about a weird deal.

Five years, three million per. You don't give a bottom six player five years like that. I mean, I know the Penguins did with Brandon Tanniv, and we rightfully so scolded it. And then I kind of just thought, you know, who the hell cares? Just because the Penguins are going to suck at that point. But the Flyers are just a middling team. So they can't really afford to be giving term to someone like Scott Lawton, especially at five years.

Like that's just really dumb. If you ask me, the capital is also traded for Michael Raffle. He doesn't really move the needle much. I'm sure he's probably not even going to play there. He had, I think it's eight points in 34 games. Not really that good. I'm trying to think of other deals that happened today that I kind of laughed at. It was mainly just the Sam Bennett one.

You know, the Anthony Anthem one was obviously pretty big. You know, this deadline was pretty dull. I mean, that's to be expected. but obviously, you know, Boston did get better. The East playoffs are going to be a gauntlet. It's going to be a bloodbath. You know, every team with those four teams got better. You didn't see the other four teams make moves for obvious reasons.

Those other four teams are not going to get in. There is what? Basically four weeks left of the regular season right now, it's, like I said, yeah, it is very unlikely that you see one of the bottom four teams in this division make it. That's for sure. But I guess, you know, my big takeaway with the deadline, I just don't understand why teams value players like Nick Tolino and David Savard so highly that they have to get first-on-picks in return for them,

but then Taylor Hall only gets a second-round pick, plus not even not good of a player, and he retains half his salary. I mean, that's just hilarious to me. It just really goes to show how stupid NHLGMs are at their jobs, and it's just, it's only going to continue, so I have to laugh at it. But, okay, before we do get to the next segment and we touch on the game from Sunday night, it's time to talk about Ben Online. It's the fastest easiest way to build on all your sports section.

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All right, welcome back to this episode of the Lockdown Penguins podcast. I'm your host, Hunter Hode. Remember to follow me on Twitter at Hunter Hodes, follow the shows Twitter at L.O. Or Square Pegman. So Pegman's got to 3-1-1-V-1 versus the Devils on Sunday night. They are now 13 and 3-1 combined versus the Devils, Sabres, and the Rangers. This season, taking care of business like they need to do against those three teams. They only have seven combined games left, excuse me, against those three teams.

Four left against Buffalo. Two of them will actually be this coming weekend, and three left against New Jersey. All of them will be at PPG and Serena, and that will begin. next week after those games against Buffalo. I mean, got to continue to bang those points. The Penguins are only two points outside the East Division lead. So there's still a very real chance that the Penguins can make a run at this thing

and actually win the division. Would it mean that much? Probably not. But it would still be an amazing accomplishment that they were able to win the division in a year that they have been battling injuries like, you know, we just haven't seen. And, you know, honestly since last year, just because they get hurt every year at this point. But from the game overall, I thought in the first period, they came out Blitz in New Jersey. had no answer for them.

Second period, New Jersey took it to them a little bit. I thought the Penguins were a bit fortunate to be up two to one heading into the third. But then the third, you know, that was one of their better periods of the season. They locked down defensively, I think, against New Jersey. I think they only allowed just a couple high-danger chances at 5E-5 for the Devils. And, you know, besides that P.K. Sub-Bang goal, they really weren't threatening all period. And speaking of that Sub-Ban goal, no idea how that counted.

I mean, that's just NHL being stupid with goaltender interference. There were some people that were kind of annoyed that Mike Sullivan. didn't decide to challenge it. I was personally fine with it. I mean, would you all really want the Penguins penalty kill to go out there if you lose that challenge? Yeah, I don't think so. It's one of the worst units in the league.

And there's probably a 70% chance or higher that that game is 4 to 3 if he loses that challenge, and then they end up making it with a power play goal. And then, you know, it's basically a clutch butt cheek season for the rest of that game. Overall performances from the Penguins, great to see Jake Gensel get a hatrick. I believe that is now 20 goals from him. the fourth consecutive season that he has scored 20 goals or better. I'm going to keep saying it. He has a top five pure goal score in this league.

A hell of a playmaker as well. He's averaging over a point per game right now for Pittsburgh this season. And did I tell you that he only makes $6 million per? As I said last week, everyone, on the open market, if he were to hit the open market right now, this is a player that would command 7 to $7.5 million per or something like that. He is one of the best in his position, and rightfully so. He's an elite player in this league.

I think more people need to start talking about him as such. And it's not just because he plays with Sidney Crosby. No, he isn't an elite player in his own right. And he just always goes to those goals scoring areas, you know, as you saw with those three yesterday. And what a pass on one of them from Brian Russell in the PowerPlay. Power Play's really heated up these last few games. I believe it's almost top 10 in the league now. I think they have goals in like what, five and last six games of the Power Play.

You know, who knew that if Gennie Malcon going out was the big fix of the Power Play. but it's been awesome ever since he went out. Great to see the power play really coming on. You know, it just almost feel like ancient times where we were just shitting on the powerplay every time on this podcast and every game. Now we just got to get the PK, at least up to average, and they'll be fine special team size.

So you can win games, I think, with a good power play like this and a not-so-good penalty kill, but if you can get that penalty kill back up to where it was, you know, the prior seasons and continue to have this kind of power play, we could be really looking at something special. here for Pittsburgh. I mean, also great to see Colton Severe get on the score sheet twice

last night. That is not three goals in his last two games. You know, who knew putting him on waivers would do the trick and get him to start scoring goals. It's always nice to see some of the depth players who have not been playing that well, get it on the score sheet, especially because he probably is not going to be in the starting lineup for the playoffs. There were some injury updates today from Ron Hexton after the trade deadline press conference. He said, Caspari Kaepernman is expected to return in the next week and a half to two weeks of Guine Malkin, probably, I think, in the next two or three weeks, he said before the regular season ends, he said TANF, Beau, this is the bad news.

Brandon Tanev will not return for the rest of the regular season, and he is a will-see-at-this-point for the playoffs. So really hoping we can get TANF back for the start of round one so they can reunite that Astridis-Bluger-Tanth line because he had been so good before he got hurt this year. It is just really unfortunate that he's out for a while. I don't know, honestly out for the next four weeks, but still good news on Captain, good news on Gino, and then, of course, Jeff Carter will be in the lineup. I think on Thursday he's going to practice tomorrow with the team, or if they're going to do an off-ice workout,

but he's definitely going to practice whenever they practice next, and I assume he will be in the lineup. Be curious to see if they put him at center or away. But, you know, those are my main takeaways from the game. Just a good lockdown performance. Trish and Jari, very nice in his return start after, you know, that game against the Rangers. I know he didn't play well in one of them, but then he bounced back after that. and then this game as well played very good against that's two consecutive good starts after jari had a bit of a stinker so now the goaltenders back to playing the hockey that we're used to seeing them i'm assuming on thursday we'll see jari and then saturday sunday they'll split jarring to smith that is um who plays who it doesn't really matter which one starts which is because they're both three o'clock starts for that weekend um you know the devils play hard you know i'll give them that they always give the penguin spitz even though pittsburg is three and two overall against them this year may have points and four of the five games. That's a team that competes hard.

They don't quit. This doesn't look like a Buffalo team that we saw earlier in the season. That's going to be a good team, I think, in a few years. Hopefully, I really like watching Jack Hughes. I think he's going to have a mini-McKinnon breakout sooner rather than later. Just get him some talent to play around. I mean, I think that's the big thing.

I mean, obviously, not having Nico Heeshire is a big loss. He's turned into a great two-way player. But they just got to get Jack Hughes some help because I really think he's going to turn into a special player here at some point. But Pittsburgh did what they need to do. They got the two points and now we'll still have a couple days off before the team faces the flyers for the sixth time in the last time at PPGP and Serena for this season on Thursday. But that'll do it for this episode of the Lockdown Penguins podcast.

I really appreciate you all listening to this one. Hope you all got something out of it and I'll be back tomorrow for another episode on the podcast. I'll talk to you all that.