Locked On Penguins - Daily Podcast On The Pittsburgh Penguins - Why the Penguins are THIS close to snapping the streak...

Episode Date: November 8, 2022

I know, I know, it's another loss. Still, there are some positive things to take from it! That's precisely what Hunter starts with regarding Monday's show. He looks at the positives of the loss on Sat...urday and how the Penguins deserved a lot better. He looks at how they dominated territorially and how it just came down to Martin Jones playing his tail off against the Penguins yet again. He then discusses the core players and how they've been doing everything for the team lately. He points out that they can't be blamed for this losing streak because they're the ones who have shown up and are continuing to justify their cap hits. After that, he looks at the bottom six and why it's a unit that continues to fail. He touches on why nobody outside of Josh Archibald has been scoring down there as of late and how that needs to change in a big way if the Penguins want to turn this around. He then addresses the Jeff Petry struggles and why he thinks that eventually, it IS going to turn around. Still, he does have some blame for Ron Hextall because he hasn't done enough to fill out this team to the best of his abilities. Finally, Hunter examines the lineup and what changes Mike Sullivan could make for Wednesday's game against Washington. All that, plus much more on this episode of Locked On Penguins.Support Us By Supporting Our Sponsors!Built BarBuilt Bar is a protein bar that tastes like a candy bar. Go to builtbar.com and use promo code “LOCKEDON15,” and you’ll get 15% off your next order.BetOnlineBetOnline.net has you covered this season with more props, odds and lines than ever before. BetOnline – Where The Game Starts!SimpliSafeWith Fast Protect™️ Technology, exclusively from SimpliSafe, 24/7 monitoring agents capture evidence to accurately verify a threat for faster police response. There’s No Safe Like SimpliSafe. Visit SimpliSafe.com/LockedOnNHL to learn more.Athletic GreensTo make it easy, Athletic Greens is going to give you a FREE 1 year supply of immune-supporting Vitamin D AND 5 FREE travel packs with your first purchase. All you have to do is visit athleticgreens.com/NHLNETWORK 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.

Transcript
Discussion (0)
Starting point is 00:00:00 What's up Penguins fans? Happy Monday, November 7th. Yes, we're talking about another loss today as the Penguins dropped their seventh in a row on Saturday, a three to two defeat to the Seattle Cracking in the game that the Penguins, they deserve a lot better with how they play and desire. So we're going to recap that game in full for today's episode, go over some positive things that I'm actually going to take away from that game. Also, we'll get into some of the negatives. We'll look ahead to Wednesday's game against the Washington Capitals, another team that has not been good. To start this season, the capitals are only two points higher than the Penguins right now. They have had their struggles as well. It's funny that both teams are just not that good to start this season.
Starting point is 00:00:39 So we're going to get into all of that for today. So coming up right after this drop. You're Locked on Penguins. Your daily podcast on the Pittsburgh Penguins. Part of the Locked on Podcast Network. Your team every day. Hello and welcome back to another episode of the Locked-on Penguins podcast. I'm your host.
Starting point is 00:01:17 Hunter Hodes, want to follow me on Twitter at Hunter Hodes. You also follow the shows Twitter at Eleanor Houser Penguins. And, of course, thank you all so much for making this your first listen of the day. So let's just jump right into it. I know all of you are upset. Trust me. It's not fun covering a seven-game losing streak. This is the first seven-game losing streak that I think I've seen in the Cidgeno era.
Starting point is 00:01:38 This is we're in very rare territory. at this point, heck, I don't think I've seen them lose seven in a row since before they all got here. Probably during the Rico Fada days, Dick Tarnstrom, the Moose, I'm sure some people remember Johan Headberg and all those guys. So it's been a while since this team has lost seven in a row. That said, you know, we're going to start today's episode with some positive things. So I know the game was, you know, the result was not there. three to two loss. There's less than four minutes to go.
Starting point is 00:02:12 You're thinking, okay, going to get a point, see what you can do in overtime. You've been the better team. Maybe you can get the deciding goal in the last three minutes of the game. Nope, it had to be Brandon freaking Tannive, of all players. Who gets the game winner with less than four minutes left? The penguins were not able to get the tying goal late in regulation. But that said, Gens, I saw a lot of positive things from the penguins in this game.
Starting point is 00:02:38 Territorially, looking at natural snatcher, They controlled 62% of the shot attempts at 5E5. They controlled 60% of the scoring chances at 5E5, 57% of the high danger chances, and also 60% of the expected goals, all very, very good things about that. Again, the process has been there for this team this season. They ranked top 10 unexpected goals in Corsi,
Starting point is 00:03:02 but it's just, you know, they made too many defensive miscues at times and they haven't gotten the goaltending and, you know, combined. now with also the special teams and you have a seven game losing streak here. The Penguins, they haven't deserved to lose all seven of these games. They easily could have won three of them, maybe four, definitely should have won the game against Buffalo, should have won against Boston. Heck, they should have won this game against Seattle.
Starting point is 00:03:29 Honestly, they probably should be on a three-game winning streak right now. But, you know, you play the hand that you're dealt, and they haven't been able to. But again, those numbers that I just read out to, and I can go to all situations here, the Penguins controlled, 62% of the shot attempts, 61% of the scoring chances, 64% of the high danger chances, and 57% of the expected goals to show that, yes, they outplayed Seattle. Even when the Cracken were up 2 to 1 in that third period, after they got that really lucky goal, that just went off a player's skate right to the stick, goes in over Tristan Jari. Jake Gensel is able to tie the game just a few months later to, too, too. And then after that, the Penguins just kept coming at the cracking in waves. They were forechecking like hell, getting plenty of great chances on Martin Jones. For some reason, Jones just wants to play like God every time he plays the Penguins,
Starting point is 00:04:24 even though he's just a backup goaltender at this point in his initial career. And the moment Seattle gets a good chance, excuse me, with less than four minutes to go in the game, they get the goal. And it's brand intended. And excuse me, and I know that goal, there's a lot of bad plays on it. I don't know why Chris Lutang was chasing the cracking player behind the net. I don't think he needed to do that. Dumlin just left Tanev wide open in front of the net.
Starting point is 00:04:53 He did not need to go down to one knee and go towards the puck carrier because Latang was already on him. And he just left his man. Tannov gets the puck. No pressure in front of them. He flicks it over, Jari. I understand that people want him to make a save there. just because he's been struggling this year. I get it.
Starting point is 00:05:09 I do. But that's a goal that I think a lot of other goaltenders allow to. So obviously that's bad. But sticking with the positives, again, the process was there. And it's been there for a lot of these games, even though they haven't been getting the results. Sidney Crosby was a man on a mission in that game. If anyone is going to lead this team out of this rut,
Starting point is 00:05:33 it is going to be Crosby. He has 14 points to start this season. He had a almost vintage Crosby goal late in the third period when it was two to two, almost split the cracking defense, shot the puck just wide of Martin Jones. If he scores on that play, and I think you all know which one I'm talking about, PBG Pance Arena comes down. I'm sure Twitter is on fire at that point, and the Penguins probably win that game. Jake Gensel, he was also on fire in that one as well.
Starting point is 00:06:00 He's the team's leading goal score this season. I thought he played good. Chris Teng, I think, had a little bit of a better game, even though it's been a slow start to the season for him. Evgeny Malkin, he was playing well too. I keep seeing this from some people that come into my mentions on social media or going to other people's mentions, oh, well, you know, if they didn't bring the band back together,
Starting point is 00:06:19 none of this would have happened. Again, those people cannot see the forest for the trees. If people are blaming the core for the problems, they are wrong. That's the reality situation here. The core players, they have been doing what you want them to do. Evgeny Malkin is a point-per-game player this year. Sidney Crosby is the same. Ricard Raquel, he's also been great.
Starting point is 00:06:41 He's second on the team in goals. Jason Zucker is almost a point-per-game player, and he's making $5.5 million. Jake Gensel leads the team in goals. Brian Rust also been really strong. Chris LaTang has a little bit of a slow start, but he's going to rebound just because I know that's how he is. Those are the players that you are paying a lot of your money to, and they have shown up. You want to talk about players who have not shown up. Go down the rest of that roster.
Starting point is 00:07:03 and I'm going to get to that in the second segment on why there's just way too many passengers on this team right now. But another big positive, again, is the play of the core right now. They are doing their job. And I have a stat for you guys. During this seven game losing streak,
Starting point is 00:07:19 the Penguins top six, 14 of the 16 goals that this team has scored to the last seven games have come from the top six. Only two have come from the bottom six, and both of them were scored. by Josh Archibald, and he's not even the lineup right now just because he's hurt. So you all want to place some blame somewhere? I think you all know where to place some of that blame.
Starting point is 00:07:43 So I was really thrilled with the play of the top six. I will say outside of that bad gaff by Dumlin, I thought he was better in that game. And it's not saying much. I get it. He's been really down to start the season. He should not be playing top pair of moons with Crystal Tang at this point. But I know it was a little bit of a step. in the right direction, at least before he had on that major gaff.
Starting point is 00:08:07 But, you know, just, you know, forechecking-wise, I saw a lot of good. When this team really turns it on, they're very hard to stop. That first period, they were electric. Martin Jones made some really nice saves. The second period was the same. The third period, even when they were down, they were still really pressuring their crack and defense. They really had no answer to them.
Starting point is 00:08:25 It was just because Martin Jones was making a lot of good saves. Heck, Penguins missing Md-Dette in that game. They hit a post from Brian Rust. that could have been a goal. Brian Ross also missed a chance with about two, three minutes left. That grandstaff Martin Jones is Jersey. It went over the net. Don't know how that didn't go in.
Starting point is 00:08:42 They did a lot of good things right in this game. The penalty kill, I thought, was much improved. That's probably the best. I've seen the penalty kill look all year. They killed every single penalty in that one. So you are seeing some things turn around slightly. It's just they got to start getting the results. That's the big thing here.
Starting point is 00:09:02 Metro obviously is a lot better this season. New Jersey is playing really well. I did not expect them to be this good, this fast. But, you know, we're coming up to Thanksgiving here in about two and a half weeks. That's usually the time where you start seeing teams, you know, try to make runs and all that. And then December as well, the schedule is about to get tougher with six or the next seven on the road. They play Washington on Wednesday. They have Toronto, Montreal as a back-to-back this weekend when I go to Pittsburgh.
Starting point is 00:09:29 It's going to get tough. and, you know, they got to keep putting this play to good use, and they got to start getting the results and start defending better and all that. So again, I know there's a lot of negativity surrounding the team right now, but I really like that performance against Seattle, and I really think they can build off of it going into that game against Washington because the Capitals.
Starting point is 00:09:49 They are also not that good right now. They're banged up. Peter Lavillette, I think I have some Capitals fans that I talk to kind of want him out at this point. So that really wraps up this first segment, you know, touching on the positives of the team, you know, looking at, you know, how they can build off that loss and all that. And I get it. The team looks rejected.
Starting point is 00:10:09 You fans that listen to my show and all you Penguins fans out there that don't listen to my show, I get it. Time stink right now. This is the worst losing streak of the Sid Gino era. But if anyone's going to bring them out of it, it's the core. At the end of the day, you know, the player's got to do it. They're not going to fire Mike Sullivan. You just got an extension.
Starting point is 00:10:28 You know, that's all I really have to say. Positive-wise, coming up in the next segment, I'm going to get into some more of my negative reactions from the game and just, you know, look into who I think most of the fans should be blaming right now for the team's struggles. But before I get to that, if you thought about securing your home with home security, but have been putting it off, you'll want to listen up. Right now, Locked on Penguins listeners, you guys,
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Starting point is 00:11:34 You can get 50% off any new Simplysaf system at SimplySafe.com slash Lockdown NHL. This is their biggest discount of the year you in, so don't wait at Simplysafe.com slash Lockedon NHL. There is no safe like Simply Safe. All right, I'm back here on this episode of the Lockedon Penguins podcast. I am the host Hunter Hodes. I'm going to find me on Twitter at Hunter Hodes, follow the shows Twitter,
Starting point is 00:11:58 EleanorSquare Penguins. and of course thank you all so much for making this your first list of the day. You know, it's awesome that I'm closing it on 4K on Twitter. The show is over 700 subscribers on YouTube. I think it may be doing a little bit of a giveaway once I get to 1,000 subscribers. Maybe it's a jersey. Maybe it's a pop or something like that. But once the show does get to 1,000 subscribers,
Starting point is 00:12:20 I think I am going to do a giveaway where you can retweet a tweet and I'll just do a lucky winner or something. And whoever gets it, so you can send me their address and I'll send them something painlessly whether it's a jersey a puck something like that I've been thinking about that for a while now going into some more of my negative reactions from this game
Starting point is 00:12:40 again I'm not subscribing to the belief that the core is to blame they're not they're doing their jobs they're making all the money and they're producing like it if they weren't producing like it I would tell you all it's the bottom six
Starting point is 00:12:55 that has been dreadful this season. And this week comes courtesy of Madshad 412. He used to host the show with Eddie Provident of D.K. Pittsburgh Sports. And he was looking at the lowest average game score for Penguins so far. If you look at the lowest six players on the team, Jeff Petrie, Brock McGinn, Ryan Paling, Jeff Carter, Brian Dumlin, and last but not least, at the very bottom, is Casperi Captain. What do all those players basically have in common? Outside of Brian Dumlin, I will say, even though he was kind of advised to move him, all those players that I just mentioned were either extended by Ron Hextall
Starting point is 00:13:37 or acquired by Ron Hextall in the last year or two. He has actively made this team worse, especially in the bottom six the last couple of years. And I don't think enough people are talking about it. When you have an elite top six like the Penguins have, and you have an elite number one defenseman in Chris LaTang and a pretty decent goaltender in Tristanjari when he is going well, and you have the money to keep those players
Starting point is 00:14:06 and still build around them. It honestly should be kind of an easy job, right? You just have to fill out the depth of your team to make sure that, oh, when the stars are being bottled up at times, you can get goals from the other players. You know, that's just that plagued them. you know, from 2012 to 2015, I would say, before Jim Rutherford came in and I think I actually did a great job with the bottom six and the depth on defense.
Starting point is 00:14:37 But, you know, after he left Ron Hextall, the team had decent depth the last couple of years, even though that really wasn't his handiwork. But since then, when he's really had to, you know, make moves that he's been able to make, they haven't been as good. Again, these last seven games, only one player has basically scored from the bottom six. And that is Josh Archibald. He has two goals.
Starting point is 00:15:01 Jeff Carter has done absolutely nothing since getting extended. Brock McGinn, he is nowhere to be found. He barely has done anything offensively this season. He is getting paid almost $3 million to be what? A PK specialist? That's not good enough. Sorry. Like if you're getting paid almost $3 million,
Starting point is 00:15:19 I expect you to score every number. and then he has been a completely different player ever since the first half of last season. Ryan Paling in spurts, he's been fine. Otherwise, you're kind of seeing why he was just a throw-in for the Jeff Petrie trade. Casperi Kappenden, I mean, he is just taking paychecks at this point, and it's really bad. So, I want my wonderful thron, I think, is whining outside of my room, but, you know, he's not going to be able to get in this time.
Starting point is 00:15:48 I mean, again, we're about to captain. He is just stealing paychecks from this team at this point. He is making $3.2 million to miss empty nets the way that he just did in that game against Seattle. You all remember that play, right? Comes around the net, gets the pass, has the entire net. My grandma probably would have scored on that. Somehow misses it way high and wide. And it's just like, you're getting paid $3.2 million to miss chances like that.
Starting point is 00:16:15 He has been absolutely woeful in his last 50 plus games. three goals in his last 50 games as a penguin. The decision to sign him to that extension was ridiculous at the time, and it's only gotten even more ridiculous as he's played to start the season. And I was someone who was praising him in the first three to four games because I was like, okay, he scored a goal. He was actually skating with authority. He was playing decent defensively, getting some assists.
Starting point is 00:16:46 But these last seven games, just nowhere to be found. and he's been awful. And, you know, that's, I mean, 3.2 million, you could have a much better player in there that would actually be scoring right now if, you know, if they wanted to. But Ron Hexon made his bed with this, and, you know, you're seeing that.
Starting point is 00:17:08 So, again, you want to look at one of the main problems. It's the bottom six. There's just no depth scoring down there. And I don't want to hear about plus minus. I don't care that Brock begins a plus three. overall even strength, that means nothing when he only has one goal basically this season. You're getting paid $2.75 million to be a PK specialist. That's not good enough.
Starting point is 00:17:27 Kisbury Kappenden, one goal this year, he's getting paid $3.2 million. That's not good enough. You believed in Ryan Paley enough to trade for him in the Jeff Petrie trade outside of a game or two. I don't think he's done that well either. Jeff Carter, he's basically stealing paychecks at this point, too. He hasn't done a thing. I mean, at the end of the day, they made their bed with this bottom six, and I should also throw Dayton Hinen in there.
Starting point is 00:17:49 he's been a ghost for a lot of this season. He started out this season hot with a couple of goals in the first few games. Since then, though, he hasn't done a thing. And I know he's probably going to score pretty soon here just because he's probably arguably, if not, if not arguably the best player in the bottom six. But he still hasn't done enough on this team. You know, you can look at his linemates and that stuff. But still, it's a collective failure, you know, on that unit and also on Ron Hexel for
Starting point is 00:18:19 going out and acquiring most of those players. I'm not going to really dump on Danton Hinen that much because he was great for them last year. But the other players who we extended slash signed the last couple of seasons or traded for, it has not been good enough in the slightest and it needs to change. You cannot have your top two lines
Starting point is 00:18:36 giving you offense every single night. And where was I going with that? Yeah. Sorry. You cannot only have two lines giving you offense every single night. You are not going to win many games in the NHL that way. Just again, go back to the late Dan Biles and race show years
Starting point is 00:18:56 when you're seeing Joe Vitale, Craig Adams, Tanner Glass, Brian Gibbons, Lee Steffinac, and all these other players. Marcel Gotts, if you all remember him, you're just taking up shifts and they didn't do anything. And it's the same thing right now. A lot of these players are just passengers, and that's not going to work if this team has playoff slash Stanley Cup aspirations.
Starting point is 00:19:18 defensively, Jeff Petrie. He's been off to a miserable start through the first 11 to 12 games of this season. I'm hoping that he'll be able to rebound. Maybe he's just still adjusting to the penguin system. But the return on investment so far because they gave up a really good player of Mike Matheson has not been the greatest.
Starting point is 00:19:35 So, you know, a lot of these players, they're going to have to figure it out soon if the penguins want to go anywhere this season. So that's really the big thing I have to say about the bottom six and, you know, Petrie and a couple of these other players. It's just the Penguins are not getting enough from some of the players who are getting decent money that are not the core players. And that falls on Ron Hextall for going out and acquiring those players.
Starting point is 00:20:02 You can 100% blame him for some of the problems that this team has had so far. And have you even seen people calling for his job? I get it. You know, he hasn't done good enough outside of keeping the core and signing Ricardo, Raquel back and Brian Rust. So, you know, if this continues, I think that heat is only going to get worse, in my opinion. So that wraps up the second segment for today's episode. Coming up in the third segment, we're going to get into a couple of other things regarding
Starting point is 00:20:32 Megan's a little bit of a look ahead to the game against the Washington Capitol. So stick around for that coming up in this final segment. All right, I'm back on this episode of the Lockdown Penguins podcast. I'm your host, Honore Hodes. We're going to follow me on Twitter at Hunter Hodes. You can also follow the shows, Twitter, at Eleanor Henguins. And, of course, thank you all so much for making this your first listen of the day. So big game coming up on Wednesday.
Starting point is 00:20:57 I'm going to do a full preview for the game against the Capitals on Tuesday, but just looking ahead a little bit to it. That's the Capitol's team, basically 5 and 6 and 2 at this point. Kind of the same issues, though they're a lot more banged up right now. But Ovechkin, he's still scoring, but outside of that, he's not really doing anything. Backstrom's hurt. Wilson's hurt. John Carlson's been hurt.
Starting point is 00:21:16 Carl Haglin, obviously, he's probably not going to ever play again, and I hate that for him just because he's a former penguin. Darcy Kemper hasn't been as good to start of the season, although there's been a lot of talk about Peter Lobby. Let's job being in jeopardy from some of the capscans that I talked to. So that game should be really interesting. You know, I'd say it's uncharacteriously early because the penguins played the capals for the first time last year of November 14th,
Starting point is 00:21:40 which is the day before my birthday, and they got smoked. I think that was the game when Crosby came back from, COVID, and they were still a little bit dutted from that, and then they just got absolutely crushed in that game. But, you know, that's a big one. You don't want this losing treat to get to eight in a row. I know the Capitals are still reeling a bit right now, but they're playing the Edmonton Oilers tonight at Capitol One Arena. So I'll be curious to watch that one a little bit and see if they're able to win that game and have some positive momentum coming into that game. Other Penguins News and Tidbits, Philip Hollander was recalled today. I'm not really sure if he's
Starting point is 00:22:14 going to be getting into that game on Wednesday. It looks like Teddy Bluger might be good to go. He hasn't been activated off long-term IA. The reason why he wasn't able to be activated off of it yet, according to Taylor Haas, I believe it was because of their cap situation. That just goes to show how awful their cap situation is right now. The fact that he wasn't even able to be activated for that game against Seattle
Starting point is 00:22:39 just because of their cap, it's been horrendous. They send Drew O'Connor back to Wilkesbury on Sunday. And Taylor also said at Blue Grives, they were going to come off of the LTIAR. Both Doc and Sam Poulan will have to go down so far. Poulan has not gone down, but the Hollander came up. I would have to soon Poulan would go down tomorrow, but I'm not really sure. So hopefully he'll be able to make his season debut on Wednesday. I think Jeff Carter has been back practicing with the team.
Starting point is 00:23:12 He's taking full contact. would not be surprised to see him back in the lineup. If he's not back for that game, I would assume he'll be back for either the Toronto game or Montreal game. The players, I mean, they're all saying the right things. They think they're going to come out of it soon. They're working on the power play. You know, they're keeping in good spirits.
Starting point is 00:23:28 I mean, that's all you can do at this point. But, you know, talk is also cheap. You know, you got to go out there and start proving it. You know, I'm curious to see some lineup changes if there's going to be some. If I had to guess, I don't think Brian Duman's going to be on the top hearing on Wednesday against Washington. I think they're going to go with either P.O. Joseph and Marcus Pedersen. And speaking of P.O.J, I did not include him in my first segment, but I will now.
Starting point is 00:23:50 He's been great. You know, I didn't really expect much of him coming into this season because I didn't think he had that good of a camp and not good of a preseason. But he was electric or he has been electric to start this season. I can really see his confidence growing game after game after game. He's moving the puck a lot more flawlessly up the ice. He's getting good chances in the offensive zone, really defending his own blue line well. the minutes that he's playing with Ruta have been really solid so far. I still want to see Ty Smith up here at some point.
Starting point is 00:24:17 I know some fans have been telling me to just scratch Dune and call Ty Smith up. That'd be great. You know, I get to see Ty Smith and POJ in the lineup. I think that would kind of be a best of both worlds. And you can put someone like Marcus Pedersen up with Crystal Tang. I think that would be really intriguing. I don't think Mike Sullivan's going to do that, though. But I do think it would be a fascinating situation for them, to say the least.
Starting point is 00:24:41 If I had to guess, I think Pedersen will be up on the top pairing on Wednesday if Doommoon does get to moated. And people keep asking me, you know, is he going to be healthy scratched and all this stuff? My answer, no. I think the Penguins and Mike Sullivan may have too much respect for him. I think they want to see him get himself right. And I think they want him to try and play through this. Just probably not on the top pairing. If you want to give him shelter minutes with Yon Ruta, that's probably fine.
Starting point is 00:25:07 I don't think he's going to hurt you as much. I mean, I know they were doing that with John Ruta. know they were doing that with Jack Johnson, and Jack Johnson's a way worse version of Brian Newman. I think at this point, I've seen people comparing Newman to Jack Johnson. And, you know, I know Duhlin's been bad. It ain't Jack Johnson level bad. At least that's how I see it. But maybe I'm done with that.
Starting point is 00:25:26 But if I had a guess, I think they're going to go with Pedersen up there. I think hopefully you will see Smith go up with Petrie and then Dumlin down with Januta. Maybe Chabrewoodle comes in, something like that. I'm not too sure, though. But, you know, they were doing some drills in practice where Peartreland. Patterson was up on the top hearing with Latang. So it looks like they are open to some changes with that. I would love to see Ricardo.
Starting point is 00:25:46 Raquel go up with Sydney Crosby again. I think he's a much better fit at this point than compared to Rust. I think Rust and Malkin worked really well together. So, you know, those are really the changes that I guess I would make. I mean, Teddy Bluger, Jeff Carter, if they're both in the lineup, you'll see Carter at third line center, Blugger, fourth line center. I'm not really sure if Archibald is going to play at this point. He's still a bit banged up.
Starting point is 00:26:09 He hasn't really been practicing. If I had a guess, probably not, which is probably why you saw the Philip Hollander call up today. So the bottom six is just going to be, you know, just a weird, you know, it's just going to be musical chairs for a little before they find some sort of combinations. To wrap up the show, I don't think you're going to see too many trades at this point just because there's not much cap space. Mike Sullivan is not going to get fired.
Starting point is 00:26:35 I think a lot of fans have just been too reactionary when it comes to that. I understand that he's been here for a while, but you all saw what the Fenway Sports Group thought of Mike Sullivan. Earlier this offseason when he was extended, right? He is not going to get fired for the rest of the season. If there's going to be a change that is made, it is going to be Ron Hextall slash Pion Burr, especially if this continues.
Starting point is 00:26:58 I would almost bet my life saves at this point that Mike Sullivan is not fired. So that's how I see it. I think it's just up to the players in Mike Sullivan at this point to get this back on track. And we'll have to see if they're able to do that on Wednesday. That wraps up this episode of the Lockdown Penguins podcast. I really appreciate all of you listening to this one. I'll be back with another episode for you all on Tuesday.
Starting point is 00:27:20 We'll be doing a full preview of that game against Washington going into their lines, looking at their performance from the game against Edmond. I'll probably be watching that a little bit tonight just because I'm obviously living in the area. So I get whatever their channel is with Joe Beninani and Craig Lofin. So I'll be checking that out. So look for that episode.
Starting point is 00:27:37 coming for you all tomorrow again thank you all so much for listening to this one and I'll talk with you all on Tuesday

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