Locked On Penguins - Daily Podcast On The Pittsburgh Penguins - Young players starting to make their mark at Penguins training camp

Episode Date: September 19, 2024

Day two of training camp is in the books and a couple of young players have begun to emerge. Patrick is once again joined by Hunter as he takes a break from his vacation to talk about the first two days of training camp, funny quotes from Evgeni Malkin, and more! Then Hunter gives his take on what he's hoping to see from the Penguins this training camp. Finally, according to a new players' poll, Sidney Crosby is still one of the best leaders in the game!Support Us By Supporting Our Sponsors!eBay MotorsFor parts that fit, head to eBay Motors and look for the green check. Stay in the game with eBay Guaranteed Fit at eBayMotors.com. Let’s ride. eBay Guaranteed Fit only available to US customers. Eligible items only. Exclusions apply.GametimeDownload the Gametime app, create an account, and use code LOCKEDONNHL for $20 off your first purchase. Terms apply. Download Gametime today. What time is it? Gametime.FanDuelNow through September 22nd, ALL FanDuel customers can bet FIVE DOLLARS and get a THREE WEEK free trial of NFL Sunday Ticket from YouTube and YouTube TV. Visit FANDUEL.COM to get started. IndeedStill searching for a great candidate for your company? Don’t search, just match–with Indeed.Claim your SEVENTY-FIVE DOLLAR CREDIT now at Indeed.com/LOCKEDON. Terms and conditions apply. Need to hire? You need Indeed. FANDUEL DISCLAIMER: 21+ in select states. First online real money wager only. Bonus issued as nonwithdrawable free bets that expires in 14 days. Restrictions apply. See terms at sportsbook.fanduel.com. Gambling Problem? Call 1-800-GAMBLER or visit FanDuel.com/RG (CO, IA, MD, MI, NJ, PA, IL, VA, WV), 1-800-NEXT-STEP or text NEXTSTEP to 53342 (AZ), 1-888-789-7777 or visit ccpg.org/chat (CT), 1-800-9-WITH-IT (IN), 1-800-522-4700 (WY, KS) or visit ksgamblinghelp.com (KS), 1-877-770-STOP (LA), 1-877-8-HOPENY or text HOPENY (467369) (NY), TN REDLINE 1-800-889-9789 (TN) Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

Another day of training camp is in the books. And joining us from the beach today to talk about some training camp happenings is the one and only Hunter Hodes. We're going to talk about training camp day two and more on this edition of the locked on penguins podcast. Your 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 edition of the Locked on Penguins podcast.

I'm one of your host, Patrick Damp. You can follow me on Twitter at Synonym 4 Wet, joined once again by my partner in crime from the beach, the one and only Hunter Hodes. You can follow him on Twitter at Hunter Hodes. You can give our show's account a follow at L0 underscore Penguins. And of course, thank you for making this part of your daily routine.

Don't forget that we are free and available wherever you get your podcasts as well as YouTube. And before we jump into it today, episode is brought to you by Fandul. Now through September 22nd, all Fandual customers can bet $5 and get a three-week free trial of NFL Sunday ticket from YouTube and YouTube TV. Visit Fandul.com to get started. Well, Hunter, you look sufficiently cooked. You look like you are ready and rejuvenated to jump back on the show next week when you return from your vacation.

But because you are just like me, just like a lot of our listeners. an absolute and total sicko. You're taking some time away from the beach to talk about some training camp hockey. And before we get into all of the nitty gritty stuff, some of the observations from the first two days on the ice, we're going to do some off ice stuff because we're getting close to Friday. You're on vacation. Why not have a little bit of fun?

And Evgeny Malkin just remains one of the funniest human beings to ever exist. in the history of the Pittsburgh Penguins. He's one of the five funniest players in the league today. That quote earlier this week where he was talking about Crosby, like the chicken parmesan, the Caesar salad. It's like, okay, Gino, how many times have you been forced to have that meal? Because the way he said it, just the tone of it was hilarious. Every time he speaks to the media, he delivers one heck of a quote,

so many great jokes. It feels like he gets funnier, the older he gets. And today was no different, had a couple of great quotes, which you're going to get to in a second. But he really is just a blast overall. And I think before I say the couple of quotes here, I do think this is a net positive for the penguins just because we know how tense this atmosphere is going to be this year. Two straight years of missing the postseason, two straight years of questions of whether or not this core of players still has it. And obviously we know from watching the on-ice product the first two days that this camp has been one with intensity and a lot of energy so far. So they understand the assignment.

But the fact that these guys can still quip and have a little bit of fun with it shows that they're in a solid headspace. So let's get to those quotes. First, when he was asked about his personal expectations for this year, he made no bones about it. Score two goals. Really shooting for the moon, former Rocket Richard winner of Kenny Malkin. And then he says about expectations for the season. He said, it's funny how when me and Sid both play 82 games,

we miss the playoffs. Maybe I miss one game this year. So I really think that Sid's superstitions have rubbed off on him because he sees a trend. They play 82 games and miss the playoffs. Well, I guess that trend's not working. so we might as well not play 82 games this year. So if you play all 81 games, make the playoffs, Chino,

and then you maybe sit out game 82 if it has no meaning, that could work for you, right? I mean, that could be something that maybe he works towards this year. He plays all 81 games, penguins, you know, defy some expectations, clinch a playoff spot. And then, you know, he sits out game 82 along with some of the regulars. I think that makes sense from that standpoint as well. But, you know, I love the quote that he also had about since. Indy Crosby, he said he signed here.

I knew it would happen. But again, we don't want to be here just playing. We want to be here and win. It's better for the team, better for the organization. I think Kyle had a great job this summer. He tried to change the team a little bit. I don't want to be here just for the next two years just to like play my game, score 500 goals. I want to be here to win and I want to help this team make the playoffs.

So again, even though Kyle Dubas in the front office have kind of changed tune over last year in change, have gone full steam ahead with this retool. many, you know, we build as well. Evgeny Malkin's not really looking at it from that perspective. Sure, he sees the moves that Jumis has made and he's happy with them, but he still is very much under the impression that, yeah, I want to get back to the playoffs. I hate ending my season in early April. I want to be playing throughout the month of April and the month of May, maybe somehow

in the month of June, excuse me, if this team's able to get back to the Stanley Cup final, even though these guys have already won so much already, they're not close to satisfied. Yeah, and you kind of took what I was going to say next about that, that actual serious, Gino quote, which I think is the good balance because you're going from them quipping and having a little bit of fun and, you know, telling some jokes, but they still understand the assignment. They know that this isn't a farewell tour. This isn't them just sticking around and hanging out to have some fun with their buddies and, you know,

right off into the sunset together. they still very much have a passion for this. They still very much want to win in Penguins uniforms. And I'm encouraged to see that. And speaking of Evgeny Malkin, we're seeing some very encouraging signs early on. Now, obviously, Kelsey and I talked about this yesterday. It's two days into camp. It's really difficult to really read into anything that might be happening on the ice

because we're still getting things figured out. We haven't had game action yet. So this is really just them throwing whatever they can at the wall and seeing what sticks as they get ready for Saturday's first preseason game in Buffalo. But one of the things that Sullivan loves to do in training camp is not so much lines when it comes to forwards, but pairings. And he's going with a couple that we are very familiar with, and that's Crosby and Rust, but also,

Evgeny Malkin and Ricard Raquel. And from all reporting on the ground at UPMC Lemieux, Malkin and Raquel are finding their stride together again. And I think if that continues to work, they redevelop that chemistry. I think we see a big bounce back for Ricard Raquel. You add in the chemistry that was already developed with Michael Bunting near the end of last season. We might have a second line here that's in business. No, I agree. And I do think that is going to be the second line this season with how great bunting was

at the end of the season. He formed a great partnership on Malkin's left wing. I expect Bunting to be there for the full 24-25 season. And with Raquel, you saw him also start to turn it around at least a little bit at the end of the season. He was getting his mojo back. He was getting his scoring touchback. He was finally finishing off those chances that again, Malkin was creating for him during the early parts of the season and kind of the middle parts of the season. But Raquel was just not finishing those chances just because he really wasn't having that good of the season. But you saw that start to change a little bit at the end of the season. I'm not really too surprised that Malkin and Raquel are together in camp just because of the chemistry

they've already had. Even before this past season, they were playing together during the 22, 23 season. They were playing pretty well together during that time. Sure, Raul was also getting minutes with Crosby, and they were playing pretty well together, but he was also still getting time with Malkin as well. So I'm not surprised that the two are paired together during training camp. I expect that to continue throughout this week and in the weeks to come. And you're also kind of seeing the same thing with other pairings as well. You know, with Team 1, for example. You have Rosten Crosby, no surprise there.

That's going to be a pairing throughout the regular season. You also have someone like Anthony Bavillier. He's been getting time with Sidney Crosby. I'm curious to see if that sticks a bit throughout training camp. Again, I don't think Bovillier is going to win that top left spot on Crosby's wing, but I'm still intrigued that he's getting an opportunity to at least start camp this week. Yeah, I can really see an opportunity. opening up for Bavillier on that top line.

Like you, I'm skeptical that it's going to stick throughout the season, but you look at how he played in years past, especially with somebody like Matt Barsall, who he had solid chemistry with. There is similarities between Crosby's game and Barsall's game. Obviously, Cid is a whole heck of a lot better. But when you really break down the way those two centers play the game, there is some similarity there.

And if it worked there, the theory of the case is that it should work here. One last thing before we head to our second segment might not be the best of news for one Jesse Poyarvi. This is a guy who came in last year. We had some high hopes for him. Thought he played fairly well down the stretch, but has really never been able to live up to the billing of where he was drafted. And by the looks of it, again, can't dig too much. much into it because it's day two. Things could change. Guys could break out.

Guys could slump. Who knows. But his deployment, this camp so far, has mostly just been with minor league guys who we're going to see in the HL and in the ECHL. So early returns on Paul Yarvey right now show that he might not have a fit on this NHL roster this season. It's mainly just because of the law of Jamman Florida right now. And I do agree. I thought Paul Yarvey was at least fine down the stretch last year. He had some games where I felt like he was really starting to turn their corner, but then there were other games where you could see he was still getting his feet wet again a little bit. He was getting that conditioning back a little bit as well.

I would not be surprised to see him start the season in Wilkesbury, considering how many NHL caliber forwards they have right now, the Penguins main roster, that is. But I still won't be surprised if he does make the main roster, just because, again, it's really only day two of camp. We haven't played any preseason games yet. The games are what really matter to me. Yeah, you can play well in practice, but let's see how you do during games as well. That's going to be the main kicker with me for poor y'allri. And also, just want to mention this to everyone. I saw some people kind of grumbling about, oh, why is Nootari on Team 4 to start training camp? Could this be some trade base, something like that? Well, you saw the news about, you know, his kid. He was promoted to Team 3 a little bit after Dame 1. So it seems like everything is fine with that regard. No one else really needs. needs to be in the back too much right now. Yeah, not a whole lot to glean from that, I would agree.

And I'm right there with you. The games are what matter, especially because we're going on a heightened level from the Prospects Challenge, where these are now officially players fighting for NHL jobs. So the competition will be heightened. The hockey may not be the greatest equality, but at the end of the day, it is still guys fighting to make a national hockey league roster. But that will do it for our opening segment. when we return because I'm such a great co-host and teammate.

I already gave some thoughts on what I'm going to be looking for in this training camp, and I can't be the only one on this podcast doing that. Hunter's going to give us some of his thoughts of what he's going to have his eyes on over the next couple weeks as we progress through training camp and the preseason. But before we do that, we have to tell you about our first sponsor, and that is Fandul. You've heard us talk a lot about Fandul, America's number one sportsbook.

Well, now we have something just a little bit different for you. Now through September 22nd, all Fandul customers can bet $5 and get a three-week free trial of NFL Sunday ticket from YouTube and YouTube TV. I have NFL Sunday ticket through YouTube TV and I got to tell you that quad box on Sundays. Absolutely beautiful. Makes my football watching that much better and really helps me track my Sunday football bets. Then with a YouTube TV base plan, you'll be able to watch every regular season Sunday afternoon out of market game. need as a Google account and a current form of payment and you can cancel anytime. Just visit Fandule.com and download America's number one sports book. All right, welcome back to the Thursday

edition of the Locked-on Penguins podcast. I'm one of your host, Patrick Damp, joined from the beach by my co-host Hunter Hodes. And like I was saying, right before we threw it to break, earlier this week, right before training camp opened. I gave some of my thoughts on what I was looking for, what I wanted to see out of this training camp. Chief among them was I wanted to see some creativity from head coach Mike Sullivan. We kind of know who the main players are going to be, but we have, like Hunter said, a log jam of forward. So I would love to see some creativity from him putting certain players in certain situations

with other combinations just to really find out what you have on your roster. Along with that, I wanted to see some of the development goalies, the guys like Sergey Murshov, Joelle Blumquist, among others, get more looks just to really see where they are in their development. But Hunter, I turn the floor over to you. What are some of the things you're looking for out of this training camp in preseason? I think the main thing for me is I want to see some of these younger players start to take that next step in their development.

You know, someone like Ballarat Houston, I really liked his game for a good bit last year. I want to see him take that next step and just develop. even more as a goal score throughout camp and throughout the preseason. We all know how great his release is on the Penguins. I think it's one of the best releases on the team. I want to see him use it even more throughout camp in the preseason. Because that could potentially be a good omen for the regular season. I think he's going to get, if I had to guess,

30-9 minutes this year overall on the Penguins, if he makes the team, again, I want to see what he can do now that he has kind of almost a full year in the NHL under his belt overall. I also want to see, again, I've been saying this for a while, well, what can Rutger McGority do? I think he was one of their best players during the Prospects challenge over this past week. I think it's been a bit of a slow start to camp for him, but I don't want anyone to worry about that. It's only been two days.

A lot can change between now and the start of the regular season in a few weeks. I do think stuff will change. But if it doesn't, it's also not the end of the role because this is still a player who I think has a good long-term future with his team. I also want to see someone like Ponomerov continue the next step in his development. I also thought he was one of the Penguins' best prospects during the Prospects challenge. You can even make an argument that he was better than McGority. I would probably be in that camp. I thought McGority was toying with players in at least one of the three games.

But Ponomerov, I thought, was great in all of the games for the Penguins. He looks like he's going to be making an impact at some point in the NHL this year. It may not be at the start of the season, but I do think it's going to come at some point during the season. He looks just about NHL ready to me overall. So the main young guys overall, again, I want to see how the summer was for someone like Ryan Graves. I'm not expecting him to just, you know, prove everyone wrong this year after how bad he was last year. I mean, I kind of want him to take baby steps first, but I want to see how his mindset is heading into this camp. He's been taking some rushes with Jack St. Iven.

I think it's going to be the bottom pairing to start the season. How do they mesh together? That's going to be something that I watch as well. And then also in the goaltending situation, you know, who, Who is going to take charge and at least behind Adelkevich and Jari and really show that, okay, you deserve, you know, more minutes in Wilkesbury. Maybe it's not. Maybe it's someone behind Blumquist, of course, because I think he's going to be getting a good chunk of the starts there. But who is going to take charge and get those starts behind him?

Is it going to be Murashav? Is it going to be Gaudi? Is it going to be Larson? That's something like that I really want to follow as well. So those, I think, are the main storylines that I'm looking for in this camp. I'm looking for that compete level for these forward spots. I'm really excited to see who is going to win those jobs in camp considering. I mean, there's at least, I would say, two to three open slots down there in the bottom six.

The rest, I would say, are kind of filled in. In the top six, you really have that one spot on Cindy Crosby's left wing. Who is going to come in here and kind of take charge with that? Those are the main things I'm looking for with this camp overall. Yeah. To add to some of the points you were making, first of all, off for guys like Valteri Pustinen, by all accounts, and again, I'm going to say it to the point where people are going to get sick of it. It's two days into training camp. It's only been

practices and scrimmages so you can't glean a whole ton, but he has really apparently shown that he understands the gravity of the situation so far going into this camp, that he is going to have to earn a spot on this team. He's not going to just be gifted it because he has some experience under his belt. We saw all the moves Kyle Dubus has made this summer. He clearly wants there to be a lot of competition in the bottom six. It's not just going to be, okay, we have seven or eight, maybe nine players who could theoretically play in a bottom six role and four or five of them are pretty much

guaranteed a spot. There are a lot of spots up for grabs right now in the bottom six. and through the first two days, Valteri Pustinen has done by all accounts very well. And then the same thing goes for Ponomerov. He has looked really good in the Prospects challenge. And Mike Sullivan and his media availability today went out of his way to talk about how much he's been impressed by the work ethic of Ponomerev

and what he's been bringing to the table, which kind of dovetails into the thing. I was saying earlier this week about wanting to see some creativity from Mike Sullivan. We know for better or for worse outside of his first two years, he has been hesitant to use younger guys. But going out of your way to praise a few of them on day two of training camp tells me that he's not afraid now to use some of these guys. Now, I think part of that is in service of there actually is finally some young talent in

this system. We kind of talked ourselves into a lot of the young guys that the penguins had over the past few years. Were they going to be difference makers more likely no than yes? But now you look at the difference just a couple years later. These are guys who can make a difference. Are they going to be superstars? Are they going to be cracking the top of the lineup? Highly unlikely. But they're guys who can make an NHL roster and be impact players somewhere in your lineup. So excited to see that. And I'm right with you on the competition part of it because this is something that will push this team to another level this year.

They can't just be complacent and think, okay, I made the penguins. We've got Sidney Crosby, Fgeny Malkin, Chris LaTang, Eric Carlson. This is a team that if as long as I make it, they got a chance. No, you're going to have to battle for this. This is a team that's missed the playoffs two straight years. So there has to be a level of competition in desperation in this training camp. Oh, 100%. I mean, you look across the Eastern Conference.

It's going to be a wild chase yet again, I think, this year. You have a lot of very good teams at the top of this conference. I think at least in terms of the Metropolitan Division, I think the three locks for me are the Rangers, devils, and the Hurricanes. I might get a little bit of flag for the Devils, but I think when healthy, they're one of the three best teams in that division. and they finally have the goaltending now. I think in the Atlantic, if I had to pick right now, I'd probably go Boston, Florida,

in either Toronto or Tampa Bay, one of those three. And then you have everyone else kind of fighting for wild card spots. You know, the islanders are going to be right back there. The capitals are going to be right there. You have, again, if it's not Toronto or Tampa, fighting out in that three spot, that other team is going to be buying for that fourth spot. And then you also have Ottawa trying to take another step. You got Buffalo trying to take a big step.

And I think if Buffalo doesn't take that big step this year, I think you're going to see big changes to that organization. So you have the penguins obviously trying to get back to the playoffs, the Red Wings as well. You have the flyers in there. This is going to be a very fun race this year. But again, as you said, it all starts now with this competition and training camp. And this could hopefully, you know, breed into success overall for this regular season. And just for, I want to put this out there too.

I hope no one is weirdly concerned about Eric Carlson missing the first two days of training camp. I'm sure it's something very small. or just being cautious about it. I'm sure he will be in the opening night lineup when early October comes around. It's always the joke that I make this time of year. Yes, there probably is some sort of nagging injury or something minor,

but it also could very well be a case of veteran reporting to Campitis, where you know who I am, you know what I can do, I don't need to be out here putting myself in harm's way on day one and two, just because we have more important things to do than look good in practice in mid-September. But I think that's going to do it for our second segment. You now know what both Hunter and I are looking for at training camp because you were so curious. Don't you lie to yourselves about that when we come back, though, speaking of competition and setting the tone, Sydney Crosby, when you ask some of the NHL's players,

still one of the best leaders in the game today. We're going to talk about that and a couple other things from an NHL player poll that dropped this week. And before we do that, we're going to tell you about our second sponsor, and that is game time. This is the absolute best time of the sports calendar. You've got the NHL coming back.

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That's Hunter Hodes. Thank you, as always, for joining us and making us part of your daily routine. We truly appreciate. it. So right before we finished our second segment, I brought up the athletics, NHL player poll, which they conduct throughout the NHLPA media tours that happen both here and across the pond for North American and European fans. And there's some things that we'll dive into quickly at the end. But there is one big thing that stood out to me and probably stood out to all Penguins fans. One of the questions asked to these players,

and there were 35 votes cast in this question, and that is, which captain, other than your own, would you most like to play with? Getting 34.3% of the vote, Euler's captain Connor McDavid, and then also getting 34.3% of the vote, Penguins captain, Sydney Crosby. So we have been vocal on this show that

Sydney Crosby, top five player of all time, but when you dig into the current NHL, it's a little bit more difficult to place him just because of the absolute wealth of talent in the NHL right now. And considering how good some of this new generation has been, it's become more difficult to place them in rankings of current players. But by the sound of it, NHL players, man, the respect is still on Sidney Crosby's name.

And I also think it kind of shows you that Connor McDavid learned a lot watching Sid the last handful of years in the NHL. So really cool honor for Sid and just another little feather in the cap for the captain of the Pittsburgh Penguins. One of the top five best players of all time and still one of the best leaders in today's game. There's a reason people, well, there's numerous reasons people why Crosby is wearing the C on his chest and why he has been wearing that C on his chest. for a very long time. The way that he's able to lead this team both on and off the ice goes well beyond the city of Pittsburgh. So many NHL players notice it. It's why some players, even though the Penguins, you know, I think championship window is basically shut. It's still why players want to come here. They want to play with Sydney Crosby. They want to play

with this core leadership group because of how great it is overall. I mean, you saw the video a few weeks ago someone put it out there. Heck, I didn't even knew this video existed of, you know, Crosby throwing the 2016 Stanley Cup final just calming everyone down after Chris Kuhnitz missed that wide open net. And he was like, okay, guys, I think he knows. Let's not be total, you know, excuse my language, jackasses about it. And just the way that he was able to just talk to his team in that type of situation, again, it's one of many reasons why he is such a great leader, you know, on and off the ice. And I don't see this sort of poll, you know, changing any time soon.

Heck, I don't see him changing from being, you know, one of the best leaders in the sport to one of the worst leaders in the sport at all. That's never going to happen. I mean, he carries himself with such incredible class that, again, that he's going to go down, I think, as one of the best leaders this sport has ever seen as well. Yeah, he absolutely will. And I mean, you just hear the stories about it all the time, just how driven he is. I mean, I know, I think it was, I can't remember the name of the podcast. I don't think it was chicklets, but it very well may have been, correct me in the comments, listeners, but they had Gary Roberts on the show.

And he was talking about how when he was with the Penguins, he got to the rink early. It was him and Brooks Orpick. They were about to go into the gym and have a workout. And Roberts was like, were the only two guys on this team that are doing these kind of workouts? and then he could hear skates cutting into the ice and pucks hitting the boards. And he goes, who the hell's on the ice right now? And they go look and it's Sid. And it's just hours at, you know, essentially hours after a game the night before.

And Roberts goes up to him and asks like, hey, what are you doing? And he's basically like, I didn't like my shot last night. So I wanted to get here and work on it. And that's not a one-off thing. That's what he does. And that's the standard that he sets when you come to the Pittsburgh Penguins. You're not going to be able to just rest on your talent or rest on certain successes you have throughout the season. You are going to be held to account and have to build on them.

One other thing, a couple of other things actually before we wrap up here that I wanted to touch on from the player poll was there was a question of should the NHL implement a back court violation in three on three overtime? Overwhelming no answer from the players, 74.3%. I agree with this. I look at it this way. Instead of making it five minutes and going to the shootout, make it 10 minutes, you're going to get a winner. Because guys are going to wear down, guys are going to take risks.

You're eventually going to be able to find a winner in this. And there will be times when penalties are taken and power plays come in. So rather than putting in some new back court violation for overtime, just play for five more minutes, find a winner. and we know how coaching in the NHL is. You put in some sort of back court violation or some sort of other deterrent, so to speak, coaches are going to find a way around it.

Oh, 100%. And if you were to put that in, I'm just like, I feel like three on three, it's just going to get even more boring than it already is. At least just that's how I see it. I understand why some people want the back court thing to kind of come in just because some guys get really tired. when you know how you keep you go into the offensive zone you don't like what you see you come back out you try it again right you know that that extends the shift of the players that are defending the players that are coming into the zone with the puck on their stick right but i still just don't see how you're going to fix it by doing this backward violation thing i'm in complete agreement with you if you want to see less shootouts even more now do 10 minutes of three on three players will adjust to it i think you'll see some shorter shifts overall with this

And I also think it's just, I think it's going to be more fun if you do it for 10 minutes of three on three. You will, I would bet a good chunk of money. You would see a winner in 99.999% of games if it was a 10 minute three on three. I would be stunned if games went to shootouts after 10 minutes of three on three. You would see some shootouts, but it would not be many at all. Or at the very least, if you do want to make a role change, take the loser. or point away. Make it so you have to earn a point. But I digress on that last one real quick, that I am stunned at the results on this one. They asked, should NHL officials speak to reporters

after the game? Overwhelming, yes, answer. It's 62.9%. And absolutely, the best one that we, the best league that does this is the NBA with the two minute report, where at the very least, the officials have to explain what they saw, why they called it, and leave it at that. And we know that with replay and challenges now, the NHL has said they are going to be somewhat committed to getting the calls right. So if that's the case, at the very least, you need to hold these officials to an account and have them say, this is what we saw, this is why we called it. Even if it, even if it isn't a post-game press conference, just take the NBA two-minute

report and just say, this is what we saw. This is why we called it. You may not like it. You may not agree with it. But this is why it happened. 100% man. I cannot agree with you more. I absolutely hate how like the NHL reps just come off is so smug.

Like just with the calls they make. And then like when a player tries to question them about it or like a coach, they'll just like tell that person to screw off and all that stuff. And it's like, no, if it's a bad call, you should be forced to answer it after the game to the media and the reporters that are at the game. I just, that needs to change ASAP. I don't know if it's going to just because of how Bill Daly and Gary Bettman run this league, but it should.

The refs need to answer for some bad calls that go on during games. The NHL officiating gets worse every year. I expected to get even worse this year. That's how it's been in the NFL these last few years. I don't think it's going to change in the NHL at all. But yes, 100 percent, they need to answer to the media after every single game, especially when there's one with a controversial call or two. Absolutely.

But as you can see, if you're watching on YouTube, Hunter has his aviators back on. So that means it's beach time for him. So we're not going to keep him from getting some more sun before he takes off and flies back to Pittsburgh on Friday. So that will do it for the Thursday edition of the Locked-on Penguins podcast. I will be back tomorrow with another episode. We're going to get you set for the first preseason game on. Saturday in Buffalo as well as talk a little bit more about what we're seeing for training camp. But for now, for Hunter Hodes, I'm Patrick Damp.

Thank you as always for tuning in and we'll talk to you again on Friday.