dude...
injuries.. no one wants them.. especially at this time of year when every team is poised to make a big push for a playoff run...
its trade deadline time.. the silly season in the nhl... some teams holding salary-dump fire sales... psstt.. ottawa.. others buying up rent-a-players as fast as the can.. ducks.. buffalo.. colorado, st. louis..
about the penguins...
the team is doing remarkably well considering all the injuries to their core group of guys.. 4th overall in the eastern conference...we prolly wont catch the flyers.. but with more points than boston and keeping pace with tampa bay - ranked 3rd & 2nd respectively - we can still hold our heads up and be proud..
but this cant go on... losing in OT or in the shoot-out night after night may get you a point... but it doesnt win stanley cups...
what to do....
lets make a deal! or two...
goligoski to dallas for neal and niskanen...
a conditional draft pick to ottawa for alexei kovalev..
they say the devil is in the details... soooo...
goligoski is an aggressive d-man.. a goal scorer.. a stanley cup winner... hes young and has the ability to win another cup.. point to dallas..
neal will add some offense and niskanen is a good stay at home d-man... except when he turns the puck over at his own blue-line in ot... d'oh!
pittsburgh needs goal scorers and arguably a good homer defense-man... not the best deal perhaps, but enough to get into the playoffs.. no points...
niskanen and neal each have a year left on their contracts so the penguins have some options at the end of june... point to pittsburgh..
kovalev has been here before... welcome home buddy...
hes an unrestricted-free-agent at the end of this season and odds are hes retired or in the khl after that... so a conditional draft pick is no biggy... point to pittsburgh..
will the penguins miss goligoski going forward? absolutely...
but desperate times call for desperate measures... the list of injured penguins seems to get longer every game...
but mario lemieux is happy with all this and ray shero is an awesome general manager....
in shero we trust...
go penguins...
arron asham, mike comrie, sidney crosby, eric goddard (suspended), dustin jeffrey, nick johnson, chris kunitz, mark letestu, gino malkin, paul martin, brooks orpik, and eric tangradi..
boys, get well soon..
~ cheers... david
