Penguins lose final two heading into the break.

The Penguins lost their final two games heading into the Olympic break. The good news is they managed to get a point out of both games. The bad news is they continued to play terrible hockey. After watching both of these last two games i have changed my trade deadline priorities. As much as i want to see Crosby and Malkin get a scoring winger to play with, I think a shut down D man would be much more useful to this team now. Our defense can't stop anyone, they leave people stand in front of MAF unchecked, give up odd man breaks constantly, and can't get the puck out of the zone. I understand that the forwards should also be held accountable for a lot of these problems, but a Rob Scuderi type D man would go a long way in curing these problems.

A lot of people will say we need a scoring winger more than a D man pointing to the fact that Crosby and Malkin have been in on 34 of the last 37 goals and have produced better than 35% of the Penguins goals this season even with Malkin having a slow start. I however would argue for the same reasons listed above that we don't need a scoring winger. How many other teams in the league have two players that have put up the numbers Crosby and Malkin have? As long as these two stay healthy and our current wingers start chipping in just a little more this teams offense will be ok.

As someone who loves watching the Penguins adding a scoring winger would be awesome and make the games more exciting to watch. But adding a shut down D man would give us a much better opportunity to win the Cup again this year.

Penguins Trade Watch

It appears Shero made a block buster trade last night shipping Pittsburgh Native Nate Guenin to the St. Louis Blues for defense man Steve Wagner. Both players appear to be career minor leaguers who at best could be a 6th or 7th defense man at the NHL level. Wagner is said to have NHL ready offensive talents but is over matched defensively at the NHL level. I am not sure how this trade benefits either team, but i guess thats why I am not a GM.

Penguins beat Islanders 3-1

The Penguins got a much needed win last night after dropping back to back contests against the Canadians and Capitals. This was a boring game to watch but the end result was a Penguins win. MAF, Chris Kunitz, and Malkin all played solid games, but our defensive effort was lack luster to say the least.

While watching last nights game i was thinking about the idea of trading Feds away for prospects to clear some cap room. I am ok with doing this, but this trade would make Kunitz a necessity to keep. I think i would rather trade Kunitz to clear his salary off the books and let Feds walk after the season is over. This would give the Penguins the necessary money to sign a real scoring winger. However if Kunitz can continue to play like he did last night I would like to keep him (I wouldn't hold my breath).

I hope Shero can make two big moves at the deadline to get us a solid D man and a scoring winger. Wonder what it would take to get Selanne and scott niedermayer from the ducks. These two would certainly bolster the roster up, but you wonder what you would have to give up to get to aging rent-a-players. I would be willing to give up Gogo and a 2nd round pick to make that happen.

Who will be the first Penguin to be Traded?

From what I have been reading it looks like Feds will be traded before the Olympic break for either a draft pick or prospect. the reason the Penguins would make this trade is to clear enough cap room to bring in either a scoring winger or a shut down defense man. After watching the Penguins recent play, it appears they could use both.