Pens Fall 4-3 In Shootout

OK so I detailed out the whole game on KDKA.com earlier today, but obviously in a recap story there's things I can't say to remain as an objective journalist.

That's what this platform is for right?

So here we go.

For one, I am not happy at all with seeing the Pens blow the lead....again.

They did it against the Capitals last Sunday, they did it against the Rangers the other night and they did it not once, not twice, but THREE times today against the Predators.

Good Lord.

This has been a problem for months and if the Pens were as explosive as they are, I'm not so sure they're one point out of the Atlantic Division lead.

Crosby got his 42nd goal of the season to open the scoring and Brooks Orpik got his first goal in 112 games to break a 2-2 tie in the third.

Fleury made some nice saves throughout the game to keep the Pens in the game, but surrendered goals against Martin Erat and Cal O'Reilly in the shootout.

Kris Letang and Crosby were denied by Dan Ellis and that was that.

I'd go into more detail, but there's really no point.

The effort wasn't there for 60 minutes and the Pens are lucky to get a point.

Their next game isn't until March 2, due to the Olympic break.

Now, going back to the other day I meant to tell this gem of a story, but figured I'd save it.

On Friday, I took my wife down to the Mellon Arena to go get autographs after the morning skate.

It was freezing out there, but she was a trooper and went along to help out and use her charm to help score some more signatures.

I will go on the record and say, I do not sell these. I am purely a collector and am not just going down there to make a buck like some other people I see there.

Anyway, we get to the arena around 11 a.m. and the players start filing out shortly before noon.

For those doing the math, that's 45 minutes roughly and did I mention it was freezing out there and we were standing in a snowbank to be up near the front of the line? No? Well there you go.

Why is any of this relevant?

Some girl from south Florida was there gushing her Pens knowledge. I'm OK with hearing other stories from fans and such, but here's where I draw the line.

There's four types of fans in this world.

1- Bandwagon - No explanation needed.

2 - Casual - The follow the team and sport, but don't know stats and wouldn't recognize any of the players on the street if they bumped into them.

3 - Die Hard - I throw myself into this. We have rituals and routines and know more about the team than we probably should and for no good reason.

It's been documented on here before that I haven't changed clothes or shaved for a period of time because the team was winning.

During the playoffs I only shaved after every playoff round because of work and work alone.

I had a daily routine that somehow kept spreading to all facets of my life, down to what songs I would listen to and from which bands and in what order during the playoffs.

If this sounds like OCD, it probably is, but when I veered away from the plan the Pens lost. Every time. When I nailed my 24 hour routine, they won, 16 times and hoisted the Stanley Cup.

4 - Obsessive and Ignorant - These are the types of people who think the world revolves around them. They think their team will always win even when the team sucks and is in last place and out of contention.

These are also the same individuals who think they know everything about the player's personal lives.

Ladies and gentlemen, this woman outside the Igloo on Friday was No. 4 and had a voice that I would prefer Fran Drescher to.

My wife is more a hybrid of options two and three and it's only because of me. As such, she was even getting pissed at this girl.

This girl and her friend were chatting (non-stop) for the entire time we were there. I don't think she took a breath.

If that wasn't bad enough, she starts talking about rumors about some of the Pens in their personal lives.

I don't claim to know anything about the player's personal lives. I don't really care to know about their personal lives either.

As long as they're good citizens and being productive members of the team, I'm happy.

Not this girl.

One shining example was the topic of Marc-Andre Fleury and his supposed girlfriend. Again, I don't know if he has one, don't care either. I'm certainly not going to waste my time looking it up either to further illustrate the glaring differences between Fans of the third and fourth varieties.

This girl turns to her friend and says "I hear she's not even that pretty either."

I wish I had a picture of this girl to post on here to make this next line even more amusing.

If that wasn't calling the kettle black, I don't know what is.

I'm not trying to be mean, but when you're overweight and your face makes little kids run in fear, don't harp on athletes wives/girlfriends.

It's a known fact that 99% of NHL players have hot significant others. Mike Fisher is engaged to Carrie Underwood for crying out loud. The other one percent either have average looking mates or none at all.

Not trying to sound sexist or anything, but even women athletes bring home good looking guys too, so it goes both ways.

Anyway, the jealously oozing out of this girl was palpable and I'm pretty sure the snow pile around her was melting at an alarming rate anytime Fleury's name came up.

As for the friend, there's a lot of bridges in and around the city of Pittsburgh, but for a couple hours the bridge-keeping troll was not at her post.

So flash forward a little bit, every player that exits the building she's yelling at as they're getting in their cars to come over to us.

On top of that, she's telling anyone in earshot who is going to stop and who isn't. As if this sort of thing is done on a scheduled basis.

She had a sign she made that looked like a 2-year-old had drawn it up and was trying to get the whole team to sign it.

Finally I had enough and moved to the other side of the entrance/exit to the parking lot as Bill Guerin rolls up.

I go over and get his autograph despite the all-knowing psychic predicting that he wouldn't stop.

Again, the main reason I went was to get my Crosby jersey signed so that I could frame it and mount it on my wall.

As Sid pulls up and gets out of his car, she starts yelling "I came all the way from Florida, please sign my sign!!!!"

As Sid was signing my jersey I wanted to be kind and warn him of what he was about to encounter, but there were some other nice people on the other side that deserved a chance to get his signature.

It was also apparent that she thought she was friends with the players because of having met a few for 30 seconds while they signed her pathetic sign.

This girl is the real reason why I hate the obsessive fans as much as bandwagoners. Bandwagoners suck because when the team isn't on top they're jumping on the one who is.

These obsessive/ignorant fans think they know everything and are too blinded by their egos and inner fears of rejection to see things clearly.

Anyway, I hope she had a safe trip back to Florida and I also hope to not run into her again.

Pens Pull Away In 3rd For 5th Straight Win

Am I really sitting here writing about a five-game winning streak for the Penguins?

If the Penguins do go on to make the playoffs, they will be the best prepared team in the conference. Why? They have been playing playoff type hockey since the middle of February. They are approaching every game with a life or death mentality and it's paying off.

Tonights 4-1 win over the Florida Panthers (the 6-seed in the Eastern Conference), was huge. The Rangers also won again tonight, so now there is a three-way tie for the 6-seed.

The Penguins are now one point out of 5th and four points out of fourth thanks to the Flames beating up on the Flyers tonight.

Dan Bylsma is making a serious push to drop the "interim" off his title if you ask me. The team is now 7-1-1 since he took over. Let's also remember that the Pens have not been stellar on the road this season, and they now have won four straight on this five-game road trip. The trip concludes Sunday in Washington.

Some observations tonight:

- The top line of Bill Guerin - Sidney Crosby - Chris Kunitz will be a force. Their timing is just a hair off right now, but that's to be expected. Give them a couple games and practices and things will start to flow much better. A sign of things to come would be Crosby's goal tonight. Guerin hit him in stride and Sid does the rest by splitting the flat-footed defense.

- Some people will claim that the Pens got all the breaks in this game. I could see that to some degree. I don't have the exact number of posts the Panthers hit tonight, but needless to say if a couple of those go in, who knows how the game turns out.

Video Highlights Courtesy Of NHL.com


- Marc-Andre Fleury was brilliant when he needed to be. The lone goal against was kind of flukey. More on that later.

- Tyler Kennedy needs to shoot the puck more. I was unaware that he had as big a cannon as he does. Watch the highlights provided here to see the bomb he dropped on Tomas Vokoun in the third period. His second goal on the one-timer tap-in from Evgeni Malkin was just plain pretty.

- I'm very excited to see Sergei Gonchar quarterbacking the power play with Malkin, Crosby, Petr Sykora and Guerin camping out in front of the net. Guerin might want to invest in a full cage for his helmet though. I love Gonchar's shoot at will mindset, but his accuracy isn't exactly perfect.

- The Panthers' color guy (Denis Potvin I believe) needs an education. Kris Letang got drilled from behind in the second period and Cory Stillman received a penalty for charging. Keep in mind, the hit was FROM BEHIND. Is it a charging call? Debatable, but if you look up penalties in the rule book, you'll see an infraction for "HITTING FROM BEHIND!"


Hockey Penalties: Hitting From Behind -- powered by eHow.com

He redeemed himself later by saying he hated the Penguins powder blue third jerseys. I concur. I don't support this team any less because of the ugly third jerseys, but you won't catch me wearing one.

- Hal Gill was actually effective tonight. At various points in the game he actually dropped to the ice to block a shot and succeeded. At another point the Panthers' announcer claimed Gill hit someone in the corner. I still need video proof, but I like the effort. There was a play in the third period though, where he dropped to a knee and his man spun right around him and drilled the post. To quote Meatloaf "two outta three ain't bad."

Speaking of Hal Gill, it's time to update the Hal Gill Quotient after tonight's game. It's normally a good day when I only have to break down one goal.

Goal #1 - Radek Dvorak fires puck off the bottom of the post, puck flutters into the air off Fleury and barely drops in over the line.

The Panthers dump the puck into the zone and Fleury comes out to play it and is forced to throw it to the near corner. Brooks Orpik is a coasting back into the zone and gets beat to the puck. Crosby chases his man around the net who feeds Dvorak who gets the fortunate bounce.

Points assigned - Orpik gets 0.5 for not hustling back to the puck. Letang gets 0.5 for letting Dvorak get complete body position on him and free to take the shot.

Updated Hal Gill Quotient Standings:

Hal Gill - 4.34 - 10 GP
Marc-Andre Fleury - 4.08 - 11 GP
Ryan Whitney - 3.5 - 6 GP - TRADED
Kris Letang - 3.34 - 8 GP
Sergei Gonchar - 2.75 - 9 GP
Brooks Orpik - 2.75 - 11 GP
Mark Eaton - 2.33 - 11 GP
Jordan Staal - 2.25 - 11 GP
Rob Scuderi - 1.50 - 11 GP
Matt Cooke - 1.0 - 11 GP
Ruslan Fedotenko - 1.0 11 GP
Pascal Dupuis - .83 - 11 GP
Referee Paul Devorski - 0.5 - 1 Game Reffed
Bill Thomas - .33 - 5 GP - WAIVED

Trade Deadline Breakdown

For your reading pleasure, we will be breaking down each trade from today, noting what each trade means for each team and what this tells us about the direction they are going. For the record there were 22 trades today, 41 players getting new addresses, and 21 picks changing hands in the upcoming draft.

Columbus trades Pascal Leclaire and a 2nd round pick to Ottawa for Antoine Vermette

Goph's Take: This was one of the few trades today where both sides come out winners. Ottawa has been searching for a goalie for the past couple of years, and with Steve Mason doing wonders in Columbus, Pascal Leclaire was readily available. As for Columbus, they are looking to make a push to get into the playoffs and Antoine Vermette is a solid role player that has the ability to put the puck in the net every now and then. Solid move for both teams.

Casey's Take: I tend to think that Columbus gave up a bit much to get Vermette here. Leclaire isn't a terrible goalie, but the Senators need something in net to stop pucks. I'm all for them putting up the shooter tutor and playing with the normal five guys on the ice. Columbus gets a good solid gritty veteran to help out in their playoff push. I can't believe I'm putting playoff push and Columbus in the same sentence. Wow.

Calgary trades Lawrence Nycholat, Ryan Wilson, and a 2nd rounder to the Avs for Jordan Leopold.

Casey's Take: The Flames are obviously trying to close the gap between them and the Sharks and Red Wings. This may be a bit much to give up for Leopold, but he will be a solid addition to the team.

Pittsburgh trades Danny Richmond to the Blues for Andy Wozniewski

Casey's Take: Just a minor deal here. Might mean that Ray Shero is not planning on re-signing Hal Gill or Philippe Boucher this summer and thinks Wozniewski and Alex Goligoski will be full-time ready for next season.

Phoenix trades Mikael Tellqvist to the Sabres for a 4th round pick

Casey's Take: This is the best the Sabres could do to bring in a goalie to get them to the playoffs? Or at the very least keep them in the playoff hunt? Color me not impressed.

Justin's Take: Well, I guess Tellqvist beats the crippled goalies the Sabres have over here in Portland, Maine. Not by much though.

Toronto claims Martin Gerber off of waivers from the Senators

Casey's Take: Gerber's fallen off the map of quality goaltenders over the last couple seasons, but maybe without the pressure of making the playoffs in Toronto things will change. With Vesa Toskala on the IR now, I could see a platoon of CuJo and Gerber in Vesa's absence.

Goph's Take: I don't think it hurts the Leafs, and if anything, rolling the dice on Gerber can pay dividends if all he needed was to get out of that toxic fog up in Ottawa. With that said, I don't expect much out of this signing.

Dallas claims Brendan Morrison off of waivers from the Ducks

Casey's Take: Very solid pickup for the Stars. If they have any hope of making the playoffs in the log-jammed Western Conference they need people to get healthy. Morrison could very bridge the gap and provide some help for a team missing big players like Brad Richards and Brendan Morrow.

Goph's Take: I like Morrison, but not as much as some of my fellow bloggers. I think he does better with oodle's of talent around him rather than making others around him look better. He will be much better with this team next year with Morrow back.

Anaheim trades Steve Montador to the Bruins for Petteri Nokelainen

Casey's Take: I'm not surprised the Bruins were pretty quiet on deadline day, but Montador brings a physical presence to the backline and some added depth. Bruins win this trade considering Anaheim has waved the white flag on this season.

Justin's Take: I like the deal for the Bruins in the sense that they get more physical in defense and a little stronger in depth. I want to see what it means for a couple rearguards on the team, Hunwick especially.

Goph's Take: I would actually put the Bruins as one of my winners on the day. They simply solidified their depth chart today which is all they really needed to do. Sometimes less is more, and that is the case here.

Calgary trades Matthew Lombardi, Brandon Prust, and 1st round pick for to the Coyotes for Olli Jokinen and a 3rd rounder.

Goph's Take: By far the trade of the day in the NHL. Calgary, who has been holding their cards tightly to their vest, nabs what could be the best offensive player that was on the market. Jerome Iginla must be doing backflips right now. A line of Iginla, Olli, and Cammelari may be the most potent line in the league behind the Spezza, Alfredsson, Heatley line.

Casey's Take: Steep price to pay for Jokinen, but the return could pay huge dividends for the Flames. Before this trade, I don't think the Flames could have knocked off the Red Wings or Sharks. I'm still not so sure right now, but they have a good defense, a more potent offense now and let's not forget that they have one of the elite goaltenders in the league in Miikka Kiprusoff. Watch out for the Flames in the playoffs now.

Justin's Take: Olli Olli Olli! Oi! Oi! Oi!

Boston trades Matt Lashoff and Martins Karsums to Tampa Bay for Mark Recchi and a 2010 2nd rounder

Casey's Take: I honestly don't know what the Lightning are thinking here. It's no surprise that they dealt Recchi, but throwing in a 2nd rounder to get Lashoff and Karsums is a waste to me. Just my two cents.

Justin's Take: Casey's right, it is a waste. Lashoff has some potential, but he's limited. Karsums is a high energy, hard player type, but he's a fringe NHL player at best. Boston does well to get a 2nd rounder and 3 months of Mark Recchi.

Goph's Take: How many more years will Tampa Bay be simply cutting salary and acquiring prospects at the deadline, especially with St. Louis having his contract up in 2 years? I don't see them being buyers next year, and if St. Louis jumps ship in two years, this team is going to turn into the Oakland Raiders of hockey.

The Islanders traded Bill Guerin to the Penguins for a conditional draft pick (5th rounder, that turns into a 4th if the Pens make the playoffs and a 3rd if they win 1 round)

Casey's Take: Love it, love it love it. If you go back and look at my previous posts about this saga you'll see that this is exactly what I was prepared to give up for a guy like Guerin. He'll go to the net and bang home rebounds for sure. He'll be the guy camping out in front of the net on the powerplay allowing our skill players to do what they do best. This is a very good move for the Pens.

Justin's Take: So they wanted Billy two years ago and settled for Gary Roberts. Now they need Billy for the playoff push. I like the move because he should do a lot for the Pens power play and it never hurts to have a great leader like Guerin on the team.

Goph's Take: Another trade where I disagree with my fellow bloggers. Satan, Fedotenko, and now Guerin. How many more Islanders cast offs are the Pens going to acquire from a team that perpetually disappoints? I think Kunitz was a great trade, but on this one, I don't see Guerin contributing like Kunitz has over his first 3 games in Pittsburgh.

Phoenix trades Daniel Carcillo to the Flyers for Scottie Upshall and a 2nd rounder

Goph's Take: I saw this and it looked like Philly was gearing to make a big deal by clearing Upshall's cap space. And then nothing happened but cricket noises and Kyle (hahahahaha) Mc (hohohohoho) Laren (hehehehehe). They already have enough guys taking penalty minutes, Carcillo wasn't needed.

Casey's Take: I'll be interested to see how Carcillo and Riley Cote get along. If Carcillo has his head in the game, he can be a lot more effective than just pounding people's faces in. If he loses his head however....

Toronto trades Nik Antropov to the Rangers for a 2nd rounder and a conditional pick

Casey's Take: How bad did Toronto fans want Antropuff off the roster? I got a text from a die-hard Leafs fan right after the announcement that said "Antropuff gone. Thank God!" Enjoy Rangers.

Phoenix trades Derek Morris to the Rangers for Dmitri Kalinin, Petr Prucha, and Nigel Dawes

Goph's Take: At first when the Antropov (Antropuff because he's a big dude who plays about as physical as the Staypuft Marshmallow man from Ghostbusters) trade went down, I was concerned because it gave the Rangers a surplus of wingers and I knew something else big was coming. With that said, there were only 5 forwards on the Rangers who would be pursued by other teams: Dubinsky, Korpikoski, Callahan, Prucha, and Dawes. Personally, I like all 5 of these wingers but I would be most willing to part with the last two.

Then the Rangers sent Dawes, Prucha, and the underachieving Kalinin to Phoenix for Derek Morris, a defenseman who believes in playing... hold it... wait for it... DEFENSE!. This is something the rest of Rangers blue liners don't do too well. Over the last 3 days, the Rangers got Avery, Antropov, and Morris for Prucha, Dawes, Kalinin, and a pick. Not bad at all Sather.

Casey's Take: Morris will help a much maligned defensive corps on Broadway, but did the Rangers sacrifice a part of their future to get him? Time will tell, but I'm sure Lundqvist is excited to see someone play some defense in front of him for once.

Toronto trades Dominic Moore to Buffalo for a 2nd rounder

Goph's Take: Has a 15 game hot streak ever been more influential at the trade deadline then now? In December Dominic Moore was not on anyone's radar. Now he's getting dealt for a 2nd rounders? Don't get me wrong hes a good player and hustles as much as anyone on the ice, but a 2nd rounder? Kudos to you Brian Burke.

Casey's Take: Toronto is going to be wheeling and dealing at the NHL Draft this year with how much they cleaned up on deadline day. Picking up a second round pick for Dominic Moore is near highway robbery. Nice job Brian Burke. Well played today.

Anaheim trades Eric O'Dell to Atlanta for Erik Christensen

Casey's Take: Poor Christensen. Once again he thinks he's made it through the deadline unscathed only to see his name pop up in a post-deadline deal. Last season he got dealt for Judas Hossa and now this yawn-fest of a deal. Hope you at least have a frequent flyer card Erik.

Tampa Bay trades Steve Eminger to Florida for Noah Welch and a 3rd rounder

Casey's Take: Intra-divisional trades bother me a lot. Just doesn't seem natural. It's like sleeping with your step-sister. You grow up hating each other and fighting and such only to reconcile in a dirty unmentionable way.

Justin's Take: A least the draft pick is clean.

Goph's Take: Draft pick is tainted by association.

Calgary trades Kevin Lalande to Columbus for a 4th rounder

Casey's Take: For a day that was supposed to be about big names moving this one deal sure take the cake.

San Jose sends Kyle McLaren to Philadelphia for a 6th rounder

Casey's Take: Oh do I wish I could have seen the look on Derek's face when this trade got announced. The winner of the "nearly peed my pants laughing" trade of the day goes to Philadelphia.

Justin's Take: Hey remember that shift back in 1998 in the second period where Kyle McLaren did that really awesome thing and seemed like a great player? Yeah, me neither.

Goph's Take: Great move for Philly. The Phantoms are in 8th in the AHL and could really use the veteran presence in the playoffs.

Anaheim trades Sami Pahlsson to Chicago for James Wisniewski and a pick

Casey's Take: I like this trade for both teams. Pahlsson is a very scrappy player who gives 110% all the time. He'll be a good fit in Chicago. The Ducks are bolstering their defensive corps for 2009-2010 already with Whitney and Wisniewski. Good deal.

Anaheim trades Travis Moen and Ken Huskins to San Jose for Nick Bonino, Tim Pielmeier, and a pick

Goph's Take: This trade is a clear microcosm of where each of these two teams is headed this season. San Jose is playing for the now, and adding playoff veterans Moen and Huskins will give the Sharks much needed toughness down the stretch. On the other hand, didn't it seem like every move today that the Ducks made was just to clear cap space? This team looks as if its throwing in the towel with 17 games left and tied for the 7th spot.

Casey's Take: See Eminger Trade. Advantage Sharks in this one, Hands down, though Anaheim gets a solid young return.

3 WAY DEAL:

Carolina gets back Erik Cole

Los Angeles gets Justin Williams and a 2nd rounder

Edmonton gets Patrick O'Sullivan and a 2nd rounder

Casey's Take: About time this whole Cole saga gets put to bed. Way to ruin the suspense by going back to the team you just left this summer. Golf clap anyone?

Anyway, I think the Kings make out quite well here with Justin Williams coming over. Add him to the mix with Frolov/Kopitar/Brown and you have yourself a couple potentially fantastic lines. The question is do you break up that aforementioned trio that's tearing it up?

Justin's Take: Wait... Cole didn't get traded to Boston!? Justin 1, Eklund 0.

Casey's Take #2: Yeah, count me in on this too. Cole not coming to Pittsburgh thankfully. Casey 1, Eklund 0.

Goph's Take: Just for the record, outside of Erik Cole and Pascal Leclaire being moved, Eklund (the man of 1000 guessed) did not predict 1 other player moving today who moved. Let that sink in. The last 6 months of guesswork is all for naught. Guerin's pick doesn't count because one he was yanked from the ice Saturday, everybody knew he was on the move. Same goes with Morris who hasn't played in a week. Now he takes a much deserved (cough cough) vacation.

Buffalo trades Ales Kotalik to the Oilers for a 2nd rounder

Casey's Pick: Nice pickup by Edmonton and Buffalo gets the second rounder they dealt to Toronto for Moore back.

Goph's Pick: BUFFALO BASICALLY TRADED ALES KOTALIK FOR DOMINIC MOORE... FAIL!

Tampa Bay trades Olaf Kolzig, Jamie Heward, Andy Rogers, and a 4th rounder to Toronto for Richard Petiot

Casey's Take: Apparently it's bargain buyer day in Tampa Bay. Buy 1 get the whole team free. Good Lord.

Justin's Take: And the Leafs continue to stockpile draft picks and has-beens.

Casey's Take #2: Hey now, Kolzig was the man in Portland and you know it. Show some respect.

ESPN: Pens Not Interested In Guerin

OK, now I don't tend to believe a lot of what ESPN has to say in regards to their utter lack of hockey coverage, but I saw this same rumor on Spector's site earlier today.

According to this article, the Pens are not interested in Bill Guerin and it in fact looks as if Washington is the mystery team in this saga.

I would be very happy to not have Guerin on the team as a rental. Getting Guerin could mean almost certainly that another deal would have to be in place involving someone like Jordan Staal or Miroslav Satan.

I'd be perfectly happy letting Satan go his merry way, but the thought of trading Staal still doesn't sit well with me. As I've said before, I have already come to terms with the fact that Staal will be the first to go out of Sidney Crosby, Evgeni Malkin and Marc-Andre Fleury.

I only question what we would get back should this actually happen.

There have been some rumors speculating that the Pens would ship Staal and the recently acquired Eric Tangradi to Toronto for Tomas Kaberle and Matt Stajan and maybe a pick is thrown in somewhere too.

I don't like this at all. As much as I like Kaberle, his coming to Pittsburgh would force Kris Letang out of the lineup for sure and still leave Alex Goligoski waiting in the wings some more.

Maybe some things will change in the coming hours, but the Pens need help up front on offense more than they do on defense. The help they need on defense can come from being more responsible in their own end and not blowing coverage leading to easy goals. I have faith that Dan Bylsma's system isn't operating at full capacity yet ad that he is actively working on the very thing i just stated.

Time will tell.

Guerin Pittsburgh Bound?

According to a plethora of sites tonight, New York Islanders captain Bill Guerin was pulled off the ice prior to their game against the Sabres.

This clearly tells me that a deal has been reached. The question now is where is Billy-G heading?

It was long believed that Boston and Montreal were the clear-cut leaders in this deal, but Spector believes otherwise.

According to Spector's blog on FoxSports.com, he believes the Penguins, Panthers and Hurricanes are the current leaders.

Here is his explanation of how he came to that conclusion:

"Flyers? They're very deep up front and appear to be seeking depth on the blueline. Montreal? Their need appears to be for a scoring center. Rangers? Would the Isles actually peddle Guerin to their rival despite being out of the playoff race? Sabres? They're already deep at right wing.

Florida and Carolina could use more depth at right wing, while the Penguins - despite their recent acquisition of Chris Kunitz - might want a more seasoned right winger for Sidney Crosby's line."

For his full take, click here.

Now as for my take on this potential trade, I'm not sure how I feel about it.

If we gave up a roster player for him and it's not named Hal Gill, I don't like the deal. Maybe Miroslav Satan or Ruslan Fedotenko, but outside of those three I won't be a happy Pens fan.

Spector seems to think that the deal in place is Guerin for an early round pick. Perhaps a second rounder? If it's a first rounder, that's way to high of a price for a rental player the Pens most likely won't be able to re-sign. Let's also keep in mind this is assuming the Penguins make it into the playoffs.

If it's for a third-rounder, I'd live with it.

I do think he Pens are missing some valuable veteran presence in the locker room. They also lack a grit and feisty attitude they had from guys like Jarkko Ruutu, Georges Laraque and Gary "Chuck Norris" Roberts last season.

From that perspective, Guerin is a guy I would most certainly want. Is he the goal scorer that should be on Sidney Crosby's line? I don't tend to think so.

I'm still holding out for a "Holy @#%!" moment from the trade deadline where we land someone like Milan Hejduk for a bag of pucks, but that's probably not happening either. He is less money than Guerin and has clearly proven that he can put the puck in the net. Send the Avs a second-rounder for Hejduk, see if I care. I'll be jumping for joy like the annoying kid you never liked when he gets a date with amazingly attractive woman. The rest of you understand why he's jumping up and down and want to hurt him for it.

I was that guy last year when we got Judas.

Give me another moment like that this season Shero, just don't clean house to pull it off.

I don't know that a top line of Kunitz - Crosby - Guerrin is the answer to the Pens problems, though it is an improvement over what they have rotated around Sid all season. In that respect, it's an upgrade.

From what I saw of last night's game against Chicago, which will be broken down a little more in depth tomorrow along with the game against Dallas, Kunitz and Jordan Staal seemed to click pretty well right off the bat. So maybe Dan Bylsma will put a line of Kunitz - Crosby - Staal together? I say try it, doesn't seem to me like it takes Sid long to figure out his winger's tendencies and gel with them accordingly.

In any event, the world should know the fate of Guerin in the coming hours. Who knows, maybe Spector is wrong and the his hometown Bruins bring him in after all.

Stay tuned.