"The Hal Gill Quotient "And "Rumors"

Initially I was only going to detail out the formula for which I will be keeping track of how many goals are caused by each player on the roster. I then awoke and poked around on HockeyBuzz.com and now I'm compelled to do a little more.

Let's start with the new stat first because that will be the easiest to get through and least offensive unless you're Hal Gill. Allow me to explain. Thanks to Josh we will be naming this new stat "The Hal Gill Quotient," due to the general feeling around Back To The Point that Gill is responsible for a majority of goals against. I decided to test this hypothesis and reserve the right to change the name at a later date.

Here's how it will work:

I will examine each goal the Penguins give up for the remainder of the regular season and assign a full point in the standings to the player responsible.

In the event of multiple players being at fault, fractional points will be awarded to the players involved.

I will keep a running total at the end of each game recap and the player with the highest total at the end of the season wins, or loses, whichever way you prefer to look at it.

Here's the current standings since I started keeping track after the Detroit game on Sunday:

Hal Gill - 1.34
Ryan Whitney - 1.0
Jordan Staal - .5
Kris Letang - .5
Bill Thomas - .33
Marc-Andre Fleury - .33

Now who's ready for some "rumors?!"

Here's three that have popped up on HockeyBuzz.com and further elaborated about on HockeyBuzzHogwash.com

#1 -Ryan Whitney To The Rangers For Petr Prucha And A Pick

Here's Eklunds take on this: "In Pittsburgh and NY I continue to hear rumors involving a deal the would send Whitney for Prucha and a pick. I like it for both sides."

Really? You like it for both sides?

Here's what's wrong with this from the Penguins side of things as this really would only benefit the Rangers.

Do we have a surplus of defensemen right now? Yes, and even moreso with Sergei Gonchar coming back. However, Whitney isn't the guy you trade though I would understand the logic in doing so to help ease the cap pressure.

The guy who can go is Mark Eaton if the Rangers want someone from us who can actually play defense. Don't get me wrong, I love the fact that he's among the league leaders in blocked shots, but he hasn't been the most reliable guy as a result. He gets injured frequently as a result of blocking all those shots, but you can't tell me Henrik Lundqvist wouldn't mind having someone actually play defense in front of him for once.

The other major flaw in this plan is that the Penguins and Rangers are both fighting to get into the playoffs. Do you really think these teams (who are in the same division mind you) are going to execute a trade when they could very well be fighting for the same playoff spot? I don't think so either.

Now as for Prucha, he's not the answer to any of the problems the Penguins are having. While he's a good energy guy, Max Talbot serves the same purpose. Prucha may have more of a scoring touch, but we need someone to play with Sidney Crosby in the worst way.

Eklund's solution?

"Rumor" #2 Mike Cammalleri To The Pens For Unknown

I would gladly take Mike Cammalleri, but there's no way this deal gets beyond the "hey what about Cammalleri?" phase.

He'd be a good fit with Crosby, but don't buy into this rumor at all. Anyone with half a brain in their head can see this. If it does happen, I'd me more shocked than I was when we landed Judas at the deadline last year.

Rumor #3 - Ilya Kovalchuk To The Pens For Staal And Others

First off, I would just like to say that I would not be surprised to see us move Staal at the deadline to clear some cap space for next season. I came to terms with him leaving town a long time ago as long as we kept Evgeni Malkin, Fleury and Crosby.

With that said, I don't want Ilya Kovalchuk. Would he score some goals? Yes. Is this the type of guy who should be on a line with Crosby? Yes. So why don't I want him?

Cap space. At $6.4 million for only another season on top of Crosby and Malkin at the current max of $8.7 million, we cannot afford to put a competitive team on the ice. We'd be in the same situation as the Tampa Bay Lightning.

The other problem with this is that I would have to become an Atlanta Thrashers by default. How could I not when we sent Colby Armstrong, Erik Christensen and Angelo Esposito last year for Judas. In order to get Kovalchuk we'd have to give up Staal and who knows what else, meaning half of the Thrashers' roster would be former Penguins.

It's that simple.

It's not going to happen anyway because Eklund just appears to be throwing up "rumors" to get people to click on his site. It's fine by me because it gives all of us here at BTTP things to write about on a daily basis.