BleacherCoaches.com

Its official, Pens got Kovalev for a conditional pick right now its a 7th rounder, but if the Pens win a playoff series and he plays in at least 50% of the Pens games it becomes a 6th rounder. Personally I like the trade, high reward with no risk. They got him for next to nothing and hes a free agent at the end of the year so if he bombs it doesn't matter there. But, the reward could be huge could be a lot like the Guerin deal a few years ago where he comes here and playing with a team in the thick of a playoff race could rejuvenate him and lead to him putting up some good numbers which I personally think he will do.

also Brooks Orpik out for @ least a month......never have seen a team w/ such injury problems.

I think they can survive this injury decently though, Paul Martin will be back tomorrow night so they won't have to call anyone else up from the AHL to replace Brooks. Plus Kunitz should be back either tomorrow or Saturday, and Letestu should return if not this weekend then next week get those two back should be big. Plus you got to imagine each day that goes by is one day closer to the return of Sid.

jd....Orpik is an unquestioned leader of this team and his absence will be felt down the stretch here! I think Lovejoy is a serious liability and don't like much of what I see in our new defenseman from Dallas (way small for our needs and not a physical presence @ all) yet both will play significant minutes now YOI!!

I'm not saying they won't miss Orpik or anything like that because they will big time, just saying that they can survive live without him because of the defense depth. Now I agree that Lovejoy is a liability, but at the same time hes not terrible. As for Niskanen I haven't seen enough of him to really tell, but I was at the game last night and made it a point to watch Neal while he was on the ice and I LOVED what I saw.

Anyone catch some Fittaponi on the fan today? Kovalev must've not signed an autograph for him as a youngster because he was hating on him, BIG TIME. But I always take that with a grain of salt because Fittaponi knows next to nothing about sports.

Read today Pens might try and make a move for Senators defensmen Chris Phillips, I don't know if they'd have the cap space to make a deal like that plus I'm not sure what they'd need to give up to get him but it'd be great to see Phillips is one of the best shutdown defensemen in hockey.

The Orpik injury really hurts, just when other injured players are starting to come back and you think they're gonna get it together, he goes down for atleast a month. Letang has been getting a ridiculous amount of minutes, over 30 in the last couple of games, probably because of Orpik's absence. I think their okay not picking up another defensemen, the asking price was too high for anyone that would've made a huge impact. Once a gain Shero did a good job getting what they need with minimal losses, got a great winger for Goligoski and Kovalev for practically nothing.

Don't forget he got NHL experienced defenceman out of the Goligoski deal. It may not have been a defenceman at the caliber of Goligoski is right now but Niskanan can develop into a solid player. Shero is good at getting solid role players for years to come in trades, who aren't necessarily the headliners of the deal. He got Dupuis out of the Hossa deal and Tangradi out of the Kunitz deal.

The New Jersey Devils just may do the unthinkable and make the playoffs after getting off to an extremely slow start, they had just 21 points through their first 42 games, they now sit 6 points out of the playoffs with a game in hand on 8th place Buffalo with 13 games remaining on their schedule. Folks we are witnessing a comeback of historic proportions, Devils fan or not enjoy it! If they wind up getting in, this is something that'll be talked about for years to come.