Penguins v. Avalanche Preview And A Trade Rumor

Tonight the Pittsburgh Penguins welcome to Mellon Arena the first of two consecutive up-and-coming opponents from the Western Conference, the Colorado Avalanche.

The Chicago Blackhawks visit the Igloo Saturday night.

As many know, Colorado was one of the hottest teams in the NHL during the first 4-6 weeks of the season. The Penguins were battling them for the top spot in the league during much of that time.

Since then, the Avs have cooled off conisderably.

While they still sit 2nd in the Northwest Division with a very respectable 15-8-6 record, they are actually playing below .500 hockey the last month or so.

Goaltender Craig Anderson has probably been their best player this year so far. Anderson, signed as a free agent from the Florida Panthers in the offseason, is the biggest reason why Colorado is where they are in the standings -- even if he, like the rest of the team, has taken a step backwards of late.

No word on whether Anderson will play tonight. He started the Avs game last night in Florida -- a 6-5 shootout loss -- and was injured with a minute left in overtime. As a result, the Penguins may see backup Peter Budaj tonight. Budaj is 1-1-1 with a 4.29 GAA, which tells you everything about how little Colorado plays him, or how little they actually trust him to play).

Pittsburgh may have seen Budaj anyway since tonight's game for the Avs is the second of a back-t0-back set that calls for travel up the entire east coast.

Up front, the Avs are led by center Paul Stastny, the son of one of my all-time favorite NHL players, Peter Stastny.

The latest edition in the Stastny clan is an excellent young player who excels at dishing the puck more than he does shooting, but he is a dangerous player the Penguins will have to watch. He has 7 goals and 23 assists this season.

Center Matt Duchesne, the Avs 3rd overall draft pick from this year, also is worth watching. He has 17 points this year so far and has definitely made an impact for Colorado coming right out of the draft.

Colorado also relies on Wojtek Wojlski and veteran Milan Hedjuk for offense. Hedjuk missed the game last night in Florida -- his 3rd consecutive absence from the lineup -- but Avs rookie coach Joe Sacco, who's contributions to Colorado's success this season so far also shouldn't be overlooked, hopes Hedjuk will return tonight.

Don't forget about some other surprise contributors for the Avalanche this year, either, including rookie center Ryan O'Reilly and right wing David Jones.

Defenseman Kyle Quincy -- a former Detroit Red Wing draft pick and a guy the Los Angeles Kings waived last season because, basically, they have so many good young defenseman -- leads the Avs backline with 3 goals and 16 points in 29 games so far this season.

I'll have a game recap tomorrow.

Let's Go Pens!


NOTES: There's a relatively large trade rumor circulating right now that involves the Penguins and Kings. I place little stock in it at this point, but in the spirit of keeping my readers informed about what I'm hearing, I wanted to at least mention it.

The rumor has the Pens sending center Jordan Staal and defenseman Alex Goligoski to the Kings for RW (and LA Captain Dustin Brown) and defenseman Jack Johnson.

Again, this is just a RUMORED deal, and one that involves two clubs playing really well. I don't see a deal like this happening at this point, and as a result, am not going to comment on it further until I get a sense that the rumor has more traction. If that's the case, you'll hear more from me. IF the Penguins were to make a move, I think it would be more likely for them to make a deal involving a guy like Ruslan Fedotenko or Pascal Dupuis (or even impending unrestricted free agent Sergei Gonchar) than a swap of Staal and GoGo for Brown and Johnson. Not that a deal involving any of those other 3 Penguins is necessarily close, but I would expect it to be more likely than the Pens/Kings rumor circulating around.