Just The Beginning of Player Movement As Pens' Get Ready To Face Rangers?

As the Pittsburgh Penguins get ready to face the New York Rangers, there are questions about the team both on and off the ice.

On the ice, the question for tonight is whether the Pens will have to contend with NY star winger Marion Gaborik, who suffered a cut on his knee in a collision with goaltender Henrik Lundqvist in practice earlier this week and missed the Rangers' game on Wednesday.

Gaborik is questionable for tonight and, make no mistake, without him in the lineup, a team that struggles to score goals will have a bigger uphill battle to move out of their 11th place seed in the Eastern Conference against a Pittsburgh club they have not defeated in 4 tries this season.

Pens' center and Captain, Sidney Crosby, by the way, is looking for his 40th goal of the year tonight. That would be a career high for him.

Crosby and fellow all-world pivot Evgeni Malkin have been driving the Penguins' offense for the better part of three weeks, with at least one of them figuring in on something like 29 of the last 32 Pens' goals.

Off the ice, the question is whether GM Ray Shero will make a deal before today's 3 PM Olympic trade freeze goes into effect.

Shero has been involved in multiple discussions the last week or so, but I'm not sure he'll be able to pull a deal off before the deadline, and may instead be left to scramble a bit in the 2 and 1/2 days that are left after the Olypmic freeze is lifted, before the year's final 3 PM trade deadline on Wednesday, March 3.

He did make a swap of minor leaguers yesterday, sending Wilkes-Barre defenseman and Pittsburgh native Nate Guenin to the St. Louis Blues for 25-year old defenseman Steve Wagner.

Like Guenin, Wagner hasn't been able to crack an NHL lineup regularly. Wagner has 4 goals and 12 points in 46 games at the pro-level scattered over the last 3 seasons. He has not played a game for the Blues this year, and is generally known as a more offensive defenseman.

Wagner has a 2-way contract, and will report directly to Wilkes-Barre.

In Pittsburgh, Shero is still looking to clear out a little salary cap space, so he can add a player or two at the big league level.

And adding a player or two may also require moving some more guys from the AHL. Forward Dustin Jeffrey, for example has been a guy that has been rumored to be on the move.

Defenseman Carl Sneep is another Pens' prospect other teams are inquiring about.

Again, time will tell whether either of those guys or their teammates -- or anyone on the big club -- move on before this afternoon.

I'll be on the road today, but will try to post something if I get word.

Otherwise, I'll have a report tomorrow from tonight's game against NY.

Let's Go Pens!