McKeon Grades the Trades

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Ross McKeon of Yahoo! Sports has been busy today, grading all 30 teams of the NHL according to how they did with the Trade Deadline.

It may come as a suprise to some that Dallas and Pittsburgh, the 2 teams who made the blockbuster trades yesterday are graded so differently.

McKeon grades the Dallas Stars at #1, citing their trade as “the big strike”.

1. Dallas Stars – Grade: A+: The Stars made the big strike by acquiring arguably the best player available for now and moving forward. Center Brad Richards was the Conn Smythe Trophy winner when Tampa Bay won the Stanley Cup in 2004. He’s 27, skilled and durable – just a perfect fit for any team. Never mind that $7.8 million owed for each of the next three years. The Stars parted with backup goalie Mike Smith, who may emerge as a No. 1 with the Lightning, Jussi Jokinen, Jeff Halpern and a fourth-round pick. Dallas did not have to surrender any of its young defense, another key. That deal makes a lot more sense than what Pittsburgh gave up to Atlanta in the day’s other blockbuster.

The Pittsburgh Penguins however, failed to gain such a high ranking, coming in at #22 with a D+ grade.

22. Pittsburgh Penguins – Grade: D+: No one can accuse the Penguins of being shy at the deadline. Pittsburgh changed more than any team by adding three players and deleting two from the roster and one from the pipeline and parting with three draft picks in two separate deals. Pittsburgh got rental Marian Hossa to play alongside either Evgeni Malkin or Sidney Crosby. They got versatile and dependable Pascal Dupuis in the same deal with Atlanta but surrendered young, popular teammates Colby Armstrong and Erik Christensen and prospect Angelo Esposito. You have to wonder what team chemistry will form out of all these moves. In addition, Hal Gill comes aboard to add size and a physical element on defense. First-, second- and fifth-round picks were dealt away.

Filling out the top 10 are:

2. Atlanta Thrashers – Grade: A

3. Washington Capitals – Grade: A-

4. Colorado Avalanche – Grade: B+

5. San Jose Sharks – Grade: B

6. Columbus Blue Jackets – Grade: B

7. Carolina Hurricanes – Grade: B

8. Chicago Blackhawks – Grade: B

9. New York Rangers – Grade: B-

10. Buffalo Sabres – Grade: B-

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Wings In A Slump

All teams go through patches of wins and losses and it takes something dramatic before the word “slump” can truly be used.  The Detroit Red Wings, who absolutely dominated the league until recently lost it’s 5th straight game yesterday.  For some teams this could be considered a bad streak.  For the Red Wings however, 5 losses marks a slump.  Chris Osgood, who was reliably solid for most the season has been chased from the net a few times lately, a sign that the Red Wings are not invincible.

The challenge to face the Red Wings now is the surging Dallas Stars, whom they face today in the nationally televised game.  Marty Turco and the Stars, who have a loosing history against the Red Wings will be looking to benefit from the Detroit team strugging to not just win, but also score and offer solid defense.  Rumour has it Jimmy Howard will be starting in net for the Red Wings, giving both Osgood and Dominic Hasek a break.

The Stars, who have won 8 of their last 10 will be looking to strike early and keep the pressure on the very dangerous Red Wings team.  The game starts at 2:3o central, catch it if you can.

Tags: Challenge, Chris Osgood, Dallas, defense, Detroit, Dominic Hasek, Game, history, hockey, Howard, Jimmy, league, marty turco, pressure, Red, Rumour, score, season, slump, something, Stars, streak, Team, today, Wings, word, yesterday

No Update

Hi guys, sorry for there being no new videos added yesterday.  I had a  PC issue and spent much of the day formatting my system.  Updates will continue today as per normal.  Thanks.

Tags: 2 minutes for hockey, 2minsforhockey, issue, new videos, system, system updates, today, Update, Updates, video, yesterday