Pens Points: As Trade Dust Settles, Metro Looks Mean

Good morning one and all,

The trade deadline is in the rear view mirror and the Pens are setting off on a 4-game road trip out west. Get ready for a slew of 10 pm games. Let's see how things shook out yesterday.

The Metropolitan Division has many new faces, and some teams look scary good now. [The Pensblog]

Five teams that dealt with the trade deadline the best. [NHL.com]

Grading all 30 teams for what they did (or didn't do) at the deadline. [Pens Nation]

Ben Lovejoy is surprised and excited to be back in Pittsburgh. He returns a better and more experienced player. Welcome back to one of the nicest humans to ever wear the Pens uniform. [Penguins.com]

Baltic Avenue is back in the east. Tyler Kennedy is an Islander. [NHL.com]

Ian Cole sees the Pens potential to contend for a Stanley Cup, and is happy to be reunited with former coach Gary Agnew. [Penguins.com]

NHL trade deadline winners. Slightly surprised to find the Pens in there, but then we are a win-now team and the moves made reflect that. [Sporting News]

The arms race in the east created little clarity. All the good teams became at least a little better. Eastern conference playoffs will be a blood bath. [NHL.com]

Here is a good read on the Bortuzzo and Despres trades. In the end, we come a little ahead in the short term; how it shakes out in the long term remains to be seen. [Pens Nation]

Mike Colligan assesses the trade deadline moves in a podcast (audio). [Get To Our Game]

Can we now start calling the Pens an elite defensive team? [The Pensblog]

Jim Rutherford is not expecting Pascal Dupuis to be back this spring. At the earliest, Duper can be cleared to return to play on June 1. [Trib]

I missed this article yesterday with all the trade hoopla, but it's golden. Geno "borrowed" Pouliot's stick, hung on to it, and has been scoring on his backhand ever since. [Penguins.com]

The worst thing that happened to a team this trade deadline didn't actually involve a bad trade. Calgary Flames have lost their captain and Norris trophy candidate Mark Giordano for the remainder of the season. Ouch. [Yahoo Sports Canada]