By Icedog97 (Sean Evanovich)
Again, my thanks to John for letting me contribute to his blog this week. It's been a lot of fun.
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Late in the 2007 season the Penguins pulled off a trade deadline deal that had people buzzing:
To Pittsburgh
Marian Hossa
Pascal Dupuis
To Atlanta
Colby Armstrong
Erik Christensen
Angelo Esposito
1st Round Pick in 2008 (became Daultan Leveille)
At the time it was clear the main player in the deal was unrestricted free agent
Marian Hossa.
Hossa was the goal scoring wing that the Penguins felt they needed to make a run at the Stanley Cup.
During the 2007-08 playoffs he provided just that, scoring 12 goals and adding 14 assists for 26 points in 20 playoff games. Unfortunately, the Penguins fell short of their ultimate goal, losing to the Detroit Red Wings 4 games to 2 in the Stanley Cup Finals.
The strong playoff performance and chemistry that Hossa displayed with captain Sidney Crosby made it seem like a good bet that Hossa would sign a contract with the Penguins.
When Hossa decided that Detroit offered him a better chance at winning the Stanley Cup (in hindsight, maybe he should have just stayed here) he signed with the Red Wings,
leaving only Pascal Dupuis remaining from the 5 player (and a 1st round pick) trade.
A lot of fans weren't too happy about that.
Nobody wanted to give up the 1st round pick and we weren't sure what Angelo Esposito would turn out to be (Penguins' management must have been pretty sure) -- but even more unsettling was the fact that fans loved Colby Armstrong and were growing fonder by the day of Eric Christensen and his ability to score shootout goals.
Even if you ignored the 1st round pick and Esposito..
.could Pascal Dupuis be all we got for Armstrong and Christensen? Did we get shafted or what?
Last night (3/7/12)
Pascal Dupuis scored 2 goals and added an assist, earning the #1 star in the Penguins 3-2 victory over the Toronto Maple Leafs at Consol Energy Center.
The goals were
Pascal's 16th and 17th of the season and brought his point total to 40. The 17th goal proved to be the
game winner, marking the 6th time this year he has contributed such a tally (7 if you count the game deciding shootout goal he scored earlier this season).
On a day that saw the unveiling of the statue representing the greatest player in the team's history --- Mario Lemieux --- Pascal Dupuis, playing in his 66th game of the season, scored his 66th goal (regular season) as a Penguin. Hmmmmm.
When the Penguins gave up Armstrong and Christensen, they gave up two players that had specific skill sets that served the team well during their stay.
While Armstrong and Christensen have provided valueable contributions to their new teams, neither is still with Winnipeg (Atlanta), and both have missed a number of games due to injuries (Armstrong more than Christensen) or simply being a healthy scratch (Christensen).
What the Penguins got in return is
a player that can do a little bit of everything...on just about any line...in just about any situation...and does it game after game...year after year.
In
315 games with the Penguins, Dupuis has
66 goals, 89 assists (155 points) and is a plus 42.
He's on a pace to set career single season highs for goals, assists, points, plus/minus and shots.
It's tough to overlook the talent of Marian Hossa and certainly trading for him made the cup run in 2007-08 possible.
But it's even tougher now, 5 years later, to look back at that trade and still think of it as The Marian Hossa Trade.
When it's 1/5th Marian Hossa and 4/5th Pascal Dupuis, I think we finally have to acknowledge it really was
The Pascal Dupuis Trade.
Pascal is
not a superstar. He's just a guy that
brings his lunch box to the rink and works his butt off...EVERY DAY...PERIOD.
You can
NEVER have too many guys like that.
Great game Duper and thanks for all of your contributions!
Le Magnifique
Watching the live stream via NHL Network yesterday during the unveiling, my initial impression of the statue was that it was a bit more atrtistic than I imagined it would be and maybe simply 'more' than I expected.
But after a few minutes, it really started to grow on me...the idea of how well this statue represents what I remember about Mario:
Splitting the D...has anyone ever done it better?...even when they were hacking, whacking and hanging all over him.
Once I was able to see some additional pictures and video on TV last night,
I was even more impressed.
I think they probably should have picked a camera angle directly in front of the statue for the unveiling telecast...one that appears in a few of the pictures on the Penguins website where Mario is standing in front of it with his mom would have been perfect.
Pictures from Penguins web site are here...see picture 10:
La Magnifique
This is the view that most people will see when they walk up to the statue and it's just plain
FANTASTIC.
I have yet to see the statue in person...but I'm sure, based on the more detailed images I have seen since the initial video, that it will be even more impressive when it's right in front of me.
Well done Mr. Wolfe and Penguins management ...stick taps all around.
Thanks for reading! 
Pittsburgh Penguins Blogger • 
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