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Game Night: Pens travel to MSG, Boyd Gordon on the horizon?

April 3, 2013, 11:37 AM ET [735 Comments]
John Toperzer
Pittsburgh Penguins Blogger • RSSArchiveCONTACT
Deadline looks more like one big, waiver-wire transaction list than anything else. It’s difficult getting excited about Derek Morris, Raffi Torres … the Columbus 1st Round Pick is listed as the 10th-best trade bait on TSN TradeCentre 2013 – and that’s probably ranked too low on the list (even if it is LA’s pick).

From a Pittsburgh Penguins perspective, there’s been plenty of talk about Phoenix’s Boyd Gordon, a third or fourth line center who is known for his faceoff and forechecking abilities.

Gordon, 29, is a 6-foot, 200-pound right-handed shot. He was drafted by the Washington Capitals in the first round (17th overall) of the 2002 NHL Entry Draft. Click here for his career statistics. As Pierre McGwire might say, the Red Deer Rebels product played pee-wee hockey in his backyard. Ah, we won’t go there.

Gordon has 10 points (2G, 8A) in 36 games – he hasn’t missed a game for the Coyotes. The center has compiled just eight penalty minutes and taken only 38 shots (14th on Phoenix). He’s taken the second-most draws (582), winning 58.8 percent of the time (342W-240L).

Gordon has taken more than twice as many faceoffs short-handed than any other ‘Yotes player. He’s 81-60 in the circle with a man down.

He has a low number of hits (17), 29 blocks, 14 takeaways and only three giveaways.

A long-time Washington Capitals player, Gordon averages 14 minutes and 33 seconds of ice time, 15th on Phoenix and eighth among forwards. His 11:31 TOI at even strength is just 11th-most, as is his five seconds on the power play.

Gordon leads all Phoenix forwards in short-handed ice time, averaging nearly three minutes (2:55 TOI) per night on the penalty kill -- 36 seconds more than second-place Lauri Korpikoski.

Career Notes

His first assist came on a line with Jaromir Jagr and Kip Miller.

He was tried on scoring lines in Washington with the likes of Alexander Semin and Matt Pettinger with little success.

Gordon has always had injury issues which has forced him to miss time: sprained knee (’07), back spasms (’07), fractured right hand (’07), back spasms (’08), broken finger (’09), back (’09), back (’10), knee (’10), foot infection (’10), lower-body (’11 & ‘12), and upper-body (’13).

Saw some time with Alexander Ovechkin and Viktor Kozlov.

Conclusion: His hockey numbers don’t reflect the true value he has to his team. He’s a great faceoff guy, and unlike Joe Vitale, he kills penalties. Gordon has a chronic back ailment, but for the rest of the year he should be fine – as stated previously, he hasn’t missed a game. Gordon isn’t physical, in terms of checking opponents, but is a good forechecker and shot-blocker. In the end, his ability to take faceoffs and his familiarity with the Eastern Conference (seven years in Washington) make him a nice trade target. His cap hit of $1.325 million (AAV) is easily absorbed.


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Speaking on the trade deadline show Wednesday morning, Shane Hnidy of TSN believes Sidney Crosby deserves the Hart Trophy. While that’s well and good, his reasoning is somewhat suspect.

Hnidy:

“Look at who he’s (Crosby) playing between, Chris Kunitz and Pascal Dupuis. And I’m not going to take anything away from these players, both undrafted, both 33 years old. Kunitz has 20 goals, Dupuis has 17 and they wouldn’t do it without the best player between them. He makes them better. Sidney Crosby takes them to a new level, makes everyone around him better.”

While I agree that Crosby deserves careful consideration for the Hart Trophy, I think Hnidy does Kunitz and Dupuis a disservice by saying that Kunitz and Dupuis are riding Crosby’s coattails. There’s no doubt the two are benefitting from Crosby, particularly Kunitz, but they are good players in their own right. Dupuis scored 59 points last season, with many of them coming without Crosby or Malkin on his line, plus very little power-play time. Kunitz did just fine with Malkin and Neal last year.

I have zero issue with Crosby meriting Hart consideration, I just don’t like seeing it at the expense of his talented linemates.


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Tweet ‘O the Day

Elliotte Friedman ‏@FriedgeHNIC

Yandle price is steep. Two impact forwards, including someone who can be No.1 centre. Not getting traded unless offer PHO can't refuse.


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Oh yeah, there’s a hockey game tonight. Pens travel to Madison Square Garden, where they’ve won twice already this season with Tomas Vokoun in goal. What does that mean? That Marc-Andre Fleury will likely start.


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Buffalo’d

The Penguins came out strong Tuesday. If you watched the first couple minutes of the game and missed the rest, you’d have thought it the Pens would’ve won, 4-1.

That didn’t happen. Matt Niskanen passed the puck to a stickless Jarome Iginla in his own end during the power play and Buffalo converted with a short-handed score. That mindless type of play set the tone for the evening.

Pittsburgh is sorting through things right now, trying to find the right spots, the right lines and combos after acquiring Brenden Morrow, Doug Murray and Iginla.

Morrow, frankly, hasn’t done anything particularly well. He’s taken Matt Cooke’s place as the left winger on the no. 3 line, with Cooke moving to right wing. At some point, Pittsburgh needs to think about moving Morrow to the fourth line and putting Cooke back at left wing.

Murray has been as advertised.

Iginla looks like he can still carry a team for spurts of action. His ability to make seam passes to Malkin in the middle is going to hit paydirt. Those two look really good together. Hopefully, James Neal doesn’t get lost in the shuffle.

The historic 15-game winning streak is over and I've had a hard time finding anyone that's overly disappointed. In fact, the ending of Pittsburgh's alternative sweaters has been a bigger topic of discussion. According to reports, the Pens won't wear a third jersey in 2013-14, though that's hard to believe from a financial windfall perspective.

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Treasure Life!
JT
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