Rob Scuderi, number 4, the Scud Missile himself has a decision to make and so do the Pittsburgh Penguins now that the Stanley Cup is back in the ‘Burgh. Yes, the Finals are over. So too is the parade. And well, with some time to kill before Steelers start reporting for camp I have some time to think about things. Things like who among the free agents on the Pittsburgh Penguins roster should the Penguins even attempt to resign and who should they let go.

It’s life with a salary cap …

So let’s look at the list of Pittsburgh Penguins preparing to shop their services this off season:
Craig Adams, C
Mike Zigomanis, C
Mathieu Garon, G
Petr Sykora, F
Ruslan Fedotenko, F
Bill Guerin, F
Miroslav Satan, F
Hal Gill, D
Phillippe Boucher, D
Rob Scuderi, D

Now, let’s discuss …
Craig Adams – Adams was undoubtedly an upgrade on the fourth line over Godard although not much of an enforcer which you need during the regular season. Adams made $600,000 this season and could still be resigned for a reasonable price if the Penguins wanted him. He’s gritty but he’ll be a 4th liner and be a platoon guy at that in all likelihood.

Mike Zigomanis – Ziggy’s salary this year was $650,000. He’s a face off specialist and the team certainly suffered in that department after his injury. Having spent a lot of the season injured he could probably also be resigned at a reasonable rate. The problem is that the Penguins are absolutely stacked with quality role players or at least are right now. Once free agency is over this may be another story.

Mathieu Garon – Garon is a $1,000,000 backup to Fleury who wasn’t used much by the Penguins at all. The team has a glut of Goaltenders in the minors and they can let Garon go and recover some cap room. I just do not see Garon being invited back. Nothing personal.

Petr Sykora – Sykora had a price tag of $2.5 million this season. That’s pretty cheap for a scoring winger of his caliber. The problem is that his caliber has somewhat diminished it seems. He really did not perform well at all down the stretch which led to him being benched in favor of Miroslav Satan. My understanding is that Malkin likes Sykora and has a good rapport with him … but Malkin doesn’t need Sykora. Sykora will be 33 in November and while not a spring chicken he isn’t old and shriveled either. The problem is do the Penguins think that he can still score. If so, they might be able to resign him at his current value.

Ruslan Fedotenko – Now this is a guy I think the Penguins need to target for resigning. He made $2.25 million this year and complimented Malkin well. I would rather see him on Malkin’s wing than Sykora. Please, don’t take offense to that Petr, but he was definitely better and more consistent there than you were this season and if I were the Penguins I would be targeting Ruslan for a new contract. At 30 years of age he has the right mix of grit and scoring skills to be worth it. Take some of what you would pay Sykora and use it to resign Fedotenko.

Bill Guerin – Bad Boy Billy is one of those guys that I like and like a lot. Always have. Despite being 38, will be 39 in November, he looked to still have enough in him for one more year along side of Sid. $4.5 million might be a bit steep though, which is what he was making this year. I am wondering if he would take that or perhaps slightly less (considering where he is in his career) to remain a Penguin. Of course, at 38 and off of a successful Stanley Cup run maybe he is thinking of retiring. I really hope not and according to reports he has said he has no plans to retire and is looking to move his family to Pittsburgh IF the Penguins want him back.

Miroslav Satan – As much as I really enjoy all the jokes that just roll off the tongue because of having a man named Satan on the team eh, I don’t know about the Penguins interest in resigning him. He made $3.5 million this year and started out great but really had to reinvent himself as a 4th line winger. That was not what he was brought in to be and even though he played well in that roll you are not going to pay a man that kind of money to log under ten minutes of ice time a game. He’ll be 35 years of age when the season starts and he could be another guy that would just be better to let go unless he is willing to take a lot less money. Of course … he is also another candidate for retirement on a high note.

Hall Gill – Hal Gill, or more precisely Harold Priestley “Hal” Gill III, is one of those guys that you just have a hard time replacing. The man is huge and his wing span gives the opposition absolute fits while trying to enter the zone and cycling once in the zone. $2.1 million is not a bad price to pay for a shutdown defenseman like Gil and at 34 he might be coaxed to coming back at about that next year. But with a plethora of good young defensemen in the minors the Penguins may forgo him as an option on the blue line next year. I think that would be a mistake.

Phillippe Boucher – No waterboy jokes please! At $2.5 million Phillipe may be an odd man out. He came in highly touted as to what he was going to bring to the team offensively but played sparingly late in the season. You like to have defensive depth, but with the salary cap I just do not see him staying IF the Penguins target …

Rob Scuderi – Yes, I left Scuds until last for a few reasons. One of which is because I have a to say about him. Another reason is because out of all the free agents on the Penguins roster none are going to get more attention and interest than the man who night after night sacrifices life and limb and limb and limb to cause havoc in the defensive zone. Scuderi made a paltry $725,000 this season and is worth more; a lot more. I do not know that you can replace him for his current salary so if the price is right the Penguins have to try and bring him back. The kind of kamikaze style he plays just cannot be taught. It is instinctive. It takes a certain kind of … well … nut to play it. I mean that in the nicest possible way Scuds. And it is very hard to convince a guy to get into the path of pucks like he does for that price.

I say the Penguins have to make an attempt to sign him. Not for ungodly sums of money mind you, but something serious and in line with other defensemen on the team. I do not think that $2,000,000 would be unreasonable, but more than that just might be. That being said, if some team throws a bucket full of dollars at Scuds I would not begrudge him leaving for financial security. He’s 30 but you could sign him for 2 or 3 years I think and have a good investment.

Now, let the games begin!

Petr Sykora, as good as he can be, is just not getting the job done. He is not finishing and not getting time on the power play which is where many of his goals come from.

Is he hurt? He and the team are mum. But he is playing like a man protecting himself. He is playing hard at times but something is off and not right.

Miroslav Satan, who was the odd man out back at the trade deadline, sits as a healthy scratch. It is time to give him a shot to play. Maybe not on Malkin’s line, but somewhere and give Sykora a chance to either rest his unannounced injury or think about what he needs to do to be worthy of playing on a team so stacked with talent that no player’s role should be safe if they slack.

Satan didn’t deserve to be sent to the minors. He was playing well. But he had to go to clear cap room. It is time to reward him for taking it like a pro and get his shot back in the lineup.

Wednesday was a somewhat busy day for the Penguins. Satan cleared waivers and the Penguins got at least one winger who might be playing along side His Sidness soon. One of those wingers the Penguins acquired is Craig Adams who the Penguins claimed off waivers from the Chicago Blackhawks. The 31 year old has just six points in 36 games this season. But the other winger is bad boy Billy Guerin whom the Penguins got from the Islanders for a conditional draft pick.

Guerin has just 36 points including 16 goals this season for the hapless Islanders but is a perpetual 20 goal scorer with an appetite for destruction and taste for physical play making him a prime candidate to be along side Crosby as not only a scoring threat but also an enforcer to keep other teams honest about liberties they might choose to take on Crosby. Sure he is 38, but I remind you he has scored 16 goals for a pathetic Islander team so hopefully he will only get better once in the Black and Gold.

Pittsburgh is doing well so far on this current road trip but excitement over three straight road wins (and four straight overall) has to be tempered by the knowledge that both the Stars and the Bolts are pretty banged up and sinking fast. Tuesday’s 3-1 win over Tampa Bay was important for the standings but the real test will be Thursday as this team heads into a must win game against the Panthers who are ahead of them in the standings.

Kunitz is proving his worth for the Penguins, although I still cringe at giving up a talent like Whitney to get him, and scored the opening goal last night for his 18th of the season between Pittsburgh and Anaheim. He also got a second goal in the game bringing his season total to 19 and the Staal line has been firing on all cylinders since the acquisition meaning Shero might be looking for another winger to play with Crosby which was what Kunitz was supposed to be. But how can you break up a line playing so well?

Obviously you cannot.

Carolina also won yesterday so the Penguins needed a win to remain in eighth place overall in the East.

Satan was also placed on waivers despite playing which seems to point towards the Penguins looking to make as move before today’s 3:00PM trade deadline. We will have to wait and see.

It is funny to listen to some pundits who think they know so much. If I hear one more of these folks talking about how this team lacks “chemistry” and that is why they are not winning games right now I have a question. Where were you complaining about “chemistry” when the team was 5-4-2 in October or 9-2-1 in November with basically the same lineup minus their best face off man in Zigomanis and the spark plug that is Tyler Kennedy?

Lack of “chemistry”? Don’t make me laugh! That is a cop out excuse and everyone making it knows it. “Chemistry” is like that catch all category of everything you cannot explain but try to explain.

No, the problem with the Penguins is clear and has been clear all year – they lack the desire to play a team game for 60 full minutes every night. Last night against Boston was another prime example of this. You had players like Orpik, Dupuis, Jeffrey and Wallace grinding out every shift. You had people like Malkin also playing hard, but playing what amounted to a singular style without a focus on where his teammates are and what they could do for him. You had defensemen watch pucks dangle in front of them, just feet away, but that they would not dare do fight for because they knew there was no one rotating over to cover up for them.

I don’t think the problems could have been any more clear than they were last night or any other night during their December slump. The team doesn’t need a trade, it needs those players on the ice to play hockey and play it with a focus on playing as a team.

What Therrien needs to do, and I have already said this, is to sit some of the players who are not playing hard for 60 minutes. Satan comes to mind. So does Staal. Maybe it is wrong to say that players like Satan and Staal are not playing hard for 60 full minutes. Perhaps it is more correct to say that they are playing hard, but not playing smart enough to make that hard work pay off. They are not thinking five seconds ahead and finding that open ice where someone can feed them the puck. They are not making smart decisions with their passes.

Other players are dumping pucks without a purpose into the offensive zone. They are putting pucks where no one from the Penguins has a chance to get to them. Other players are not even trying to get into the corners and hunt for pucks and going back on their heals.

It’s not that hard. It’s just hockey. And it is something, I remind you all, that these guys are paid good money to do because they are some of the best in the world. It is high time they start acting like it.