Dmitri Kalinin and Pittsburgh's Future

Dmitri Kalinin, right, the Sabres high flying, quick skating defenseman, has been slammed throughout the year. The young player does have a few seasons under his belt, but his best season was in 2003-04, before the lockout and the rule changes.

He is better suited for this NHL, though he is an unlucky guy. He routinely does have pucks deflect off him and past our goaltenders. People, especially Sabres fans, are way too quick to push all the blame on Kalinin.

Yes, they can point out his flaws. So can I. He tends to have a few giveaways in our zone, and once in a while his outlet pass isn't very good. He tends to watch the skater when covering a man in front of the net instead of the play as well.

But he also does a pretty good job poke checking and a fair job keeping his man under control. He joins the rush extremely well, and plays his best games when allowed to skate freely. Kalinin is no top 2 defenseman on many teams, but he definitely is top four on our team.

Ease off Kalinin. He's a solid player, and fairly dependable. Yes, it's easy to blame someone when the puck goes off them into the net upwards of five times a year, but it's not his fault.

As Yoda would say: Bad breaks does not a bad defenseman make.

Pittsburgh, Lemieux Ink New Deal

After months of pressure from Mario Lemieux (owner of the Pittsburgh Penguins) and the NHL's agenda to keep the large market Penguins in Pittsburgh, the deal has finally been done.

After months of painstaking negotiations, the Penguins were given a thirty year lease on what will be a brand- spanking new $290 million arena.

The arguments began long ago after Lemieux, right, stated that for this new, young team, we need a new arena. The Mellon Arena where the Penguins currently play is the oldest arena in the league. Buffalo's old Auditorium and the Montreal Forum were constructed near the time the Mellon was constructed.

Buffalo has been in HSBC for nearly ten years and Montreal has been out of the Forum for almost as long.

This solidifies one of the youngest lineups in the league and puts them dead center at the heart of their team. Crosby, Malkin, Staal, Fleury, Armstrong, Malone, and Whitney are the young centerpieces of this team and Pitt will try to keep them for many few years.

People have compared the Penguins this year to the Edmonton Oilers before they started their tear of Stanley Cups in the eighties. Crosby is being compared to Greztky, for sure.