FanHouse Philippe Boucher

It's officially the offseason, meaning the time is right to look into the future. We'll be running our division-by-division preview of the offseason beginning later in the week, but we wanted to give the two top dogs their own space. Yesterday we took a look at the Red Wings. Today: the summer outlook for the Pittsburgh Penguins.

Thanks to Max Talbot's two-goal performance in Game 7, along with Marc-Andre Fleury's buzzer-beating save on Nicklas Lidstrom, the Pittsburgh Penguins brought home their third Stanley Cup. General manager Ray Shero now has the task of dealing with 10 unrestricted free agents and finding a way to construct a team that is capable of keeping the Cup in Pittsburgh.

It's kind of an unwritten rule in hockey that when your team wins the conference championship, you're not supposed to touch the trophy (in the case of the Eastern Conference, the Prince of Wales Trophy) because, in theory, that's not the piece of hardware you strive for. You're not supposed to show it the same respect you would show the Stanley Cup, so, by tradition, few teams ever actually acknowledge its existence, let alone touch it.

Following Pittsburgh's 4-1 win on Tuesday, which gave the Penguins a clean four-game sweep over Carolina in the Eastern Conference final, captain Sidney Crosby not only touched it, he actually carried it off the ice. His reasoning?

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Game 1 of the Eastern Conference Finals certainly didn't disappoint, as the Penguins and Hurricanes took part in an up-and-down track meet while both goalies put on a clinic in net. In the end, Marc-Andre Fleury was just a touch better than Cam Ward, while Phillipe Boucher's power play goal with just over eight minutes to play in regulation proved to be the game-winner in Pittsburgh's 3-2 win.

The Penguins came out smoking in the first period, overwhelming the Hurricanes with an offensive barrage that was highlighted by Miroslav Satan and Evgeni Malkin beating Ward just 80 seconds apart to stake the Penguins out to an early 2-0 lead. For Satan, it was his first goal in the NHL since March 1.

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The Pittsburgh Penguins will likely wait until the last possible second to announce whether or not defenseman Sergei Gonchar will play in game 7, but that won't stop us from speculating. According to Shelly Anderson and Dave Molinari of the Pittsburgh Post Gazette, Gonchar took part in Wednesday's morning skate, practicing for the second day in a row. This, of course, leaves open the possibility of him being active for Wednesday's win-or-go home throw down at the Verizon Center. If he plays, it's entirely possible that the Penguins could use him simply as a power play specialist. Alex Goligoski and Philippe Boucher played the past two games in his absence. [Pittsburgh Post Gazette]

The Pittsburgh Penguins defense has been crushed by injuries through the first three months of the season, as they've been without their top two defenders -- and power play quarterbacks -- in Sergei Gonchar and Ryan Whitney. A couple of weeks ago, they also lost Hal Gill to a shoulder injury, meaning the Penguins have been skating the past three weeks without their top three defenders from last season's playoff run.

Factor in the month that No. 1 goaltender Marc-Andre Fleury missed with a groin injury, and the various other injuries suffered by Tyler Kennedy, Mike Zigomanis and Max Talbot throughout season, and, well, it's been crazy. Actually, it's not that different from a year ago.

Good news, however, as Whitney will be making his return to the lineup tonight when the Penguins take on Tampa Bay at Mellon Arena. Whitney's been out all season after undergoing foot surgery over the summer.

Whitney certainly has his critics among Penguins fans -- myself included, sometimes -- he's still going to be a welcome addition to the lineup with his puck-moving skills, which will hopefully help what has been a mind-numbingly inconsistent power play unit.

The game of the night -- or so we thought -- was that monster matchup in Detroit, between the defending Stanley Cup champions, and the team that, thus far, has been the best team in the NHL this season. On paper, it looked like it was going to be an epic tilt. Possible Western Conference Finals preview, Mike Babcock vs. Todd Mclellan, teacher vs. student, etc. etc. etc. Of course, it was the second time they faced off this year, but, hey, it still looked like it was going to be awesome.

This, of course, is why the games aren't played on paper, as the Red Wings disposed of San Jose quite easily in a 6-0 romp at Joe Louis Arena. It's the Sharks' second straight loss, and the first game they've dropped in regulation in over a month.

Whenever a healthy player gets scratched from the lineup unexpectedly, talk can start almost immediately about an impending trade. On Saturday night, the player who was scratched from a lineup was defenseman Philippe Boucher of the Dallas Stars. According to a report from RDS, Boucher has been traded to the Pittsburgh Penguins in exchange for another defenseman, veteran Daryl Sydor (English translation).

From a financial standpoint, the deal is a wash, as both players are in the final years of contracts that pay them both $2.5 million per year. From Pittsburgh's standpoint, the deal makes a lot of sense, considering defensemen Sergei Gonchar and Ryan Whitney are still out of the lineup due to injuury and aren't expected to return anytime soon.