Paul Steigerwald

chinikov you know he's on a pace he's on like a 38 goal pace lately he's got nine goals in 19 games and he hasn't gone more than two games without scoring a goal and over the course of a year that's a 40 goal pace so hey have you seen anything that makes you think that chinikov couldn't score 35 goals a year i haven't he looks like a guy he plays with a guy like malkin he's going to be productive and boy what a steal that was for kyle dubas

I really think he comes back earlier than four weeks.

I mean, I think he comes back in the month of March.

I just don't know when.

I think a lot of times when you have a situation like Sid being hurt,

You think of how all the media is going to react to that, okay?

So if you say two weeks, every day Dan Mews is going to be asked, what's the status of Sidney Crosby?

Everybody's going to be wondering where he is.

All right, two weeks is up.

Why isn't he back?

You know what I mean?

If you say four weeks, you've got more runway before people start bugging you about when he's coming back.

So I think there's a bigger window there that the Penguins can maneuver within, and I wouldn't be surprised at all knowing Sid that he'll come back earlier.

The Capitals have had a tendency to really bring their level of play up.

I look for the Capitals to make some noise before the year is over in the Metropolitan Division.

I also thought Columbus would do that.

Now, they went on a really hot run right before the Olympic break with their new coach.

And I think that it's possible that they will continue to be more successful.

So I look at them as a real threat also.

And you don't know what they'll do with the deadline.