Dan’s Daily: Flyers Trade; Fleury’s Montreal Ovation; Penguins Behind-the-Scenes

HOME — The Pittsburgh Penguins are home today for practice, then begin four games they know are crucial to re-establishing hope for a playoff chase. If you’re in the mood for some reading, I intertwined the Penguins’ arduous road trip with my own (mostly theirs) in a road trip blog. There were definitely some moments. Team Canada honored Sidney Crosby with the most important designation before the Four Nations Face-Off. Elsewhere in the Daily, the Calgary Flames completely robbed the Philadelphia Flyers in a trade, and fans in Montreal gave their hometown boy Marc-Andre Fleury a rousing sendoff after Fleury shut out Montreal.

If I have any pull with the Pittsburgh fanbase, it’s that we embrace hockey even half as much as the town does for football or Montreal does for hockey. I suppose hockey will have to do its part, too–it needs to get back to its roots of kids playing for fun, not an exclusionary sport that costs the equivalent of college tuition to play. But I digress.

Also, Pittsburgh and Western Pennsylvania badly need real public transportation. My flight from Salt Lake City to Pittsburgh took about three hours, and my journey home from the airport (and I live on the North Side) took over two hours. WTH?!

I should’ve spent the $50 on an Uber.

Pittsburgh Penguins

Pittsburgh Hockey Now: Here comes the Four Nations Face-Off. Connor McDavid and others would have been worthy choices, but in reality, there was only one choice to wear the C for Team Canada–Sidney Crosby.

PHN+: Grab some coffee and settle in. For the few of you who get mad when I write about my travel, I spliced my travel with some behind-the-scenes stories and emotions on the Penguins’ road trip.

Steelers Now: I just let you read this one. The title says it all. Are the run-first-minded Steelers frauds?

Pittsburgh Baseball Now: They have 11 second basemen?! I guess it’s cheaper if you buy in bulk. Oh, what an offseason for the miserly Pittsburgh Pirates.

NHL Trade Talk, News & National Hockey Now

Montreal Hockey Now: Au Revoir, Flower. The Montreal Canadiens are in the fight for a playoff spot, but the Minnesota Wild shut out the Canadiens Thursday night. The fans were mad, right? Maybe, but they stayed, and they cheered and cheered the goalie who pitched the shutout because it was Marc-Andre Fleury’s final game in Montreal. 

And now the NHL trade market and the drama in Vancouver. *Cue ominous organ music.

Philly Hockey Now: Trade! Flyers Trade! Flyers badly lose trade! Read all about it–the Flyers traded away a pair of mid-20s players (Joel Farabee and Morgan Frost) for a pending UFA and a couple of picks. Yep, the Calgary Flames won the Flyers trade.

I’m surprised Kyle Dubas wasn’t all over this one. If the Flyers were willing to dump those two players for an average middle-six UFA winger who will be a free agent and a light package of picks, it would have been a home run for Dubas. And I’m really not seeing the Flyers’ upside to this one. If you think I’m being harsh, you should see the Canadian media headlines.

Sportsnet: Here comes Ovi down the stretch. You’d think breaking your leg mid-season would be enough to derail his goal chase. Nope. Ovechkin is a monster. He blasted No. 876 last night and is on pace to break Wayne Gretzky’s record this season.

It could come down to the final game of the season when the Capitals visit the Penguins. Would you cheer? Would you boo? Would you care? (Please don’t boo. It would be a bad look).

TSN: Your daily dose of the Canucks Hospital. Continued fallout from Jim Rutherford’s comments. And J.T. Miller’s no comment.

Chicago Hockey Now: Taylor Hall was happy to be traded. No ill will towards Chicago, he understood. He gave a refreshingly honest take on his Blackhawks trade.

And Utah has dumped the possible name Wasatch (good!) and replaced it with Outlaws (Better!)

Hey Utah hockey fans! We listened to your feedback and dug into all the Qualtrics data from last night’s survey. For the team name, it’s clear that Outlaws should be in the mix instead of Wasatch, so we’re swapping it out.

Surveys will continue at the arena Friday, Sunday and…

— Utah Hockey Club (@utahhockeyclub) January 30, 2025