It's trade deadline day and of course the big move for the New Jersey Devils was done a month ago when the Devils acquired Ilya Kovalchuk and Anssi Salmela for Niclas Bergfors, Johnny Oduya, Patrice Cormier and picks. But the Devils do have have needs to fill im my opinion, especially after almost giving away a 4-0 lead last night. Keep it right here to see if NJ makes any deals today.

March 3, 2010 10:59 am ET

Darren's Analysis: Skoula, 30, has three goals and five assists in 33 games for the Penguins this season. The veteran blueliner will be joining his fifth NHL club after being drafted in the first round (17th overall) by the Colorado Avalanche in the 1998 draft. He also skated for Anaheim, Dallas, and Minnesota before signing a one-year contract with the Penguins as an unrestricted free agent last summer. Skoula is again eligible to become an unrestricted free agent on July 1. He is earning $575,000 this season. In my opinion he's just an average D-man and now the Devils are carrying too many D-men. I'm not sure what he brings to the table other than that Lemaire enjoyed having him in Minnesota where he played with Brian Rolston.

Last night it was Salvador-Greene; White-Mottau; Salmela-Fraser on Defense and at some point Paul Martin comes back so who will Skoula and Martin put on the healthy scratch list? White and Fraser?

AJ's Analysis: I agree completely with Darren on this trade. What does Skoula bring to the team? He's only recorded eight points, and it should be a negative sign that he played on 33 games for the Penguins this season. My guess would be that Lou traded for Skoula's experience. Lemaire never seems comfortable giving Fraser too many responsibilities. Acquiring a veteran defenseman may make Lemaire feel more comfortable with his blue line. But after seeing the Devils almost collapse yesterday, I think someone better than Martin Skoula is needed to help the Devils. With Mottau and White already getting heavy minutes as average D-men, there's really no need for another average position player. This may become similar to last year's deal for Niclas Havelid.

*** 3PM Deadline has passed but as always, there are deals announced after the deadline bell rings. At this point though, I wouldn't expect anything else from NJ ***

This game was certainly a weird game in my opinion. For a part of the game, the Devils completely dominated one of the best teams in the Western Conference and then poof, had one of those moments where the opposition pumps in goal after goal in a very short time frame. When McAmmond went off for tripping and gave the Sharks their first PP of the game and they were able to cut the lead to 2, I was really worried at what I was seeing. In my opinion, a 2 goal lead is the worst kind of lead to have in hockey. One goal and the lead is cut in half, completely changing momentum in a hockey game. One minute later, the Sharks were knocking on the door after Pavelski cut the lead 4-3. Thankfully, the Devils were able to hang on but I'll be honest, when Zajac scored to make it 4-0, I never thought that would end up being the game winner. Allowing 3 goals in 2:35 seconds is down right scary.

As I mentioned yesterday, if the Devils lost, I was going to look for the moral win and even though the Devils skated away with the victory. This was a roller coaster ride and while the Defense scares me at times, which makes me wonder about todays deadline, the offense is simply amazing when they are clicking.

I do believe the Defense will get a HUGE bump if/when Paul Martin returns. We certainly were hoping for some Paul Martin after the Olympics but he's just not ready yet. I hope he close, I read he's close but I've been reading that for so long now, I don't know what to believe.

Congratulations to Travis Zajac who netted his 20th of the year and now has back to back 20 goal seasons. I think he was tired of the Parise / Langenbrunner spotlight the last two weeks because he looked like he was on a mission, skating into the zone and ripping a slapshot right by Nabakov.

I could get used to Kovalchuk scoring wristers from the point on Power Plays. He usually opts for the bigger slapper but sometimes it's not neccesary. Credit down the stretch must go to the third line for some excellent defensive play.  With 90 seconds left, Rob Niedermayer decided to play keep away from the Sharks for a good thirty seconds.  The Sharks finally got Nabokov off, but could not launch a successful attack.  Kovalchuk nearly hit an empty netter but he missed and came back on defense to shut down the final Shark breakout, and the game ended and a huge sigh of relief went up in Devils Nation.

Don't forget today is the deadline and everything I've read says you won't be seeing a certain brother of a current NJ Devil coming back to NJ. With the Ducks in the hunt, I'm not sure why they would trade Scotty. We'll see if Lou does something to sure up the defense a little, other than that, I don't think NJ needs much.

Join us tomorrow at The 6th Sens for a Live Trading Deadline Event.

When Sidney Crosby scored the overtime goal to clinch gold for Canada, the most successful sport in the Olympics came to an end. Olympic hockey drove the ratings throughout the Olympics, with CNBC and MSNBC offering limited commercial breaks and solid commentary. The ability to broadcast live games – such as the Canada-US gold medal match – greatly helped the ratings. And for that gold medal match, NBC drew 27.6 million viewers, the highest hockey rating since the tape-delayed U.S. vs. Finland gold medal game in 1980.

The Olympic hockey action drew a wide range of new and old viewers to the sport. But Olympic hockey differs in a few key ways from the NHL game. It moved quicker, didn’t allow fighting, and showed several all-star teams taking each other on. The Olympic product was high quality, but there are plenty of things the NHL can consider to improve their on-ice product and keep new fans watching the game.

Number 1: Keep The Game Going

As we all know, sometimes a hockey game can drag. There are those games when there seems to be seven whistles every minute. But, in the Olympics, many of the games seemed to flow. I would watch the game, look at the clock and realize five or ten minutes had already ticked off the clock. The Olympics kept the flow of the game while limiting the amount of commercials shown. With the games on CNBC and MSNBC the majority of the time, NBC probably could afford the advertising loss. But the NHL should take note.

Many viewers enjoyed the fast pace and almost non-stop action of the Olympic games. While watching the Detroit Red Wings and Colorado Avalanche game last night, I realized the Olympic system could work for the NHL. If networks can keep commercial breaks to a minute or two, then the break in the action won’t be so noticeable. Then it won’t seem as if there is a clear break in the action. It’ll keep the breaks short and the action flowing.

Number 2: Institute No-Touch Icing

The Olympic rules differ from the NHL, including the no-touch icing rule. While I don’t know if I’m 100% in agreement with no-touch icing, the rule should be instituted in the NHL. There are too many injuries (or possibility of injuries) that result when two players chase down the puck. With the NHL attempting to become safer, no-touch icing becomes a no-brainer. You eliminate the possibility of a boarding or cross-checking penalty during the chase, and the game moves quicker.

The Olympics are over and the NHL has resumed play. I did enjoy the Olympics but I am certainly happy to get back to Devils Hockey or at least if they start winning I will be happy to get back to them!!

The Matchup: The New Jersey Devils (37-21-3) at the San Jose Sharks (40-13-9)

The Last Devils Game: It was UGLY. Even the 2 week layoff didn't make me forget about the whooping the 'Canes put in the Devils thanks to Ray Whitney.

The Last Sharks Game: The Sharks also looked bad against the Sabres going into the Olympic break. It certainly makes me wonder if the Olympics were a distraction, especially to a team like San Jose who was sending SO many guys.

Tonight's Matchup: Lets just get the Olympics stuff out of the way. Could there be a Post-Olympic Funk that is felt league wide? Sure, why not. These guys are going from playoff calibre games back to (and I say this loosely) regular season games that have little meaning, especially this East v West matchup. I'm not extremely worried about the 5 Devils that played in the Olympics. Kovalchuk and Elias left the tournament kind of early and Brodeur got the bench after the 5-3 loss to the USA over a week ago. Parise and Langenbrunner played the most of the 5 and Parise is young enough to not really have this affect him so I guess I am saying it's just Jamie that I worried about having a Post-Olympic Funk. I thought Marty's comments yesterday were exactly where I wanted him to be at this point in time.

For all your San Jose coverage on the Bloguin Network, go visit our friends over at Couch Tarts, they do a really nice job over there.  For my further thoughts on this game, please read on.

The Matchup: Team USA (5-0-0-0) faces off against Team Canada (4-1-1-0). This is the second meeting between the two teams in the Olympic tournament.

The Last Team USA Game: The U.S. scored six goals in the opening 12:46 to defeat Finland, 6-1, in their semifinal matchup Friday afternoon. Patrick Kane (Chicago Blackhawks) scored two goals, and Zach Parise (New Jersey Devils) added a goal in the victory. Ryan Miller (Buffalo Sabres) finished with 18 saves before being replaced at 8:49 in the third period.

The Last Team Canada Game: Team Canada scored three early goals and held on to defeat TeamSlovakia, 3-2, in their semifinal matchup Friday night. Patrick Marleau (San Jose Sharks), Brenden Morrow (Dallas Stars) and Ryan Getzlaf (Anaheim Ducks) all scored for Canada. Roberto Luongo (Vancouver Canucks) finished with 19 saves.

The Last Team USA – Team Canada Game: Team USA and Team Canada squared off in their final round robin game before the elimination rounds last Sunday. It was a back and forth affair until Chris Drury (New York Rangers) scored a goal at 16:46 of the second period. Jamie Langenbrunner (New Jersey Devils) scored the game winner with a powerplay goal at 7:09 of the third period. Miller finished with 42 saves in the win.

Today’s Matchup: When these teams last met, Team Canada was able to constantly attack Team USA’s defense. It seemed as if the Canadian’s spent most of the game in Team USA’s zone. Miller had to be phenomenal, and it was his effort that kept the Americans in the game. Without Miller’s play, the US wouldn’t have survived that game. The Americans were also aided by Martin Brodeur (New Jersey Devils), who didn’t play his greatest game.

But now the team takes on a different beast. By changing a few lines and putting in Luongo, Canada seems to have found their stride. Both teams are playing the underdog card, but the Americans are still overmatched. In this battle of all-star lineups, Canada seems to have better chemistry with their lines. But you can never bet against a hot goaltender and a confident, brash young team. This will, once again, be a dogfight until the end. But I can see both teams hoisting gold medals after the final buzzer.

The game will be on NBC at 3:15 p.m.

In the fourth installment of “Devils At The Break,” we’ll take a look at the trade for left-winger Ilya Kovalchuk. The trade, one of the most aggressive by general manager Lou Lamoriello in his tenure, hasn’t had immediate benefits. But the trade served its purpose – to spark the team and add a potentially dangerous weapon.

The Atlanta Thrashers desperately tried to keep their superstar winger in their uniform. Atlanta general manager Don Waddell didn’t want to trade the team’s captain, who scored 328 goals since being drafted in 2001. The Thrashers, an expansion team in 1999-2000, couldn’t find sustained success, only making one playoff appearance. Kovalchuk balked at a 12 year, $101 million dollar extension, and the race for Kovalchuk was on.

On February 4, the trade between the Devils and Thrashers was announced. The Thrashers agreed to trade Kovalchuk and defenseman Anssi Salmela to the Devils in exchange for defenseman Johnny Oduya, rookie forward Niclas Bergfors, prospect Patrice Cormier and a first-round selection in this years draft. The teams also exchanged second-round picks in this year’s draft.