There's still a few more games out west, then a couple of games back home,

than a couple on the road, and then poof.

The NHL version of hockey is gone for a couple of weeks.

That might matter.

Good morning to you. Thursday morning, I'm Dayan Kovachievich of D.K. Pittsburgh Sports. This is Daily Shot of Penguins. It comes your way bright

and early every weekday. If you're into football and or baseball, I also offer daily shots

of Steelers and Pirates. The same place that you found this.

Penguins are taking on the ducks tonight in Anaheim, California.

Our beat writer, Taylor Haas, is out there covering it for D.K. Pittsburgh Sports.

She's got most of this trip.

I'll be picking up the trip finale in Salt Lake City next week.

Yesterday on the show that Kyle Dubus does for the Penguins Radio Network,

he had the following to say about the state of the Penguins are right now,

including and reflecting the highly uplifting win in Los Angeles a couple nights ago.

I'm going to quote him directly, if we're going to claw our way back into it again, you need to do so on this trip.

Because suddenly you get to the end and you've only got a few games

then you're on the two-week break then suddenly you're into march and it's decision-making time

end quote so let's do some math here there's just a handful of games left between now and the Four Nations tournament.

The NHL does shut down for a couple of weeks.

The Penguins come back.

They play a handful of games, and then the NHL's trade deadline to which Dubus alluded by calling a decision-making time, is March

7.

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