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It's a Monday edition of Marek vs. Wyshynski beginning at 2 p.m. ET/11 a.m. PT, and we're talking about the following and more:

Special Guest Star: Mike Heika of the Dallas Morning News talks about the Brenden Morrow trade and the trade deadline.

• Guy Boucher was fired and we pick at the carcass.

• Ilya Kovalchuk's injury; Rick Nash's non-suspension.

• Trade deadline talk.

Question of the Day: Who's the next coach to be fired? Tweet or email puckdaddyblog@yahoo.com.

Tweet your answers with the hashtag #MvsW to @wyshynski and @jeffmarek.

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Getty ImagesMike Ribeiro has been the Washington Capitals’ best forward this season, which means his trade value as an unrestricted free agent next summer couldn’t be higher - but neither is the creeping desire to keep him with Washington next season.

Ribeiro is coming off a 5-year deal he signed with the Dallas Stars, and told the Washington Post that he wants that term in his next contract. From the Post:

He is open to the idea of re-signing in Washington, but he’s looking for a five-year deal that would offer stability for him and his family.

[Also: Penguins paid dearly for run-down version of Brenden Morrow – and it's the right move]

“I don’t want to move too much. If you can agree to a long term then I’ll be more than happy to stay here. I don’t know if I’m looking for two years and then change place then another two years. I don’t think I want that,” Ribeiro said. “Five years for me is long term. Two, three years I don’t think is long term. I think two, three short term. Four, five, six [is] long term and 10 years like Ovi, that’s a marriage thing.”

So should the Capitals go long with Ribeiro?

162572282When someone writes that Tyler Myers’ name is “out there” for a trade, it speaks to the bloody carcass that are the Buffalo Sabres, with the vulture circling. But not necessarily a desire to move him.

It’s hard to imagine GM Darcy Regier actively shopping Myers; it’s equally hard to imagine Regier would be allowed to make such a deal as what we all assume (hope?) is a lame duck GM.

Yet here’s Jim Matheson of the Edmonton Journal, puttin’ it out there:

“What’s happened to this guy? He’s six-foot-eight, he can move the puck. He doesn’t look anything like the player of a couple of years ago,” said one former NHL coach who spoke on condition of anonymity.

Myers is a shell of his former Calder-winning self. His play is better than it was early in the season, but it’s only a ‘C’ on most report cards. His name is certainly out there for trade, but with six years and $33 million left on his deal, he’s a financially risky pickup.

That said, the same former NHL coach stated, “I’m sure 29 other teams would like to take a run at him, figuring he just needs to be somewhere else. You know how it is.”

As Dave Davis notes, Myers has turned his season around after a rocky start. That might just be the Ron Rolston Effect, of course.

I like Myers. I like him at $5.5 million against the cap. But sometimes contracts cement reputations, and setting Myers as a franchise cornerstone might not have been the best move for either the player or the Buffalo Sabres.

Getty ImagesHello, this is a feature that will run through the entire season and aims to recap the weekend’s events and boils those events down to one admittedly superficial fact or stupid opinion about each team. Feel free to complain about it.

The Boston Bruins have been going through a bit of a tough stretch lately: Losing three of their last four, blowing third-period leads in a way that few Claude Julien-coached Bruins teams have, and causing the entire city to have a crisis of confidence about whether the team is good enough to compete for a Stanley Cup.

All the nail-biting and finger-pointing in the world — and there's been a lot of both in the last week — does little to actually get to the heart of the issue: There's no really good reason why the Bruins aren't playing especially well right now, or why they can't hold a third-period lead.

Let's start with the very basic fact that none of this, no matter what the media wants to believe, has to do with how "clutch" Tuukka Rask is or isn't. Claude Julien made a comment after the loss in Winnipeg last Tuesday, in which Rask gave up goals less than a minute apart, that the team wasn't getting "timely saves." That was all anyone needed.

Anton Khudobin got a start at Ottawa after that, and the Bruins won 2-1, leading many in the local media, sage surveyors of the sport, to wonder if it was time to start splitting time between the two. This despite the fact that Rask's goals-against average is below 2, and his even strength save percentage is among the best in the League.

Now Rask knows how Roberto Luongo feels, because people are trying to squeeze him out of his job for not being "clutch" with almost 20 games to go in the regular season, despite the fact that his team scored one (1) goal to support him.

And as for Khudobin, the media's heir apparent to Rask's shortly-held throne? Got the hook after giving up three goals on 11 shots to Toronto Saturday night. So it's back to the drawing board there.

When can they call up Malcolm Subban?

Hockey: A beautiful sport.

No. 1 Star: Bryan Little, Winnipeg Jets

Little was in on all three goals in the Jets' 3-2 win over the Tampa Bay Lightning. The opener he scored himself:

He then added assists on the Jets' second and third tallies, and also went an impressive 19-for-26 on faceoffs.

No. 2 Star: Evgeni Nabokov, New York Islanders

Nabokov stopped all 26 shots he faced for his third shutout of the season in a 3-0 victory over the hapless Florida Panthers. Andy MacDonald scored the game-winner, and the Islanders added two more into an empty net in the game's dying seconds.

Considering how well it worked out for him the last time Ray Shero traded with the Dallas Stars, you can understand why the Pittsburgh Penguins' GM might want to go back to that well.

According to reports, he's done exactly that, swinging a deal for Stars' captain Brenden Morrow.

Dallas receives a package that includes Penguins' defensive prospect Joe Morrow and a 5th-round pick in 2013. Getting Joe Morrow is a clever move: It allows the Stars to recycle their captain's old jerseys with only some minor damage where the "C" used to be.

Somehow, Pittsburgh also receives a third round pick from Dallas.

It was a tough call for Morrow, who had the hammer in this deal with his NTC. After 13 seasons as a Dallas Star, it must have been a tough decision to move on.

Complicating that decision: the Boston Bruins reportedly had a deal on the table as well, meaning Morrow had to decide which Eastern Conference team he wanted to join as well. Considering he was leaving Dallas for what could be his last, best shot at the Stanley Cup, that meant deciding which club he thought gave him a better chance to win. That's a tough call, even for the pundits.

But Morrow chose Pittsburgh, and it's tough to criticize a decision to play with Sidney Crosby and Evgeni Malkin.

The move has to be a scary one for other clubs in the Eastern Conference, as a Penguins' forward corps that's already as formidable as they come adds another big forward to their top six. Suppose Morrow is placed on a line with Evgeni Malkin and James Neal: that line instantly becomes a lot tougher, as well as tougher to defend.

On the bright side, if this is the Penguins' big pre-deadline move, it could have been a lot worse. With the Penguins' reportedly on Jarome Iginla's list of acceptable trade destination, Pittsburgh's rivals have to be a lot more comfortable with the club settling for Morrow, who has just 11 points and is a minus-8 through 29 games this season and doesn't appear to be the same player he once was.

Granted, James Neal and Chris Kunitz stand as evidence that playing alongside the Penguins' centres can do wonders for one's numbers, and really, it's not like Pittsburgh needs extra offence. Morrow doesn't have to light the world on fire. Between Crosby, Kunitz, Malkin, and Neal, the Penguins have plenty of guys capable of doing that.

If Morrow can create space for them to work, then he's going to help.

Getty ImagesWhen the Pittsburgh Penguins called up 21-year old forward Beau Bennett on Feb. 14, it was too short notice for his family to travel to Winnipeg, a place they know well. Bennett's grandma and aunt were born there, and they introduced hockey to the family while he was growing up in California.

While Bennett didn't score in his NHL debut, he played 11:37 in the Penguins' 3-1 win, and afterward his phone was pretty busy with congratulatory voicemails and texts. "I live in Canada, so my phone bill is probably going to be not happy with that," Bennett joked.

Pittsburgh's first round pick in 2010 made history. At No. 20 overall, Bennett became the highest drafted California-born-and-trained player ever in the NHL. After two years at the University of Denver, the Penguins signed Bennett and he started the 2012-13 season with their AHL affiliate in Wilkes-Barre. His 25 points in 35 games earned him the call-up in mid-February and he hasn't looked back.

We spoke with Bennett after the Penguins' morning skate on Friday. Enjoy.

164440156The New Jersey Devils finally got goalie Martin Brodeur back this week, winning both of his starts and watching him score a goal in his first game back.

After Sunday’s news, he might have to pick up his game. His offensive game, we mean.

Ilya Kovalchuk injured his right shoulder in the third period of the Devils’ 2-1 victory over the Florida Panthers on Saturday night, and the prognosis is that the sniper will be out 2-4 weeks according to President/GM/Ruler of All He Surveys Lou Lamoriello.

From Fire & Ice:

He underwent an X-ray following Saturday’s game, which Lamoriello said was “fine”, and he’s scheduled to have an MRI this afternoon, but it does not appear that Kovlachuk will require surgery.

Kovalchuk will not accompany the team on its trip to Ottawa, Tampa Bay and Florida. Left wing Harri Pesonen is on his way back from Albany and will go on the trip with the team.

Kovalchuk is second on the Devils with 27 points in 32 games, with 12 of them coming on the power play. He also has four shorthanded goals, meaning this is a serious blow for both ends of the Devils’ special teams.

New Jersey should get Dainus Zubrus back from injury soon, although not in the next three games. That'll help a little, but losing Kovalchuk for a month would be devastating.

The Devils won two in a row and are in the No. 7 seed in the East with 16 games left. Can they survive without Kovalchuk?