Rather than violate a moratorium that I implemented at the start of the season (mostly because I don’t want to have to drop a bug-bomb in the commentbox to get rid of the trolls that such a post would attract), I’m going to talk about something other than last night’s debacle:

A trade.

After taking a look at the trade that the Ducks and Flyers made yesterday, I got to thinkin’.

The ‘Canes need a defenseman–preferably somebody young and less of a liability than Avi Tanabe. Given Paul Holmgren’s penchant for trading away talent and potential in exchange for garbage (or, in the case of yesterday’s trade, trading for a cat who’s on the IR), I bet we could send Avi to Philly in exchange for, say, Joni Pitkanen. If we wait six weeks we might be able to get Jeff Carter, too. Then mebbe we can flip Carter to another team for another defenseman.

(What? Why are you all looking at me like that?)

Some folks ’round these parts are salivating at Gagne, but really we need defense more than we need forwards. How about this:

To PHI: Avi Tanabe + ‘07 draft pick

To CAR: Snatch Joni Pitkanen + Freddie Meyer

I dunno, I kinda like that. Give up a defenseman and a draft pick for two defensemen? I bet we can hoodwink Homer into making that trade–though I’m sure he’ll try to get us to make some boneheaded trade like Erik Cole + Kevyn Adams for Mike Rathje + Derian Hatcher or something.

It’s worth a shot.