Zbynek Michalek

The job of the defensive defenseman is one of high risk and little reward, which is why Pittsburgh Penguins defenseman Zbynek Michalek's first goal of the season and first in 92 games was so widely celebrated in the Pens' 3-1 win over the Buffalo Sabres.

The play was emblematic of the season thus far.

Defenseman Alex Goligoski charged up the boards inside the blueline, trying to keep the puck in the offensive zone midway through the third period of a 4-4 game. Shawn Thornton of the Boston Bruins got to the biscuit first, however, and chipped it past the oncoming Goligoski and into the neutral zone.

Today, I am going to take an in depth look at the Atlantic division.

New Jersey Devils

Key acquisitions: Anton Volchenkov, Henrik Tallinder, Jason Arnott, Johan Hedberg

Key losses: Paul Martin, Mike Mottau and Ilya Kovalchuk (maybe)

I know free agency is still going on and there are a lot of good players left so these picks will probably change. Here is my list of the three biggest winners so far.

New Jersey Devils

The Devils added two very good defenseman in Anton Volchenkov and Henrik Tallinder. As all of you know, Volchenkov is a big, hard-hitting defenseman who will block any puck coming his way and will give a 110-percent effort night in night out.

When about 15 minutes after noon went by, I refreshed twitter at work and saw about eight tweets discussing that Sergei Gonchar had been traded to Ottawa for a three-year deal. 

My immediate thought was "Our season is over." 

When the season ended, I immediately realized how many free agents we had. I knew we were going to lose players, that's a given. What I didn't expect was how many players we would be losing.

This whole summer I thought Gonch would be back, along with Eaton and Guerin. Now Gonchar is gone and Eaton and Guerin might be following suit.