In Detroit it was the visiting St. Louis Blues who escaped the Joe Louis Arena with a 1-0 victory over the host Red Wings.  The win was the Blues fourth straight and helped them leap frog the Red Wings in the standings for seventh in the west.  The additions of Jay Bouwmeester and Jordan Leopold have had an immediate impact which reinforces why the Blues were winners at this year’s deadline.

The Ottawa Senators are heading the other way of the Blues, having lost four straight after last night’s 2-1 loss to the Florida Panthers.  The self titled “Pesky Sens” have been anything but since the trade deadline where they failed to make a move that would help improve their club despite missing three key players.  Craig Anderson has returned in goal but the absence of Jason Spezza up front and Eric Karlsson on the blue line might be too much for this club to overcome.  Maybe standing pat at the deadline wasn’t a good idea?

Don’t look now but the Washington Capitals are also hot.  Riding a four game winning streak of their own, the Caps find themselves surging up the Eastern conference standings and now sit in third place after bumping the Winnipeg Jets out of the division lead.  Alex Ovechkin is scoring goals like he was when he first entered the league and Adam Oates looks like a genius, finally getting the results that he was seeking early on.  Those that preached patience with Oates and his new systems also deserve credit given many were calling for his head when the Caps stumbled out of the gate. Last night the Capitals beat the Lightning 4-2 to go two points up on Winnipeg.

The Minnesota Wild look to be playoff bound and have their defensive systems in tow after a 3-0 victory over the Columbus Jackets last night. Niklas Backstrom made 24 saves for the goose egg to pull the Wild within two points of the idle Vancouver Canucks for the Northwest division lead.

Meanwhile the magical ride that the Blue Jackets were on seems to be over as they’ve lost two in a row and now sit four points out of eighth.  With still plenty of points to be had, the Jackets need to get hot immediately and beat the teams that are ahead of them. Regardless if they make the playoffs, it’s been a great story in Columbus to see the Jackets defying the critics and staying in the playoff hunt this long.

Finally, in San Jose it was the Dallas Stars with a 5-4 shootout win over the Sharks to help the gutted Stars stay within striking distance of eighth place.  The moderate fire sale that the Stars endured at the trade deadline meant they were all but throwing in the towel on the playoffs this year, but the win was their second straight and now just sit four points back of Detroit.  Like the Blue Jackets, it’ll be difficult for the Stars to overcome the deficit, but the club has shown tremendous resilience and are playing great hockey despite losing their top three forwards.

Only five games on the slate tonight but there are plenty of playoff implications with all but one game having bearing on the jockey for the postseason positions.

There were winners at this year’s deadline and there were losers.  We’ll examine who we feel deserve to be slotted under each category and we’ll start with the winners of this year’s NHL trade deadline.

It’s no surprise that the Pittsburgh Penguins are at the top of the winner’s list.  They only went out and acquired veterans Brenden Morrow, Jarome Iginla and Douglas Murray.  After superstar Sidney Crosby suffers a broken jaw and will miss the rest of the regular season, Ray Shero pulls the trigger on a deal that landed him Jussi Jokinen from the Carolina Hurricanes.  Talk about gearing up for a cup run, the Penguins are the epitome of that saying.

The Boston Bruins also have to be considered winners at this year’s deadline.  They addressed their need up front for a skilled winger by trading for veteran Jaromir Jagr after losing out on Morrow and Iginla.  Peter Chiarelli also acquired Wade Redden to help solidify their blue line.  They did all this by surrendering a few prospects and draft picks.

Speaking of the St. Louis Blues, they too were winners at the deadline.  They were said to be after a top-four defenseman and they got him in Jay Bouwmeester.  Prior to trading with Calgary, the Blues landed Jordan Leopold from the Buffalo Sabres.  They knew what they needed, went after and got it which then made Wade Redden expendable.

The San Jose Sharks should also be considered victorious based on the moves they made.  They parted ways with Douglas Murray last week then go and win five straight games which then prompted them to trade Ryane Clowe to the Rangers.  Not to leave themselves vulnerable of being  knocked out of a playoff position, they bring in Martin Erat and Scott Hannan from the Nashville Predators along with a plethora of high round draft picks.

Finally, the Columbus Blue Jackets had a successful trade deadline day by acquiring former all-star Marian Gaborik from the New York Rangers.  The Jackets nearly committed fan base suicide when they traded Rich Nash last summer and their stellar play lately that has them within striking distance of a playoff spot has rejuvenated their fans.  The organization stated prior to the deadline that they would be buyers, but only if it made sense; AKA, cautiously optimistic.  They then pulled in Gaborik another household name for fans to get excited about, providing continued positives surrounding the club.

Agree or disagree with these five winners?  Leave your comments below.  Check back later today and we’ll examine the five losers of the trade deadline.

Feb 5, 2013; Ottawa, ON, CAN; Buffalo Sabres defenseman Jordan Leopold (3) during warmup prior to game against the Ottawa Senators at Scotiabank Place. Mandatory Credit: Marc DesRosiers-USA TODAY Sports

Jordan Leopold has been traded from the Buffalo Sabres to the St.Louis Blues for a second round pick and conditional fifth round pick in the 2013 Entry Draft. The fifth round pick becomes a fourth round if the Blues win a playoff series.

Leopold had 2 goals and 6 assists as well as 14 penalty minutes in the 24 games he has played this season. He was drafted in 1999 in the fourth round by the Anaheim Ducks. His 10 seasons in the NHL have been split between the Calgary Flames, Colorado Avalanche, Florida Panthers, Pittsburgh Penguins, and Buffalo Sabres. In his career so far he has accumulated 202 points and 268 penalty minutes in the 610 games he has played.

Blues GM Doug Armstrong had this to say about the trade:

“We feel a lot stronger. We feel our depth is much more improved as of 3 o’clock today than it was 3 o’clock yesterday,” Armstrong said. “Our goal, first and foremost, we have to get into the playoffs. We’ve put ourselves in a position where we’re going to have to work hard to maintain our position and improve it.”

With the Sabres seemingly looking to make moves for the future GM Darcy Regier was asked about the Ryan Miller situation:

“Listen, where our hockey club is right now, we have to be open to listening to just about anything and everything,” he said when asked about Miller. “I have talked to all 29 GMs over the last week, and I’ll continue to try to figure out ways that we can get better not just for the rest of this year but, more importantly, for the future.”

Regier also suggested that everyone on the roster is available for the right price.