After the Penguins had won their second Stanley Cup in 1992, the new ownership decided to change the team's beloved logo. Fans longed for the mean, muscular bird used in advertising, but the corporate, snobby-looking squashed penguin head was chosen.

Freud would've loved this. I think he would've said something like: "Zee fans vant more toughness from zee team. They know they that von't happen, zo dey are projecting their desire for zee muskles to zee team logo."

Well the Pens did get tougher. Seven years later, but who's counting? They swapped scorer Stu Barnes for Buffalo Sabres tough guy Matthew Barnaby. To the fan, it gives the team a much needed dimension of grit and fire for the playoffs. To the accountant, Barnaby's and Barnes' last names both start with "Barn" -- that's four less letters the Battlin' Birds of Bankruptcy have to pay the seamstress to sew on Barnaby's sweater. Believe it. The truth is out there.

Stu Barnes by Meredith Martini

Barnaby isn't a goon in the purest sense -- he actually has some skill, compiling 47 goals and 79 assists in 317 career games. That's on top of his 1,248 minutes of having to sit in the corner. Granted, no one is going to confuse Barnaby with Jaromir Jagr or Alexei Kovalev when he has the puck, but he knows that the net is for more than just knocking the goalie into.

Barnaby also has that coveted skill of being able to annoy anybody and get distracted opponents to take stupid penalties. Those qualities become even more important to the Pens as Darius Kasparaitis (that's Lithuanian for "Darcy Tucker," you know) will miss the rest of the season because of a knee injury. That would have been some crazy stuff to have those guys on the ice at the same time. Sick, I tell ya, sick.

Although drawing penalties and annoying the opposition are what the Pens are looking for from Barnaby, he also has been known to take some bad penalties at inopportune times and annoy his own team because of it.

And speaking of annoying his own team -- that's what bought him a one-way ticket out of Buffalo. Barnaby is a rabid supporter of former Sabres coach Ted Nolan and when Nolan was fired after receiving little endorsement from All-World netminder Dominik Hasek, Barnaby threatened publicly to run Hasek. Not a very bright thing to say, but you have to admire the guy's tenacity. This put a strain on his relationship with management and he was a healthy scratch for many games this season.

The Penguins did not scratch Barnes when he mysteriously fell into disfavor with management who said his work ethic was poor. Although there was little to no truth in that accusation, Barnes was demoted from the top line and sent to the third. If anything, Barnes' work ethic suffered after the demotion.

Maybe the Pens meant to say, "He works too hard. We want him to have a poor work ethic, so we're moving him to the third line."

Barnes was obviously shaken by the demotion and he would never be productive in a Penguins sweater again. A move needed to be made. The Penguins have some scoring depth in their top three lines, so moving an offensive talent was viable.

The Sabres get a proven scorer to help spark a struggling offense. Miroslav Satan and Mike Peca are probably their best two offensive players, but Peca's strong suit is his defensive play. Acquiring Barnes will allow Peca to focus more on that role and they still have Rob Ray, so the Sabres won't be missing any muscle from its line up.

Buffalo made it to the conference final last season behind stellar goaltending and a solid defensive effort, but scoring was lacking. Barnes should be able to help.

What do you think, Mr. Freud?

"Yez, yez. . . muskle is goot. Scoring is goot. Zee fans in both cities vill be happy."

Now if the Penguins will get a new logo...

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