The Oilers gave GM Kevin Lowe another four-year contract. It's a sweet deal. It means he'll be able to trade all of Edmonton's top talent to the Rangers while losing in the first round of the playoffs to Dallas until the 2007-08 season.
Mazel tov, Kevin!

I swear. I don't think I've ever seen a player as upset and as apologetic as Devil defenseman Colin White. Some of you may recall that it was White's misplay in game six, where the Devils could have clinched a finals berth, that left Devil goalie Martin Brodeur unprotected, with no defenseman in front of him, leading to the game-winning overtime goal.
It's sort of refreshing to see a player cop to being out of position — especially when his team is one game away from moving into the Stanley Cup finals. But it's sort of sad to see White so upset: "[Moving out of position to nail Senator Marian Hossa] was a reaction I made, and it was obviously the wrong one...I really don't know why I went over as hard as I did. It's my fault."
Chin up, cowboy. Just play better next time. And remember. Pinching, even in your own zone, is never a great idea. Leave the pinching to the crabs.
Senator Daniel Alfredsson is in a much better mood. Not only does his team have a good shot at being the first NHL team to move into the finals after being down three games to one since the Devils beat Philly in 2000, but countrywoman Annika Sorenstam is playing in a PGA Tour event — the first woman to do that in 58 years.
Good times.

What's the Stanley Cup doing in California (l: laexaminer; p: laexaminer)? Relax. The NHL hasn't decided to just give the Ducks the Stanley Cup. They're still going to have to win four more games. The Cup is just making a tour of the Final Four cities.
The most shocking part of this story? That people in Anaheim know what the Stanley Cup is. They must be either Canadian ex-pats or else they've been coached.

Crazy! The Devils can't put Ottawa away. With the series tied at three apiece, at least we know it will all soon be over. I still think the Devils will win, though. Ottawa looked horrible in overtime. If Patrick Lalime hadn't been the brick wall he was, the Devils could have easily won. But of course Lalime will be playing in game seven, so maybe the Devils aren't a lock to win.
Speaking of the Devils, here's a funny article about Jim Cassella, the mayor of East Rutherford, home of the surging Nets and once-surging Devils. He makes around $7,000 a year as mayor. Of course, it's not like mayors' salaries are based on team performance. But maybe they should be. Over across the Hudson River, in New York City, the mayor, Mike Bloomberg, a billionaire, accepts a dollar a year as salary. And the Knicks and the Rangers are pretty bad, so that seems about right. So maybe if you have a good team in your town, the mayor should get around $7K, but if you have a bad team, the mayor should only get a buck for the year.
Hmmm. I have some numbers to crunch.

Jean-Sebastien Giguere is going to be on THE TONIGHT SHOW this Friday. The other guests? Colin Quinn, Jim Belushi and Dan Aykroyd.
That's right. An NHLer finally makes THE TONIGHT SHOW (although Brendan Shanahan was on in 1997) and it's on C-level celebrity night. What's the matter? They couldn't fit Kato Kaelin and Donny Osmond in?
Speaking of television, can someone explain this to me? TSN is getting record ratings for the playoffs, but the CBC's are in the toilet. I can't imagine TSN's American team games were that much of a draw. It's just weird — like maybe a bunch of hockey fans have some sort of fear of the CBC. Me? If I were in Canada I'd be way more scared of the mad cow and the SARS than the CBC. But that's just me.

Maybe the Ducks didn't really beat Detroit. Maybe Detroit took a dive. According to the Austin American-Statesman, Brett Hull would rather play golf than hockey. He's in Austin, happily trying to qualify for the US Open.
Rather unshockingly, Hull is a hell of a driver. I wonder if when he drives, he snaps his back parallel to the ground like he does when he takes a slapshot.

Hmmm. This is interesting. According to the May 23 Hockey News, Boston offered Sergei Samsonov to the Panthers for their first round draft pick. The News says Boston wants the pick to get goalie Marc-Andre Fleury. I haven't seen that reported anywhere.

Geez. Is there anything more heart-wrenching than a dying Roger Neilson talking to his Senators about second chances and living every moment? The poor guy is so cancer-ravaged, he couldn't even stay for the actual game.
It was a truly great hockey moment. My only question is where does Ottawa go from here emotionally? Even if they end up in the Stanley Cup finals, will they have anything left in their tanks after that? Neilson's words inspired the Senators, but for how long? And how does coach Jacques Martin follow Neilson's speech? How does he get his team even more psyched? I don't fault Neilson for pouring his heart out. Not in the least. I just wish it could have been a Stanley Cup finals game seven speech.

Martin Brodeur is having a bad week.
First his team can't close the door on Ottawa, a team that historically and statistically died when down three games to one.Now his soon-to-be-ex-wife has filed for divorce and listed her demands.
He deserves the Vezina just for not crying in the crease.

RinkBlog has a link to a great story on the ECHL and its name change. According to the Augusta Chronicle, the ECHL changed its official name from the East Coast Hockey League to the ECHL, an abbreviation that now really stands for nothing.
What other names were under consideration?
How about the Super Hockey League, Premier Hockey League, Continental Hockey Association, and Federal Hockey League? Super Hockey League. That's freaking awesome. I think that would trump the NHL. I think the Super Hockey League should use super to modify everything, so a goalie would be a supergoalie and a center would be a supercenter.

How many articles have you read about the Ducks unlikely trip to the finals?
Me? I've seen about 1,000. The New York Times makes it 1,001. OK. OK. We get it. No one predicted the Ducks would go this far. Now can we write about something else? Anything else?

Wow. So apparently Patrick Roy is really into running the Quebec Remparts, which he owns a third of. How into it? The team was fined $1,000 after the excitable Colorado goalie entered the video replay booth. He also views tapes of every Remparts game during the season. It's cool that he's so into this, but it's also a little weird. Like he's one of those crazed dads at Little League games. I bet the whole team is a little scared of Roy.

OK. And we're off:

*From the Allegedly True NHL Crime File: Former Red Wing goalie Dom Hasek is being investigated for allegedly attacking someone with a stick during an in-line hockey game. Hasek was skating, not tending. Stick attack? In-line hockey? Skating? None of this makes sense.

*From the Assload of Money File: The Red Wings offered Sergei Fedorov a four years/$40 million contract. No word on if he'll take it.

Yeah. So today, upon reading that Senator prospect Jason Spezza might get some ice time against the Devils, I was pretty skeptical. After all, it seemed an insane move — putting the burdens of a failing team on the shoulders of a 19-year-old playoff rookie? It seemed like it would guarantee trauma more than a win.
I was wrong. Spezza assisted on the go-ahead goal and scored one of his own as Ottawa beat New Jersey 3-1.
Also, please note that while everyone blamed Ottawa goalie Patrick Lalime for the Senators' loss in game four, very few will credit Lalime with a strong performance in Monday's game five. Blame the goalie if a team loses and ignore him if they win, right guys?
Also, it looks like the Binghamton Senators, Ottawa's AHL affilliate and Spezza's usual home, are getting ready for his permanent move to the NHL. The team finally won a game in their AHL Eastern Conference Finals. The B-Sens won 6-4 and are now only down two games to one.

This is just too weird not to link to. It's Kara Yorio defense of Roman Cechmanek. Her point is that the Flyers goalie got a raw deal being publicly dumped by Philly after giving them a great regular season performance. It's true, but is that any reason to hold onto a goalie that seems compelled to fail in the playoffs? Cechmanek is almost pathological in his refusal to goaltend during the post-season. Worse yet, the perception among his teammates is that he'll fail, so they don't play up to snuff. It sucks to be fired but Cechmanek had to go. There are many worse injustices in the hockey world.

Ottawa is one game away from summer vacation. Their big problems? Their big players not really stepping up and big game inexperience. I think the Senators are all kind of shocked to be out of the first round. And it seems like they're all so pumped up, they're taking a lot of bad penalties. Ottawa is going to be a huge force next season (assuming Ottawa ownership, whoever it is this week, can keep the team intact) but for now, it looks like they should work on their putt-putt swings.
A lot of the Canadian columnists are blaming Ottawa goalie Patrick Lalime. While his third period breakdown in game four against the Devils wasn't something to pin up on the fridge, his defensemen didn't help — unless they were supposed to be giving up odd-man rushes and not protecting the front of the net. It's easy to blame Lalime, but it's not right. Ottawa really just needs to wait until next year. Everyone says that, but Ottawa can back it up.

Hey! Check out Rink Blog, a newish hockey blog by Tim Harvey. It's good stuff.
There are a couple of nice hockey blogs I don't have permanent links to. It's on my list of things to do after the finals.
As you were.

So the Rangers want to restructure Eric Lindros' contract so it's more about performance and less about showing up for work. Where's the outcry? Fans and owners freak out when players try to get their contracts restructured — just ask Alexei Yashin. So why aren't people snapping at Rangers GM Glen Sather?
Consider me snapping. A contract is a contract. And aren't the Rangers trying to unload Lindros anyway?

Joe Thornton arrested for allegedly assaulting a police officer? What gives? He didn't want to fight (or score) in the playoffs. Why now? One thing is for sure. The cop probably didn't look like Devils checker John Madden. Otherwise Thornton probably would have just skated away.