In my head, Flyers coach John Stevens and Stars coach Dave Tippett have been on the phone all week, convincing each other not to get swept. After Dallas avoided the sweep, I imagined Tippett running to the phone and telling Stevens "Dude. I held up my end of the deal. Now you have to stop the sweep."
Obviously, I don't know for sure this conversation didn't happen, but one thing I do know is the Flyers beat the Penguins to avoid a sweep.
Stevens made two bold moves, one strategic and one emotional. Emotionally, he had injured defenseman Kimmo Timonen address the team before the game, which seemed to ramp up the Flyers (Timonen, who was supposed to be out the rest of the season might actually be back Sunday, which would be a tremendous boost for Philadelphia). Strategically, Stevens put Daniel Briere and Mike Richards (two centers) together.
Now let's see if Stevens and Tippett can make it to game six.

Wow. That was some game four last night in Dallas. I was exhausted watching the third period.
Surprisingly, despite all of the up-and-down play, Dallas played the Wings much tighter, complete with a new checking line (and complete with Joel Lundqvist, who's become a catalyst for both defensive lines and with Brad Richards on an offensive line; he's the Swedish Forest Gump of Texas hockey).
Once again, Dallas benefited in the post-season from someone in the crease. This time it was a goal being waved off after Detroit's Tomas Holmstrom was found to have his butt in the crease. Obviously, the NHL needs to look at officiating this summer. I don't have a horse in the Western race, but it looks a little strange for a brand new call to emerge during the playoffs. If butt-in-the-crease is going to become an NHL call, officials need to start calling it during the season. And yeah. I'll say what everyone is thinking: the tone of a lot of calls has subtly changed since Sir Mix-a-Lot stepped down as the league's director of officiating.
If Dallas wants to make a series of this, they better hurry before Johan Franzen, out with concussion symptoms, is back in the line-up. He resumed workouts Wednesday, so I imagine he could be back pretty soon.
Also, this is something Detroit people might know, but that I didn't realize: Scotty Bowman and Wings coach Mike Babcock speak every game day. Bowman is a handy name to have on your speed dial.

The Flyers are so frustrating. They overperformed through two rounds and now, in the Eastern Conference finals, once everyone thinks they're ready to make a game of it, they revert to their in-season form.
They lost 4-1 last night, putting them down 3-0 in the series. The Flyers look totally gassed; they had just 18 shots on goal. And while the Penguins defense is much better than they get credit for, last night's Flyers loss was totally the Flyers getting in their own way.
One thing I don't get about teams playing Pittsburgh, though. Pittsburgh always has a forward floating between the crease and the blueline. This allows the forward to get back for defense and to sneak down for offense. The Rangers never picked up this forward in the second round. The Flyers don't seem to be, either. Does no one want to play a zone against the Penguins and just assign someone to stand in front of the goalie? Am I the only one who can see this forward? Is it just the vertical hold on my TV?
Not that anyone thinks the Flyers are done. But if Pittsburgh sweeps Philly and Detroit sweeps Dallas, we'll have the fewest post-season games (27) between two Cup finalists since the NHL went to their current playoff format in 1987. And even if both teams don't sweep (ha ha), there's still room to come in below 30 games, the previous low number (1995; Devils/Wings).

What does it tell you about the lack of drama so far in the Western Conference playoffs, that San Jose coach Ron Wilson getting fired is way more interesting than Detroit defeating Dallas. Again.
It seems Wilson was fired mainly for his inability to move the Sharks deep into the playoffs.
Wilson's a great coach. I suspect he might fall short on the human end of the coaching scale, rather than the Xs and Os part. It's something he should work on at his next stop (Atlanta would look great playing his down-low cycling style; especially Bobby Holik). But in a lot of ways, I think he would be the perfect assistant coach. He wouldn't have to worry about people. He could just focus on getting all kinds of technology to do his bidding.
Oh. And Sharkspage picks Barry Melrose as the next Sharks coach. I'm all in favor of anything that gets him off of TV.
Also, given Dallas goalie Marty Turco's performance last night in his team's loss to the Wings, you kind of have to feel that everything is once again as it should be. Turco struggles in the playoffs, as seems to be his destiny.
His performance issues (although, to be fair, he's been way more solid than not), seem very correctable, though. How is it that the Stars cruise through the playoffs when everyone is picking them to leave and the second expectations of winning emerge, the team loses its focus? I'm no Dr. Phil, but surely someone in the Dallas organization has noticed this, right?

Larry Brooks really thinks the Rangers need to do what it takes to re-sign Sean Avery. This isn't a huge story, but I find it surprising, just because Avery's not a great player. Brooks points out the Rangers' record with Avery (60-28-15) and without him (35-38-8), but I can't explain it. Avery is physical, but there are a lot of physical NHL players. He doesn't have a lot of speed. He doesn't have a great shot. He doesn't have an accurate shot. And his hockey IQ can be a little lacking.
But I don't know. Brooks really seems to like him. Maybe he's angling for a job at Vogue.
Also, Patrick Roy wants to coach the Avs, which means Jose Theodore might want to think about some kind of martial art or boxing training this summer.
Also, Greg Wyshynski is blogging at Yahoo! Sports. The blog is Puck Daddy and it's the usual great stuff Greg's done over the years, just hosted at Yahoo!