So tonight’s the night for Detroit or Pittsburgh.
Tim Panaccio says the Penguins need a role player to step-up and pull a Ruslan Fedotenko circa game seven of the 2004 Stanley Cup finals. I think Fedotenko, who now plays for Pittsburgh, is a logical candidate for that role, but maybe it’s too obvious.
Meanwhile, moving to the [...]

So this year’s Stanley Cup finals will be a rematch of last year’s. The Blackhawks magical run through the post-season finally ended last night.
It’s interesting how close the Detroit-Chicago series actually was. Chicago had a decent chance to win games two and five. Another season or so of experience and the Blackhawks might have won [...]

It’s amazing what the struggles of the Phoenix Coyotes is flushing out.
Hot on the heels of yesterday’s report the Panthers are firing TV analyst Denis Potvin to find someone who can give them more bang for their buck, Adrian Dater uses some back-of-the-envelope calculations to estimate what the Avs lost this season and says he’s [...]

Be honest. How many people even remembered Martin Havlat still played for the Blackhawks? I think even people in the Blackhawks organization didn’t remember Havlat was on their roster.
Now, it’s tough to forget, given his two huge goals in a 3-2 win over the Flames.
Chicago basically held on against Calgary, but it was a big [...]

I know the playoffs start this week, but that’s why it’s all the more important to think about the next coach of the Avs. Because once the playoffs start, no one is going to say the word Avalanche again for quite a while. Adrian Dater is hearing the next coach could be Patrick Roy.
It makes [...]

Wow. Last night Phoenix’s Al Montoya became the first Cuban-American to play in the NHL. Even better, he got a shutout.
Montoya is a former first-round pick who’s never seemed particularly ready for the NHL, so it’s great he had such a strong game. Even if it was against a horrible team. A horrible team a [...]

Adrian Dater has a nice long post deconstructing Avs goalie Peter Budaj.
Dater says Budaj needs the eye of the tiger, attributing the goalie’s playing troubles to a lack of intensity.
A friend of Dater’s says Budaj is a slave to his technique, and I think that’s the heart of the issue. Goaltending systems are designed to [...]

Mike Heika posed an interesting question this morning: why didn’t Sean Avery work in Dallas?
Heika obviously can’t say for sure. My suspicion is that ultimately, Avery’s salary was a source of jealousy and that kept the other players from embracing him. Salary is a huge thing — especially in a league with a salary cap. [...]

Terry Frei had a great piece comparing Denver Broncos quarterback Jay Cutler’s beef with his new coach to Patrick Roy’s beef with Mario Tremblay.
Roy’s beef famously ended with a trade out of Montreal to Colorado.
Of course, one key difference in the two stories is that Patrick Roy was Patrick Roy, while Jay Cutler is [...]

So after settling down for a brief period in February, Dallas goalie Marty Turco seems to be regressing, getting pulled in the first period last night, his second hook in six starts. Unsurprisingly, Dallas lost to the Blues, tightening the Western Conference playoff race even more.
Dallas coach Dave Tippett told Bill Nichols before the game [...]