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SPORT-SCAN DAILY BRIEFNHL 6/9/2013

Boston Bruins680454 Bruins advance to Cup with 1-0 win over Penguins680455 McQuaid's goal sends Bruins to Stanley Cup finals680456 Bruins to face Blackhawks in Stanley Cup Final680457 Buckley: B's lower the broom on Pens680458 McQuaid goes from hospital bed to hero680459 Rask the man amid mayhem680460 Blackhawks know power of desperation mode680461 Chiarelli lauds Claude680462 Peter Chiarelli has good reason to be happy680463 Borges: Defense trumps dazzle680464 Notebook: Daugavins insurance pays off680465 Jagr accepts new role in old age

Carolina Hurricanes680466 N.C. State counters Hurricanes’ claim in PNC Arena dispute

Chicago Blackhawks680467 Hawks' Kane does it all680468 Fabulous finish surpasses splendid start680469 Hawks host Stanley Cup Final opener Wednesday680470 From excruciating to ecstasy680471 Richards return nearly storybook ending680472 Keith starts off Game 5 with a ban680473 Kane sends Hawks to finals with hat trick goal in 2 OTs680474 Bruins bring momentum, defense to Stanley Cup Final680475 'Game 7 mentality' for Hawks vs. Kings680476 Blackhawks' Keith happy to play, not watch680477 Blackhawks fans, bars commit to the Cup again680478 Duncan Keith unhappy with ‘repeat offender’ tag680479 Even though Blackhawks won, true desperation wasn’t there680480 Slump talk a distant memory after Patrick Kane’s hat trick680481 Blackhawks-Bruins Cup Final a clash in styles680482 Raising Kane! Star’s hat trick sends Blackhawks to Stanley

Cup Final680483 Kane's goal lifts Hawks to dramatic victory680484 Hat trick for Patrick propels Hawks680485 Veterans know there’s no reason to celebrate yet680486 Forward-thinking Bickell continues to produce680487 Newer Hawks thrilled about Cup opportunity680488 Blackhawks headed to Stanley Cup finals680489 Keith doesn’t want to be known as dirty player680490 Kane with Toews and Bickell again680491 Kings' season cut short following 'deflating' loss to Hawks680492 Complete Stanley Cup Final broadcast schedule680493 Hat-Trick Hero: Kane sends Hawks back to Cup Final680494 Keith rejoins the fold as Blackhawks aim to close it out

Colorado Avalanche680495 Kiszla: Josh Kroenke not a fan of cheap shots680496 Jarome Iginla would make good signing by Avalanche

Dallas Stars680497 Source: Stars agree to terms on a two-year deal with

39-year-old defenseman Sergei Gonchar

Detroit Red Wings680498 Patrick Kane's hat trick sends Blackhawks to Stanley Cup

finals680499 Detroit Red Wings' Danny DeKeyser joins Griffins for Calder

Cup final, looks ahead to training camp680500 On a list of great coaches, Scotty Bowman is at the top680501 Report: Mike Babcock will coach Team Canada in 2014

Olympics

Edmonton Oilers680502 Edmonton Oilers GM Craig MacTavish confirms the team

has fired Ralph Krueger680503 MacKinnon: Plenty of excellent choices for new Oilers coach680504 Dallas Eakins fits the bill for Oilers680505 Ralph Krueger out as Oilers coach

Los Angeles Kings680506 Anze Kopitar finds himself just as Kings are lost680507 Throne out: Blackhawks eliminate Kings from playoffs680508 Blackhawks' end almost as good as the start680509 It's a reign out for Kings680510 Richards' return not enough to lift King680511 Kane's double-overtime goal ends Kings' season680512 KINGS NOTEBOOK: Richards returns for finale680513 June 8 postgame quotes: Darryl Sutter680514 June 8 postgame quotes: Chicago680515 Scuderi addresses game, season, future680516 Kings played through injuries680517 June 8 postgame quotes: Matt Greene680518 June 8 morning skate quotes: Drew Doughty680519 Game 5 lineup notes680520 June 8 pregame notebook680521 Richards takes part in morning skate

Montreal Canadiens680522 Oilers fire Ralph Krueger, set to hire Eakins

New Jersey Devils680523 Kane Finishes Hat Trick, and Kings, in a Thriller680524 Makeover Possible For Penguins After a Sweep680525 Nearly Sunk, Bruins Snap Into a Juggernaut

New York Rangers680526 June 9, 2013 1:02 AM680527 Could Dan Bylsma be new Rangers' coaching candidate?680528 Throw Dan Bylsma’s hat into the Rangers’ coaching ring

Philadelphia Flyers680529 Boston's balance made the difference

Pittsburgh Penguins680530 Starkey: Bylsma would be lucky to stay680531 For general manager Shero, Penguins, some difficult

decisions ahead680532 Plenty of decisions ahead for Penguins, starting with Bylsma

St Louis Blues680533 Blues have four high-profile restricted free agents

Toronto Maple Leafs680534 Eakins’ move to Oilers leaves big hole behind Marlies’

bench: Cox680535 NHL playoffs 2013: Maple Leafs toughest test for Bruins680536 Dallas Eakins fits the bill for Oilers680537 Simmons: Bruins would have taken Pogge instead of Rask

from Maple Leafs for Raycroft680538 Why the Blackhawks’ model will not work for every team

Vancouver Canucks680539 Why Eakins to Edmonton won’t been seen as a loss in

Vancouver680540 Canucks, Rangers could bang heads over Bylsma680541 Dallas Eakins hired as Edmonton Oilers coach, meaning one

less candidate for the Canucks' job

Websites680543 ESPN / Is Dan Bylsma on the hot seat?680544 Penguins pull shocking disappearing act680545 ESPN / Blackhawks roll right into a finals berth680546 ESPN / Defending champs went down swinging680547 ESPN / Mike Richards back in lineup680548 ESPN / Sutter still tinkering with lineup680549 USA TODAY / Kane's OT goal sends Blackhawks to Cup

Final680550 USA TODAY / Penguins have tough decisions to make after

being swept680551 USA TODAY / Kings-Blackhawks Game 5 preview680552 USA TODAY / Will Bylsma be available for Rangers' job?

Winnipeg Jets680542 How will Winnipeg Jets stack up in the wild Midwest?

SPORT-SCAN, INC. 941-284-4129

680454 Boston Bruins

Bruins advance to Cup with 1-0 win over Penguins

By Fluto Shinzawa / Globe Staff / June 7, 2013

The Bruins qualified for the Cup with a 1-0 Game 4 win over Pittsburgh Friday night to eliminate the Penguins in four games.

Adam McQuaid scored the winning goal at 5:01 of the third period. Brad Marchand carried the puck into the offensive zone, pulled up, and waited for support. McQuaid rolled into the offensive zone, took Marchand’s saucer pass, and blasted a slap shot over Tomas Vokoun’s glove to give the Bruins a 1-0 lead.

The score, tied at 0-0 after 20 minutes, remained that way after the second period. Neither goalie had to register any four-star saves.

Vokoun’s best stop took place on Tyler Seguin. After Seguin squeaked behind the Pittsburgh defense, the right wing snapped a shot from the left circle. Vokoun stopped Seguin’s shot with his glove at 10:55.

The Bruins’ best scoring chance took place when Kaspars Daugavins rattled the left post at 2:46.

At the other end, the Penguins’ best opportunity took place after an Evgeni Malkin slap shot. Malkin hammered the puck off Tuukka Rask’s far pad. Rask kicked out a rebound to Kris Letang, who had been sneaking back post. But Letang couldn’t get his stick on the puck.

Torey Krug was rattled when Beau Bennett slammed the rookie into the boards at 2:05. The clash brought McQuaid to his partner’s aid. McQuaid and Jarome Iginla traded words. Krug was treated on the bench and didn’t miss any time.

Neither team scored in the first period.

The Bruins held an 11-9 shot advantage after 20 minutes.

The Penguins held their breath when Sidney Crosby appeared dazed shortly. Daniel Paille bumped Crosby, who fell and cracked the back of his head on the ice. Crosby was bent over on the bench for several moments. But Crosby didn’t miss any shifts.

During a television timeout, the Garden crowd applauded Gregory Campbell. The scoreboard showed Campbell sitting in the press box with crutches at his side. Campbell acknowledged the applause by waving his hand. Campbell is out for the postseason because of a broken right leg suffered while blocking a Malkin shot in Game 3.

Boston Globe LOADED: 06.09.2013


McQuaid's goal sends Bruins to Stanley Cup finals

By HOWARD ULMAN / AP Sports Writer / June 8, 2013

BOSTON (AP) — Tuukka Rask knew how potent the Penguins offense was. He also knew he could shut them out.

‘‘Every game starts with zero,’’ the Bruins poised goalie said, ‘‘so you have a chance.’’

And two games ended with a zero for Pittsburgh as Boston completed a sweep with a 1-0 win on Friday night that sent it to its second Stanley Cup final, and maybe its second championship, in three years with a 4-0 series victory.

The Bruins will play the winner of the Western Conference finals. The Chicago Blackhawks lead the Los Angeles Kings 3-1 and can wrap it up Saturday night.

Rask’s second shutout of the Eastern Conference finals continued his domination of the highest scoring team in the NHL. The Penguins big offensive threats — Sidney Crosby, Evgeni Malkin, Jarome Iginla and James Neal — didn’t score a single point and Boston outscored Pittsburgh 12-2.

‘‘We knew we had to be at our best to beat this team,’’ Bruins coach Claude Julien said. ‘‘That’s exactly what happened.’’

Rask stopped 134 of 136 shots by a team that averaged 4.27 goals a game in its first two playoff series.

‘‘I don’t feel like they totally shut us down,’’ Crosby said. ‘‘I feel like we got chances, but Rask made some big saves.’’

The few rebounds Rask allowed throughout the series were quickly cleared away by a defenseman or a forward getting back into the play. On offense and defense, the Bruins always seemed to be in the right spot at the right time. They made precise passes and got their sticks in the way of many passes the Penguins tried.

In the clincher, all the Bruins needed was one goal and defenseman Adam McQuaid provided it with a 45-foot slap shot from the right that went over goalie Tomas Vokoun’s right arm at 5:01 of the third period.

Of Boston’s 50 playoff goals, 15 have been scored by defensemen.

‘‘I think first and foremost, we’re obviously trying to be solid defensively,’’ said McQuaid, who had one goal in 32 regular-season games but two in the playoffs. ‘‘It obviously feels good. It feels good to be able to contribute that way when you don’t normally.’’

Rask provided the final flourish when he gloved Iginla’s hard 40-foot shot as the final buzzer sounded.

Iginla had turned down a trade from Calgary to Boston before being dealt to Pittsburgh because he thought the Penguins had a better chance to win the Cup, but that turned out to be wrong.

The Penguins never led in the series.

‘‘I just didn’t play very well,’’ he said. ‘‘That’s when you want to play your best for the team.’’

McQuaid’s goal sparked a chant of ‘‘We want the Cup!’’ from the capacity crowd. At the end of the game, the Bruins were one step closer to another title.

They were outplayed for much of regulation in Game 3. But they improved after that and won 2-1 on Patrice Bergeron’s goal at 15:19 of the second overtime.

On Friday night, Boston’s Milan Lucic admitted, ‘‘We were a little sluggish the first two periods ... and we said, ‘We have to win a period to win a series.'’’

They did just that.

The top-seeded Penguins were trying to overcome both the disciplined defense of the fourth-seeded Bruins and history. Only three teams had lost

a series after winning the first three games. The last was the Bruins in the 2010 Eastern Conference semifinals against the Philadelphia Flyers.

The Penguins felt they were ‘‘put together to win the Stanley Cup. That’s our expectation from Day One,’’ coach Dan Bylsma said. ‘‘You’re going to look at this as a missed opportunity.’’

Pittsburgh was swept for the first time in 47 series. The last team to do it to the Penguins was Boston in 1979.

The Penguins also lost the first three games of their opening-round series last year against Philadelphia before being eliminated in six games.

Rask, who replaced 2011 playoff MVP Tim Thomas when Thomas decided not to play after last season, was solid again with 26 saves, but didn’t have to stop many challenging shots.

‘‘He has been the reason why we’re here,’’ Bruins forward Patrice Bergeron said.

The Penguins had been shut out just twice in their previous 147 games before being blanked twice in the four games against the Bruins. Pittsburgh lost Game 1 at home 3-0.

Holding down Crosby and Malkin was the key.

‘‘He is the best player in the world,’’ Bergeron said of Crosby. ‘‘We did a good job with that.’’

On the winning goal, Brad Marchand held the puck along the left boards in the offensive zone and waited for McQuaid to skate up ice. Marchand fed the puck toward the blue line where McQuaid, with no Penguins player close to him, unleashed the winning shot



Bruins to face Blackhawks in Stanley Cup Final

Posted by Matt Pepin, Boston.com Staff June 8, 2013 10:38 PM

The Bruins will face the Chicago Blackhawks in the Stanley Cup Final.

The Blackhawks won the Western Conference championship on Saturday by beating the defending Cup champion Los Angeles Kings, 4-3, in double overtime in Game 5 in Chicago. Patrick Kane's third goal came at 11:40 of the second overtime to give the Blackhawks the win.

The Blackhawks, one of the NHL's Original Six teams along with the Bruins, were the top seed in the Western Conference and defeated the Minnesota Wild (4-1) and the Detroit Red Sings (4-3) in the first two rounds of the playoffs.

The Blackhawks had the best record in the NHL in the regular season (36-7, with 5 overtime losses), and began the season with 12 straight victories. They will have home-ice advantage in the final series, with Games 1, 2, 5, and 7 scheduled to be in Chicago.

The Bruins and Blackhawks did not meet in the regular season, although both have won Stanley Cups recently. The Bruins won in 2011, the Blackhawks won the year before.

The schedule is as follows:

Game 1: Wednesday at Chicago, 8 p.m. (NBC)

Game 2: Saturday at Chicago, 8 p.m. (NBCSN)

Game 3: June 17 at Boston, 8 p.m. (NBCSN)

Game 4: June 19 at Boston, 8 p.m. (NBC)

Game 5: June 22 at Chicago, 8 p.m. (NBC)-x

Game 6: June 24 at Boston, 8 p.m. (NBC)-x

Game 7: June 26 at Chicago, 8 p.m. (NBC)-x

x-if necessary



Buckley: B's lower the broom on Pens

Saturday, June 8, 2013

Author(s):

Steve Buckley

“We lost. Obviously it’s a shock.”

— Penguins goaltender Tomas Vokoun

Go ahead and check the record.

Plenty of people — from highly respected, card-carrying Very Important Hockey Experts, to casual fans who are lucky to catch one game a month — predicted that this year’s Eastern Conference finals between the Bruins and Penguins was going to end in a four-game sweep.

What nobody could have predicted — and, really, please announce yourself if you are such a person — is that it would be the Bruins who’d be toting the brooms.

But here we are: With their rollicking, shots-flying-at-the-buzzer 1-0 victory over the Penguins in Game 4 last night at the packed, star-studded Garden, the Bruins did indeed complete the sweep, earning their second trip to the Stanley Cup finals in three seasons.

And on a night when a Murderers’ Row of Boston celebrities dotted the crowd — from David Ortiz and John Krasinski, to Doug Flutie and Mike Eruzione — it was kind of cool that a working man would do the heavy lifting.

Adam McQuaid, a 26-year-old, fourth-year Bruin, broke a scoreless tie at 5:01 of the third period when his shot from the blue line sailed over the right shoulder of Vokoun — whose goaltending we’d all be raving about were it not for the fact that Bruins keeper Tuukka Rask pitched his second shutout of the series, and wound up allowing just two goals in the four games.

Before we get back to the shocking nature of this sweep, let’s stop for some good, old-fashioned symbolism. It comes courtesy of one Jarome Iginla — the one-time Calgary Flame who at the trading deadline famously chose to rubber-stamp a deal to the Penguins, not the Bruins, because he believed the Pens represented a better chance to win a Stanley Cup.

At the end last night, as the last-ditch Pens were applying furious pressure on Rask, who even lost his stick at one point, it was Iginla who took the last shot at the buzzer.

“They were just throwing everything at the net,” said Rask. “Somehow I saw it, I don’t know if it would have counted or not, but . . . too much.”

Bruins fans no doubt were singing Iginla drinking songs as they spilled onto Causeway Street. But funny thing: Rask wasn’t even sure it was Iginla who took the final shot until reporters told him so after the game.

“Oh, OK, yeah,” he said.

Perfect: The guy who chose the Penguins because he wanted to win a Stanley Cup wound up being so much an afterthought that the B’s goaltender couldn’t even pick him out in a crowd.

Years from now, historians who attempt to examine what happened in this postseason will need to begin not with Game 1 of the Eastern Conference finals, but with Game 7 of the Eastern Conference quarterfinals — when the Bruins found themselves trailing the Toronto Maple Leafs by three goals midway through the third period.

Preposterously, the Bruins came back and won that game. And perhaps that should have been the hint: If the Bruins could do that, and then wipe up the Rangers in five games, was a sweep of the Pens all that impossible?

“You learn from good experiences and bad experiences,” said B’s center Chris Kelly. “You play that Game 7 against Toronto a hundred times and you lose that game 99 times. But things happen for a reason.

“Maybe we needed to experience that in order to realize we weren’t maybe playing our best hockey. And we needed to correct it quickly. I thought we did a good job of that.”

It’s a fair point. Once the Bruins staged their miracle comeback against the Maple Leafs, once they polished off the Rangers, they entered the Pittsburgh series as a No. 4 seed in name only.

They did, indeed, have a chance to win this thing. But a sweep? Even Bruins players didn’t dare to go there.

“I don’t think our mindset coming into the series was thinking we want to sweep,” McQuaid said. “We did a really good job of taking one game at a time.”

As in 3-0, 6-1, 2-1 and 1-0.

The Bruins allowed just two goals in four games. That’s the fewest goals the B’s have yielded in a four-game series since they surrendered five in the 1930 semifinals. To put into perspective how long ago that was, the team they beat — the Montreal Maroons, by 3-1 in a beat-of-five series — doesn’t even exist anymore.

“I was watching TV yesterday and someone said, ‘Bruins are going to sweep Pittsburgh in Game 4 and go to the final,’ ” said David Krejci. “Just hearing that was pretty cool.”

OK, fine. But it was before Game 4 that Krejci heard that comment about a sweep of Pittsburgh. He sure as heck didn’t hear it before Game 1.

Boston Herald LOADED: 06.09.2013


McQuaid goes from hospital bed to hero


By:Ron Borges

Only weeks into this NHL season that nearly wasn’t, Adam McQuaid wasn’t worried about being locked out and he wasn’t worried about beating the Pittsburgh Penguins, as he did last night, either.

Adam McQuaid was worried about being laid out in a hospital bed because that’s where he was — lying in Mass. General wondering why his arms were so swollen they looked like Popeye’s and doctors he’d never seen before were hovering around him shaking their heads.

As it turned out, the Bruins defenseman who scored perhaps the most improbable winning goal in a most improbable sweep of the Pittsburgh Penguins in the Eastern Conference finals was suffering from Thoracic Outlet Syndrome. If you think that sounds bad, you’re right, which is why when the season finally began McQuaid wasn’t thinking about scoring a goal like he did at 5:01 of the third period last night, slamming a slap shot past Penguins goalie Tomas Vokoun that was all the Bruins needed to win 1-0 and advance to the Stanley Cup finals for the second time in three years.

He was thinking about sitting up in bed.

“I guess personally, you know, in December I wasn’t thinking too much even about playing hockey,” McQuaid said. “It was just trying to get back healthy. It’s definitely nice to see how things come full circle like that.”

Where they came from was a life-threatening battle with his body, which had begun to produce blood clots at an alarming rate. The problem surfaced during the first week of workouts over at Bright Hockey Center at Harvard, where the Bruins were holding unsupervised workouts with a lockout looming that would ultimately cost them half the season.

McQuaid would need two operations, the first to remove a clot from near his collarbone and the second to ensure the problem would not arise again. That required the removal of a rib and a portion of his neck muscles and ensured McQuaid would not have been skating had the season begun on time.

That it did not turned out to be a blessing. McQuaid is one of the few players who could argue he actually benefited by the owners’ onerous business decision to enrich themselves on the back of their players.

Had the season begun on time, McQuaid would not have been ready. But because of the lengthy lockout, when the first puck finally dropped Jan. 19 McQuaid was there . . . just as he was last night.

When this series began McQuaid was elsewhere, finding his face flattened into the glass from behind in the early moments of Game 1’s second period by the Penguins’ Chief Goon in Residence, Matt Cooke. Cooke ended up with a five-minute major and a game misconduct but otherwise played on. Fortunately for the Bruins, so did McQuaid.

“We said in the playoffs it’s about the team, and everyone steps up at one point or another, and tonight it was Quaider,” forward Patrice Bergeron said. “He’s one of those guys that you don’t necessarily see that often on the score sheet, but he does his job. And the way that he plays goes a long way, especially in the playoffs, and tonight was his turn to score that big goal.”

His turn came when, in the midst of a line change, Brad Marchand saw the puck and jumped on it. For an instant he thought he might take off with it but realized on this occasion it needed to go over to the big defenseman across the ice who seldom shoots.

“I knew there were a couple guys coming off the bench,” Marchand said. “I wanted to test the defenseman a little bit but there wasn’t much there so I let it go (to McQuaid).

“I was kind of looking back and saw him wind up and shoot it and heard the crowd.”

Marchand didn’t need to see the shot fly over Vokoun’s right shoulder and just under the crossbar for what would become the goal that swept away the Penguins. What Marchand heard was the primal roar of 17,565 fanatics who had just seen the impossible. They had just seen their Bruins take the lead again against the most dangerous team in hockey on a goal by the most unlikely man to do it, someone who two nights earlier was the only Bruin not taken in a media pool to select who would be the winning goal scorer.

“It’s so rewarding for him because he went through such a tough time, like all that sickness or virus,” defenseman Dennis Seidenberg said. “I don’t know what it was but for him to come back like that and play solid hockey and score that big goal is big.

“I guess that’s what the playoffs are all about; different guys stepping up at different times. Tonight it was Quaider. It was an unbelievable shot from the blue line.”

It was an unbelievable shot from someone not long ago facing an unbelievable medical condition, a shot that was good for an unbelievable sweep of the unbelievable Pittsburgh Penguins. Maybe not quite a fairy tale, but close enough.



Rask the man amid mayhem


By:Stephen Harris, Bruins Beat

For Tuukka Rask to finish the job, it came down to an utterly insane final 30 seconds and an absolutely perfect last, what, tenth of a second?

There was so much history in the air at the berserk TD Garden last night, so much emotion and excitement and delighted disbelief, as the final shift of a completely ridiculous Eastern Conference title series played out.

Surely there were thoughts about being brushed aside by Mario Lemieux and the Pens twice in conference finals in the early 1990s. And about Cam Neely’s battles with Ulf Samuelsson. And about another Penguins cheap-shot guy, Matt Cooke, effectively ending Marc Savard’s career. And about Jarome Iginla snubbing the Bruins to be a Penguin.

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And there was a new series that few folks outside of Boston imagined the Bruins could win, not against the deepest and most talented NHL team in many a year.

So here it was, a half-minute to go, Tomas Vokoun gone from the Pittsburgh net, Bruins leading Game 4, 1-0, and a sweep of the vaunted Pens moments away.

And all hell was breaking loose in front of Rask.

“Oh, my goodness,” said Rask, trying to recall all the mayhem. “I lost my stick. They had the puck and they were just throwing everything at the net. They made that back-door play to (Evgeni) Malkin. Malkin had a great look there (but) he didn’t shoot it. I scrambled there, he didn’t shoot. He deked Z (Zdeno Chara) and Z was laying on the ground and saved it.

“We had the puck and I saw there was 14 seconds left but we couldn’t clear it. The last thing I saw, it was at their ‘D.’ Somehow I saw it.”

The final shot wasn’t from a defenseman, but, with one last dramatic flourish, Iginla. Rask spotted the puck amid all the chaos, gloved it, and the B’s had a sweep of the Pens no one would have dreamed possible.

“I don’t know if it would have ounted or not,” said Rask of that final shot, the 26th of the game and the 136th in the four games. Rask merely stopped 134 of them.

“Too much,” he said of the crazy end. “I looked at the clock right afterward and it was all zeros. I don’t know if it would have counted. It’s just a scramble. People laying everywhere, you don’t have a stick. I don’t know . . . you’re just trying to throw yourself as big as you can and stop the puck.”

Rask was absolutely immense in this series. Two goals allowed and two shutouts against a team that came into the series averaging more than four goals a game. Yet, as is usually the case with the super-calm Finn, he shrugged it all off.

“Every game starts with a zero, so you have a chance to shut ’em out,” said Rask. “I played good, but I think for the most part our team played really good, too. (Last night) they didn’t have too many quality chances. It helps a goalie out a lot.”

The Bruins were especially focused on Sidney Crosby, who had 13 shots on goal in the series. Zero points. Every time he touched the puck, it seemed he instantly had two Bruins right on him, pushing him, taking away his stick, giving him no room and no time.

“You’ve got to take care of a guy like that,” said Rask. “If you give him room he’s going to make plays. He’s really dangerous. It tells a lot about our team to be able to shut (Crosby and Malkin) out.”

To hold the lowliest team in the NHL to less than half-a-goal per 60 minutes is incredible; to do it against this team simply is not possible.

“I like our chances when we let in two goals in four games,” said Rask.

The B’s played a wonderful game of team defense in this one.

“We’ve been together for a long time (and) we kind of know what we do,” said Rask.

In typical Rask style, he’s going to try to treat the Stanley Cup finals against Chicago, or maybe Los Angeles, as just another handful of games.

“I think you have to kind of be on some level,” he said. “You can’t make too big of a deal out of it, because it’s the same game. The Stanley Cup is on the line, but it’s the same game. You just have to stay focused and keep doing your job. You can’t change anything.

“It’s been working so far; we’ve got to keep it up. Just play the game the way we always do and have fun with it, and we’ll see what happens.”

The perfect attitude.



Blackhawks know power of desperation mode


By:Shannon Ryan

It wasn’t that long ago when questions enveloped the Chicago Blackhawks about a likely inevitable exit from the NHL playoffs.

Down 3-1 to the Red Wings in the Western Conference semifinals, they were headed off the cliff.

Instead, something clicked.

Now, conversely, with a 3-1 advantage over the Kings and one game from the Stanley Cup Final, the Hawks hardly are expecting their opponent to come into the United Center meekly Saturday night for Game 5.

“We were on the other end of this, so we know what they’re thinking,” defenseman Johnny Oduya said Friday. “We know this is not over.”

The desperate must-win scenario sparked the Hawks, who won three straight from the Wings to claim the series.

The Hawks know better than anyone that being one game away from advancing does not equal a punched ticket.

“We had that the other series, and we woke up, knowing (we had) to play the best game of the series,” Niklas Hjalmarsson said.

Captain Jonathan Toews is looking at Saturday night as just the start.

“We can just go into that game with the mindset that we’re down 3-1,” he said. “That’s what we’ve said the last couple of games in L.A. We know the other team is coming at you hard. It’s up to you to motivate yourself and try to put yourself in that position that you feel like you’re in a seventh game or your back’s up against the wall.

“We did that (in Game 4). We know we have to raise our level of play even more (in Game 5).”

The Hawks appear to have the momentum to close out the series. They dealt the Kings their first home playoff loss Thursday night, ending a 15-game home winning streak, and they did it without star defenseman Duncan Keith, who will return to the ice after serving a one-game suspension.

Also working to their advantage is the fact the Kings struggle mightily on the road.

They are just 1-7 in road playoff games this season, including two losses at the United Center.

“They’re a great team, and it’s always toughest to win to close out a series,” Hjalmarsson said. “(But we) always look forward to playing at the United Center. We know the crowd is going to be rocking.”

Facing elimination against the Red Wings revitalized the Hawks, coach Joel Quenneville said.

“That’s where we started to become a team,” he said. “The progression in our team game has evolved where it’s a little more confident.”

While the Hawks prepared for a Kings late awakening, they are eager to close out the series before the home crowd.

“We don’t want to go back to L.A.,” Oduya said.



Chiarelli lauds Claude


By:Steve Conroy

Fresh off his team's stunning four-game sweep of the Pittsburgh Penguins, GM Peter Chiarelli, who conducted a morning press conference at the Garden while the players and the coaching staff had the day off, took the opportunity praise his coach Claude Julien.

And why not? What Julien's team accomplished with its win over the Penguins – allowing just two goals over four games to a team that had been averaging 4.27 a game coming into the series – is one of the great team feats Boston sports history.

Chiarelli believes he gained valuable lessons in his short stints as coach of Montreal and New Jersey.

“I think you have to be given up on two or three times before you become really good. I think you learn from your previous tenures,” said Chiarelli. “So I think if you go through it – a number of coaches – I think that you’ll see they learned from working with previous organizations and then getting fired. Having said that, I’ve known Claude for a while and I’ve seen his work ethic, I’ve seen his humble beginnings, I’ve seen how he pays attention to detail, I’ve seen how he treats everyone the same. And that goes a long way when you’re in a room and you’re in the trenches. After the Toronto series I quoted this stat; he had the second most playoff wins since he’s been here, amongst coaches since that point. I don’t know, he may have the most now, I’m not sure; I don’t know if he’s caught Mike Babcock yet. He did a real good job this series. You saw the matching, you saw the quick changing in Pittsburgh. You saw a real good PK. It’s a testament to his assistants, too; they do a real good job under him. We’ve got a good coach here and he’s showing how good he is.”....

Julien said that there's a chance Gregory Campbell could require surgery on his broken right fibula, but that decision has been made.



Peter Chiarelli has good reason to be happy

Sunday, June 9, 2013

By:Steve Conroy

When the complete story of the 2013 Bruins season is told, general manager Peter Chiarelli just might have delivered the money quote.

“They’re a lock, right?” chirped a sarcastic Chiarelli.

That was on March 28 and he had just lost out to the Penguins on acquiring Jarome Iginla, who chose instead to go to Pittsburgh after all signs pointed to him coming to the Bruins. Chiarelli, in fact, thought he had a deal. Pittsburgh, meanwhile, already had acquired a proven playoff performer, Brenden Morrow, big-body defenseman Douglas Murray and later obtained Jussi Jokinen.

Chiarelli later settled for Jaromir Jagr, Wade Redden, waiver pick-up Kaspars Daugavins and the nucleus that won him a Stanley Cup just two years ago.

Across North America, his counterpart in Pittsburgh, Ray Shero, was hailed a proactive genius while Chiarellli was affixed the role of the bridesmaid.

Well, it turns out those Penguins were not a lock.

Not only that, Chiarelli’s Bruins beat arguably the best collection of talent in the league in an unimaginably dominant fashion, allowing just two goals during a four-game sweep of the Eastern Conference finals. Now they get to face the ultra-talented Chicago Blackhawks in the Stanley Cup finals, hoping to win their second championship in three seasons.

Along the way, the Bruins blanked all Pittsburgh’s high-profile talent — Iginla, Sidney Crosby, Evgeni Malkin, Chris Neal and Kris Letang.

Yesterday was Chiarelli’s golden opportunity to gloat. Instead, he took much more pride in his team’s accomplishment than he gleaned satisfaction from the Penguins’ colossal failure.

“As I said at the time (of the unsuccessful Iginla deal), those types of things happen once in a while, they just don’t become public,” said Chiarelli at a morning press conference yesterday at the Garden. “You know, in my profession you learn to turn the page and go to the next thing and move on. Otherwise, if you dwell on things you’re not going to be able to focus. So, I mean, it’s satisfying that we won with the group that we had. I’m happy to see the contributions we got from Jaromir and the other players that we acquired. It wasn’t anything extra (because of Iginla). To beat a team of that caliber the way that we beat them was very satisfying.”

For Chiarelli, a quote from centerman David Krejci after the Game 3 double overtime resonated with him. Krejci said the B’s may not have the high-end stars, but they play as a team. The Penguins learned that the hard way as they failed time and again to penetrate the layers upon layers of Bruins team defense.

“Well, it felt really good with that quote because it’s something that I, we, have stressed for the longest of times, that you’ve all got to be pointing in the same direction. There can’t be anyone that’s above anyone else,” said Chiarelli. “It’s a storied old cliche, yes, but it’s true. And it’s been applicable to this team for a long time. It’s just nice to hear — a player who’s been lights-out this year, too — to say it, because it exists. It’s just nice to (hear) him say it and have everyone else hear it, because it’s really applicable to this team. And you’ve got those role players that are such important parts and you go down into your history and see these unsung heroes and they’re all the kind of lower-line, lower-pair guys. And you have to have everyone pulling there and for those players to know that they’re on the same level.”

Chiarelli has sometimes taken some criticism for not making more changes after the Stanley Cup win in 2011. From that ’11 Cup-winning roster, only Mark Recchi (retirement), Tim Thomas (retirement, we think), Tomas Kaberle (free agency) and Michael Ryder (free agency) are no longer with the team.

To Chiarelli, this current run is a validation of keeping the core of that team together.

“Yeah, absolutely,” said Chiarelli. “There’s a fine line between unfettered loyalty to the players and building a good team. That’s my job to find that line. I’ll continue to try and do it. This team has showed a lot of character through this playoff run, as they did — I don’t know what the returning number of players were; 13, 14, 15, something like that from the last time. We’ll try and do it again, if I can.”



Borges: Defense trumps dazzle


By:Ron Borges

It’s an adage as old as ice but it proved accurate once again. Defense wins championships.

Defense wins championships because defense is like a Toyota Corolla. It is not stylish. It is not flashy. It causes no one to stare as it drives by, but it always drives by because it’s never in the shop.

Defense is what everyone craves but few fully value. Defense is reliable.

You may not always be able to put the ball in the hoop or the bat on the ball or the pass in the right place or, in this case, the puck in the net, but you can always play defense . . . if you truly want to.

The Pittsburgh Penguins came into the Eastern Conference finals as the highest-scoring team in hockey. The Bruins came in as a collection of gritty guys, making it sound like they were little more than sand inside the Penguins’ skates.

The experts mostly looked at Penguins scorers Sidney Crosby, Evgeni Malkin, Jarome Iginla and James Neal as if they were creators of a game never before seen, a game that made defense laughably obsolete.

The Penguins had a fatal flaw, however. If they didn’t score a lot, they didn’t win a lot, which is where moving your feet and believing in the reliability of that effort comes in. It’s why the Bruins not only beat the myth of the Mighty Penguins but swept it away in four straight games to earn their second trip to the Stanley Cup finals in three years.

The Bruins advanced because they did not forget what the Penguins’ advocates never considered: Sand in your shoe is irritating, and if you can’t get it out it leads to blisters, and that leads to changing how you move, and that leads to not playing your game, and that leads to frustration, and that, finally, leads to summer vacation.

“I tried; I tried,” Malkin admitted after all was said and the Penguins were done. “Of course if you can’t get shots, you can’t score goals. It’s tough because sometimes I’m not scoring and I start to get nervous. Sometimes I have a good chance but maybe I try to shoot quicker when sometimes I need to wait and shoot into the empty net. I don’t have confidence with zero goals.”

Up the hall a guy who once wore Malkin’s colors and is going to the Hall of Fame for what he did in them understood what he was feeling because he’d felt it. Now he also understood what the Bruins were feeling because he’d felt that, too. He’d moved his feet this time, not just his shot.

“You don’t have much time to look where you’re going to shoot (when players get tired). It’s tough to lift the puck sometimes,” said Jaromir Jagr, the one-time Penguins superstar turned 41-year-old Bruins grinder. “But when I play defense . . . I’m not saying it’s easier, but it’s easier to play defense than score a goal.”

What the Czech checker was really saying actually was it is easier to play defense than score a goal if you truly want to play it. Defense is not easy but it’s easier than beating a defense . . . if it’s the Bruins defense, at least.

“Defense first,” Jagr said of the Bruins’ approach to winning since he arrived from Dallas in April after Iginla decided he’d rather go play offense than play for the Stanley Cup. “You’re not depending on one or two guys and everybody waiting for them to score.

“If that guy doesn’t feel very well, it’s mentally tough. I’ve been in that situation. I was supposed to be that guy and I didn’t feel very well, and it’s not easy. Here everybody can score at any time. Coach tried to roll four lines no matter what the situation is; even when we were up 1-0 with 10 minutes to go, we were still rolling four lines. You know how many teams have a lineup to do that?”

Probably more than you’d think if somebody thought to try, but it’s easier, or so it seems, to go with two or three superstars and ask the rest of the group

to make cameo appearances. In Boston there are no cameo appearances and no superstars.

“It’s not easy on me because I’m used to something else,” Jagr admitted of playing the Bruins’ forechecking, backchecking, puck-protecting brand of hockey for someone used to the Penguins’ freewheeling style. “I know it’s going to make me a better hockey player later. Make me stronger.”

Boston Strong.

The highest-scoring team in the NHL scored only two goals against the Bruins while allowing 12. That’s a team minus-10. It’s also a team minus the playoffs. It’s a Jaguar in the shop passed by a Corolla.

It was an old story and an ode to an old-fashioned team that has taught a few more future Hall of Famers that while it may be easier to play defense than offense, it’s also wiser . . . if you have the feet to move it and the heart to do it.



Notebook: Daugavins insurance pays off


By:Steve Conroy, Bruins Notebook

With all the possible comings and goings at the trade deadline, the Bruins’ acquisition of Kaspars Daugavins understandably flew under the radar.

With names like Iginla, Jagr and Bouwmeester bouncing around the league at the time, a simple waiver claim for a bottom-six forward didn’t cause the slightest of ripples across the league, and barely one in Boston.

But now, with Gregory Campbell out of the playoffs with a broken fibula, it looks like Daugavins will be playing a role for the Bruins as they embark on their second trip to the Stanley Cup finals in three years. The way he played in the 1-0 victory in Game 4 over the Penguins — mostly with Rich Peverley and Tyler Seguin — certainly didn’t give anyone a reason to think he’d be coming out of the lineup.

General manager Peter Chiarelli said yesterday the B’s claimed Daugavins as an insurance policy.

“I’ve always liked the way he plays,” said Chiarelli, who was still in the Ottawa organization when the Senators drafted Daugavins in 2006. “He’s got that puck-possession mentality, puck-protection mentality. He’s got some skill on the puck. As we do with all our player decisions, we had a discussion. And we just felt, I felt, that I didn’t know what we could do in the trade deadline. It was a really tight, tight market, and we had to get some depth. So I liked him, he had a great contractual status (restricted free agent after this year). He’s young still (25), and I like the way that he played.

“His game (Friday) night, I thought, was really good for the time he was on. He likes to take the puck to the net. That was a terrific move protecting the puck with his right hip. That was a terrific move and he hit the post, and he had another couple of shots and good cycle, good defensive plays. So he played well.”

Daugavins played for Ottawa’s AHL affiliate in Binghamton, N.Y., that won the Calder Cup last year, and he was looking forward to go to the finals again, this time on a higher level.

“Playing in the finals no matter what league you’re in, it’s always fun and it’s good for you. You learn how to win,” Daugavins said Friday. “Now playing in the NHL finals is going to be like a dream come true and you just have to use it.”

Win with Horton

Nathan Horton has been healthy for two postseasons with the Bruins and he’s had a major hand in delivering them to the Stanley Cup finals. He was injured last year and the B’s were bounced in the first round.

This playoff season, he leads the league in plus-minus by a whopping margin (plus-21), is second in the league in points (17) behind linemate David Krejci, and ranks third in goals (seven) behind Krejci and Chicago’s Patrick Sharp.

Whether the B’s can afford to keep him remains to be seen. Horton, an unrestricted free agent on July 5, is making money during these playoffs. Despite his regular-season inconsistencies, his track record in the playoffs should have teams that are on the cusp — Montreal, Ottawa, Pittsburgh, the Rangers — drooling over him. He could very well fetch a deal of $6 million annually over six years on the open market.

The B’s cap number for 2013-14 already is $60 million, with the cap coming down to $64.3 million. And they still have to sign Tuukka Rask. We’ll see how aggressive Chiarelli is in trying to keep Horton, but the GM appreciates his value to the team.

“You can see the energy; you can see the enthusiasm. Of course, the size and the shot are the two things I like, and the skating,” said Chiarelli. “He’s playing real well right now.” . . .

Chiarelli said Campbell may need surgery, though it has not been decided if that’s the course that will be taken.



Jagr accepts new role in old age


By:Herald Staff

The last time he was in the Stanley Cup finals, Jaromir Jagr became one of the youngest players in NHL history to score a goal on that stage.

At 20 years old, he scored twice in the 1992 finals to help the Pittsburgh Penguins sweep the Chicago Blackhawks. Jagr finished third on the Pens in goals that postseason and developed into one of the top offensive players in the game.

Five teams, 21 years and many gray hairs later, Jagr’s returning to the finals. And though he may once again face the Blackhawks, not much else remains the same. These days, the 41-year-old is more focused on defense than scoring, and Bruins coach Claude Julien couldn’t be happier with his team’s deadline-deal acquisition.

“He’s coming back and doing what he needs to do there to help us out defensively. That’s a credit to him. For what he is, for how long he’s played, for a guy to do that is pretty amazing,” Julien said. “He’s bought into that. I honestly think the credit goes to him. I haven’t had to twist his arm. I haven’t had to do anything.”

Jagr’s defensive effort was highlighted in Game 3, when he stole the puck from Evgeni Malkin to help set up Patrice Bergeron’s game-winner in the second overtime.

Though he doesn’t play with the same speed he did in his younger days, at 6-foot-3 he still uses his size and his smarts to his advantage. In the Bruins’ 1-0 Game 4 win, he was solid along the boards and willing to throw his body around. In the final 50 seconds, with Pittsburgh’s goalie pulled, Jagr did all he could to clear Penguins out around the net during the intense flurry.

At one point, he dove on the ice over teammate Dennis Seidenberg and Pittsburgh’s Pascal Dupuis trying to poke the puck away from the net. With 25 seconds left, he cleared the puck out of the zone.

“When I play defense — I’m not saying it’s easier, but it’s easier to play defense than score a goal,” Jagr said. “I found that in my hockey career, the more guys are tired the lower (scoring) the games are going to be.”

Jagr has seven points — all assists — in 16 games this postseason, and his next goal will tie him with Jean Beliveau for 10th place on the career playoff goals list. Julien said that Jagr’s been snake-bitten of late. He’s had multiple scoring chances this postseason and hit the crossbar Friday night.

After the game, he joked that the younger Jagr probably would’ve scored more in the Eastern Conference finals, but wouldn’t have been as attentive on defense.

“I would probably score five or six goals,” Jagr said. “Back then no one would have asked me to play defense. Maybe somebody will say, ‘Oh you can do whatever you want,’ but it’s 2013.”


680466 Carolina Hurricanes

N.C. State counters Hurricanes’ claim in PNC Arena dispute

Chip Alexander

RALEIGH — N.C. State released information Saturday that chancellor Randy Woodson said shows the university has been reasonable in using its priority on scheduling dates in PNC Arena.

The university and Gale Force Holdings, the company that owns the Carolina Hurricanes, have been at odds over the dates made available for the Canes’ games and other events. Gale Force claimed the university locked down an excessive number of dates for a minimal amount of football and basketball games, leaving the Hurricanes liable to possible NHL fines.

On Saturday, N.C. State released its numbers. The university said from Aug. 29 to March 8, 2014, it initially held out 91 dates of an available 192 dates for 28 events.

N.C. State said for football, 26 dates were initially held and that by Feb. 25, 2013, all but the eight dates needed to schedule home games for the 2013 season had been released. For men’s basketball, it said 29 dates were held and that by May 31 all but the 17 dates had been released -- 13 needed for nine basketball games scheduled for the 2013-204 season, and four dates needed to complete the schedule and cover the university’s winter commencement.

For its ACC basketball schedule, which has yet to be released, N.C. State is holding 40 dates.

“It adds clarity and certainly demonstrates the approach we have taken throughout all of this to do everything we can to help the Hurricanes with their situation but also be mindful of the fact we’re trying to schedule our games,” Woodson said Saturday of the numbers. “I think the big issue that has been discussed ... has been what’s changed? We’re working under the same contract we’ve always had. What’s changed is we’re working hard to build an excellent (athletic) program here.”

Hurricanes president and general manager Jim Rutherford, in a letter sent May 14 to the Centennial Authority, said 129 dates out of 214 dates -- including 26 of 30 days in November -- had been held by N.C. State. He said from Oct. 15 to Jan. 1, 2014, N.C. State was holding 42 of 92 days for seven to eight home basketball games.

The university said Gale Force in past years has contacted ACC officials to ask that certain dates be withheld for hockey games. The university said it first became aware of that contact within the past year, and that N.C. State requested the ACC have contact only with university officials.

“All of us were surprised that Gale Force had been working directly with the ACC to change our basketball schedule,” Woodson said.

“That’s inconsistent with the contract and inconsistent with what we need to do to build a winning program.”

Rutherford said the Hurricanes’ home dates for the 2013-2014 season had to be submitted to the NHL by June 1. Any date change made after June 1 could result in a $100,000 fine, he said.

The university said it does not receive its ACC basketball schedule until August or September. Woodson said the arena contract specifies athletics director Debbie Yow and the athletic department use “its best efforts” to release dates by June 1, saying N.C. State had done that.

“Criticizing my athletic director for following the contract is inappropriate,” Woodson said.

Rutherford said N.C. State’s lockdown on dates prevented Gale Force from scheduling a wrestling event, which he said would have netted about $170,000.

Gale Force operates the arena, with oversight from the Centennial Authority. It schedules events in the arena and is responsible for annual operating deficits.

On Thursday, the authority voted to request Rutherford and N.C. State chancellor Randy Woodson meet in the next two weeks to reach a solution

to the scheduling issues. Woodson said Saturday he and Rutherford would meet in about two weeks.

News Observer LOADED: 06.09.2013

680467 Chicago Blackhawks

Hawks' Kane does it all

Brian Hamilton

1:31 AM CDT, June 9, 2013

Maybe three minutes into the game that could send the Blackhawks to the Stanley Cup Final again, there was Patrick Kane at the blue line, hacking away at the ice, looking for the puck, looking to get noticed by everyone and anyone.

He had been getting attention in all the wrong ways, of course, just earlier this week. A scoring drought and not-so-subtle nudges from his coach had everyone wondering where the prolific winger was at the biggest time of the year. And over two nights, Kane answered that: In the right place, at the right time.

In the most spectacular fashion of perhaps his entire career, a smallish scoring wizard slung a team on his back and carried it to the Stanley Cup Final. Three goals for Kane in Game 5, each one more momentous than the next, with his last ending the two-overtime game in a 4-3 victory that for the moment seemed to be a night like no other.

"Right now, it feels like the best," Kane said, wearing a Western Conference title cap. "June 10 or June 9 a few years ago (when the Hawks won the Cup) was also a good night. Right now, it's almost like I'm in a different zone, the Twilight Zone or something, I'm kind of out of it. But it's definitely a good feeling."

It was a game Kane just about won twice, with his second goal seemingly sealing matters late in the third period before a Kings rally in the final seconds of regulation necessitated the third score. On that sequence, Kane took a drop pass from Jonathan Toews and rifled a screamer past the Kings' Jonathan Quick, following it with a primal scream amid a United Center detonation.

Before Game 4 against the Kings, he had not scored a goal in seven games. He then posted four in his last two, searching for his game through film sessions with his father and text messages from close friends and even sushi dinners for good luck. And what was lost was found.

"He stepped up," coach Joel Quenneville said. "He took on the responsibility of leading the team and proving that he's a top player. He made special plays over the two games. Nice to see him finish it off in a real positive way for us. Top players, they want to be great all the time."

Kane was certainly great all the time Saturday, start to finish, carrying over the momentum from the scoring breakthrough in Game 4.

"To get that monkey off the back and get that confidence level, it goes a long way in any sport," winger Bryan Bickell said. "I'm happy for him. To do what he did tonight was huge."

First came a bit of brilliant and breathtaking stick-handling in the first period for a score. A misplay near the crease created a little bit of havoc when Bickell sent the puck toward Quick and Toews jostled at the net. No one was able to corral the rebound until Kane did, and then came a magic act.

Kane gave a split-second head fake, which caused Kings defenseman Drew Doughty to hit the ice. Then he kept sliding and sliding to his left, patience that caused Quick to commit low as well. With those two bodies horizontal and essentially screening anyone else from charging in, Kane roofed in his fourth postseason goal to open a two-score lead just short of six minutes in.

In the third period, Kane recorded the apparent game-winner when Bickell started another sequence by taking out a Kings player in front of the net and then backhanded a pass to Kane in the slot.

Kane left no doubt, one-timing a shot past Quick high for the go-ahead score about 16 minutes into the third. But after the Kings evened things with 9.4 seconds left in regulation, it would be left for Kane and Toews once more in the second overtime.

"The shift before, actually, Johnny had the same play," Kane said. "I knew he was coming back to me, just tried to wait for the defenseman to come by me. He made a great pass. I just tried to get it off as quick as I can."

Said Toews: "He was a finisher tonight. It's nice to see Kaner have that success and obviously we want to keep that going."

Not so long ago, everyone was wondering where Kane was, let alone where he was going.

What started in Game 4 continued as Kane hacked the ice early in Game 5, begging for someone to find him, and then after that came the effort that got everyone's attention.

"To contribute the last couple games, I think any player would be lying to you if they didn't say it was nice," Kane said. "It's always nice to contribute, especially in games like this."

Chicago Tribune LOADED: 06.09.2013


Fabulous finish surpasses splendid start

Staff Writer

1:31 AM CDT, June 9, 2013

It had to end this way, with a moment meant for the cover of a media guide or framed on a wall.

A game this good deserved an ending this dramatic.

So when Patrick Kane scored his third goal of the game Saturday night high over the glove of Kings goalie Jonathan Quick to give the Blackhawks a 4-3 double-overtime victory in Game 5 of the Western Conference finals, poetic justice was served in Chicago.

A hat trick for Patrick put the Hawks back in rhythm for the Stanley Cup Final beginning Wednesday night against the Bruins. The man whose goal won the 2010 Stanley Cup scored another in the clutch to give the Hawks a chance to win again.

"Right now it feels like the best (goal) I've scored," Kane said.

After the first six minutes of Game 5, this sentence was typed on computers across hockey America: Nobody can beat the Blackhawks.

By the end of the franchise's first double-overtime game in 16 years, everything had changed, including the punctuation.

Nobody can beat the Blackhawks?

The Kings supplied a large measure of doubt with an epic effort that, at the expense of fingernails everywhere, sent a game into double overtime because the Hawks couldn't finish what they started.

And what a start it was.

For days and possibly years in barrooms and boardrooms around Chicago, on talk radio and in text messages, they will tell their friends about The Start of Game 5. They likely will discuss The Finish even longer.

Both contributed to producing a hockey classic, which went into its first overtime when Mike Richards deflected Anze Kopitar's shot past Corey Crawford with 9.4 seconds left in regulation. Just 3:43 earlier, Kane had scored what appeared to be the winning goal off a pretty pass from Bryan Bickell.

The Kings came into the game needing a victory to save their season. The Blackhawks played the first 20 minutes as if this was their elimination game because Joel Quenneville instilled a Game 7 mindset. They met their match in the Kings, who overcame what qualified as coach Darryl Sutter's worst-case scenario.

Before the goose bumps had disappeared after Jim Cornelison sang the national anthem, the Hawks led 2-0. Thanks to two of the Hawks' biggest names, the team from Hollywood was star-struck.

At the 3:42 mark, Duncan Keith caught the Kings in a line change and unleashed a shot from the blue line that beat goalie Jonathan Luongo, I mean Quick, through the five-hole. Just 2:17 later, Kane handled a rebound, used a head fake and waited until Quick went down to score his first goal. The flurry shook the Kings to their core so much that it took 10:42 to attempt a shot on goal. Crawford made it back from the concession stand in time to stop it.

The Start was so good it was too good.

After the Hawks' second relatively easy goal, it was as if they lost momentum exhaling and started thinking about ticket demands for Game 1.

The proud defending Cup champs outplayed the Hawks over the final two periods of regulation.

This would serve as the latest test of the Hawks' resolve, which Quenneville keeps amply supplied.

In the room before the first overtime, Bickell described Quenneville as "calm.''

"A lot of guys were like, 'Wow,' but we were like, 'Be positive, find a way,''' Quenneville said.

Many reasons exist why the Hawks have reached this point: the clutch play of Crawford and Bickell, the leadership of Jonathan Toews throughout the Red Wings series, the resurgence of Kane, the depth of the defense and the penalty kill.

None is bigger than Quenneville.

The cigar-chomping, mustache-combing Quenneville stands four victories from winning one more championship than Mike Ditka did as Da Coach. Of Chicago's all-time major professional sports coaches, only three have won multiple titles: George Halas, Phil Jackson and Frank Chance. If the Hawks beat the Bruins, they can add Quenneville to that elite group — and worry about where to put Quenneville's "Chicago Barbe-Q's" restaurant later.

When the season included a manufactured goalie controversy after backup Ray Emery got hot, Quenneville consistently supported Crawford. When the postseason called for Quenneville to shake things up, he paired Keith with Brent Seabrook and reassembled Toews, Kane and Patrick Sharp.

Quenneville has been at his tinkering best again against the Kings, finding the right combinations defensively with Keith suspended and following his gut in putting Bickell on the top line.

Perhaps of most importance, after Game 3 Quenneville called out Kane publicly but followed that up with a private conversation about doing more.

It required every ounce of Quenneville's leadership ability to pull Kane and the Hawks through their latest predicament.

Nobody in Chicago ever will forget the night it all paid off.



Hawks host Stanley Cup Final opener Wednesday

Staff Writer

11:39 PM CDT, June 8, 2013

The Blackhawks will open the 2013 Stanley Cup Final against the Boston Bruins at 7 p.m. Wednesday at the United Center.

Here is the complete schedule (all times Central):

Wednesday: Bruins at Blackhawks, 7 p.m., Ch. 5

Saturday: Bruins at Blackhawks, 7 p.m., NBCS

Monday: Blackhawks at Bruins, 7 p.m., NBCS

June 19 Blackhawks at Bruins, 7 p.m., Ch. 5

*June 22 Bruins at Blackhawks, 7 p.m., Ch. 5

*June 24 Blackhawks at Bruins, 7 p.m., Ch. 5

*June 26 Bruins at Blackhawks, 7 p.m., Ch. 5

* if necessary



From excruciating to ecstasy

Steve Rosenbloom

11:31 PM CDT, June 8, 2013

Game 5 was looking like a killer.

With a chance to eliminate the defending champion Kings and advance to the Stanley Cup Final on Saturday, the Blackhawks took home ice the way you’d dream, scoring two goals before Los Angeles managed a shot.

But then, pffft.

The Kings slowly took control, slowing down the Hawks’ speed and interrupting their passing, forcing play deep and bodying up the Hawks.

Then came an opportunity to put away the offensively challenged Kings on a power play midway through the second period.

Instead, the Hawks surrendered a crowd-smothering short-handed goal as Dwight King beat a check by Patrick Sharp. Suddenly, it was 2-1 with half of regulation to go.

The Hawks had more chances to wrest back the game, but Marian Hossa couldn’t convert a couple glorious opportunities and the rest of the Hawks appeared stymied by the Kings’ checking and transition game.

The Hawks knew a berth in the Stanley Cup Final awaited them with a victory, but they seemed frozen at times, devoid of a killer instinct and ways to beat Jonathan Quick.

Still, they had a one-goal lead with 20 minutes to go. Champs protect that lead at home.

The Hawks couldn’t.

In fact, they couldn’t protect two one-goal leads, one of them excruciatingly late.

But somehow, after the blown third-period leads, missed chances and general foundering around the ice, the Hawks found a way. Champs do that.

Patrick Kane mercifully and dramatically ended the Western Conference finals at 11:40 of the second overtime, one-timing a perfect pass from Jonathan Toews to complete an extraordinary and timely hat trick.

The two players called out by their coach several days earlier delivered big for the second straight game.

And now the Hawks will meet the Boston Bruins in the first Cup final between Original Six teams since 1979.

The Hawks and Bruins are the same team, and then, they’re not.

Most immediately, this dream Final features combatants who finished off former recent champions in short series.

Despite some excruciating moments, the Hawks eliminated the Kings in five games Saturday. One night earlier, the Bruins finished a stunning sweep of Pittsburgh.

The Hawks whipped the top goalie the last two postseasons, while the Bruins allowed a mere two goals to the NHL’s highest-scoring team.

In earning the right to play for the Cup, each team faced a severe character test in an earlier round, requiring a miracle in a seven-game series against another Original Six opponent.

The Hawks faced three straight elimination games against rival Detroit, and still needed overtime to move on. The Bruins scored two late, impossible goals against Toronto before winning in overtime, as well.

When the series begins Wednesday in the United Center, Jonathan Toews and Patrick Kane figure to see a lot of massive defenseman Zdeno Chara. Boston goalie Tuukka Rask ought to be forced post to post by Marian

Hossa and Patrick Sharp. Corey Crawford can expect a lapful of ferocious power forward Milan Lucic.

The Stanley Cup finalists enter the championship round at their fastest and toughest, though the Hawks would rather emphasize fast, while the Bruins prefer tough. No matter. Both meet for hockey’s Holy Grail while skating at their best.

Or at least, their most clutch.



Richards return nearly storybook ending

Shannon Ryan

1:11 AM CDT, June 9, 2013

Saturday morning Kings coach Darryl Sutter gave Mike Richards a 50-50 chance to play in Game 5 of the Western Conference finals.

The game-time decision to play the star center nearly paid off 100 percent.

Nearly in that the Kings eventually lost 4-3 in a second overtime to the Blackhawks and were eliminated 4-1 in the best of seven series.

But Richards forced the game into overtime with only 9.4 seconds left, scoring on a deflection to tie the game 3-3 at the United Center. It gave the defending champions a chance to go back to the Stanley Cup Final until Patrick Kane thwarted their mission with the game-winner, his third goal of the night.

There was little rust on Richards, who sat out the previous three games with a concussion after a thunderous check in Game 1 from Dave Bolland.

Before his injury, he had led the Kings with 10 playoff points off two goals and eight assists.

"It's a big emotional boost," Kings center Colin Fraser said of Richards' pending return before the game.

Beat-up Kings: The Kings were beat up more than many realized during their playoff run, Sutter said after the team was eliminated.

Sutter said that “three, four guys” were game-time decisions after Game 6 against the Sharks in the conference semifinals.

“I know it’s something that gets talked lots about,” he said. “You have to stay healthy. You have to be close to 100 percent, especially with your top guys. I know we weren’t.

Winger Dustin Brown played with a torn knee ligament, defenseman Drew Doughty played with an injured ankle and winger Justin Williams played with a shoulder injury, according to Tweets from the Los Angeles Times.

Despite falling short of a chance to defend their Stanley Cup, the Kings weren’t leaving the ice with too many regrets.

“As you know, I think we went further than (many expected),” Sutter said. “We went to the (Western) Conference finals again. That tells you how fine a line it is. We accomplished everything. Once you set the bar up there, then that’s your bar. So obviously we’re disappointed to lose to Chicago, but we’re certainly not disappointed in how we played.”

Long night: The game was the longest in Kings history, stretching into two overtimes and not ending until after 11 p.m.

The longest previous game was on May 11, 1993, when they played 26:31 of overtime against the Canucks.



Keith starts off Game 5 with a ban

Brian Hamilton and Chris Kuc

12:12 AM CDT, June 9, 2013

Duncan Keith was asked Saturday morning if he gleaned anything from being a spectator for the last game against the Kings, sitting out with a one-game suspension but perhaps absorbing some keys to exploit for Game 5.

The Blackhawks defenseman might have, if only he could tell you what happened.

"When you're playing every game, and then all of a sudden you're watching on TV, it's just a different feeling altogether," Keith said. "I couldn't really tell you, to be honest, if we were playing good or playing bad in the first period or not or what was going on."

He had a better view on Saturday, scoring the game's first goal 3 minutes, 42 seconds into the first period. It would be a long night for him before Patrick Kane's third goal sent the Hawks to the Stanley Cup Final a 4-3 victory in double overtime.

Keith was back in the lineup after his punishment for high-sticking the Kings' Jeff Carter in Game 3 of the Western Conference finals. Keith was contrite and fully in take-my-medicine mode beforehand.

He insisted his opinion of the suspension "doesn't matter." He conceded the high-stick "doesn't look good," but added he was glad Carter was back quickly.

Keith did lament somewhat that his disciplinary history — a five-game suspension for elbowing the Canucks' Daniel Sedin in 2012 — played a role this time.

"I don't feel good about having 'repeat offender' on there," Keith said. "It was a play obviously you'd like to have back. … I play as hard as I can every game to win. You ask my teammates, they appreciate what I bring as far as competitiveness."

Surprise, surprise: Michal Handzus has turned into a valuable trade deadline acquisition, moving into the No. 2 center spot and playing a bigger role than anticipated after arriving from the Sharks.

"I thought he could give us some depth," coach Joel Quenneville said. "(Handzus) could play in a situation where he could take faceoffs (and we would) see how he handles being a 10th, 11th, 12th, 13th forward.

"And then late in the year, (Dave Bolland) was hurt and (Handzus) got an opportunity to get a little bit more ice time (and) he got a chance to play with (Patrick) Sharp and (Patrick) Kane and looked like he belonged there. One thing you love about 'Handy,' you love the consistency of his game and the way he prepares himself and what he brings to the team."

Side benefit: Not only have Marcus Kruger and Michael Frolik powered a penalty kill that was at a spectacular 96.4 percent before Game 5, their efficiency all year allowed Quenneville to alleviate the burden on top two-way players like Jonathan Toews and Marian Hossa during a compressed season.

"We wanted to make sure we maxed out, try to get everybody involved in the game, keep the top guys rested a little bit more," Quenneville said. "It worked well. So we've gone with it. "



Kane sends Hawks to finals with hat trick goal in 2 OTs

Chris Kuc

1:17 AM CDT, June 9, 2013

Bring on the Bruins.

The Blackhawks reached the Stanley Cup Final for the second time in four years after knocking off the defending champion Kings in the Western Conference finals Saturday night with a heart-thumping 4-3 victory in double-overtime in Game 5 at the United Center.

The Hawks rolled through the best-of-seven series against the Kings to set up a Cup showdown with the Bruins — the first finals between two Original Six teams since 1979.

“We finally got back there,” Hawks winger Patrick Sharp said. “For a couple of years it was just tough getting out of the first round. I’ve been watching Boston play in the East (and) they’re rolling right now pretty good. Another tough series ahead of us but it’s an exciting time right now for the Blackhawks.”

Patrick Kane had a hat trick — including the winner 11 minutes, 40 seconds into the second overtime — to lift the Hawks to their first finals since 2010. Duncan Keith also scored and Bryan Bickell and Jonathan Toews each added two assists in the roller-coaster game that saw the Kings’ Mike Richards tie the score with 9.4 remaining in regulation to lead to tension-filled overtimes.

“I honestly don’t think there’s a worse feeling in hockey when you’re nine seconds away,” Toews said. “You know you have to get the puck out (and) two little bounces go against you. Next thing you know it’s in your net. Your heart sinks pretty quick.

“We just tried to tell each other in the locker room that we can’t be thinking about what could have been, we have to just turn the page, get over it. It’s the only way you’re going to move on and win the game.

“We know when we get to overtime it’s just one chance, that’s all we need, one lucky bounce that’s going to go in. Here we are. We’re feeling pretty good. We’re going back in the Stanley Cup Final. We’re pretty excited about that.”

Kane finally ended it when he took a pass from Toews and rifled a one-timer past Kings goaltender Jonathan Quick to send the crowd of 22,237 into a frenzy. It also left Kane a bit dazed long after the game ended.

When asked where the moment ranked in terms of the best games he has played, he replied: “Right now it feels like the best. I think June 10 or June 9 a few years ago was also a good night. But right now, it’s almost like I’m in a different zone, like in the Twilight Zone or something. I’m kind of out of it. It’s definitely a good feeling, though.”

It was a fitting result for the Hawks, who began the season with a streak of 24 games without a regulation loss en route to the Presidents’ Trophy as the NHL’s top team and now will conclude it with an opportunity to recreate the magic of the 2010 run to the Cup.

Game 1 of the 2013 Stanley Cup Final will be Wednesday night at home against as the Hawks face the Eastern Conference champion Bruins.

“You enjoy this moment because you never know when you can get another one,” said Hawks winger Marian Hossa, who will appear in his fourth finals. “This is an awesome feeling.”

The Kings showed the heart of a champion and twice rallied from deficits. In addition to Richards’ goal that stunned the Hawks and the crowd, Dwight King and Anze Kopitar also had goals. But Kane’s third score made a loser of Quick.

“Typical overtime — there are lots of opportunities both ways,” Kings coach Darryl Sutter said. “In the end, probably their two best offensive guys made a great play to score a goal.”

Keith, coming off a one-game suspension, made his presence felt early on when he ripped a slap shot from just inside the blue line that found its way through Quick’s pads just 3:42 into the opening period.

“It was nice to see that one go in,” Keith said. “I didn’t really expect it to. I was just trying to get it on net.”

The Hawks took a 2-0 lead on Kane’s second goal when he scooped up a rebound of a Toews attempt, cruised across the slot while holding the puck and eventually rifled a wrist shot into the top of the net with Quick sprawled on his back.

The tide began to change in the second when the Hawks took their foot off the accelerator and the Kings jumped on them.

With the Hawks on the power play, it was the Kings who cashed in short-handed when King poked in a rebound of a Justin Williams shot off a rush into the Hawks zone. The Kings kept coming and after Bickell was sent to the penalty box, Kopitar tied it when he poked a rebound of a Jeff Carter shot through Crawford’s pads.

As overtime loomed, Kane gave the Hawks a 3-2 lead with 3:52 remaining in the third when he fired a one-timer from the slot off a pass from Bickell. With the crowd on its feet and celebrating a Cup berth, Richards tied it when he deflected a Kopitar shot past Crawford.

That set up Kane and Toews’ break into the Kings zone that finished with the puck in the net and a short time later the teams shaking hands at center ice.



Bruins bring momentum, defense to Stanley Cup Final

Colleen Kane

6:34 PM CDT, June 8, 2013

BOSTON

— The Bruins had just knocked off the top-seeded Penguins in the Eastern Conference finals in shocking fashion, inducing a collapse of one of the league's best offenses on the way to a series sweep.

Bruins center Patrice Bergeron figured that allowed for a short celebration Friday night after the Bruins' 1-0 series-clinching victory at TD Garden.

"Obviously enjoy this tonight," Bergeron said. "But still tomorrow we have to refocus and get back at it."

The Bruins will refocus to try to win their seventh Stanley Cup — and second in three years — in the coming weeks. Here's a look at what the Blackhawks can expect if they advance out of the Western Conference finals.

How the Bruins won: "Disbelief" was the word Penguins coach Dan Bylsma chose to describe the disintegration of his team's offense in the series.

Some of it was luck, both the Penguins and Bruins coach Claude Julien said, but much was the Bruins' tight, disciplined style of play and the goaltending of Tuukka Rask. Led by the top defensive duo of Zdeno Chara and Dennis Seidenberg, the Bruins limited the league's regular-season scoring leaders to two goals in nearly 14 periods of play. The Penguins never led.

"They're consistent," Penguins center Sidney Crosby said. "They don't give you chances. You have to earn them. We earned them, but unfortunately we didn't capitalize on them."

The Bruins' penalty kill was 15-for-15 against one of the league's best power-play units, a stat Julien credited to preparation and in-series adjustments.

Who's hot: Six players scored for the Bruins in the series, including center David Krejci, who upped his playoff total to 21 points with four goals in the first three games. Brad Marchand, who said he embraced the "irritator" role, scored twice in Game 2 and then assisted the winning goals in the next two games.

But the Bruins take pride in being a complete team rather than just a couple of star players.

"There are four lines that can play. It's a huge advantage," Bruins winger Jaromir Jagr said. "You're not depending on one or two guys and everybody waiting for them to score. … Here everybody can score any time. Coach tried to roll four lines no matter what the situation is."

The Bruins also received scoring from their defensemen, who had the final goals in two games, including Adam McQuaid's series-clincher in the third period Friday.

In goal: Dubbed "Cool Hand Tuke" by the Boston media, Rask is the king of playing it cool in postgame interviews, and he has been more than composed on the ice too.

The Penguins had scored in 96 straight games before the 3-0 loss in Game 1, and then Rask and the Bruins pitched another shutout three games later. He totaled 134 saves in four games, including 53 in a double-overtime victory in Game 3, for a .985 save percentage in the series. He brought his goals-against average for the playoffs to 1.75.

"There's no question that the performance he put in in this series was elite," Bylsma said. "He was the difference in the series."

With help from Chara, who deflected an Evgeni Malkin shot with his arm by sprawling his 6-foot-9 body in front of the goal, Rask withstood a furious Penguins onslaught in the final minute of Game 4. He caught the final shot by Jarome Iginla in his glove to set off the celebration.

"He saved us again," Seidenberg said. "I mean especially at the end, it seemed like there were 10 guys out there for our shift. They were throwing pucks everywhere, and he seemed to just find the lane and find the puck and get his glove or a body part on it."

What the Hawks should expect: Consider the Bruins a team picking up steam.

After needing seven games to defeat the Maple Leafs in the conference quarterfinals, the Bruins have won eight of their last nine. They allowed more than two goals just once in the last two series.

The lockdown of the Penguins should provide even more confidence to the Bruins defense and Rask, who will look for more of the same against their Stanley Cup Final opponent.

"We know there's still a long ways to go," Chara said. "But we just gave ourselves a chance."



'Game 7 mentality' for Hawks vs. Kings

Chris Kuc

12:04 PM CDT, June 8, 2013

Having already made one trip to Los Angeles, the Chicago Blackhawks are hoping to avoid another.

"It's not a fun travel day to do all of that so, if anything, that should be motivation to not go through that again," winger Patrick Kane said.

The Hawks will use that motivation when they take the ice against the Los Angeles Kings in Game 5 of the Western Conference finals Saturday night at the United Center. With a 3-1 lead in the best-of-seven series, the Hawks can close out the Kings and set up a date with the Boston Bruins in the Stanley Cup Final.

"It's a huge game," Kane said following the morning skate. "We have an opportunity here at home. You don't want to give them any momentum to feel like they're back in the series and going back on their home ice where they've been great all playoffs. We're treating it like it's a Game 7 mentality and you have to win. That's the way you have to go about these games. I'm sure the crowd will be rocking. People will be fired up in Chicago. It should be an exciting game."

Added coach Joel Quenneville: "It's an important game for us. We want to make sure we establish a good start here and try to dictate pace and try to play with the tempo we had in three of the four games. We can't look any further forward than (Game 5) where we want to play our best."



Blackhawks' Keith happy to play, not watch

Brian Hamilton

11:35 AM CDT, June 8, 2013

Chicago Blackhawks defenseman Duncan Keith was asked Saturday morning if he gleaned anything from being a spectator for the last game against the Kings, sitting out with a one-game suspension but perhaps absorbing some keys to exploit for Game 5.

And Keith might have, if only he could tell you what happened.

"It's tough to watch," Keith said after the morning skate at the United Center. "When you're playing every game, and then all of a sudden you're watching on TV, it's just a different feeling altogether. I couldn't really tell you to be honest if we were playing good or playing bad in the first period or not or what was going on."

He won't have to worry about that on Saturday, when he returns to the lineup for a game that could clinch a spot in the Stanley Cup Final opposite the Boston Bruins.

But speaking for the first time since the suspension was levied, Keith was contrite about the Game 3 high-stick on the Kings' Jeff Carter and more or less just took his medicine for it.

"I don't think it matters what my opinion is," Keith said. "I said at the time I didn't mean to get him where I got him. I know it doesn't look good. I'm glad that he's back playing for them. It doesn't matter what my opinion on the decision of suspending me was."

Asked about any worries regarding a reputation for retaliatory play possibly growing, Keith seemed conscious of crossing a line. He had also received a five-game suspension for an elbow on the Canucks' Daniel Sedin in 2012, an incidient that factored into the league's discipline this time around.

"I don't feel good about having 'repeat offender' on there," Keith said. "It was a play obviously you'd like to have back. To me, it's over with now. I'm excited about the hockey game now. I play as hard as I can every game to win. You ask my teammates, they appreciate what I bring as far as competitiveness."

So it's on to Game 5, in which the best defenseman the Hawks have to offer will return to activate all facets of the team game in the most important game of the year.

If there is any retribution from the Kings coming, Keith doesn't believe that's any different from any other night.

"I get run at every game," Keith said. "Game 2 of the series – I think it was Game 2 – I got hit pretty hard by Dustin Brown. It happens almost every game."



Blackhawks fans, bars commit to the Cup again

Ted Gregory

This National Hockey League season started with a lockout that scrapped 40 percent of the scheduled games, a void that was emotionally draining for Chicago Blackhawks fans and financially troubling for establishments around the United Center that cater to them.

A settlement and the Hawks' deep playoff run, which continues against the Los Angeles Kings on Saturday night, have all but cured Hawks fans' lockout blues. Now, with every opening puck drop, the bars and restaurants move closer to making amends with their bottom lines.

"It'll be close," said Jordan Goldberg, manager of Third Rail Tavern, one of a cluster of places on West Madison Street a few blocks east of the United Center, "because if they get to the Cup, every night will be standing room only in here."

Goldberg and owners of other nearby bars and restaurants have been making calculations. The lockout scratched 34 of the 82 regular-season hockey games. Including Saturday's game, the playoff run has made up 17 of those.

Regardless of the outcome against the Kings on Saturday, the Hawks will play at least two more games. They could play nine more if this series stretches to seven games, the Hawks advance to the Stanley Cup series and they play all seven games. Under that scenario, five games would be played at the United Center, where the Hawks draw more than 21,000 to every game.

That setting would leave the total number of games recovered eight games shy of those that would have been played during a full regular season.

Despite fewer games, business owners pin their financial hopes on receipts of playoff-game customers, which are as much as 50 percent higher than those during regular-season games.

Those proprietors share only the most general information on losses from the lockout. Goldberg said he was off 10 to 20 percent. Across the street, CrossRoads Bar & Grill general manager Greg Mammoser estimated his sales hit was 20 to 25 percent. A few blocks west on Madison, Matt Doherty, general manager at WestEnd tavern, declined to provide an estimate.

"Obviously, any time there aren't 21,000 people in your neighborhood who would have been here, you're going to feel it," Doherty said. "Everybody in the neighborhood did."

Martha Goldstein, executive director of the West Loop Community Organization, a residential and business group, noticed the lack of buzz in the neighborhood.

"The lockout hurt our businesses, definitely," she said. "It took a big chunk out."

Almost from the moment the lockout was settled, though, Doherty and Goldstein said, they noticed the buzz had returned and saw people wearing Blackhawks gear within hours. Goldstein said the return of the Hawks has "done wonders for this neighborhood. I've never seen it so lively."

Mammoser calls the playoff run "a lot of fun" for CrossRoads, where the photo gallery includes shots of Hawks head coach Joel Quenneville escorting the Stanley Cup trophy in the establishment. Goldberg has a rotation of Blackhawks sweaters — they're not jerseys — that he wears depending on whether the team wins. His bar features a flashing red light, goal horn and recording of the arena anthem, "Chelsea Dagger," all of which are activated when the Hawks score, just as it's done at the United Center.

The Hawks need only one more goal than the Kings on Saturday to advance to the Stanley Cup, and bitter memories of the lockout will become even more distant. Fans who jammed the Madison Street bars in the West Loop for a recent playoff game against the Kings seem to have accepted labor-management breakdowns in modern professional sports.

"If this went a whole season, a person like me might have taken a couple years off," said Rick Lietzau, 32, of Grayslake, a lifelong Blackhawks fan who plays the sport. But when owners and players reached a long-term agreement and salvaged more than half the season, most fans "just kind of said, 'OK you figured it out,'" added Lietzau, who watched the game at WestEnd. "It really helped that these are the most exciting playoffs I've seen in years."

Brian Jurkovic, 25, who lives in the West Loop and took in the game at Third Rail, said the lockout stalled growing interest the NHL created in recent years in nontraditional hockey markets.

"We might not feel it so much in Chicago," Jurkovic said, "because we're a pretty strong hockey city."

Chicago is one of the first professional hockey cities in the U.S., and the Blackhawks, established in 1926, are among the NHL's "Original Six" franchises.

But the team's fiercely passionate fan base and its profile in sport nearly disappeared in the late 1990s, a consequence many blame on then-owner Bill Wirtz, viewed as stubborn and unimaginative. After his death in September 2007, son Rocky Wirtz took over.

A few weeks into the job, Wirtz hired Chicago Cubs President John McDonough to take over the Hawks. McDonough, said Blackhawks historian and venerable sports writer Bob Verdi, "basically fumigated the place" and "rebuilt the front office up from nothing."

He and Wirtz placed Blackhawks home games on TV, something the elder Wirtz thought was akin to giving away the product. A few days after taking the job, McDonough made overtures to former Blackhawks stars who'd had acrimonious splits with the organization.

He hired an energetic marketing, public relations and season ticket staff on the business side and made the same commitment to the hockey side of the business, hiring more scouts and placing greater emphasis on player development, said Verdi, a former Tribune reporter and columnist.

It worked. In 2007, the Hawks' attendance was 29th among the NHL's 30 teams. Two years later, the team was No. 1 and got into the conference championship, the semifinals to the Stanley Cup.

The next year, 2010, the Blackhawks won the Cup — the team's first championship since 1961 — and they are on a run of 221 consecutive home sellouts with a season ticket waiting list of 12,000. Blackhawks TV ratings are setting national records during the playoff run. Sales of the team's merchandise have, by some accounts, jumped 50 to 80 percent above last year.

"They basically raised the Titanic," Verdi said. "We always knew it was a sleeping giant, but my Lord."

Caught in that recent whirlwind of hockey love are Lizzy Walker and Matt Storkman, of Chicago, who are engaged to be married and regularly watch Hawks games at the Third Rail. Storkman was drawn by the physical nature of the game and the passionate, superstitious fan base. Walker said the speed of the game is engaging.

"And I think the Hawks are a really fun team to watch," Walker said. "Their team has so much depth that you're screaming for anybody who's on the ice."

They've also become a little superstitious. Storkman changed the beer he drinks during games to help break a losing streak and wears the same clothes during a winning streak. Walker always sports her Jonathan Toews sweater and watches the game on the same TV every time she's at Third Rail.

And they've decided on the song that will play when they are introduced as husband and wife for the first time at their wedding reception: "Chelsea Dagger."



Duncan Keith unhappy with ‘repeat offender’ tag

MARK LAZERUS

June 9, 2013 2:37AM

Duncan Keith doesn’t think he’s a dirty player. But with two suspensions for illegal hits — an elbow to the head of the Vancouver Canucks’ Daniel Sedin last March and a high stick to the face of the Los Angeles Kings’ Jeff Carter in Game 3 of the Western Conference Final — the NHL has labeled him a “repeat offender.”

“I don’t feel good about having ‘repeat offender’ on there,” Keith said Saturday. “It was a play that obviously you’d like to have back. To me, it’s over with. I play as hard as I can every game. I play to win. And if you ask my teammates, they appreciate what I bring as far as competitiveness.”

Perhaps no one on the Hawks’ roster was happier to see the Game 4 victory than Keith, who didn’t want his one-game suspension to be a turning point in the series.

“I was happy, obviously,” Keith said.

“It was a huge win for the team. Played a great game.”

Keith said he tried to make the best of a bad situation, taking advantage of a surprise day off to rest up, eat right and make sure he had as much energy as possible for Game 5 and beyond.

But as a guy who has played all 82 games four times in his eight-year career, and who sat out only the season finale with the rest of the Hawks’ big names this year, it was a foreign feeling to watch the game from a distance.

“It’s tough to watch when you’re playing every game and then all of a sudden you’re watching on TV,” he said. “It was just a different feeling all together. Couldn’t really tell you, to be honest, if we were playing good or bad in the first period or not, or what was going on.”

Richards back

Kings center Mike Richards — whom coach Darryl Sutter said was “50/50” to play after participating in the morning skate — was back in the lineup for Game 5. Richards missed the previous three games after taking a shoulder to the head on a hit by Hawks center Dave Bolland late in Game 1.

Richards had two goals and eight assists in 14 games before he was injured.

Line dance

Hawks coach Joel Quenneville shook up his lines during Game 4 and clearly liked the results, keeping Patrick Kane on the top line with Bryan Bickell and Jonathan Toews. Marian Hossa dropped to the second line with Patrick Sharp and Michal Handzus. Kane and Hossa each scored after those combinations were made in

Game 4.

Chicago Sun Times LOADED: 06.09.2013


Even though Blackhawks won, true desperation wasn’t there

MARK POTASH

June 9, 2013 2:37AM

With the cushion of a 3-1 series lead against the Los Angeles Kings in the Western Conference finals, Patrick Kane said the Blackhawks were ready to put the hammer down

in Game 5 on Saturday at the United Center.

‘‘I think we’re treating it like it’s Game 7 mentally, and you have to win,’’ Kane said before scoring three goals, including the game-winner at 11:40 of the second overtime, in the Hawks’ 4-3 victory.

That’s much easier said than done with hockey in general and with the Hawks in particular. Since the Stanley Cup-winning season of 2010, the Hawks had played their best when some level of peril existed.

In a similar scenario in 2010 — leading the Vancouver Canucks 3-1 in the second round — the Hawks blew a chance to clinch the series in Game 5 at the United Center, then won convincingly in Game 6 in Vancouver to avoid the roll-of-the-dice Game 7.

The Hawks did a good job of treating Game 6s like Game 7s that season. They also clinched their first-round series at Nashville and won the Stanley Cup at Philadelphia in Game 6s.

But Game 5 is a different story. No matter how hard you try to convince yourself it’s Game 7 of the conference finals, it sometimes comes out looking more like Game 7

of the regular season. Desperation often is the ultimate motivator in hockey, and the Kings had the real thing in Game 5. All the Hawks could do was play a mind game.

That set the stage for a defining game Saturday. With the red-hot Boston Bruins already in the Stanley Cup Final after a sweep of the Pittsburgh Penguins, Game 5 against the Kings would say a lot about just how far the Hawks had come in the playoffs and just how closely they were following the 2010 team’s upward arc to the Cup.

The telltale question in Game 5

was simple: Knowing they had two more chances to clinch the series, could the Hawks manufacture enough will to win to trump the Kings’ desperation?

The answer — it figures — was yes and no. The Hawks looked like a team destined for a championship in the first period, swarming the Kings’ zone with one flurry after another, playing like the desperate team and taking a 2-0 lead less than six minutes into the game on goals by Duncan Keith and Kane.

But just when it looked like the Hawks had reached the next level, they took a step back and struggled to finish the job. They frittered away momentum and, ultimately, the lead when the Kings’ Anze Kopitar scored on a rebound on a power play early in the third period.

But with a little peril in the waning moments of regulation, the Hawks responded on Kane’s goal with 3:52 left on a perfect pass from Bryan Bickell, who got away with a trip of Justin Williams to gain possession of the puck.

But even that was too much comfort for the Hawks. Seconds from victory and a berth in the Final, the Hawks allowed the tying goal when Mike Richards redirected a shot by Kopitar past Corey Crawford with 9.4 seconds left in regulation.

It all worked out — somehow. After Jonathan Toews and Kane missed connections and opportunities a couple of times in overtime, they finally got it right when Kane scored off a pass from Toews in the second overtime to give the Hawks the victory and send them to the Final.

It doesn’t matter how they got there. But let the record show they did it their way. The hard way. It seems to be the only way they know.



Slump talk a distant memory after Patrick Kane’s hat trick

MARK POTASH

June 9, 2013 2:37AM

No matter what he does over the course of a playoff series, Patrick Kane remains one of the best closers in the NHL.

Mired in a scoring slump three days ago that had friends and former teammates and coaches calling him with advice, Kane completed a quick self-recovery with a hat trick — capped by the game-wnner in overtime — as the Blackhawks beat the Los Angeles Kings 4-3 to clinch the Western Conference final 4-1 on Saturday night at the United Center.

‘‘It’s nice to win first and foremost,’’ Kane said. ‘‘But to contirbue the last couple of games — I think any player would be lying to youif they said it isn’t nice.

‘‘Big couple of wins the last couple of wins, especially tonight after they tied it up with nine seconds left. To pull it out in overtime is huge. We definitely didn’t want to go back to L.A.’’

Kane had scored just two goals in 15 playoff games — both of them in losses — before breaking out of his slump with a goal in the Hawks’ 2-1 victory in Game 4 at Staples Center.

That goal, a tap-in of a deflection by Bryan Bickell, probably would have gone in without Kane’s help. But there was no doubt about any of his three goals against the Kings. He scored on a wrist shot from close range to give the Hawks a 2-0 lead in the first period, then scored off a perfect pass from Bickell to give the Hawks a 3-2 lead with 3:52 left in regulation.

The game winner came off another nice feed, this one from Jonathan Toews on a 2-on-1 11:40 into the second overtime.

‘‘Unbelievable. He was unreal,’’ teammate Marian Hossa said. ‘‘His whole line was unreal. They scored three huge goals. It was Patrick’s night to shine.’’

The game-winning goal was the latest in a series of big goals scored by Kane — topped by the Cup-winning goal in Game 6 against the Philadelphia Flyers in 2010.

‘‘Right now [this one] feels like the best,’’ Kane said. I think June 9 three years ago [the Cup winner] was also a good night. But right now, it’s almost like I’m in a different zone, like the twilight zone or something. I’m kind of out of it. It’s definitely a good feeling.’’

Kane said he thought he had been slashed ‘‘a few times’’ earlier on the game-winning shift. ‘‘Bicksy [Bryan Bickell] made a nice chip and Jonny won a battle along the boards to take off on a two-on-one. The shift before Jonny had the same play and the puck fumbled on him. I knew he was coming back to me. Just tried to wait for the defenseman to go by me. He made a great pass. Just tried to get it off as quick as I could.’’



Blackhawks-Bruins Cup Final a clash in styles

MARK LAZERUS

June 9, 2013 2:37AM

The Blackhawks had little trouble getting past the defensive-minded Minnesota Wild and their backup goaltender.

It took awhile, but they finally solved Jimmy Howard and the Detroit Red Wings’ neutral-zone-clogging style.

Then they made stunningly quick work of seemingly unbeatable Los Angeles Kings goaltender Jonathan Quick.

But by far their toughest challenge awaits in the Stanley Cup Final, likely starting Wednesday at the United Center.

The Boston Bruins are defensive-minded. They have neutral-zone-clogging, backchecking forwards. And they have a seemingly unbeatable goaltender in Tuukka Rask.

While the Hawks surprised many by downing the defending-champion Kings in five games, the Bruins shocked the hockey world by sweeping the mighty Pittsburgh Penguins, holding their potent offense to two goals in four games.

Even Penguins coach Dan Bylsma said he was in “disbelief” that his team’s offense could be so thoroughly stifled.

Rask finished the Eastern Conference Final with a 0.44 goals-against average and a .985 save percentage.

“There’s no question that the performance he put in in this series was elite,” Bylsma said. “He was the difference in the series. There is no question.”

The Original Six matchup of Hawks-Bruins — the league’s first such matchup since 1979 — will be a severe clash in styles, one we haven’t seen all year because the lockout-shortened schedule kept the conferences separate in the regular season.

While the Hawks prefer to play with speed and aggression offensively, the Bruins surely will deploy a similar style against the high-flying Hawks that they did against the high-flying Penguins.

Physical play on the blue line (led by star defenseman Zdeno Chara) and responsible backchecking by the forwards (led by Selke finalist Patrice Bergeron), combined with Rask’s brilliant goaltending, will be the Bruins’ path to its second Cup in three seasons.

Even trade-deadline acquisition and legendary freelancer Jaromir Jagr has bought in to the team’s structured, disciplined system.



Raising Kane! Star’s hat trick sends Blackhawks to Stanley Cup Final

MARK LAZERUS

June 9, 2013 1:05AM

Seventeen days earlier, the Blackhawks were flatlining. Two measly goals in three maddening games — all losses to the hated Detroit Red Wings — put them on the brink of elimination, the brink of a third consecutive early playoff exit, the brink of disaster. The stars were losing their luster and losing their cool. The power play was utterly powerless, actively sucking energy out of the Hawks. The United Center was shaking not so much with noise, but with nerves.

Yet on Saturday night, the Hawks shook the hands of the vanquished defending champions and lifted their sticks in the air in celebration before a giddy crowd of 22,237.

The Hawks are back from the dead. And back in the Stanley Cup Final.

Patrick Kane — back from oblivion himself — scored his third goal of the game off a Jonathan Toews feed with 8:20 left in the second overtime to give the Hawks a 4-3 victory over the Los Angeles Kings.

Four days earlier, Kane sat in his locker stall at Staples Center and insisted he hadn’t suddenly become “a bad player.” Four goals in two games later, including his biggest tally since his Stanley Cup-winning goal in 2010, he proved it.

“It’s nice to win, first and foremost,” said Kane, who ranked the game right up there with Game 6 against the Flyers. “But to contribute the last couple games, any player would be lying to you if they said it isn’t nice.”

Up next: The Boston Bruins in a tantalizing Original Six matchup of two recent champs for the most storied trophy in sports. Game 1 will be Wednesday night at the United Center.

Not a bad 17-day run, all told.

“That says a lot about our team,” Patrick Sharp said. “A lot about the character in our room. We were pushed straight to the brink against the Wings, and we were able to find something left and play our best hockey. I feel like we’ve been doing that ever since.”

It was the second consecutive drama-filled series-clincher for the Hawks, who knocked off the Red Wings in Game 7 on Brent Seabrook’s overtime winner after Niklas Hjalmarsson’s apparent goal was waved off with less than two minutes left.

This time, the overtime heroics came after a dizzying final four minutes of regulation. First, Kane scored his second goal of the game with 3:52 left, putting the Hawks on the doorstep of victory. The crowd was delirious as the minutes and seconds melted away. But with 14.4 seconds left, Jarrett Stoll won a faceoff in the Hawks’ zone against Toews, and Mike Richards deflected Anze Kopitar’s blast from the point past Corey Crawford with 9.4 seconds left to send the game to overtime.

“A kick in the back,” Andrew Shaw called it.

But the experience of the Hjalmarsson no-goal paid off in this one. The Hawks brought it up during the overtime intermission as an example of their resilience and mental fortitude, then reinforced it with another gutty win.

“That’s the playoffs,” Shaw said. “A lot can happen, a lot can change. Lot of ups and downs, like a roller-coaster ride. We kind of kept our composure there, and we fought back.”

The Kings entered the game as the team in a dire situation, needing the same desperation the Hawks had a couple weeks earlier against the Red Wings. But the Hawks came out strong, and jumped out to a 2-0 lead on goals by Duncan Keith and Kane in the first six minutes of the game, and seemed ready to coast into the Final.

But there was no finishing blow delivered, no nail in the coffin. The Hawks — so aggressive and active in outshooting the Kings 7-0 through the first 10-plus minutes — took their foot off the gas. And eventually, the sluggish

Kings found new life with a short-handed goal by Dwight King at 7:50 of the second period. It cut the Hawks’ lead to 2-1, took the crowd out of the game and put the Kings back into it.

They tied it at 2 on Kopitar’s power-play goal early in the third period. It was a crushing sequence for the Hawks, who nearly took a 3-1 lead when Quick made a lunging blocker save on Johnny Oduya (one of countless near-misses for the Hawks in the third period). Bryan Bickell immediately took a boarding penalty and Kopitar stuffed a Jeff Carter rebound through Crawford’s legs 44 seconds later to tie it.

Kane appeared to give the Hawks the victory when he ripped a centering feed from Bickell past Quick with 3:52 to go. But Richards’ stunning goal with 9.4 seconds left made the Hawks work overtime to reach the Stanley Cup Final — a series for which they’ve seemed destined since racing out to a record 21-0-3 start, but a series that seemed all but out of reach barely two short weeks ago.

“We were in a great position — just get a tough bounce and then we have to go through some more adversity,” said Crawford, who finished with 33 saves. “Why not double OT to end it?”



Kane's goal lifts Hawks to dramatic victory

Tim Sassone

The last time Patrick Kane scored a hat trick in a clinching game he made Vancouver's Roberto Luongo cry.

There were no tears from Kings goalie Jonathan Quick on Saturday night, only frustration as Kane's third goal at 11:40 of double overtime sailed past his glove and gave the Hawks a 4-3 win.

The dramatic victory sends the Hawks back to the Stanley Cup Finals for the second time in four years to play the Boston Bruins in a series that starts Wednesday at the United Center.

It's going to be the first meeting of Original Six teams for the Cup in 34 years.

Kane beat Quick from inside the right circle on a 2-on-1 with Jonathan Toews for his second career playoff hat trick. His first came in Game 6 against Luongo and the Canucks on May 11, 2009.

"Right now I think it's almost like I'm in a different zone, like in the twilight zone or something," Kane said. "I'm kind of out of it. It's definitely a good feeling."

Kane snapped off a shot into an open net for his fourth goal in the last two games.

"It was certainly an outstanding game by him," Hawks coach Joel Quenneville said. "A great play on the winning goal by Johnny. I thought Kaner played a heck of a game in Games 4 and 5 for us. He stepped up. He took on the responsibility of leading the team. He proved he's a top player in the game."

Even Kings coach Darryl Sutter agreed it was a great play by two of the game's biggest stars.

"In the end, probably their two best offensive guys made a great play to score a goal," Sutter said.

"He's an awesome player," Hawks goalie Corey Crawford said of Kane. "Obviously, I don't know what to say right now. That was awesome.

"I've dreamed about (going to the Finals) my whole life. It's nice, man. It's nice to finally get there after all the work, but there's still a lot to do."

The Hawks failed to hold an early 2-0 lead, as well as a 3-2 with less than a minute to play, with the Kings getting a goal from Mike Richards with 9.4 seconds left in regulation to force overtime.

"Man, nine seconds left and they score," Crawford said.

"We've been there before and you just keep playing," Patrick Sharp said. "It's playoff hockey. No lead is safe. You can't really change the way you play. It's a tough situation emotionally, giving up that goal, but you keep playing hockey."

The Kings finished the postseason 1-8 on the road, losing their last six straight.

"We just didn't have it against these guys," Kings center Jarret Stoll said. "We just couldn't find a way to win a road game."

The Hawks jumped out to a 2-0 lead less than six minutes into the first period on goals by Duncan Keith and Kane.

Sutter called both goals soft.

The Hawks looked like they were going to win and advance to the Finals when Kane scored his second goal of the night with 3:52 to play in the third period, taking a pass from Bickell behind the net and beating Quick.

But the Kings had other ideas. With Quick pulled for a sixth attacker, Richards tied the game on a tip-in from in front after Toews lost a faceoff to Stoll following a disastrous icing against Bickell.

Richards won the draw and headed to the net to deflect a shot by Anze Kopitar past Crawford.

Now it's the Bruins who come to town ready to try and beat the Hawks.

"I've been watching Boston play in the East, they look like they're rolling," Sharp said. "Another tough series ahead of us, but it's an exciting time.

"I really don't know what to expect. It's going to be fun to play against a team that we haven't seen all year. Our scouts and coaches will prepare us, but until you get out and play against those guys, you don't really know what to expect."

Daily Herald Times LOADED: 06.09.2013


Hat trick for Patrick propels Hawks

Joe Aguilar

Not the guy who scored that little overtime goal from below a below-the-dot angle in the Stanley Cup-clinching win in 2010.

Not the party animal who boldly wears a mullet to complement his youthful playoff beard.

Not the guy who flashed gusto by whipping in a goal with a Savardian spinorama at Dallas this season.

Patrick Kane, the No. 1 overall pick in the 2007 NHL draft, lose confidence in himself?

Kaner?

LOL.

"I think everybody internally has ways of getting themselves excited to play," Blackhawks coach Joel Quenneville said Saturday before Game 5 of the Western Conference finals against Los Angeles at the United Center. "Top guys usually find ways to motivate themselves. That's what makes them special. They want to be the best they can be every single day. Different challenges, how they get themselves excited.

Kane got a rare garbage goal in Game 4 in Los Angeles on Thursday night. He joked that he stole the goal from Bryan Bickell, whose deflection snuck past Kings goalie Jonathan Quick and appeared goal-bound.

The late second-period tally seemed the spark the Blackhawks right winger, who had scored a measly 2 goals in the Blackhawks' first 15 playoff games. He finished with 7 shots in a goal in a foreshadowing of what would take place Saturday night.

"I talked to Kaner the day before," Quenneville said. "He said he's going to find a way to get it done. He wanted the puck, had it more, was more effective in his game as well."

The effectiveness carried over into Game 5.

Git-r-done, Kaner?

Done.

Hat trick.

Kane's goal with 8:20 left in the second overtime lifted the Blackhawks to a 4-3 win over the Kings, vaulting them into the Stanley Cup finals against Boston. His third goal (and fourth in two games) came when he finished off a 2-on-1 with Jonathan Toews, one-timing a shot past Quick. Kane slid boyishly across center ice, punctuating his celebration with a right fist pump, before teammates engulfed him.

"We were laughing about it after the game," Kane said. "If you watch the bench after we score to win the game, it almost seems like it was just another goal. No one could celebrate because we were all so tired."

They were elated, nonetheless.

"It's almost like I'm in a twilight zone or something," Kane said after the second playoff hat trick of his career. His first came against Vancouver at the United Center in 2009.

"I'm kind of out of it."

Quenneville wanted more from his star and received it.

"That was more than more," Quenneville said. "It was certainly an outstanding game by him.

A great play. I thought Kaner really played a heck of a game in Games 4 and 5 for us. He led with having the puck a lot. His time of possession was very high-end."

"I expected more from myself and my teammates probably did too," Kane said. "I just tried to get back to the basics — want the puck, go get the puck and try to make plays. That's kind of my attitude right now."

Kane's self-confidence was evident all night.

His second goal, off a behind-the-net steal and dish by Bickell, with 3:52 left in the third period stood to be the game-winner and series-clncher until the Kings' Mike Richards hushed the United Center crowd.

With Blackhawks fans ready to celebrate a Finals berth and standing in anticipation, Richards redirected an Anze Kopitar shot past Corey Crawford with 9.4 seconds left to force overtime.

Defending Cup champs don't lose confidence in themselves either.

Kane's first goal Saturday night was more vintage No. 88. He corraled a loose puck in front of Quick, after linemates Bickell and Toews helped create a flurry. Kane then drifted left, held the puck and waited for defenseman Drew Doughty and Quick to go down to the ice, before

hoisting a shot into the net, hiking the Blackhawks' lead to 2-0 with just 5:59 gone in the game.

"When you're playing with Bicksey and Tazer, especially the last few games, you're going to get those opportunities," Kane said. "A couple of nice plays by them tonight. They take up a lot of space at the net, and I think tonight I was kind of the guy that really tried to

capitalize on the chances. But it's always nice to contribute, especially in games like this."

A Presidents' Trophy-winning Blackhawks team that has relied on its depth all season still needs its stars to play like stars.

Kane did Saturday night.

"He stepped up," Quenneville said. "He took on the responsibility of leading the team. He's proven he's a top player in the game. He made special plays over the two games. It was nice to see him finish it off in a real positive way for us."

"I think for the most part Bicks and I are able to create space for Kaner," said Toews, who along with Bickell had 2 assists. "He was the finisher tonight. It was nice to see Kaner have that success. Obviously we want to keep that going."



Veterans know there’s no reason to celebrate yet

Barry Rozner

It's only been three years since the Blackhawks last won the Western Conference.

It just feels longer.

And though merely two playoff seasons and a pair of first-round exits have passed, to the holdovers from the Stanley Cup squad it seems like a different career, which is why their postgame tone was somewhat muted Saturday night when the Hawks finally put away the Los Angeles Kings in double-overtime.

"It does feel like a long time ago," said Brent Seabrook, one of eight regulars still with the team. "But you understand you can't get there every year. There's a lot of great players and a lot of great teams that don't get to play in the Final."

While those new to the team the last two years enjoyed very much the 4-3 victory and 4-1 series win over the defending champs on home ice, the core players remaining from 2010 appeared more relieved than possessing any feeling of having achieved.

Honestly, it's a ring thing — and that's a good thing.

"It never gets old," said Marian Hossa. "It's nice to get back to the Final, competing for the best trophy in sports."

Many of the current Hawks remember what it's like to be the king, as do the Kings, and it's a feeling they are more concerned with now than any bowl not named after Lord Stanley.

That was still in doubt around 11 p.m. Saturday when Bryan Bickell sprung Jonathan Toews with a hook along the boards, and Toews was off with Patrick Kane on a 2-on-1.

Toews drew Kings goalie Jonathan Quick out of the net and hit Kane with a perfect pass for the one-timer and a hat trick with 8:20 left in the fifth period.

Kane pumped his arm, screamed, hats consumed the ice and his teammates consumed Kane in a pile near center ice.

"Incredible pass by Toews," Seabrook said. "Kane wasn't going to miss that one."

After the handshakes, which saw Corey Crawford get numerous hugs from the champs now dispatched, the Hawks gathered around the trophy, while the fans chanted, "We want the Cup!"

No one, however, wanted the Clarence Campbell Bowl.

The Hawks took their picture with it, but did not touch, and then trudged to their dressing room for a much-needed rest.

"We've had an interesting playoffs," said coach Joel Quenneville. "I thought we've gotten better as we've gone along."

As has been the case of late, Bickell was in the middle of everything. He was called for boarding and Los Angeles scored on the resulting power play to tie it at 2-2 at 3:34 of the third.

With just under four minutes remaining, Bickell got away with a trip behind the net, scooped up the puck and quickly fed Kane, who scored the go-ahead goal with 3:52 remaining.

But with 14 seconds left, Bickell iced the puck, giving the hockey gods a chance to pay back the Hawks. Toews lost the faceoff and Mike Richards tipped in a long shot to tie the game with 9.4 seconds remaining in regulation.

Bickell still had one more trick up his sleeve, however, and his final hook of the night in double-overtime put the Hawks into the Final and sent the Kings home for the summer.

"It's surreal to think we're there," said Bickell. "Growing up as a kid, this is something you dream about being a part of. This will be an experience we'll never forget."

The Hawks will face the big bad Bruins, who also a have a roster filled with players who danced with the Cup only two years ago, and they will be a ferocious opponent not likely to go away without a fight — just as the Kings would not go quietly into the Chicago night.

"Once you've won the Stanley Cup, it means a lot more to get knocked out," said Quick, who won the Conn Smythe a year ago. "You don't really know what you're playing for until you win the Cup. It really, really hurts to know you won't win it again."

The Hawks know this all too well — and it will serve them well beginning Wednesday at home.

Let the real games begin.



Forward-thinking Bickell continues to produce

Mike Spellman

When the postseason started, few would have imagined that one of the guys carrying the Blackhawks to the cusp of the Stanley Cup finals would be Bryan Bickell.

"He's one of those guys that maybe flies under the radar," Blackhawks coach Joel Quenneville admitted.

But that's not the case anymore for the big guy who keeps adding to his legend. No longer is his locker visited only on occasion by the media; now he's surrounded by reporters after every game and practice.

Kind of wild, huh?

"I'm just having fun with it," Bickell said. "It's been a great playoffs for myself and I feel grateful to the team and most importantly, just happy that the team is winning."

Bickell entered Saturday's game against the Kings tied with Patrick Sharp for second in the league with 8 playoff goals. And there he was in Game 5 adding to his point total with a pair of assists, including one of the hard-working variety on what appeared to be a game-winner by Patrick Kane in the final minutes of regulation of a 4-3 Hawks win in double OT.

On the play, Bickell outworked Justin Williams behind the Kings net and fed it out front to Kane, who beat Jonathan Quick.

"He's got all the assets that could make him a top forward, power-wise," coach Joel Quenneville said. "He can hit, skate, shoot, he sees plays and is big at the net, physical. All the ingredients you want put together."

For Bickell, the key has been keeping in a routine and continuing the hard work.

"Just repeating in my head what works," he said. "If it's with Tazer and Hoss or Tazer and Kane, I have to go in front of the net. The puck's going to get there eventually either to give them a better opportunity to score or to give me an opportunity to score.

"I know I should've had a couple of more, but I'm happy for what's happened so far and I'm just trying to keep it up."



Newer Hawks thrilled about Cup opportunity

Mike Spellman

The United Center may never have been as loud as it was in the third period Saturday night, with the final seconds ticking away and a return trip to the Stanley Cup Finals looking more and more like a reality for the Blackhawks.

From the moment Patrick Kane snapped a 2-2 tie with less than four minutes remaining, the place had been up for grabs.

Forward-thinking Bickell continues to produce

And it wasn't just the sellout crowd going crazy. The reaction shot on the Hawks' bench after Kane's goal — particularly the unadulterated joy on Andrew Shaw's face — said it all.

Even though it's only been three years since the Hawks won the Cup, a large number of players in the lineup throughout the postseason have never made the trip. And no, watching it on television doesn't count.

"For us, I think there's comparisons obviously that are always going to be made to the 2010 team, but I think for a lot of guys in here, maybe only half of the team was here when that was going on," said Patrick Kane, hitting the correct number on the head. So a lot of guys want to make their own memories from this team, and we want to make some more, too."

That would include goalie Corey Crawford, who, if he isn't the team's playoff MVP so far, is running a close second.

When the Hawks were winning the Cup in 2010, Crawford was part of the so-called black aces. This year he is simply one of the aces, and thrilled to be moving on to the finals.

"It's crazy, the excitement," Crawford said after his 33-save performance. "Maybe it's a little bit of relief. It was just another hurdle for us."

When Kane scored his go-ahead goal late in the third, it sure looked like some hurdles had been cleared, but Mike Richards' game-tying goal with 10 seconds left in regulation put those dreams on hold.

That lasted for one full overtime period and midway into the second when Kane capped off a night to remember with his third goal of the game to catapult the Hawks into the finals where they will meet the Boston Bruins.

And for many of the young players in the locker room after the game, the thought of what lies ahead was filling their heads.

"There's just such excitement," Michael Frolik said. "I never imagined I would be this far. It obviously feels good. It was always a dream."

Added Brandon Saad: "It's unbelievable. It's my first year which makes it even more special. We're all excited about it."

And Bryan Bickell: "It's another opportunity for this team to win. I felt going into this season that we had great team that could make a good run."



Blackhawks headed to Stanley Cup finals

Staff Writer

Patrick Kane scored his third goal of the game 11:40 into the second overtime period and the Chicago Blackhawks beat the defending champion Los Angeles Kings 4-3 to advance to the Stanley Cup finals on Saturday night.

Corey Crawford made 33 saves, and Duncan Keith scored in his return from a suspension as the top-seeded Blackhawks eliminated the Kings in five games in the Western Conference finals.

Chicago will host the Eastern champion Boston Bruins in Game 1 on Wednesday night. Boston completed a sweep of the Pittsburgh Penguins on Friday night.

This is the first finals matchup of NHL Original Six franchises since 1979, and it will pit two of the last three champions against each other.

Chicago won the Cup in 2010, ending a 49-year drought. Boston captured the title the following year.

Anze Kopitar and Mike Richards scored in the third period for Los Angeles, which managed to recover after trailing 2-0 in the first period and 3-2 late in regulation. Jonathan Quick finished with 31 saves.

Kane was in the middle of a quiet postseason when he finished off Bryan Bickell's shot for his third playoff goal in Chicago's 3-2 win in Los Angeles on Thursday. The talented forward yelled in relief after that goal and came up with his best performance of the playoffs in Game 5.

After Crawford made a couple of big saves in the first overtime, Jonathan Toews carried the puck up the left side during a 2-on-1 rush in the second extra session. He then made a cross-ice pass to Kane, who one-timed a shot past Quick and into the right side.

"Johnny made a great pass, and I tried to get it off as quick as I could," Kane said of the winning goal.

The rollicking sellout crowd of 22,237 erupted in joy as Kane skated back toward the middle of the ice and slid on his knees as hats rained down. A distraught Quick laid down as his teammates emptied from the bench for the post-series handshakes.

Chicago was poised to finish off Los Angeles in regulation when the Kings scored the tying goal with 9.4 seconds remaining. Kopitar took a long shot from the right side and Richards managed to tip it by Crawford, leading to a celebration for the Kings while the crowd groaned in disbelief.

"So emotional," Kane said of the lost lead. "You start thinking about it when it goes to 14 seconds away from going to the final. It stuck with us for the first overtime. It was nice to close it out for sure."

Richards had a goal and an assist in his first game since he took a big hit from Chicago's Dave Bolland in the series opener, shelving the center with a suspected concussion.

Crawford recovered from the dramatic tying goal and made a couple of nice plays in overtime, using his glove to deny Williams and Jake Muzzin in rapid succession midway through the period. Bickell had an opportunity to end the game at the other end, but he was unable to corral Kane's pass on a rush to the net.

The lost lead at the end of regulation turned into a minor inconvenience for the Blackhawks when Kane finished his second career postseason hat trick.

Los Angeles also trailed 2-0 after one, but Williams' strong charge up the left side set up Dwight King's short-handed goal at 9:28 of the second. The Kings tied it 2-2 when Kopitar pushed a rebound through Crawford's legs 3½ minutes into the third.

It was Kopitar's first point of the series and snapped a six-game goal drought. It also was the third power-play goal allowed by the Blackhawks in 58 playoff chances.

The tie held until the Blackhawks took advantage of a bad break for the Kings to go in front again.

Williams had the puck behind the net when he fell, and Bickell made a slick pass to Kane, who beat Quick to give the Blackhawks a 3-2 lead with 3:52 remaining.

Keith missed Chicago's 3-2 win in Los Angeles on Thursday night after he was suspended for high-sticking Jeff Carter in the face in Game 3, opening a 20-stitch gash on the face of the star forward. The defenseman said it was an accident, and he was very pleased after the Blackhawks won Game 4 without him.

Back on the ice Saturday, Keith wasted little time in announcing his presence.

With the Kings in the middle of a line change, Keith got a pass from Michal Rozsival on the left side of the ice, skated in, and fired a slap shot through Quick's legs at 3:42 for his second goal of the postseason.

The Blackhawks kept up the pressure as the Kings struggled to hold on to the puck, and a little patience by Kane led to a 2-0 lead just six minutes in. He waited while a scrum in front of the net took out Quick, and then put a shot over the prone goalie.

NOTES: It was the 38th playoff game in the past two seasons for Los Angeles. ... Toews and Bickell each had two assists.



Keith doesn’t want to be known as dirty player

Tim Sassone

The worst part of being suspended for Duncan Keith is the fact the NHL considers him a repeat offender.

"I don't feel good about having 'repeat offender' on there, but it was a play that obviously you'd like to have back," said Keith, who was suspended for five games last season for elbowing Vancouver's Daniel Sedin in the head. "To me it's over with now and I'm excited about the hockey game now."

Keith, who was suspended for Game 4 for slashing Kings forward Jeff Carter in the face, was back to the Blackhawks' lineup Saturday for Game 5 of the Western Conference finals. Keith contributed quickly, as he smoked a slapshot through the five-hole of Kings goalie Jonathan Quick just 3:42 into the first period to give the Hawks a 1-0 lead.

While Keith was relieved and one of the happiest guys in the dressing room following the 3-2 win in Game 4 that gave the Hawks a 3-1 lead in the series, he wasn't surprised by the result.

"We've got a lot of great players in this room, too," Keith said. "Especially you look at our defense corps and guys just step up. It's just guys move into different roles, play a few more minutes and that's all it was. But it definitely feels good that we won."

Keith wasn't worried the Hawks might lose and his suspension would be viewed as the turning point in the series.

"It's a seven-game series," Keith said, "and we've got a strong group mentally in this room and it's not something I think would be a focus point."

Keith also wasn't worried about being a target of the Kings in Game 5.

"I get run at every game," Keith said. "Game 2 of the series, I got hit pretty hard, I think it was Game 2, by Dustin Brown. It happens almost every game."

The new Byfuglien:

Bryan Bickell's big playoff has drawn comparisons to what Dustin Byfuglien did in the 2010 Cup run.

"Yeah, he's a great kid," Patrick Kane said. "We've all enjoyed his success. He's a character for sure. Probably one of the nicest, humblest guys on the team, too. So it's good to see him doing well. He deserves it. He's worked hard for it. I'm happy for him."

Bickell is enjoying being the center of attention.

"I'm just having fun with it," Bickell said. "It's been a great playoffs for myself and I feel grateful to the team. Most importantly, I'm just happy that the team is winning."

Hawks vs. Sharks:

Kings defenseman Drew Doughty was asked to compare the Hawks to the Sharks, who lost to Los Angeles in seven games in the last round.

"(Chicago) has a little more depth," Doughty said. "San Jose didn't have really have the strongest third and fourth line. They had great first two lines. This team, even their third and fourth line has some pretty good players on it.

"But they haven't been the ones doing the damage — it's been the first and second line."

Great pick up:

It didn't get a lot of attention in the off-season, but the signing of defenseman Michal Rozsival as a free agent is looking pretty good now.

It was Rozsival who stepped up big time in Game 4 to fill in for the suspended Duncan Keith. This is exactly what Rozsival had in mind when he picked the Hawks over several other teams.

"It's what I imagined and we're on the right track," Rozsival said. "I knew I was signing with a great team and so far it's paying off. I'm having lots of fun playing with this group. I couldn't be happier right now."

"Yeah, I did (have other teams interested), but definitely I knew the Blackhawks, with the personnel they have and the players they have up front, from playing against them last year in the playoffs when I was with Phoenix. I knew we'd have a great team and definitely be a contender in the playoffs."



Kane with Toews and Bickell again

Tim S

Patrick Kane, who snapped out of a slump with a goal in Game 4 after Blackhawks coach Joel Quenneville changed lines, will be back with Jonathan Toews and Bryan Bickell for Game 5 on Saturday night.

That's how line rushes were in Saturday's morning skate, although Kane was giving nothing away.

"Like I said before, it might have been coincidence that it worked out that well for us scoring and then them scoring early in the third period, their line," Kane said after the morning skate. "We'll see what happens tonight. Sometimes it switches up. I think that's the advantage of playing with a lot of these guys before in the locker room. You get to know everyone personally and what they're like on the ice, too. Whoever I play with, I'll just try to do my best out there."

Meanwhile, Kings coach Darryl Sutter said center Mike Richards had a 50-50 chance of playing. Richards has been out since suffering a concussion in Game 1.



Kings' season cut short following 'deflating' loss to Hawks

June 9, 2013, 1:15 am

Staff Writer

Game of Thrones: Hawks overthrow Kings

With only 9.4 seconds left in regulation, the Kings got what they needed. At least, it was what they thought they needed to keep their season alive.

After facing an early two-goal deficit in a win-or-go-home Game 5 matchup against the Blackhawks, the Kings found a way to send the game into overtime after Mike Richards found the back of the net with just seconds remaining on the clock. But despite the late heroics, the defending Stanley Cup champions couldn't get the job done.

"It's not ideal being down 2-0, but at the same time you have 50 minutes to catch up," Kings defenseman Matt Greene said following his team's 4-3 loss in double overtime. "That was the main point right there, just stop the bleeding and keep going. Our guys did a good job of that, sticking with it, battling back and forcing overtime.

"We're disappointed right now. We wanted different results obviously. You lose a series in five games, obviously [the Blackhawks are] doing something a little better over there."

Coach Darryl Sutter, perhaps, summed it up the most colorfully:

"There's not much you can do, but giving up bad goals puts your head between your legs and it gets your ass kicked."

[WATCH: Blackhawks give credit to the fight the Kings put up in the Western Conference Final]

After cruising through the 2012 postseason, the Kings faced a much bumpier road in 2013. Prior to their elimination, the injury-riddled team won just one game on the road -- against the St. Louis Blues in the Western Conference semifinals.

After dropping the first two games of the Western Conference Final, the Kings had their chance to redeem themselves at home. But they couldn't fend off the league's top-ranked team in Game 4 and came back to Chicago down three games to one. And as they had shown previously this postseason, a road win just wasn't in the cards for them.

"[The Blackhawks] obviously took care of their home ice. It's very deflating," Richards said. "Sometimes you have to lose again to remember how hard it was to win. You keep this bad feeling until you have another go at it."

Richards was one of a number of Kings players that faced injuries throughout the playoffs after showing concussion-like symptoms following a hit from Dave Bolland in Game 1 of the series. But despite their hardships, he and his teammates were frustrated with their overall product.

"Nothing came easy for us to play to this point," forward Jarret Stoll said. "Guys were banged up, guys were playing their hearts out. It just wasn't enough. We wanted to play until the end of June. That was our goal, that was our mindset. We just didn't have it against these guys."

The Kings found plenty to be upset and frustrated about, but despite all the emotion, they still showed a lot of respect for the Blackhawks and the performance they've had since the start of the shortened 2013 campaign began.

"They're a great team, we wish them all the best. They have a lot of great players and they play their system well and they have great coaching," Stoll said. "They're the best team in the league and they showed that."

Comcast SportsNet.com LOADED: 06.09.2013


Complete Stanley Cup Final broadcast schedule

June 8, 2013, 11:30 pm

Scott Krinch

After the Blackhawks' 4-3 double-overtime victory over the Kings in Game 5 Saturday night, the NHL announced the complete broadcast schedule for the Stanley Cup Final between the Blackhawks and Boston Bruins.

Games 1 and 4, as well as 5, 6 and 7 (if necessary) will be broadcast on NBC. Games 2 and 3 will air on NBC Sports Network.

Each game will also be streamed live on NBCSports.com.

Also, be sure to stay with Comcast SportsNet and CSNChicago.com for extended coverage of the Stanley Cup Final. Blackhawks Postgame Live airs immediately after each game goes final. The show will also be streamed live.

Here is the complete schedule with broadcast information:

Game Date Time Venue Television

Game 1 Wed., June 12 7 p.m. United Center NBC

Game 2 Sat., June 15 7 p.m. United Center NBCSN

Game 3 Mon., June 17 7 p.m. TD Garden NBCSN

Game 4 Wed., June 19 7 p.m. TD Garden NBC

Game 5* Sat., June 22 7 p.m. United Center NBC

Game 6* Mon., June 24 7 p.m. TD Garden NBC

Game 7* Wed., June 26 7 p.m. United Center NBC

All times Central | Home games in bold | *If necessary



Hat-Trick Hero: Kane sends Hawks back to Cup Final

June 8, 2013, 11:00 pm

Staff Writer

Patrick Kane was hearing all about his slump.

Chicago Blackhawks fans wanted more. His coaches wanted more. Heck, he wanted more.

And Saturday night, he gave more than enough.

Kane tallied a hat trick, including the game-winning goal in double overtime, as the Blackhawks beat the Los Angeles Kings, 4-3, to clinch the Western Conference crown. The Blackhawks eliminated the defending Stanley Cup champions in five games and are headed to the Stanley Cup Final for the second time since 2010.

Duncan Keith, who was suspended for Game 4, scored the Blackhawks’ opening goal and logged 40 minutes, 12 seconds of ice time. Corey Crawford stopped 33 of 36 shots, including 13 over the two overtimes. Jonathan Toews had two assists, as did Bryan Bickell.

For Kane, it was probably a big exhale moment after struggling through a good chunk of this postseason. For head coach Joel Quenneville, who said the Blackhawks needed more from Kane, this fit the bill.

“That was more than more,” Quenneville said. “It was certainly an outstanding game by him. It was a great play by [Toews] and winning goal [by Kane]. I thought Kaner played a heck of a game in Games 4 and 5 for us, and led with having the puck a lot. The time of possession was very high end.”

So was the shot that ended it all. Toews and Kane went on a 2-on-1, with Toews passing to Kane, who sent a laser past Jonathan Quick for the clincher. For Kane, just getting through to the Stanley Cup Final was reward enough.

“It's nice to win, first and foremost. To contribute the last couple games, I think any player would be lying to you if they said it isn't nice,” Kane said. “For us to hang in there in the first overtime and pull it out in the second overtime was huge. We definitely didn't want to go back to L.A. It was just a huge win to get us to the Final.”

And it almost didn’t happen tonight. The Blackhawks were 10 seconds away from clinching the West, on the strength of a Kane goal with 3:52 remaining in regulation. But the Kings were going to go down swinging and, apparently, scoring dramatic goals. Mike Richards, who missed the last three games with a concussion, deflected an Anze Kopitar shot off his body and past Crawford to tie the game at 3 with 9.4 seconds remaining in regulation.

The Blackhawks were staggered; they were stunned. But they just thought back to Game 7 against Detroit, another game where they went to overtime unexpectedly and drew that same attitude out of it.

“Yeah, that's a tough feeling. I honestly don't think there's a worse feeling in hockey, when you’re nine seconds away,” Toews said. “We just tried to tell each other in the locker room that we can't be thinking about what could have been. We have to just turn the page, get over it. It's the only way you're going to move on and win the game.”

The overtime(s) were what postseason overtimes usually are: riveting, crazy, intense and edge-of-your-seat enjoyable -- for everyone but the players, most likely. But Kane’s goal clinched it, setting off one happy pandemonium at the United Center.

[WATCH: Blackhawks played their game]

“It was crazy, it was exciting and just maybe a little bit of relief,” said Crawford. “That was a great goal, a great pass and an even better shot. It’s just another hurdle for us; we’ve been through so much already. To go through double OT and win like that is just crazy.”

The Blackhawks have punched their ticket back to the Stanley Cup Final. It’s been a bumpy road in between, with two first-round losses, questions about goaltending and a lockout taking away the first part of the 2012-13 season. But the Blackhawks made it. Now to finish it.

“We have the ability, the talent, but most of all we're hungry to get back to where we were in 2010. We have a great opportunity to do it,” Toews said. “We definitely went through some tough times and some trials. That's all part of it. Not everything is going to go your way whenever you want it to. Like Duncs said, this opportunity doesn't come too often. I think we all realize that this time around. We're ready to take advantage of it.”



Keith rejoins the fold as Blackhawks aim to close it out

June 8, 2013, 12:00 pm

Staff Writer

Duncan Keith has put his one-game suspension behind him.

The Chicago Blackhawks defenseman was as happy as any of his teammates – perhaps even happier – when they beat the Los Angeles Kings in Game 4 on Thursday night. Now back in the lineup, Keith wants to help the Blackhawks close the book on the Kings tonight at the United Center.

Keith returns from his suspension for high-sticking Jeff Carter, and the Blackhawks will play like they’re the ones fighting to stay in the series as they host the Kings in Game 5 of the Western Conference Final tonight. For Keith, the suspension is over, as is the talk about it.

“It doesn’t matter what my opinion is,” he said. “Like I said (after Game 3), I didn’t mean to get him where I got him. I know it doesn’t look good. But I’m glad he’s back playing for them. It doesn’t matter what my opinion on the suspension was.”

The Blackhawks played stifling defense that night, and will need to do so again if they want to eliminate the Kings and avoid traveling back to Los Angeles for a Game 6. Keith’s return is an obvious boost for the Blackhawks.

“I’m sure the D will like that,” said Patrick Kane. “I thought (Sheldon) Brookbank did a good job moving the puck; he just got a couple of tough breaks. I’m sure (Keith) will eat up a lot of ice time and give some guys the rest back there. It’s a huge advantage having him in the lineup.”

The Blackhawks said Keith was one of the happiest guys in the room after that Game 4 victory. He admits it was a bit of a relief that his suspension didn’t cost the Blackhawks in that game.

“At the same time, I know we have a lot of great players,” he said. “Look at our D core: guys stepped up, played more minutes. But it definitely feels good that we won and move on to a big game tonight.”

Meanwhile, Kane was with Jonathan Toews and Bryan Bickell on line rushes this morning. The three were thrown together in Game 4 and got some good results. Bickell hopes momentum carries over with them tonight.

“I don’t know why (coach Joel Quenneville) did that but it sparked the team,” he said. “Kane came on our line to spark a goal. Hopefully that gets him going and gets us going as a line again. We just have to carry the momentum from last game to this game.”

But the Blackhawks are being sure to avoid overconfidence. They were the Kings in the second round, down 3-1 and fighting off elimination. And they’re looking to bring the desperation they had in that series into this game.

“This is going to be the hardest game of the series,” Bickell said. “Going into this game, the first 10 minutes will probably dictate how it projects. You don’t want to make that long flight. So you make it like a Game 7, like there’s nothing to lose.”


680495 Colorado Avalanche

Kiszla: Josh Kroenke not a fan of cheap shots

Mark Kiszla

06/09/2013 12:01:00 AM MDT

Would the Avalanche win the Stanley Cup or the Nuggets still have George Karl as coach, if the family of billionaires that owns the teams wasn't so darn cheap? Is money the root of these problems?

"No," replied Josh Kroenke, the young leader of Colorado's NHL and NBA franchises.

Kroenke isn't afraid of a challenge or criticism. It's one reason why he has a chance to score big as a sports executive.

Although Kroenke believes the allegations are total bunk, he's heard them:

The Avs are bottom feeders in the NHL because they refuse to spend more on players. NBA executive of the year Masai Ujiri was lured away by the Toronto Raptors because he was underpaid by the Nuggets. While fans stand up and cheer the St. Louis Rams, Stan and Josh Kroenke sit on their wallets.

Cheap, cheap, cheap.

The critics of the Kroenkes do a lot of clucking. But most are too chicken to ask them directly about their sports expenditures.

"As far as the cheap comment, I don't know where it came from. We have a top 10 paid coach in the NFL. We have a top 10 paid coach in the NHL. And we had a top 10 paid coach in the NBA. So these arguments that people keep presenting, I don't completely understand. The facts say something completely different," Josh said.

"The statement on our coaches' salaries speaks for itself. The Nuggets' historical payroll speaks for itself. Until the NHL implemented a salary cap, I think what we spent on the Avalanche spoke for itself."

Ah, don't you hate it when the facts mess with the Twitterverse's gossip?

Patrick Roy and Joe Sakic are sold on the idea the Kroenke family is committed to winning a Stanley Cup. "I don't think Joe Sakic is going to buy in, or Patrick Roy is going to come here as our head coach if he thinks we're cheap," Kroenke said.

If the Kroenkes were sold Karl was the best coach for the Nuggets through 2015 and beyond, he would still be employed here.

How does one get to be a billionaire? By demanding return on investment.

Win. Or move on.

That's not cheap. It's smart.

Denver Post: LOADED: 06.09.2013

680496 Colorado Avalanche

Jarome Iginla would make good signing by Avalanche

Adrian Dater

06/09/2013 12:11:30 AM MDT

The biggest decision the Avalanche has right now is whom to select with the first pick in the NHL draft June 30. Assuming the Avs don't trade the pick, that is.

But the Avs have another serious question to ponder over the next month: Should they buy out the remainder of David Jones' contract?

First, the rules: Under the NHL's new collective bargaining agreement, teams are allowed up to two "compliance buyouts" by 2014 to better adjust to the league's lowered salary cap limit starting this coming season ($70.2 million to $64.3 million).

Teams have been able to buy out players for years, but they still had to take the cap hit on the player — though it was spread out over twice the remaining years left on the contract. With the cap limit going down, teams can buy out up to two players without any hit to their cap number — though they'll still have to pay one-third or two-thirds of the remaining salary in one lump payment, depending on the player's age.

Because Jones is older than 26, the Avs would need to write him an $8 million check to be rid of him. Jones has three years left on his deal, at $4 million per. With the $4 million hit to the cap eliminated, the Avs could use that freed-up money to make an offer on a free-agent right winger.

If that were to happen, how about the next hypothetical question: Should the Avs make an offer to Jarome Iginla to replace Jones?

Iginla, like Jones, is a right winger. His season with Pittsburgh has come to an end and he can be unrestricted in July.

Iginla has seen his best days as a player, no doubt, but he's only 35.

Iginla was ripped by many in the media for his performance in the Eastern Conference finals against Boston (zero points in four games). Fair enough. But Sidney Crosby had zero points too. The Penguins scored only two goals in four games. It wasn't all Iggy's fault. Besides, Iginla's overall playoff statistics were good: four goals and 12 points in 15 games. Any team would take that. Those are not the stats of a washed-up player.

My opinion: Yes, the Avs should buy out Jones and make a run at Iginla. And I think it could happen, at least the latter part. Even if the Avs don't buy out Jones, there still would be plenty of room under the cap to make Iginla a nice offer.

But if the Avalanche paid off the $8 million to Jones and, say, offered Iginla at least $4 million per year on a new deal, ownership could still justify that as smart spending. The Avs would be rid of one of Jones' remaining years in pure payout terms, and would be able to use some of that on a guy with 530 career goals. Before this lockout-shortened season, Iginla had 11 consecutive seasons of 30 or more goals. Really, that's washed up?

Iginla is a former Canadian Olympic gold medal teammate and linemate of Joe Sakic, the Avs' executive vice president of hockey operations. They are good friends, and playing in Denver would be much closer to Iginla's home in Western Canada.

I don't see Jones being a good fit on a team coached by Patrick Roy. He's a stand-up guy personally, but his playing style doesn't match the blood-and-guts personality of Roy. I can see Roy having problems with him — and keep in mind others have as well; Jones was a healthy scratch under former coach Joe Sacco for the final few games of the Avs' season, a humiliating reality for both team and player just a few months after the two agreed to a four-year, $16 million deal.

Bottom line: The Avs should admit they made a mistake in giving Jones such a big contract, wash their hands of it with a compliance buyout and look for a surefire reinforcement on the free-agent market.

Iginla would do nicely.

Denver Post: LOADED: 06.09.2013

680497 Dallas Stars

Source: Stars agree to terms on a two-year deal with 39-year-old defenseman Sergei Gonchar

MIKE HEIKA

08 June 2013 10:42 PM

The Stars have agreed to terms with defenseman Sergei Gonchar on a two-year contract for $5 million per seasons, according to an NHL source. The contract still needs to be signed.

The Stars on Friday acquired the rights to Gonchar from Ottawa for a conditional sixth round draft pick. Gonchar, 39, could have become an unrestricted free agent July 5, and after some negotiation the Senators were not able to come to an agreement with him. They will now get the Stars' sixth round pick in the 2013 entry draft.

Gonchar is a four-time All-Star Game participant who the Stars see as a potential No.1 defenseman, despite his age. Gonchar has been a 25-minute player for most of his career, and averaged 23:59 with Ottawa last season.

"Players like this, they're real pros. That's why they are playing so long,'' said Stars GM Jim Nill. "You look at what he did last season, and he was a top NHL defenseman. I think any organization would want to add a player like that.''

Gonchar tallied three goals and added 24 assists for 27 points in 45 games with the Senators. That ranked 16th among defensemen in the NHL. He also played 37 games for Metallurg in the KHL during the lockout last season, and tallied 29 points (three goals, 26 assists) there.

The Stars gave Ray Whitney a two-year deal last summer at 40 and were rewarded when Whitney tallied 29 points (11 goals, 18 assists) in 32 games. Dallas seems fine with the older player.

"We feel he's in excellent shape,'' Nill said about Gonchar. "He adds not only skill to the team, but character, too. These are the kinds of players that can really help us become the kind of team we want to become.''

Gonchar spent parts of three seasons in Pittsburgh with defenseman Alex Goligoski, and could be a potential partner for Goligoski in Dallas. Gonchar also played with Stars advisor Mark Recchi in Pittsburgh, another connection to Dallas.

Gonchar is listed at 6-2, 206 and is a left-handed shot.

If the Stars can sign Gonchar, that could allow them to take a slow route on the development of young defensemen like Jamie Oleksiak, Kevin Connauton and Joe Morrow, or it could allow them the ability to study possible trades for veterans such as Stephane Robidas or Trevor Daley.

"We're just starting to build, but I know you can never have enough defensemen, you can never have enough talent, and you can never have enough character,'' Nill said. "If we can add him, then that only makes us better and gives us more options.''

Dallas Morning News LOADED: 06.09.2013

680498 Detroit Red Wings

Patrick Kane's hat trick sends Blackhawks to Stanley Cup finals

JAY COHEN

CHICAGO — Patrick Kane skated toward the middle of the ice, dropped to his knees and pumped his right arm, surrounded by a sea of red jumping up and down in waves.

The hats began to come down as the Chicago Blackhawks rushed in to celebrate another trip to the Stanley Cup finals.

It was an emphatic checkmate at the end of a long night. The Los Angeles Kings’ NHL reign is over.

Kane scored his third goal of the game 11:40 into the second overtime period and the Blackhawks beat the defending champion Kings, 4-3, tonight to advance to the finals.

“Right now I think it’s almost like I’m in a different zone, like in the Twilight Zone or something,” Kane said, calling it the best game of his career. “I’m kind of out of it. It’s definitely a good feeling, though.”

Corey Crawford made 33 saves, and Duncan Keith scored in his return from a one-game suspension as the top-seeded Blackhawks eliminated the Kings in five games in the Western Conference finals.

Chicago will host the Eastern champion Boston Bruins in Game 1 of the best-of-seven championship series on Wednesday night. Boston completed a sweep of the Pittsburgh Penguins on Friday night.

“It’s a special couple places. The tradition of the Bruins and the Hawks is special,” Chicago coach Joel Quenneville said. “I’m sure, you know, the rivalry could return instantly come Game 1. I think it’s good for the league. It’s good for hockey. Two great hockey markets. We’re very excited to be a part of it.”

This is the first finals matchup of NHL Original Six franchises since 1979, and it will pit two of the last three champions against each other.

Chicago won the Cup in 2010, ending a 49-year drought. Boston captured the title the following year.

“Every series presents its challenges,” forward Patrick Sharp said. “Watching Boston, they’re rolling right now. Another tough series ahead of us.”

Los Angeles managed to recover after trailing 2-0 in the first period and 3-2 late in regulation in the longest game in franchise history. Mike Richards and Anze Kopitar both had a goal and an assist, and Jonathan Quick finished with 31 saves.

“We got beat in the conference finals by the best team in the conference at the end of the day,” Kings coach Darryl Sutter said. “We accomplished everything. Once you set the bar up there, then that’s your bar. So obviously we’re disappointed to lose to Chicago, but we’re certainly not disappointed in how we played.”

Kane was in the middle of a quiet postseason when he finished off Bryan Bickell’s shot for his third playoff goal in Chicago’s 3-2 win in Los Angeles on Thursday. The talented forward yelled in relief after that goal and came up with his best performance of the playoffs in Game 5.

After Crawford made a couple of big saves in the first overtime, Jonathan Toews carried the puck up the left side during a 2-on-1 rush in the second extra session. He then made a cross-ice pass to Kane, who one-timed a shot past Quick and into the right side.

“You know, the shift before, actually Jonny had the same play, and the puck fumbled on him,” Kane said. “I knew he was coming back to me. Just tried to wait for the defenseman to go by me. Tried to get it off as quick as I could in the net.”

The rollicking sellout crowd of 22,237 erupted in joy as Kane started the celebration for the Blackhawks. A distraught Quick remained face down on the ice as his teammates emptied the bench for the post-series handshakes.

Chicago was poised to finish off Los Angeles in regulation when the Kings scored the tying goal with 9.4 seconds remaining. Kopitar took a long shot from the right side and Richards managed to tip it by Crawford, leading to a celebration for the Kings while the crowd groaned in disbelief.

“So emotional,” Kane said of the lost lead. “You start thinking about it when it goes to 14 seconds away from going to the final. It stuck with us for the first overtime. It was nice to close it out for sure.”

It was Richards’ first game since he took a big hit from Chicago’s Dave Bolland in the series opener, shelving the center with a suspected concussion.

“We played well in the second and third and even overtime. I think we had a lot of chances,” Richards said. “But give them credit, they played well, and their goaltender made some big saves.”

Crawford used his glove to deny Williams and Jake Muzzin in rapid succession midway through the first overtime. Bickell had an opportunity to end the game at the other end, but he was unable to corral Kane’s pass on a rush to the net.

The lost lead at the end of regulation turned into a minor inconvenience for the Blackhawks when Kane finished his second career postseason hat trick.

Los Angeles’ rally began when Williams made a strong charge up the left side and set up Dwight King’s short-handed goal at 9:28 of the second. The Kings tied it 2-2 when Kopitar pushed a rebound through Crawford’s legs 3½ minutes into the third.

It was Kopitar’s first point of the series and he snapped a six-game goal drought. It also was the third power-play goal allowed by the Blackhawks in 58 playoff chances.

The tie held until the Blackhawks took advantage of a bad break for the Kings to go in front again.

Williams had the puck behind the net when he fell, and Bickell made a slick pass to Kane, who beat Quick to give the Blackhawks a 3-2 lead with 3:52 remaining.

Keith missed Chicago’s 3-2 win in Los Angeles on Thursday night after he was suspended for high-sticking Jeff Carter in the face in Game 3, opening a 20-stitch gash on the face of the star forward. The defenseman said it was an accident, and he was very pleased after the Blackhawks won Game 4 without him.

Back on the ice Saturday, Keith wasted little time in announcing his presence.

With the Kings in the middle of a line change, Keith got a pass from Michal Rozsival on the left side of the ice, skated in, and fired a long slap shot through Quick’s legs at 3:42 for his second goal of the postseason.

The Blackhawks kept up the pressure as the Kings struggled to hold on to the puck, and a little patience by Kane led to a 2-0 lead just six minutes in. He waited while a scrum in front of the net took out Quick, and then put a shot over the prone goalie.

NOTES: It was the 38th playoff game in the past two seasons for Los Angeles. … Toews and Bickell both had two assists. … The Kings’ previous longest game was a 4-3 double-overtime win at Vancouver on May 11, 1993. … Kings captain Dustin Brown said after the game that he tore the posterior cruciate ligament in his left knee during Game 6 of Los Angeles’ second-round series against San Jose. He didn’t miss a game.

Detroit Free Press LOADED: 06.09.2013


Detroit Red Wings' Danny DeKeyser joins Griffins for Calder Cup final, looks ahead to training camp

Helene St. James

Danny DeKeyser has a busy summer ahead: First, there’s helping the Grand Rapids Griffins as they embark on a championship run; then, there’s a July minicamp and an overall emphasis on gaining strength.

DeKeyser was lost to the Red Wings early in the playoffs with a broken right thumb; now he has joined the Griffins, as he was cleared to play in their Calder Cup final against the Syracuse Crunch, which started Saturday.

Joining a team late in a playoff quest can be challenging, but DeKeyser has two advantages: He’s a mobile defenseman with NHL-ready skills, so playing at the AHL level is no issue, and he has a fan in Griffins coach Jeff Blashill.

Blashill was at Western Michigan during DeKeyser’s freshman year, and while teenage DeKeyser did not resemble 23-year-old DeKeyser, Blashill is well aware he’s adding something special to his lineup.

“He’s the type of player who can step into situations with ease just because he’s such a good skater and so good defensively,” Blashill said.

Blashill, a former Wings assistant who took over in Grand Rapids last summer, called DeKeyser a classic late bloomer.

“I’ll be honest,” Blashill said, “when he came to Western, I had no idea how good he was. He’s a real special player, especially from the defensive aspect.

“Danny, to me, is such an efficient player. He creates offense without giving up a lot. There’s not a lot of risk in his game. He makes a lot of little plays defensively, he’s got a long stick, he manages the puck extremely well. He very rarely tries to do more than he should. He doesn’t throw the puck away. He’s able to make those little passes that create offense.”

A lot of those descriptions echo what used to be said of Nicklas Lidstrom. While Lidstrom was one of the all-time best defensemen, DeKeyser is, at the very least, a developing top-four talent.

DeKeyser is slated to be a part of the Wings’ development camp in July; other than that, “the biggest thing for me is to keep getting stronger,” he said. “I’ll be working out, trying to gain as much muscle as I can.”

DeKeyser joined the Wings at the end of March, a week after WMU finished.

“It was great,” he said of the experience. “I learned a lot about the professional lifestyle, the professional game. I think next year, I won’t have much of a transition.”

Detroit Free Press LOADED: 06.09.2013


On a list of great coaches, Scotty Bowman is at the top

Jerry Green

2010 NHL Draft - Round One

Scotty Bowman pushed through the pack, ignoring all of us and walked into an inner sanctum in the back of the dressing room in Joe Louis Arena..

The interview duties were turned over to his assistants, Barry Smith and Dave Lewis. Scotty just didn’t care much for the nuisance of revealing tidbits to the slavish workers in the media.

Moments later, he flashed a signal, a slight wave of his hand, and indicated “c’mon back.”

It was a rare invitation to the reporter-proof room where the Red Wings' coaches viewed videos and designed strategy.

There he sat.

This secret, often-silent man — an enigma — the classic curmudgeon and the classic coach who had won championships and who would win more, and even now might be attached to another.

And we spent the next hour or so gabbing about hockey. The game. The people. Our boyhoods.

"I grew up on a street, two of the boys became safecrackers," Bowman said of his days growing up in bilingual Montreal.

"They would crack safes. In banks.

"One ended up in prison in Vancouver, and the other ended up in the big job (big house) in Boston. They became bank robbers. Armed robbery."

And Scotty Bowman became the collector of fine jewelry — Stanley Cup championship rings.

He does not have enough fingers for all of them. Five Cup championships as coach of the Canadiens in the 1970s, one as coach of the Penguins and three more as coach of the Red Wings — plus three others in a variety of front-office positions. That totals to a dozen. And now there is the shot for No. 13 at age 79 as senior adviser, hockey operations for the Blackhawks. His son, Stan, is general manager of the Blackhawks, Cup champions three years ago and in the mix for another.

Once, way back when the Red Wings were ending 42 barren seasons by winning the Cup under Bowman in 1997, a knowledgeable guy told me:

"Bowman is the best coach in any sport since Vince Lombardi."

Now, these 16 years later, that accolade could be disputed.

Bowman — by my reckoning —is the greatest coach/manager ever in any pro sport. Scotty's nine championships as a coach trump the five Lombardi won in the NFL with the Packers.

Similar as discipliarians, motivators —and champions. But Scotty turned out to be a better story teller.

"That wasn't the real type of neighborhood it was," Bowman said of the part-French-speaking, part-English speaking Montreal suburb of Verdun that produced thieves and a championship hockey coach.

In the neighborhood, when Scotty was growing up the Canadiens were the favored team along, at that time around 1940, with the Montreal Maroons. The Maroons were part of what Scotty and I remember as the NHL's Original Eight. The second Montreal team and the New York/Brooklyn Americans were casualties of World War II. Franchises that folded and never returned.

After victory in the war, the NHL operated for two decades with six franchises — known historically, and reverently, as The Original Six.

But before the war, all the Verdum kids rooted for the Canadiens or the Maroons. Except the bilugual Scotty Bowman and the two kids down the street with other interests.

"The first game I would have gone to was Canadiens against Maroons," Bowman said in our back-room conversation. "Because my father was a Maroons fan.

"See, when you grew up in Montreal at that time, most of the English were Maroons fans. The French were for the Canadiens.

"They had in Montreal at the time what they called a rush end. Fifty cents. They called it Millionaires' Row, but it cost only 50 cents.

"I remember my dad waited, he used to line up behind the Forum. Obviously in the middle of winter; and he waited for tickets."

Scotty Bowman was perverse even as a young lad. With the Canadiens and the Maroons in Montreal, he chose to be a fan of a team across the border in the United States.

"I grew up a Boston Bruin fan," Scotty said in his back room, "the reason being the Boston radio broadcast. You could pick up the signal in Montreal.

"I think the reason was, I was about seven years old, and they were winning the Cup. The Rangers won it in '40, the Bruins won it in '41.

"I used to have to go to bed at the end of the first or second period. My father would always write the score before he went to work the next day.

"I think probably the reason I was a Boston fan, they were a strong team. Once Christmas I got . . . somehow they found a Boston Bruins jersey.

"The two jerseys you could buy in Montreal were Canadiens and Toronto. They found a Boston Bruins jersey and they put a No. 10 on it for Bill Cowley. That was my big hero. He was a big centerman, you know.

"He made more wings than Boeing."

A promising NHL career as a player was shattered when Bowman was cracked over the head by a stick-wielding defenseman in junior hockey. Bowman was playing for the Montreal Royals, the Canadiens' top junior club. His skull was crushed.

"I got my first skates when I was maybe seven," Scotty said in sharing his boyhood story. "That was pretty young in those days. You didn't get on teams until you were around 12. I got on a team when I was around 10.

"I got on a group team when I was about 14. We won the whole province of Quebec midget championship."

There would be more championships, but no more as a player.

"A player was all I wanted to be," he told his audience of one. "Actually, when I got injured I was still in high school. It was my senior year. I was 181/2."

He went into coaching near the bottom. He finally made it into the NHL, when the league doubled from six to 12 clubs in 1967. He became coach of the expansion St. Louis Blues, hired by one of his boyhood idols, Lynn Patrick. The Blues would dominate the expansion side of the NHL. Back then, the NHL rigged the playoffs so that an expansion team would qualify every year for the Cup Finals.

Scotty's Blues made it to the Finals the first three seasons of expansion — and lost three successive seasons.

One of those seasons the Blues needed a veteran defenseman. Scotty brought the guy in and signed him.

The player was craggy, tough Jean-Guy Talbot.

Scotty was not about irony. He was trying to win. He was about championships.

Jean-Guy Talbot just happened to be the opponent who had ended Scotty's ambitions as a player with a stick shot over the noggin in junior hockey.,

Scotty didn't have to love his players to win. And many of them, certainly, did not love him.

But on this day, years ago, he told his stories with candor and grace.

The next night the Red Wings had a game to play at Joe Louis Arena.

I encountered Scotty in the passageway outside the Red Wings' dressing room before the game. I must have been smiling, privately at least, after our lengthy session the day before. I said, "hello."

Scotty walked past without a word, not even a nod of acknowledgement. It was game night and he was back in character.

Detroit News LOADED: 06.09.2013


Report: Mike Babcock will coach Team Canada in 2014 Olympics

Staff Writer

Detroit — Mike Babcock is getting his old job back.

According to ESPN.com's Pierre LeBrun, Babcock will again coach Canada at the 2014 Winter Olympics in Sochi.

Babcock coached Canada to the gold in the 2010 Olympics in Vancouver, defeating the United States in the championship game in overtime.

LeBrun is reporting St. Louis head coach Ken Hitchcock and former Buffalo coach Lindy Ruff, both of whom assisted Babcock at the last Olympics, will return as assistants in Sochi.

According to LeBrun, Babcock will add Boston coach Claude Julien to the Olympics staff.

The Canadian team's general manager is former Red Wings great Steve Yzerman, the current Tampa Bay GM, who also directed Canada's 2010 team.

Detroit News LOADED: 06.09.2013

680502 Edmonton Oilers

Edmonton Oilers GM Craig MacTavish confirms the team has fired Ralph Krueger

June 8, 2013. 3:03 pm

Posted by:

Jonathan Willis

Craig MacTavish moments ago confirmed that the team had fired Ralph Krueger, telling the media he had informed him yesterday.

MacTavish confirmed that the decision arose out of his process of looking for an associate coach, saying that in conducting the interviews he realized he was looking more for a coach who wanted to run the team in the way he had envisioned rather than looking for a support for Krueger. In making the announcement, he made a number of statements praising Krueger’s work and effort, but at the end of the day he decided that there were differences between his vision and Krueger’s. Among the more interesting statements MacTavish made:

I don’t think that this was in any way fair to Ralph. It wasn’t about being fair to Ralph.

MacTavish also downplayed the impact of yet another coaching change on the players, promising that many more changes were going to come over the summer of 2013:

There’s going to be a lot of disruption this summer.

With regard to the next head coach, MacTavish declined to confirm that Dallas Eakins – already widely rumoured as Krueger’s replacement – was on the verge of signing a deal with Edmonton, but he did say that they had a new candidate in mind and that the team was close to a deal with that person. He also stated that the new coach would be given the power to make decisions on the future of the coaching staff – meaning that assistant coaches Steve Smith and Kelly Buchberger may be retained but may also be replaced (though MacTavish’s preference was that they stay). Beyond that, the only comment MacTavish would make about the composition of the new coach’s staff was that another coach would be brought into the group.

Edmonton Journal: LOADED: 06.09.2013


MacKinnon: Plenty of excellent choices for new Oilers coach

By John MacKinnon, Edmonton Journal June 8, 2013

Oilers general manager Craig MacTavish launched the NHL club’s seemingly annual summer renovation project Saturday by firing head coach Ralph Krueger after just one season on the job.

MacTavish said the Oilers are close to finalizing an agreement with a new head coach, but would not confirm who that will be. Some reports tabbed Dallas Eakins as that man. The well-regarded Eakins, 46, has been coaching the Toronto Maple Leafs’ top farm club, the Marlies of the American Hockey League.

Whoever the new head coach is, he will be the fifth Oilers bench boss in the last six seasons, all of which have been non-playoff finishes for the club. That list includes Krueger, Tom Renney (2010-12), Pat Quinn (2009-10) and MacTavish himself, who resigned at the end of the 2008-09 season after eight years at the helm.

MacTavish lauded the commitment to the Oilers of Krueger, who had also served two years as an associate coach under Renney before being named head coach last summer. MacTavish said he called Krueger on Friday and had a “very personal conversation,” about the dismissal but did not elaborate.

Krueger will be made available to the Edmonton media on Sunday to discuss his firing.

When MacTavish was named GM on April 15, he said he did not expect to be making a coaching change, that there had already been too much instability in that role in recent years.

But in post-season discussions with Krueger about, among other things, adding a veteran associate with head coaching experience, MacTavish said his thinking changed.

“During the process ... I recognized I was trying to add a coach that was more closely aligned with the way that I wanted to run the team, and less about supporting Ralph in the head coach (role) of our team at that time,” MacTavish told a late-afternoon news conference Saturday. “It was at that point when I realized that, that I contemplated making the change if, in my opinion, I found the ideal fit for our hockey club.

“I contemplated the change at that point; that’s how we got to this point.”

MacTavish did not outline the reasons he believed his new hire, not Krueger, is the ideal fit for the Oilers, preferring to let journalists draw their own conclusions. He emphasized that the coaching change was his alone to make.

“It was my decision, I stand by this decision, and I’ll be judged by that decision,” MacTavish said.

The Oilers, keep in mind, were in a playoff position as late as early April, but a late-season swoon that saw them lose nine of their last 12 games took them out of contention in a season in which the organization had pledged to play ‘meaningful games’ in April, if not May.

With a cluster of excellent coaches currently unemployed, a list that includes former Vancouver Canucks head coach Alain Vigneault, ex-Buffalo Sabres head man Lindy Ruff and former Carolina and Toronto head coach Paul Maurice and fired Tampa Bay head coach Guy Boucher, the time would seem right to be making that change.

Or, the temptation to install a new head coach may have been too strong for a rookie GM with firm ideas about how the Oilers should be led.

Last year, Tambellini interviewed Cooper who, like Eakins, was a minor-league coach regarded as an up-and-comer with fresh ideas. In the end, Tambellini opted for Krueger, who was well-respected by the Oilers.

Cooper has since been hired by Tampa Bay to replace Boucher. Somebody is always the new flavour of the month in coaching circles. Right now, Eakins is that man.

Often, the new taste sours quickly, it seems. Just ask Krueger, a cerebral man who built his career coaching in Switzerland, including a lengthy stint leading the Swiss National Team.

But about his new hire, MacTavish would only say: “We’re very close with our coaching candidate, but at this point we haven’t formalized a deal, so I’ll not say anything further in that regard.”

MacTavish added the new head coach would be free to hire his own assistants, leaving the futures of assistants Kelly Buchberger and Steve Smith uncertain, at least for now. He said the Oilers staff will include another man, seemingly an associate coach, going into next season.

Asked about continuity — the new coach, one reporter noted, will be the fifth in seven years for 23-year-old centre Sam Gagner — MacTavish said: “Yes, absolutely, I have concern about continuity, but I have a number of concerns.

“And this decision, to me, trumped that concern about continuity.”

Asked about hiring a coach who would insist on greater accountability for his talented, but young team, MacTavish talked about what obviously will be extensive renovations to a roster laden with promise, but lacking in many other areas.

“There is going to be a lot of disruption this summer,” MacTavish said. “We’ve talked about that before.

“It’s going to be a bit of a tumultuous summer ahead of us with the Edmonton Oilers and there are going to be many more decisions, and difficult decisions to be made through this summer.

“But at the end of the day, it’s my objective and mandate to turn the keys on Sept. 15 over to the coaching staff and over to the players to perform on the ice.”

Already, MacTavish has outlined some of the tumult to come.

He said in a radio interview that the best outcome for veteran captain Shawn Horcoff and for winger Ales Hemsky would be to part ways with the team before next season, preferably via trades. A buyout could be possible for Horcoff, who has two years left on his contract.

MacTavish said veteran goalie Nikolai Khabibulin does not figure in the club’s plans, and he also has said that backup Devan Dubnyk needs to elevate his play to secure a starting NHL job.

The Oilers first-round draft pick — No. 7 overall — is available for the right price, MacTavish has intimated. And, given his statement at his introductory news conference that the club needs to “do some bold things,” the GM may be willing to listen to offers to one or two of the club’s talented young players, also.

MacTavish’s mandate, in short, seems massive, given the club’s obvious holes in goal, on defence, its third- and fourth lines and overall grit up front.

In Edmonton, as MacTavish noted, all is flux, nothing stays the same. Except for the non-playoff finishes. The new head coach is meant to put an end to that. But that’s just the beginning.

Edmonton Journal: LOADED: 06.09.2013


Dallas Eakins fits the bill for Oilers

By Mike Zeisberger ,Toronto Sun

First posted: Sunday, June 09, 2013 12:13 AM MDT

TORONTO - To understand what kind of impact Dallas Eakins could have on the cache of young budding stars in Edmonton, consider the strong endorsement provided by Jake Gardiner, one of his former AHL students.

“All I can say is that if he goes to Edmonton, those Oilers players are getting a great coach,” the Maple Leafs defenceman said in a phone interview Saturday evening.

“With Dallas, you always know where you stand. He teaches you about the game. And he treats his players like adults.”

Adults who, at times, will be the recipients of tough love from Eakins if need be.

“He can get on you, but he’s always fair, always looking to make you a better player,” Gardiner said.

Eakins has been a hot commodity on the coaching market in past weeks, having already interviewed twice with the Vancouver Canucks and reportedly scheduled to meet with officials of the Dallas Stars this weekend. The New York Rangers were said to have some interest on that front as well.

But the Oilers, perhaps realizing that they had to act fast if they wanted to land the highly-coveted Eakins, seem to be on the verge of coming out on top in the sweepstakes for the Toronto Marlies bench boss after announcing on Saturday that coach Ralph Krueger had been fired.

The Oilers apparently chatted with Eakins at the NHL prospects combine in Toronto late last month about being an associate coach to Kreuger. Such a setup likely would have been unfair to Krueger, since he consistently would be looking over his shoulder. Indeed, any losing funk would have ignited calls from the public and media for Eakins to take over.

The expectation in the hockey world is that Eakins will formally be announced as Oilers head coach in the next few days. A number of reports suggest an agreement in principle already is in place, although nothing official has been released by the team as of yet.

In compiling a 157-114-41 mark in four seasons with the Marlies, Eakins was best known for his development of kids, refining their talents in a way that made them better prepared for the NHL level. With the uber-talented Taylor Hall, Jordan Eberle, Sam Gagner, Ryan Nugent-Hopkins and Nail Yakupov on the Edmonton roster, an Eakins-Oilers marriage seems like a perfect fit.

Gardiner and Nazem Kadri are two of the better examples of Eakins’ handywork.

“When I first came in, he spoke with me regularly,” Gardiner said. “Even through my (concussion) issues. And he always let me know what I needed to do to get better.

“He’s always looking to help you improve.”

The Eakins-Kadri relationship had its hiccups. The coach didn’t care that Kadri was a former first round pick. All that mattered were results.

As a result, there were benchings. There were disagreements. There was even criticism of Kadri’s eating habits last September.

In the end, after all that, Eakins made Kadri a better player. An NHL calibre player.

“Dallas Eakins and me really beared down, and he stuck with me the whole way, and that’s what you get — results,” Kadri said earlier this year. “It may have taken a couple years — a long couple years — but it’s worth it in the end.”

If a deal is finalized, the Oilers are banking that Eakins will have the same effect on Hall and Co.

Edmonton Sun: LOADED: 06.09.2013


Ralph Krueger out as Oilers coach

By Terry Jones ,Edmonton Sun

First posted: Saturday, June 08, 2013 03:19 PM MDT | Updated: Saturday, June 08, 2013 08:29 PM MDT

In a way, it has the appearance of someone having an affair then deciding to get a divorce and marry the person he was having the affair with.

Saturday, at a hastily-called news conference, Edmonton Oilers new GM Craig MacTavish announced that he’d fired Ralph Krueger with rumours running rampant Dallas Eakins will be press conferenced here as new head coach as soon as Tuesday.

“We’re very close with a coaching candidate,” said MacTavish. “At this point we haven’t formalized a deal.”

Just two days earlier your correspondent attempted to obtain comment from MacTavish regarding his interview with Eakins, the Toronto Marlies AHL coach, while in Toronto.

The request was to explain why the Oilers GM would be interviewing a guy to be Ralph Krueger’s associate coach when that coach was being interviewed by Vancouver, Dallas, etc. as the hottest candidate available for anybody looking to make a coaching change. Alone. With Krueger in Europe.

MacTavish, in a text message delivered through media relations director J.J. Hebert, declined.

At the press conference, prior to opening it up to questioning, MacTavish explained he has a cheating heart.

He was quite candid about how it all happened.

“Ralph and I agreed at the end of the year after spending the better part of a week discussing whether we’d add a veteran assistant coach or an associate coach who had some head coaching experience,” he began.

MacTavish explained he started doing interviews with candidates, revealed to include Eakins and former Carolina and Toronto NHL coach Paul Maurice.

“During this process I recognized I was trying to add a coach who was more closely aligned with how I wanted to run the team and less about supporting Ralph as the head coach of our team,” said MavTavish. “It was at that point where I contemplated making the change.

“It was at that point that I contemplated making the change if, in my opinion, I found the ideal fit for our hockey club. That’s how we got to this point.”

It’s not you. It’s me.

“I don’t think it was in any way fair to Ralph. This isn’t about being fair to Ralph,” said MavTavish. “This was about me making the best decision for the betterment of the club.”

MacTavish endorsed Krueger going forward at his press conference when he was hired to replace Steve Tambellini. But he was less endorsing in his end-of-season press conference seven games, the first five of them losses, later.

“I think it is fair to say that there is a very remote chance that where we are right now has anything to do with coaching,” said MacTavish, at his April 15 hiring.

“What we need to do is give the coaches better tools to compete at the NHL level. For me to say it’s Ralph Krueger’s fault would be extremely shortsighted on my part,” he added that morning.

MacTavish suggested there were some things he had to talk to with his coach the day after the players cleared out their lockers after leaving Krueger with a 19-22-7 record for his NHL career.

With every day that elapsed, MacTavish was less and less prepared to go forward with the former coach of the Swiss national team who had spent two years as Tom Renney’s associate coach.

“The circumstances changed, in my mind,” MacTavish said in the 10-minute press conference which was extremely clipped and business-like for the usually expansive MacTavish.

“This is solely my decision to make,” he made it clear. “It wasn’t an easy or obvious decision. But in my mind it was the right decision. I stand by this decision. And I’ll be judged on this decision.”

MacTavish said his job is to fully support his coach.

“If you can’t do that, it’s important you make a coaching change,” he said.

“There’s going to be a lot of disruption this summer,” added the GM, who has basically said captain Shawn Horcoff (who has apparently sold his house) and veteran Ales Hemsky will be dealt this summer.

“It’s going to be a bit of a tumultuous summer ahead. There are going to be many more difficult decisions to be made. At the end of the day it is my mandate to turn the keys on Sept. 15 over to the coaching staff and over the players to perform on the ice.”

MacTavish, instead of pointing out the reasons for firing Krueger, essentially suggested the media could entertain themselves by doing it for him.

“I was head coach here for eight or nine years. Without elaborating on the differences we share, I’m going to allow you guys to draw your own conclusions.

“Philosophically I differ somewhat with Ralph. It doesn’t mean my strategy is right or Ralph’s strategy is right, but I’m the general manager and it’s my decision to make.

“The job that I do will be critiqued over a decision like this. We’ll see if this is the right decision over time, but I stand by it.”

The next head coach will be the fifth in the last six seasons in a string of exits starting with MacTavish himself, followed by Pat Quinn, Renney and now Krueger.

Asked about the revolving door with coaches in which young Sam Gagner will have played for all of the above, MacTavish admits it’s been ridiculous.

“Absolutely I have concerns about continuity. But I have a number of concerns. This decision trumped that.”

The Oilers will be paying both fired GM Steve Tambellini and coach Krueger the second year on two-year contracts next season.

The bottom line is this is MacTavish’s hockey team now, and on the heels of Mr. Dither’s, he’s been decisive with a very clear plan in place.

I’ve endorsed every other move he’s made and the ones he’s telegraphed that he’s going to make.

If you are a new GM, you better believe in your coach. And, clearly, MacTavish didn’t have that comfort level with Krueger.

In the end, that’s pretty much all that matters.

Edmonton Sun: LOADED: 06.09.2013

680506 Los Angeles Kings

Anze Kopitar finds himself just as Kings are lost

David Wharton

9:53 PM PDT, June 8, 2013

CHICAGO -- If nothing else, Anze Kopitar went down fighting.

Struggling through a postseason that had seen him looking sluggish at times, unable to score with any regularity, the Kings center on Saturday night came up with his best game in a month.

Unfortunately for the Kings, his goal and desperate assist were not enough to prevent a 4-3 loss to the Chicago Blackhawks in the second overtime at the United Center.

The defeat meant an end to the season for the Kings, with Chicago taking the Western Conference finals, four games to one, and advancing to face the Boston Bruins in the Stanley Cup Final.

Going into the game, Kopitar had no questions about the urgency of the situation.

"We're in a position where either you do it or you're going home," he said beforehand. "We've got to find a way to win."

The Kings failed to do that, but Kopitar's play in Game 5 at least made up for some earlier frustrations and validated his coach's belief in him. Hours before the puck dropped, Darryl Sutter stood up for his veteran.

Yes, Sutter was switching his star to a different line, but insisted that he was not giving up on the big man.

"It's really got nothing to do with Kopi," Sutter said. "Kopi has been as good as their best centerman in the series when you look at it."

Maybe so, but Kopitar came into Saturday's game with only seven points in the playoffs, well off his pace of last season, when he led the team to the Stanley Cup.

"They're just eliminating time and space," he said of the Blackhawks. "We've got to find a way to break through and find that space."

There had been speculation about a lingering injury, which neither Kopitar nor team officials wanted to talk about. "Yeah, it's frustrating," he said of his slump.

But Kopitar looked revitalized Saturday, playing much of the time alongside Justin Williams and Dwight King. He seemed to move a little quicker, getting to the crease more often.

His scoring game showed signs of life in the second period with a shot that looped just over the goal. It was a harbinger of things to come.

In the third period, he parked in front of Chicago goaltender Corey Crawford as teammate Jeff Carter unleashed a hard shot from the blue line. Crawford gave up a short rebound and Kopitar was in position to knock it between the goalie's pads to tie the score at 2-2.

Later, he sent the puck in deep, chased after it and delivered a hit. It was a way of creating the space he wanted and it led to a Kings scoring opportunity.

Then came an even bigger play. With Chicago up 3-2 and time — if not the entire season — ticking away, Kopitar corralled the puck along the boards and sent a hard shot toward the net.

Mike Richards got a stick on the puck, which deflected past Crawford for a goal. With just 9.4 seconds left on the clock, the game was headed for overtime.

Through an overtime-plus, Kopitar had spent 25:31 on the ice, recording four shots and four hits. He also had won nine of 14 faceoffs, helping the Kings to a 56%-to-44% advantage in an area in which they had struggled.

Kopitar had talked about forging such a breakthrough after the disappointment of Game 4, a rare loss at Staples Center that put the Kings down three games to one. That night, he had only one shot on goal.

While frustrated, Kopitar said he and his teammates had not given up hope.

"We know we can do it. It's a matter of going there and getting it done."

While Kopitar did just that Saturday night, it was too little, too late.

LA Times: LOADED: 06.09.2013


Throne out: Blackhawks eliminate Kings from playoffs

Lisa Dillman

10:40 PM PDT, June 8, 2013

CHICAGO -- The champions weren't about to skate off quietly into the night.

And the Stanley Cup champion Kings did all they could to prolong it as long as possible, on guts and fumes, as they lost, 4-3, in double overtime in Game 5 of the Western Conference finals on Saturday night at United Center.

It was the longest game in Kings history and it took the completion of Patrick Kane's hat trick to end it at 11:40 into the second overtime. The last hat trick to clinch a berth in the finals was in 1993 — the Kings' Wayne Gretzky against Toronto.

The two faces of Chicago's franchise, Kane and Jonathan Toews, combined on a two-on-one for the winner. Kane finished it off with a shot from the right circle, beating Kings goalie Jonathan Quick.

A pinch by Kings defenseman Slava Voynov let the Hawks get the outnumbered attack as Bryan Bickell beat him to the puck and chipped it into open ice for Toews to skate down.

“You just play hockey in June to win,” Kings forward Justin Williams said. “When you get this far, to not have a chance to defend it, is frustrating. “I can't stand looking at somebody else raising the Cup. And now we're going to have to do it.”

The longest game for the Kings had been on May 11, 1993 in the second round against Vancouver when Gary Shuchuk's goal gave them a 4-3 victory over the Canucks.

The Blackhawks will meet the Boston Bruins in the Stanley Cup Final, an Original Six showdown.

It was an stirring finish to a wild series of events near the end of regulation. The Kings were less than 10 seconds away from playoff elimination and the player wrenching them out of the abyss, for a bit, was none other than center Mike Richards.

Richards probably would not have been playing had this been anything other than an elimination game, recovering from a concussion suffered a week ago here.

Richards scored with 9.4 seconds remaining in regulation, deflecting an Anze Kopitar shot past Chicago goalie Corey Crawford to send it into overtime. The shot appeared to go off the leg of Richards, and his expression of celebration was priceless, the moment deflating the sellout crowd.

“It's a dirty goal and those are the types of goals we score as a team,” Kings captain Dustin Brown said. “That's the great thing about a lot of guys in the room, regardless of their health situation, they're willing to put themselves on the line. I don't say that lightly.”

Richards was not the only injured King. Williams revealed afterward he had been playing with a separated shoulder, suffered in the San Jose series, and Brown had a torn knee ligament, also against the Sharks, hampering his mobility.

Defenseman Drew Doughty also had been playing on a bad ankle since the first round against St. Louis.

“It would start to feel better and then I would reinjure it,” he said. “There's not a single guy on this team who wasn't injured at some point of the playoffs. That's what playoff hockey is. You'll take anything for your team.”

After Kane gave the Blackhawks a 3-2 lead with 3:52 left in the third period, the Kings were having major difficulty in getting Quick off for an extra attacker. They were finally able to do so with 14.4 seconds left when Bickell iced the puck.

Jarret Stoll won the draw from Toews in the right circle. Center Jeff Carter tapped the puck back to Voynov, who didn't like what he saw in the lane and found Kopitar along the wall.

Richards, who suffered a concussion late in Game 1, had been doubtful a day ago. His progress almost mirrored the Kings in Game 5.

Their chances of pushing this beyond Saturday seemed doubtful after they trailed 2-0 within the opening 5:59. It started to unravel on a long-range blast on the first goal, by defenseman Duncan Keith, not Quick's finest moment, as the shot beat him between the legs. When Kane made it 2-0, at 5:59, retired NHLer Mike Modano tweeted: “It's over.”

Not quite.

The Kings clawed their way back with a short-handed goal by Dwight King, at 9:28 of the second period, and Kopitar tied it at 2-2 on the power play at 3:34 of the third.



Blackhawks' end almost as good as the start

David Haugh

10:35 PM PDT, June 8, 2013

CHICAGO -- It had to end this way, with a moment meant for the cover of a media guide.

A game this good deserved an ending this dramatic.

So when Patrick Kane scored his third goal of the game high over the glove of Kings goalie Jonathan Quick's glove to give the Blackhawks a 4-3 double-overtime win in Game 5 of the Western Conference finals Saturday night, poetic justice was served in Chicago.

A hat trick for Kane put the Chicago Blackhawks back in rhythm for the Stanley Cup Final.

The man whose goal won the 2010 Stanley Cup title scored another to give the Hawks a chance to win again.

After the first six minutes of Saturday night's game at the United Center, this sentence was typed on computers across hockey America:

Nobody can beat the Blackhawks.

After the franchise's first double-overtime game in 16 years, everything had changed, including the punctuation. Nobody can beat the Blackhawks?

The Kings supplied a large measure of doubt with an epic effort that, to the chagrin of Chicagoans everywhere, sent a game into double-overtime because the Hawks couldn't finish what they started.

And what a start it was.

For days and possibly years in barrooms and boardrooms around Chicago, on talk radio and in text messages, they will tell their friends about The Start of Game 5. They probably will discuss The Finish even longer.

Both contributed to producing a hockey classic, which went into its first overtime when Mike Richards deflected Anze Kopitar's shot past Corey Crawford with 9.4 seconds left. Just 3 minutes 43 seconds earlier, Kane scored what appeared to be the winning goal off a pretty pass from Bryan Bickell.

It all left the crowd of 22,224 debating whether what was more exciting: the last four minutes of regulation or the first six?

The Kings came into Game 5 needing a victory to save their season. The Blackhawks played the first 20 minutes as if this was their elimination game because Joel Quenneville instilled a Game 7 mind-set. Turns out they met their match in the Kings, who overcame what qualified as Coach Darryl Sutter's worst-case scenario.

Before the goose bumps had disappeared after Jim Cornelison's anthem, the Hawks led, 2-0. Thanks to two of the Hawks' biggest names, the team from Hollywood was star-struck.

At the 3:42 mark, Duncan Keith caught the Kings in a line change and unleashed a shot from the blue line that beat Quick and squeaked between the pads through the five-hole.

Just 2 minutes 17 seconds later, Kane handled a rebound, used a head fake and waited until Quick went down to score his first of three goals. The flurry shook the Kings to their core so much that it took them 10 minutes 42 seconds to attempt a shot on goal. Crawford made it back from the concession stand in time to stop it.

The start was so good it was too good.

After the Hawks' second relatively easy goal, it was as if they lost momentum exhaling and started thinking about ticket demands for Wednesday's Game 1 against the Boston Bruins.

The proud defending Cup champs outplayed the Hawks over the final two periods, tying the game before Kane's controversial goal on a play that Bickell could have been called for a penalty on Justin Williams.

The Hawks needed the goal only because Bickell earlier had changed the game in a negative way this time by running Jake Muzzin into the boards at the 2:50 mark of third period and heading to the box. Less than a minute later, Kopitar knocked in a rebound to tie it at 2.

This would serve as the latest test of the Hawks' resolve, which Quenneville keeps amply supplied.

Many reasons exist why the Hawks have reached this point: the clutch play of leading Conn Smythe candidates Crawford and Bickell, the leadership of Jonathan Toews throughout the series against the Detroit Red Wings, the resurgence of Kane, the depth of the defense and penalty-kill.

None is bigger than Quenneville.

When the season included a manufactured goalie controversy after backup Ray Emery got hot, Quenneville consistently supported Crawford. When the postseason called for Quenneville to shake things up, he paired Keith with Brent Seabrook and reassembled his Desperation Line of Toews, Kane and Patrick Sharp.

Quenneville has been at his tinkering best again against the Kings, finding the right combinations defensively in Game 4 with Keith suspended and following his gut in putting Bickell on the top line with Toews and Kane. After Game 3, Quenneville called out his star publicly but followed that up with a private conversation that paid off when the winger responded.

It required every ounce of Quenneville's leadership ability to pull Kane and the Hawks through their latest predicament.

Nobody ever will forget the night he did.



It's a reign out for Kings

RICH HAMMOND

2013-06-08 23:05:25

CHICAGO – There's no trophy for trying, but the Kings' Stanley Cup defense certainly didn't end with a whimper.

Trailing by two goals in the first six minutes and down one goal in the final 10 seconds, the Kings rallied mightily but ultimately fell short. Patrick Kane's goal, 11:40 into the second overtime, gave the Chicago Blackhawks a 4-3 victory in Game 5 of the Western Conference finals on Saturday night at United Center.

The Blackhawks won the series, 4-1, and will play the Boston Bruins for the Stanley Cup, the 35-pound trophy the Kings won 363 days ago, then gloriously lifted, kissed and cuddled for the next few months.

"We wanted to keep playing," center Jarret Stoll said. "We wanted to play until the end of June. That was our goal. That was our mindset. It just didn't happen against these guys. They're a great team."

Kane almost single-handedly put an end to the reign. Criticized in recent days for a lack of offensive production, Kane had a hat trick, including the winner. The Kings' Mike Richards, who returned from a concussion, had tied the game with 9.4 seconds left in regulation.

On a quick 2-on-1 break, Kane took a soft-but-accurate cross-ice pass from Jonathan Toews and fired a rocket that gave no chance to Kings goalie Jonathan Quick. Thus ended the longest game in Kings history, beating the previous mark against Vancouver in 1993 by five minutes.

The fact the game got to that point was remarkable as the Kings trailed, 2-0, after only six minutes on two soft goals allowed by Quick.

"We just talked about how we had a lot of time," defenseman Matt Greene said. "It's not ideal, being down two-nothing, but at the time you've got 50 minutes to catch up. We just had to stop the bleeding."

They did. Dwight King got the Kings back in the game with a second-period shorthanded goal, which set up a wild third period. Anze Kopitar tied it 3:34 into the period, Kane's second goal gave Chicago a 3-2 lead with 3:52 to go and Richards' deflection goal sent it to overtime.

Orange County Register: LOADED: 06.09.2013


Richards' return not enough to lift King

RICH HAMMOND

2013-06-08 23:02:36

CHICAGO – Mike Richards returned to the Kings in the most dramatic way imaginable.

Richards, who had missed the previous three games of the Western Conference finals because of a concussion, centered on the fourth line Saturday and scored the tying goal with 9.4 seconds remaining in regulation of the Game 5. The Kings lost to Chicago 4-3 in double overtime.

Richards, out after a hit by Chicago's Dave Bolland in Game 1, showed no rust after a week-long layoff. He played a startling total of 26 minutes, 4 seconds, and seemed energetic throughout the game.

"There were a couple shifts where I was a little tentative, but after that I was OK," Richards said.

It showed on the score sheet. Richards had the second assist on Anze Kopitar's goal 3:34 into the third period, which tied it 2-2. Richards then tied it 3-3 himself when he deflected Kopitar's shot into the net.

"He's awesome," Kings defenseman Matt Greene said. "He's awesome for us every night when he gets in the lineup, and he showed it again tonight. He's a big-game player. That's what those guys do."

Coach Darryl Sutter made the somewhat-surprising decision not to return Richards to his usual spot, on the second line with Dustin Penner and Jeff Carter. Then again, Sutter didn't know exactly what he would get from a player coming off a serious head injury, and the move seemed to pay off.

Richards teamed with Kyle Clifford and Jordan Nolan to form an active, effective fourth line, one that Sutter continued to put on the ice throughout overtime, when many coaches shorten their benches.

WALKING WOUNDED

Only after the playoffs does the truth come out, and do players begin to reveal what injuries they've been playing through during the playoffs. Every team has them, and the Kings' were significant.

According to reports from ESPN.com late Saturday, Kings captain Dustin Brown tore a knee ligament during the previous round and winger Justin Williams had a "slight shoulder separation."

PLAYOFF HISTORY

The Kings played their longest game in franchise history. On May 11, 1993, in the second round against Vancouver, the Kings won 4-3 at the 6:31 mark of the second overtime. It was also the Kings' first double-overtime game since 2001, a 1-0 victory over Colorado in the second round.

TOUGH ROAD

Unlike last year, the Kings never found a way to win on the road in these playoffs. During their romp to the Cup, the Kings went 10-1 on the road, including 10 consecutive victories.

This year, the Kings went 1-8 on the road (compared to 8-1 at home). Seven of those road losses were by one goal, and three of them came in overtime.

"We just couldn't find a way to win a road game and push this thing back to L.A. (for Game 6)," Kings center Jarret Stoll said.

NO REPEATING

The streak has reached 15 years. No Stanley Cup champion has repeated since the Detroit Red Wings won in 1997 and 1998. The Blackhawks, who won in 2010, will now face the Boston Bruins, who won in 2011.

"It's disappointing," Stoll said. "You can't be happy with losing, whether it's the Western Conference final or the Stanley Cup Final or if you miss the playoffs. It's that same empty feeling."

HAT-TRICK KANE

It's safe to say that Patrick Kane is back. The Blackhawks' talented forward had gone seven consecutive games without a goal, and drew some gentle public chiding from Coach Joel Quenneville.

Kane responded with one goal in Game 4 and a hat trick in Game 5, including the double-overtime winner. It was Kane's second career playoff hat trick.

"To contribute (in) the last couple games, I think any player would be lying to you if they said it isn't nice," Kane said.

KEITH RETURNS

Chicago made one (highly expected) lineup change for Game 5, as defenseman Duncan Keith replaced Sheldon Brookbank. Keith served a one-game suspension in Game 4 for his deliberate stick to the face of Kings center Jeff Carter. Keith scored Chicago's first goal, 3:42 into the game.

TIMELY GOAL

The Kings entered the game 1 for 16 on the power play against a typically stout Chicago penalty kill, and the Kings looked poor when they failed to record a shot on goal on a second-period power play.

But the Kings capitalized when Chicago's Bryan Bickell went to the box for boarding Jake Muzzin. Kopitar scored on a rebound of a Jeff Carter shot, 44 seconds into the power play, to tie the game 2-2.



Kane's double-overtime goal ends Kings' season

RICH HAMMOND

2013-06-08 21:06:33

CHICAGO -- Patrick Kane scored 11:40 into the second overtime to end the Kings’ season, as the Chicago Blackhawks earned a 4-3 victory in Game 5 of the Western Conference Finals.

After the teams exhaustively traded chances for more than a half hour of overtime, the Blackhawks finally got the big break on a 2-on-1 chance. Jonathan Toews passed to his right to Kane , who scored on a rocket shot that gave Kings goalie Jonathan Quick no chance.

The Blackhawks won the series 4-1 and will face Boston in the Stanley Cup Finals. The Kings’ championship defense ended, three days short of its first anniversary.

The third period was wild, full of momentum swings. The Kings, who trailed 2-0 less than six minutes into the game, tied it 3:34 into the third period on Anze Kopitar’s net-front goal.

Chicago appeared to have won the game with 3:52 remaining in regulation, when Patrick Kane took a centering pass from Bryan Bickell and scored from close range, but the Kings had one last gasp when Bickell got called for icing the puck with 15 seconds remaining.

Jarret Stoll won the faceoff, and Slava Voynov passed to Kopitar. Kopitar’s long-range shot got deflected by Mike Richards and beat goalie Corey Crawford with 9.4 seconds remaining.

Richards had missed the previous three games because of a concussion.

A nightmare start nearly left the Kings buried, six minutes into the game. Before the Kings recorded their first shot on goal -- 10 minutes, 42 seconds into the game -- the Blackhawks already had two goals.

Chicago’s first goal came with baffling ease. Duncan Keith, who returned to the lineup after being suspended for Game 4, took a pass from Michal Rozsival and pulled up at the left point.

Keith wound up a slap shot -- no screen, no deflection -- and Kings goalie Jonathan Quick got a piece of the puck, but before he could close his pads and trap the puck, it slid behind him and into the net, 3:42 into the game.

Chicago kept pushing, and another Quick mental error contributed to the Blackhawks’ second goal. As the puck slid beyond the Kings’ goal line, Quick directed traffic for his teammates, hoping for icing.

The Blackhawks touched the puck first, though, and took it to the net. Quick’s ill-advised poke check failed, and then he inadvertently got swept off his feet by teammate Drew Doughty. After a net-front scramble, Patrick Kane roofed a shot at the 5:59 mark to give Chicago a 2-0 lead.

The Kings were able to get the game under control for the rest of the first period, then got themselves back in the game with an against-the-grain shorthanded goal, 9:28 into the second period.

Justin Williams did the dirty work, as he got around Chicago defenseman Nick Leddy and took the puck to the net. Williams didn’t get off a clean shot, but Dwight King crashed the net and knocked the puck past Crawford to make it a 2-1 game.

The Kings kept pushing, and tied the game 3:34 into the third period. Anze Kopitar, parked in front of the net, knocked in a rebound of Jeff Carter’s shot, and the game remained tight, with the teams trading chances, until Kane’s late goal.

Williams held the puck behind his net, but Chicago’s Bryan Bickell forced it away -- Williams howled for a penalty -- and sent a centering pass to Kane, who beat Quick from close range.



KINGS NOTEBOOK: Richards returns for finale

Jill Painter

06/08/2013 11:12:07 PM PDT

CHICAGO - You knew Mike Richards was going to play in Game 5 of the Western Conference finals long before warmups since he was heading a soccer ball pregame with his teammates.

His return after missing three games was a good sign for the Kings.

It's a tradition for players to kill time with a soccer ball in the hallways of arenas before games, but Richards hadn't played since suffering an apparent concussion in Game 1 via a hit from Chicago's Dave Bolland.

Richards played seven shifts for a total of 5:21 and won four of six faceoffs in the first period.

Kings coach Darryl Sutter said Richards was 50-50 to play before the game.

Richards participated in the pregame skate Saturday and was in warmups.

Richards' return meant Colin Fraser was out.

Before the game, Sutter hinted that Richards would have to be medically cleared, and apparently, that happened.

"I stay away from that. I trust the players," Sutter said. "You do what you're told medically, not any other way."

Richards took a big hit along the boards via Andrew Shaw in the second period but seemed fine.

King of Kings

Dwight King is the Kings' all-time leading goal-scorer in the conference finals. With the Kings' second-period goal, he surpassed Wayne Gretzky, who recorded his fifth against Toronto in 1993.

Shot from Twitter

The Kings were taking shots on and off the ice.

With the Kings down 2-0 in the first period, former NHL player Mike Modano tweeted: "It's over ... @NHLBruins vs @NHLBlackhawks."

Handy Handzus

Center Michal Handzus, the former King, has been huge for the Blackhawks. He had two goals and seven assists for nine points through Game 4 of the Western Conference finals and that's more than all but two of the Kings. Richards and Slava Voyov have 10 points each.

"I thought he could give us some depth," Blackhawks coach Joel Quenneville said of Handzus. "He could play in a situation where he could take faceoffs. See how he handles being a 10th, 11th, 12th, 13th forward. He gives us experience, great team guy.

"And then late in the year, Bolly (Dave Bolland) was hurt, he got an opportunity to get a little bit more ice time. Late in the year he got a chance to play with Sharpie (Patrick Sharp) and Kaner (Patrick Kane). Looked like he belonged there. So it was a nice discovery there as well."

LA Daily News: LOADED: 06.09.2013


June 8 postgame quotes: Darryl Sutter

Jon Rosen

8 June 2013, 11:42 pm

On the “flow” of overtime:

“I think that’s typical overtime. There’s lots of opportunities both ways. In the end, probably their two best offensive guys made a great play to score a goal.”

On whether he has to say anything to the team after allowing two early goals:

“We don’t have to talk much about that stuff. That’s really a question that we get asked a lot, about resolve, all those things. Our team is highly successful because of that. There’s not much you can do about giving up bad goals. If you put your head between your legs, you’re going to get your ass kicked. We don’t do that. We respond in the right way all the time.”

On whether he could pinpoint what got Patrick Kane going in the last two games:

“No.”

On whether he takes any solace from the season’s result:

“As you know, I think we went farther than — we went to the Conference Finals again. That tells you how fine a line it is. We got beat in the Conference Finals by the best team in the conference at the end of the day. We accomplished everything. Once you set the bar up there, then that’s your bar. So obviously we’re disappointed to lose to Chicago, but we’re certainly not disappointed in how we played. I mean, I think you look at our season, other than not getting home ice, we’ve done everything we’ve wanted.”

On how banged up the team was:

“Three, four guys that were game time after Game 6 in San Jose, literally. I think most teams are going to say that the farther you go. Also tells you how tough it is to win, how you need that. I know it’s something that gets talked lots about. You have to stay healthy. Have you to be close to 100%, especially with your top guys. I know we weren’t.”

On rebounding from a two-goal deficit to force overtime:

“I think just even to come back from two soft goals, then to come back from 3-2 to tie it up, then just our ability to play the way we do.”

LA Kings Insider: LOADED: 06.09.2013


June 8 postgame quotes: Chicago

Jon Rosen

8 June 2013, 11:25 pm

Joel Quenneville, on previously wanting “more” from Patrick Kane:

“That was more than more. It was certainly an outstanding game by him. A great play, winning goal by Johnny. I thought Kaner played a heck of a game in Games 4 and 5 for us, led with having the puck a lot. Time of possession was very high end.”

Quenneville, on whether there was anything “different with Kane:

“Yeah, he stepped up. He took on the responsibility of leading the team. Proven he’s a top player in the game. He made special plays over the two games. Nice to see him finish it off in a real positive way for us. But, you know, top players, they want to be great all the time. Finding a way to be great in the tight checking that many teams have in our league, commend him on two outstanding games.”

Quenneville, on returning to the Stanley Cup Final:

“We’ve had an interesting playoffs. I think as we progressed here, had an ordinary start in the first series, on the ropes, three games against Detroit. I thought we’ve gotten better as we’ve gone along in these playoffs. You look back over several games of your career, that was a game you’ll always remember. That was an amazing hockey game. Give L.A. credit. You go up a goal late in the game. The guys, commend them, staying positive, persevering. L.A. might have played their best in overtime this series. Finding a way was exactly what we were looking for.”

Quenneville, on the team’s response after allowing the game-tying goal:

“Yeah, I think we had the approach when we left the bench, you know, it was almost like, ‘Wow!’ Going in the locker room, be positive, find a way. But they certainly came at us in the overtime.”

Quenneville, on Corey Crawford’s growth:

“You’ve got to commend him on how he’s played all year long. I think the consistency, his approach where he just moves forward to see the next situation, the next shot. Unflappable in that area. He’s moved us along here. Guys have responded in front of him. But Corey has been rock solid. I think his rebound control, his movement, you know, handling the puck has really been — really done a nice job in this playoff.”

Quenneville, on whether it was to Chicago’s advantage that the game took as long as it did:

“You know, they played some tough games, a couple tough series. But we certainly went through an emotional series with Detroit. You know, overtime, you got to get a break. Obviously special pass, special shot ended it. But it’s tough to say. You know, obviously you need a break. We got the first one.”

Quenneville, on whether a “letdown” was “inevitable” after the early “flurry”:

“I don’t know if letdown is the word. They got the Cup. For all the right reasons, they’re one of the teams that are going to keep coming at you. Losing a shorthanded game, you’re going to lose some momentum. Then penalty killing. Now it’s a hockey game. It was very close. I don’t necessarily want to say high-quality chances. It was one of those games, very nerve-wracking from the fans’ point of view, exciting at our bench level, but definitely had some highs and lows. I don’t think you can have that gap any wider than was out there tonight.”

Quenneville, on Duncan Keith’s first game back following his suspension:

“I thought he had an outstanding start to the game. Logged 40 minutes. Was out there with a great gap. Cut up and stopped several plays with a quick stick. He was over it when it happened. Put it behind him. I’m sure he was excited about playing tonight. Got a rare opportunity, one of those bag skates in L.A. Let’s go.”

Quenneville, on Bryan Bickell, and whether he had to speak with him after his third period penalty led to a game-tying goal by Anze Kopitar:

“Commend Bick. He still does a lot of things. He creates a lot through the rush, in the puck area, around the net, finishing touches. I thought Bick had an amazing series. We want him to keep playing like that. Sometimes you get called on it, but we don’t want him to change much.”

Quenneville, on two Original Six teams meeting in the Final:

“It’s a special couple places, the tradition of the Bruins and the Hawks is special. I’m sure, you know, the rivalry could return instantly come Game 1. I think it’s good for the league. It’s good for hockey. Two great hockey markets. We’re very excited to be a part of it.”

Quenneville, on not having faced Boston in the regular season:

“Yeah, I think everybody was speculating that at the beginning of the year, how was that going to play out. I’m sure we got to see Boston quite a bit. I’m sure they watched every bit of our games. They’re on an amazing roll. They were on the ropes in one game, we were on the ropes for three. They got a lot of momentum where they’re at right now. Should set up for a great final.”

Patrick Kane, on his performance in Game 5:

“Well, I mean, it’s nice. It’s nice to win, first and foremost. To contribute the last couple games, I think any player would be lying to you if they said it isn’t nice. You know what, big two wins the last couple games, especially tonight, after they came back and tied it up with nine seconds. For us to hang in there in the first overtime and pull it out in the second overtime was huge. We definitely didn’t want to go back to L.A. Just a huge win to get us to the Final.”

Kane, where he would place this game amongst other games in his career:

“Right now it feels like the best. I think June 10th or June 9th a few years ago was also a good night. But right now I think it’s almost like I’m in a different zone, like in the twilight zone or something. I’m kind of out of it. It’s definitely a good feeling, though.”

Kane, on what he remembers about his third goal, and whether he was slashed prior to the rush:

“Yeah. Was that the same shift? I took the puck to the middle. I thought I got slashed a few times. The puck kind of came off me. The shift went on, I guess. Bicksy made a nice chip. Johnny won

the battle on the boards to take off on a two-on-one. You know, the shift before, actually Johnny had the same play and the puck fumbled on him. I knew he was coming back to me. Just tried to wait for the defenseman to go by me. Tried to get it off as quick as I could in the net.”

Kane, on comparing the Hjalmarsson waved-off goal versus Detroit and Mike Richards’ late goal:

“At first it’s tough giving up a goal that late. I actually thought L.A. kind of took it to us in the first overtime. But both teams had a couple chances here and there. I think we just wanted to stick with it. Like Johnny said, it was one chance away. We obviously got that chance and finished it off. But I think everyone was pretty confident, to be honest with you. You’ve seen that before I think in Game 6 a few years ago. I think Hartnell tied it up late. We scored in the next overtime. It was kind of the same thing obviously a little bit later. With nine seconds left it hurts, maybe takes the wind out of your sails a little bit. For us to hang in there the first overtime was huge. I thought Crawford made some big saves and we ended up pulling it out.”

Kane, on the effect of Joel Quenneville asking for more from him:

“Yeah, I mean, I expected more from myself. My teammates probably did, too. You know, I tried to get back to the basics and wanted the puck, get the puck, try and make plays. That’s kind of my attitude right now, I guess, is to do that. You know, when you’re playing with Bicksy and Toews the last few games, you’re going to get those opportunities. A couple nice plays by them tonight. They take up a lot of space at the net. I think I was the guy that capitalized on the chances. But it’s always nice to contribute, especially in games like this.”

Kane, on “the grind” of the second overtime:

“Yeah, I mean, you know, it was tough. We were laughing about it after the game. If you watch the bench after we score to win the game, it almost seems like it was just another goal because no one could celebrate

because we were all so tired. I only played 28 minutes. You got to ask this guy, he played 40 over here. He probably knows better than us.”

Jonathan Toews, on the Kings tying the game late and Chicago’s response:

“Yeah, that’s a tough feeling. I honestly don’t think there’s a worse feeling in hockey, when your nine seconds away. You know you have to get the puck out. Two little bounces go against you, next thing you know it’s in your net. Your heart sinks pretty quick. We just tried to tell each other in the locker room that we can’t be thinking about what could have been, we have to just turn the page, get over it, it’s the only way you’re going to move on and win the game. You know, they came at us hard in the first overtime period, maybe had most of the puck possession in our zone. But we stuck with it. We had great goaltending. We know when we get to overtime it’s just one chance, that’s all we need, one lucky bounce that’s going to go in. Here we are. We’re feeling pretty good. We’re going back in the Stanley Cup Final. We’re pretty excited about that.”

Toews, on whether returning from a 3-1 deficit versus Detroit helps when facing adversity:

“Absolutely. I mean, we played great hockey throughout the regular season. We were able to get to the top of the league and stay there for most of the time. You know that you’re not going to go through a lot of things you go through throughout the playoffs. I don’t think you get a chance to play for the Stanley Cup without going through moments like we have. You got to persevere. Even though this is just a five-game series, we felt like there were some tough moments, too. Every time we dealt with it head on. I think the feeling and the confidence that we got from coming back from that 3-1 deficit against Detroit, I think that gives you a lot of confidence. Here we are again. We got a great chance to go back to where we want to be. We know there’s going to be some more tough moments that we’ll have to battle through. We’re confident we can do that as a team.”

Toews, on how much credit Corey Crawford deserves:

“I think he certainly deserves all the credit in the world and then some. I mean, he’s doing it all. He’s one of the huge reasons we’re still here and we’re still playing. Personally, he’s had to battle and he’s had to go through some tough times, like anybody else. He’s persevered. Here you see him playing his best hockey of his career, helps his team compete for a Stanley Cup. Any credit that he gets, it’s much deserved. We know he’s probably the most important player on our team right now. We’re trying our best every game to help him out.”

Toews, on whether his game is coming together “at the right time”:

“Absolutely. I think Kaner will agree that once you see one puck go in, I mean, for me, regardless of who scores the goal, if you’re out on the ice, you’re part of the action, contributing on an offensive play that ends up in a goal, it helps a lot with your confidence. I think it just helps you relax every time you get the puck afterwards. It’s definitely a good feeling to see a few pucks go in these last couple games. I think for the most part we just have the puck a lot and we’re creating plays. With Bicksy going to the net, he’s picking up rebounds, second efforts. I think for the most part Bicks and I are able to create space for Kaner. He was the finisher tonight. It was nice to see Kaner have that success. Obviously we want to keep that going.”

Toews, on the difference from last year, when the Blackhawks lost in the first round:

“I think it’s a very fine line. Coming into the playoffs, being the Presidents’ Trophy winner, I think that puts a lot of pressure on your team. Everyone expects you to cruise all the way there. There’s no such thing as just cruising to the Stanley Cup Final. The guys in this room that were there in 2010 and have been there since understand that. We know what it takes. Everyone else is following suit. We know what we have to do to win these important games. Everyone’s setting aside their personal agenda for that. There’s no other way to do it. We have the ability, the talent, but most of all we’re hungry to get back to where we were in 2010. We have a great opportunity to do it. In the meantime we definitely went through some tough times and some trials. That’s all part of it. Not everything is going to go your way whenever you want it to. Like Dunks said, this opportunity doesn’t come too often. I think we all realize that this time around. We’re ready to take advantage of it.”

Duncan Keith, on scoring in the first period back from his suspension:

“Felt good to get back in. Felt good for the first 10 minutes anyway. But it was nice to see that one go in. I didn’t really expect it to. I was just trying to get it on net. The whole suspension thing, obviously I’ve said enough about it. It wasn’t what I meant to do, even though it didn’t look very good. You

know, I talked to Jeff a little bit. I know him from the Team Canada camps, playing against him a little bit. You know, he’s obviously a great player. It was good to see him come back when he did. But, you know, I’ve got a lot of respect for a guy like that, for him, the way he plays, how hard he is to play against.”

Keith, on returning to the Stanley Cup Final:

“Obviously we’re excited to get there. We know that Boston is going to be real tough. We’ve seen some of their games, especially the last series there. Sweeping Pittsburgh I think says it all right there with the amount of firepower Pittsburgh had, what they were able to do to a team like that. We know that we’re going to have to be at our best and we’re going to have to play a good team game to beat these guys. We’re excited to get back there. I think you don’t get back there very often. I just saw on the ticker that Jagr hadn’t been back in 21 years. These opportunities don’t come back all the time. I think we want to make the best of it.”

Keith, on whether his goal early in the first period gave the team momentum:

“Yeah, against a team like L.A., we always want to score first. I think going forward it’s going to be similar playing a team like Boston. Really trying to get it on net. I didn’t even see it go in, to be honest with you. When you see the light, hear the fans, obviously it’s a good feeling. It gives us that momentum right away. I think at home, using the energy of the crowd, too, helps. There’s no secret that I think going forward, we want to have good starts. We were able to do that tonight. A little frustrating not being able to hold on to our lead, but we were able to get the win at the end.



Scuderi addresses game, season, future

Jon Rosen

8 June 2013, 10:19 pm

On the team improving as play progressed in Game 5:

“I thought we continued our play from regulation. After their big start, I thought we controlled the majority of the game, and at the start of overtime I thought we were jumping pretty good, and it looked like we were really trying to end it there. It didn’t happen for us, but sometimes you’ve got to stay with it. Unfortunately it didn’t happen.”

On the overall story or theme to the 2012-13 season:

“I think consistency. You consider last year’s Stanley Cup run, and it’s not easy to repeat, but we came in, we gave ourselves a good chance, we had a good season, and then to make a run into the playoffs, down 2-0 to St. Louis, come back and win a back-and-forth series against San Jose which could have gone either way, we found a way to win. Unfortunately we were stopped here in the Western Conference Finals, but I mean, overall I’m pretty proud of the team, especially considering tonight in that early 2-0 hole, it looks like we could kind of fold up shop and call it a season to a better team on home ice, but we battled back. We stayed with it, and at least we gave ourselves a chance.”

On ending the season on battling in a double overtime game in the Conference Finals:

“I’ve been on teams before that might have left an even bigger hole because you feel like you had regrets about maybe what you could’ve left out there as a team, maybe as a group and possibly as individuals. As much as it is a disappointing feeling to lose here tonight and to not have a chance to repeat, I’m not ashamed of our group and the effort that we put forward.”

On the realization that his contract is expiring, and what it could mean heading forward:

“I’m not sure. Like you said, it’s a little fresh right now, so it’s not really something I’m thinking about or dwelling on. So we’ll take a few days, rest here, relax and say good bye to a few guys before they take off for the rest of the summer, and then cross that bridge when we come to it.”



Kings played through injuries

Jon Rosen

8 June 2013, 10:02 pm

There has been speculation throughout the playoffs of high profile Los Angeles Kings players dealing with injuries that would have normally kept them out of action in the regular season. Darryl Sutter addressed the issue without going into specifics following the Game 5 loss.

Darryl Sutter, on how banged up the team was:

“Three, four guys that were game time after Game 6 in San Jose, literally. I think most teams are going to say that the farther you go. Also tells you how tough it is to win, how you need that. I know it’s something that gets talked lots about. You have to stay healthy. Have you to be close to 100%, especially with your top guys. I know we weren’t.”

Shortly afterwards, Pierre LeBrun of ESPN.com and Lisa Dillman of the LA Times provided the specifics.

Dustin Brown says he tore his PCL in his knee in Game 6 last round. Played through it

— Pierre LeBrun (@Real_ESPNLeBrun) June 9, 2013

Justin Williams says he played with a slight shoulder separation ever since Stuart crunched him last round. Doesn’t think surgery needed

— Pierre LeBrun (@Real_ESPNLeBrun) June 9, 2013

Drew Doughty had been playing on a bad ankle, since the San Jose series. More on that later.

— lisa dillman (@reallisa) June 9, 2013



June 8 postgame quotes: Matt Greene

Jon Rosen

8 June 2013, 9:48 pm

On the feeling after the Game 5 loss:

“We’re disappointed right now. We wanted different results, obviously. I think we felt like we were coming on, and we had a good game tonight. You lose a series in five games, obviously they’re doing something a little bit better over there, so it’s a disappointing feeling right now.”

On the shock of the season coming to an end:

“Yeah, it is a shock, obviously. We wanted to keep going. That’s it. They’re a good team. They handled us pretty well, and obviously it’s not a lot of positive to take out of this at this point.”

On whether the team deserved a better result, considering its overtime chances:

“We had some chances. You’ve got to bury your chances, though. That’s it. They did a good job. They had a chance, they capitalized, and that’s it. It’s overtime. Anything can happen.”

On what was said after the team fell behind 2-0:

“Just talking about that we had a lot of time. It’s not ideal being down 2-0, but at the same time you’ve got 50 minutes to catch up. That was the main point right there, just kind of stop it, stop the bleeding and go and just got to chip away at it. Guys did a good job of sticking with it and battling back and forcing OT.”

On Mike Richards returning to the lineup and forcing overtime with a late goal:

“He’s awesome. He’s awesome for us every time he gets in the lineup. He showed it again tonight. He’s a big game player. That’s what those guys do. They score those goals, and it’s fun having a guy like that on your team.”

On whether the leadership group had any message to the team following the game:

“No. There’s nothing to be said right now. The season’s over. That’s it.”



June 8 morning skate quotes: Drew Doughty

Jon Rosen

8 June 2013, 3:14 pm

On pairing with Slava Voynov while on the power play:

“He’s got the hot stick right now, so I’m just going to keep giving him the puck every time. They don’t rush out at you like most teams do. They stop and they kind of find the lane first, and that gives you that extra two seconds, and you can get a shot on.”

On whether particular moments from last year’s run can help the team in the current situation:

“Of course. Last year, even though we made it kind of look easy, it wasn’t easy. We just had a team that never quit, and that’s the same with this playoffs. We were down two-nothing to St. Louis early, and we just didn’t quit. That’s our team motto, is we’re going to be the hardest working team out there. We’re going to compete to the very last whistle, and we’re for sure we’re going to do that tonight.”

On whether he has a sense whether Mike Richards will play tonight:

“I have no idea. I haven’t talked to him.”

On whether the team’s road play factors into tonight’s game:

“Of course it factors in. This arena is a tough building to come in to and steal a game. The fans are great. Their team feeds off their crowd’s energy, so our main focus is that first 10 mintues. We need to make the crowd quiet. We need to get a few goals early, take that out of the game and hopefully that deflates their team.”

On any message provided by Darryl Sutter this morning:

“I think for the most part the one message that’s really clear from Darryl is we don’t play hockey all the way until June if we’re not going to win. We’re not here to lose. Even though we’re down three-one, we want to win so bad, and we’re determined to come back in this series. It’s going to be tough. There’s no doubt about that. But we believe we can do that, and we didn’t make it this far for nothing.”

On the team’s offensive mantra:

“Our team’s thing is we’re hard to play against in the offensive zone. We have guys with skill – that’s for sure – but even our top skill guys, they’re not trying to dangle guys or toe drags here, toe drags there. They’re trying to take the puck to the net hard and bang in rebounds. That’s our team motto. We haven’t been doing that, and that’s why we’re not scoring more than two goals a game. We’re only getting a few, and that’s why we’re losing.”

On whether the team needs to summon its ability to win battles in front of the net, similar to what the team was able to do in the St. Louis series:

“That’s how we won that series. We outworked them around the net. In order to beat this team, we definitely have to do that. They’re a good defensive team, there’s no doubt about that. But besides maybe Seabrook on the back end, they don’t really have guys who are physical and tough to play against in that kind of aspect. So I think that’s what we need to do. We need to get pucks to the net. We need to bang in rebounds. We have big players on our team – big, physical guys – and they can out-compete their defensemen in front of the net.”

On any similarities between himself and Patrick Kane and Jonathan Toews as a group of young players who have won Stanley Cups early in their careers:

“They’re both really good players, that’s for sure. I think they’re different players, though, at the same time. Toews is a heart-and-soul guy. He’s unbelievable in all aspects of the game. He’s a really good player. Kane is pretty much just strict offense guy. He’ll make a difference offensively, but he’s not going to make a difference in all the other areas. If you play him physical, it’s easier to take him out of the game than it is for Toews. Toews

is going to compete until the last minute. I think that’s one of the bigger reasons why Toews did it so early, is because he led that team from the day he was on this team, and that’s why I think they won.”



Game 5 lineup notes

Jon Rosen

8 June 2013, 2:10 pm

Projected Lines – Los Angeles

Dustin Brown – Anze Kopitar – Justin Williams

Dustin Penner – Jeff Carter – Tyler Toffoli

Dwight King – Jarret Stoll – Trevor Lewis

Kyle Clifford – Mike Richards – Jordan Nolan

Robyn Regehr – Drew Doughty

Rob Scuderi – Slava Voynov

Jake Muzzin – Matt Greene

Jonathan Quick

Jonathan Bernier

-Does Mike Richards play, or doesn’t he? We won’t find out until shortly before the national anthem. Considering he had skated earlier in the week, took part in today’s morning skate and was considered “50-50” by Darryl Sutter, I’m rounding up. If he’s able to go, his performance would dictate whether he sees additional minutes in a larger role. He’d also almost certainly see special teams time. If he’s unable to go, either Colin Fraser or Brad Richardson would serve as the fourth line center. Anze Kopitar and Jarret Stoll will flip-flop from the previous two games, with Kopitar rejoining usual linemates Dustin Brown and Justin Williams. Drew Doughty has been impressed with power play partner Slava Voynov. “He’s got the hot stick right now, so I’m just going to keep giving him the puck every time,” he said this morning.

Projected Lines – Chicago

Bryan Bickell – Jonathan Toews – Patrick Kane

Patrick Sharp – Michal Handzus – Marian Hossa

Brandon Saad – Andrew Shaw – Viktor Stalberg

Marcus Kruger – Dave Bolland – Michal Frolik

Duncan Keith – Brent Seabrook

Johnny Oduya – Niklas Hjalmarsson

Nick Leddy – Michal Rozsival

Corey Crawford

Ray Emery

-With the Blackhawks finding success by flip-flopping Patrick Kane and Marian Hossa amongst their top-six forwards, it appears as though they’ll again utilize the pairings that worked so well over the second half of Game 4. At the morning skate, Kane took rushes with Bickell and Toews and Hossa skated with Handzus and Sharp. “We didn’t mind the way we were playing in the game,” Joel Quenneville said about the Game 4 adjustments. “I think we talked about going into the game, we could do that if we don’t like things, but we just didn’t get enough offense. We still thought the way we were playing was the right way. We were fortunate to score right off the bat. I know it seemed to work. It was a situation where maybe you get a little bit more balance, something they got to look at, they may want to change their matchups. When it’s not going well, you’re behind, you don’t mind trying things.” Duncan Keith returns to the lineup and will skate with Brent Seabrook, with Niklas Hjalmarsson returning to play alongside Johnny Oduya.



June 8 pregame notebook

Jon Rosen

8 June 2013, 12:34 pm

START ME UP

The Los Angeles Kings return to action at the United Center tonight on the brink of playoff elimination as they look to rebound from a 3-1 series deficit for the second time in team history.

It’s not exactly a stretch to say that the team will be looking for a stronger start on the road in Game 5. In Game 1, the club led 1-0 despite being outshot 17-2 over the first 20 minutes. In Game 2, the Kings carried much of the play early but found themselves down 2-0 after one.

“I think our start’s going to be key for us. Come out and play a little pissed off,” Trevor Lewis said. “I think we’re playing for our season here, because we are. If we do that, the end result should work out itself.”

Drew Doughty articulated Darryl Sutter’s message for Game 5 – and, really, the rest of the playoffs.

“I think for the most part the one message that’s really clear from Darryl is we don’t play hockey all the way until June if we’re not going to win. We’re not here to lose,” Doughty said. “Even though we’re down three-one, we want to win so bad, and we’re determined to come back in this series. It’s going to be tough. There’s no doubt about that. But we believe we can do that, and we didn’t make it this far for nothing.”

FIFTY FIFTY

Mike Richards took part in his first morning skate since he suffered a concussion late in the third period of Game 1 as he centered a line that included Kyle Clifford to his left and Jordan Nolan to his right.

Sutter indicated that “it’s possible” that Richards would play in Game 5, listing his probability as “50-50.”

“Well, it’s progress,” Sutter said. “I said it last time prior to Game 2 that he was playing, then he didn’t play. We nearly had to make more than one change prior to warmup. I’ll just stay away from it. Follow protocol. Obviously yesterday kind of disrupting everything because of the travel, nobody’s able to do anything. We really are using this morning as if it was yesterday.”

Sutter’s cryptic response isn’t as revealing as his “50-50” comment; expect Richards to take part in warm-ups, and if he still feels comfortable, he’ll be in the lineup. By skating on the fourth line, he won’t step into as many “heavy” minutes and will still be available to see special teams time, should his performance dictate it.

If Richards skates with Clifford and Nolan, Colin Fraser and Brad Richardson would be scratched.

Clifford was tight-lipped about the potential alignment. “You can’t read into anything, and you’ve just got to be ready,” he said.

STRAIGHT LINES

Anze Kopitar took rushes alongside familiar linemates Dustin Brown and Justin Williams on Saturday after skating for Games 3 and 4 with Dwight King and Trevor Lewis.

Despite being shifted down a pair of lines, Kopitar still logged ice time totals of 21:09 and 21:48 while in Los Angeles and saw over 10 minutes of special teams time between the two games.

Though he has two goals in his last 33 games, Sutter was complementary of the center’s all-around efforts and described the decision to shift Kopitar back to his position alongside Brown and Williams as one motivated by the challenge of playing on the road.

“We don’t get the change we want here. You can’t change on the fly. That’s a big part of it,” Sutter said. “It’s really got nothing to do with Kopi. Kopi has

been as good as their best centerman in the series when you look at it. It’s got nothing to do with Kopi.”

Jeff Carter skated alongside Dustin Penner and Tyler Toffoli, while Jarret Stoll returned to his familiar placing alongside Dwight King and Trevor Lewis during this morning’s line rushes.

GAME 7 MENTALITY

Usually it’s the team trying to fight back from a 3-1 series hole that discusses needing to summon its emotional intensity, though Blackhawks right wing Patrick Kane described an interesting approach when he likened Game 5 to a winner-take-all elimination game while speaking with reporters at the United Center

“It’s a huge game,” said Kane, as reported by Chris Kuc of the Chicago Tribune. “We have an opportunity here at home. You don’t want to give them any momentum to feel like they’re back in the series and going back on their home ice where they’ve been great all playoffs. We’re treating it like it’s a Game 7 mentality and you have to win. That’s the way you have to go about these games. I’m sure the crowd will be rocking. People will be fired up in Chicago. It should be an exciting game.”

Joel Quenneville communicated his own impression on Kane’s comments and the team’s outlook heading into a game that the Blackhawks hope will send them to their second Stanley Cup Final in four seasons.

“I think it’s an important game for us,” Quenneville said. “I think we want to make sure we establish a good start here and try to dictate pace and try to play with the tempo we had in three of the four games. Can’t look any further forward than today’s game where we want to play our best.”

Tagged Anze Kopitar, Chicago Blackhawks, Joel Quenneville, Lineups, Mike Richards, Morning Skate quotes, Patrick Kane



Richards takes part in morning skate

Jon Rosen

8 June 2013, 9:59 am

Mike Richards took part in today’s morning skate at the United Center, taking line rushes as a center in between Kyle Clifford and Jordan Nolan.

Anze Kopitar skated between Dustin Brown and Justin Williams, while Jarret Stoll returned to his spot alongside Dwight King and Trevor Lewis.

The Dustin Penner – Jeff Carter – Tyler Toffoli line remained intact, while Colin Fraser skated with Brad Richardson, Tanner Pearson and Anthony Stewart.


680522 Montreal Canadiens

Oilers fire Ralph Krueger, set to hire Eakins

James Mirtle

Toronto — The Globe and Mail

Published Saturday, Jun. 08 2013, 6:05 PM EDT

Last updated Saturday, Jun. 08 2013, 8:14 PM EDT

The Edmonton Oilers will have yet another new face behind the bench next season.

In a surprise move, Oilers GM Craig MacTavish fired first-year head coach Ralph Krueger on Saturday afternoon, with the team hastily calling a press conference to announce it would be making a change for the fourth time in five seasons.

Krueger’s replacement is expected to be Toronto Marlies coach Dallas Eakins, who will likely be introduced as the team’s new coach in the next 48 hours after several weeks as the hottest commodity on the coaching market.

A contract between the Oilers and Eakins has yet to be finalized but that’s considered a formality.

“We’re very close with a coaching candidate,” MacTavish said.

The Oilers were one of four teams – including the Dallas Stars, New York Rangers and Vancouver Canucks – pursuing Eakins this off-season and, while MacTavish originally had wanted to hire an associate coach to assist Krueger, that wasn’t going to be enough to land the man he wanted.

“During the process of me conducting those interviews [to add an associate coach], I recognized I was trying to add a coach that was more closely aligned with the way I wanted to run the team,” MacTavish said. “And less about supporting Ralph as the head coach.

“It was at that point that I contemplated making the change if I found the ideal fit for our hockey club… That’s how we got to this point.”

The move to oust Krueger after only 48 games behind the bench comes less than a week after MacTavish met with Eakins in Toronto for a series of intense meetings.

MacTavish had intended to interview Eakins and several other candidates (Paul Maurice, Rick Bowness) to help out but said he soon realized that he was trying to change the personality of his coaching staff and that adding a right-hand man wasn’t the right way to go about doing so.

MacTavish was the Oilers head coach between 2000-01 and 2008-09 and often preached a more aggressive style than Krueger, who led Edmonton to a 12 place finish in the Western Conference in the franchise’s seventh straight season out of the playoffs.

“Philosophically, I differ somewhat from Ralph,” MacTavish explained. “I’m the general manger and it’s my job and my decision to make and that’s why I’ve made that decision.”

Eakins, 46, could be the ideal fit for a young Oilers team that has been spinning its wheels, as he has a solid track record with the Marlies and graduated close to a dozen prospects to the parent Toronto Maple Leafs over his four years as an AHL head coach.

The Oilers job would be his first crack at an NHL head coaching role, but he spent two years as a Leafs assistant between 2006 and 2008 and a third as director of player development.

The peak of his success with the Marlies came last season when they made the Calder Cup finals.

Krueger, meanwhile, had joined the Oilers as an associate coach in 2010 after years of success coaching in Germany, Austria and Switzerland. He became their head coach in late June of last year after the team decided to part ways with Tom Renney.

MacTavish said Saturday it “wasn’t an easy decision” to let Krueger go even though he felt it was “for the betterment of the club.”

“In my mind, faced with this set of circumstances, it was the right decision,” MacTavish said. “I stand by that decision and I’ll be judged on that decision. But that’s what led me to make that decision. Things change.

“I don’t think this was in any way fair to Ralph. This wasn’t about being fair to Ralph.”

Promoted to GM in April when Steve Tambellini was fired, MacTavish has been fairly outspoken of late but was tight lipped in Saturday's meeting with the Edmonton media.

Earlier in the week, he had spoken about how some veterans like Shawn Horcoff and Ales Hemsky wouldn’t be returning despite being under contract next season, something he again referenced on Saturday.

“It’s going to be a bit of a tumultuous summer,” MacTavish said. “There are going to be many more difficult decisions to be made.”

Toronto Globe And Mail LOADED: 06.09.2013

680523 New Jersey Devils

Kane Finishes Hat Trick, and Kings, in a Thriller

BEN STRAUSS

CHICAGO — Three minutes into Saturday night’s game, Duncan Keith found himself with room inside the Los Angeles Kings’ blue line and fired a slap shot. When it slipped between the legs of Kings goaltender Jonathan Quick, Keith, who had been suspended for the previous game because of a high stick to the face of Jeff Carter, pumped his fists and let loose a scream so powerful that his mouth guard flew out like a projectile.

Keith and his Blackhawks teammates would eventually celebrate a win, but only after the Kings mounted a stirring comeback and turned what had looked to be a sure Chicago win into a playoff classic.

Patrick Kane scored his third goal of the night 11 minutes 40 seconds into the second overtime — a one-timer off a pass from Jonathan Toews on a two-on-one rush — to give Chicago a 4-3 victory and send the Blackhawks to the Stanley Cup finals.

Chicago will host the Boston Bruins in Game 1 on Wednesday night at United Center.

“It’s nice to win first and foremost, but to contribute the last couple games, I think any player would be lying to you if he said it isn’t nice,” Kane said.

Saturday’s game went to overtime after the Kings’ Mike Richards deflected a shot from Anze Kopitar past goaltender Corey Crawford with less than 10 seconds to play in regulation. Richards, playing for the first time since having concussion symptoms after Game 1 of the series, saved the Kings’ season just as it appeared to have surely slipped away. Kane had scored with 3:52 left in a frantic third period.

“I honestly don’t think there’s a worse feeling in hockey when you’re nine seconds away,” Toews said. “You know you have to get the puck out, and two little bounces go against you and next think you know it’s in the net. Your heart sinks pretty quick.”

Before the puck dropped, Blackhawks players referred to Saturday’s Game 5 as essentially a Game 7. Fuzzy math aside, the reasoning was that allowing the Kings, the defending champions, a spark — even in a series they trailed by three games to one — could produce a full-blown fire.

True to that mind-set, the Blackhawks came out as the aggressors. Two minutes after Keith opened the scoring, Kane collected a rebound in front of the Kings’ net and beat Quick top shelf to give Chicago a 2-0 lead and send the home crowd into a frenzy.

The Kings did not record their first shot until 10:42 into the first period, by which point the Blackhawks already had seven. But the Blackhawks let their foot off the gas, and Los Angeles broke through to cut the lead in half with a short-handed goal by Dwight King at 9:28 of the second period.

After Bryan Bickell went to the penalty box for boarding early in the third, Crawford could not smother a shot from Carter, and Kopitar stuffed the rebound home to tie the game at 2-2.

The Blackhawks’ advice to themselves would prove sage in the end. As the teams skated back and forth in overtime, the crowd hanging on every pass, every rush and every shot, the night did have the unmistakable feel of a Game 7 — even if only one team faced elimination.

When the longest game in the Kings’ history was finally over, Quick had stopped 31 of 35 shots. Crawford saved 33 of the 36 attempts he faced.

Chicago was tested by the Detroit Red Wings in a grueling seven-game series in the conference semifinals, at one point trailing by three games to one. Despite their league-best 77 points during the regular season, the Blackhawks entered the series against the Kings considered underdogs by some, faced with the task of solving Quick, the reigning most valuable player of the playoffs.

But the Blackhawks proved equal to the challenge, even chasing Quick during a 4-2 Game 2 win. The Kings had allowed more than two goals in just 2 of 13 playoff games entering the series. The Blackhawks scored three or more in three of the five games, eliminating the Kings in rather economical fashion.

“Coming back from that deficit against Detroit gives us a lot of confidence,” Toews said. “We have a great chance to go back to where we want to be, and there’s going to be some more tough moments and we’ll have to battle through it.”

Now Chicago will turn its attention to Boston. The Bruins swept away the top-seeded Pittsburgh Penguins and their high-powered offense Friday. The showdown will feature two Original Six franchises and two teams firing on all cylinders.

The Blackhawks have another distinction: they will attempt to become the first Presidents’ Trophy winner to raise the Stanley Cup since Detroit in 2007-8.

A version of this article appeared in print on June 9, 2013,

New York Times LOADED: 06.09.2013


Makeover Possible For Penguins After a Sweep

JEFF Z. KLEIN and STU HACKEL

For years, the idea of Sidney Crosby and Evgeni Malkin on different N.H.L. teams was unimaginable. But now that Pittsburgh has been swept from the playoffs by the Boston Bruins, the unimaginable could be on the Penguins’ off-season agenda.

When General Manager Ray Shero and his hockey department review this season and the postseason, it is possible that only Crosby will be assured of returning, with many familiar faces on the way out, including that of Coach Dan Bylsma. That would change the character of what has long been one of the league’s marquee teams.

The Penguins have been a towering constant since 2006, when the 20-year-old Malkin arrived from Russia to join the 19-year-old Crosby. They were quickly recognized as the best one-two punch at center in the game and as two of the world’s greatest players after they reached the Stanley Cup finals in 2008 and won the Cup in 2009.

Through injuries and comebacks, record-breaking streaks and scoring titles, and division and conference championships, the Crosby-and-Malkin-led Penguins were always a Cup favorite. If only they could reach the playoffs fully healthy, most experts figured, they could win it all again.

This year, Pittsburgh was finally at full strength. But after running away with the Eastern Conference title, scoring more goals than any team in the regular season and the first two playoff rounds, and being anointed as a shoo-in to reach the Cup finals, the Penguins were swept in the playoffs for the first time since 1979, scoring only two goals in four games against the Bruins.

Everything has to go right for a team to win the Cup, but after the Penguins beat the Islanders in six games and Ottawa in five, most of what they did went wrong against Boston. They were sloppy on defense and anemic on offense. What seemed to be a clear strength, their depth at forward, turned out to be a mirage. Neither Crosby nor Malkin registered a point against the Bruins. James Neal was scoreless, too. Chris Kunitz and Pascal Dupuis had one point each. The trade-deadline pickups Jarome Iginla, Brenden Morrow and Jussi Jokinen were so ineffective that Bylsma dropped Iginla and Morrow from the top two lines and scratched Jokinen.

If there is a purge, it may begin with Bylsma. He was questioned for, among other things, allowing Crosby and Malkin to lose their composure in the series-opening 3-0 loss, and for not putting center Tyler Kennedy in the lineup until Game 4.

Bylsma is perhaps as much a part of the Penguins’ identity as his star players. He took over as interim coach in February 2009 and led the team to the Cup four months later; won 200 games faster than any other coach in N.H.L. history; won the Jack Adams Award in 2011 for leading Pittsburgh to the league’s third-best record despite season-ending injuries to Crosby and Malkin; and was seen as the top candidate to direct the United States team for the 2014 Olympics in Sochi, Russia.

But Bylsma’s teams have been eliminated by lower-seeded teams in four consecutive postseasons. He could wind up like another American Olympic coaching favorite, John Tortorella, who was fired by the Rangers.

Some players could depart, too. Goalie Marc-Andre Fleury, a 2009 Stanley Cup hero but a springtime sieve for the past few years, was replaced by a more reliable Tomas Vokoun.

On defense, Shero never adequately replaced the top pairing from 2009, Rob Scuderi and Hal Gill. Shero’s late-season trade for the rugged veteran Douglas Murray didn’t solve the problem. Murray was unable to keep pace with the Bruins. Although he has some excellent young prospects, Shero may be forced to upgrade the defense immediately, perhaps through a trade. If he does, one option is to deal Kris Letang, an excellent playmaking defenseman for the Penguins who has been with the team since 2006, but one whose defensive shortcomings surfaced against the Bruins.

The Penguins may lose Dupuis, a linchpin as Crosby’s linemate for the better part of six seasons, to free agency. Dupuis, an excellent two-way

player who excels at even strength, is one of seven unrestricted free agents on the roster, along with Iginla, Morrow, Murray and Matt Cooke.

But trading Malkin, a move being urged by pundits and angry Penguins fans, would be seismic. He has one year left on his contract, at $8.7 million, and if he were to waive his no-movement clause, he could certainly bring a defensive superstar like Shea Weber or Keith Yandle.

That would leave Crosby without Malkin. Unimaginable, perhaps, but ultimately the question is, can Shero imagine it?

A version of this article appeared in print on June 9, 2013



Nearly Sunk, Bruins Snap Into a Juggernaut

PETER MAY

BOSTON — The game had ended, the handshakes and pleasantries had been exchanged, and the Bruins gathered in their black jerseys and white hats for a team picture surrounding the Prince of Wales Trophy, given to the winner of the Eastern Conference finals.

Superstition says that players should only pose with the trophy and not touch it, for the only one that merits holding and hoisting is the Stanley Cup. The Bruins will get that opportunity starting this week.

Six weeks ago, the prospect of Boston’s winning the conference title, or even still playing in June, seemed close to preposterous. The Bruins stumbled their way into the playoffs, winning two of their last eight games in a lockout-compressed schedule made tougher by two postponements because of the Boston Marathon bombings and a third to a snowstorm.

They fell from the No. 2 spot in the conference to No. 4 with a season-ending home loss to Ottawa. They proceeded to blow a 3-1 lead in the first round to Toronto and found themselves trailing, 4-1, midway through the third period of Game 7.

Then, something happened — the Bruins cannot explain it — and they have never been the same. Since Game 6 of the Toronto series, the Bruins have won 9 of 10 games, and the only loss came in overtime. They have been a defensive juggernaut with opportunistic scoring and solid goaltending.

The Bruins rallied for three goals to tie the Maple Leafs, two of them coming with the goalie pulled in the final two minutes. The winner came in overtime.

“It certainly catapulted us into our level of our play and performance,” General Manager Peter Chiarelli said Saturday. “You could see the team pick itself up. It wasn’t really a switch. I think it was more of a realization to these guys, like, ‘Hey, we had better get this thing done.’ We waited a little long. But it certainly was a boost to their play the rest of the way, without question.”

Boston dispatched the Rangers in five games and improbably swept the vaunted Penguins in the conference finals, a series in which Pittsburgh, with the N.H.L.’s most productive offense, never held a lead and managed only two goals.

“If we look back at that Game 7, we wouldn’t be here anymore,” said Bruins center David Krejci, who leads all playoff scorers. “We would be done. The Rangers would have beat us. We’ve done a pretty good job to stay in the moment. We took it game by game. Right now, we’re talking about the final.”

The dismantling of the high-flying Penguins included holding their top three playoff scorers, Evgeni Malkin, Kris Letang and Sidney Crosby, without a point in the four games. Letang still leads the N.H.L. in playoff assists with 13. Malkin is still tied with Krejci at No. 2 with 12. Jarome Iginla, who spurned the Bruins for the Penguins at the trade deadline, also had no points.

In a fitting denouement, an inoffensive 35-foot wrist shot by Iginla — only his fourth shot of the series — proved to be the Penguins’ final one. Goalie Tuukka Rask, who had been ordinary in much of the first two rounds, easily caught it to conclude an extraordinary series: two goals allowed and a .985 save percentage in the series.

“Right now, he’s in a zone that you hope he can hold on to,” Bruins Coach Claude Julien said of Rask. “Without that kind of goaltending, you don’t get a chance at winning a Cup.”

The Bruins know. In 2011, Tim Thomas was nearly unbeatable in the Stanley Cup finals against Vancouver, allowing eight goals in seven games. But he really did not turn into a fortress that postseason until Game 7 of the conference finals, when he shut out Tampa Bay. In the previous six games of that series, Thomas allowed 19 goals. Rask has allowed 30 goals in 16 games — three in the last five.

The turnaround by Rask epitomizes the Bruins’ about-face. Throughout the Toronto series and even early in the Rangers series, Julien kept referring to

his team as a Jekyll-and-Hyde club, never sure which one would show up. Injuries contributed to the problem, as three regulars on defense were injured in the Toronto series.

But, as the saying goes, what doesn’t kill you makes you stronger. The Bruins hardly looked like Stanley Cup contenders heading into the playoffs and were a corpse-in-waiting in Game 7 against Toronto. Now, they’re playing for a chance to win a second Stanley Cup in three seasons.

“The peaks and valleys of a season sometimes pay off a lot more than people give credit for, because you certainly grow from those tough times, you learn from those things, it makes you a better team down the road,” Julien said.

Julien continued: “I thought this year had its ups and downs; it was a tough schedule. But right now we’re probably playing some of our best hockey of the season.”

A version of this article appeared in print on June 9, 2013,


680526 New York Rangers

June 9, 2013 1:02 AM

Pat Leonard

The Chicago Blackhawks and the Boston Bruins will face off in the 2013 Stanley Cup Finals beginning Wednesday night in the Windy City, marking the first-ever finals meeting between the two franchises. The series also marks the first Finals involving two Original Six franchises since 1979, when the Rangers fell to the Montreal Canadiens in five games.

Here is the schedule for the upcoming Finals series, which promises to be a classic involving the Blackhawks – who won the Presidents’ Trophy with a record-breaking regular season and dispatched the defending-champion L.A. Kings in five games in the Western Conference Finals – and the Bruins – who swept the Pittsburgh Penguins in the Eastern Conference Finals and allowed only two goals in four games.

2013 STANLEY CUP FINAL SCHEDULE

(All times listed are Eastern and subject to change, per the NHL)

Game 1: Wednesday, 8 p.m., Boston at Chicago (NBC, CBC, RDS)

Game 2: Saturday, 8 p.m., Boston at Chicago (NBCSN, CBC, RDS)

Game 3: June 17, 8 p.m., Chicago at Boston (NBCSN, CBC, RDS)

Game 4: June 19, 8 p.m., Chicago at Boston (NBC, CBC, RDS)

*Game 5: June 22, 8 p.m., Boston at Chicago (NBC, CBC, RDS)

*Game 6: June 24, 8 p.m., Chicago at Boston (NBC, CBC, RDS)

*Game 7: June 26, 8 p.m., Boston at Chicago (NBC, CBC, RDS)

* if necessary

New York Daily News LOADED: 06.09.2013


Could Dan Bylsma be new Rangers' coaching candidate?

June 8, 2013 10:32 PM

STEVE ZIPAY

When the Rangers' brass gathers for organizational meetings in La Quinta, Calif., starting Monday, the agenda will be wide-ranging and critical to mapping the future of the franchise.

Topping the list will be the search for a head coach, with perhaps a new candidate: Dan Bylsma. With the Bruins sweeping the Penguins, who scored only two goals -- none by Sidney Crosby or Evgeni Malkin -- in four games in the Eastern Conference finals, speculation began late Friday that Bylsma, who has a year left on his contract in Pittsburgh, will be dismissed.

One candidate who received permission to speak with the Rangers seems to be off the market. The Edmonton Oilers fired Ralph Krueger Saturday, and TSN, citing sources, said Dallas Eakins, the highly regarded coach of the AHL's Toronto Marlies, has an agreement in place to assume the job.

If available, Bylsma, 42, would be the youngest of the experienced bench bosses on the market, a list that includes former Canucks coach Alain Vigneault, former Sabres coach Lindy Ruff and John Tortorella, who was fired by the Rangers on May 29.

Coyotes coach Dave Tippett, whose contract ends June 30, prefers staying in Arizona if the on-again, off-again ownership situation can be resolved this month. Former Lightning coach Guy Boucher and former Hurricanes coach Paul Maurice also are available. The Canucks and Stars also have job openings.

Bylsma won the Stanley Cup in 2009 just four months after he replaced Michel Therrien. This year, he got to 200 wins faster than any other NHL coach.

But since winning the Stanley Cup, the Penguins have lost in the conference semifinals once and the quarterfinals twice before being swept in the conference finals this year. This season's ouster came after the front office went all in with the acquisitions of Jarome Iginla, Jussi Jokinen, Brenden Morrow and Douglas Murray before the trade deadline. Penguins chairman Mario Lemieux and general manager Ray Shero had no immediate comment on Bylsma's future.

Vigneault, believed to be the front-runner, reportedly is one of the candidates to have received a short questionnaire from the Rangers, TSN reported. Mark Messier -- special assistant to president and GM Glen Sather for four years -- has no significant coaching experience but has thrown his hat in the ring.

As important as the coach is the contract extension of goaltender Henrik Lundqvist, entering the final year of his deal, which Sather has said will get done. A buyout of Brad Richards' contract, which has $36 million remaining, needs to be weighed, as well as new deals for restricted free agents Ryan McDonagh, Derek Stepan, Carl Hagelin and Mats Zuccarello.

The salary cap will drop from $70.2 million to $64.3 million. The Rangers currently have about $14 million in cap space, with about half targeted for restricted free agents next season.

Newsday LOADED: LOADED: 06.09.2013


Throw Dan Bylsma’s hat into the Rangers’ coaching ring

Staff Writer

Super Mario Lemieux is not happy, of course, because his Pittsburgh Penguins, favorites in the East to win the Stanley Cup, got their clocks cleaned in four straight by a very, very, very good Boston team. And so coach Dan Bylsma is probably going to soon be available, deservedly or not.

He’s going to be available because his goalies sure put the Penguins in a deep hole early in the series (though Tomas Vokoun surely can’t be blamed for the last two games, could he?), and because some of his top players played awfully (Christopher Letang, fraud Norris finalist) and because there was some lack of discipline and sticking with the system.

He’s going to be available because the ownership led by Lemieux, and GM Ray Shero, went out and made a ton of moves before the trade deadline to make the Penguins the 2009 Yankees, prohibitive favorites to win the Stanley Cup. And somebody other than the owner and the GM is going to take the fall. Stupid as that is, that’s how sports works. And it is stupid.

But that’s great news for the Rangers, who have been slow to choose their next coach, and certainly got slower thinking Bylsma might be available.

Because, if the Rangers are really going to buck the trend – they were headed in 2011-12 toward being exactly what Boston is in 2013, and now all of a sudden they want to be the anti-Bruins – and if they are really looking for the anti-Torts, then Bylsma is probably their guy. Bylsma has the opposite personality of John Tortorella, a soft-spoken guy who actually pauses and thinks about the question before he answers, and a guy who—outwardly at least—appears to be much more of a back-patter than a hammer-wielder.

That said, I don’t know where the Rangers are headed because Mark Messier does want the job, and since he does, I’m hard pressed to believe that Glen Sather, who knows Messier for, what, 34-35 years, is not going to give it to him. Sather and Messier obviously have a tremendous relationship, with admiration and loyalty the key words. I can’t imagine Sather wouldn’t hire Messier.

Speaking of which, forget about Wayne Gretzky. He is not really interested in the job. So count him out.

Also count out, probably, Lindy Ruff. Too much like John Tortorella in style and system, if not personality.

Alain Vigneault, who reportedly has yet to be interviewed by the Rangers despite having arguably the best credentials of the group, would probably be Messier’s top competition for the job unless, and now until, Bylsma comes available.

And Bylsma, who plays the up-tempo style Sather craves, is going to be on the lists of a lot of teams who need coaches, and some who don’t.

The Rangers will have organizational meetings in LaQuinta, Calif., this week. At that time, Bylsma’s name is going to be spoken early and often.

Rockland Journal News: LOADED: 06.09.2013

680529 Philadelphia Flyers

Boston's balance made the difference

Wayne Fish Staff writer

Posted: Saturday, June 8, 2013 4:11 pm

Imagine the possibilities.

If you had put down a bet midway through Game 7 of the Toronto-Boston opening round playoff series that the Bruins would eventually sweep Pittsburgh in the conference finals, the odds would have been staggering.

That’s because the Bruins were down to the Leafs, 4-1, with 10 minutes to play. Somehow, they rallied and won in overtime.

Then they disposed of the Rangers in five and the Penguins in four.

Many thought the Penguins were on their way to a second Stanley Cup with Sidney Crosby at the wheel. It didn’t happen -- thanks to the offensive brilliance of Boston's Patrice Bergeron, defensive dominance by Zdeno Chara and excellent goaltending by Tuukka Rask -- and while Crosby undoubtedly will have more chances down the road, it might not be with this cast.

There are already rumblings that goaltender Marc-Andre Fleury, who lost control all the way back in the first round against the Islanders, might be on his way out of town and, like the Flyers, Pittsburgh probably has to think about upgrading its defense.

The Penguins’ demise makes for some intrigue heading into next year, with realignment. Pittsburgh will still be joined by the Flyers, Rangers, Devils and Islanders but Washington and Carolina have been added to the mix.

A lot can happen in the offseason, but from this spot at this time, there doesn’t appear to be a clear-cut favorite to come out of this group. The Rangers will be coming off a coaching change, the Flyers and Devils are trying to get back to the playoffs, the Islanders show promise and the Caps are the Caps.

And the Penguins have some regrouping to do.

If Boston, with its fast, hard-hitting roster, goes on to win its second Cup in three years, look for other teams to emulate its style.

No longer Classic: For years, it’s been rumored that the Flyers and Penguins were interested in securing a Winter Classic game at Penn State.

That talk died down a bit when the Flyers wound up getting a Classic game in Philadelphia against the Bruins in January, 2012.

But when the NHL announced that as many as six games would be played outside in a “satellite’’ series during the 2013-14 season, the Penn State speculation began anew.

Friday, both the Flyers and Penguins confirmed there have been internal talks going on to bring a game to Happy Valley. Probably not the traditional Jan. 1 date, but one of those second-liners.

The particulars haven’t been worked out but the guess here is something will happen in the next year or two.

When the Winter Classic concept came along five years ago, it was something really special. There was a novelty about it that created a buzz sort of like the Olympics and the Stanley Cup finals.

But now, with six outdoor stadium games (including one in frigid Los Angeles) this year and possibly more down the road, these roofless wonders won't be nearly as special.

Games like this might give hockey more sorely needed exposure but they start to have an “exhibition’’ feel about them.

Why not a playoff game outdoors? Oh, we know, those games are too important. Better just stick to regular season contests, where the stakes aren’t quite so high.

Visor proposal makes sense: The only question we have about the new proposal to make visors mandatory for all incoming players to the NHL is: What took so long?

Too many players have suffered eye injuries over the years and needlessly.

Currently, 73 percent of all NHL players wear eye protection. That number will continue to rise until one day, the visor-less player will be a dinosaur.

However, in the meantime, it should be pointed out that visors are still controversial when it comes to fighting.

There’s a two-minute penalty for instigating a fight if the culprit is wearing a visor.

If we’re encouraging everyone, including enforcers, to wear shields, isn’t this penalty a bit hypocritical?

The NHL has to figure out what it wants to do in regards to this situation. This much we do know: Fighting in the NHL is not going anywhere, at least not anytime

Burlington County Times LOADED: 06.09.2013

680530 Pittsburgh Penguins

Starkey: Bylsma would be lucky to stay

By Joe Starkey

Updated 6 hours ago

Dan Bylsma better hope his bosses have more patience with him than he and they had with goaltender Marc-Andre Fleury.

Bylsma and Fleury were heroes in the Penguins' magical Stanley Cup run of 2009. Neither has done much right in four postseasons since.

Fleury was given three springs and part of a fourth before deservedly losing his job. Why should Bylsma get five? To see if a fifth straight playoff exit can somehow top the previous four in terms of pure humiliation?

It's one thing to lose. It's quite another to disintegrate in increasingly disturbing fashion.

The favored Penguins melted down in Game 7 against Montreal, lost by six goals at home with a chance to close out Tampa Bay, gave up 30 goals in six games against the arch-rival Flyers and scored two goals — two! — in four games against the Bruins.

This star-studded club has gone four straight years without so much as sniffing the Stanley Cup.

Such endings normally precipitate significant change. Like putting your franchise goalie on alert by signing a $2 million “backup.” That was last year's move.

What now?

If I'm general manager Ray Shero and co-owners Mario Lemieux and Ron Burkle, I begin my examination at the top, the only logical starting place.

That means turning the spotlight onto Bylsma and $104.4 million captain Sidney Crosby.

Crosby is a column for another day. It's not like he's going anywhere. Just know that in his past three season-ending games — Game 7 against Montreal, Game 6 against Philly and Game 4 against Boston — his cumulative line reads like something out of Dennis Bonvie's bio: zero goals, zero assists, minus-5 rating.

So that leaves Bylsma, who has entered three of the past four postseasons fortified with an almost unfair array of talent and has done next to nothing with it.

His players routinely become unglued at critical moments. His special teams — both units or just one — fail spectacularly at some point each spring, never more so than in the adjustment-less power play's 0-for-15 showing against Boston.

Bylsma is not tough enough on his stars, who too often play an undisciplined brand of hockey that filters through the lineup. His sternest messages are saved for the likes of Tyler Kennedy and Simon Despres, the latter of whom is a top-four talent who should have been groomed for playoff action.

Instead, Despres was jerked in and out of the lineup all season and was unprepared for high-stakes competition.

Young players are buried in Bylsma's system, a system that features too much risk. The ultimate Bylsma puck retrieval, for example, calls for multiple touch passes before a direct delivery to the center speeding up the middle. Gorgeous when it works. An opponent's scoring chance when it doesn't.

Still, Bylsma obviously is a good coach. He'd be hired within minutes if fired here. The real question is whether he's the right coach for this franchise.

Nobody can take away the fabulous job he did in 2009, but it's instructive to remember that Bylsma had not yet fully implemented his ideas. Rather, he expertly tweaked Michel Therrien's system.

This is how then-assistant GM Chuck Fletcher described it: “Michel Therrien did a terrific job bringing accountability, a sense of defensive responsibility

and structure. ... Dan was able to come in and open up the spigot a bit, if you will.”

In subsequent years, that spigot often unleashed a glorious waterfall of goals. Slowly, though, the defensive foundation rotted away. Bylsma tried to restore it this season. He vowed to learn from last year's shellacking, and his team delivered spurts of excellent defense.

But the Penguins fell in love with their reflection again in the romp over Ottawa — and then ran into a club maniacally dedicated to preventing goals.

What this team needs is a simpler structure that players can trust in the crucible of playoff hockey. The guess here is that Bylsma will be retained and perhaps asked to alter his system or staff. My move would be to go after Dave Tippett, whose contract with the beleaguered Phoenix Coyotes expires June 30.

Tippett could do what Bylsma did, only in reverse: Take a gifted, offensive-minded team and restore its defensive foundation. Turn down the spigot, if you will.

When pressed on his job status before Game 4, Bylsma reminded everyone, “I coached this hockey team in 2009.”

True enough, but that was a long time ago.

Just ask Fleury.

Tribune Review LOADED: 06.09.2013


For general manager Shero, Penguins, some difficult decisions ahead

By Rob Rossi

Ray Shero holds the match.

The foundation of those great days for hockey dating to the 2009 Stanley Cup championship is cracked, perhaps so worn structurally that razing is required.

Shero never has known an offseason like the one before him.

Five years ago, his offseason task was to re-sign Marian Hossa and keep together the nucleus of a Stanley Cup finalist. Two years later, Shero took on transforming his defense corps by signing Paul Martin and Zbynek Michalek. Last summer, he chased top free agents Zach Parise and Ryan Suter.

His Penguins were just swept from the Eastern Conference final. They scored two goals.

For an organization with an unmistakable brand built over 29 years — goals, scorers, excitement — a series loss such as the one the Bruins handed the Penguins is particularly punishing.

The Penguins — owned by Mario Lemieux, led by Sidney Crosby — could not score with a berth in the Cup Final at stake.

Shero, a finalist for General Manager of the Year because of his in-season moves, cannot waste a minute licking his wounds after his club that was favored to regain the Cup collapsed before having a chance to play for it.

The NHL Entry Draft, where big trades are often made (see: Jordan Staal), is June 30. After that is a window — provided by the new labor agreement — to speak with potential free agents. Then there is the free-agent frenzy July 5.

Before that, though, Shero must make some tough calls.

The coach

Dan Bylsma is the only coach to lead the Penguins to the Cup over the past 21 years. He also is the only coach to oversee a Penguins sweep from a playoff series in 34 years.

He is a lame duck, with only next year remaining on his contract. His future is Shero's first decision, and ownership is adamant that Shero will make the final call.

Shero's last public comments about Bylsma suggested he is pleased with his bench boss.

Bylsma was not told his future depended on the result of the Eastern Conference final.

The fastest coach to 200 wins and a favorite to lead Team USA at the 2014 Olympics, Bylsma could balk at forced changes to his staff, especially hand-picked assistants Tony Granato and Todd Reirden. He also might not fancy a one-year extension.

Shero has yet to lead a coaching search since taking over the Penguins in 2006. He inherited Michel Therrien, extended him in July 2008 after the Penguins' first Final appearance and replaced Therrien with Bylsma in February 2009.

Bylsma, two years removed from winning the Jack Adams Award (top coach), is the franchise leader with 36 playoff wins. His clubs are 20-21 since the Cup win in 2009, losing four series to lower-seeded opponents and going 6-7 in Games 1 and 2 that were played at home.

During the Cup Final years, the Penguins went 10-0 in Games 1 and 2 played at home.

The stars

Shero said in January he wanted to reach long-term extensions with center Evgeni Malkin and defenseman Kris Letang, who each have one year left on their contracts. Those deals can be signed beginning July 5.

Malkin, 26, is a two-time scoring champion and an MVP of the regular season and playoffs. However, he is coming off an injury-plagued (concussion, shoulder) season and one in which he scored only nine goals.

He is one of two players — the other is fellow Russian Alex Ovechkin of Washington — to temporarily supplant Crosby as the widely acknowledged “best in the world” of this era.

Ownership has authorized Shero to spend what is necessary to keep Malkin and Crosby. Shero told Crosby last summer during extension negotiations that Malkin might become the Penguins' highest-paid player with his next contract.

A maximum deal for Malkin, currently an $8.7 million cap hit, would run eight years and cost $102.88 million — a $12.86 million cap hit.

He does not want to play in Russia's Kontinental Hockey League, even though he has a history with that league's Metallurg Magnitogorsk club in Malkin's hometown. The pressure of playing at home and difficult KHL travel are factors for Malkin, even though a potential $15 million tax-free annual salary is enticing.

Malkin told the Tribune-Review that he wants — and, more important, expects — to agree on an extension with the Penguins this summer.

Malkin has not said whether he will provide a hometown discount, as others, notably Crosby, have when signing long-term deals. Nor has he said whether he wants to sign a lengthy deal. Also, he will demand a no-movement clause.

Letang, 26, is a Norris Trophy (top defenseman) finalist for the first time. He will make $3.5 million next season.

Ottawa inked an extension — six years and $39 million, a $6.5 million annual cap hit — with defenseman Erik Karlsson last summer before he won the Norris Trophy.

Letang has expressed a desire to stay with the Penguins. He wants at least to double his annual salary and seeks a no-movement clause.

The Penguins' prospect pool is deepest, including on the top end, at defense.

Last summer, facing a one-and-done situation with Staal, Shero took a stab at keeping his first draft pick. When Staal rejected the Penguins' best offer — 10 years and about $57 million — Shero moved him to Carolina for a package that included a first-round pick (Derrick Pouliot), center Brandon Sutter and on-the-way defenseman Brian Dumoulin.

Letang would command an even greater return.

The Penguins have spent to the salary cap since 2008.

They have only five players signed for the 2014-15 season and could use an infusion of talent that is ready, or near ready and under contract for several years, to contribute at the NHL.

The Cup club

A thin free-agent market will not benefit winger Pascal Dupuis so much as his performance at a discount rate over the past two seasons.

Among the NHL leaders with 39 even-strength goals over that span, Dupuis, 34, is an unrestricted free agent.

He has signed twice before with the Penguins, and he again wants multiple years. A dedicated family man, he prefers to keep the roots he has built since arriving in Pittsburgh in February 2008.

He also happens to be one of Crosby's two preferred linemates and perhaps the most respected player among the Penguins.

He appeared devastated after the Penguins' 1-0 loss to Boston on Friday. His look — head buried, tearing up — resembled that of Staal (last year) and Ryan Malone (2008) after their eventual last games as a Penguin.

Dupuis knows that a far bigger payday awaits on the open market than the $1.5 million he made this season. He also knows the Penguins need to shed salary.

Shero rarely gives contracts of more than two years to players past age 30, though he did for left winger Matt Cooke, 34.

As is the case with Dupuis, Cooke's representatives already have discussed a new deal with Shero.

Unlike with Dupuis, Shero has told Cooke's representatives that Cooke will not get another three-year deal from the Penguins.

Cooke wants that third year. He also figures to command more than the $1.8 million he made on his last deal.

Forward Craig Adams, 36, would prefer a two-year contract. His last one with the Penguins lasted that long.

Adams, Dupuis and Cooke are members of a penalty kill that returned to form in the playoffs, clicking at a 92.3 percent rate.

Right winger Tyler Kennedy was in and out of the lineup during the postseason.

A restricted free agent, Kennedy is also 26, and despite scoring only 17 goals the past two seasons, he is a tradable asset. His $2 million salary is likely to get a slight bump, and the Penguins are equally likely to not want to provide it for a player without a future —in Pittsburgh, anyway — as a top-six forward.

The best case for Kennedy sticking around is that Shero is dealing with five forwards that are unrestricted free agents.

Defenseman Brooks Orpik, 32, and left winger Chris Kunitz, 33, are entering the final year of their contracts. Extensions for them will wait until after the summer, if they are to come at all, given the combination of the players' ages and physical styles.

An extension is on the horizon for Sutter. The Penguins will control his rights even though his deal has one year left, so there is no rush to do something over the summer.

The new guys

Wingers Jarome Iginla and Brenden Morrow left captaincies and the only franchises they had known to join the Penguins this season. Morrow arrived first, but Iginla might stay longest.

Both are unrestricted free agents.

Shero loves Iginla, though not the way Bylsma used him — at the off wing and not with Crosby.

Iginla, 35, commanded a $7 million cap hit on his last deal. The Penguins cannot afford half of that on a one-year deal, but a multiyear contract could work if Iginla is interested in staying.

He is, but he will need assurances in the form of a no-movement clause. Iginla has sold his house in Calgary and has not missed a chance to praise of the Penguins organization.

Morrow, 34, was a mostly third- and fourth-liner with the Penguins. He could take up that role again in Dallas, where his family lives.

Defenseman Douglas Murray, 33, might return, pending the coaching situation. A stay-at-home hitter with skating limitations, he is not an ideal fit for Bylsma's puck-moving preference.

The buyout option

The labor deal provides Shero with an option, albeit not a pleasant one.

He can, but is not mandated to, use two compliance buyouts before the start of the 2014-15 season. Those allow him to eliminate the salary cap hit of up to two players by paying them to become unrestricted free agents.

The buyouts do not come with a cap penalty. This is part of the NHL's transition to a lower salary cap.

Take, for example, goalie Marc-Andre Fleury.

Replaced as a starter during the playoffs, he has two years remaining on a contract that counts $5 million annually against the salary cap. The Penguins could cut that cap hit immediately by paying Fleury about $7 million over four years.

If he and the club desired, Fleury, 28, would not be able to re-sign with the Penguins at a lower rate for at least one year.

Shero, known for his personal touch with players, has not offered an opinion on the compliance buyout option.

He also has not indicated Fleury is finished as a Penguin.

The trade market for goalies is rough. Vancouver could not move Roberto Luongo, a former Vezina Trophy (top goalie) winner. Los Angeles failed to trade Jonathan Bernier, a backup viewed as ready to start.

Buffalo's Ryan Miller could join a congested market of goalies that clubs are looking to move — and he would move to the top of that group.

Fleury has one thing on each of those three: He has won the Cup.

He also is adored by teammates, close with Crosby and — in the past, anyway — effective in the postseason when the Penguins' system is more defensive. His best playoffs, statistically, came five years ago.

The 2008 Cup run sparked an era of championships and contention.

The flameouts since 2009, and the circumstances of this summer, could spark something much different.

Rob Rossi is a staff writer for Trib Total Media.

Tribune Review LOADED: 06.09.2013


Plenty of decisions ahead for Penguins, starting with Bylsma

June 9, 2013 12:09 am

By Dave Molinari / Pittsburgh Post-Gazette

The Penguins and their fan base are beginning to digest the hard truths of the team's stunning departure from the Stanley Cup playoffs.

Those have to be going down like a heaping bowl of broken glass.

Inside the team offices, it is a time for thoughtful assessments of all that went wrong in the Penguins' furious plunge into the offseason, and how best to fix them.

Outside of Consol Energy Center, however, the discussions aren't always so measured.

There are places where nothing less than a complete house-cleaning -- followed by a house demolition -- could begin to suffice as a response to the Penguins' pratfall in the Eastern Conference final.

But only after a human sacrifice or two to set the proper tone.

Based on a cursory foray into cyberspace Saturday, some segments of the public are ready -- if not downright eager -- to volunteer coach Dan Bylsma for one of those.

And not without reason.

Bylsma, like most coaches, preaches accountability, and when NHL teams underachieve, the head coach generally doesn't have to accept responsibility. Others are quick to heap it on him.

Certainly, there is much blame to be shouldered after Boston, a decided underdog, ran the Penguins out of the Eastern final in four games. The Bruins held the NHL's most prolific offense to two goals in four games. Neutered the league's most menacing power play. Exposed and exploited flaws in defensive coverages.

Bylsma's players are culpable for some of that, of course. Bylsma didn't tell them to score on two of 136 shots against Bruins goalie Tuukka Rask. He didn't instruct them to turn the puck over at every opportunity in the travesty that was Game 2.

Replacing Bylsma, believed to have a year left on his contract, is an option general manager Ray Shero likely has contemplated, at the very least, even though he has said nothing publicly on the subject.

Shero's history says he is not given to emotion-driven judgments. He evaluates personnel matters carefully and acts only when satisfied that all pertinent information has been considered.

But ever as facts and circumstances change, one thing doesn't: The organization's stated objective every year is to win the Stanley Cup. And the Penguins haven't done it since 2009.

What's more, their past four playoff exits have been orchestrated by teams that finished below them in the regular-season standings.

That happens all the time in hockey, of course. Whether it should happen to a team annually is another matter.

At the same time, nothing that transpired the past four springs can -- or ever will -- erase the simple reality that Bylsma was behind the Penguins' bench when they won that Cup in 2009, a few months after he succeeded Michel Therrien.

So much for any argument that the Penguins can't win a championship with him as coach. The real question is whether he is capable of doing it again, at least with this franchise.

While firing a coach -- especially one whose popularity seems slightly lower than that of pink eye -- is easy, that doesn't automatically make it the right move to make.

The most important facet of a potential coaching change is not who gets fired, but who takes on the job.

If it's the right guy, as Bylsma was four years ago, he can catapult an organization forward.

If it's not, games -- and, more important for the Penguins, precious time -- can be lost before the mistake is realized.

If Shero concludes he needs a new coach, he has to make certain he picks wisely, whether he goes for Dave Tippett (should he go on the market), John Hynes, Dallas Eakins, Alain Vigneault or anyone else.

Not necessarily the right guy for the Penguins as they are constituted today, because major personnel turnover is coming for this club, but for the team Shero expects to have in training camp this fall.

Someone whose philosophy of team-building and strategy meshes with that of upper management, and who Shero is certain can take this team where it hasn't gotten the past four years.

If that's Bylsma, Shero should let him -- and the world -- know as soon as possible, and move on to other matters, because there are many.

While the fates of assistant coaches Tony Granato and Todd Reirden seem linked directly to that of Bylsma, goalie coach Gilles Meloche might be a separate case.

He was a terrific goaltender on some terrible teams in his playing days, and his knowledge of the position -- and the minds of the men who play it -- is outstanding.

Meloche is diligent and appears to have an excellent relationship with Marc-Andre Fleury, who remains, at least for now, the Penguins' franchise goalie.

But it's conceivable Meloche has taken Fleury as far as he can, that Fleury needs a new voice to guide him, a new hand to help shape his style and on-ice habits.

If Shero thinks Fleury remains the team's goalie of the future, giving him a different mentor has to be considered as a way to get Fleury to consistently perform to his potential, particularly in the playoffs.

Shero, while charged with sculpting the Penguins' future, cannot be absolved of responsibility for what happened to them in the past week.

The moves he made before the trade deadline, bringing in Jarome Iginla, Brenden Morrow, Douglas Murray and Jussi Jokinen, were lavishly praised. Some observers felt they all but guaranteed a Cup for the Penguins.

Didn't quite work out that way.

Shero's two most celebrated additions, Iginla and Morrow, added all the character and leadership and other intangibles the Penguins expected, but neither consistently had the anticipated on-ice impact.

Even when Iginla was putting up a point per game, he wasn't the force many envisioned, and he was invisible in the Boston series. Morrow ultimately settled on the fourth line, Murray is a third-pairing defenseman and Jokinen spent about half the playoffs in street clothes.

Not the return the Penguins were counting on when they gave up a good prospect (Joe Morrow) and a fistful of early round draft choices to bolster their roster for the playoffs.

Iginla, Morrow and Murray will be unrestricted free agents this summer, as will Pascal Dupuis, Matt Cooke, Craig Adams and Mark Eaton, while Tyler Kennedy and Dustin Jeffrey will be restricted.

CapGeek.com, a leading authority on NHL salary issues, says the Penguins have $56,423,333 in cap space committed to 18 players for 2013-14. The cap ceiling then will be $64.3 million, far below what it would have to be for Shero to retain more than a few of his free-agents-to-be.

He will have to decide whether to let most of them walk, or to open some cap space by dealing players still under contract.

Those determinations will be influenced by which prospects the Penguins feel are ready to move into the NHL. Their talent pipeline is flush with defensemen, but almost bereft of quality forwards.

Shero might get a few players to stay for less than market value, because being comfortable in an organization that's a constant threat to challenge for a Cup can mean more than a bit of extra money.

And it's critical to remember that whatever the Penguins do -- or don't do -- this summer, it will be with the intent of competing for a championship next spring.

The standards and expectations of this organization aren't going to change. Nor should they.

And if Shero makes the right moves in an offseason that arrived several weeks too early, there won't be any reason for them to.

Post Gazette LOADED: 06.09.2013

680533 St Louis Blues

Blues have four high-profile restricted free agents

4 hours ago

By Jeremy Rutherford

The Blues have four recognizable restricted free agents who could be attractive to National Hockey League teams willing to test the team with an “offer sheet” this summer.

Alex Pietrangelo, Kevin Shattenkirk, Chris Stewart and Patrik Berglund will have their current contracts expire at the end of this month and there have been only preliminary discussions between the club and some of their agents.

Historically, it’s not uncommon that the Blues don’t have their pending restricted free agents unsigned at this point, but the team hasn’t had as high-profile players in the past as it has this year.

And there now is less than a month before the beginning of free agency — July 5 is the league’s new start date. That’s when other clubs can make players offers, which current teams have the right to match.

“We haven’t really moved ahead with anyone yet,” Blues general manager Doug Armstrong said. “We’ll probably do that, I’d say, 10 days before the draft (June 28) to two weeks before the draft. We’ll talk to guys if they want to get something done sooner, we’re prepared, but history shows that these guys usually don’t sign until after the free-agency period starts.”

Changes to the NHL’s collective bargaining agreement should benefit the Blues in fending off offer sheets.

For starters, the league’s salary cap is dropping to $64.3 million from $70.2 million, so most teams will be seeking to trim their payroll and would have difficulty adding large contracts.

Also, in the past, vultures looking to pry away a player from his current club could structure an offer sheet with massive signing bonuses or design deals with front-loaded money, often referred to as “back-diving” contracts. None of those options are permissible under the new system.

So a situation such as last summer, when Philadelphia signed Nashville defenseman Shea Weber to a 14-year, $110 million offer sheet in which Weber received a $13 million signing bonus and his term descended from $14 million in 2012-13 to $1 million in 2025-26, no longer is allowed.

“Offer sheets aren’t a concern,” Armstrong said. “It’s part of the business and you know that they’re there. But the salary cap is coming down, and the mechanisms that would drive (current) teams away … that’s not available in the new CBA.”

But even if those mechanisms were available, Armstrong said the Blues would be ready to match any offer sheets.

“I keep going back to the fact that we want to pay the guys fairly,” he said. “So it’s not like…I’ll use the (ceiling) of $10 … it’s not like we’re offering $1 and they’re going to get $9. We might be offering $6 and they’re going to get $7. Nothing in an offer sheet is going to be that much crazier than we’re willing to spend anyway.

“We’re going to want it the way we think is proper for the St. Louis Blues. If there’s an offer sheet there, we’re very content with where we are with the NHL salary cap, we’re going to be able to match any offer and we will. These are core players that we’re not going to let go.”

According to Capgeek.com, the Blues’ cap space for the 2013-14 season with 16 players signed is approximately $41 million.

“Where we are with the cap, all four of those guys could get offer sheets and we could match them all and still be under the cap,” Armstrong said. “It’s not a concern.”

All of that said, the deals still have to get done — and they won’t be cheap.

Pietrangelo and Shattenkirk have been the Blues’ top point-producing defensemen the past three seasons.

Stewart led the club in goals (18) and points (36) this season and Berglund was second in goals (17). Three of the players have arbitration rights, with Pietrangelo being the exception.

“I think we have an idea what the parameters are going to be,” Armstrong said. “If there’s a deal to be made, and both sides are comfortable, we want all of those guys back. They know it.”

Two years removed from Norris Trophy consideration, Pietrangelo’s situation is interesting. Once considered to be in line for a contract similar to Ottawa’s Erik Karlsson (seven years, $45.5 million), the defenseman had an up-and-down 2013 season with five goals and 24 points in 47 games. He had an even plus-minus ratio after a combined plus-34 over the previous two seasons.

“He had a good year, but not as good a year as his second year,” Armstrong said. “So we have to figure out where all that fits into the market moving forward. As I look at our group, he has the best opportunity to be an elite (player) of anyone on our team right now. But opportunity has to cross-sect with the final result.”

Shattenkirk, who perhaps doesn’t have the ceiling of Pietrangelo, has been steady.

“He’s been an interesting three-year study because his numbers have almost stayed flat across the board,” Armstrong said. “I look at that as a positive, that he’s defining himself relatively quickly.”

Stewart, meanwhile, remains an enigma. He can be a force on some nights and non-existent on others.

“The top of the mountain is very appealing, but we’ve got to get the valley closer to the peak,” Armstrong said. “You hope that the good games are exceptional, but the bad games are good. That’s what I talked to Patrik Berglund about too. I see him and ‘Stewy’ a lot alike.”

Stewart had 15 goals in the Blues’ first 30 games this season, but three in the last 18 and none in the playoffs. Berglund netted 13 goals in the opening 25 games of the season, but only four in the final 23 and one in the postseason.

“They have a chance to be difference makers,” Armstrong said. “Look at the LA series, a guy like Jeff Carter has three goals in the last two games and they move on. They’re the guys that are going to dictate whether we move forward or not.”

For now, though, the Blues and their fans are only concerned about moving forward on contract extensions.

“From a team standpoint, it’s better to get it done earlier because then you know entering free agency, if you have a surplus of money, you can get into the market,” Armstrong said. “But I’ve been doing this for almost 20 years now. I understand how the process works. There’s still a long time and if both sides feel there’s a deal to be made, it can be done in two or three phone calls.

“My philosophies haven’t changed. I don’t want to underpay anybody. I just don’t want to overpay anybody.”

St Louis Post Dispatch LOADED: 06.09.2013

680534 Toronto Maple Leafs

Eakins’ move to Oilers leaves big hole behind Marlies’ bench: Cox

By: Damien Cox Hockey, Published on Sat Jun 08 2013

The last time the Maple Leafs saw the organization’s minor-league coach leave to coach another NHL club loaded with promise and high draft picks, Marc Crawford quickly guided the Colorado Avalanche to the Stanley Cup.

The Edmonton Oilers can only dream that Dallas Eakins will do the same for them.

As the Oilers’ new head coach, the ex-Marlies bench boss assumes responsibility for a team that has accumulated a treasure trove of young talent but has been utterly unable thus far to translate all that talent into meaningful team success.

Crawford was in the right spot as the Quebec Nordiques moved to Denver and saw it all come together for that 1996 Cup win. With the Oilers, it might take Eakins a little bit longer than that, although with his hiring and other recent pronouncements GM Craig MacTavish has signalled he’s looking to end the rebuild and starting winning now.

MacTavish, fearing that perhaps Vancouver or another club was poised to hire Eakins, decided he couldn’t wait even though Ralph Krueger was still Edmonton’s head coach. Instead, on Saturday MacTavish fired Krueger and notified the Leafs in the late afternoon of his intention to hire Eakins, although an official announcement won’t come until sometime this week.

Eakins’ ability to develop young players like Nazem Kadri, Jake Gardiner and Matt Frattin clearly seems like a good fit for the youthful Oilers, a team that has three No. 1 overall picks in Taylor Hall, Ryan Nugent-Hopkins and Nail Yakupov on the roster.

Now we’ll see if Eakins takes the rest of the Marlies staff, including assistants Gord Dineen and Derek King, to Alberta with him, forcing the Leafs to start all over with a farm club that has been very successful both on the ice and at the gate over the past two seasons, including an appearance in the 2012 Calder Cup final.

The Leafs, meanwhile, won’t have trouble attracting quality candidates to replace Eakins. The Marlies job is, for all intents and purposes, the 31st-best coaching job in North America outside the 30 NHL posts. In Toronto, the Marlies use NHL-quality facilities in an NHL town, and the head coach draws a paycheque that would be the envy of most other AHL coaches.

Right at the top of the list of candidates to coach the Marlies will be Glen Gulutzan, the recently deposed head coach of the Dallas Stars, and perhaps ex-Leaf Joe Sacco, fired as head coach of the Avalanche after the end of the regular season.

Leafs GM Dave Nonis might also look to the junior ranks — Dale Hawerchuk (Barrie), Dominic Ducharme (Halifax) and Steve Spott (Kitchener) would be names that would likely feature prominently out of the CHL.

Nonis will be looking for two key characteristics in the new Marlies coach. First, he’ll have to be willing to play a similar brand of hockey as that coached by Randy Carlyle with the parent club. Indeed, Eakins altered some of his techniques and philosophies with the Marlies last season to match those of Carlyle’s.

Second, Nonis will be interested in a coach who can grow into an NHL head coach, which will cross a few names off the list. The Marlies have turned into a very important resource for the Leafs after former GM Brian Burke put a greater emphasis on the farm club, and Nonis will want to continue that young tradition.

Of the 30 players who dressed for the Leafs this season, 17 of them spent time with the Marlies at some point during their development. As well, many of the team’s top prospects — Morgan Rielly, Tyler Biggs, Stuart Percy, Josh Leivo, David Broll — spent time at Ricoh Coliseum this season.

Not since the 1960s, when the Rochester Americans consistently graduated players to Punch Imlach’s Leafs, have the Leafs been able to use their farm system this effectively.

Eakins was a big part of that, and his expertise with player development goes with him to Edmonton.

Now the Leafs have to make sure that without him, that vital stream of talent from the AHL to the NHL doesn’t dry up.

Toronto Star LOADED: 06.09.2013


NHL playoffs 2013: Maple Leafs toughest test for Bruins

By: Kevin McGran Sports reporter, Published on Sat Jun 08 2013

Leaf Nation must look at how the Boston Bruins manhandled the New York Rangers and Pittsburgh Penguins and wonder what might have been . . . if only the Maple Leafs had held on to that Game 7 lead.

The Leafs, however, aren’t wondering any such thing.

“We lost,” head coach Randy Carlyle said emphatically, putting the notion to rest.

“You can look at it and hypothesize we would have had success, but that’s far from guaranteed,” added goalie Ben Scrivens. “And I’m sure if you would have asked the Rangers (about the possibility of) playing Toronto, they probably would have thought they’d have had a pretty good shot against us.

“There’s a lot of speculation. I don’t know if I would go so far as to say we would have had as much success. Obviously we have a lot of faith within our group that we can get the job done.”

In a surprising twist given the one-sided Boston-Toronto matchup the past few seasons, the Leafs had more playoff success against the Bruins than did the playoff-experienced Rangers and talent-loaded Penguins.

And figure this out: Phil Kessel’s four post-season goals vs. Boston are more than Rick Nash (2), Brad Richards (1), Sidney Crosby and Evgeni Malkin (zeroes) combined.

What did the Leafs do that Pittsburgh should have?

“Everybody prepares their team differently,” said Carlyle. “There were some things that we did that gave us a comfort zone in the way we were playing. In the end, it’s your players who put it all on the line. You really have to outcompete players in certain situations.”

The Leafs got better goaltending from James Reimer than Pittsburgh did from Tomas Vokoun, with the game-deflating goals he allowed.

The Leafs played the Bruins physically, hitting Zdeno Chara at every opportunity, and used speed to their advantage. The Penguins may not be as fast as the Leafs, but they’re as big as the Bruins and arguably more skilled. The Pens tried to be physical but in the end it might have worked against them, getting them off their passing game.

The Bruins made a point of saying their Game 7 comeback against Toronto was a turning point, where the momentum began.

“It’s not surprising how they’ve played since then,” said Carlyle. “They’ve gotten healthy again, too, which is a huge advantage. (Dennis) Seidenberg is back. (Andrew) Ference is back. They got a chance to rest some bodies. They feel much better about themselves.”

As for the Leafs, that late collapse still gnaws.

“It sucks,” said Scrivens. “I don’t know if we’ll ever get over it. All you can do is take what you can from it and try to implement it going forward.”

Added Carlyle: “Inevitably, it shows the difference between winning and losing is minute. When you get to play at the level of the playoffs, the one blocked shot, the one clear, the one faceoff can make all the difference in the world. That’s a learning experience for us.”

Toronto Star LOADED: 06.09.2013


Dallas Eakins fits the bill for Oilers

By Mike Zeisberger ,Toronto Sun

First posted: Sunday, June 09, 2013 02:13 AM EDT

TORONTO - To understand what kind of impact Dallas Eakins could have on the cache of young budding stars in Edmonton, consider the strong endorsement provided by Jake Gardiner, one of his former AHL students.

“All I can say is that if he goes to Edmonton, those Oilers players are getting a great coach,” the Maple Leafs defenceman said in a phone interview Saturday evening.

“With Dallas, you always know where you stand. He teaches you about the game. And he treats his players like adults.”

Adults who, at times, will be the recipients of tough love from Eakins if need be.

“He can get on you, but he’s always fair, always looking to make you a better player,” Gardiner said.

Eakins has been a hot commodity on the coaching market in past weeks, having already interviewed twice with the Vancouver Canucks and reportedly scheduled to meet with officials of the Dallas Stars this weekend. The New York Rangers were said to have some interest on that front as well.

But the Oilers, perhaps realizing that they had to act fast if they wanted to land the highly-coveted Eakins, seem to be on the verge of coming out on top in the sweepstakes for the Toronto Marlies bench boss after announcing on Saturday that coach Ralph Krueger had been fired.

The Oilers apparently chatted with Eakins at the NHL prospects combine in Toronto late last month about being an associate coach to Kreuger. Such a setup likely would have been unfair to Krueger, since he consistently would be looking over his shoulder. Indeed, any losing funk would have ignited calls from the public and media for Eakins to take over.

The expectation in the hockey world is that Eakins will formally be announced as Oilers head coach in the next few days. A number of reports suggest an agreement in principle already is in place, although nothing official has been released by the team as of yet.

In compiling a 157-114-41 mark in four seasons with the Marlies, Eakins was best known for his development of kids, refining their talents in a way that made them better prepared for the NHL level. With the uber-talented Taylor Hall, Jordan Eberle, Sam Gagner, Ryan Nugent-Hopkins and Nail Yakupov on the Edmonton roster, an Eakins-Oilers marriage seems like a perfect fit.

Gardiner and Nazem Kadri are two of the better examples of Eakins’ handywork.

“When I first came in, he spoke with me regularly,” Gardiner said. “Even through my (concussion) issues. And he always let me know what I needed to do to get better.

“He’s always looking to help you improve.”

The Eakins-Kadri relationship had its hiccups. The coach didn’t care that Kadri was a former first round pick. All that mattered were results.

As a result, there were benchings. There were disagreements. There was even criticism of Kadri’s eating habits last September.

In the end, after all that, Eakins made Kadri a better player. An NHL calibre player.

“Dallas Eakins and me really beared down, and he stuck with me the whole way, and that’s what you get — results,” Kadri said earlier this year. “It may have taken a couple years — a long couple years — but it’s worth it in the end.”

If a deal is finalized, the Oilers are banking that Eakins will have the same effect on Hall and Co.

Toronto Sun LOADED: 06.09.2013


Simmons: Bruins would have taken Pogge instead of Rask from Maple Leafs for Raycroft

By Steve Simmons ,Toronto Sun

First posted: Saturday, June 08, 2013 09:41 PM EDT | Updated: Saturday, June 08, 2013 09:45 PM EDT

TORONTO - The trade that sent Tuukka Rask to the Boston Bruins could have been made without the emerging superstar involved.

According to those close to the deal, the Bruins would have happily accepted young goaltender Justin Pogge in exchange for Andrew Raycroft.

The problem at the time was, Leafs general manager John Ferguson was uneasy about moving Pogge, wasn’t convinced Rask was better and wouldn’t agree to move Pogge because he had won the gold medal playing for Team Canada at the world junior championships that year.

Ferguson told his senior staff that “we’d get killed for trading the gold medal goalie,” so he agreed to make the deal with Boston, which was questionable at the time and looks horrendous in retrospect.

Rask has emerged as one of the top goalies of this generation while Pogge, who played this season in Italy, managed just seven NHL games.

The worst part of the Raycroft deal wasn’t how he played for the Leafs. The worst part was finding out later the Bruins would have released him had they not traded him, making him available to the Leafs without any compensation at all.

Rask, by the way, is the best first-round pick the Leafs have made since Vincent Damphousse 27 years ago.

THIS AND THAT

The talk around Toronto remains: What if? What if the Leafs had beaten the Bruins in Round 1. What then? And it’s exactly that talk that concerns Leafs management, who worry expectations will be through the roof next season. It’s fans and media who are playing: What if? They’re not ... The least likely statistical comparison of the post-season: Phil Kessel, James van Riemsdyk and Cody Franson combined for 19 points against the Eastern Conference champion Boston Bruins. Sidney Crosby, Evgeni Malkin and Kris Letang (and you can throw Jarome Iginla in there) combined for zero points against Boston ... You had to notice (although television didn’t) that the series-winning goal for Boston was tipped in by Iginla and that Jaromir Jagr was on the ice in the final minute of play, defending a one-goal lead for Boston ... Why statistics occasionally mean nothing: Jagr has yet to score in the playoffs, has only scored twice in 28 games as a Bruin and makes a difference almost every night he plays ... I suppose the slam-dunk choice of Dan Bylmsa to coach the U.S. Olympic hockey team is no longer a slam dunk. Which makes me wonder: Considering the history, would USA Hockey consider Ron Wilson again? He did a terrific job in Vancouver in 2010. And if the choices come down to the devalued Bylsma, the fired John Tortorella, the barely hanging on Peter Laviolette, the also-fired Joe Sacco, why not Wilson? Or why not Jack Capuano of the Islanders?

HEAR AND THERE

Richard Peddie has a book coming out. Can’t wait to read the chapter on how he hired GM Ferguson and Rob Babcock, set the Leafs and Raptors back a decade and cost Maple Leaf Sports and Entertainment more than $50 million because of it ... When Brian Burke was running the Leafs, he was convinced he had a deal made with the Los Angeles Kings for a minor-league defenceman. The defenceman’s name: Slava Voynov. In the end it didn’t happen. Voynov has since emerged as a top-20 NHL defenceman ... No truth in these numbers: David Krejci, the best forward in the playoffs, at $5.2 million a year, will earn less than Mikhail Grabovski and probably Tyler Bozak next year and the year after ... On the Bozak front, the Leafs have a salary number in mind for the useful centre. Should Bozak choose to reach for the financial stars, the Leafs will say goodbye and take a serious look at Stephen Weiss in that spot ... If the guy carelessly flinging his hockey stick was named Raffi Torres and not Duncan Keith, would the suspension have been lifetime? ... Torres, by the way, is a fascinating free agent to watch. There should be all kinds of interest in him come July 5 ... The Leafs aren’t

expecting to make an offer on free agent Clarke MacArthur, whom they like personally, just not necessarily professionally.

SCENE AND HEARD

This is how you know Alex Rodriguez is guilty of something. He’s already added Ryan Braun’s lawyer to his team ... One thing that accompanies almost every baseball drug scandal/investigation: Either Major League Baseball or the courts have to depend on some steroid slimeball to make their case. It is a murky place with murky people — see federal cases against Barry Bonds and Roger Clemens — and commissioner Bud Selig is heading down that road with Tony Bosch ... Some questions all baseball players should be asking: Why are almost all drug investigations and positive test results leaked to the media before they become official? Where is the security on these matters? If baseball can’t secure itself, and its drug related business how is a players’ best interests protected? ... The deals for Iginla and Brenden Morrow added next nothing to the Pittsburgh Penguins. But if GM Ray Shero doesn’t bring in Tomas Vokoun as an insurance policy, the implosion of the Pens would have happened earlier. The Vokoun move was Shero’s best of the season ... The Leafs will look for a Vokoun-type veteran goalie to pair with James Reimer next season. Despite a strong season, there are still concerns about some Reimer fundamentals, primarily his abilty to catch the puck and control rebounds ... Memo to the guy upstairs: It’s June. A little warm weather and some sunshine would be nice.

AND ANOTHER THING

Tim Leiweke must think Toronto FC fans are idiots. Why else tape the condescending video message to fans, which included this beauty: “I know that we haven’t had a good run of it lately here.” Ah, Tim. Lately? Let’s recap for a moment: Franchise was born in 2007. Finished last among 13 Major League Soccer teams. Since then, the league has expanded by six teams. Last year, they finished last among 19 teams. In between, no playoffs. When exactly was that good run you were talking about? ... Good times for John Farrell, the manager who wanted out and maybe knew why. His Red Sox are in first place. His son Luke was drafted by Kansas City on Friday ...The Cleveland Cavaliers have the first pick in the NBA and $19 million in cap space. The Raptors have no draft picks and no cap space ... So I repeat: The more I watch Zdeno Chara the more I want to scream about him not being a Norris Trophy finalist. Ryan Suter, I understand, but how do you vote Kris Letang and P.K. Subban ahead of the giant ... Someone is going to overpay huge for free agent Bryan Bickell, who is picking the right year to show himself ... The Yasiel Puig kid who is lighting it up for the Dodgers in his first major league week is the same Yasiel Puig who played for Cuba at the 2008 world junior championships in Edmonton ... A Canadian, either Cory Joseph or Joel Anthony (who already has one), is assured an NBA championship ring this season. Other Canadians with rings: Bill Wennington, Mike Smrek and Rick Fox. And the sad part, doesn’t look like Steve Nash, now the oldest player in the NBA, is ever going to get one in his spectacular career ... Born this date: The Sheik, the original one, best heel ever, not the bloated comedian The Iron Sheik: And a happy birthday to Bryan McCabe (38), Dave Parker (62), Peja Stojakovic (36), Jim Corsi (59), Andre Racicot (44), Rob Ray (45) and Udonis Haslem (33) ... And hey, whatever became of Terry Ruskowski?

WHERE NOW?

What now for the Pittsburgh Penguins?

Four seasons have gone by since the Pittsburgh Penguins won the Stanley Cup and for the fourth straight playoff season, the Penguins have really not looked anything like a champion, losing again to a team that finished below them in the standings.

Yes, they have Sidney Crosby and Evgeni Malkin and James Neal and Kris Letang and all the parts that should add up to champion. And when they brought in veterans Jarome Iginla and Brenden Morrow before the trade deadline, that was supposed to mean this is the year. But they’re not just out again — they’re out in terrible way.

Just as they were against Montreal and Tampa Bay two years back and Philadelphia a year ago.

Since winning the Cup, they have looked nothing like a contender in the playoffs. Their style of game is wrong. Their approach is wrong. Their strategies are wrong. Their defence isn’t strong enough or tough enough. Their goaltending is just average, sometimes worse.

The window of opportunity, which surrounds Crosby and Malkin, can barely be seen through. It is that gummy. General manager Ray Shero and staff must do a detailed analysis to determine why it is this team can’t advance

and what it needs to do going forward. The examination has to start with the future of coach Dan Bylsma. But it has go even farther than just that: It is just the Penguins aren’t winning the Cup. They’re not even close to contending, losing annually to teams they’re supposed to be better than.

MAN VS. FRANCHISE

The Toronto Raptors played their first NBA game two years before Tim Duncan played his first game with the San Antonio Spurs. But, in essence, the length of Duncan’s NBA career is quite similar to the Raptors time as a professional franchise.

And that’s about all that is similar: Duncan is playing for his fifth NBA championship now, having suited up for 205 playoff games, 131 of those on the winning side. As a member of the Spurs, he has won 30 playoff rounds in his career and should the Spurs win against Miami, that will make 31 rounds.

By comparison, having played two years longer, the Raptors have won one playoff round in 18 seasons, have taken part in 28 playoff games in total, won just 11 of them and have never won a best-of-seven series.

In the year Duncan was chosen first, the Raps used their first pick on Tracy McGrady, who still happens to be in the NBA, on the bench of the San Antonio Spurs.

WHO REPLACES DALLAS EAKINS?

The Maple Leafs say they have no idea who the next coach of the Toronto Marlies will be. I find that hard to believe.

You don’t easily replace a Dallas Eakins. He was that valuable. He was that important to the recent success of the Maple Leafs. With Randy Carlyle coaching the Leafs and Eakins coaching the Marlies the Leafs had as strong a staff as anyone in hockey.

Now Eakins is apparently gone, headed to Edmonton to be coach of the young Oilers. And who better to take over a team full of young and somewhat dubious stars than a man who sharply and strongly developed players that enabled the Leafs to move forward this season.

Eakins had opportunities: He interviewed twice in Vancouver, filled out a Rangers questionaire, talked to Dallas people and was talked to by Edmonton for a associate coaching job. Apparently the Oilers were so impressed with him they scrapped the associate idea and will proceed to Eakins as head coach.

The appointment for Eakins is well deserved. The hard part now: Replacing him.

Toronto Sun LOADED: 06.09.2013


Why the Blackhawks’ model will not work for every team

Cam Cole | 13/06/08 | Last Updated: 13/06/07 4:35 PM ET

LOS ANGELES — The Chicago Blackhawks, according to popular opinion, are hockey’s last hope.

Penguins still waiting for Sidney Crosby to put imprint on series

Now that the Boston Bruins are bullying the evidently feckless Pittsburgh Penguins out of the East playoffs the same way they elbowed the skilled but soft Vancouver Canucks into the ditch in the 2011 Stanley Cup final, it is up to the Blackhawks to save NHL hockey from itself.

Really?

No, not really.

But you can make the argument, and plenty of people are.

The Blackhawks’ high-end skill, speed and ridiculous depth are carrying them past the beat-up Los Angeles Kings — they lead the Western Conference final 3-1, with a probable closeout Game 5 in Chicago on Saturday — and in a league that tends to try to mimic whatever successful formula seems to be working, the theory is that the Windy City Method could help halt the descent of professional hockey into the darkness.

The reasoning is as follows, and it’s all right as far as it goes: the Bruins won the 2011 Cup, the Kings took it last year using similar strategy, and the two might well have been facing one another in this year’s finals if the Kings hadn’t had a bunch of stars maimed* by their doppelgangers, the St. Louis Blues, in the first round.

(*-to be revealed only after elimination.)

I think there’s a lot of talk made about size, you know, big teams and all that. Quite honest, it’s a bunch of bull

Which means that the current trend is unmistakably toward bigger, meaner, defence-oriented clubs that forecheck and grind, roll four lines, negate the other team’s skilled players, and try to cycle and spend time in the offensive end waiting to pounce on a breakdown in coverage.

It’s worked for Claude Julien’s Bruins and Darryl Sutter’s Kings, and the Blues under Ken Hitchcock are well on their way to joining the queue. Ditto Todd McLellan’s San Jose Sharks, who have greatly modified their style.

The less successful teams — say the Edmonton Oilers, for argument’s sake, but should-be-better teams like Washington, too — have had it driven home over and over that talent is only half the story.

Sutter contends that in the bigger picture, there is nothing new in any of this. Successful teams have always followed the basic tenets of the Bruins-Kings championship clubs.

And the 2008 Red Wings and 2010 Blackhawks were no pushovers, either. The Wings couldn’t have beaten those Penguins, or vice versa a year later, and the Hawks couldn’t have beaten the Flyers, without a goodly measure of grit.

But granted: the Bruins and Kings have taken it to another level.

“The last two teams that won the Stanley Cup play great team games, get contributions from everybody in the lineup,” Sutter said the other day. “You have to be able to play a 200-foot game, you have to be very disciplined in all three zones, you have to stay out of the penalty box — you can play a physical game without taking penalties. That has an impact on the other team’s top players and on your ability to defend.”

A 200-foot game? That’s a Mike Babcock-ism.

The idea that these concepts are somehow new, or threatening to the future of hockey, is humorous. The only addition to the formula is size, though that’s no minor addition, given that the rinks aren’t getting any bigger.

“I think there’s a lot of talk made about size, you know, big teams and all that. Quite honest, it’s a bunch of bull,” Sutter said this week. “I think

everybody’s team average is 6’1″ and about 204. That’s what our team is, that’s what their team is. Some guys are just under it, some just over it.”

Well, he may be close on the macro numbers, but it’s undeniable that open ice is scarce now, and the best teams are the ones that clog up what little of it there is.

“It’s a four-line game with lots of physical play,” is how Hitchcock put it in conversation with ESPN’s Pierre LeBrun a couple of days ago. “The harder you check, the more scoring chances you’re going to get.

“But it doesn’t happen unless you have defencemen who can move the puck, that allows you to get on the forecheck. Both Los Angeles and Boston have great defence who can head-man the puck and get them out of trouble.”

“You gotta be able to transition,” Detroit GM Ken Holland said during the Wings’ series with the Blackhawks, who employ the stretch pass better than any team in the game.

“You gotta defend, but part of transition is having great defencemen, defencemen with the ability to get the puck and — instead of just going up the wall and chipping it to safety — quickly get the puck into the hands of the forwards, so you can head off in the other direction.

“Those are the types of teams you want to build. We’d like to get bigger in some areas, but I still believe the elite puck-moving defenceman is as valuable as any player in the game.”

Enter the Blackhawks. On a white horse.

The Penguins, alas, are on the way to proving that even the very best skill and panache don’t get it done against a well-coached team that’s committed to pushing the opposition’s top players out of the game through irritation or intimidation, or just hard-nosed defence. (And, goaltending woes aside, one look at the Pittsburgh blueline and it’s frankly hard to believe the Pens got this far.)

Joel Quenneville’s Hawks, though, are a different breed. A hybrid, one step up from the Red Wings, who surprise opponents with a general toughness that belies their physical appearance.

These Blackhawks have the most of the most: better top-end talent, better scoring depth, better speed throughout the lineup. Size, too, in forwards like the aptly-nicknamed Hoss, Marian Hossa, and Jonathan Toews and playoff stud Bryan Bickell, and a deep blueline that was comfortably able to compensate for the loss to suspension of their best defenceman, Duncan Keith, in Game 4 Thursday.

You gotta defend, but part of transition is having great defencemen, defencemen with the ability to get the puck

They are so good, in fact, that they only need goalie Corey Crawford to be average and not give up too many softies. He gave one up Thursday to Dustin Penner, and the Hawks survived it.

So if Chicago happens to win it all this year, will the game be rescued from its cynical tendencies?

Sure. All teams need to do is draft a lot of high-end players, let them develop for five years, fill in with canny acquisitions, have four terrific lines and five high-end defencemen, and keep them all together in a salary cap system.

Good luck with that.

If there’s any truth to the idea that hockey is headed in a negative direction, it’s only because the team that’s got it all is too damned hard to build. Getting there the other way is slightly more attainable.

National Post LOADED: 06.09.2013

680539 Vancouver Canucks

Why Eakins to Edmonton won’t been seen as a loss in Vancouver

June 8, 2013. 3:02 pm

Posted by:

Jason Botchford

Canucks fans should have been pulling for the Boston Bruins and Chicago Blackhawks all along.

Coaching candidate Dallas Eakins was back in Vancouver this week for his second interview as the Canucks search to replace Alain Vigneault. But he left without an offer, and he’s not likely going to get one from the Canucks.

The second interview was more about collecting information than hiring Eakins. Essentially a courtesy call for a guy they like a lot, but one lacking NHL experience.

There are already reports Eakins is readying to take a job in Edmonton.

From the Canucks side, all of this was expected. From the start, the Canucks wanted someone who had been an NHL head coach. They are loath to hand the keys of a veteran group to a coach who will be learning on the job.

What they’ve been waiting for is the Chicago Blackhawks to beat out the L.A. Kings in the Western Conference final.

That’s so they can finally talk to the favourite John Stevens, the Kings assistant and former head coach of the Philadelphia Flyers.

But while the Canucks were taking their typically patient approach, the Pittsburgh Penguins were getting smashed to rubble in a series against the Bruins.

It may — and I stress “may” — have changed things.

Sure, it looked stunningly similar to final five games of the 2011 Stanley Cup final when the Bruins throttled the Canucks. But that one didn’t get a coach fired.

This one could, yet.

There is widespread speculation Pittsburgh’s loss, an embarrassing sweep, may be enough to convince GM Ray Shero and team chairman Mario Lemieux it’s time to dismiss Dan Bylsma.

It was the fourth consecutive disappointing postseason for the perennially favoured Pens, including two first-round exits, one second round kiss-off and this year’s meltdown in the Eastern Conference final.

The Pens were healthy, and supposedly loaded after Shero made a string of “win now” moves leading up to the trade deadline.

It remains a long shot Bylsma gets gassed. But just a week ago the idea seemed straight off of Fantasy Island. His team finished first in the East and made it to the conference final.

Coaches, however, get fired for not winning Stanley Cups all the time. It happened to Vigneault. It happened to John Tortorella. And, over-reaction or not, it could happen to Bylsma.

At the very least, after Pittsburgh’s no-show versus Boston, the concept of firing Bylsma has entered the world of the plausible and is worth exploring.

Bylsma has one year left on his current contract, meaning the Penguins are either going to let him go or they’re going to sign him to an extension. It’s unheard of to bring a coach like Bylsma back in the final year of his deal, making him something of a lame duck.

If Bylsma is let go, there are already reports he would bolt to the top of the New York Rangers wish list.

The Canucks will race them to him.

If Bylsma is available he’ll shuttle past both Stevens and Eakins and instantly become the Canucks top candidate.

He’s experienced. He’s highly regarded. He’s 42, creative and he’s squeezed a lot out of the team’s best players, keeping the Penguins at the top of the standings even without Sidney Crosby.

He’s a proven communicator. His teams led the league in goals scored the past two years. A calling card of his offence is an active, puck-pushing defence which plays right into what the Canucks have been trying to build since GM Mike Gillis took over.

Bylsma has also done something none of the other candidates have done. He’s won a Stanley Cup as a head coach.

It could set up quite a showdown between the Rangers and the Canucks. A sort of rematch from the 1994 Stanley Cup.

In this scenario, Bylsma would have to make a choice that will go far beyond what he thinks of the two rosters.

He’s been a Eastern Conference guy, would he be eager to switch conferences to the much tougher, defensively obsesseed West?

Who would he rather work with, Glen Sather or Mike Gillis?

And, maybe most importantly, who would pay him more?

Would Franseco Aquilini be willing to go all-in, committing big dollars to a coach whose best playoff run was four years ago?

This is a coach whose team was out-scored 12-2 in the conference final despite having both Crosby and Evgeni Malkin. That could be a tough sell for the Canucks, a team that is rumoured to be focusing more on peny-pinching after two disappointing playoff runs.

Would they be willing to compete financially with the Rangers if this comes down to a bidding war?

If they are convinced Bylsma is the guy, they’d have no choice.

Something else to consider is the Penguins hold something of a trump card.

With Bylsma signed through the 2013-14 season, teams would still have to get permission from the Penguins to interview him. When the NHL moves to its four-division format next season, the Penguins and Rangers will be in the same division.

I can’t imagine the Pittsburgh loving the idea of banging heads with a Bylsma-led Rangers’ team for the next few seasons. Not only is he a good coach, he knows the Penguins organization, and its players, inside and out.

Would they block the Rangers from hiring Bylsma?

Now, that’d be something.

Vancouver Province: LOADED: 06.09.2013


Canucks, Rangers could bang heads over Bylsma

By Jason Botchford, The Province June 8, 2013

Canucks fans should have been pulling for the Boston Bruins and Chicago Blackhawks all along.

Coaching candidate Dallas Eakins was back in Vancouver this week for his second interview as the Canucks search to replace Alain Vigneault. But he left without an offer, and he wasn’t likely going to get one from the Canucks.

The second interview was more about collecting information than hiring Eakins. Essentially a courtesy call for a guy they like a lot, but one lacking NHL experience.

He’s going to get some now, as Eakins was hired Saturday by the Edmonton Oilers to replace Ralph Krueger.

From the Canucks’ side, all of this was expected. From the start, the Canucks wanted someone who had been an NHL head coach. They are loath to hand the keys of a veteran group to a coach who will be learning on the job.

What they’ve been waiting for is the Chicago Blackhawks to beat out the L.A. Kings in the Western Conference final.

That’s so they can finally talk to the favourite John Stevens, the Kings assistant and former head coach of the Philadelphia Flyers.

But while the Canucks were taking their typically patient approach, the Pittsburgh Penguins were getting smashed to rubble in a series against the Bruins.

It may — stress, “may” — have changed everything.

Sure, it looked stunningly similar to final five games of the 2011 Stanley Cup final when the Bruins throttled the Canucks. But that one didn’t get a coach fired.

This one could, yet.

There is widespread speculation Pittsburgh’s loss, an embarrassing four-game sweep, may be enough to convince GM Ray Shero and team chairman Mario Lemieux it’s time to dismiss Dan Bylsma.

It was the fourth consecutive disappointing postseason for the perennially favoured Pens, including two first-round exits, one second round kiss-off and this year’s meltdown in the Eastern Conference final.

The Pens were healthy, and supposedly loaded after Shero made a string of “win now” moves leading up to the trade deadline.

It remains a long shot Bylsma gets gassed. But just a week ago the idea seemed straight off of Fantasy Island. His team finished first in the East and made it to the conference final.

Coaches, however, get fired for not winning Stanley Cups all the time. It happened to Vigneault. It happened to John Tortorella. And, over-reaction or not, it could happen to Bylsma.

At the very least, after Pittsburgh’s no-show versus Boston, the concept of firing Bylsma has entered the world of the plausible and is worth exploring.

Bylsma has one year left on his current contract, meaning the Penguins are either going to let him go or they’re going to sign him to an extension. It’s unheard of to bring a coach like Bylsma back in the final year of his deal, making him something of a lame duck.

If Bylsma is let go, there are already reports he would bolt to the top of the New York Rangers’ wish list.

The Canucks will race them to him.

If Bylsma is available, he’ll shuttle past both Stevens and Eakins and instantly become the Canucks’ top candidate.

He’s experienced. He’s highly regarded. He’s 42, creative and he’s squeezed a lot out of the team’s best players, keeping the Penguins at the top of the standings even without Sidney Crosby.

He’s a proven communicator. His teams led the league in goals scored the past two years. A calling card of his offence is an active, puck-pushing defence which plays right into what the Canucks have been trying to build since GM Mike Gillis took over.

Bylsma has also done something none of the other candidates have done. He’s won a Stanley Cup as a head coach.

It could set up quite a showdown between the Rangers and the Canucks. A sort of rematch from the 1994 Stanley Cup.

In this scenario, Bylsma would have to make a choice that will go far beyond what he thinks of the two rosters.

He’s been an Eastern Conference guy, would he be eager to switch conferences to the much tougher, defensively obsessed West?

Who would he rather work with, Glen Sather or Mike Gillis?

And, maybe most importantly, who would pay him more?

Would Francesco Aquilini be willing to go all-in, committing big dollars to a coach whose best playoff run was four years ago?

This is a coach whose team was out-scored 12-2 in the conference final despite having both Crosby and Evgeni Malkin. That could be a tough sell for the Canucks, a team that is rumoured to be focusing more on penny-pinching after two disappointing playoff runs.

Would they be willing to compete financially with the Rangers if this comes down to a bidding war?

If they are convinced Bylsma is the guy, they’d have no choice.

Something else to consider is the Penguins hold something of a trump card.

With Bylsma signed through the 2013-14 season, teams would still have to get permission from the Penguins to interview him. When the NHL moves to its four-division format next season, the Penguins and Rangers will be in the same division.

I can’t imagine the Pittsburgh loving the idea of banging heads with a Bylsma-led Rangers’ team for the next few seasons. Not only is he a good coach, he knows the Penguins organization, and its players, inside and out.

Would they block the Rangers from hiring Bylsma?

Now, that’d be something.



Dallas Eakins hired as Edmonton Oilers coach, meaning one less candidate for the Canucks' job

By Ed Willes, The Province June 8, 2013

One of the NHL's coaching dominos has fallen with news that Dallas Eakins will be named head coach of the Edmonton Oilers.

Another might fall shortly if the Chicago Blackhawks eliminate the Los Angeles Kings on Saturday night.

According to NHL sources, Eakins will succeed Ralph Krueger in Edmonton in a marriage between one of the game's bright young coaches and one of its bright young teams. Eakins had interviewed for the vacant Vancouver Canucks' job but Canucks' GM Mike Gillis was reportedly leery about Eakins' lack of experience. The Peterborough native has coached the AHL Toronto Marlies and been an assistant with the Maple Leafs, but does not have an NHL head coaching job on his resume.

It's believed the Oilers, who are loaded with young talent, released Krueger because of Eakins' availability.

That leaves the Canucks still searching and the top candidate appears to be Los Angeles Kings' assistant John Stevens, who's yet to interview with Gillis. Stevens and the Kings are currently in the Western Conference finals but the Kings face elimination on Saturday night in Chicago.


680542 Winnipeg Jets

How will Winnipeg Jets stack up in the wild Midwest?

By Ken Wiebe

First posted: Saturday, June 08, 2013 06:07 PM CDT

Updated: Saturday, June 08, 2013 06:38 PM CDT

Jets The Jets will play teams like the Chicago Blackhawks much more frequently in the coming seasons and they will have to adjust their style to find success in the new division.

How will the Winnipeg Jets stack up as they make the move to the Western Conference?

It’s a question many have asked and to be perfectly honest, the answer is going to be tough to find until we have a better idea what the Jets’ revamped roster actually looks like this fall.

After seeing only teams from the Eastern Conference during the lockout-shortened season, there will be an adjustment period to be sure.

But to suggest the Jets are in a signficiantly tougher position than they were the past two seasons isn’t necessarily true either.

From where I sit, the challenges simply remain formidable.

Speaking of those challengers:

* The Chicago Blackhawks lost only seven games in regulation time during the lockout, captured the Presidents’ Trophy and feature a collection of stars that include captain and Winnipegger Jonathan Toews.

* The St. Louis Blues had home-ice advantage in the first round of the Stanley Cup playoffs for the second straight spring under head coach Ken Hitchcock and have a glut of goalies, one of which could turn into an asset up front or on the blue line.

* The Minnesota Wild won the lottery last summer by convincing the top two free agents on the market, Zach Parise and Ryan Suter, to sign on the dotted line for the long term.

* The Dallas Stars convinced Jim Nill to leave the Detroit Red Wings to run his own team as general manager after being pursued for years.

* The Nashville Predators suffered through an injury-plagued season, but hold the fourth overall pick in the 2013 NHL Entry Draft and have goalie Pekka Rinne and defenceman Shea Weber on board, so you can expect them to reload rather than rebuild after qualifying for the playoffs in eight of the previous nine seasons.

* The team making the most noise during the off-season, the Colorado Avalanche, have already brought in a pair of Hall of Famers to run the team in Patrick Roy and Joe Sakic, plus the hold the first overall selection and will either be adding Seth Jones or Nathan MacKinnon to a young and exciting core.

--

Welcome to the Midwest Division (or whatever it’s actually going to be called), where the Jets will reside after spending the first two seasons back in the NHL playing in the Southeast Division.

There’s been plenty of talk about how the game is played a bit differently in the West compared to the East, with one popular theory that life in the East features a little more high-end talent but the West has a bit more of a rough-and-tumble style.

Predators head coach and Dauphin product Barry Trotz — the longest serving bench boss in the NHL — was consulted to weigh in on that issue and cautioned against making such generalizations.

“I’d like to say it is, but there really isn’t that much difference,” Trotz said from Nashville in a recent telephone interview. “What you’re going to see is a different style of teams. Both conferences have teams that are comparable. L.A. would be the Boston Bruins here. When you say there’s a different style of hockey, I don’t think so. There would just be a different grouping in terms of what you expect from teams.”

Basically what Trotz is saying is that whether a team is in the East or West is mostly irreleveant.

Some teams play physical, grind-it-out hockey, others are a little more run-and-gun while some find themselves in between or utilizing a combination of both styles of play.

With the salary cap going down to $64.3 million, it figures to be an exciting summer ahead, with the potential for plenty of moves to be made.

Some teams will be forced to shed salary while others could be in position to add high-end players that might not normally be available.

There are sure to be challenges for the Jets as they shift conferences, but it’s important to note that only three of the seven teams (Blackhawks, Blues, Wild) in the Midwest Division qualified for the Stanley Cup playoffs and the Blackhawks were the only one to make it to the second round.

For now, here’s a refresher course on how those teams are currently configured.

Chicago Blackhawks

2013 record: 36-7-5, 77 points, 1st in West

Head coach: Joel Quenneville (6th season)

General manager: Stan Bowman (4th season)

Captain: Jonathan Toews

Leading scorer: Patrick Kane (23G, 55P, 47GP)

Top blue-liner: Duncan Keith

Starting goalie: Corey Crawford

Free agents: C Viktor Stalberg (UFA), C Michal Handzus (UFA), LW Bryan Bickell (UFA), RW Jamal Mayers (UFA), D Michal Rozsival (UFA), G Ray Emery (UFA), C Marcus Kruger (RFA), D Nick Leddy (RFA).

Big off-season question: What type of tinkering needs to be done to the team that captured the Stanley Cup in 2010 and has already made the Final 4 in 2013.

Prognosis: Right now, the Blackhawks look like they’ll be the class of the division next season.

St. Louis Blues

2013 record: 29-17-2, 60 points, 4th in West

Head coach: Ken Hitchcock (3rd season)

General manager: Doug Armstrong (4th season)

Captain: David Backes

Leading scorer: Chris Stewart (18G, 36P, 48GP)

Top blue-liner: Alex Pietrangelo

Starting goalie: Brian Elliott, Jake Allen

Key free agents: C Andy McDonald (UFA), RW Jamie Langenbrunner (UFA), D Jordan Leopold (UFA), RW Chris Stewart (RFA), C Patrik Berglund (RFA), RW Evgeny Grachev (RFA), D Kevin Shattenkirk), D Alex Pietrangelo (RFA), D Kris Russell (RFA).

Big off-season question: How will Armstrong bolster a lineup that has been great in the regular season but was bounced the past two years in the first round?

Prognosis: The Blues likely move Jaroslav Halak or Brian Elliott to add depth and continue to be a force to be reckoned with.

Minnesota Wild


Head coach: Mike Yeo (3rd season)

General manager: Chuck Fletcher (5th season)

Captain: Mikko Koivu

Leading scorer: Zach Parise (18G, 38P, 48GP)

Top blue-liner: Ryan Suter

Starting goalie: Niklas Backstrom (he’ll be a UFA on July 5)

Key free agents: G Niklas Backstrom (UFA), C Matt Cullen (UFA), LW Pierre-Marc Bouchard (UFA), Brett Clark (UFA), D Jared Spurgeon (RFA), D Justin Falk (RFA).

Big off-season question: Where will the secondary scoring come from next season?

Prognosis: With Parise and Suter leading the way, the Wild should be dangerous — as long as they remain solid in goal.

Dallas Stars


Head coach: Vacant since Glen Gulutzan was fired. Candidates include Alain Vigneault, Lindy Ruff, Scott Arniel and possibly Dave Tippett if he doesn’t remain with Phoenix Coyotes

General manager: Jim Nill (1st season)

Captain: None since Brenden Morrow was moved to Pittsburgh Penguins

Leading scorer: Jamie Benn (12G, 33P, 41GP)

Top blue-liner: Alex Goligoski

Starting goalie: Kari Lehtonen

Key free agents: LW Eric Nystrom (UFA), D Jordie Benn (UFA), G Richard Bachman (RFA), RW Tom Wandell (RFA)

Big off-season question: Who will Nill hire to be his first head coach and what impact will he have on a franchise looking to get back into the post-season?

Prognosis: Nill knows all about being part of building a winner, so he’ll take the necessary steps to make the Stars relevant but it won’t likely happen overnight.

Nashville Predators


Head coach: Barry Trotz (15th season)

General manager: David Poile (16th season)

Captain: Shea Weber

Leading scorer: Shea Weber (9G, 28P, 48GP)

Top blue-liner: Shea Weber

Starting goalie: Pekka Rinne

Key free agents: G Chris Mason (UFA), D Jonathan Blum (RFA), D Roman Josi (RFA), C Nick Spaling (RFA), RW Matt Halischuk (RFA)

Big off-season question: Who will the Predators select fourth overall and can that player crack the roster immediately or will franchise stick with their blueprint of allowing prospects to slowly develop?

Prognosis: With the weight of the big contract behind him, Weber leads the Predators back into contention.

Colorado Avalanche


Head coach: Patrick Roy (1st season)

Executive vice-president of hockey operations: Joe Sakic (1st season)

Captain: Gabriel Landeskog

Leading scorer: PA Parenteau (18G, 43P, 48GP)

Top blue-liner: Erik Johnson

Starting goalie: Semyon Varlamov

Key free agents: RW Milan Hejduk (UFA), RW Chuck Kobasew (UFA)

Big off-season question: How will the transition from the QMJHL to the NHL go for first-time head coach and Hall of Fame goalie Patrick Roy?

Prognosis: Roy’s passion, combined with the building blocks the Avalanche have in place, figure to help the Avalanche improve immediately.

Winnipeg Sun LOADED 06.09.2013

680543 Websites

ESPN / Is Dan Bylsma on the hot seat?

Updated: June 8, 2013, 4:06 PM ET

By Scott Burnside | ESPN.com

PITTSBURGH -- In the end, it's likely going to take more guts for GM Ray Shero to keep Dan Bylsma as coach of the Pittsburgh Penguins than to fire him.

Because, let's be honest, in the wake of a four-game sweep at the hands of the Boston Bruins in the Eastern Conference finals in which the Pens somehow managed to score just two goals, never hold a lead, go 0-for-15 on the power play and get embarrassed 6-1 at home in Game 2, the easy thing to do would be to make a coaching change.

But would it be the right thing to do?

Well, that's where it gets a lot more complicated for Shero, who does not lack guts but is likewise a thoughtful, patient man. We're guessing both qualities will be brought to bear in making this decision after Friday's painful 1-0 loss in Boston that unceremoniously dumped the Eastern Conference's top seed to the sideline.

First, let's start with the measure of success.

There were 26 other NHL teams that would have been pleased to have had a berth in a conference final. When the Chicago Blackhawks and Los Angeles Kings close out their Western Conference finals, only two teams will have had more success than the Penguins this spring.

Given the parity in the NHL and the enormous challenge that even making it to the final four represents, such an achievement is not to be taken lightly and certainly can't be dismissed out of hand.

Everyone knows the expectations were much higher for this team from within the organization, from fans and hockey observers pretty much everywhere. Not everyone expected the Penguins to beat Boston, but it's fair to say no one expected they would lay such a giant egg at such a critical juncture in the season.

From Bylsma on down through the lineup, that was the message after Friday's game; that this was an opportunity lost.

This brings us to the next point.

Does the manner in which the Penguins lost have a bearing on how Shero will rule on his coaching situation?

That, too, is tricky.

Did Bylsma get outcoached by Claude Julien who, like Bylsma, is a former coach of the year, but a man who somehow has been underappreciated as a bench boss -- in Boston and beyond?

Julien got top production, especially early in the series, from his top guys. Playoff points leader David Krejci had four goals, and that's two more than the entire Penguins team registered.

Bylsma made lineup changes in the hopes of sparking some life into his moribund offense. He juggled lines, moving the strangely impotent Jarome Iginla down the lineup. He tried Joe Vitale and Tyler Kennedy and Beau Bennett.

Could he have done more? Should he have benched Iginla? Should he have installed him on Sidney Crosby's right side?

The Pens ended up with two goals. Take away the 6-1 loss in Game 2 and the Penguins allowed just six goals in the other three losses. Part of that is Bylsma's decision to stick with Tomas Vokoun after pulling him in the first period of Game 2. But the team didn't lose this series because it couldn't play defense.

So is it Bylsma's fault that the assembled talent of Crosby and Evgeni Malkin, both former scoring champs and league MVPs, and Norris Trophy nominee Kris Letang and sniper James Neal combined for exactly zero points in the series?

Is it the coach's fault that Letang turned into a turnover machine in the conference finals?

Or that his skilled players hit post after post or whiffed on wide-open shots game after game?

Is it Bylsma's fault that Malkin had only one shot on goal in Game 4 and missed a wide-open net when a last-second shot hit Zdeno Chara 's outstretched arm?

The fact the power play went 0-for-15 is problematic because it's generally accepted that special teams are about schemes and putting the right people in the positions to succeed. In short, that's where coaching acumen is brought to bear. Still, for the most part, there were quality chances but little in the way of quality finishing, unlike earlier in the playoffs, when the power play scored at will and entered the conference final as the most potent unit in the postseason.

No doubt Shero will listen closely to what his players are saying on their exit interviews.

Is this a team whose failures -- and make no mistake, this on many levels was an epic failure even if the Bruins were the catalyst to that failure with their poise and discipline -- stem from a team turning a deaf ear to the man behind the bench?

Bylsma couldn't be further removed from the caustic sometimes sarcastic demeanor of John Tortorella, who was fired shortly after the New York Rangers were beaten by Boston in the second round of the playoffs. But it was clear that whatever Rangers GM Glen Sather heard from his players as they parted ways for the summer was alarming enough that Sather made the unexpected move to remove his coach even though Tortorella was just one season removed from a trip to the Eastern Conference finals.

If Shero gets a sense from his players that they believe they are better off with someone else coaching them -- if in effect they abdicate responsibility for their two-goal performance -- it will be hard for Shero to keep Bylsma.

Our hunch is that's not the message Shero is going to hear, though.

There is a significant amount of pressure on Shero to fix what happened, just as there is always significant pressure on him to keep adding pieces in the hopes of creating another Stanley Cup-winning mix.

But among the questions Shero must consider is this one: If not Bylsma, then who?

Hard to imagine Lindy Ruff here, or Tortorella.

We're big fans of Alain Vigneault, yet he was fired for essentially walking a parallel track, failing to get a talented Vancouver Canucks team over the hump. Except Vigneault could get his team only to a Cup finals series, which they then blew, against Boston two years ago and Bylsma was the man behind the bench in 2009 when the Penguins ended a Cup drought that dated back to 1992.

In the past two seasons, Vigneault's Canucks went 1-8 in two first-round losses.

So, how does he represent a better option in Pittsburgh as opposed to simply a different option?

We had a conversation with an NHL coach this spring, and we talked about the disconnect that sometimes exists when determining whether a coach has been successful.

We talked about how it was generally perceived that Julien likely would have been fired had his team lost in the first round in the 2011 playoffs to Montreal, especially after losing the first two games at home. The Bruins rebounded and won their first Cup since 1972.

Still, when Boston blew a 3-1 series lead to Toronto and looked for certain as if it would lose Game 7 -- trailing 4-1 with about half the third period to play -- again the feeling was that Julien's job might be in jeopardy this spring.

They came back and now return to the finals for the second time in three years, surely cementing Julien's position for at least a few weeks.

We also talked with the coach about what might happen if the Penguins had lost to the New York Islanders in the first round. It would have marked the second time in four years they would have been beaten by the No. 8 seed (Montreal did it to the Pens in 2010) and the consensus was Bylsma could not afford a loss to the Isles.

After a wobbly few games that included Bylsma's gutsy decision to switch goaltenders, going from perpetual starter Marc-Andre Fleury to Vokoun, the Pens won in six, then dispatched Ottawa in five games.

We talk about the fine line between winning and losing in the playoffs, but the line between the employed and the unemployed is likewise razor thin.

In the coming days, Shero is going to have to decide on which side of that line Bylsma is going to stand.

It says here that, although it might not be the most popular decision or the easiest, Bylsma has earned the opportunity to stand once again on the side of the employed as coach of the Pittsburgh Penguins.

We'll find out soon enough whether Shero shares those sentiments.

ESPN LOADED: 06.09.2013

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Penguins pull shocking disappearing act

ESPN / Saturday, June 8, 2013

By Scott Burnside

BOSTON -- They had all the markings of greatness, but in the end the Pittsburgh Penguins were revealed as being something far, far less.

In less than a week, the star-studded Penguins were shown a great lesson about greatness, about will, about discipline and, ultimately, about moving on by the Boston Bruins.

As the time wound down in Boston’s 1-0 victory in Game 4 on Friday night, the Penguins must have, to a man, wondered how it all went so bad so quickly.

Four games, two goals, zero power play-goals, zero leads.

There is, quite simply, no other way to describe that output other than shocking.

"I share your disbelief [that] that's a possible storyline in this series,” Pittsburgh coach Dan Bylsma said. "You know, at times -- even going down to maybe the last play at net by [Evgeni] Malkin, when he had the empty net -- it felt like something was keeping the puck out of the net.

"It certainly wasn't lack of opportunity or scoring chances or situations for our team, for our players, for our power play. We did have them. And at the end it felt like not only Tuukka Rask was keeping the puck out of the net, but there was a force around the net, because we had some great opportunities, good situations for our team, our players, and were not able to find any kind of goal in this series, and never a lead."

In the Penguins locker room, Malkin, a man who had 10 shots in Game 3’s double-overtime loss but had just one shot in Game 4, sat hunched over as reporters crowded around captain Sidney Crosby and then James Neal.

Across the way, Pascal Dupuis, the last player to shed his gear, sat head down, eyes red with emotion.

This was a team that was built to win these kinds of games, to win this kind of series.

The Penguins added key personnel at the trade deadline in the form of Brenden Morrow and Jarome Iginla, who eschewed a trade to Boston to come to the Penguins, along with Douglas Murray and Jussi Jokinen.

Those players were added to help propel the Penguins through these kinds of moments. Instead, they conspired to somehow make the team slower, less fluid.

Iginla especially struggled in the Eastern Conference finals. He won few puck battles, contributed little on the power play and was finally shuffled down through the lineup.

"Obviously, we’re a very good team, too,” Iginla said. "We went cold at the wrong time, as far as going in. I had a very tough series, there’s no question about that. Those close games, we believed we were going to find a way to win those close games, and we didn’t and they did and they’re moving on. They played great hockey."

Ultimately, that Adam McQuaid’s rocket that would be the decisive goal in Game 4 would tick off Iginla’s stick would speak volumes about the wildly different paths these two teams had taken in this oh-so-brief series.

Six different Bruins scored in this series, and David Krejci outscored the entire Penguin roster with four goals.

And while neither team managed to score a single power-play goal in the series, combining to go 0-for-28, the Bruins were able to rise above it because they got just enough timely scoring, just enough timely saves from Rask, just a little bit more from their lineup.

"This series here against Pittsburgh was not a 4-0 series," Boston coach Claude Julien said. "I really felt that the breaks went our way in this series on a lot of occasions. You just have to look back right at the end of the game, where Malkin has the open net and Zdeno [Chara] makes the arm

save. They dinged some shots off the post. If those go in, it's a different series.

"That's the unfortunate part of this game, you know, sometimes as a team, you don't get the breaks and you wonder what you have to do. I think that's where Pittsburgh was a little snakebitten that way, and we were the team that was taking advantage of our breaks.

"That's not to say we didn't play well, because when you allow two goals to a team like that in four games, your team certainly deserves some credit. I think defensively our guys did a great job against their top players of taking away time and space."

In the end, the Bruins probably won’t get the credit they’re due in defusing the Penguins lineup, as the focus will be on the act of failing as opposed to the act of succeeding. When you look at the Penguins lineup and how little it generated, it is human nature to dwell on the negative.

The team’s star players -- Crosby, Malkin, Letang, Neal -- considered the best in the world at what they do, combined for zero points.

How does that happen?

In the Penguins dressing room, a mixture of stunned surprise and regret hung in the air.

"You know what? There weren’t times where we were worried, to be honest with you," offered captain Crosby. "Where we felt like we were losing momentum. There’s times where you get three, four shifts where they’re hemming you in and you feel like they’ve got a lot of pressure. There wasn’t really any point besides that second game where we felt like that.

"If you look back and chances are there, I mean, you try to fight, you try to get through to the net and get rebounds, and sometimes they come to you and sometimes they don’t. Obviously, you score two goals as a team in four games, and personally to go without any points, it doesn’t sit very well."

Neal finished the second round against Ottawa with a flourish, scoring five times and adding two assists in the last two games. In Game 4 against the Bruins, he had five shots and a number of solid chances but could not produce that one moment that might have changed the course of this series.

"Obviously, very disappointing," Neal said. "You know I look to score goals, like to score goals to help the team win, and the chances were there. I had some great shots, some great looks, but couldn’t find the back of the net, and their goalie came up big and a few unlucky bounces where the puck’s rolling a bit, but, I mean, no excuses. I’ve got to score and help the team win.

"It’s a tough feeling right now because you feel like you didn’t do anything when you go out four games like that."

If there is soul-searching within the dressing room, in the coming days there likely will be soul-searching in the boardrooms of the Penguins.

While the Bruins will rest and contemplate whether they will face the Los Angeles Kings or Chicago Blackhawks in their second trip to the Stanley Cup finals in three years, the Penguins will contemplate what went wrong and how best to fix it.

There seems little doubt general manager Ray Shero will move netminder Marc-Andre Fleury, who was pulled after Game 4 of the opening round and didn’t start another game (although he did come on in relief in Game 3 of the conference finals, a 6-1 loss to the Bruins).

There will be decisions on Letang, who can become an unrestricted free agent at the end of next season and as a Norris Trophy nominee will command top dollar and a significant term. But Letang was spotty during the playoffs and, while better in Game 4, struggled mightily against the Bruins’ forecheck in the first three games, forcing passes, committing turnovers and generally looking very un-Norris-like.

If Shero doesn’t think he can bring Letang under contract, he will likely explore moving him before next season.

"If we would have lost in seven, it’s the same result, we don’t move on. We want to move on," Letang said.

"Every year when we look at our dressing room, we think we have a chance. I think if we don’t reach the final, it’s a fail for us."

Most of the discussion, though, will be on Bylsma's future. Since winning the Stanley Cup in 2009 after replacing Michel Therrien midseason, the

Pens have beaten the Ottawa Senators twice and the New York Islanders once in the postseason.

Is that enough?

Is being among the final four this year enough for Shero to give Bylsma another shot at taking this team back to glory?

What is the measure of success for a coach and, more specifically, a coach who has such a wealth of options set before him, as has been the case in Pittsburgh?

Certainly Bylsma did not shy away from discussing the considerable expectations both internally and externally that his team failed to meet.

"Our team is a team that considers itself a team capable of winning a Stanley Cup, put together to win a Stanley Cup. That's our expectation from day one. That's how we build through the season. We certainly feel that we were a team that was capable of winning a Stanley Cup," Bylsma said. "So, you know, coming up short from that, no question, it's disappointing. No question, you feel like with the expectations that we have on ourselves, that the team has for this group, no question you're going to look at this as a missed opportunity."


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ESPN / Blackhawks roll right into a finals berth

June, 9, 2013 2:00 AM ET

By Pierre LeBrun | ESPN.com

CHICAGO -- The 2012 Cup champs are off the checklist.

Now for those 2011 Cup champs, so bring on the Boston Bruins.

The Chicago Blackhawks booked their ticket to an Original Six Stanley Cup finals Saturday night with a dramatic end to a Western Conference finals that nearly needed a few extra days.

But Patrick Kane avoided subjecting his team to a long plane ride back to Los Angeles for Game 6 when he rifled a one-timer off an all-world pass from Jonathan Toews past Jonathan Quick, Kane's hat trick goal 11:40 into double overtime nearly bringing down the Madhouse on Madison in a 4-3 win.

"You know what, big two wins the last couple games, especially tonight, after they came back and tied it up with nine seconds left," Kane said. "For us to hang in there in the first overtime and pull it out in the second overtime was huge. We definitely didn't want to go back to L.A. Just a huge win to get us to the final."

The Bruins and Blackhawks open the Stanley Cup finals with Game 1 here Wednesday, the winner of the series being able to claim almost a mini-dynasty in the salary-cap era.

"It's exciting," Blackhawks winner Patrick Sharp, a holdover from the 2010 Cup champion Hawks, said. "For a couple years, it was tough just getting out [of] that first round. I've been watching Boston play in the East; they look like they're rolling. Another tough series ahead of us, but it's an exciting time."

First, though, the Hawks had to get there, and the defending champs from L.A. on Saturday night left it all on the ice in trying to force Game 6.

After Duncan Keith and Kane had scored to give Chicago an early 2-0 lead, the Kings were under siege, and it looked liked it might end up a blowout. But goals from Dwight King, short-handed, in the second period and a power-play marker by Anze Kopitar early in the third period tied the game 2-2.

When Kane went upstairs on Quick with 3:52 left in the third, it appeared the Hawks had booked their ticket. The party was on.

Ah, but the defending champs weren’t done just yet.

Mike Richards, back after missing a week with a concussion, tied it with 10 seconds remaining, sending gasps through the United Center crowd.

"Man, nine seconds left and they score," Hawks goalie Corey Crawford said. "We've been through so much so far in the playoffs, and we've been able to play our game after something like that happens. That was just another step for us."

The Kings dominated the first overtime session but couldn’t finish, which allowed the Hawks to regroup for double OT.

Toews and Kane broke in on a 2-on-1 break -- the Kings' nemesis all series long was giving up too many odd-man rushes and turning the puck over way too many times -- the Hawks captain waited for just the right time to send the puck across to Kane for the winner.

Some Kings players bent over in agony, crushed by the heartbreak of the moment.

"We wanted to keep playing," Kings center Jarret Stoll said. "We wanted to play until the end of June, and that was our goal, that was our mindset. We just didn’t have it against these guys. They’re a great team. [I] Wish them all the best. They’ve got a lot of great players, and they play their system and they’re well coached. We just couldn’t find a way to win a road game … I was just disappointed. You can’t be happy with losing. You never are, whether it’s Western Conference finals or Stanley Cup finals or not even making the playoffs. It’s that same empty feeling.”

Back in the Cup finals for the second time in three seasons, the Blackhawks are on a roll, winning seven of their past eight games.

"We've had an interesting playoffs," Blackhawks coach Joel Quenneville said. "I think as we progressed here, [we] had an ordinary start in the first series, on the ropes [down 3-1] against Detroit. I thought we've gotten better as we've gone along in these playoffs. You look back over several games of your career; that was a game you'll always remember tonight. That was an amazing hockey game. Give L.A. credit. You go up a goal late in the game. The guys, commend them, staying positive, persevering. L.A. might have played their best in overtime this series. Finding a way was exactly what we were looking for."

The 2010 champs versus the 2011 champs. Two Original Six franchises. Two great hockey markets.

Can it get any better?

"It's a special couple places. The tradition of the Bruins and the Hawks is special," Quenneville said. "I'm sure, you know, the rivalry could return instantly come Game 1.

"I think it's good for the league. It's good for hockey. Two great hockey markets. We're very excited to be a part of it."


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ESPN / Defending champs went down swinging

June, 9, 2013 1:35 AM ET

By Pierre LeBrun

CHICAGO -- Inside what is always a somber dressing room when the clock strikes midnight on a team’s season, GM Dean Lombardi grabbed Jarret Stoll and hugged him tightly.

Not sure what he told him in his right ear, but I suspect it would be along the lines that Stoll, like the rest of his teammates, left it all on the ice Saturday night in a gutsy performance by the banged-up Los Angeles Kings.

After their 4-3 double-overtime loss to the Blackhawks, the champs are out, but they went down swinging.

"To be quite frank, this one hurt," said veteran Kings blueliner Rob Scuderi, one of those championship warriors. "I though we outplayed them tonight. They had an unbelievable start, nobody can deny that, but for the rest of the night we gave ourselves a chance to win even with, I’ll call it adversity, that we kind of had to face tonight. But we’re a strong group, we played hard, played for each other and gave ourselves a chance. In the end, it wasn’t meant to be."

Lombardi was too emotional to size up his team’s season when approached by ESPN.com, but he did mention that he felt even in this incredibly hard-to-digest defeat, his team might actually learn as much if not more from this year’s playoffs than from winning it all last season.

Last year, the Kings skated swimmingly through the playoffs with a 16-4 record, holding 3-0 leads in each series. This year the injuries piled up, the road record stunk (1-8), some of the top players weren’t as dynamic and the journey had a heartbreaking ending.

"Once you win a Stanley Cup, it means a lot more getting knocked out," said Kings captain Dustin Brown. "You don’t really know what you play for until you do it. And tonight ... sucks."

Brown was one of several Kings who labored through pain, revealing when asked afterward that he tore the posterior cruciate ligament in the back of his left knee on his first shift of Game 6 against San Jose. Justin Williams said he played with a slightly separated shoulder after Sharks blueliner Brad Stuart rocked him with a big hit in Game 3 last round. Drew Dougthy (ankle) was also a little hobbled, Mike Richards, of course, recovered from a concussion in time to play Saturday night while Stoll told ESPN.com not only was he concussed last round after the hit from Raffi Torres but he also separated his shoulder on the play. And we’re missing a few guys.

"Three, four guys that were game-time [decisions] after Game 6 in San Jose," said Kings head coach Darryl Sutter. "I think most teams are going to say that, the farther you go. Also tells you how tough it is to win, how you need that. I know it's something that gets talked lots about. You have to stay healthy. Have you to be close to 100 percent, especially with your top guys. I know we weren't."

Which tells you how this team gutted it out despite all that, especially Saturday night when the Blackhawks went up 2-0 and it looked as if they would run the Kings right out of the rink.

"There's not much you can do about giving up bad goals," said Sutter. "If you put your head between your legs, you're going to get your [butt] kicked. We don't do that. We respond in the right way all the time."

All playoffs when knocked down, the Kings have picked themselves off the mat. And they did again Saturday night, climbing from a 2-0 hole and also tying the game with 10 seconds left in regulation.

"We showed a lot of character tonight," Kings executive Luc Robitaille told ESPN.com outside his team’s dressing room. "The game was over with 15 seconds left. If you want to have a great organization, you want your best players to be at their best in the big moments. They were there tonight."

What was the difference in the series?

"Turnovers, some rush chances and opportunities," said Stoll. "Again tonight, the 2-on-1 and the rush chance in overtime. We didn’t really establish our forecheck like we wanted in some games, and it hurt us."

Indeed, Patrick Kane’s overtime goal was a perfect microcosm of the series for the Kings, who simply turned the puck over and gave up too many odd-man breaks in the five games. That’s not typical Kings hockey.

All the Kings felt Saturday night was heartbreak, but in time they will realize that they defended their Cup championship with honor, a conference finals berth nothing to sneeze at when you consider the struggles of past defending Cup champions in the salary-cap era. No team has won back-to-back titles since the 1997 and 1998 Red Wings, and there’s a reason for that. It’s mighty difficult, both from a physical and mental point of view.

The Kings had a terrific season.

"It’s disappointing now, probably we’ll look back in a few weeks now and think that," said Robitaille. "But right now when you’re this close, you want to go all the way. Because we know how special that is. But the guys certainly showed a lot in these playoffs. It wasn’t easy. Last year was abnormal that we [went up] 3-0 every [series]. But they showed a lot of character."

As far as Sutter is concerned, there's nothing to be disappointed about in terms of the team’s effort this season.

"We got beat in the conference finals by the best team in the conference, at the end of the day,” said Sutter. "...Once you set the bar up there, then that's your bar. So, obviously, we're disappointed to lose to Chicago, but we're certainly not disappointed in how we played. I mean, I think you look at our season, other than not getting home ice, we've done everything we've wanted."

Not quite everything because they know all too well what that feels like, but you have a feeling these guys will be back again.


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ESPN / Mike Richards back in lineup


By Pierre LeBrun

CHICAGO -- Mike Richards returned to the Los Angeles Kings' lineup for Game 5 of the Western Conference finals after taking part in the morning skate Saturday.

Kings coach Darryl Sutter said after the morning skate that Richards was "50-50."

Richards has been out a week with a concussion he suffered late in Game 1 on a hit from Chicago's Dave Bolland.

Richards didn't take part in the morning skate Thursday before Game 4 which seemed to indicate some regression in his condition but his appearance in the skate Saturday morning suggests he's feeling better.

"It's progress," said Sutter said before the game. "(But) I don't want to say anything, I said it last time prior to Game 2 that he was playing and then he didn't ... we nearly had to make more than one change. I'll just stay away from it and follow (NHL concussion) protocol."


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ESPN / Sutter still tinkering with lineup


By Pierre LeBrun

CHICAGO -- With Mike Richards a 50-50 possibility to play Saturday night, according to Kings coach Darryl Sutter, his line combinations from the morning skate may or may not mean anything.

They were:

Brown - Kopitar - Williams

Penner - Carter - Toffoli

King - Stoll - Lewis

Clifford - Richards - Nolan

Pearson - Fraser - Richardson

"I have no idea," Kyle Clifford said when asked if there was anything to read from those line combinations.

"No clue," added Jordan Nolan.

Most telling, at least according to those morning lines at practice, was Anze Kopitar back on the top line and Jarret Stoll back on the third line after the two had switched spots for both games in Los Angeles.

Sutter talked about that possibility after the morning skate, saying the fact he didn't have a last line change at the United Center would be part of the reason for putting the struggling Kopitar back on the top line.

"We don't get the change we want here," said Sutter. "You can't change on the fly. That's a big part of it. It's really got nothing to do with Kopy. Kopy has been as good as their best centerman in the series when you look at it. It's got nothing to do with Kopy."

As for Richards, Sutter said it's going to be up to the doctor as to whether his star center returns to the lineup. With the Kings' season on the line, you know Richards would do anything he can to return, but he's going to have to be medically cleared.

"You do what you're told medically, not any other way," said Sutter.

Richards politely declined to chat with media after the skate.

Their season is on the line Saturday night, but you wouldn't know it from a happy-go-lucky bunch in the Kings dressing room after the morning skate.

"The mood's light. You can't change anything. You can't be uptight; you have to be loose," veteran center Colin Fraser said. "You have to have fun. The second you're too uptight, or nervous, that's when you don't play as good. We're loose and ready to go."

And they still believe, pointing to the Hawks reversing a 3-1 Detroit lead in the last round.

"They proved that it can be done last series," said Fraser. "Nobody quits in the conference finals. We're playing in June, might as well make it worth it."

There's quiet confidence in the Kings room, a knowledge that comes from winning the Cup last season.

"One thing about this group of guys is we tend to play our best hockey when we're really in trouble," said Stoll. "You look at last year in the regular season -- I think we were in 13th place with 20 games to go. It's a different situation when you've just got one game to play, but you can draw on being in the trench hole together. I think it's key for us, the fact that we've been through it together and we've been down in the holes together. I think the most important thing is just leaning on each other at a time like right now."

Coming off a third period in Game 4 in which they produced only two shots on goal, the Kings want to get way more rubber on Hawks goalie Corey Crawford in Game 5.

"We have to get more pucks to the net, more bodies to the net," said Stoll. "That's not just the third [in Game 4]; it's the whole series. The Hawks have done a good job in limiting our rush chances. With the way their D skates, we have to place the pucks better and get through the neutral zone better. I think the neutral zone has pretty much been the key for the whole series. Their transition game is really good, and if we're going to turn the puck over or not get through the neutral zone cleanly, it's going to play into their hands."

BUT A WIN ON THE ROAD?

The Kings will need two wins at the United Center to come back and win this series -- a daunting task when you consider their 1-7 road playoff record.

"The biggest challenge for us, if they're all over us in those first 10 minutes, the crowd's going to be right into it," Kings star blueliner Drew Doughty said Saturday morning. "They're going to feed off that energy, and it's going to be tough to get back in the game. Right now, our focus is the first shifts and get a goal and deflate them a little bit."

Beat the Hawks twice in Chicago? Bring it on, said veteran winger Justin Williams.

"We're not scared of it," Williams said Friday night after the team arrived from L.A. "We're certainly not scared of it. We're going to welcome the challenge to beat the best team in the league this year in their own house, starting [Saturday night]."

HAWKS' PK

Chicago has killed 54 of 56 opposing power plays in these playoffs, a remarkable 96.4 percent success rate and another reason the Hawks are one win away from the Stanley Cup finals.

Fourth-line winger Marcus Kruger and Michael Frolik are the lead penalty killers, both players finding a nice niche with their excellent work.

"It's working pretty good so far," Frolik said Saturday morning. "We try to keep the shifts short and the energy high. We talk about it before the game in terms of what we want to do. Krugs and I make sure we're on the same page, and we make sure we outwork the power play."

Many teams use their top players as their top penalty killers, but Hawks coach Joel Quenneville decided earlier this season to give Kruger/Frolik a whirl in part because of the compacted, lockout-affected schedule and his concern of taxing his top stars too much.

"I think [it] probably started out as a lockout [thing], knowing we wanted to make sure we maxed out, try to get everybody involved in the game, keep the top guys rested a little bit more," Quenneville said Saturday, explaining why he went to Kruger/Frolik as his top penalty killers. "Such tight days between games ... it worked well, so we've gone with it."


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USA TODAY / Kane's OT goal sends Blackhawks to Cup Final

Kevin Allen, USA TODAY Sports

1:39 a.m. EDT June 9, 2013

CHICAGO - A day short of the third anniversary of Patrick Kane's goal that clinched the Chicago Blackhawks' first Stanley Cup in 49 years, he scored another memorable goal to put the Blackhawks back in the Final.

Kane scored his third goal of the game at 11:40 of the second overtime to lift Chicago to a 4-3 win that finished off a five-game win against the defending champion Los Angeles Kings in the best-of-seven Western Conference finals.

"He stepped up," Chicago coach Joel Quenneville said of Kane. "He took responsibility of leading the team. He's proven he's a top player in the game ... Top players, they want to be great all of the time, finding a way to be great in the tight checking that many teams have."

The Blackhawks now will play the Boston Bruins in the first championship series matchup between Original Six opponents since 1979. The series starts Wednesday in Chicago (8 p.m. ET, NBC). A Game 7, if necessary, would be played on June 26.

"Right now, I think it's almost like I'm in a different zone, like in the twilight zone or something," said Kane, who added that this game ranked up there with his 2010 overtime clincher against the Philadelphia Flyers. "I'm kind of out of it. It's definitely a good feeling, though."

Captain Jonathan Toews set up Kane with a cross-ice feed on a 2-on-1 break-in into the Kings zone. Kane and Toews were the centerpieces of the 2010 Cup team.

"In the end, probably their two best offensive guys made a great play to score the goal," Kings coach Darryl Sutter said.

Kings forward Mike Richards had forced overtime when he scored with 10 seconds left in regulation.

"We have been there before," Chicago forward Patrick Sharp said about the blown lead. "You just have to keep playing. It's playoff hockey. No lead is safe."

Kane has four goals in the past two games after going seven games without one.

"You get that confidence when one goes in," said Sharp. "You get the weight off the shoulders. You've seen the last couple of games that Kaner is getting the puck with space and time."

His second goal, with 3:52 left in regulation, had given Chicago a 3-2. But the Kings pulled their goal in favor of an extra attacker, and Richards was able to find the net.

The Kings outshot Chicago 11-6 in the first overtime. "L.A. might have played their best in overtime this series," Quenneville said.

Although the Blackhawks and Bruins are Original Six franchises, they never have before played each other in a Stanley Cup Final.

It was Chicago's first double-overtime playoff win in 16 years, dating to April 20, 1997, when the Blackhawks defeated Colorado 4-3.

"Sometimes you have to lose again to remember how hard it was to win," said Kings forward Justin Williams. "We will keep this bad feeling until we get another go at it."

Richards was back in the lineup for the first time since suffering an undisclosed injury when he took a heavy check from Dave Bolland in Game 1. He took another big hit from Andrew Shaw in Game 5.

Kings tied the game at 3:34 of the third period when Anze Kopitar pushed a rebound through Chicago goalie Corey Crawford for a power-play goal to make it 2-2. It was his second goal in the past 11 games.

The Blackhawks claimed a 2-0 first-period lead on goals by defenseman Duncan Keith (3:42) and Kane (5:59 ).

Keith scored on a lengthy slap shot that leaked through Los Angeles goalie Jonathan Quick, who came into the game with a .938 save percentage.

The Blackhawks put the Kings under siege after that goal. Kane controlled the puck for several seconds, waiting until he had Quick down and out, before burying his shot to make a 2-0 game.

KINGS: Team has an amazing tweet

In the postseason, the Kings were 1-8 on the road, and falling behind 2-0 in the first six minutes of Game 5 was the kind of the start they wanted to avoid.

The Kings fought back in the second period, cutting the margin to one goal when Dwight King scored a shorthanded goal at 9:28.

Shortly after that tally, Quick made a key save on Chicago forward Marian Hossa's breakaway to keep the Kings' comeback hopes alive.

"Obviously we're disappointed to lose to Chicago," Sutter said. "But we're certainly not disappointed in how we played. You look at our season, other than not getting home-ice advantage, we've done everything we wanted."

USA TODAY LOADED: 06.09.2013

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USA TODAY / Penguins have tough decisions to make after being swept


7:28 p.m. EDT June 8, 2013

When the Detroit Red Wings lost to the Chicago Blackhawks earlier in the NHL playoffs, it was easy to see they fell short because they needed another top-six scorer and because their younger players were not quite ready. And if the Los Angeles Kings are eliminated by Chicago, it's clear they must add more scoring.

But as the top-seeded Pittsburgh Penguins ponder today why they were swept by the Boston Bruins in the Eastern Conference Finals, their "fix" seems less clean and tidy.

The first impulse will be to blame the loss on Boston goalie Tuukka Rask, who played like he was Terry Sawchuk, vintage 1952, limiting the Penguins to two goals in four games. The late Sawchuk gave up five goals in eight games in the playoffs 61 years ago, and he's now in the Hall of Fame.

But it doesn't seem likely the Penguins will accept the rationale that Rask was the problem because it was evident within the organization the team wasn't sharp even when it dispatched the New York Islanders and Ottawa Senators in the first two rounds.

At best, the Penguins seemed sloppy in the first two rounds. At worst, they seemed disorganized in their defensive coverage. Nobody seemed at their best. Everybody seemed out of sync.

The Penguins' goaltending situation is undeniably messy because they pulled longtime regular Marc-Andre Fleury in the first round and didn't go back to him in the Eastern Conference final when there was an opening to make a change. It's fair to wonder whether Fleury is in their plans for the future.

However, the Penguins' goaltending wasn't a primary factor in the loss to the Bruins. Tomas Vokoun's save percentage in the postseason was .933. If you told the Penguins before the playoffs that Fleury would have a .933 save percentage in the playoffs, they would have danced around Mario Lemieux's statue in front of their arena. He was at .908 when the Penguins won the Stanley Cup in 2009, and his career playoff save percentage is .903. At 36, Vokoun might not be the long-term answer for the Penguins, but he did his job in this postseason.

Goaltending is an issue, but not the one that will cause the most angst for general manager Ray Shero. What has to bother him the most is the question of why this team didn't play up to its potential.

The Penguins boast the league's most dynamic offense. They have a Norris Trophy finalist in Kris Letang and one of the league's best shutdown defenseman in Brooks Orpik. Shero made sure the team had grit and tenacity with the additions of Jarome Iginla, Brenden Morrow and Douglas Murray before the trade deadline.

It seemed like the players' effort was there. Coach Dan Bylsma said after the series he thought his team played hard. But they were slow to adjust, particularly in comparison with the Bruins.

The Bruins had a poor first period in Game 1, and Boston coach Claude Julien had them playing better by the second period. It seemed as if the Penguins didn't get up to speed until Game 3, and then they still didn't seem to have any answer on how to solve Rask.

It's difficult to pinpoint why the Penguins didn't rise up in the playoffs. And when it is unclear what's wrong with a team, the accepted practice is to blame the coach.

The Penguins tried to be more disciplined defensively this season and made progress. But in the playoffs, it was evident they didn't make enough. With the skillful Penguins out of the playoffs, can't we conclude they would be better off if they played a defensive system similar to the Bruins'?

Another factor Shero has to consider is that there are big-name coaching candidates available who have defensive reputations. Proven Lindy Ruff and Alain Vigneault are available, and Dave Tippett might be available at the end of this month. Tippett, who once played for the Penguins, could be

very intriguing because his defensive style has allowed the Phoenix Coyotes to remain competitive through all of their trials and tribulations.

Shero's decision is further complicated by the fact the Penguins have already won a Cup under Bylsma in 2009.

What it all boils down to is that Shero has to decide whether to ask Bylsma to change his system or ask Bylsma to leave. It's probably the toughest decision he has ever made as Penguins general manager.


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USA TODAY / Kings-Blackhawks Game 5 preview


3:35 p.m. EDT June 8, 2013

Situation: The No. 1 Blackhawks have a 3-1 lead on the No. 5 Los Angeles Kings going into Saturday's Game 5 in Chicago (8 p.m. ET, NBC Sports Network). If the Blackhawks win, they go to the Stanley Cup Final.

Goalies: Blackhawks' Corey Crawford (11-5, 1.72 goals-against average, .936 save percentage) vs. Kings' Jonathan Quick (9-8, 1.79, .938). Crawford has surrendered two or fewer goals in seven of his past eight starts. His numbers are far superior to Antti Niemi's stats when he helped Chicago win the Cup in 2010.

Who's hot: Blackhawks LW Bryan Bickell has five goals and two assists in his past seven games. He will be an unrestricted free agent this summer, and suitors will lining up for his services. He is hot at the right time for both the 'Hawks and his future. D Slava Voynov leads the Kings with 12 points and is also plus-10.

Who's not: Kings captain Dustin Brown has no points and three shots in his past five games. C Anze Kopitar has one goal in his past 13 playoff games.

Lineup issue: Kings, C Mike Richards (concussion) is skating, and coach Darryl Sutter said there's a 50-50 chance that he would suit up. Blackhawks, D Duncan Keith will return from his Game 4 suspension. Sheldon Brookbank would leave the lineup.

What the Kings want to do: 1. Put more shots on net. They managed only two in the third period of Game 4. It's worth noting that when the Kings outshot Chicago 28-20 in Game 3, they won. 2. Win the first 10 minutes, get a lead, steal the momentum, play like they did last season on the march to the Stanley Cup. 3. Play like it's a Game 7. Unleash the beasts, deny shots, play every shift like it will decide the series.

What the Blackhawks want to do: 1. Play the way they always play, push the tempo, use their transition game effectively. 2. Sound, stingy defense. Strangle the hope out of the Kings in the first 20 minutes. 3. Don't let Quick beat them by himself. Get shots on him. Get him moving east-west. Make him play the puck behind the net. Give him an obstructed view in his crease.


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USA TODAY / Will Bylsma be available for Rangers' job?

Rick Carpiniello, USA TODAY Sports

10:04 a.m. EDT June 8, 2013

Super Mario Lemieux is not happy, of course, because his Pittsburgh Penguins, favorites in the East to win the Stanley Cup, got their clocks cleaned in four in a row by a very, very, very good Boston Bruins team. And so coach Dan Bylsma is probably going to soon be available, deservedly or not.

He's going to be available because his goalies sure put the Penguins in a deep hole early in the series (though Tomas Vokoun surely can't be blamed for the last two games, could he?) and because some of his top players played awfully (Kris Letang, fraud Norris Trophy finalist) and because there was some lack of discipline and sticking with the system.

He's going to be available because the ownership led by Lemieux, and general manager Ray Shero, went out and made a ton of moves before the trade deadline to make the Penguins the 2009 Yankees, prohibitive favorites to win the Stanley Cup. And somebody other than the owner and the GM is going to take the fall. Stupid as that is, that's how sports works. And it is stupid.

But that's great news for the Rangers, who have been slow to choose their next coach, and certainly got slower thinking Bylsma might be available.

Because, if the Rangers are really going to buck the trend – they were headed in 2011-12 toward being exactly what Boston is in 2013, and now all of a sudden they want to be the anti-Bruins – and if they are really looking for the anti-Torts, then Bylsma is probably their guy. Bylsma has the opposite personality of John Tortorella, a soft-spoken guy who actually pauses and thinks about the question before he answers, and a guy who —outwardly at least — appears to be much more of a back-patter than a hammer-wielder.

That said, I don't know where the Rangers are headed because Mark Messier does want the job, and since he does, I'm hard pressed to believe that Glen Sather, who knows Messier for, what, 34 to 35 years, is not going to give it to him. Sather and Messier obviously have a tremendous relationship, with admiration and loyalty the key words. I can't imagine Sather wouldn't hire Messier.

Speaking of which, forget about Wayne Gretzky. He is not really interested in the job. So count him out.

Also count out, probably, Lindy Ruff. Too much like Tortorella in style and system, if not personality.

Alain Vigneault, who reportedly has yet to be interviewed by the Rangers despite having arguably the best credentials of the group, would probably be Messier's top competition for the job unless, and now until, Bylsma comes available.

And Bylsma, who plays the up-tempo style Sather craves, is going to be on the lists of a lot of teams who need coaches, and some who don't.

The Rangers will have organizational meetings in LaQuinta, Calif., this week. At that time, Bylsma's name is going to be spoken early and often.

Rick Carpiniello writes for the (Westchester County, N.Y.) Journal News, a Gannett affiliate


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