After the game, Hockey Night in Canada reporter extraordinaire Elliotte Friedman asked Bob Gainey “Aside from penalty killing, what else can team do better?” Gainey’s answer was simple and direct “Listen to the coach.”
I suspect that the Canadiens were listening to their coach and following the game plan for the first ten minutes of the game. The Habs were skating, forechecking and carrying the play. Shots on goal were 8-to-2 for the Canadiens. Tim Thomas looked beatable.
The Bruins then got their first of five power-play opportunities. Metropolit failed to clear …

What can you say about the job that Ray Shero did to make the Pens a playoff hockey team? Chris Kunitz. new daddy — what a presence on the ice! This man just loves to hit people. And he can do so much more.
Billy Guerin. I always loved Billy Guerin as a hockey player and hoped some day he would play for the Pens. He’s not quite the player he was in his prime, but he certainly fits the bill for what the Pens needed right now.
Craig Adams, picked up …

Anyone who has watched a Ducks practice during the past four seasons would not have been the least bit surprised.
With his team preparing to take on the San Jose Sharks in Sunday night’s second game of an opening-round Stanley Cup playoff series at HP Pavilion, Coach Randy Carlyle halted Saturday afternoon’s proceedings to deliver some choice, and colorful, words.
Asked about it afterward in his meeting with reporters, Carlyle came clean.
“I yell everyday,” Carlyle said. “Just the building got quiet.”
Carlyle changed that in a hurry. No one at the Sharks Ice …

The joy of the Boston Bruins’ 5-1 win over Montreal in Game 2 of their Eastern Conference quarterfinal series tonight at TD Banknorth Garden was tempered a bit by a late-game hit Milan Lucic made on Canadiens agitator Maxim Lapierre with 4:32 left in the game.
Lapierre skated at Lucic in front of the Montreal goal after Lucic and Habs defenseman Mathieu Schneider exchanged pleasantries. You can see the hit in the clip below, but Lucic seemed to catch Lapierre in the head with either his glove or his stick. Either …

Let’s cut right to the good news. Boston Bruins team physician Dr. Peter Asnis confirmed that after having a splenectomy at approximately 1 p.m. today, defenseman Matt Hunwick is resting comfortably in his room at Mass. General Hospital.
Asnis said the procedure went “very uneventfully.” As for the other major thing you’re worried about as you read this, Hunwick is out indefinitely based on his recovery time.
“He is out and his return date will be determined based on how he does,” said Asnis. “There’s no answer. It is possible, depending on …

Ducks defenseman Ryan Whitney would love to repeat some history already made by his blue-line partner, Chris Pronger.
The Ducks landed Pronger in an off-season trade in 2006, two weeks after he had been in the Stanley Cup Finals with the Edmonton Oilers, only to come up short in Game 7 against the Carolina Hurricanes. Eleven months later, Pronger and the Ducks drank from the Stanley Cup.
“We’ve both been through the pain of losing in the Finals,” Whitney said Saturday. “Luckily, the next year he got the thrill of winning. Hopefully, …

He pulled his starting goaltender Carey Price after two periods of the Boston Bruins’ 5-1 win over his team in Game 2 of the Eastern Conference quarterfinal series tonight at TD Banknorth Garden.
And Montreal Canadiens head coach Bob Gainey, whose team now trails the best-of-seven series two games to none, doesn’t know if he’ll go back to Price for Monday’s Game 3 in Montreal.
“I don’t know,” he said when asked if he’d start Price, who allowed five goals on 26 shots in the defeat.
Gainey said that switching goalies wasn’t necessarily …

With a two-day break in between games, there is  plenty of time to break down Game 1.
Specifically, it gives San Jose plenty to ponder what went wrong after its 2-0 loss to the Ducks.
And, as if it needed a reason to jump on star center Joe Thornton, media in San Jose are pointing to Thornton’s one shot on goal in Game 1.
Thornton (below) is perhaps the most scrutinized player of these 2009 Stanley Cup playoffs because of his perceived inability to both produce and take a team deep into the postseason.
Thornton has 11 goals …

Give the Flyers credit.  They came out with a new approach.  They played a disciplined, hard fought game……….for about 50 minutes.  When the game was on the line, the old Flyer mentality kicked in and they made some bad decisions.  They took some penalties that resulted in a loss and a trip back to Philly down 2-0.
Fortunately, for though of us who support the Penguins, they made the Flyers pay for their undisciplined hockey last night.  The  Pens capitalized on two power plays.  One to tie the game with less …

Guerin… Kunitz… Adams… three additions that were well thought-out and who would have thunk it our Flightless Birdies are winning it with experience. Not only the Stanley Cup experience these guys bring but also the experience of our core members of the team. It’s hard to believe but  Staal (19), Crosby (20), Malkin (21), Kennedy (21), Letang (21), Fleury (23) are experienced and play with level-heads with top of the line skill-sets.
While the Pens during the trade deadline went with savvy and CUP experience, the Flyers pressed by salary cap concerns went with…
youth. …

I had a feeling this could happen… St. Louis just cannot solve Roberto Luongo! The Canucks’ captain is currently playing on a different universe. The red pipe has been favorable for him, but he’s made some monstrous saves in the first 2 games of this series. Andy McDonald is especially wondering how he hasn’t beaten Luongo yet. Every time the Blues think they’re about to get one, he’s a step ahead and in position to make the save. Luongo is just unbelievable right now. Since Vancouver’s home loss to the …