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Lidstrom. If Hossa's signing, something significant is going to accompany it. Whatever that is may already be decided.

What if he retired?

Can a player restructure their deal half-way through it? Could Lidstrom significantly reduce his salary a year early?

There's a difference, though. In Pittsburgh, they had a lot of players to sign and a lot of money to do so - Hossa's agent tried to help himself to a significant share of the pie. Here, there is no pie. There's an inflexible ceiling. Ken Holland is significantly more experienced than Ray Shero, and Hossa sounds like he REALLY wants to stay, rather than saying he'd "like" to stay in Pittsburgh.

I thought Pens fans treated what Crosby had to say as the gospel. He said he enjoyed the time he spent playing with Hossa (as Hossa was far and away the best winger he's ever played with, short of Mario, which was sporadic), but that he respected Hossa's decision to go to another team. I know Pens fans are trying to make themselves feel better about the ordeal by pointing to his lower point total this season, but what they fail to realize is that Hossa averaged four to five fewer minutes per game this year than when he was in Atlanta, less powerplay time, and played in a system that emphasized defensive responsibility more than any other team he had played for previously. You're right, Pens fans: when Hossa plays fewer than 18 minutes per game, including only around a minute per powerplay, and plays dedicated two-way hockey, he scores fewer points. His team is also up 2-0 in the Stanley Cup Finals. I'm sure Hossa would take team success over personal success any day of the week and twice on Sunday. I've never seen a guy so maligned for spurning a multi-year, multi-tens-of-millions-of-dollars deal to get a chance to learn from a successful organization and win the Cup.

Holmstrom and Maltby are the liabilities. When Datsyuk comes back for Game 4, hopefully it's Maltby who sits.

http://watch.tsn.ca/nhl/clip178596#clip178596/ - The video entitled "Small Consolation" on tsn.ca if it doesn't load. Commenting on what the Wings would do now that the Pens have the last change, he said "They're going to make it hard for us. We're going to do what we can, but we won a lot of games this year on the road, and we did it because we're willing to move people around and get balance and come at teams." Any thoughts on what he may have in mind? He could also be foreshadowing the return of one or more players.

Does anyone keep track of how many posts are hit and by whom in a particular game? I seem to recall Hossa hitting three or four by himself over the first two games of last year's Finals.

As a sidenote, in another video on the site, Dreger said that Datsyuk didn't skate today (which we knew), but that he also worked out a few times, and that it would be entirely Datsyuk's decision whether he plays tomorrow. Dreger also noted that someone "close to the organization" felt that Datsyuk's return would be "late in the series," if at all.

Both are terrible examples. Lindros's problems arose out of the fact that, after suffering a concussion, each subsequent concussion occurs more easily (a medical fact). Forsberg had recurring foot and ankle problems that required surgery on more than one occasion. Reports have Datsyuk with a bone bruise which, as far as I know, can be aggravated, but pose no permanent problems.

What's even more funny is that a number of them take this image to be conclusive evidence that Crosby scored: They're mistaking the reddish horizontal line (a stick) to be the goal line, even though there's blue paint on either side of it and completely disregarding the vertical red CROSSBAR on the right side. I'm almost speechless.

All Pens fans are saying in response to this (at least on HFBoards) is that it was a hook, rather than a slash, that they were complaining about. Oddly, Dupuis himself complained about a slash (not a hook) to the media. Whether that was even a hook is highly debatable - whatever Hossa did was incredibly brief (akin to a stick lift rather than a hook). I haven't seen another camera angle. People blew up because Dupuis' stick broke and now they're trying to save face by calling it a hook.

I'd like something a little closer to official than "Babcock's son told a reporter XYZ."

Either the cap will remain roughly the same next year or fall ~$2.5m based on some option that I don't quite understand (because I haven't taken the time to look into it). If it stays the same (~$56.4m), here are the numbers: Zetterberg (6.083) - Datsyuk (6.7) - Holmstrom (2.250) Franzen (3.955) - Filppula (3.0) - X Cleary (2.8) - X - Helm (.600) Maltby (.883) - Draper (1.583) - Abdelkader (.850) RFAs: Leino, Hudler Gone: Samuelsson, Kopecky Lidstrom (7.45) - Rafalski (6.0) Stuart (3.75) - Kronwall (3.0) Lilja (1.250) - Ericsson (.900) Lebda (.650) Gone: Chelios AHL: Meech Osgood (1.417) Howard (.717) That only leaves around $2.5m for two forwards. Hossa can't come back unless a lot is moved.

I can almost guarantee it. Before Game 1, Dreger said the only thing he was lacking was his "explosiveness." There are no broken bones in the foot, which means it's probably a painful contusion.

The TRUE intent of the rule is to deter dirty play in a game that's already over. Fighting has an appropriate place in hockey, but if a game is lost (as this one was), the rule exists to prevent the kind of crap that Malkin pulled. The Penguins were not going to come back from a two-goal deficit in the final 17 seconds of the game. Thus, a fight instigated with that much time left should be subjected to a rule aimed at deterring the behavior.

As I already explained, the "sending the message" justification only makes sense if the rule was specific to the playoffs. It's not. It's a rule that applies to every game, regular season or playoffs. Players don't attempt to send messages in the regular season. The rule is unambiguous, and it's application shouldn't be subjected to a "Superstar Rule." Keep this up, and the NHL will start looking a lot like the NBA, a league replete with double standards.

Bob McKenzie's justification for the rescission was mind-numbingly stupid. He said that the rule exists to prevent players from "sending a message for the next game." If that were the case, it wouldn't apply in the regular season, because no one bothers to "send a message" to a team that they probably wont play again any time soon. The rule is unequivocal and the NHL's decision not to enforce it is bulls***.

There aren't enough words in the English language to accurately describe how lucky the Wings are getting right now. We need Datsyuk back, if only for his defense.

I told you Crosby was scaring me.

I'm concerned about the amount of icetime Crosby will get this period.

Expect to see A LOT of Crosby in the third. He only has 12:34 of icetime so far, and he averages 22 to 23 minutes per game. Bylsma will double-shift him in the third.

I think you have to split Zetterberg and Datsyuk up. Keep Zetterberg with Franzen and Cleary to go up against Crosby and Datsyuk with Hossa and Filppula against Malkin. Then Hudler/Samulesson/Helm against the Staal line.

The Wings need to be quite a bit better tonight. Getting out-shot by this Penguins team will normally be a recipe for disaster. I'd like to see some conventional goals.