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Their one goal was an absolute gift. There's nothing more to be said.

The trip on Kronwall and Orpik's interference on Hossa stood out too.

Cept Bob Cole (see what I did there?)

It wouldn't surprise me to see Gill's spot taken by Boucher or Goligoski tomorrow. He's just too slow.

I have my lucky Hossa puck. He signed it for me during the Memorial Cup in 1998.

We've seen him choke on television enough this year.

Darren Dreger said Datsyuk still was having difficulty pushing off with his injured foot at practice today. I trust TSN over your "inside source."

This would be the Pens lineup in 09-10 if they'd kept Hossa for $7m exactly. This is assuming the Kunitz deal never happens, which puts Whitney back on the team. Guerin, Satan, and Fedotenko don't matter because their contracts are up after this year regardless: X - Crosby (8.7) - Hossa (7.0) X - Malkin (8.7) - X Dupuis (1.4) - Staal (4.0) - Talbot (1.05) Cooke (1.2) - Kennedy (.725) - Godard (.75) Gonchar (5.0) - Orpik (3.75) Whitney (4.0) - X Eaton (2.0) - Letang (.835) Fleury (5.0) X That's $54,110,000 - leaving $2.590m to sign a first line left wing, two second line wings, a second pairing defenseman, a backup goalie, and bring up one or two extra forwards. That's a cap hell I wouldn't wish on any team. The Penguins have decimated their AHL team in the process. The only guys who finished the season with WBS in the AHL that could viably make the team are Taffe (.550), Caputi (.833), and Goligoski (RFA looking to make more than then .984 he did last year). Edit: Didn't realize Talbot was going to make more next year. I redid the numbers accordingly.

Funny how you claim to know so much about the negotiations when the closest anyone actually involved (Hossa, Winter, or Shero) has come to commenting on them was Winter's statement that the Penguins never made a firm offer and Shero's conflicting statement. No terms were ever discussed publicly and Shero has certainly never said that he was misled. All you've got are inferences based on hearsay - those two combine for pretty weak grounds to dislike someone. The fact is, Pens fans are angry because Shero dropped the ball in the off-season and lost all his free agents but one, Brooks Orpik, whom he massively overpaid for. Here are a couple of facts that you need to come to grips with: hockey is a business, Hossa was slated for free agency, and Hossa was traded to the Penguins. On top of that, if the Pens had re-signed Hossa for what he signed for in Detroit, they'd be facing monumental cap problems in the coming seasons. Heading into next season, they'd be right up against the cap as it is now, with 10 active forwards signed, four active defensemen signed, and one active goalie signed. They wouldn't even have the money to fill the holes without letting a few people go.

I defy any Penguins fan to go back and watch the highlights from the Pens' run last year and tell me afteward that they still hate Hossa. He gave everything he had and then some for that team. I watched every single Penguins playoff game last year, and I'd argue that he was their best all-around player. He was second on the team in scoring behind Crosby, but he also worked twice as hard backchecking than anyone else. Without Hossa, the Wings would've swept the Pens last year.

The glaring problems with the Wings this season were their penalty kill and inconsistent goaltending. The latter has been taken care of. Unlike last year, Pittsburgh's powerplay is no longer anything to write home about. It has a lot to do with the fact that they don't have a Ryan Malone to stand in front of the goalie - Staal tries to on the second unit, but he's not very well versed. Add to that Gonchar's obvious injury, and the Wings should have an easier time on the penalty kill than in the Anaheim or Chicago series. Columbus's powerplay was just inept. As for the Penguins defense, it's certainly the team's shortcoming. Gonchar played lights out last year, but as I said, he's still injured. Orpik is solid, but he has a propensity to take stupid penalties. The Scuderi/Gill pairing may become the Pens' third unit in the series because Gill moves like molasses on the ice and struggles with the cycle, and Scuderi has a difficult time getting the puck out of his own zone. The third pairing - Letang and Eaton - have zero Finals experience. Letang sat out the Finals last year after Luc Bourdon was killed and Eaton was still recovering from his ACL injury. Neither are large, physical defensemen (both weigh around 200). The Penguins also lack the Wings' dedication to backchecking. Midway through the Canes series, Fleury's save percentage was below .900, even though he was facing fewer than 30 shots per game. Combine that with the Wings tendency to average around 40 shots/game, and something's got to give. Edit: Look no further than how befuddled the Penguins were by the Canes' cycle in the previous series. Point to the sweep as often as you please, but it had nothing to do with the Canes' failure to create opportunities and everything to do with the weak team defense and Cam Ward.

Any updates on Hossa's knee? I know he finished the game last night, but he had ice on it afterwards and just said "We'll see" when asked if he'd play in game one. He said it with a smile, though.

We're screwed. The simulation had Kopecky playing.

He's been a healthy scratch, as far as I know. He had a terrible regular season. The drop-off from last season to this one was pretty stark. Of course, for at least half the season, Malkin (whom Sykora owes his paycheck to) was taking shifts with Crosby, and the Pens downgraded from Malone to Fedotenko or Matt Cooke, who effectively split time on the second line with Malkin this season.

The thing about Hudler is that he only excels to the degree he does because he's a third line player, and he doesn't play against other teams' top players. Even Babcock conceded this in an interview. He's just not big enough to earn a regular shift on a team's top two lines. Obviously he's a great fit in Detroit where he can play on the third line and the second powerplay unit, but you just can't justify paying him a ton of money for that.

How is the NBA slated to play out? The NHL might be trying to avoid going up against NBA games. I haven't looked into it, but it would make sense. Then again, it may just be Yanni Voices again. Or Wrestling.

Spare me the "hurr durr Gary Bettman is always wrong 100% of the time and has games fixed" bulls***.

Gary Bettman said that the league experienced record revenues. I have no reason to doubt his word.

I don't understand how the cap can drop when the league experienced record revenues this year. One is a percentage of the other, no? Attendance was up, ticket prices were up, TV ratings were up (which means ad prices/revenues were up). I'm not trying to contradict what you've said, but I don't understand the mechanics of it entirely.

What about Hossa, though? He had ice on his knee after the game.

Hossa's back on the bench.

Babcock says dehydration for Osgood. Sounds suspicious.

Nevermind, the gave Sharp two also.

20:00 Brett Lebda: 2 Minutes for Slashing Patrick Sharp Another two-man advantage for the Hawks to start the second.

I'm watching without sound. Can someone post a Hossa update when NBC/TSN says something? Thanks.