John Tortorella has been fired as Head Coach of the Rangers. It’s the right move. The team wasn’t listening to him. This was a great team that was put together. That being said, if the Rangers got out of the second round he would still have a job – it’s funny that a decision like that can come down to two or three hockey games. I mean, yes, it was the season as a whole. But the actual switch that was flipped to finalize this change came because they didn’t get out of the second round. I don’t think any semi-finalist coach ever gets fired (correct me if I’m wrong)

I’ll miss the Torts press conferences. With no Sean Avery and no Tortorella…hockey interviews are going to get very boring. Please, someone grow a pair and start mouthing off to the media. Please? I’ll need my fix next year. Thank you.

*

And then there were five. The Sharks are gone, but man did they ever linger a lot longer than I expected. After their brutal midseason plunge, I was so convinced that this perennial powerhouse (can I say powerhouse when they never made it to the Final?) had finally hit the downside of the unstoppable “sports success cycle” that I bailed on my Sharks in my one keeper league that counts playoffs. I got rid of Havlat, I got rid of Clowe (before he was traded) and I got rid of Pavelski. And a year ago at the deadline I got rid of Thornton. But their play this time around – led by Thornton and Niemi – had me wondering just how big a mistake I made. But the Cup champs move on, so … always happy to see when I made the right move.

Justin Williams – two goals and five shots. The highest shot total that he’s had in any of the prior six games was two.

*

The 18 shots that Antti Niemi faced last night represent the lowest total of San Jose’s playoffs.

Joe Thornton had 14 shots in four games against the Canucks, and 11 shots in seven games against the Kings.

Per Pierre LeBrun via Twitter: “Vlasic played with hairline fracture in right foot (suffered Game 4). They froze it every game so he can play.”

Tyler Toffoli played just 5:10, but managed to dish out four hits – tied for third on the Kings.

*

Columbus signed their seventh-round pick from 2011 Anton Forsberg. I don’t know much about him, he wasn’t on my radar at all – but because goaltending prospects are the most difficult to peg (Henrik Lundqvist was a seventh rounder… and Chet Pickard was a first rounder… hmmm), you have to keep him on the radar. His numbers in the Swedish second league (Allvenskan) are awesome. His team, Sodertalje, is the team that Matt Read, Carl Hagelin, Cam Fowler and Nick Grossman played for during the lockout. The team finished second in the league, but failed to qualify for promotion to the Elitserien league in the annual round robin.

Anyway, I’m left scrambling to get this guy into the Fantasy Prospects Report. He wasn’t initially pegged. Hopefully Justin Goldman has time to put something together.

*

As expected…about two years ago, but anyway… Calgary defenseman Anton Babchuk has signed to play in the KHL next year.

*

With the Memorial Cup over and London finally out of hockey games to play… and Wilkes-Barre/Scranton still going in the Calder Cup – they have called up Scott Harrington and Olli Määttä. Until now, WBS defensemen were:

Brian Dumoulin, Joey Mormina, Alex Grant, Philip Samuelsson and Reid McNeill. And then the sixth d-man has been one of Peter Merth, Cody Wild and Dylan Reese. So I would imagine that Harrington and Määttä will replace McNeill and the sixth spot. That’s quite an upgrade and I can’t believe that an AHL team can add bodies halfway through the semi-finals. But there you go.

By the way – Dumoulin, Harrington and Määttä are all profiled in the Fantasy Prospects Report which is released Saturday. Yep, three days. Time really flies – it seems like only a couple months ago that the season started. Oh wait a minute…

*

Vancouver prospect Anton Rodin has signed to play in Sweden next year.

*

Andrei Kostitsyn is considering a return to the NHL next year. He had 13 goals and 21 points in 44 KHL games, plus another 10 in 23 for the playoffs.

*

Another one from the Department of Shock – Phoenix prospect defenseman/bust Maxim Goncharov is looking at returning to the KHL next season.

*

Winnipeg prospect Tomas Kubalik is poised to sign a two-year deal with Slovan of the KHL.

*

Two cover finalists for EA’s NHL14 – Sergei Bobrovsky and Martin Brodeur:

*

Jonathan Quick – ROBBERY!