Welcome to Game 7 day! Philly and the Rangers! Avs and Wild! Kings and Sharks!

To celebrate – I have brought back, after a two-year hiatus, the Ultimate Fantasy Pack! Too much demand, couldn’t ignore it any longer. So the Prospects Report, Fantasy Guide, Playoff List (next year) and Midseason Guide for 30 bucks – nearly half price. Take a look here (or just pre-order the Prospects Report – whatever floats your boat).

Or, the timing is coincidental. Something like that.

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Jaromir Jagr has indicated to New Jersey beatwriter Tom Gulitti that he is close to an agreement with the Devils to play another year. Lou Lamoriello has similarly hinted. That’s easily Jagr’s best move here – stick with what works. He doesn’t have time to fart around with different teams and hoping for the best coaching/line combinations. I don’t think anyone expects 67 points again – and certainly not 82 games (that’s the number that shocked me more). But with the Devils, I think 60 points is doable again, if he can play 73-76 games.

Man, and I thought after last year’s pitiful playoff performance (say that three times fast) that he was done.

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My three Norris picks were Hedman, Keith and Karlsson. Weber would be fourth and Giordano fifth. Zdeno Chara (sixth on my list – hardly an insult to him or any Chara-backers) is not the player he once was and even if the fancy stats point to his being the best defenseman this year – there is more to the game than just possession. If he’s a Top 3 defenseman today, then he should have been walking away with 10 Norris Trophies between 2003 and 2012 – because he was better then. You look at the possession numbers and you can see that he has had an awesome year, but not Top 3. Is Top 6 a big insult? No – Top 6 is still better than 180 other defensemen. Let’s not ignore how strong and well-coached his team is. The Bruins were getting into the playoffs with or without Chara. No way the Lightning get in without Hedman. I’m happy that the journalists are taking statistics more seriously these days, but let’s not have the pendulum swing too far the other way.

As for Erik Karlsson – I understand that there is more to the award than offense. Obviously. That’s why I had two players ahead of him. But the anti-offense blowback may have gone a little too far. The guy had 72 points – 18% more than any other defenseman. It’s one stat and shouldn’t be enough to win an award, but it should be enough to get him in as a finalist. Anyway, two of my three picks did not get in. I’m fine with Weber over one of them. But disappointed that Chara gets in over the other.

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Still with awards, for that weird award – Mark Messier? – the league announced the finalists – Jonathan Toews and Ryan Getzlaf. Well deserved! A leadership award? Sounds about right, those are my picks as well.

Wait, there’s a third finalist? Who? Dustin…Brown? What the…

He had 27 points – a career low. He saw 15:50 per game of ice time – a career low, other than his first season and a half. Getzlaf (21:17) and Toews (20:28) basically played 25% more hockey. Was Brown a good cheerleader or something? Just when I started to see merit to this award, I saw the third name.

Landeskog. Him instead of Brown. I try not to criticize things without offering up an alternative suggestion (good rule to live by). So there it is.

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And now the action.

Henrik Lundqvist got the hook – he gave up 19 of 23 shots and the game was out of reach unless you’re the Maple Leafs, so he watched the third period from the bench. He’ll be back to start Game 7 tonight.

So far so good for Steve Mason – he’s stopped 92 of 98 shots and boasts a .939 SV% in the playoffs.

The line on Wayne Simmonds – three goals, 12 PIM, six SOG, three hits, two blocked shots. A dream fantasy game.

Ryan McDonagh had a pretty bad game, and in fact – he has zero points in the series. He averaged about two-and-a-half shots per game during the season, but has just nine shots in six games so far in the playoffs. Add in the fact that he was pointless in three games to end the campaign, and that’s a nine-game pointless drought. The longest he went without a point this year was six games back in mid-December.

Chris Kreider turns 23 today. He’s skating but apparently he still can’t shoot the puck.

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So what’s more embarrassing, Rick Nash scoring just two goals in 21 career playoff games? Or pulling down your pants and running down Main Street?

I don’t mean to rag on the Rangers today. I initially picked them to win and if push comes to shove I still think they will. But Nash needs to step it up. He’s a seven-time 30-goal scorer in the heart of his prime. One goal in his last 17 playoff games borders on ridiculous.

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Here’s an interesting article on Patrick Roy’s tendency to pull the goalie for the extra attacker much earlier than most coaches. I read somewhere about 15 years ago that it was a good idea to do that with two minutes left instead of just one, according to a study. And that stayed with me all these years. But coaches tend to play it safe. If it worked again on Monday, then perhaps Roy’s style would catch on. But alas, the Wild scored twice.

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If you’re in the DobberHockey playoff pool, you can check out the standings here.

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One quick thought on yesterday’s Fleury debate in the comments – oftentimes you’ll see games in which a goalie gives up two or three goals and none of them were his fault. Screened, deflected, etc. And I’m the first apologist for those goalies (I often defended Reimer this year in those situations). But eventually, a great goalie – or even a good goalie – needs to steal a goal. That’s what separates them. For a goalie to be Top 10 in the NHL, in my opinion, he once in awhile needs to snag a puck that would normally find the back of the net (and if it went in it – here it comes – wouldn’t be his fault).

Marc-Andre Fleury doesn’t instill that kind of confidence in me as a viewer. If a puck is going in that he can’t be blamed for, then that puck is going in. No miracles forthcoming. And the fact that he still lets in the odd weak one doesn’t help matters. Jeff Zatkoff would have won that series too. The team won it, not Fleury. I’m pulling for him, but he hasn’t changed my opinion of him one iota. Yet.

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Stalock or Niemi? Place your bets on who starts!

Here’s “the goal” on Stalock Monday. I discussed in the forum (here) that this moment could make or break his career. One moment. This one: