Rambling about the puck-over-glass-gate; Also – Vey, Hamonic, Husso, Johnson and more

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The Penguins will face the Lightning in the Eastern Conference Semi-Final.

If you missed the game, just know that for the next two or three decades, Washington fans will refer to it as the ‘5-on-3 game’. Because in the third period of a 3-2 game the Penguins were nailed for firing the puck over the glass. Then they were nailed again. And then they were nailed again. The Caps had a lengthy 5-on-3 and it was enough to tie the contest and push it to overtime. They just couldn’t close.

Here it is – puck over the glass three straight times!

What do you think of that rule? I discussed it here.

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Wow – don’t blame John Carlson for this one. He had 12 points in the 12 games. So did Ovechkin. No…if you point fingers, point them at the team’s regular season leading scorer Evgeny Kuznetsov. He managed just two points in the playoffs. Andrei Burakovsky had just one – which ties him with Braden Holtby…

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With two goals last night Phil Kessel has taken the lead in scoring for the Penguins with 12 points in 11 games. Sidney Crosby and Nick Bonino (?) are second with 10. Who had Bonino in the pool?

Very nice distribution of scoring among the Pittsburgh players played no small role in their success so far. Eleven, yes 11 players have five or more points in the Penguins’ 11 games. That includes Tom Kuhnhackl and Conor Sheary. The only disappointing player in my books is Chris Kunitz (four points).

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So in the six games:

Alex Ovechkin: seven points and plus-2

Sidney Crosby: two points and minus-3

Crosby wins! Sounds insane, but that’s the reality of pro sports. Ovechkin will get panned – again – for having a worse postseason than Crosby when that’s really not true.

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So after going 7-1 with my picks in the first round, I’m now 0-2 so far in the second round. I could very well get swept this round if the Stars and Preds win…

This is one call that I don’t mind losing. I’m a Penguins fan and my two playoff pool teams would each prefer that the Penguins moved on.

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The last time an Eastern Conference team that won the President’s Trophy went on to win the Stanley Cup was in 1994 when the Rangers did it.

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Linden Vey owners (and former owners) will be interested in this crazy article. His father is charged with conspiracy to commit murder. He and the woman he was having an affair with allegedly planned to murder their spouses back in 2013. That is – back in 2013, the year when a promising prospect in Vey started to go downhill in fantasy value. Talk about a distraction!

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So who would you start tonight? Brian Elliott or Jake Allen? If it’s my call, I go with Elliott.

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The Blues have signed Ville Husso to an ELC. So he’ll cross the pond next season after a very successful year in the Liiga with HIFK with a 1.91 GAA in the regular season (39 games) and a 1.55 GAA in the playoffs and leading his team to the silver. Husso is far and away the Blues’ best prospect netminder. His arrival will probably push Pheonix Copley to the ECHL (assuming they re-sign him), and it will ensure that the Blues do not re-sign Anders Nilsson. Given the injury track record of both Jake Allen and Brian Elliott, I wouldn’t be surprised to see Husso getting into a couple of games next year.

On a side note, I think Nilsson really got a raw deal this year. I think he played fine, but his numbers don’t reflect that. In mid-December he had a .921 SV%. After that he never got two starts in a row again, and often went several weeks between starts. So we’ve established that he’s not exactly a goaltender who can come in cold and play well. So being a backup is not for him. But barring an injury he won’t get a chance anywhere in the NHL next season. Just remember that when he was playing several games in a row, when all that activity came to an end in mid-December, he had a 0.921 SV% and then it dipped to 0.917 and then the consecutive games stopped.

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The Panthers signed a prospect goalie as well – Samuel Montembeault. He was drafted in the third round last summer, in no small part because of his size (6-3, which is the trend in the NHL these days). His numbers in the Q were weak, though.

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Colorado prospect goalie Roman Will has signed to play in the Czech League next year, his home country. He was signed as a free agent in 2014 and actually got into an NHL contest. But after two seasons of pretty terrible numbers, the writing was on the wall.

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The Arizona Coyotes have purchased the Springfield Falcons of the AHL and the sale has been approved by the AHL board of governors. Arizona plans to move the team to Tucson, Arizona. This is not a move that an NHL team would do if they were planning on relocating to Quebec. Nope, I think a team is in Arizona for at least a few years now…

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In just his second AHL game after crossing the pond from Sweden, Toronto prospect Andrea Johnson had to leave the game for the Marlies after taking a very serious hit (and head injury). You can read more about Johnson here. And here is the play:

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Remember when Travis Hamonic requested a trade to a team that would put him closer to his family (in Winnipeg)? Well, apparently the serious health concerns for a member of his family have stabilized and he no longer wants to be traded.

Some great trade rumors are being discussed in the forum, and there are even a couple of trade suggestions people are floating. Bounce your thoughts off the members – here.