Columbus put up a valiant effort in the series but the Penguins were ultimately too much, winning it 4-2.

Evgeni Malkin finally got it going with a hat-trick and scoring for the first time in the playoffs. Nothing against the Blue Jackets as they played well, but the fact they hung around in the series had just as much to do with Pittsburgh letting them do so.

James Neal has just one goal in the series and he will need to pick it up if they hope to get past either New York or Philadelphia.

I was all ready to say that Marc Andre-Fleury had a game that he could build off of going forward, and then the last 10 minutes happened. The Blue Jackets scored three times to cut the deficit to one. I'm not sure how the Penguins can have any confidence in Fleury at this point. If that game was another couple of minutes longer Pittsburgh would have been in trouble.

The Pens made it through, but not unscathed. Both Joe Vitale and Brandon Sutter left the game with what looked like pretty significant injuries. Vitale's looked like a knee and Sutter's an ankle. Sutter is clearly the bigger loss right now as he was on a four-game point streak and can play in a checking role.

Exhibit A:

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The Blue Jackets should be able to build on this effort heading into next season. A healthy Nathan Horton should be a nice addition to an already skillful group.

Hopefully Jack Johnson can carry over his play from the postseason to 2014-15. He had two assists on Monday to give him seven points in the series. He's always been a much better performer in the playoffs than he has in the regular season for some peculiarity.

One thing that hurt the Blue Jackets was the ordinary play of Sergei Bobrovsky. He posted a .908 save percentage and 3.17 goals against average, which wasn't going to get it done against a superior team. Columbus relied on him heavily all year, but you can't always expect your goalie to stand on his head. If that's your formula for winning games there will be a lot of ups and downs.

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The Wild stayed alive with a 5-2 victory. This one was a little closer than the scoreline indicated as Minnesota scored two empty-net goals. In other words, when Patrick Roy’s goalie pulling strategy goes wrong. 

Zach Parise had a four-point night to give him 10 points in the series now. Ryan Suter added two assists and I’m sure this is exactly what the Wild envisioned when they spent all that money on them.

Something they certainly didn’t expect was Matt Moulson scoring just one goal in the series so far. He’ll need to be better if the Wild make it through. Moulson is only getting second unit power play minutes at this point. 

Darcy Kuemper turned in another good performance and has really saved the series for the Wild. He could parlay this into a starting job next year with the team and that’s something to keep an eye for fantasy drafts.

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Nathan MacKinnon has had three shaky games after he exploded in the opening two contests of the series. A three-point effort on Saturday has been sandwiched in-between three pointless outings. He was also minus-3 on Monday. 

Matt Duchene made his return to the lineup and picked up an assist in just under 19 minutes. He also played close to four minutes on the power play. Expect him to be used mainly with the man advantage until he gets his legs back. 

Game 7 is set for Wednesday at 9:30 pm ET.

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The Sharks have now lost three straight to put them in a Game 7 situation. That seemed impossible the way they handled the first three games. 

What in the world do they do now in regards to their starting goalie? Stalock didn’t play poorly, but he didn’t exactly stand on his head either. It may be hard to go back to Niemi at this point but that’s what I would do. I actually wouldn’t have made the switch in the first place. However, I do feel like Stalock may be the future starting goalie of the Sharks, but it was unfair to throw him into that situation in my opinion. 

If San Jose doesn’t pull this out I would be very worried if I were Todd McLellan and Doug Wilson. They’ve done a great job building this team but how many playoff failures can you go through before changes need to be made.

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Justin Williams and Anze Kopitar carried the team to victory with two goals and an assist each. I’ve always thought Williams was an underrated fantasy commodity. He does a lot of things well and always plays with Kopitar.

Don’t look now but Jonathan Quick has turned in three straight stellar starts after a rocky beginning to the series. If he stays hot the Kings could be in for a long playoff run if they win on Wednesday.

Speaking of which, that game is scheduled for 10 pm ET Wednesday.

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Should the Rangers/Flyers need a Game 7 it will also be on Wednesday at 7 pm ET.

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The Norris Trophy nominees were announced Monday as Duncan Keith, Zdeno Chara, and Shea Weber. I know the playoffs are not supposed to play a factor in the voting, but if they did, you would be hard-pressed to ignore Duncan Keith. His four-point game on Sunday was incredible and his play in the entire series against the Blues was excellent. I thought he carried the team for much of the series. Who would you vote for?

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One player that should be interesting to keep an eye next year is Stephen Weiss. He was awful this season, but is there a chance he bounces back? Obviously he missed a bunch of time because of injuries which is partly to blame, although he only managed four points in the 28 games he played. That works out to be pretty awful when you expand it out over 82 games, anyway you slice it. He's still under contract for another four years at almost $5 million per season, so it's not like it will be easy for the Red Wings to get rid of him. He may just redefine the term buy-low candidate at this point.

I think the problem for Weiss more than his bad season was how many people have essentially passed him in the pecking order now. Thanks to his injury and many others, Detroit forwards like Gustav Nyquist, Tomas Tatar, Tomas Jurco, Luke Glendening, and Riley Sheahan all did an admirable job filling in and make a lot less money than Weiss. It would only make sense for Detroit to move him and play the youngsters, but unloading that contract will be easier said than done.

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Some front office moves Monday for a couple of teams.

The Carolina Hurricanes moved Ron Francis to general manager and announced Jim Rutherford will remain as president. The next question is what happens to Kirk Muller as the head coach. Does he get another year?

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The Flames brought in Brad Treliving to become their general manager. I was impressed with what the Flames did down the stretch last year as they finished strong. A big bonus for them would be convincing Mike Cammalleri to stay this summer.

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The Islanders may not win many games next year, but I think they are going to be fun to watch. I expect them to play the heck out of their young guns and look for Anders Lee and Ryan Strome to be the recipients of featured roles. Whoever sneaks onto a line with John Tavares and Kyle Okposo is going to be a must own.

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I wonder if the Edmonton Oilers would have any interest in Ryan Miller this offseason, or vice versa. A good goalie wouldn't be the answer to all their woes, but it should help. Miller seemed to be at his best when he had to carry Sabres and faced a ton of shots. That would certainly be the case in Edmonton.

Michael Amato is an Associate Editor for DobberHockey and a News Editor for theScore. You can follow him on Twitter at @amato_mike