Thoughts on Simon Despres, Finnish star Joonas Donskoi, the Worlds and more …

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In Canada, we love our Saturday hockey. Sunday night hockey? Bonus. Afternoon hockey? Pfffft.

The dinosaurs at NBC are swinging too big a stick. Sportsnet is paying the NHL $433.3 million for rights. NBC is paying the NHL $200 million per season. Yet…what NBC says – goes. So first thing is first. Sportsnet – you’re a wuss. Way to roll over and show your belly. Second – NBC, get the grandpa dinosaurs out of your head office and do what’s best for your station. Nobody is going to watch hockey on a Sunday or Saturday afternoon. Yes, that formula worked for football – but that was in the winter. I assure you, if the football season extended into late May, the ratings would suffer. At this time of year, most people are outside not watching hockey. And then around seven or eight at night, they filter into the house and flip on the TV, looking for some sports.

And so I missed both weekend games, although I did catch the USA bronze game Sunday, and I did see the last half of the third period of the Anaheim -Chicago game on my phone. But it was a bright, sunny day and I could barely see the screen.

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Simon Despres has six points in the playoffs for the Ducks. But still no PP time. That went to Fowler, Beauchemin, Lindholm and Vatanen. I think Bruce Boudreau should consider Despres over Beauchemin here. Despres was an offensive rearguard in the Q and again in the AHL. At least worth a look, no?

Jiri Sekac got into the first playoff action of his career. He played just nine minutes and was held without a point or even a shot.

Jakob Silfverberg posted his third consecutive two-point game for Anaheim. He already has a third of the points (13) in the playoffs that he had in the regular season (39). With 13 points he’s behind only Corey Perry in playoff scoring (tied with Johnson, Kane and Getzlaf).

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Brad Richards was fourth in ice time among Chicago forwards on Sunday. He also saw three minutes of PP time to Teuvo Teravainen‘s zero minutes. Richards did score the lone Chicago goal, so I can’t be hard on the decision. But TT deserves a slice of those PP minutes.

Brandon Saad has three points in the postseason and just one in his last seven games. This is a guy who had 16 points in 19 playoff games last year.