Even though the Carolina Hurricanes have missed the playoffs both years since they won the Stanley Cup in '06, General Manager Jim Rutherford said that the team would retain the services of coach Peter Laviolette. Many people in the media believed that after Joel Quenneville and Ron Wilson were fired after their teams made the playoffs, Laviolette would be gone to. However this was never the case in Rutherford's mind saying that speculation was a little beyond what it should be. Laviolette has 3 years remaining on his contract that he signed after he won the Cup and has compiled a 155-119-28 record in his 4 years of being the bench boss in Carolina.

The NHL can say goodbye to Chris Simon, at least for now. On Monday the Minneapolis Star-Tribune reported that 36 year old Simon will play next season with Vityaz Podolsk Chekhov in Russia. Last year Simon was suspended for a total of 55 games for a pair of incidents, slashing New York Ranger Ryan Hollweg in the face and stomping of the leg of Penguin Jarkko Ruutu. These are the 2 longest on-ice suspensions the NHL has ever given out.

The Doctors have cleared resident Mule, Johan Franzen to begin workouts off the ice. He has been given the ok to ride the bike but is being monitored closely due to his concussion like symptoms that have kept him out of play. It doesn't seem like the Red Wings even missed a beat without him after they crushed the Dallas Stars 5-2 in game 3. But they will need him when they go up against an equally impressive Penguin force in the Stanley Cup Finals.

By losing game 4 in their series against the New York Rangers, the Pittsburgh Penguins actually grew closer to becoming a championship hockey team. Their captain Sidney Crosby was on the receiving end on many attempts to run him, in the 3rd period he decided to take matters into his own hands. Dan Girardi just leveled Marian Hossa to the ice and enough was enough for the kid as he went after Girardi who was already about to receive a penalty for the hit. Pushing and shoving ensued and star Penguin 1B, Evgeni Malkin joined in the fun as both Crosby and Malkin went to the penalty box for their actions. Now how many of today's star players are going to stand up and say we're not going to take anymore of this crap and do something about it. Sure the Pens might have scored on that powerplay to bring them within a goal but to see Crosby and Malkin get physical like they did should ignite their teammates for future rounds.

Marian Gaborik had arthroscopic surgery on his right hip Friday to fix an "irritation" that has bothered him for most of the season. This year Gaborik recorded season highs in goals, assists, and points and is now in his final year of his contract. The Wild believe that they will have the 26 year old winger at 100% by the time they opening training camp. It's hard to say if this injury had anything to do with him having only 1 point in the 6 game series against the Avalanche but anything is really possible in the playoffs.

The trade Montreal made close to the deadline is finally showing why it was a bad deal for the Canadiens. The Habs are only 1 game from elimination and they have deiced to make a goalie change. 20 year old Carey Price will be replaced by less experienced 22 year old Jaroslav Halak. The Canadiens traded away their former number 1 goalie, Cristobal Huet to the Washington Captials for only a 2nd round pick. Huet went 14-6 in his 20 regular and postseason games for the Caps. Bob Gainey is now wishing he didn't put all his eggs in Price's basket as the young goalie's nonchalant attitude in net has his team down 3 games to 1.

I thought that we heard the one and only thing we would hear from Jonathan Roy, the son of Hall of Famer Patrick Roy, but I was mistaken. It seems as if he is going to release a hip hop album this summer under the name Joe Daking. With the financial help of his father and the musical help from Celine Dion (the person I would get for help on a hip hop album) Joe Daking has 4 tracks that can be heard on his myspace page right now and sometime this summer a English speaking album will be released. I guess there is a reason why he was only the number 2 goalie on his fathers team, he has been spending too much time in the studio and not on the ice.

Last night was a game of strange bounces. The games first goal came when Martin Straka's centering pass bounced off the skate of Penguin defensemen Sergei Gonchar and past Marc-Andre Fleury. On that play Jaromir Jagr recored his first playoff point against the team he won two cups with in the early nineties. The Rangers scored 2 more goals to take a 3-0 lead in the 2nd period. Just as the announcer on VS. was saying that the Penguins haven't come back from a 3 goal deficit all year, they scored 2 goals in a 14 second span. The first came from Jarkko Ruutu as his pass bounced off a defender and into the net. Then the 2nd came from a pretty pass from Sid the Kid to Pascal Dupuis who scored his first goal of the playoffs. Then in the 3rd the craziest bounce of them all happened. Marian Hossa was in the corner and sent the puck to the front of the net only to have it go right through the space between Scott Gomez's skate blade and his boot and through the legs of Henrik Lundqvist. If you give Hossa 100 tries at that shot again I guarantee he wouldn't be able hit that shot again. The teams traded goals to make it even again at 4 a piece until late in the third when Sidney Crosby took a rare slap shot from the top of the circle and of course it bounced off Evgeni Malkin's shin and into the back of the net for the game winning goal. The Penguins started off slow after having a extended break between rounds but picked up their game and won their 5th playoff game in a row.

Markus Naslund underwent surgery on Thursday to remove bone spurs in his elbow. It is uncertain how long Naslund has been bothered by the injury and it raises some questions about the unrestricted free agent who's scoring has dropped each year since his season high 104 points in '03-'04. It has also been reported that Naslund won't resign with the Canucks if coach Alain Vigneault is still there. If this is true we could see either the captain or the 2007 coach of the year somewhere else next season.

There are 7 teams that haven't made the playoffs since the lockout season of '04-05. They are Chicago, Columbus, Florida, Los Angeles, Phoenix, St. Louis, and Toronto. Columbus has never made the postseason and Florida has only made the playoffs once in an 11 year run. Now I think this list will shrink next season but not all of these teams will make it. I see Chicago and LA getting in with all their young talent but as for the rest, it's really hard to see them making a splash at all.

The Pittsburgh Penguins have one guy on their team with over a 100 playoff games under his belt and a Stanley Cup ring, that man is Gary Roberts. As a member of the Calgary Flames in '89 Roberts won his first and only Stanley Cup ring, he does have 2 Memorial Cup rings as well. In 1996 Roberts retired from the game after 2 injury plagued seasons where he saw the ice in only 43 games. He returned only a year later and has continued to play at a high level ever since. His toughness is something that is never questioned, something that is priceless come playoff time and his longevity in the league is due to his ultra competitiveness. Even though we won't see Roberts on the ice for 20 minutes a game or scoring at the rate he did in the early 90's he is one of the most valuable players in a Penguin uniform and his experience will help them push past the New York Rangers.

Peter Forsberg is the key to the Avalanche beating the Detroit Red Wings in the Western Conference Semi-Finals. Detroit has enjoyed playing the Avs this season going 4-0 against them while outscoring Colorado 11-2. However all of these games were played before Forsberg even signed a deal that brought him back to the mile high city. Even though he has been sidelined with a groin injury and probably needs more rest than any other player in the game, the Avs were 8-1 with him in the lineup in the regular season and 4-2 against Minnesota where he had a goal and 4 helpers in the 6 games. We'll see if Forsberg and company can get some rubber behind the tandem of old goalies and overcome the Presidents Trophy winners to advance to the next round.

Ray Emery was an integral part of Ottawa's '07 cup run. Now only one year later, the Senators want nothing to do with the 25 year old goaltender. GM Bryan Murray is hoping that at least one team has some interest in his 2 year contract worth $6.75 million. Emery was a clear distraction to the team this year as his attitude changed when he lost the number one label that he thought he earned in last year's playoffs. His work ethic really dropped off and spread throughout the locker room taking a team that started off the season 15-2 and finished it 3-6-1 in the regular season and was quickly swept by the Pittsburgh Penguins in the first round of the postseason. Emery publically stated this week that he regretted his actions that he made after Martin Gerber replaced him as Ottawa's number 1 goalie. Too bad for Emery it's to late to stay a Senator or that might be a good thing, other than the '07 playoffs the Senators haven't done very much in the postseason.

The Sharks took a 3 games to 2 series lead with a 4-3 win over the Flames in Calgary on Thursday night. After trailing 1-0 early in the 2nd period, the Sharks dominated the play in the second half of the game. They scored 4 straight goals, including 2 in the 3rd from Jonathan Cheechoo, to go up 4-1. Those insurance goals were badly needed as the Flames continued to be a nuisance and mounted a mini comeback only to fizzle out. It was nice to see the star players for the Sharks get into the scoring act. Cheechoo, Patrick Marleau, and Joe Pavelski each had 2 points and big Joe Thornton contributed with a single assist.

The Marty that everyone thought would be dominating in the playoffs is on the brink of being knocked out. Now the Marty that everyone thought would be packing up and going home after 4 quick loses against Anaheim is looking to take a 3-1 lead in the series tonight. That's right, Marty Turco is outplaying Martin Brodeur in this years postseason. Turco came out in game 1 and made a statement to everyone, stopping all 23 shots he faced. In game 2 he held his team close by making 20 saves until his Dallas teammates broke out for 3 goals in the 3rd and they swept both games in Anaheim. When they came back to the lone star state Turco had a rough 1st period and the Stars were just flat out, out played Chris Pronger and the Ducks. But look for Marty Turco to turn things around in game 4 tonight.