Tony Granato has been promoted from assistant to head coach with the Colorado Avalanche after being demoted from the position 3 years ago. He compiled a record of 72-33-17-11 in his year and a bit as the head coach of the Avs. He stepped down to become Joel Quenneville's assisant for the last 3 seasons only to see Quenneville's contract not be renewed.

Lucky Number 13. That's 13 game winning playoff goals for Dallas Stars, star center Mike Modano over his 18 year career, all with the Stars, or North Stars. Even though they have a huge hill to climb in their series with the Red Wings, the Stars need to build of the fact that they finally held a lead in a game in this series. Other than about 34 minutes where they were tied up the Stars had been trailing Detroit the rest of the way until last night in game 4. Heading back to Joe Louis Arena, Dallas needs as much as they can get from the most prolific American born goal scorer of all time. Modano and his Stars are down 3 games to 1.

Scott Mellanby played 1,431 NHL games without winning a Stanley Cup Championship and retired last season after 2 seasons in Atlanta. Now the 41 year old is back in hockey, the Vancouver Canucks signed Mellanby to assist newly hired general manager Mike Gillis in all areas of hockey operations. Mellanby played the 3rd most games in the history of hockey without winning a ring and I don't know if that will change for him going to the front office of the Canucks.

Well all I can say about this is that I'm glad Jaromir Jagr has changed his interview capabilities but I wished he still played like he had a mullet again. He is still one of the better players in the league but only when he wants to be and that seems to happening fewer and fewer these days.

The NHL is looking to tinker with their rules some more. In a move to produce more scoring, NHL representatives will meet with a handful of players to discuss the possibility of reducing the size of goaltender equipment. Marty Brodeur, Ryan Miller, Rick DiPietro, Dany Heatley, Michael Cammalleri will talk with Doug Risebrough, Garth Snow, Jim Rutherford, and Brett Hull on June 11th in Toronto. With scoring up this year and a boom of young stars taking over the league, officials have to been aware of going to far, I don't think anyone wants to watch a game that has 20+ goals in it.

It's pretty amazing how messed up a player skates after he gets crushed as bad as some of these guys do.

Avalanche coach Joel Quenneville has a decision to make before game 3 back in Colorado. He must decide whether to start Jose Theodore who has let in 4 goals in each of the first two games or put Peter Budaj in net, the goalie that replaced Theodore in both games and has only given up one goal on 40 shots. I think Quenneville needs to take a lesson from Red Wing coach Mike Babcock when he sat 6 time Vezina Trophy winner Dominik Hasek for the 3rd lowest paid goaltender in the league in Chris Osgood in the first round. Sure I agree with Quenneville in saying that Theodore was a big reason they are where they are but if they want to have any chance at getting past the powerful Wings a change in net is a must. If Babcock has the guts to sit a future Hall of Famer Quenneville has to have the balls to sit Theodore who has been very average in his time with the Avs. Only this season has he begin to return to some of the form he had when he won his only Vezina and I think the only reason for that is because Jose is playing for a contract for next season.

The Colorado Avalanche players are falling faster than an Avalanche. First Peter Forsberg re-injured his groin during Thursday's morning skate and was unable to play that night. It looks as though he will be out of game 2 as well as he is listed as questionable. Next on the list is Wojtek Wolski, he had to leave game 1 after a collision with Detroit center Johan Franzen and may not be able to return at all in this series due to an upper body injury. Lastly it looks like the flu bug that hit goalie Jose Theodore before game one is gone as he was back practicing with the team Friday. Theodore was sick enough to leave game one after he was pulled and head straight to the team's hotel to get some much needed rest. As for Detroit they get a player back for today's game, Brad Stuart will be back on the blue line after he missed the first game because he flew back to San Jose to be with his wife and newly born son.

Jaromir Jagr knows what to expect when his New York Rangers head into Mellon Arena in Pittsburg, boo's, lots and lots of boo's. It has been 7 years since Jagr left Pittsburgh in a trade with the Washington Capitals but Jagr still hears the fans displeasure. After winning back to back Stanley Cups in his first two years and leading the league in scoring 4 straight years, from 97-98 to 00-01, Jagr was reported to have problems with then Penguin coach Ivan Hlinka and with the return of Mario Lemieux from retirement the Pen's knew they wouldn't be able to afford Jagr massive contract demands. As for what he thinks of the new one-two punch Pittsburgh has in Sidney Crosby and Evgeni Malkin, he believes there is no one that can compare to Mario and him. Even though Malkin has 21 more goals and 65 more points in his first two years than Jaromir did, Jagr can only say the game has changed but shouldn't that mean Malkin should score less?

It didn't take the Vancouver Canucks long to find a replacement for recently fired GM David Nonis. Today Canucks owner Francesco Aquilini announced that former agent Mike Gillis is their man. With Vancouver having around 20 million in cap space for next season, many are hoping Gillis can use his negotiating skills to bring in some top quality offensive talent to go with one of the best goaltenders in the league in Roberto Luongo.

New Jersey didn't even have a chance. In the 13 games they played against the New York Rangers the Devils only won 2 of them. It might be hard for the Devils to change their defensive style of hockey that has brought 3 Cups in Martin Brodeur tenure, but it's what has to be done if they wish to get back to their championship level. I say this only because the Rangers just showed New Jersey how to play their own game. In the 5 games in the playoffs the Rangers played excellent defense to go along with very timely scoring to secure a birth in the semi finals. The Devils now have a long summer and hopefully for them they make some much needed changes.

The reason why Nashville was in game 5 was Dan Ellis. He might be the reason why the Predators might be in the series. Hell, he might even be the reason they made the playoffs in the first place. In game 5 against Detroit, Ellis saw 54 shots and made 52 saves in a 2-1 OT loss. This was after Ellis made 39 saves in a game 4 win. After losing many key players from last season's 110 point season, it has been Ellis' contribution this year that has all the fans singing in Nashville.

The Montreal Canadiens are the only team that can possibly eliminate their opponent tonight. They have a 3 games to 1 lead in the series and are playing in front of a friendly sell out crowd in Montreal. This will be the 144th sell out in a row at the Bell Centre and with a win tonight they will be promised at least 2 more home games in the conference semi finals. With the way both goaltenders have been playing only a few goals will be needed to win. Carey Price has lived up to all the hype and Bruin goalie Tim Thomas is not far behind, he has the same number of saves but has let in just 4 more goals. Canadien captain Saku Koivu, who has been out with fractured foot, skated on his own but is still unsure of his return.

Mike Babcock had planned to only use Dominik Hasek throughout the playoffs. Even though Chris Osgood had played in more games, had fewer loses, had a better GAA, save% and no penalty minutes to Hasek's 12, Osgood was watching Hasek start against the Nashville Predators. In game 4 Babcock changed his plan and pulled Hasek in the second period after he let in 3 goals on 14 shots. Chris Osgood then took his place in net and stopped all 13 shots he saw but the Red Wings still lost 3-2. Now Babcock has deiced that Osgood will start game 5 back in Detroit in hopes that a goaltender change will stir things up a bit and bring some life back to the President's Trophy winners.

The Montreal Canadiens were only able to score once on Bruin goaltender Tim Thomas in game 4. That one goal however was all they needed as 20 year old Carey Price stopped all 27 shots he faced and recorded his first playoff shutout of his young career. This is the first shutout by a Canadien rookie since Patrick Roy accomplished the feat in 1986. With Montreal up 3-1 over Boston, Price and company will be looking to finish of the series when they play Thursday night in Montreal. If Boston wants to have any chance at winning this series they have to send more bodies to the net. Price has stopped 54 of Boston's last 55 shots and has seen very little traffic in front of him. So I think this will be the last game of the season for Bruins fans.