re: The Stanley Cup Final(s): Tampa Bay Lightning vs Chicago Blackhawks

Power play here for the Blues. We need a goal on this badly.

Great penalty kill and then another goal

Well that's game....in fact I think that's the series and Minnesota finishes the job Sunday

And I didn't watch this whole thing but holy crap Minnesota scored 4 goals on 19 shots? Wow

DK is so fricking good at his job. LINK

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All that said, man, I’m sorry, but I just can’t get down about the team’s immediate future. And I can’t and won’t nonsensically connect it to the past except for facets that directly apply.

I happen to think the ledger came out mostly in favor of Jim Rutherford, though I’m increasingly willing to accept that more should have been culled for Simon Despres — regardless of what one thinks of Despres — than Lovejoy. This GM also was responsible for three of the five names I singled out up there for playoff praise, and Cole-for-Robert Bortuzzo looks so promising it might already wash out Despres-Lovejoy.

I’m willing to give any executive more than one year to dig out of the hole — no, chasm — that Ray Shero created with a decade of indefensibly misguided drafting.

Some of Mike Johnston’s coaching was good, and some wasn’t. He entered his rookie season looking like a genius, with a breakout system — maybe the most critical area for hockey Xs and Os — that made Dan Bylsma’s look silly and a power play that scored almost at will. But the breakout soon bombed, in part because the Flyers figured out how to trap it and others soon followed, and in part because Letang, the very player for whom the system was designed, plus Olli Maatta, Christian Ehrhoff and Derrick Pouliot were lost, as well. No puck-moving defensemen means no moving in a pack, and that meant no breakout. And once Johnston had to adjust the breakout to longer passes, the Penguins’ glaring lack of speed on the wings was badly exposed.

I’m willing to give any coach more than a year in which he was forced to forfeit the very foundation of his system. Especially a smart guy like Johnston, who, even in the course of this series matched against a savvy veteran in Alain Vigneault, learned quickly from his early mistakes rather than staying stubborn.

To emphasize here, all five games were decided by one goal. If Johnston doesn’t have his short-handed, inexperienced team prepared strategically and mentally, this could have been hideous.

Oh, and to emphasize this again, too: Rutherford and Johnston are staying. Both of them. I reported that in the Friday Insider, having heard it from the very top. I can report right here that I also was told that after this game, by David Morehouse, the team’s CEO. In emphatic terms.

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Hornqvist is the only current winger on the top two lines who should be guaranteed a spot..

Center is Crosby, Malkin, Brandon Sutter and Lapierrere. Don’t expect change.

And please, please don’t dive into any discussion about Malkin being traded. It won’t happen. That, too, comes right from the top. And the player himself — who has a full no-trade clause, by the way — echoed after the game his passion for the Penguins.

What the Penguins must add in the summer, above all else, is speed on the wings. That’s No. 1 not with a bullet but a rocket. Free agency won’t offer much, but trades are always an option. So is promoting top prospect Kasperi Kapanen, who scored twice for Wilkes-Barre/Scranton last night in his first AHL playoff game and is almost sure to break camp with the big team this fall. All by himself, he’ll upgrade the speed significantly.

On defense, the Penguins’ outlook couldn’t be brighter, especially since it doesn’t need to involve any external moves. Paul Martin and Ehrhoff almost surely will be allowed to leave through free agency. That’s $9 million off the cap, as well as roster space for some of the aforementioned young defensemen. Growing pains will come, no doubt. They always do with young defensemen, but the potential looks worth the pain.

What I’m describing there is the team’s actual plan, by the way.

So are buyouts. Heading that list are Chris Kunitz, who had one fine game and was otherwise invisible, including a shot-free Game 5, and Rob Scuderi, a bystander on New York’s first goal and well past his prime in general. There’s no reason for either to return or for the team to not capitalize on the cap space that results.

And in goal?

Well, suffice it to say here that the Fleury-flops-in-the-playoffs mythos can be buried once and for all, this following a second consecutive strong postseason since he’s found a more confident form with the help of goaltending coach Mike Bales. He just isn’t the same player anymore, and anyone doubting needs to update their hockey dialogue.

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Talk about being deluded.

For once, Fleury wasn't a liability. He had a 927 save percentage, which ranks 6th among goalies with at least 2 starts. But he ranked 8th in GAA, which tells you what you need to know about shot volume.

Really, the Pens had the problem that usually bedevils the Caps: playing the goddamn Rangers. This just in, the Rags are good.

My confidence and expectations of this Caps team is pretty high...which means full melt down mode coming

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