Both Pavel Datsyuk and Kris Draper, still banged up, will be out of action tonight in G2 of the Stanley Cup Final.
Datsyuk, battling a sore foot, seems to be progressing slow and could end up out for the series, while Draper’s groin pull will keep him day-to-day.
The Dallas Stars are set to announce that former Stars player Joe 
Nieuwendyk will be named General Managers of the Dallas Stars.
Current GM’s Brett Hull and Les Jackson are going to be reassigned within the organization. Hull will be given the role of Executive Vice President and Alternate Governor while Les Jackson will return to his former role of Director of Scouting and Player Development.
Nieuwendyk had previously been the Special Assistant to the General Manager in Toronto with Brian Burke.
The 42 year old Nieuwendyk won the Stanley Cup with the Stars in 1999 and picked up the Conn Smythe Trophy. He finished his 20 year career with 564 goals and 562 assists in 1257 games.
Gotta love what you saw last night if you watched Game 1 of the Cup Final. The Wings did their thing and won a tough, physical game and got what they needed from Chris Osgood.
Here are a few things I took from G1-
1. Love him or hate him, seeing Sid throw a nasty check on Henrik Zetterberg in the 1st period and then taking a few shots at Kirk Maltby after the game.
2. Nik Kronwall looking to throw a devastating hip check on Evgeni Malkin, missing by a second — if he hit him, it would have been amazing.
3. Hal Gill getting away with a slash on a near breakaway by Darren Helm. Helm, a speedy youngster, broke free and got a shot off, but not without a slash to the hands from Gill, and the refs letting Gill get away with it.
-Continuing to look at the Red Wings — how smart were they to lock up Johan Franzen long term? Even if the ‘Mule’ scores 15-20 goals per regular season, if he continues his play in the playoffs each year like he has the last two, he is worth every penny of his $5 million plus per season.
-If Justin Abdelkader can score for the Wings in the Final, I still think I have hope.
-Despite complaints from a lot of fans, I love the fact that after last nights game, the two teams face-off again tonight at 8P.
-I am stealing this line from a friend, but I really think the Wings could be the first team to win a best of seven series in three game.
More later………
Red Wings forwards Pavel Datsyuk and Kris Draper will both be out of action tonight for the start of the Stanley Cup Final.
Datsyuk is battling a foot injury while Draper has a groin pull.
Here we go again. Penguins-Red Wings doing battle for the Cup for a second straight year. As a hockey fan, you have to love how this happened. These teams did amazing jobs in the playoffs and deserve their opportunity to win the Stanley Cup.
Let’s take a quick glance of these teams during the regular season:
The Penguins finished up 48-25-9 and fired Michel Therrien in February and replaced him with Dan Bylsma. From that point, the Pens were a top team in the East. The Wings finished 51-21-10 (as per usual) and were dominant all season long (as per usual).
The Penguins in the last 22 games of the season went 16-3-3. The Red Wings started the season 14-2-4.
The Penguins are healthier, with virtually no one injured — the Wings have Pavel Datsyuk, Nicklas Lidstrom and Kris Draper all battling injuries.
The Wings have one thing the Pens don’t, or someone, and that is Marian Hossa. When these teams met last year in the Finals, Hossa was a Penguin, he chose to sign away with the Red Wings in July and will now wear red and white this year.
Veteran Chris Osgood (who should be in the hall-of-fame) and his 2.06 goals against in the playoffs once again prepares to win another Cup for the Wings. Marc-Andre Fleury will be between the pipes for the Penguins.
Sidney Crosby and Evgeni Malkin, doing their best Gretzky-Messier impersonation, have been dominant in the playoffs while Johan Franzen has been what he was last year — a goal scoring machine.
Another solid matchup — Bill Guerin VS. Henrik Zetterberg.
Should be a lot of fun.
My pick? NEVER PICK AGAINST THE WINGS!
Red Wings in 7.
As the draft comes near one name that keeps being talked about is Brampton 
Battalion center, and teammate of Rangers prospect Evgeny Grachev, Matt Duchene.
While most of the attention has fallen on the consensus top two picks forward John Tavares and defenseman Victor Hedman, people are now saying that Duchene, ranked second by the International Scouting Service, ahead of Hedman, may be the most complete forward in this years draft.
“He’s an explosive skater, and he can just blow by people, which not a lot of people can,” said Stan Butler, Director of Hockey Operations and head coach of the Battalion. “I think his lower body strength…he has a similar build from the waist down to someone like Sidney Crosby.”
Duchene had 79 points in 80 games for the Battalion last season. Duchene was voted best playmaker and stickhandler in the Eatern Conference of the OHL by coaches.
With the reports of Tavares being a one-dimensional goal scorer who is not very strong defensively, it looks like Duchene will get billing as the most complete forward in the draft.
Rotter: Unless a tremendous blockbuster trade happens the Rangers probably won’t get anywhere near Duchene. From the reports on him he seems like a Steven Stamkos, last year’s number one pick, type player and scorer. It would be a shocker if Duchene went ahead of Tavares in the draft but not if Duchene ended up the better player in the long run.
To watch highlights of Duchene click more (more…)
Stats.hockeyanalysis.com compiles stats that show how certain players play with one another and when separated. They look at goals scored or goals against when players are together and when they are separated.
We look at Rangers center Scott Gomez to start.
When Gomez was on the ice, the Rangers scored the most goals when he was joined by Markus Naslund, 25 goals for, Wade Redden, 19 goals for, and Nikolai Zherdev who had 21 goals for.
Zherdev played 310:55 even stregnth time with Gomez for them to have 21 goals scored while they were together compared to Markus Naslund who scored had 25 goals scored together in 646:31 even stregnth time.
Ryan Callahan had 17 put in when they played together in 495:39 and Marc Staal also had 17 put in in 418:04.
Rotter: Stats don’t always tell the whole story but I thought they were interesting enough to post. I always thought that Zherdev and Gomez would fly together and it seemed that the stats prove that but the stats don’t show them leaving the defensive zone early or not being sound defensively. There are other stats on the page but I am not entirely sure how they are calculated but they all paint an interesting picture for Gomez this past season.
NHL.com has a very in depth stats section of their website and to make use of that here are the Rangers leaders in missed shots this season.
Rotter: I know that Drury missed a lot of shots but I am shocked that Zherdev wasn’t number one. It seemed like he didnt hit the net for two weeks straight missing high everytime. Also bothersome is Rozsival missing 66 shots, everyone is going to miss the net but if a couple more of his hit the net the whole powerplay could have been different.
*Also with Toronto.
TSN is reporting that the Montreal Canadiens have offered a contract and 
their captaincy to pending free agent and former Ranger Alex Kovalev.
Former captain Saku Koivu is reportedly not in the plans for the teams future.
“If I’m not signed by July 1, I don’t think I’ll be back in Montreal,” Koivu said last month. “Finishing your career with one team would be awesome in a way, but it’s too early to say because I don’t know what the team’s plan is. We lost yesterday, so I need time to sit down with my family and figure out what’s best for us.”
Koivu has been the Canadiens captain for nine seasons, second most all-time in team history to Jean Beliveau who was captain for ten seasons.
The contract offered to Kovalev is expected to be worth anywhere between 6 and 7.5 million. Kovy made 4.5 million last season.
Kovalev and Koivu are two of 10 potential Canadiens free agents.
With the Wings defeating the Hawks 2-1 in OT tonight, advancing the Stanley Cup Final (again), they will battle the Penguins (again), with the Final starting on Saturday.
Click here for all the details on the TV schedule.
Tomorrow I will throw up some predictions and thoughts.
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