The New York Rangers continued their free agency spending on Thursday by signing 30-year-old forward Ales Kotalik to a three-year, $9 million deal. It's a move that could signal the end of restricted free agent Nikolai Zherdev's tenure in New York after one, uninspiring season.
As for Kotalik, he spent the 2008-09 season with Buffalo and Edmonton, while he's scored at least 20 goals in three of the past four seasons. He's also one of the best shootout specialists in the league. General manager Glen Sather, however, continues to sign checks with a stamp. Or so it seems.
Sean Avery seems to be enjoying his return to New York, as the pesky forward chipped in two goals and drew a pair of penalties in the Rangers' 4-2 win over Philadelphia on Sunday afternoon. He has now scored in three straight games, and has picked up five points since being claimed on re-entry waivers back on March 3.
Montreal Canadiens defenseman Ryan O'Byrne has yet to score a goal this season, and thus far, only has one in his brief NHL career. Unfortunately for Montreal, the 24-year old rearguard scored on his own net with just under five-minutes to play in regulation on Monday night, sending the game to overtime. The own-goal proved to be costly for Montreal, as the Islanders took the game in a shootout, 4-3, picking up the extra point and winning for the fifth time in their past six games.
The O'Byrne gaffe happened on a delayed penalty call, which led to Canadiens goalie Carey Price heading to the bench for the extra-attacker. O'Byrne, unfortunately, sent the puck backwards toward the yawning net -- as seen in the above video -- tying the game at three, much to the chagrin of the Bell Centre crowd.
Seriously, that's just painful to watch. O'Byrne instantly covered his face and looked like he wanted to dig a hole in the ice and crawl out of the arena. What do you even say after that?
Islanders forward Bill Guerin was credited for what will surely be the easiest goal of his career.
This is the series most likely to be referred to as "the closest series in the second round." Both the Pens and Rangers finished the regular season on fire, both of them breezed through the first round, and they've already played each other eight times this year. I think it's fair to say that neither team will find this match-up as easy as their first rounder.
And we've got subplots, too! In addition to being division rivals, we've got Jaromir Jagr playing against Pittsburgh in what might be his last season and thus, last chance to take a team of his own to a cup. The Rangers took 5 of the eight regular season games from the Pens this year, but two of their wins went to overtime. This one really breaks down to the classic offense vs. defense battle.
The New York Rangers continued their free agency spending on Thursday by signing 30-year-old forward Ales Kotalik to a three-year, $9 million deal. It's a move that could signal the end of restricted free agent Nikolai Zherdev's tenure in New York after one, uninspiring season. 
