Around 10 AM ET Friday morning, the Florida Panthers announced on their twitter feed that some breaking news was set to be announced within the hour. The first thought, of course, was centered around the possibility of the team trading defenseman Jay Bouwmeester's rights to a club that intended to sign him. Or, perhaps, that a general manager had been named.
Two hours later, TSN's Darren Dreger announced, via his own twitter feed (naturally), that Florida and Phoenix had made a trade. The deal? Steven Reinprecht to Florida in return for Stefan Meyer. Considering the initial build up, it was kind of a letdown.
One of the best power forwards in the NHL during the late 1980's and early 1990's, his skills had obviously diminished in recent years, but he was still a valuable role player on a Pittsburgh team that played in the Stanley Cup Final a season ago.
Sabres 5, Canadiens 1:Patrick Lalime faced 39 shots on Wednesday night and turned aside all but one in Buffalo's 5-1 thrashing of Montreal. Derek Roy and Paul Gausted each scored a pair of goals for the Sabres, as they raced out to a commanding 5-0 lead.
Lalime weathered the storm in the first period, turning aside 18 Montreal shots, until Roy started the party for Buffalo netting a power play goal at the 17:53 mark of the period.
Predators 6, Oilers 5: Edmonton and Nashville entered Tuesday's game separated by only one point in the standings. Thanks to the Predators 6-5 overtime win, the two teams are now tied with 68 points at the bottom of the Western Conference playoff picture.
Jason Arnott scored the game-winner in overtime, as the two teams combined for five goals in the third period. Nashville has now won 11 of its past 16 games, including four in a row.
Weeks of rumors, innuendo, and e5s will finally come to a head on Wednesday. At 3pm Eastern, the NHL trade deadline will pass. You can follow all the activity with our NHL Trade Deadline Tracker.
Entering play Tuesday night, 23 NHL teams are either in a playoff position or within six points of one. While this is great for the playoff races, it's not so good for the deadline. It minimizes the number of potential sellers, drives up the trade market for the few players who should be available, and leaves us wondering if any big deals will go down. Here's a look at how the Eastern Conference looks heading into the deadline.
Late last night after news of Michel Therrien's firing as head coach of the Pittsburgh Penguins was announced, NHL Network ran an extended excerpt of a conference call with Pittsburgh general manager Ray Shero. For the most part, his comments were pretty much the same thing you hear from GMs after they kick a head coach to the curb.
There was one exception, and that was when Shero mentioned that it seemed as if the Penguins had fallen prey to a common phenomenon that we've seen in the NHL over the years -- that the team that loses the Stanley Cup Finals disintegrates on the ice during the following season.
Red Wings 8, Oilers 3: Here's a fun fact: at the end of the first period of Saturday's Detroit-Edmonton game, the Red Wings had as many goals (five), as the Oilers had shots. One word can sum this up: domination. The Wings continued to pour it on, completing an 8-3 thrashing of Edmonton at Joe Louis Arena.
It's the second time in just over a week that the Oilers have been on the wrong end of a blowout, getting steamrolled by Buffalo, 10-2, back on January 27. The Oilers have now lost four of six, while the Red Wings extended their modest winning streak to three as they head into their NBC tilt with the Penguins on Sunday.
Penguins 4, Lightning 3: I feel as if I've said this before, but this could be the game that turns the Penguins season around. It has to be. If it doesn't spark something with this group, nothing will.
Trailing 3-0 in the third period, Evgeni Malkin transformed himself into a one-man wrecking crew as he scored a pair of goals -- including the game-winner in overtime -- and assisted on another in Pittsburgh's 4-3 overtime win against Tampa Bay. After Malkin scored the Penguins first goal of the night, Mark Eaton and Petr Sykora scored a pair of goals in the final six minutes of regulation to send the game to overtime.
Sykora's goal came on the power play after Gary Roberts -- who became a cult hero of sorts during his year-and-a-half stay in the 'Burgh -- was suckered into a foolish penalty by Matt Cooke.
Hopefully by now you've seen the video of Sidney Crosby and his attempt to light a fire under his teammates by mugging Brett McLean during Saturday's game in Pittsburgh. Actually, it looked like he may have been trying to steal McLean's lunch money. Following the game, both sides had an opportunity to sound off on the showing, and the word "embarrassing" was thrown around the Florida locker room.
First, let's start with Crosby and the Penguins. In his locker room interview with the Pittsburgh media, Crosby acknowledged that he asked McLean if he wanted to go -- as was initially pointed out in the comments section of our earlier post -- and Crosby, naturally, claims that he accepted the challenge.
When a reporter pushed for further confirmation that McLean agreed to dance, Crosby repeated his "yes" and offered up the possibility that the Panthers forward didn't take his offer seriously. He also made some reference to "wasting 20 minutes in the box," while also suggesting his efforts weren't worthy of 19 minutes in penalty time. I'm guessing those statements will fly like a led balloon with hockey fans outside of the 412 area code.
Anyway, if Crosby really did challenge McLean, why did it appear that McLean was ambushed right off the draw? Here's what he told George Richards of the Miami-Herald.
As far as November regular season games go in the NHL, tonight's Penguins - Red Wings tilt is a pretty big one, if for no other reason than it's the much anticipated rematch of last season's Stanley Cup Finals, which the Wings ultimately won in six games.
It was a bad omen for the Penguins when, prior to game one, goaltender Marc-Andre Fleury tripped and fell over the red carpet as he was exiting the tunnel. I was at Joe Louis Arena that night, and as soon as he went face-first into the ice it was difficult to not get that feeling of, "oh, so it's going to be that type of series." The rest of the team followed in that path for the first two games, falling all over themselves, as Detroit was clearly the superior team.
The Penguins fought back, however, pushing it to six games only to fall inches short as Marian Hossa's last ditch effort was stopped as time ran out on the season.
Around 10 AM ET Friday morning, the Florida Panthers announced on their twitter feed that some breaking news was set to be announced within the hour. The first thought, of course, was centered around the possibility of the team trading defenseman Jay Bouwmeester's rights to a club that intended to sign him. Or, perhaps, that a general manager had been named. 
It's kind of a shame to see 
Weeks of rumors, innuendo, and 
Late last night after news of 
