FanHouse Patrick Eaves

During the Carolina Hurricanes' run to the Eastern Conference Finals, forward/pest Scott Walker made headlines for the wrong reason.

As the Bruins polished off a win over Carolina to stay alive in Game 5, Walker got mixed up with Boston defenseman Aaron Ward, a skirmish that ended with Walker punching Ward in the face. The incident didn't draw Walker a suspension, but he was forced to try to explain himself. Now, Walker and Ward will be coming face to face a bit more often.

The NHL's new hard-line stance on message-sending and late-game fisticuffs seems to have lasted, oh, about two weeks. Late in the third period of Pittsburgh's 7-4 win on Thursday, Carolina's Ryan Bayda was involved in a line brawl of sorts that featured Bayda delivering what appeared to be a cross-check to the face of Kris Letang.

In the end, Miroslav Satan fought Patrick Eaves, Tim Gleason fought Letang, and Bayda was issued a match penalty for intent to injure. By rule, Bayda was immediately suspended from further competition pending a league review. That review has taken place, and Bayda walks away with a $2,500 fine and no suspension.

When a trip to the Stanley Cup final is on the line, players tend to step up their games and do things they might not ordinarily do. Sometimes it's something simple, something they should already be doing like blocking a shot or backchecking ... or in the case of Miroslav Satan, something as extreme as fighting.

In the closing minutes of Pittsburgh's 7-4 win in Game 2 on Thursday night, a line brawl erupted behind the Penguins' goal that included Satan, a player that was banished to the minor leagues in March and had his effort and desire called into question by some Penguins observers during the regular season, exchanging punches with Carolina's Patrick Eaves. Video after the jump.

After Marc-Andre Fleury and Cam Ward put on a goaltending clinic on Monday, prompting the discussion of whether or not they're legitimate franchise goaltenders, the two players, along with their collective defenses, seemingly took the night off on Thursday as Pittsburgh picked up a 7-4 win in Game 2 of the Eastern Conference finals. Just 12 minutes into the first period, the two teams had already scored as many goals as they did in Game 1, while Carolina held a 3-2 lead after the opening 20 minutes.

Evgeni Malkin recorded his first career playoff hat trick in the win for Pittsburgh, registering his fifth consecutive multiple point game.

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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.

As Eric McErlain reported last month, Carolina GM Jim Rutherford expressed regret in a radio interview that he had kept so many players from the Hurricanes' Cup team together, and threatened to shake the Canes out of their season-long "underachieving" by dealing away "popular players." Well, today Carolina has traded defenseman Mike Commodore -- arguably the fans' most cherished player, maybe even more than Eric Staal -- and forward Cory Stillman to Ottawa in exchange for defenseman Joe Corvo and forward Patrick Eaves.

It's a stunner of a deal for those of us that read too much into these things. Ottawa has obviously faced some character tests in this post-Cup Finals season, and adds two veterans that can be considered positive influences on the ice and in the room. At face, the Hurricanes appear to be raising a white flag next to their red one with the black rectangle. But Mirtle, in his very thorough breakdown of the deal, isn't sold on Carolina conceding the division and the postseason: "Either GM Jim Rutherford thinks his team doesn't have what it takes to a win the Cup, even if they do sneak into that third spot, or he thinks his team isn't significantly weakened by adding two younger, less experienced players into his lineup."

The two veterans from Carolina are set to become UFAs at the end of the season; note that Stillman had to waive a no-movement clause to make this happen. Eaves is an RFA while Corvo is on the hook until 2009-10. In the end, I think this is going to really sting the Carolina faithful. As Dr. Frank Lives writes in his blog reaction: "Dang, this sucks. 2006 is well and truly over. Now a guy I have lustily jeered is going to replace a guy all Hurricanes fans loved. Seriously, you might as well trade Stormy." More Ottawa perspective from Jeremy at Black Aces here. And while there's nothing yet, I think we're all dying to read what The Acid Queen thinks about this deal.

If you're looking for a story-line to sell the Eastern Conference Semi-Final series between the Senators and the Devils, you're probably best off with "offense vs. defense," or "the rematch of 2003's epic Eastern Conference Finals."

But, as with any moderately-to-overly-hyped sporting event, there are plots and subplots, oddities and coincidences that make for mildly-interesting 250-word blog posts. NHL.com shares with us one such item:

The Devils' Zach Parise and the Senators' Patrick Eaves have followed similar career paths to the NHL. Both attended Shattuck-St. Mary's Prep School, both starred in U.S. College hockey (Parise at North Dakota and Eaves at Boston College) and both were selected in the first round of the 2003 NHL Draft (Parise 17th overall, Eaves 29th overall).

I know, big deal -- both also had 31 goals this season, except for Eaves. But here's where it gets better:

Actually, their career paths have an even closer connection. Zach's father, J.P. [we're partial to J.P.'s around here], and Patrick's father, Mike, both played on the same line in Mike's first-ever NHL game, on January 3, 1979 with the Minnesota North Stars.

Linemates who, 28 years later, can watch their sons play one another in the playoffs (perhaps -- thanks, Colby) for teams that didn't even exist when they skated those shifts together way back when. On second thought, as story-lines go, you're probably better off sticking with "which team has better utilized the red, black and white color scheme?"