FanHouse PaulRanger

After jumping out to a 1-0 series lead in the Western Conference Final, Red Wings head coach Mike Babcock held a press conference on Monday and fielded a variety of questions from the media. For the most part, it was your typical, run-of-the-mill press conference.

About half way through, a reporter started asking Babcock about how he once joked that he was ready for the salary cap to break up the young talent the Chicago Blackhawks have assembled over the years. In Babcock's mind, he wasn't joking.

Penguins 5, Canadiens 4: The Montreal Canadiens had an opportunity to put a nine-point cushion between themselves and the Pittsburgh Penguins on Thursday night. Instead, they picked up their 12th loss in their past 15 games falling to the Penguins, 5-4

Sergei Gonchar scored his first goal of the season for the Penguins, blasting a slap shot from the blue line behind Carey Price midway through the third period. It capped off a seven-minute stretch where the two teams combined for five goals in what was an absolutely frantic third period.

Friday night was not a good night for Sidney Crosby, the Pittsburgh Penguins or the NHL. Why was that? Because in the first period the NHL's most talented young star crashed feet first into the boards during the first period of last night's game with the Tampa Bay Lightning and suffered a high ankle sprain that will sideline him indefinitely.

Here's how the AP described the incident:

Crosby was carrying the puck in the Lightning end when Tampa Bay defenseman Paul Ranger rammed him with his stick, as Crosby was shooting from the right circle, and Crosby swiped at the puck again as he landed on the ice rear-end first. His momentum caused him to slam into the boards awkwardly with his right leg, his left leg raised, apparently unable to cushion himself as he normally would.

Crosby initially got to his feet and began to limp toward the Penguins bench, only to turn around and enter a doorway that leads to the tunnel to the Penguins locker room. He bent over after reaching the walkway and had to be helped to the dressing room.

After watching the sequence on video, it's hard not to come away with the impression that Crosby didn't hit the boards too hard at all. In fact, when you watch, you fully expect him to jump back up on his skates and get going. That's just how innocuous the whole thing seemed.

The Penguins pressed on without Crosby, but went on to drop the decision at home, 3-0. The loss was Ty Conklin's first in regulation since he was called up from the minors to spell Marc-Andre Fleury, who went down with a high ankle sprain of his own back in December.

I'm watching some video of Pens head coach Michel Therrien's postgame press conference, and it's safe to say I've seen this face before -- he looks a lot like a teenage boy who just lost the dog he grew up with, but he thinks he's too old to let anyone see him cry about it.