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.
Forget for one second, if you can, that Bill Guerin scored a pair of goals -- including the game-winner in overtime -- in Pittsburgh's 3-2 win over Philadelphia on Friday night. The biggest moment of this game, and the highlight of this game, was without question Marc-Andre Fleury's ridiculous save on Jeff Carter midway through the third period.
On Thursday, the NHL suspended Flyers forward Daniel Carcillo for his actions in the closing seconds of Pittsburgh's 4-1 win on Wednesday night. It was part of a somewhat embarrassing end to the game, as the Flyers racked up 23 penalty minutes in just 19 seconds.
Carcillo admitted that the official dropping the puck warned him not to try anything.
The Stanley Cup won't be handed out until June, but this is the time when we see teams making runs at the playoffs. And you can't win the Cup if you don't make the playoffs. Race for the Cup is your daily check of where your favorite team stands as the season dwindles.
A good night Tuesday for teams based in Pennsylvania. Philadelphia clinched a playoff spot with a 2-1 home win over Florida, while the Penguins also clinched a berth in the postseason, beating Tampa Bay 6-4. Both teams benefited from some craptastic officiating. Philly's Scott Hartnell got away with a cross-check right before the Flyers' game-winner, and Pittsburgh's eventual game-winner was not reviewed, even though Tampa goalie Karri Ramo was clearly run into. In the end, however, they don't ask you how you won. They only ask if you won.
The defending champs claim the top spot in this week's power rankings, while the Anaheim Ducks and Carolina Hurricanes make jumps of their own as they look to earn playoff berths in their respective conferences.
There's also a new team taking over the basement, thanks to a pair of blowout losses on home ice in the past week.
Newsmakers in the NHL is a weekday morning attempt to clear yesterday's rebounds and look to the day ahead.
Thrashers 5, Rangers 4: When you're fighting for playoff position, blowing 4-1 leads to the Atlanta Thrashers probably isn't the best thing for a team to do. That's exactly what the New York Rangers did on Thursday night, as they watched a 4-1 lead late in the second period turn into a 5-4 shootout loss in Atlanta. The come-from-ahead loss prompted goalie Steve Valiquette to ask the question: "Where is our killer instinct when we're playing someone lower in the standings?"
If the Pittsburgh Penguins wanted to claim home-ice advantage in the opening round of the Eastern Conference playoffs, Sunday's game against Philadelphia was pretty much a must-win. The two teams entered play tied for the No. 4 spot with 86 points, while the Flyers had three games in hand.
Thanks to a strong special teams performance -- and a sloppy one from the Penguins -- the Flyers managed to hold off a late surge and pull out a 3-1 win.
February 25th, the Wachovia Center in Philadelphia, PA.
6:43 PM, during pre-game warmups. Martin Biron gazes longingly at the ice, contemplating his place in the universe.Antero Niittymaki is in net, taking shots from teammates. Biron is hunched over in front of the Flyers' bench.
MB (thinking to himself): Oh boy. Things have really gone south lately, eh Marty? What happened? Things were so good in Buffalo. They loved me. I loved them. It was one big lovey love fest. Was it fate that sent me here? Or is it some, higher force?
The Penguins-Flyers rivalry is one of the great ones in the NHL. They're separated by about five hours of turnpike, the fans don't like like each other, and the players don't like each other. Penguins fans hate Scott Hartnell, Flyers fans hate everybody, sometimes even themselves, and especially Martin Biron.
Whenever the two teams meet in Philadelphia, Penguins captain Sidney Crosby is booed relentlessly every time he touches the puck. The popular consensus among Flyers faithful is that Crosby is, among other things, a whiner, a diver, and, according to their well-timed chants during stoppages in play, a person that sucks at his profession. On Saturday, there were more diving allegations being thrown around, only this time they were being tossed in the direction of the Broad Street Bullies.
According to Miller, the Penguins can't compete with Sidney Crosby and Evgeni Malkin making as much money as they do, because it forces the Penguins to surround them with bargain basement players. This is apparently because Ray Shero couldn't get his star players to sign cap friendly contracts like Ken Holland did in Detroit. Because of this, the Penguins must (his opinion, not mine) trade Malkin.
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. 
On Thursday, the NHL suspended Flyers forward 
The Stanley Cup won't be handed out until June, but this is the time when we see teams making runs at the playoffs. And you can't win the Cup if you don't make the playoffs. 
The defending champs claim the top spot in this week's power rankings, while the Anaheim Ducks and Carolina Hurricanes make jumps of their own as they look to earn playoff berths in their respective conferences.
Newsmakers in the NHL is a weekday morning attempt to clear yesterday's rebounds and look to the day ahead.
If the Pittsburgh Penguins wanted to claim home-ice advantage in the opening round of the Eastern Conference playoffs, Sunday's game against Philadelphia was pretty much a must-win. The two teams entered play tied for the No. 4 spot with 86 points, while the Flyers had three games in hand.
February 25th, the Wachovia Center in Philadelphia, PA.
The Penguins-Flyers rivalry is one of the great ones in the NHL. They're separated by about five hours of turnpike, the fans don't like like each other, and the players don't like each other. Penguins fans hate 
On Saturday night, TSN hockey analyst Gord Miller became the latest person to jump on the 
