This goal was awesome. Great pass by Briere, too. The win now has the Flyers within 3 points of 1st overall in the conference.

Yeah, it doesn't look good for Detroit taking the Division. tied with Nashville at 92pts, Hawks only 4 back.... conceivably the Wings could finish in 3rd or 4th, something they havent done since 1990!

Whats the deal with Lidstrom? concussion?

also, how odd is it that St Louis & Nashville have been so good to get where they're at, yet Chicago & Detroit have both been so inconsistent (especially on the road, and special teams) and are still right in the thick of it?

anyway, this should be a very interesting post-season for this division.

That division race has become very fun to watch recently, and has the same situation as the central....4 teams probably going to make it, which would likely set up a division match in the 1st round.

i cannot wait for the playoffs.

more bad news for Black Aspirin

Darren Helm out 4-6 weeks with an MCL sprain.

Yeah, I'm sick about it. As if the wheels hadn't fallen off lately anyway, Lidstrom left the team to go back home and have his ankle 're-evaluated' after already missing 8 or 9 games, Franzen is out with back spasms (he hadn't been doing shit anyway), still no Ericsson...and now our best penalty killer and a dude who brings it every single night is out at least halfway through the first round of the playoffs.

Kill me. You guys can draw straws to see who gets the honors.

Down 3-0 to the Caps at home at the end of the first. Why hasn't someone killed me yet? You people are heartless...put me out of my misery. I repeat....'The CAPS'. That's unforgivable.

not like getting crushed by edmonton repeatedly.

STILL the best rivalry in the entire NHL...

Damn. That's fucking cool.

That happened in the first three seconds of the game?!? I don't quite understand the way NHL.com reports it, but it seems like both teams lined up their starters prepped for something like this. I welcome any correction to this assumption.

one of the dumbest things ever.

Fixed it for you.

Awesome. Now Howard re-injured his groin, and we're calling abysmal failure Ty Conklin up from the AHL. We're going out in the first round.

ETA: And MacDonald is still out with back problems, so not only is Conklin our starter now, but his backup is someone I've never heard of that hasn't played a single game in the NHL. Crutch must be loving this shit! ;)

That's a huge goal. And to beat the Pens is even sweeter for them.

Pens are leading 6-4 vs the Jets tonight at the end of the second period. Malkin, 1 goal and 3 assists (I think the league can anoint him MVP right now); James Neal has a hat trick, and Crosby has 4 assists. The defense has been atrocious by both teams, but it's been an exciting game.

Is it Pierce? He's Toledo's goalie, I think he was up for the big club earlier this year, but maybe he just sat on the bench.
Really, all Detroit has to do is be healthy when the playoffs start, doesn't matter where they are ranked, home ice would be nice, but it shouldn't be necessary. But they need to be healthy.

Hawks beat Columbus to sweep a division rival for the first time since 1971.

Have won 5 of last 6, and 11 points of possible 12 during that stretch, to move within 2 points of Nashville & Detroit.

Malkin ended last night with 2 goals and three assists. This guy is on fire. Now that Crosby is back, this team is looking damn near unbeatable. The scary thing was that Bylsma had Crosby on what seemed like all of his lines, and Crosby was making all of them that much better. I thought that we played a pretty good game last night, but the Pens are at a whole different level right now, we lost 8-4. And we'd got 4 goals on their backup, Thiessen, not Fleury, who was rested.

with Crosby, the pens are frightening.

Hey, Ryan...
after his abortion of a first game, Johnny Oduya has shown himself to be a very solid D man, much as you said he would be. lotsa folks on hawks message boards are clamoring for him to be resigned, especially if the hawks can dump montador and, or, hjalmarsson.

Good to hear that the results are much better than the first game. After that first period for him in a Hawks uniform (-3 was it?), I figured that he'd just have to settle into the lineup and figure out the Hawks' system. He had the same issues early in this season, but became solid. The only reason he became expendable is because we have shitloads of really good defensemen--Mark Flood and Randy Jones came up from the minors and have done a good job filling in for injured guys. I suppose that someone's salary became expendable at some point.

Yeah, it's Pearce.

Wish I shared your optimism, but we'll be limping into the playoffs at best, with a losing road record, 20th-ranked PP, and 22nd-ranked PK. Without Darrren Helm, and likely a few more of those on the injured list. I've never been so doubtful going into the playoffs.

Yo, Crutch! Stop dancing! ;)

if Datsyuk, and Lidstrom are back, you'll be in good shape.

Detroit's PP and PK are THAT bad? Wow. If Detroit were to go into the Stanley Cup right now again the Pens, they'd be in bad shape.

I'd mentioned this a few posts above, but have to reiterate it. Right now, the team to beat is Pittsburgh, I think--we have a fast team, and the last two games between us and the Pens have been shootouts (8-5, 8-4) but unless a team finds a way to corral that speed and skill, they're done. The scary thing? Malkin and Crosby, I think, weren't even playing that hard against us, and between Neal/ Malkin/ Crosby, they had 13 points. We've had some lopsided embarrassing losses this year to Montreal and Boston, but those were games that I didn't feel that we showed up for. We showed up for the last Pens game and they still throttled us, and it's not like I think that we were much outplayed. Those guys just see the ice right now like I don't think any team in the league does.

Seeing that it was a rout, I was actually wanting Malkin to get another goal or point to get him 6 points on the night. When a team is this good, it's hard not to appreciate how great they are, even if they're the opponent.

I agree about the Pens in the East.

The team to watch out for in the West is the Nashville. Yeah, not a typo.
They made some solid moves at the trade deadline and just added the best player not in the NHL, Alexander Radulov.

They'll be a very tough out.

agreed with both. St Louis isn't going to be a pushover either, though.

i'm really hoping the Hawks current hot streak doesnt end up with a 1st round match-up against the predators. They very nearly eliminated the team that won the cup in '10, the hawks arent nearly as good as they were then, and the predators are vastly improved.

A likely Duncan Keith suspension may slow the team down a bit.

The problem for St. Louis is which goalie will they start the playoffs with: Halak or Elliot. My guess is Halak, but it's not like Elliot has put up terrible numbers. I may be wrong, but I think he still ranks #1 in Save percentage and Goals Against Average.




Nashville just got Radulov back after four years in Russia. Curious to see if he's a different player now than when he first played with them.

Yeah, St. Louis won't be easy. I kept waiting for them to fall back a bit, but they just keep winning and winning. Hats off to them. Good team. I like their D, but wonder if the right team can shut them down on the other side of the puck in a 7 game series.

Also wonder how Toes' concussion will affect the Hawks. He's a great player and a great leader; someone you want/need come playoff time.

It looks like Chicago will play either Nashville or Detroit, or Detroit will play Nashville or Chicago, or Nashville will play Chicago or Detroit. The outside team will play either Dallas or Phoenix. And I know what everyone is wishing for.