Just a few things that caught my eye:
- It's a bird. It's a plane. No, it's Super Gino! Evgeni Malkin was un-freaking-believable. That one-bull, pseudo wrap-around, backhand shelf, solo goal for number three was absolutely stunning.
- It's hard to believe that it took Chris Kunitz 15 post-season games to pot his first goal. Ya, he's contributing in other ways but I expected more. You can't get a much better centerman than the one he has.
- I'm glad the Minnesota Wild finally hired a general manager. Now Pierre Maguire can go back to actually saying what he thinks instead of providing the sani-fresh, league-positive junk he's been dancing around since that competition began.
- Ryan Bayda clearly left his brain on the bench beside the back-up netminder. To make matters even worse, the empty space between his ears then farted. He belongs on the DAFS list. Dumb As (a) |PERCENT|^$ing Stump.
- I thought the Pens had stalled early in the third and the Canes were poised to strike. Got that wrong. The Canes popped the clutch on the incline and couldn't hold the momentum. Ouch.
- Seven goals, 19 combined points and just one came from a defenseman. And his name wasn't Sergei Gonchar or Kris Letang. The Pens' D really is the weak link but with forwards and a netminder like those, who needs high-end D? Even bologna can look good between two slices of high-end bread.
- Keep an eye on Valteri Filppula. He'll get the nod between Marian Hossa and Tomas Holmstrom if Pavel Datsyuk can't go Friday because of that foot. Talk about a golden opportunity.