Just a few things that caught my eye ...

• Ilya Kovalchuk needed to be the best offensive player on the ice. He was. His goal was incredible, but his feather pass on the winner was sublime.

• The perils of youth. Dmitry Kulikov's single crossover to the left as Ilya Kovalchuk entered the zone opened the passing lane to Travis Zajac for the winning goal. He won't fall for that again.

• So, who's in the blue paint for Florida on Thursday night? A healthy Jose Theodore would be coming off a shutout. But Scott Clemmensen was brilliant Tuesday.

• Milan Michalek escaped suspension for an alleged kick of Dan Girardi on Monday night. But he was warned. Bad doggie, don't you do that again. Or else. 

• Ice time averages for Kovalchuk this series? Games one through six, as follows: 27:16, 25:15, 26:19, 21:51, 25:00 and 26:25. Wow. Now let see if he can actually lead his team to a playoff series win.

• In a marriage, irreconcilable differences would be grounds for a no-fault divorce. In Vancouver, it's grounds for a trade. First, Cody Hodgson; next, Roberto Luongo? Hodgson apparently had 'issues'; Luongo clearly has issues. And he says he wouldn't stand in the way of a move ...

• Plodding. Pedestrian. Prosaic. Putrid. All perfect adjectives for the first 30 minutes (at least) of Tuesday's game. Makes editing a 200-page report on the prevalence and consequence of tobacco use seem like a dream job.

• Now we get the truth. Ryan Kesler says he played the last two months with a serious shoulder injury that could require surgery. That might explain the lack of goal scoring, but why did they have him taking face-offs? And why in blue blazes did they trade Cody Hodgson if that was the case? Oh, yah -- spite, under a cloak of "issues."