Your Wednesday morning news & notes includes reaction to Pittsburgh's 4-2 victory, a knockout of a knockout for Wade Belak, and one Canadian getting fed up over the "faux patriotism" behind Jim Balsillie's Make It Seven campaign:

Counting and We Have Ourselves a Series - On the Wings
Matt Saler is understandably upset with some of the officiating last night in Pittsburgh (including an extended stretch of Too Many Men for the Penguins that went uncalled), but the Red Wings still appear to be in control of the series.

Game 3 Recap: Can't knock the hustle - PensBurgh
From the Penguins' perspective, last night was a good start, but more will be needed Thursday in Game 4.

Preds On The Glass - POTG Talks to the Balsillie Camp

Buddy Oakes sat in on a press conference call by a spokesman for Jim Balsillie's campaign to move the Phoenix Coyotes to Hamilton, and presses the question of whether a compromise solution might be available that gets Balsillie a team in southern Ontario, but leaves the Coyotes in Phoenix.

IllegalCurve.com - Faux Patriotism Run Amok

Drew Mindell gets fed up at Jim Balsillie mixing Canadian nationalism with his campaign to bring the Phoenix Coyotes to Hamilton, Ontario. This quote just might get his maple syrup ration revoked: "What Mr. Balsillie doesn’t have the right to do, and what he should be ashamed at himself for doing, is wrapping himself in the Canadian flag in his quest to put a team only in a very small, localized part of Canada."

The Coyotes' attendance figures revealed - From The Rink
"The key numbers of note from this past season? For one, the announced gate figure is an incredible 3,923 higher than the number of people who actually went through the turnstiles for each game, a figure pegged at just under 11,000."  There are some ugly numbers in there, folks.

The View from 111 - A New Ownership Model
Mark takes a look at the publicly traded firm that is set to purchase the Florida Panthers, and how that might impact their managerial decision making. Part of the frustration many observers have with Gary Bettman and the NHL stems from the fact that these are almost always private businesses which are very secretive about their financial status.

Nashville Predators Examiner - NHL General Managers OK with "clean" hits to the head

Jim Diamond discusses the decision by NHL GM's not to recommend a change to the rules requiring a penalty for otherwise-legal hits to the head. The status quo will reign, while some writers will howl with rage.

 2008-09 Kocur Award for TKO or KO of the Year - HockeyFights.com Forums

Speaking of noggin-knocking, Jackson Oakes from POTG pointed out that Wade Belak's knockout of Donald Brashear is running away with the coveted "Kocur Award":

Preds’ top prospect surged as sophomore - The Tennessean

"[Colin] Wilson’s efforts to improve as a sophomore were so impressive that Jack Parker — Boston University’s hard-driving coach of 36 years — called it one of the more remarkable turnarounds he’d witnessed."

Lowetide: Even Strength Faceoffs

Lastly, an interesting analysis by Lowetide highlights the workload of various Edmonton Oilers, based on where they began their shifts - with faceoffs in the offensive, defensive, or neutral zones. I'll try and run something similar covering Nashville next week. It helps provide context to understand why some forwards offensive production might have been hampering by starting the majority of their shifts in the defensive zone.