Nashville Predators News & Notes:
Preds Set for Pivotal Game 5 as Series Turns to Best-of-Three | NHL.com
Brian Boyle’s “appendix procedure” doesn’t seem to have slowed him down much, as he was, somehow, practicing with the team yesterday. Also, the line blender is out in full force.
Hockey Morning in Tennessee:
Maple Leafs 2 – Bruins 1; Maple Leafs lead series 3-2
Bruins’ Cassidy raises goalie interference debate on Matthews goal | Sportsnet.ca
(It was definitely goalie interference, and that’s coming from someone whose overall take on this series was “A plague o’ both your houses!”)
Avalanche 5 – Flames 1; Avalanche win series 4-1
Everyone covering the Avalanche-Flames series seems to have fallen asleep instead of putting articles on websites, but I can assure you all that the Avalanche have eliminated the Flames in five. They’re, uh, they’re looking pretty good over there. Also, they have a huge crop of young talent and they have the fourth-overall pick in this year’s draft.
Other News & Notes:
Callahan could be latest NHL player to return quickly from appendectomy | kelownadailycourier.ca
This is from 2015, but it gives a little more context to the fact that Boyle is skating already. Also, do not be Patrick Roy (in this as in so so many other ways); a ruptured appendix can kill you and refusing to get medical treatment for appendicitis because it’s the payoffs is just plain stupid.
How Ken Holland would be a good fit for Oilers’ GM vacancy | Sportsnet.ca
Turns out the only thing funnier than watching the Oilers’ water-carriers slowly start to realize, years too late to get anyone to put the brakes on Chiarelli, that things weren’t going well in Edmonton is watching the Oilers’ water-carriers try to slither out of the situation. “This franchise is broken,” writes man who helped run players like Taylor Hall and Jordan Eberle out of town while rolling out the red carpet for Milan Lucic. Impressively, that’s not even the worst take in here. Bring the popcorn, or maybe skip the click altogether.
Players demand say in women’s hockey future after CWHL folds | AP News
I’d like #OneLeague, but two leagues is much better than this many talented players with nowhere to play. This article gets into more about why some of the players don’t want that one league to be the NWHL.
Red Wings rebuild won’t be easy, but Yzerman is right GM choice | ProHockeyTalk
To the surprise of absolutely nobody except the Rangers beat, Steve Yzerman has gone back to Detroit.
Team Finland prize money increased for World Championship performance – The Ice Garden
I am so glad that the Finnish Ice Hockey Association recognizes that the players got robbed of gold at the Women’s World Championship last weekend and is, at least, compensating them financially as if they’d won it. Also, shocker, the IIHF is still kind of shady.
Rookie coaches enjoying chess match that comes in playoffs | AP News
Rod Brind’Amour is extremely calm about this coaching thing. Jim Montgomery at least sounds like he’s paying attention to what he’s doing. Shakes out as a decent overall look at the Predators-Stars and Capitals-Hurricanes series from a coaching perspective.