My RotoRob Conference Finals preview is up.
Enjoy!

I'm going to go ahead and turn my game one summary, a 4-1 Detroit win over Dallas, to Star captain Brenden Morrow, since he kind of captured things perfectly: "You can't stand around and watch the puck."
Dallas seemed to spend most of the game standing around, watching the Wings. When you think of Dallas, you tend to think of tight defense. Last night was more like the Stars were watching video. Spending so much time on the penalty kill didn't help things for Dallas. I'm not sure you can play a typical penaltykill box against the Wings. Since so much of their offense comes in from the point, I would seriously consider playing three up high and one in the crease, to at least try and pretend Johan Franzen can be contained (at one point last night, I actually saw Franzen making a sandwich in the crease; he's very comfortable there).
At least not too many people saw Detroit win. That's one thing Dallas can take away.

OK. In case you were wondering why the Leafs are such a mess, here is a nice example of how things roll in Toronto:

1. Fire your coach (some people call him Maurice).
2. Float a name as a possible GM (David Nonis, fresh off of his victorious tour through Vancouver).
3. Float another name (Brian Burke of the Ducks), who'll replace the previous name, when the third name's contract expires.

Basically, the Leafs have not hired anyone yet and are already looking to replace them. Not only that, they're canning a coach without a GM. What if the new hire was content to let Maurice finish out the year on his contract?
Adrian Dater is already floating Colorado coach Joel Quenneville as a good coaching option for Toronto.
My main objection to that is I really don't want the NHL to become the incestuous fired-coach carousel that is the NBA. There are like 31 NBA coaches. It seems like no one new ever comes in; at best, a coach sits out a year before returning to the league. And that just adds to the parity. The NHL does not need that.

Before the playoffs started, I would have laughed at the idea the Penguins could play as physically as the Flyers. But one thing about the Penguins is they've really allowed their game to evolve in the post-season. While their series against Ottawa was like an exhibition game, their round two play against the Rangers grew tighter and more physical as the series progressed. And one of Pittsburgh's best backcheckers? Evgeni Malkin. I was blown away by his two-way game.
Meanwhile, while the Flyers are probably always going to have a physical edge to their game, they used a shocking amount of speed, speed I didn't know they had, against Montreal.
The Eastern Conference finals will be interesting.
The Western Conference finals will be interesting, too. I'm interested to see if Dallas goalie Marty Turco will get his first win at Joe Louis Arena. I'm not sure if this matters, but to be fair, Turco's never played a post-season game at the Joe.
Also, Chris Botta, the Islanders' vice president of media relations, has resigned. Normally, I don't even notice these kinds of moves, but Botta had a pretty nice blog about doing PR for the Isles. His resignation isn't mentioned on the blog yet but hopefully Botta's replacement will continue it.

I love the time between playoff rounds because it lets me catch up a little bit. Not so much on the playoff teams, but on the teams that were bounced out of the playoffs.
Or in the case of the Buffalo Sabres, the team that didn't even make the playoffs and is seeing two former players (Daniel Briere and Marty Biron) lead their team (the Flyers) into the Eastern Conference finals.
Over in Colorado, Adrian Dater pointed out Joe Sakic asked to be out on the ice for the final seconds of the Avs blowout loss to the Wings. That could be an indication Sakic won't be back next season. It could also be an indication he's a masochist. It's hard to say. Only time will tell.
Over in Washington, spurned goalie Olie Kolzing finally explained Nameplate Gate. It doesn't seem like he'll be back in DC, although I'm not sure what kind of starting opportunities he'll find with other teams.
Also, it looks like Jaromir Jagr will finally come off the Caps' cap. One of my favorite parts of having Jaromir Jagr in New York has been knowing that his time here is subsidized. It makes me feel like a farmer being paid not to grow something.
Now, onto the winners.
In Detroit, everyone is asking who the team MVP is so far. Drew Sharp says it's not Chris "Mr. Stable" Osgood. Jamie Samuelsen says it's coach Ken Holland. Defenseman Nicklas Lidstrom is also in the mix for MVP, all the more amazing when you consider he has yet to record a hit in the playoffs.
Also, Dallas' four overtime win over the Sharks actually got pretty good ratings. What is it about Dallas and really long playoff games?
Oh. And I missed this because I didn't stay up, but apparently American hockey icons Mike Modano and Jeremy Roenick had a nice moment on the handshake line.

Today is dedicated to the beat writers, the unsung heroes of the NHL. And honestly, the guys who supply most of my content.
Tim Panaccio says the worst thing about covering Peter Forsberg in Philadelphia was all of the medical drama. Panaccio says the Denver writers weren't/aren't fans of the Forsberg beat, either.
Also, how crazy is it that the Flyers are going to Eastern Conference finals? Did anyone pick the Flyers to do anything this year?
They'll be playing the Penguins, who beat the Rangers yesterday afternoon. Everyone pretty much saw that coming after the Penguins took the first three games. And that had a lot of the writers thinking about Jaromir Jagr, and if he'll play in New York next year. Sam Weinman seems like he'll miss Jags, as does John Dellapina.
Compare those to Jagr's exit from Pittsburgh. I don't quite feel the same love.
Finally, Alltop is a news aggregator based on inspired by popurls. They have a hockey version. It's pretty cool.

What can you say about last night's 8-2 Detroit round two clincher over the Avs?
Obviously, Johan Franzen dominated, with a hat trick and nine goals in the series.
Obviously, everyone agrees it's time for Peter Forsberg to hang up his skates (and not take them down again to return to the NHL).
Obviously, the sweep/rout pretty much killed the Detroit-Colorado rivalry.
Obviously, the Avs have a lot of decisions to make about next season's roster.
Of course the Wings weren't the only Detroit team clinching a playoff round with a blowout. The Pistons also did it.
In New York, the Rangers lived to play another game, blanking Pittsburgh 3-0. Say what you will about Jaromir Jagr, but there are very few players in the NHL who can decide they want their team to win and then pretty much go ahead and make it happen. This was the Penguins first playoff lost, but is it too little too late? History says yes but one variable is that Pittsburgh goalie Marc-Andrew Fleury has been pretty awful. Pittsburgh's round two record is more a tribute to the inept play of the Rangers and a Pittsburgh defense that swarms their own goalie. Fleury loves to leave rebounds in the crease and he seems pretty easy to beat glove-hand high. He's often out of position and when he scrambles, he tends to hit the ice very early. He's also part of the growing legion of NHL goalies who love playing the puck when one of his own defensemen and one of his opponent's defensemen are about to fight for the puck behind his net. He's looked very beatable to me. Not that we've seen it happen very often in the playoffs.

I don't quite understand the Canadiens goalie situation. Last night, they started backup Jaroslav Halak over rookie Carey Price, presumably their future franchise goalie. Price has struggled in the playoffs, but he's also had some great moments. In other words, he's played like you would expect the average rookie goaltender to play in high-stakes games.
One would assume a rookie goalie, especially one playing in a fishbowl like Montreal and one whose last name isn't Dryden or Roy, to have some growing pains in the playoffs. But if you've decided a rookie is going to be your franchise goalie, as the Habs seems to have decided, you need to let him work his way out of trouble.
It all makes Montreal's trade deadline move of goalie Cristobal Huet to the Caps for a second-round pick all the more confusing. Why not hold onto the more experienced Huet so you have more of a safety net? Why not let Price experience the playoffs without everything on his shoulders? Why not give the team two serious goalie options?
It seems the Habs won't have to deal with the goalie situation much longer, though. The Flyers, who can't hold a lead, somehow have a 3-1 series lead.
For now.
Also, Flyers goalie Marty Biron grew up a huge, face-painting, season-ticket-holding Quebec Nordiques fan. So he's really looking forward to knocking Montreal out of the playoffs. And I guess it's a good thing Colorado won't advance to the next round. I get the feeling Biron would just let Sakic score at will.
Also, San Jose stayed alive in the playoffs one more day. I love Ron Wilson's new strategy: play flawless hockey and capitalize on every mistake you can. I'm curious if that's sustainable over the next three games.
Speaking of San Jose, PJ at Sharkspage has had some beautiful shots of the San Jose side of the series. PJ also had a really nice interview with Victor Chi, formerly the Sharks beat writer for the San Jose Mercury News and now with Sportingnews.com. Among the many things Chi touches on is just how hard it is to play in the Western Conference, given ridiculous travel requirements.

Mike Babcock was the first coach I ever heard use the term puck management. I heard it when he was coaching the Ducks. The idea behind Babcock's idea of puck management was controlling the puck. That can be puck possession, or smart plays, like dump-ins.
More and more coaches talk about puck management, but they seem to mean it as a shorthand for either holding the puck or shooting the puck. But nothing else.
Two of last night's games illustrated that.
Over in New York, the Rangers controlled the puck, spending extended periods in the Pittsburgh zone, and getting off 39 shots and scoring three times. Pittsburgh put up just 17 shots but converted on five of them. Rangers goalie Henrik Lundqvist wasn't super sharp, but none of the five goals were horrible. Pittsburgh just made the most of their chances, without really managing the puck. The trick is, when they did manage the puck (which I guess makes the linesman middle management), they managed it well. Jaromir Jagr actually pointed this out before the game:

When you look at Pittsburgh, they don't shoot the puck...They make cross-ice passes, making four guys tired and then somebody is going to be open.

"It's not about just shoot the puck on the net, especially in the first 20 seconds. If you do that when guys are fresh, it's easy for [penalty killers] to get the rebound. [After] you make them tired by passing it around, then it makes more sense to shoot."

The Rangers didn't do much of that. They stuck to that half-court style that works against static teams like the Devils but gets killed by fast teams like the Penguins. And sure enough, the Rangers got killed.
The Rangers are down 3-0 in the series because coach Tom Renney refuses to give up on his puck management philosophy. If someone gives him some kind of primer on puck transitioning (WHO MOVED MY PUCK? WHAT COLOR IS YOUR PUCK-ACHUTE?), maybe the Rangers will avoid a sweep.
Over in Dallas, it was a shockingly similar story. The Sharks went down in overtime when Dallas got the puck moving east-to-west (and north to the point), rather than just planting their feet and shooting. It's funny that the Stars would win like that, too, given their reputation for defensive, north-south hockey.
Also, in case there's any confusion, puck management is just a ridiculous name. It sounds like an Excel formula.
Also, to the surprise of no one, the Avs lost last night. Peter Forsberg was back but Ryan Smyth wasn't. Paul Stastny is the latest injury. If Colorado does somehow get a game five, they'll probably dress eight players.
How weird will it be if there are three second-round sweeps?
Also, this is pretty funny: 5 Reasons why Non-hockey Fans should Start Watching the NHL Playoffs. Read it for no other reason than the Versus cracks. Although Versus has been improving. At least they're not just rebroadcasting the TSN feeds for their second games of back-to-backs.