Kukla's Korner

Game Three

Blog: The Puck Stops Here By PuckStopsHere

06/18/13 at 01:44 AM ET | Comments (0)

Chicago's offence seems to have dried up.  They haven't scored a goal since the first period of game two.  This was the highest scoring team in the West Conference this season.  It appears that their best scorers are hurt or injured.  Marian Hossa missed game three as a late scratch.  Neither Jonathan Toews nor Patrick Kane have looked like the stars they usually look like.  I believe this is because both are playing hurt.  If Chicago cannot get top performances from any of those three players, they are really in a tough situation.

I think this is a direct result of the travel that Chicago had in the "hurry up" shortened schedule.  While Boston has only left their time zone to play Winnipeg and to play in the Stanley Cup finals, Chicago has been travelling all over all four time zones the NHL covers all season long.

Tuukka Rask has been the best player in the finals without any clear rival.  I argue that David Krejci has been the best player in the playoffs, but I cannot make much argument for him being a standout in the finals (at least not yet).  I think that makes Rask the Conn Smythe favorite at this point even though Krejci has been the playoff MVP.  The voting media members have short attention spans and may not have bothered to watch Boston in the early playoff rounds.  Officially the Conn Smythe goes to the most valuable player in the playoffs.  It would be interesting to see a player win it who didn't make the finals (after all players have won the playoff scoring race without making the finals).  I cannot imagine the voters letting that happen even if it was deserved.  If there is a clear MVP in the finals, he gets the Conn Smythe even if someone else deserves it in the other three rounds.

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Khan, Pleiness: Red Wings likely to sign Pavel Datsyuk to multi-year extension (3 yrs) shortly

Blog: The Malik Report By George Malik

06/18/13 at 12:50 AM ET | Comments (5)

Red Wings forward Pavel Datsyuk offered a mysterious Tweet on Monday night, and MLive's Ansar Khan reports that there's something behind Datysuk's, "Big day tomorrow..."

[edit/update: and Bob McKenzie knows "how big":

...Back to Khan /end edit]:

Pavel Datsyuk is close to agreeing to a multi-year contract extension with the Detroit Red Wings, his agent told MLive.com on Monday. The contract can't be officially signed, registered or announced until July 5, the first day of free agency, because Datsyuk has one year remaining on his current deal.

Gary Greenstin, Datsyuk's Los Angeles area-based agent, said he was flying to Detroit on Monday to meet with Red Wings general manager Ken Holland. It sounds as if they will put the finishing touches on the deal.

“Me and Ken and Pavel (are) very close,'' Greenstin said.

Greenstin told Khan that things are...Well, "close":

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Farewell Kristians Pelss

Blog: Oil Patch By Lisa McRitchie

06/18/13 at 12:00 AM ET | Comments (0)

The hockey world was shocked by the passing of young Latvian, and Oilers' prospect Kristians Pelss. Shocking, heartbreaking and tragic, the loss of Pelss touched upon the heart strings of anyone who heard the story. While we may never know what happened last Monday in Latvia, we do know that the friends and family of Pelss will never forget, will never completely be able to move on. And for them, we mourn. 

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  Tags: kristians+pelss

Report: Sharks and Logan Couture reach contract extension

Blog: KK Hockey By George Malik

06/17/13 at 11:31 PM ET | Comments (1)

Update: Per TSN's Bob McKenzie:

The rumblings regarding Logan Couture being close to a contract extension with the San Jose Sharks have been percolating for a while now, so this should not come as a surprise:

Update: the Mercury News's David Pollak's on the case:

And here's his text report:

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Fox Sports Detroit will stream Game 6 of Calder Cup Final

Blog: The Malik Report By George Malik

06/17/13 at 11:28 PM ET | Comments (0)

Good news for Red Wings and Grand Rapids Griffins fans:

AHLLive.com will air the game as well, and Time-Warner Cable will air the game in upstate New York.

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Blackhawks coach Joel Quenneville declares Marian Hossa ‘day-to-day’ with ‘upper-body’ injury

Blog: KK Hockey By George Malik

06/17/13 at 11:19 PM ET | Comments (0)

Let's not expect to learn very much about whatever ails Chicago Blackhawks forward Marian Hossa over the next day or three:

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Boston out-classes Chicago, takes 2-1 series lead via 2-0 win in Game 3

Blog: KK Hockey By George Malik

06/17/13 at 10:53 PM ET | Comments (1)

Holy crap. I'll grant you that the Chicago Blackhawks were playing without Marian Hossa's services, and I'll grant you that the last-minute shenanigans may have woken them up...But did they ever succumb to a sleeper hold placed upon their collective necks by the Boston Bruins.

The Bruins just dismantled the Chicago Blackhawks, winning 2-0 and taking a 2-games-to-1 lead in the Stanley Cup Final while rendering the Hossa-less Hawks impotent on the power play and downright vulnerable on the power play, on the penalty-kill, at even strength, in terms of physicality, puck possession, puck pursuit, forechecking, backchecking, discipline, intensity, focus, desire, I mean, you name the *#$%@& adjective or adverb.

The Bruins out-classed Chicago on Tuesday night, and the Blackhawks were the team that looked like it'd played four games' worth of ice time, while the Bruins looked like a team that had swept Pittsburgh and was simply cashing the check that was increased energy reserves.

Can the Hawks come back on Wendesday and tie this thing? Sure, but the Bruins just established a, "How to defeat the Blackhawks" blueprint for 28 other teams to use next season in nothing less than a command performance from Tuukka Rask on out.

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Cherry chats with the top prospects

Blog: KK Hockey By George Malik

06/17/13 at 10:03 PM ET | Comments (0)

Don Cherry adores chatting with the top draft prospects that the NHL brings to every Stanley Cup Final, and he chatted with the gents in a long Coach's Corner on Monday night. I'm posting it for tradition's sake as there isn't too much substance to the video otherwise:

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Hossa out, Chara nearly out—warm-ups are dangerous!

Blog: KK Hockey By George Malik

06/17/13 at 09:35 PM ET | Comments (0)

Things got very interesting just prior to Game 3 of the Stanley Cup Final, as ESPN Chicago's Scott Powers noted...

Chicago Blackhawks winger Marian Hossa was a late scratch from Game 3 of the Stanley Cup finals against the Boston Bruins on Monday.

Hossa, who has seven goals and eight assists in the playoffs, skated during the team's pregame warmups and was scratched with about 15 minutes left before the opening faceoff. An NBC announcer said Hossa was hit by a puck during warmups.

Ben Smith filled in for Hossa. Smith scored one goal in one game for the Blackhawks in the regular season. He had three goals in seven playoff games in 2011.

And things COULD have ended quite poorly for Zdeno Chara when he bumped both Milan Lucic Adam McQuaid during warm-ups, yielding a trip to the locker room for stitches to the back of his head and an in-game absence to have his skates re-sharpened:

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Grand Rapids Griffins-Syracuse Crunch Monday practice news

Blog: The Malik Report By George Malik

06/17/13 at 09:16 PM ET | Comments (0)

The Grand Rapids Griffins' trip to Syracuse, New York took exactly one hour, and the fact that they flew on Red Bird III didn't go unnoticed by the local media corps. WOOD TV8 will air tomorrow night's Game 6 in Grand Rapids (it's a 7 PM EDT start; if you live outside WXSP's broadcast area like I do, you'll be watching the Crunch's broadcasters on AHLLive.com as the Albany Times-Union reported that Time-Warner Cable will broadcast the game from Syracuse again), and they dispatched a camera crew to Van Andel Arena to get some "pre-flight" comments from the Griffins' players and coach:

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