from Larry Brooks of the New York Post,

So the Flyers upped the ante; losing in the first round wasn’t good enough for Boston; Vegas is making yet another move for a (slightly tarnished) new toy behind the bench; Winnipeg (among others) is waiting on Barry Trotz; the Islanders have made their move; Dallas is searching for a coach; Steve Yzerman is on the lookout in Detroit; there is an unusually large pool of available coaching candidates, but nope, the Devils are good, they’ll just stand pat with Lindy Ruff after another disastrous season on the ice.

Nine playoff misses in the last 10 years for an organization that left its championship pedigree behind at Exit 16W and possesses an apparent lack of will within ownership to address the issue, which might actually be ownership’s unwillingness to turn things over to an autonomous, independent-thinking hockey person who has a history of Stanley Cups on his résumé.

I would love to see what Claude Lemieux would be able to do with that New Jersey organization, which has amassed a rather fair amount of young talent, but continues to be far less than the sum of its parts and is an overlooked little brother in the NHL scheme of things.

continued plus other topics including these...

We’re told that if Joel Quenneville applies to Gary Bettman for reinstatement following the coach’s actions/inaction in the Blackhawks’ Kyle Beach scandal and coverup and if that request is granted, the coach could well return behind the Panthers’ bench next season in the wake of the second-round sweep by Tampa Bay, in which the highest scoring team in the NHL recorded a sum of three goals.

hat Red Wings roster, by the way, is screaming out for David Quinn to take over behind the bench. If not, then the one-time Rangers coach, whose work helped lay the foundation for this year’s leap, could well be the guy to lead the next generation of young Bruins, who, according to folks with some insight into the situation, were essentially abandoned by Cassidy.