from Damien Cox of The Spin,

-- Keep wondering when an NHL player will follow the lead of NBA players and go for the max contract allowable. Next year, it will be about $14 million, and right now the highest annual cap hit for next season is scheduled to be Alexander Ovechkin at $9.538 million.

Why such a disparity between the top earners and the max salary allowable? Hard to say. Part of the culture of the game is to leave some for teammates, but of course, the reality is the top players would earn more if they asked for it and the middle- to lower-range players would make less than they are now.

It would take a player willing to stand above the crowd. P.K. Subban, underpaid and a restricted free agent this summer, might be such a player.

-- After watching San Jose blow a 3-0 series lead to Los Angeles in the first round, it wouldn't be a shocker, I guess, if Pittsburgh blows a 3-1 lead to the suddenly resurgent New York Rangers.

The shocking part, however, would be if the Pens go down the way they're going down, with captain Sidney Crosby involved in a great deal of crap but not scoring goals.

The NHL scoring champ has one goal in 12 playoff games this spring. On Sunday in Game 6, he got himself tangled up with Brian Boyle over and over, got a water bottle squirt in the face from Henrik Lundqvist and absorbed multiple head shots from Rangers blueliner Marc Staal without a call from the officiating staff.

It's one thing for Crosby to be combative and fiery, quite another for him to be distracted. Columbus centre Brandon Dubinsky seemed to get under his skin in the the first round, and now just about everybody is in the second round.

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