Some Tuesday Morning News

Happy Tuesday to all of you... these updates are becoming a once every couple days sort of thing, which is kinda nice, since there are only seven or eight games between the two nights. There really isn't a great deal to chat about, so it's pretty good like this. Well, let's jump right into this, since it's warm and toasty, straight out of the oven.

The Playoff Pool leaders are now streaming away. Both John P. and Anglea have jumped a little further ahead of the pack after two more days of action. John had finished the night with 61 points, while Angela is right behind at 60. The gap to third is now 4 points and is beginning to open up a little. In both cases, it looks like the Penguins are the favourite team, as both teams included Marian Hossa (Box 15) in their selections, while John P. included Evgeni Malkin (Box 14) in his selections. Between the two teams, a lot of their key players are quite similar... both having Detroit and Montreal being their favourite teams to go to the Cup Finals. So far, they are doing fairly well in those assumptions.

For third place money, it's a running tie between Riley and Don at 55 points, while the rest of the pack remains really close and it's still considered anyone's game.

As for Game Winning Goals, let's recap who had the bonus points over the past couple nights. On Sunday, the Flyers beat the Capitals to tie up the series at one and it was R.J. Umberger's (Box 17) who notched the first goal of the game, which ended up being the game-winner. In Boston, the Bruins started to make it a series with Marc Savard's (Box 13) overtime winner for the bonus point. At MSG, it was John Madden (Box 17) who scored the goal for the Devils to get them back in the series with the Rangers in overtime. Finally, the four goal comeback for the Flames was capped off by Owen Nolan (Box 6) to help the Flames to a 2-1 series lead.

Monday night only saw three games on the schedule. First off, it was Sidney Crosby (Box 13) who scored the winner against the hapless Senators to take a stranglehold in that series, 3-0. Next, it was Jason Arnott (Box 1), who blasted a shot 9 seconds after the Predators tied the game with the Red Wings and began to make a series there. Finally, again in overtime, the Wild and Avalanche game was decided by Pierre-Marc Bouchard (Box 2) to lift Minnesota to a 2-1 series lead there.

New to the injury/news board on Sunday was Phil Kessel (Box 17). It looks as though he was a healthy scratch against the Canadiens in their win on Sunday, which could be related to some defensive concerns the coaching staff may have had. With the win and the change in personel, it almost doesn't seem likely that Kessel will fit back in with the team until they get desperate to score more goals, but the Bruins need to concern themselves with keeping the puck out of their own net against the high-scoring Habs.


Tonight on the tube, CBC has got another doubleheader going on the schedule. First off, the Canadiens will try and take a 3-1 lead on the Bruins in Boston. The Bruins played quite a bit better in Game 3 against the Habs and capped it off with the overtime win. It doesn't seem likely that the Habs will rest on the laurels, just because they are on the road tonight.

In the second half of the doubleheader, the Flames will host the Sharks for Game 4 of their series. With Curtis Joseph (non-pool) stealing the win for the Flames on Sunday night, the big question is, 'will he start in goal for the Flames in Game 4?' There would be plenty of unhappy Miikka Kiprusoff (Box 12) holders in the pool if Joseph did start, but it almost doesn't seem likely that he will, unless Mike Keenan wants to have a little more animosity in the dressing room.

On TSN, the Capitals travel to Philadelphia for Game 3 of their series at 5pm. On the TSN alternate feed at 6:30pm MT, the Anaheim Ducks will be in Dallas to take on the Stars for Game 3 of their series. The Stars took both games in Anaheim and could possibly sweep out the defending champs at home. Finally, on this five-game night, the Avalanche and Wild go right back at it for Game 4 of their series in Denver, starting at 7pm MT.