Morning Player Notes in the Playoffs (May 23)

The goaltending switch in the Conference Finals is now only working at a 50% clip, as the Pittsburgh Penguins played their hunch and it didn't quite work in their favour.

The move to dress Marc-Andre Fleury in Game 5, a crucial swing game at home, will certainly be questioned for a while in the many hockey circles that exist, but when it comes down to it, the Penguins, as a team, blew two leads, 2-0 and 3-2, in this game and then lost it in overtime, 4-3.

The Tampa Bay Lightning continue to be very resilient in their playoff play, they hardly let a thing get under their skin or an unfortunate turn of events sour their demeanour.  In Game 5, even down a couple of times, they still found a way to push through, tie the game and eventually find the winner in extra time.

The notables on the night for the Lightning were Jason Garrison and Nikita Kucherov, as they both came away with a couple of points each, Garrison picking up the bonus point for the winner.  On the losing side, Chris Kunitz had a goal and an assist.

The Lightning can now shut this series down and head to the Stanley Cup Finals, as soon as Tuesday night, when they return home for Game 6, which will have a 6pm MT start on CBC.

As for the pool, we're really winding it down quickly and there is no movement in the standings, whatsoever.  Stuart's team is now 13 points better in the Conference Finals alone and his overall lead has stretched to 27 points, so that's over.  Kristy and Scott are tied in the Conference Finals in scoring and Scott would need one hell of a push from the San Jose Sharks to make any sort of move or make it interesting, at the very least, but that series is too close right now.

If you're still finding any sort of entertainment in this pool, I commend you for trying.