Here are your Puck Headlines: a glorious collection of news and views collected from the greatest blogosphere in sports and the few, the proud, the mainstream hockey media.
• We don't wanna say the Florida Panthers are straight up trollin' the New Jersey Devils, but here's an ad for their viewing party in which Stephen Weiss … well, yeah.
• Marian Hossa gives the Nathan Horton Inspirational Visit After a Concussion to the Chicago Blackhawks. [ESPN Chicago]
• Congratulations to the people of Vancouver for not burning down their city after losing on home ice. [AP]
• Mirtle on the Pittsburgh Penguins' future, and specifically on Sidney Crosby: "The Pens had to adjust to life with Crosby again, and there were signs of problems in those ugly late season losses to the Senators and Islanders where they allowed 18 goals in the three games that they weren't quite ready for a team as good as Philadelphia." [Globe & Mail]
• Mr. Plank looks at the construction of the San Jose Sharks, and how it led to their first-round ouster. [Fear The Fin]
• Helene St. James wonders if it's time for the Detroit Red Wings to trade Johan Franzen: "Johan Franzen did not have a good series, scoring one goal in five games despite playing next to Pavel Datsyuk. Franzen has eight years remaining on his contract, but his salary cap hit is a reasonable $3.9 million and his actual salary over the last three years is a combined $4 million, which would be attractive to teams worried about reaching the NHL's minimum salary cap space requirement. But the Wings aren't necessarily going to look to trade him, because which Franzen would they be trading?" [Freep]
• Great bit from the Canadian Press on the originals of a numerically-specific Ottawa Senators fan chat that honors Daniel Alfredsson. [THN]
• No Jaroslav Halak in the first two games of the second round for the St. Louis Blues. [BND]
• Why the second round of the playoffs in the Western Conference won't be a ratings disaster. [Puck The Media]
• How big are the Stanley Cup Playoffs? According to SportsCenter, slightly bigger than offseason football! (Although now that the Saints were eavesdropping on opponents …) [Deadspin]
• Spector on Roberto Luongo's future: Could the Lightning afford him, and could Brian Burke bury the hatchet to get him? [THN]
Five reasons the Vancouver Canucks were ousted from the Stanley Cup Playoffs. [NHL.com]
• More on the Florida Panthers pulling back their rats from the team store after the New Jersey Devils complained and the NHL took action following Game 5. [On Frozen Pond and Litter Box Cats]
• Marty St. Louis on the Tampa Bay Lightning's chance to win a Stanley Cup: "We're not that far away. I totally believe that. Even this year, it's five wins. With all the injuries we had, it's five wins. It's easy to look back and think of five games you should have won, but we had a tough start, our schedule wasn't easy at the beginning. It's a lot harder to win on the road and we just couldn't catch our breath. We couldn't feel good about ourselves from the get-go starting on the road. We played some good games but still didn't get the job done. You feel like you're behind the 8-ball the whole time. But it's easy to be here and say coulda, shoulda, woulda, you know? The bottom line is we didn't get the job done. There are things you can't control, but just didn't get it done." [Lightning Strikes]
• We're not saying that the Philly media is in love with Claude Giroux, but here's Will Bunch comparing a photo of his check on Crosby with Cassius Clay/Liston. [Philly.com]
• Dale Hunter gives the Washington Capitals some advice for Game 7. [Capitals Insider]
• Jakob Silfverberg will make this debut for the Ottawa Senators in Game 6. [Silfver, er, Silver Seven]
• How the Chris Neil hit changes things for the Ottawa Senators and the New York Rangers? [Slap Shots]
• The Puck Stops Here looks at the Philadelphia Flyers' power play success: "Short term trends can be unpredictable. A playoff series takes place in a short period of time. Flukes can occur. The extreme success of the Philadelphia power play/ failure of the Pittsburgh penalty kill is one example of this. It is part of why their series was the high scoring affair when it occurred. Philadelphia has a good power play but nobody would expect a more than 50% success rate or anything close to it." [TPSH]
Super duper massive ratings for the NHL on NBC, as Sunday's Boston Bruins vs. Washington Capitals game out-rates the Winter Classic. From Puck The Media: "The game drew an 8.6 in Washington, a new record for a non-Stanley Cup game in the market. Washington's only advance to the Final was in 1998. It drew better numbers than the 2011 Winter Classic, which scored a 7.9 in Washington. Game 6 drew a massive 16.3 rating in Boston, again, a record for a non-Stanley Cup Final game (at least since 1993). It also outdrew the Bruins participation in the Winter Classic in 2010, which drew a 14.4 when it was held in Boston." [Puck The Media]
• As good as Claude Giroux was on his first shift, Steve Sullivan was bad on his, according to Bourne. [Backhand Shelf]
• Check out our buddy Dobber's new site dobberprospects.com, a great resource for fantasy hockey keeper leagues.
• Finally, the waters have run Blue in St. Loo: