NHL News

"Datsyuk scored his first career playoff hat trick Monday night -- all eight of his goals this postseason have come away from home -- as the Wings beat the Stars, 5-2, in Game 3 of the Western Conference finals. With its franchise-record ninth consecutive playoff win, Detroit now owns commanding 3-0 lead in the best-of-seven series."

"The Sharks' failure to advance any closer to a Stanley Cup title this season than in their previous two cost Coach Ron Wilson his job Monday. "Sometimes the class needs a new professor and sometimes the professor needs a new class," General Manager Doug Wilson said after declaring his dissatisfaction with the team's third straight second-round exit. An active search for the team's eighth head coach will begin immediately, the general manager said, and won't be limited to candidates with NHL experience."

"Captain Sidney Crosby remained skeptical of the decision not to overturn a "no-goal" call at 16:41 of the first period of Game 2 because a video review, according to an NHL-released statement, proved inconclusive. "I'm glad we won, put it that way," Crosby said. "That would be a tough one to take if we had lost." Crosby wouldn't say the wrong call was made on the play, but he suspects the puck completely had crossed the goal line before being snatched out of the net by Flyers goaltender Martin Biron. "Looks like it was in, but I don't know," Crosby said."

"The Predators added another piece of the puzzle to their long-term future Monday, signing forward Martin Erat to a seven-year, $31.5 million contract. Erat could have become a restricted free agent at the end of June but now will be under contract to the Predators at an average salary of $4.5 million through the 2014-15 season. The deal is the longest given to a Nashville player and is the latest in a series of multi-year contracts for the Predators."

"Maple Leafs forward Mark Bell won't spend any nights behind bars this summer but will spend his days working at a California jail, Rogers Sportsnet reported on its website yesterday. After pleading no contest to drunken driving and hit and run charges last summer, Bell was sentenced yesterday to a work program. Bell will report to the prison every morning and work eight hour days a day from June 2 to Aug. 15, before returning home in the evening. "

"Funny thing is, a year ago the Maple Leafs would have been thrilled to have a shot at landing Dave Nonis. The Vancouver Canucks, after all, had soared to a franchise-record 105 points under Nonis's leadership, largely because the youthful Canucks GM had managed to swindle the Florida Panthers out of goaltender Roberto Luongo. But that was then and this is now, and so Nonis, who's in town today or tomorrow to interview with Leaf president Richard Peddie and search committee chief Gord Kirke, is now being portrayed as a buffoon by some and a passive, sit-on-his-hands type by others. So what's the real story? Well, he's respected enough in the hockey world that he's already discussing future employment with St. Louis and Atlanta."

"Wade Redden, an unrestricted free agent as of July 1, hasn't rejected any offer to return to the Ottawa Senators mainly because he hasn't received one, his agent said yesterday. Don Meehan also labelled as "nonsense" a report last week that said Redden had rejected a request by the Senators to take as much as a $3-million U.S. pay reduction from the $6.5 million he made last season. Meehan said he hasn't talked to Senators general manager Bryan Murray, though he expects he will soon."

"The Coyotes will play the Flames at the MTS Centre in Winnipeg, Manitoba on Sept. 24 in a preseason game. It will be the Coyotes' third visit to Winnipeg since moving to Phoenix in 1996. The Coyotes played the Toronto Maple Leafs in a preseason game at the MTS Centre last year. "

"He had to be kidding. He's always kidding, right? If not, forward Max Talbot was frighteningly prophetic Sunday morning when he said an extra day for his broken right foot to heal was "amazing." No kidding. Talbot made marvelous his return from a three-game absence, when he scored midway through the third period to give the Penguins a 4-2 victory over the Philadelphia Flyers at Mellon Arena. The Penguins lead the best-of-seven Eastern Conference final, 2-0."

"The NHL fined Mike Ribeiro, Chris Osgood and Steve Ott for actions they took in Game 2 of the Western Conference finals, but suspended nobody for today's Game 3. Still, the war of words between the Stars and Red Wings continued. "I don't know if it was that bad of a slashing to be talked to," Ribeiro said when asked if he was talked to by the league for a match penalty for slashing Osgood, the Detroit goalie... Red Wings forward Darren McCarty said Ribeiro's actions were "gutless." "It's not part of the game. You have to be in control of your stick at all times," McCarty said."

"Johan Franzen will miss tonight's game to undergo tests in Detroit for a possible concussion. Franzen was a late scratch for Game 2. "It caught me by surprise because I'd heard he had a headache, but, nothing," coach Mike Babcock said. Franzen has been experiencing persistent headaches for about two weeks."

"His left eye is a mess. So is his nose. But Flyers defenseman Braydon Coburn said last night that he is a "possibility" to play in Game 3 tomorrow after missing all but about two minutes of last night's 4-2 playoff loss to the Penguins with a facial injury. Coburn needed more than 50 stitches to close a gash around his left eye and near his nose after Evgeni Malkin deflected a shot from Sergei Gonchar under his face shield just 1 minute, 41 seconds into the opening period."

" We spend so much time lavishing praise on the Red Wings' powerful offense that we ignore their defense. Admittedly, that's a big mistake. You want to know why Brenden Morrow hasn't stamped his name on this series? The Red Wings refuse to let him. The same goes for Mike Ribeiro and Jere Lehtinen before he injured his leg in the first period of Game 2. The Stars' best line dominated the series against Anaheim and San Jose, combining for 14 goals and 33 points. In two games against Detroit, the Morrow-Ribeiro-Lehtinen line has generated one goal and two assists. Sorry, three points isn't going to get it done against the NHL's best team. This is not about character or effort. This is about the Stars finding a way to score more than one goal a game and apply some pressure to Detroit. "

"John Challis yawned. "Smiling so much makes me tired," he said. A Freedom High School athlete dealing with terminal cancer, John couldn't stop grinning during his experiences last night at Mellon Arena. The Beaver County teenager's recent successful at-bat in a varsity baseball game has gained national attention, and last night he was a guest of the Penguins for their National Hockey League playoff game against the Flyers."

"The NHL and cable TV partner Versus are talking about introducing "puck-tracking" technology as early as the 2008-09 season, executives from the network and the league told USA TODAY. Tracking would make it easier for TV viewers to follow the fast-moving puck. But the idea brought back memories of Fox's "glowing puck" experiment from 1996-98...If Versus gets the OK, it would test puck tracking on its studio show before trying it during a game, he says. There would not be any computer chips embedded in pucks, at least at first."