Here are your Evening Puck Headlines and Previews: A glorious collection of news and views collected from the greatest blogosphere in sports and the few, the proud, the mainstream hockey media.
Preview: Carolina Hurricanes at Pittsburgh Penguins (7:30 p.m. EST; TV: VS., CBC). Penguins lead series, 2-0.
Keys for the Hurricanes: Tuomo Ruutu participated in the morning skate at RBC Center and will be a game-time decision ...When Eric Staal scores, the Canes are 7-0. When he doesn't? They're 1-8. If Carolina is to get back into this series, he needs to lead the way ... The power play passed up a huge 4-on-3 opportunity, literally, in Game Two. Carolina was only able to muster one shot with the man advantage ... Finding a way to slow down Sidney Crosby and Evgeni Malkin would be a good start.
Keys for the Penguins: They should be very educated on the fact that being up 2-0 in a series doesn't mean it's over. Pittsburgh knows a loss tonight could be the tonic that Carolina needs to claw their way back into the series ... The Penguins have steadily improved in the face-off circle and currently lead the series 66-11 ... There a point early in the season when Pittsburgh was having trouble mustering shots. Enter Dan Bylsma and the team is on an 11-game winning streak in the shot category and averaging 35.6 shots/game.
Meanwhile, in the rest of creation ...
-"Mike's a guy who was coaching in his heyday in the '80s and early '90s when he had his success. If you don't adapt, it doesn't work anymore. It's become a lot more technical." Safe to say Calgary Flames defenseman Robyn Regehr is happy that Mike Keenan was canned. [Calgary Herald]
Sports
-Bobby Holik may be retiring after 18 NHL seasons, but the great "evolution" create-a-card will live on! [NY Post]
-Buddha is both excited and scared at the same time after Minnesota announced the hiring of Chuck Fletcher as their new general manager. [Hockey Wilderness]
-Bob McKenzie questions the impact of not having Nikolai Khabibulin and Martin Havlat in the Blackhawks lineup tomorrow. [TSN]
-Schultz shows us that Barry Melrose can break down things other than hockey. [BMR]
-Bailouts may be going into many different pockets, but the Zamboni company is thriving. [NY Times]
-Bobby Hull ha a good laugh after hearing Michael Jordan's Blackhawks jersey will be featured in the next edition of 'Jersey Fouls'. [Getty]
-It'll be the Windsor Spitfires and Kelowna Rockets in tomorrow's Memorial Cup title game. [Globe & Mail]
-Jeremy Roenick apologized for his comments yesterday regarding Mike Babcock not liking American-born player. [CBC]
Finally, here's some scenes from the party on the lawn outside of Mellon Arena:
