Hoss

Come watch with me and you can go to sleep earlier, Gramps. ;)

San Jose dominated for the whole beginning of the period, scores and then Pittsburgh takes back control and the lead... Pitiful.

San Jose's blueline has been terrible in the offensive zone this series. Mishandling pucks and having no patience to get shots through. Pittsburgh is doing a good job of getting in the way of shots, but it feels like Sharks dmen are panicking once a Pittsburgh player gets near them and goes down.

Incredible sequence of saves there from Martin Jones.

Same old same old so far in this one. San Jose getting pushed around with the season on the line.

There's a reason I said "and I'm okay with that" about Buffalo not being interested in him/him not being interested in them.

Lucic undoubtedly makes the team better but I don't think it's a legitimate consideration for the player or the team (and I'm okay with that). Lucic seems zeroed in on Los Angeles, Vancouver and Edmonton.

Grow up.

The Sabres couldn't back into the late second round last year offering three seconds... Calgary isn't getting 8 unless that's a monstrous prospect.

Anybody catch part one of OJ: Made in America tonight? It was a ton of buildup and romanticizing, but it has me very excited for part two. So far well done. Learned a lot of little things I hadn't previously been aware of.

Scott Bowman remembers Gordie: http://www.wgrz.com/sports/scotty-bowman-on-gordie-howe/239243939 Don Luce: http://www.twcnews.com/nys/buffalo/news/2016/06/11/friends-remember-mr--hockey--gordie-howe.html WGRZ also had Danny Gare who had a fun story about getting elbowed by "Mr. Elbows" as he called him. Gare and Rene Robert were at Chef's today and gave some thoughts to media on Howe that I imagine will be shared at some point today.

There are going to be some teams that lose very good players. Nobody will lose a star, but it's going to hurt some teams. Certainly several difference makers will be moving to Vegas next offsesson. And it'll help a team like Buffalo who doesn't have much risk of losing an important piece.

I'm doing a quick look through the league for a "mock" fantasy draft and there are quite a few teams that are going to have to maneuver heavily this offseason just to fulfill the rules. There are also a few teams in trouble of losing some very good players. Nashville has Weber, Josi, Ekholm and Ellis on D. They're going to lose either Ekholm or Ellis. They could easily trade one this offseason but regardless they won't have one or both of Ellis/Ekholm next offseason. It's been noted that Nasvhille has Suter, Dumba, Spurgeon, Scandella and Brodin. Winnipeg has NMCs on Myers, Enstrom and Byfuglien so keeping Trouba is essentially pointless unless they can get one of them to waive their NMC. For this, I'm going to assume they convince Enstrom (lame, I know). Here's a rough roster I came up with... Clarke MacArthur – Dustin Brown – Marian Hossa Matt Belesky – Brian Boyle – Patrik Berglund Jussi Jokinen – William Karlsson – Joffrey Lupul Matt Martin – Eric Fehr – Jesper Fast Ryan Ellis – Jared Spurgeon Tobias Enstrom – Dennis Wideman Simon Depres – Mark Pysyk James Reimer - Michal Neuvirth

http://www.sportsnet.ca/hockey/nhl/30-thoughts-remembering-greatness/ Another couple expansion rules: - the team is required to take three goalies - of the 30 players selected at least 20 must be under contract for 2017-18 - players in the draft cannot be bought out until after 2017-18 - teams are required to expose a goalie under contract for 2017-18 - players in the draft cannot return to their old teams until January 1, 2018 - the new franchise will be guaranteed a spot in the lottery for four years I like all these rules. Not putting too much stress on teams but allowing the new team to become competitive and build quickly. Buffalo has themselves in great position.

http://www.sportsnet.ca/hockey/nhl/30-thoughts-remembering-greatness/ Columbus invited Puljujarvi, Tkachuk, Keller, Bean and Brown to Ohio for extended interviews... Seem to be covering in case of a trade down. Mentions Buffalo as a possibility to jump Arizona to get to six for lefty d help.

Another awesome Gordie photo that was probably on Mars: Also this:

And this photo, listed as Detroit, appears to be clearly in The Aud: http://www.gettyimages.co.uk/detail/news-photo/closeup-of-detroit-red-wings-gordie-howe-and-alex-news-photo/162913392 Thanks for nothing, Getty. Is that why the Red Wings are wearing Red in PA's photo at home above? :P I know it was more common for teams to wear white at home then (as it should be now, too) but the photos were just labelled wrong apparently.

One of the two does (as I just noticed) but the first of the extra links says it was in Buffalo. The one that says it was in Detroit still has the date of the Buffalo game, though.

http://www.gettyimages.com/detail/news-photo/detroit-red-wings-gordie-howe-and-alex-delvecchio-in-action-news-photo/98557456 It's in Buffalo. The actual photo is from January 7, 1971 "in Buffalo" per the caption of the photo. The Red Wings indeed played at Buffalo that day. Two other photos from the same game: http://www.gettyimages.com/detail/news-photo/detroit-red-wings-gordie-howe-in-action-vs-buffalo-sabres-news-photo/113303602 http://www.gettyimages.com/detail/news-photo/detroit-red-wings-gordie-howe-in-action-vs-buffalo-sabres-news-photo/81801552 I met somebody who played in that game tonight: Don Luce.

New Jersey just took on Marc Savard's cap hit so hopefully that takes one team out of the Datsyuk cap hunt.

Shortly after this was reported George Richards said the Panthers are "feeling confident" about retaining Brian Campbell which is a change from typical thoughts recently so it may be largely related to that.

I feel like we can kick this puppy off... Free agency list: http://www.spotrac.com/nhl/free-agents/ufa/ --George Richards-- @GeorgeRichards #FlaPanthers feeling good about Brian Campbell returning...may add additional defenseman via trade or FA as well. Also looking for goalie.

Florida Panthers PR @FlaPanthersPR #FlaPanthers have acquired Paul Thompson and Graham Black from the @NJDevils. bit.ly/CatsAcquisitio… pic.twitter.com/8hCci7YqXM

It's being shared as being in The Aud. I would trust that. Also, correct. Meant to say his final year in Detroit.

http://www.sportsnet.ca/hockey/nhl/nhl-teams-receiving-information-potential-expansion-draft/ Expansion draft details, according to Sportsnet sources, were sent to teams... Teams can protect seven forwards, three defenseman and one goalie Players are required to be protected if their contract extends through the 2017-18 season Teams CAN ask players with NMC to waive it for the expansion draft Teams MUST expose two forwards and one defenseman who played 40 games the previous season or 70 over the last two and is under contract through 2017-18