Silver Nuggets: Cowen makes AHL debut; More on Murray/Melnyk
The Bingham Senators return to action tonight after a rare two day break. After being routed in game five on Tuesday night, Binghamton will get up to two chances to close out the series on the road. If they fail to win tonight, they will get one last chance tomorrow night. Playing on the road shouldn't be a big problem for Binghamton though, as they are 5-1 on the road and just 2-4 at home in the playoffs.
In the NHL playoffs, the Vancouver Canucks beat the Nashville Predators 4-2 last night to take a commanding 3-1 lead. The road team continues to be strong in the playoffs, improving to 8-6 in round two. Barring a stunning come back or two (or three), the conference finals look likely to be Boston versus Tampa Bay and Vancouver versus San Jose. In the case of Vancouver/San Jose, it would mean one of those two clubs would finally advance to the Stanley Cup Finals after a bunch of strong regular seasons. Two more series could be finished tonight as the Boston Bruins and San Jose Sharks look to complete a second round sweep.
Here are today's links, brought to you as always by mangoes, the official fruit of the Silver Nuggets.
General Sens News
- Nichols takes another look at Bryan Murray, the deadline day deals and the meddling of Eugene Melnyk. I am not sure if I agree with Colorado having a better rebuild though, as while they have better first rounders, they also lost Chris Stewart, Kevin Shattenkirk and have no goaltender. I do love the line about Don Brennan suggesting Bryan Murray should win executive of the year though. (The 6th Sens)
- Robin Lehner has been confirmed as the starter for Binghamton tonight but will be on a "very short leash" according to the Binghamton coach. I don't think you want your goalie worrying about whether he will be pulled or not, but hopefully Lehner can have a strong game. (Joy Lindsay)
- Jared Cowen will play tonight on a pairing with Andre Benoit. (Joy Lindsay)
- Eugene Melnyk has been banned from sitting on the boards of public companies for five years, as well as paying $565,000 towards the cost of the probe. The probe started after it was alleged that Melnyk misled investors by the company's revenue. Hopefully, Melnyk doesn't do anything too shady with our Sens. (Citizen)
- Jason Spezza had a goal and five shots and was named player of the game as Canada beat the United States 4-3 in a shootout. (IIHF)
- This is not so much news, but a great tweet by Greg Wyshynski about Jason Spezza: "Great goal-cam shot of Spezza sliding into the net, although it cut away before the inevitable giggling." (Greg Wyshynski)
More after the jump.
General Hockey News
- Jaromir Jagr isn't ruling out a return to the NHL next season. (Yahoo!)
- While Alexander Ovechkin will be playing for Russia at the World Championships, Alexander Semin won't be. According to the Russian coach Vyacheslav Bykov, Semin's play in Game Four against Tampa Bay was 'very weak'. (Dmitry Chesnokov)
- Dave Naylor looks at why Quebec and Winnipeg could be successful hockey markets, largely because of the value of the Canadian dollar. (TSN)