-The Los Angeles Kings put NHL fans out of their misery by winning the Stanley Cup. The Kings hammered home the point that the regular season means nothing with the victory. The unwatchable final produced the third lowest ratings since 1995 (dropping 29% from last year) and NHL purists can pat themselves on the back for sucking excitement from the game. I’m not sure a team has ever won the Cup with less adversity paired with a complete lack of excitement. Even the 1995 New Jersey Devils, the poster childs for tedium, struggled to win the Cup. Call me a pessimist, I predict the NHL will make no meaningful changes for fear of “hurting the game” or some similar nonsense.
–Nichols reports that Shane Prince has been signed, although official word has yet to confirm it.
–Scott reminds us that Filip Kuba could be retained, although he points to Corsi numbers to show that Erik Karlsson was more important for Kuba‘s performance than the other way around.
–Bruce Garrioch speculates that the Sens are interested in retaining Matt Carkner and Jesse Winchester. I can imagine how difficult it would be to find replacements for a fourth-line center with concussion problems who can’t score and a seventh defenseman with two bad knees who couldn’t keep up with the pace before his injury problems. Garrioch can’t offer the same assurance for Zenon Konopka, which is about as clear a sign as you could ask for that he won’t be retained.
–Wayne Scanlan wonders how close the Sens are to the Kings (assuming that’s the pattern to follow), but doesn’t really spend much time breaking down the comparison other than to say the Sens need internal growth to match them.
–Rob Brodie runs down Ottawa’s first round picks throughout the organisations history (including Kyle Turris for no particular reason), which is fun only in that you can remember that Pierre Gauthier and Marshall Johnston thought Mathieu Chouinard was worth selecting twice.
–Bob McKenzie confirms that Chris Kelly has re-signed with Boston which mercifully ends the pointless speculation about a return to Ottawa.
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