- Gary Peterson of the San Jose Mercury News: Surprise game 1 scratch, Patrick Marleau, should be feeling better, and ready to return for game 2 on Sunday. Marleau was taken out of the line just before game one with ‘flu-like’ symptoms.
- Iaian MacIntyre of the Vancouver Sun: Canucks leading playoff scorer, Mikael Samuelsson, missed practiced yesterday with a sore back, but it’s not expected to keep him out of the line up for game 1.
- John Glennon of the Tennessean: Predators forward JP Dumont had his ice cut this season by 2:43, which isn’t sitting well with Dumont, and he wants to talk to coach Barry Trotz about it. If Dumont leaves the meeting unhappy, it may lead to him willing to waive his no-movement clause. GM David Poile thinks he has a reasonable chance to re-sign defenseman Dan Hamhuis. They spoke last week, and plan to do so again in the near future. Denis Grebeshkov future with the club may hinge on how the Hamhuis pans out. Dan Ellis most likely won’t be back with the Predators, as he’s going to see what the open market brings him.
- Rich Chere of the Star-Ledger: The Devils will have to decide soon if they are going to send offers to Paul Martin and Ilya Kovalchuk. Because the Devils lost in the 1st round, they won’t make any money this season, but that won’t play a part in their (owers and Lou’s) decision to bring back Martin and Kovalchuk or not. The coaching search will take more shape during the next couple weeks. I’m sure they’ll want to have someone in place before the draft in June.
- Bruce Garrioch of the Ottawa Sun: GM Bryan Murray and coach Cory Clouston received votes of confidence from Ottawa Senators owner, Eugene Melnyk. Melnyk will be sitting down with both for reviews, and thinks some tinkering might need to be done with the team. When asked about Jason Spezza and his no-trade clause that kicks in on July 1st, the decision on how to precede with that will be in the hands of Murray. The Sens will spend up to the salary cap next season which is rumored to be slightly above this seasons $56.7 million. They already have $49 million committed for 17 players. Anton Volchenkov turned down a 5 year, $20 million contract before the Olympics, and is looking for something between $4.5-5 million a season. The Senators didn’t make any money this season, they needed to reach the second round to do so.
- George Malik of MLive: Off-season decisions involving the Detroit Red Wings … Trying to re-sign Nicklas Lidstrom, hopefully at a discount. Re-signing UFAs Tomas Holmstrom, Todd Bertuzzi, and Andreas Lilja. Deciding if they want to bring back any of (not likely); Kirk maltby, Jason Williams, Brett Lebda, Brad May andn Doug Janik. Attempting to re-sign; Justin Abdelkader, Drew Miller, Patrick Eaves, Darren Helm, Daniel Larsson, Sergei Kolosov, and Mattias Ritola. Do they send qualifying offers to Derek Meech, Ville Leino, Ole-Kristian Tollefsen and Johan Ryno?
- Damian Cristodero of the St. Petersburg Times: Steve Yzerman has been mentioned as one of the leading candidates to become the Lightning’s next GM, but Scotty Bowman would be surprised if he’d leave the Red Wings organization. Yzerman was been with the Wings for 27 years, and Bowman thinks he could be moving up the organization.