- Cam Cole of the Vancouver Sun: Canucks goalie Cory Schneider left with under 3 minutes to go in the 3rd period. He had to be helped off the ice after his leg cramped up.
“The cramps, he said, “I could feel coming on after the second and sure enough, on that penalty shot, I just extended my leg and it completely seized up. I felt bad making Lou go in cold in the third.”
Now the question will be, who will start game 7?
“Oh, if I would tell you who I’m going to play, would you believe me now?” said Vigneault, who said he didn’t actually lie, he just “went with the gut.”
- Iain MacIntyre of the Vancouver Sun: Canucks defenseman Sami Salo lasted only 3 shifts last night with an undisclosed injury. Aaron Rome or Keith Ballard could replace him for Game 7.
- Jesse Spector of the NY Daily News: The NY Rangers have 7 RFA’s to deal with this off-season. Forwards, Brandon Dubinsky, Ryan Callahan, Artem Anisimov, and Brian Boyle. Defenseman Matt Gilroy and Michael Sauer and goalie Chad Johnson. They’ll likely want to bring back UFA Ruslan Fedotenko, and possibly Vinny Prospal. Alex Frolov likely won’t be back. Steve Eminger and Bryan McCabe are UFA’s on the backend. The Rangers will likely go after 31 year old Brad Richards. The Rangers wouldn’t confirm a report that coach John Tortorella signed a 3 year contract extension.
- Larry Brooks of the NY Post: The NY Rangers summer salary cap number is at $47.6 million, with the projected cap number of next year at $62.2 million. Their cap number doesn’t include any of their 6 RFA’s (Brooks didn’t include Chad Johnson), which should about $12 million to sign the 6. If Wade Redden doens’t retire, the Rangers will be on the hook for his contract again, and can’t remove it until they waive him in training camp. Buying out the last year of Chris Drury’s contract would save them $3,333,333 in cap space this year, but would carry a $1,666,667 in 2012-13. Wojtek Wolski carries a $3.8 million next year, and if bought out, would save them $3,333,333 next year. A Sean Avery buyout would save them $1,333,334 in cap space next year. Vinny Prospal, Bryan McCabe and Steve Eminger likely won’t be offered a contract. They won’t offer Matt Gilroy a $2.1 million qualifying offer, but are expected to give him a 2 year offer worth half that.
- Rob Rossi of the Pittsburgh Tribune-Review: Rossi has heard from someone close to the Penguins organization that he would expect to see Evgeni Malkin back in the Penguins lineup before Sidney Crosby. Malkin may be able to return if the Penguins get deep in to the playoff, Rossi asked that organization what deep meant, and “was told deep meant conference finals or Stanley Cup Final.”
- David Pollak of the San Jose Mercury News: Antti Niemi will start Game 6 for the Sharks. “Nemo will play tomorrow. He is our guy,” coach Todd McLellan said Sunday after practice. “We don’t expect him to be perfect,” McLellan said of Niemi. “We expect him to be a little bit better and I think he expects that of himself.”
- Eric Stephen of the OC Register: With the Ducks eliminated from the playoffs, questions regarding whether Teemu Selanne will retire or not are already appearing. When asked late in the season, Selanne said he’d make the decision before July 1st. Selanne is coming off a 31 goal, 80 point season.
