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Coyotes finish off best season ever (The Associated Press)

GLENDALE, Ariz. (AP) The end of the season hit the Phoenix Coyotes particularly hard.

 

Philadelphia Flyers Cannot Regret Trading Mike Richards and Jeff Carter: Fan's Reaction (Yahoo! Contributor Network)

The day of June 23, 2011 seemed like any other relatively normal early-summer day. It was sunny. It was warm. It was welcoming. It wasn't for Mike Richards and Jeff Carter, whom the Philadelphia Flyers dealt to the Los Angeles Kings and Columbus Blue Jackets respectively, and reshaped their entire franchise in one fell swoop. Now come the complaints from many Flyers fans who say the team made the wrong moves at the wrong times, as Richards and Carter find themselves four games away from doing something they couldn't do in Philadelphia: hoist a Stanley Cup.

 

Dodger Stadium Winter Classic; 10 worst NHL fans; ‘While The Men Watch’ debate (Puck Headlines) (Puck Daddy)

Here are your Puck Headlines: a glorious collection of news and views collected from the greatest blogosphere in sports and the few, the proud, the mainstream hockey media. • Viggo Mortensen is a huge Montreal Canadiens fan. What better way to remind the world of this fact than by wrapping Kirsten Dunst in a Habs flag at Cannes, continuing an odd red carpet tradition for Aragorn. [ OMG Yahoo! , via Martin Leroux] • Marty Brodeur on the Mark Messier guarantee ghosts of 1994 haunting the New Jersey Devils in Game 6: "I know if you guys look at it, it looks the same, but it's different teams and a different way of playing the game and it's 18 years ago and that's a long time. I know I'm feeling a lot different. I'm feeling a lot more appreciative of what's going on." [ Fire & Ice ] • Bruce Driver on 1994: "I ended up going to New York and played with Mark, a tremendous leader and one of the best captains of all time. In 1994 against us, Mark did what he did, backed it up and scored three goals. But from our standpoint, the way we looked at it, we blew the game." [ NYT ] • Great piece on the friendship between Devils fans and Rangers fans, unnatural that it is. [ WNYC, via Michael Raphael] • No structural damage in Michal Rozsival's knee after that Dustin Brown hit. [ Sportsnet ] • Mirtle with poll on fighting that finds hardcore fans love it, non-fans loathe it. [Globe & Mail, and see graphic ] • Earl Sleek sees a lot of the 2003 Mighty Ducks of Anaheim in the 2012 Los Angeles Kings. Say, are those the Devils on the other side of the bracket? [ Battle of Cali ] • Los Angeles Dodgers President Stan Kasten wants to pursue a Winter Classic at Dodger Stadium. Read this and other stories in our new book "[Expletive] No One Would Be Saying If The Kings Weren't In The Cup Final." [ LA Times ] • Rich Hammond on the matter: "Gary Bettman has sneered (literally) at any suggestion that a Winter Classic could be played in a warm-weather environment. And while the Kings would love to host an outdoor game — Luc Robitaille is a particularly big proponent — AEG is also in the planning stages of a new downtown football stadium, which would probably be a more likely location in the event that Bettman stops sneering." [ LA Kings Insider ] • The 10 most annoying hockey fans. Including you, Guy Trying To Get on TV. [ THW ]

 

Los Angeles Kings Western Conference championship belt; yes, seriously (PHOTO) (Puck Daddy)

The NHL championship belt phenomenon has always intrigued us, whether it's the Chicago Blackhawks passing around a title belt during their Stanley Cup parade or the Phoenix Coyotes using it as their official postgame award to players of the game. Now, you can celebrate the Los Angeles Kings' 2012 Western Conference championship run with (Ric) flair: Somewhere, there's a John Cena spinning WWE logo without a belt ... so sad. This hastily crafted belt is available on eBay for $39.99 and chronicles the Kings rise to the Stanley Cup Final. Gaze upon the accurate home and road records, complete with unclosed parentheses. Marvel at the way the word "CHAMPIONS is oddly cropped and awkwardly spaced. Gawk at the way the semifinals and finals were preceded by "1st Rd." (That said, all the logos are correct , so the belt-maker is already overqualified to work as a local Los Angeles TV sports anchor.) (UPDATE: As Bren in the comments notes, it's the wrong Canucks logo. Expect to see whomever made this belt dropping "Brad Doty" references on LA TV soon.) As we said on the Marek Vs. Wyshynski podcast yesterday: Unless there is an historic, compelling reason to own conference or division champions gear — like the Florida Panthers in 1996, for example — then it serves two purposes only, which are dust rags or clothing a poverty-stricken village. Because in the end, Stanley Cup Champions gear will always supersede it; and if your team loses, it's just a sucky reminder of terrible times. But hey: Maybe you've got a Ring of Honor dark match to wrestle this weekend and you want to rep the Kings. In that case, $40 well spent. Meanwhile on eBay, you can buy Los Angeles Kings 2012 Stanley Cup Champions magnets and stickers. Pirated? Apparently. Hubrus? Totally.

 

Devils beat Rangers, on brink of Stanley Cup Finals (Reuters)

NEW YORK (Reuters) - The New Jersey Devils let a three-goal lead slip away against the New York Rangers on Wednesday but scored twice late in the third period to claim a 5-3 win and move within touching distance of a place in the NHL Stanley Cup Finals.

 

Rangers, Devils back at MSG for pivotal Game 5; NHL 13 screenshots (Playoff Puck Previews) (Puck Daddy)

• Feast your eyes on some screengrabs from NHL 13. [ Operation Sports ] Preview: New Jersey Devils at New York Rangers, 8 p.m. ET Except to see a different Rangers team Wednesday, and not just because they'll be plugging two Brandons into the lineup, with Brandon Dubinsky making his series debut and Brandon Prust returning from his one-game suspension. The Rangers have played fabulously at Madison Square Garden this postseason, and it's hardly possible for them to be as poor as they were in the 4-1 Game 4 loss that evened this series at two games apiece. The Rangers desperately need to get their forwards going, as Chris Krieder is the only one with two goals. Might we see a more open game than we've grown accustomed to? Evening Reading • Cool post on Sidney Crosby's comic book death. [ The Hockey Writers ] • An open letter to Shane Doan from a Kings fan. Incredibly, it's nice. [ Nebulous Verbosity ] • Kirk McLean's entire career is up for auction, if that's what you're into. [ PITB ] • If the Devils and Rangers go to a Game 7, it will be shown on NBC Sports, not NBC. Why? The Senior PGA tour's got dibs. [ Newsday ] • The Oilers don't need a stud defenceman just yet. [ Oilers Nation ] Puck Buddy Comment of the Day: Luke, on the screenshot of the woman behind the Coyotes' bench Wednesday night : If you stare hard enough thru the picture like one of those Magic Eye books you CAN see Dave Tippett..... Uncanny. Bold Prediction: Brandon Dubinsky scores in his first game back.

 

LA Kings conquer West, await Cup final opponent (The Associated Press)

LOS ANGELES (AP) The crowd was dozens deep and hundreds wide, screaming and chanting and surrounding the Los Angeles Kings' cars as they drove home after writing another improbable chapter in the big, mostly empty book that holds their franchise history.

 

Eulogy: Remembering the 2011-12 Phoenix Coyotes (Puck Daddy)

(Ed. Note: As the Stanley Cup Playoffs continue, we're bound to lose some friends along the journey. We've asked for these losers, gone but not forgotten, to be eulogized by the people who knew the teams best: The fans who hated them the most . Here are Sam Fels and Matt McClure of Second City Hockey fondly recalling the 2011-12 Phoenix Coyotes. Again, this was not written by us ... OK, by all of us. Also: This is a roast and you will be offended by it , so don't take it so seriously.) By Sam Fels and Matt McClure of Second City Hockey Ladies and gentlemen, we've come here today to bury the Pho….wait a sec, are we sure they're dead? Sure they're not just lying about for effect? This is Mike Smith's and Michal Rozsival's team after all. Do we want to bring the doctors and trainers out, just to make a big show of it for effect? You're sure? Guess the game misconducts for losing classlessly indicate no pulse. What's funny about the fact that we've been brought here to eulogize the Phoenix Coyotes is that we were asked. Bloggers for a team that up until recently regarded the Yotes as nothing more than something to fill out the schedule four times a year, and will feel that way again next year. We have it on good authority that bloggers from all four division opponents on Phoenix were asked to do this, and they all responded with "Sure Wysh, we'd love to. Wait, for who? Sorry, doesn't ring a bell." But it all came to an end, as the Homer Simpson boxing approach to hockey finally ran out of luck when the Coyotes came up against the Drederick Tatum of the Western Conference in the Kings. The extra fluid padding the brain -- known as Mike Smith -- that let the rest of the Yotes pretty much get pummeled for large portions of the playoffs without a knockout finally succumbed. It was fascinating hockey for all. Or no one. Take your pick.

 

Dubinsky returns for Game 5; No hearing for Brown; Spacek rips Habs (Puck Headlines) (Puck Daddy)

• John Tortorella, when asked how he was going to get his forwards going on Tuesday: "Pray." He then read an excerpt from his memoir on a trip he took around the world after splitting from the Tampa Bay Lightning. • By the way, in case it wasn't clear that John Tortorella's sense of humour is lacking, on Wednesday morning he made it clear that he was joking about prayer and retracted the joke. [ NHL ] • No hearing for Dustin Brown for his controversial collision with Michal Rozsival. [ LA Kings Insider ] • Brandon Dubinsky returns to the Rangers' lineup for Game 5. [ Newsday ] • Showing some much-needed attention to the Devils' relatively anonymous blueline. [ NJ ] • An argument for shaking up the New York Rangers' lines by removing Carl Hagelin from the top unit: "Hagelin is currently playing top line minutes with the Rangers two most skilled forwards, and ha exactly zero goals to show for it. That's no goals and just three assists in 18 games so far this postseason. No matter which way you look at this, it's unacceptable to have a top line player with zero goals in 18 games. At some point, changes need to be made." [ Blue Seat Blogs ] • Jaroslav Spacek claims he might have retired at the end of the year if he had finished it in Montreal, and rips the Canadiens hockey operations team, from the bizarre rules for the players to the total lack of communication. "'So much bad stuff,' Spacek said. 'In my 20-year hockey career, I'd never seen anything like it. If you don't like the way I play, kick me in the ass. But no one said anything. It was terrible.'" [ Montreal Gazette ] • Another major step towards the Phoenix Coyotes staying in Arizona was taken after the team was eliminated last night, as the Glendale City Council voted to approve a preliminary budget that includes $17 million to the prospective buyer of the team for operating costs for the city's Jobing.com Arena." [ Winnipeg Free Press ] • The Wild have signed 2010 first-round pick Mikael Grandlund to his entry-level contract. He announced the deal himself in a video on the Wild's website. [ Wild ] • Michael Arace on the American invasion in the NHL. [ Blue Jackets Xtra ] • Alex Semin cuts his forehead on his gold medal, which is a very enigmatic thing to do. [ RMNB ]

 

Marek Vs. Wyshynski Radio: Tyson Nash, Mike Brophy, Dustin Brown’s hit and Devils/Rangers (Puck Daddy)

It's a Wednesday edition of Marek vs. Wyshynski beginning at 2 p.m. ET/11 a.m. PT , and we're talking about the following and more: Special Guest Stars: Tyson Nash gives us a post-mort on the Phoenix Coyotes and takes on the Dustin Brown hit. Mike Brophy of Sportsnet looks at the Stanley Cup Playoffs and other matters. • In which Marek and Wysh preview Game 5 between the Devils and Rangers. • The Shane Doan, Keith Yandle and Coyotes go off on officiating. • The evils of the handshake line. • Puck Headlines and Talking Points Question of the Day: Overheard in the Kings/Coyotes handshake ally last night was... Email your answers to puckdaddyblog@yahoo.com or tweet them with the hashtag #MvsW to either @jeffmarek or @wyshynski . Click here for the Sportsnet live stream or click the play button above! Click here to download podcasts from the show each day Subscribe to the podcast via iTunes or Feedburner .