Top Line: Is Patrick Kane worn out?; ex-NHLer turns Jack Bauer; more links
Blackhawks star Patrick Kane has now played in 89 playoff games since 2009. (David E. Klutho/SI)
By Allan Muir
An annotated guide to this morning's must-read hockey stories:
• Have the past four years worth of deep playoff hockey taken a toll on Patrick Kane, or is the struggling Chicago sniper just biding his time like he did last spring? If he's waiting for just the right moment to make his mark on the series, tonight's Game 4 is as good a time as any.
• The Blackhawks have some power play issues to resolve if they want to get their series back on even footing in Game 4.
• The NHL could not have dreamed up a better final four from the perspective of revenue generation, says James Mirtle. With every conference finalist a marquee team in a massive hockey market – New York, Montreal, Chicago and Los Angeles – these playoffs are pushing hockey-related revenue to new heights and could have a significant impact on next year's salary cap.
• Not everyone who makes the NHL eventually retires into luxury. Plenty have to find another job when their playing days are over, but none have ever switched professions quite like this.
• Poetic justice and a brutally inefficient power play conspired against the Canadiens on Sunday night. When all is said and done, the Habs are going to look back at their play with the extra man (now a pitiful 1-for-17) and realize that's exactly where this series slipped away from them.
• Regrets? Yeah, the Canadiens have a few.
• Elliotte Friedman reminds us of the forgotten man in Montreal's crease, says the Washington Capitals have a GM in mind, and considers the future of Ryan Kesler in this week's 30 Thoughts column.
• Jack Todd offers grief counseling after a broken play broke Montreal's hearts.
• Dustin Tokarski robbed Martin St. Louis with the glove hand twice in Game 3, but with the puck, and the game, on his stick in Game 4, St. Louis would not be robbed again.
• Henrik Lundqvist looked down at the other end of the ice in overtime and decided to remind Tokarski which one of them is called The King.
• The Eastern Conference Finals debut of New York Rangers forward J.T. Miller did not go well.
• This has to be the sweetest ride in Montreal.
• Jaromir Jagr announced his retirement on Sunday. No, really.
• The New York Islanders made a bold decision to hold on to the fifth overall pick in this year's draft and transfer their 2015 first rounder to the Buffalo Sabres. If GM Garth Snow's gamble fails and next year's pick ends up in the lottery, it might be the last mistake he makes.
• Could a Dallas Stars farmhand be the right choice to replace John Tortorella behind the bench in Vancouver?
• The Edmonton Oil Kings were nobody's favorite to win the Memorial Cup but, just as they had done all season, they found a way to prove everyone wrong.
proving that he at least can be counted on to bring home the gold in a C-level tournament.