Just a few things that caught my eye:
- Darius Kasparitus made the hip check look dirty; Dan Hamhuis has returned it to glory. He gave up four inches and about 45 lbs on Dustin Byfuglien but he executed it to perfection, leaving the Blackhawks a d-man short on a rush the other way. And we both know what happened on that rush.
- Jaroslav Halak channeled his best Patrick Roy (pre-Colorado, of course), flashing leather at every turn on-route to a 53-save win. He even spooked Alexander Ovechkin into passing. Now that's an accomplishment.
- The Sabres went Oh-fer on the power play in the postseason. Can Ryan Miller score, too?
- Speaking of power plays, WTF has happened to Washington's? They went from 25.2 percent -- tops in the league -- in the regular season all the way down to 3.3 percent (third worst) heading into Monday night. Oh-fer six only made it worse.
- Jonathan Toews still can't grow a decent beard. I hope he can do better than last's year's Amish nightmare.
- Can you guess the worst two penalty-killing teams in the first round? Vancouver (61.5 percent) and Pittsburgh (68.2). Next worst on a team still in the hunt? Detroit at 78.6. Those "little issues" can become big problems with every passing round.
- Can it finally be San Jose's year? The formerly dominant Western Conference suddenly looks somewhat pedestrian.
- Niklas Lidstrom needs four points to move ahead of Peter Forsberg and into 16th on the all-time playoff scoring list. Mark Recchi just moved ahead of greats Henri Richard and Bobby Hull in 39th (and counting) on that same list.
- I can't wait to see more of P.K. Subban's shake-and-bake -- he's fast, talented and already a fan fave in Montreal after just two regular-season games and one playoff tilt. He's capital-E exciting.