From John Bishop at BostonBruins.com, a note that The Cam Neely Foundation for Cancer Care celebrated the opening of The Neely Pediatric Bone Marrow Transplant Unit.

The Neely family launched the Cam Neely Foundation for Cancer Care in 1995 after the passing of their parents Marlene and Michael Neely from cancer. The Neely Foundation has raised more than $17 million from donations of all sizes, impacted thousands of families and continues to dedicate itself to designing, funding, and completing projects with immediate and tangible results.

“I know that neither of us ever dreamed that we would have this kind of impact when we set out on this mission some 14-plus years ago to honor our parents,” said Scott Neely, before turning to his brother to say, “Cam, I thank you from the bottom of my heart for all that you have done to help us achieve our mission to be able to, in such a meaningful and significant way, honor the memory of mom and dad.”

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from Jim Kelley of Sportsnet,

The simple question might go something like this: Where have you gone Ron Wilson, Joel Quenneville, Paul Maurice, John Paddock, Glen Hanlon, Bob Hartley, Dave Lewis, Jacques Martin and Jim Playfair?

The more complex question: Where are you going National Hockey League?

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If you’re wondering, based on no bias or jinxability whatsoever, when the Finals may start?  John Niyo’s got your answer.

Sounds like the earliest possible date for Game 1 would be a week from today—May 20. But the Flyers will have something to say about that tonight. Figure May 22, May 24 and probably May 27 as the other possible start dates, depending on how long the East finals—and the West, I suppose—last.

I’m sure all of you were mighty impressed with Paul’s posting earlier this morning that Versus drew a record 1.7 rating for Sunday night’s Pens-Flyers game, to the tune of 2.3 Million viewers.  I’d like to take you a little deeper with some of these numbers, to show you how impressive the NHL’s “drawing power” was on the network no one can seem to find on Sunday night.

To clear up some conflicting reports and rumors, a quick note about Eric’s and Jordan Staal’s status in the wake of the unfortunate death of their grandfather. 

Eric Staal has left Team Canada at the World Championships to join his family and will understandably be missing his game scheduled for Wednesday.  Jordan Staal is said to be playing tonight for the Pittsburgh Penguins, then flying home briefly tomorrow to attend the funeral.  He isn’t expected to miss any games.

A couple days ago, Steve pointed to the story about the interest Versus might have in “puck tracking” (i.e. flashbacks to the infamous glowing puck).  Today, William Houston at the Globe & Mail notes that any such plans would be limited:

Versus is pursuing a puck-tracking technology that, according to USA Today, could be used as soon as the next NHL season. This would be for replays rather than live coverage. Anything involving a live application - such as the FoxTrax from the 1990s - would require the NHL’s approval and participation.

*hat-tip to Puck Daddy for the pointer

Q.  A couple of off‑ice issues.  Gary Roberts, how is he feeling?  Is there a chance he might play?  And Jordan Staal getting some unfortunate news.  How do you keep him focused for tonight’s game?

COACH THERRIEN:  First of all, Gary will take a decision tonight.  He’s sick this morning when he came to report to the team.  We’ll see how he’s going to feel before the game, and we’ll go from there.

Regarding Jordan, he’ll leave the team tomorrow morning, and he’s going to come back with the team tomorrow night.

Q.  How do you keep him focused for tonight’s game or do you leave him alone?

COACH THERRIEN:  This is personal.  Everybody deals with those things differently.  So he came to see me yesterday announcing the bad news, but he seems all right.  He’s focused to play tonight, and I’m sure all of his concentration will be there for tonight’s game.

An interview with Philadelphia Flyers coach John Stevens. 

Q.  What can you do to get Prospal going?  Have you thought even of changing the wingers on Danny’s line?

COACH STEVENS:  Well, I think as a coach, you look at all situations.  But to me that line has had times this year where they’ve had a lot of success.  The ingredients are there.  To me, it’s just in the hands of the player right now.  We need Vinny to step up and be a good player for us.

From Chuck Gormley at The Sporting News,

The reason the Penguins-Oilers comparisons don’t hold any water is because the days of NHL dynasties are over.

There is simply too much parity in the NHL. As good as the Penguins are right now—and they are good—Crosby and Evgeni Malkin will need to get past players such as Mike Richards and Jeff Carter of the Flyers, Alex Ovechkin and Alexander Semin of the Capitals and Chris Drury and Scott Gomez of the Rangers every year to have a shot at consecutive Stanley Cups. That won’t be easy in a salary-cap driven NHL, rendering the days of NHL dynasties as a thing of the past.

more plus other NHL talk

from TSN,

Steve Yzerman and Lennox Lewis headline the newest inductees to the Canadian Sports Hall of Fame.

Yzerman and Lewis will be joined by the 4x100 relay team of Donovan Bailey, Bruny Surin, Glenroy Gilbert and Robert Esmie, swimmer Nancy Garapick and short-track speedskater Marc Gagnon as well as builders Pat Gillick and David Dore.

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From Paul Kukla at NHL.com,

At one time, Pavel Datsyuk and Henrik Zetterberg were known as regular-season performers, meaning they could play out the season but come playoff time, well, they were a different story.

Datsyuk’s postseason stats line once read like this: 42 games, 3 goals, 12 assists and minus-1. Zetterberg’s were similar: 16 games, 3 goals, 2 assists and minus-4. To be fair with Datsyuk, many of those early games saw him on the fourth line and on the second power play unit, so his ice time was very low as compared to the amount of ice he sees now.

Both Datsyuk and Zetterberg were labeled as players who could not get it done during the playoffs. Well, that label is now gone, forever.

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Stamford, CONN. (May 13, 2008)—VERSUS, the exclusive cable television home of the NHL and the 2008 Stanley Cup Playoffs, garnered a 1.7 National HH rating for its telecast of the Flyers/Penguins Game 2 Conference Final round match-up on Sunday, May 11.  It was the most-watched telecast ever in network history among total viewers (2,345,834) and the highest rated and the most-watched NHL telecast ever on the network. 

Viewership for the May 11 telecast topped the previous record set during the 2008 Conference Semifinal round with Game 4 of the Rangers/Penguins series on May 1 (1,184,519 total viewers) and the rating surpassed the previous high (1.1) set during the 2006 Conference Final round with Game 7 of the Buffalo/Carolina series. 

From Krista Villarreal at the Weather Blog, WPXI:

Games for the Pittsburgh Steelers and matchups at PNC Park can certainly be impacted (or even canceled) by the weather, but hockey?

With odds in favor of the Pittsburgh Penguins during the Eastern Conference Finals, I thought it would be interesting to look at (and do a two-part blog on) the meteorology of hockey…

continued... with a quick look at the science of ice, air and eventually, zambonis. 

This might be an interesting one.  Here we go with the new-ish host of VERSUS’ “Hockey Central” studio show.

Throughout his 25-year broadcasting career, Patrick has hosted SportsCenter and Baseball Tonight on ESPN, College Football Sunday on NFL Network, and various other shows.  From 1998-2006, he was a play-by-play man and reporter for the PGA Tour on USA Network.  This is his first hockey-centric job.

So, what do you think of what Bill Patrick is doing?

Maybe not, but according to this poll at Philly.com (via Pensblog) they’re certainly not feeling very optimistic, either:

Update 12:28pm ET: From CBC, the fans will be a factor…

We’re talking the 19,000-plus wacko Philly fans in the stands, considered by everyone the toughest in all of sports. If those folks can intimidate the 2-0 Penguins just a little, it might be enough to crawl back into this Eastern Conference final.

“I would say it’s a pretty tough place to play,” said Penguins star Sydney Crosby, after a light skate on Monday. “At the same time, in the playoffs it makes for a great atmosphere. They’re just a tough crowd. They’re not afraid to say anything.”