Leaky goaltending is just one problem the Flyers must address as they try to recover from a Game 1 rout by Boston on home ice in their Eastern Conference semifinal series. (Bruce Bennett/Getty Images)

By Stu Hackel

Road teams continue to roll in the Stanley Cup playoffs. With the Lightning winning in Washington on Sunday night, visitors have now captured four of the seven games played so far in the second round and 31 of 56 since the start of the postseason. The Bruins, who won on Saturday in Philadelphia, will try to extend their 1-0 advantage tonight.

The Flyers are going to have to be smarter and more physical to avoid dropping a second game on home ice and suffering the fate of the Capitals, who are going to Tampa Bay trailing 2-0 in that series. Can the Caps rebound? That answer is far from certain, although fans will remember that  the Bruins fell behind Montreal after losing two games on home ice, then came back to take their dramatic first-round series in seven games.

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Manny Malhotra’s career-threatening injury will likely renew calls for making helmet visors mandatory in the NHL. It could also cost the Canucks a key player for the postseason. (Jeff Vinnick/NHLI via Getty Images)

By Stu Hackel

The initial concern for Vancouver’s Manny Malhotra, who suffered a serious eye injury on Wednesday, is not for this season or even his career, but for his future. Damage to one’s eyesight can be a life-altering experience.

The second concern is for all NHL players, because risking their careers and their eyesight by not wearing visors seems foolhardy.

As for the first-overall-in-the-NHL Canucks, losing Malhotra may force their biggest injury test of the season — and they’ve had a few. Third line center being out indefinitely will rob them of their top face-off man and one of the best in the game. Malhotra’s 61.7 percent success rate currently ranks second in face-off winning percentage to the Devils ‘David Steckel (63). Blocking shots and breaking up plays, Malhotra also a main Manny on the Canucks’ penalty-kill, which also ranks second in the league. Last season, the Canucks’ PK ranked 18th. Special teams play is a key to success in the playoffs and Malhotra’s expertise would be greatly missed if he cannot return.
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Goaltender Carey Price is surely a longshot, but it’s hard to imagine where the offensively challenged Montreal Canadiens would be without him. (Scott Cunningham/NHLI via Getty Images)

By Stu Hackel

After our usual Tuesday night skate, my teammates and I repaired to the Grill where the TV had highlights of all the NHL action. I noticed the Canadiens had won 3-1 in Atlanta and Carey Price had made 40 saves. Maybe it was the unusually large amount of lime that Eddie O. the bartender put in my club soda, but it crossed my mind that Carey Price certainly could be a legitimate candidate for the Hart Trophy. And then I started to think about who else might be considered. Compared to some of them, Price — who has almost single-handedly saved Montreal from a disastrous season — might be a longshot.

With the regular season entering its final stages — no team has more than 20 games left, the trade deadline has passed and playoff-race ferocity saturates the competition — the time is right to examine the NHLers who have been so crucial that the their teams might well have been a level or two below, if not complete train wrecks, without them.
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After Tampa Bay’s performance against high-flying Philadelphia, you would be wise to take Dwayne Roloson and the much improved Lightning seriously during the run to the playoffs. (AP Photos)

By Stu Hackel

It seemed like an eternity since the NHL’s last regular season game — it was only five days — but if what happened on Tuesday night was a glimpse of how things will go over the next 10 weeks, be ready to expect the unexpected.

Three teams blew two-goal leads and lost, six games went past regulation and one had no goals at all, requiring the postgame skills competition to award the bonus point. Four others went beyond overtime as well. And due to the immense nationwide storm, one game didn’t get played.
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Aspiring to be an elite team like the Canucks, the young Rangers used disciplined play to knock off Vancouver in a game that had playoff intensity. (Scott Levy/NHLI via Getty Images)

By Stu Hackel

On cold winter nights like Thursday’s, when bundled-up Manhattan pedestrians must navigate mounds of ugly gray snow, the local hockey team has provided little solace during the past few seasons. For some Rangers fans, there was little reason to think last night would be any different.

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