Skip to main content

On the matter of Mr. David Shoalts' otherwise excellent account of the musical philistines in the Professional Hockey Writers' Association that passed up a chance to listen to Solomon Burke at an open-air concert Friday night, there was only one noteworthy omission; the member of our fraternity who, when told that Solomon Burke was playing in town, said, 'Solomon Burke? Any relation to Brian?"

Uh, no.

In less than an hour, NHL commissioner Gary Bettman is scheduled to deliver his annual state-of-the-union, pre-Stanley Cup address. Presumably, the issue of five days between the end of the third round and the start of the final will be high on the list of questions raised - that and the fact that the NHL is going head-to-head tonight and Monday against the NBA's Detroit Pistons, which won't be an issue in Canada, since it gives CBC a possible three Saturday evening dates in the series, but is causing some consternation here south of the border. ESPN was wasting one of its top reporters, Rachel Nichols, on the basketball series; in her early days as Rachel Alexander, she was one of the top young hockey writers in the United States, working for the Washington Post.

And finally, one last thought from Penguins' coach Michel Therrien on the decision to scratch Gary Roberts for the opener. Therrien didn't think it was that big a deal - that he would stick with the line-up that routed the Philadelphia Flyers in the deciding game of the Eastern Conference final - and suggested that just because Roberts wasn't in for the opener, it didn't mean he wouldn't play at some point in the series. "Obviously it's not an easy decision, no doubt about that," said Therrien. "But in the meantime we're more than satisfied with Tyler Kennedy and what he brings to the lineup.  And he's got speed.  And he's playing with a lot of intensity.  We've got Jarkko Ruutu, he's been really good for us. You got Adam Hall, he's got a role with our team, skill to penalty, he's good to take faceoffs on the right hand side.  And you've got Georges Laraque, he's a physical presence that we like.  So it's something to say yes, we're going to bring another player.  But the toughest decision is not that, so who are you going to take out?  And those guys did a great job, a great job so far. That's the number one reason why that we're not changing the lineup.  It's not that we don't want Gary Roberts in our lineup. That's part of being a good team. We've got depth and we're going to start the series like this."

Interact with The Globe