dlbalr

(Lines are from last game) Quinn - Malone - Rousek Murray - Jankowski - Ruotsalainen Biro - Krebs - Peterka MacInnis - Holmstrom Davidson - Fitzgerald Schuldt - Prow Tischke - Alt Boka Dell (Lines are from last game) Harvey-Pinard - Dea - Ylonen Gignac - Paquette - Belzile Bourque - Abbandonato - Martel Roy - Teasdale Ouellet - Belpedio Niku - Dello Schueneman - Paquette-Bisson Norlinder Primeau Media Notes Puck drop is at 7 PM and can be listened to here. It's also televised on RDS2.

Farrell was up on the top line for this one and has clearly made a good impression on the coaching staff. Good to see. On the other hand, Dichow being on the bench for all but two periods so far stings. If he had played a little better against Switzerland, I think he'd have gotten another game (likely today's) by now. They get Canada and Slovakia back-to-back; perhaps he's being set up to play against Canada and then come back with Dahm for a key game against the Slovaks.

The Nicolas Deslauriers career path - it's an interesting idea if he can't stick on the back end.

As of now, Kidney is not with Laval despite what was reported this morning. Doesn't mean he won't be but he's not with the team yet.

No, it's not possible. He's draft-eligible so that's not an option. Montreal can do it with a guy like Kidney since they drafted him already and it can also be done by overagers who aren't draft-eligible now but Wright can't.

I'd be surprised if he plays, at least early on. He's not exactly built to play against men right now nor is he the type of player that works on a bottom line (it'd be hard to see him tossed in an offensive role). While there are some exceptions, a lot of junior guys just go to the AHL after they're eliminated to keep skating for a bit.

I'm curious as to which games will actually be on RDS. Looking at their online schedule, none of the home games that they typically show are listed on there. Might it be online only for all 5?

Laval vs Rochester for the second round (I'm not calling it the third round like the AHL is, the play-in round is a play-in round, not the first round). The Rocket will have home ice advantage since Rochester was the play-in team.

Tough start for Edmonton tonight - down 2-0 less than a minute into the first period. Meanwhile, Carolina tied it late and scored early in OT to pull out a 2-1 victory.

Or they let Stecher walk as a UFA and Clarke go back to the OHL for one more year. That's probably a better solution for them.

Correct.

Well, if I was making OT picks, Bourque wouldn't have been anywhere near the top of my list. But good to see the veterans pull out the win. Utica won tonight so that series is going the distance with Game 5 on Thursday. Whoever wins (they're playing Rochester) will be the favourites against Laval in the next round as the Amerks' roster was enhanced once Buffalo's season came to an end and they're much better than a typical play-in team.

Wow...Laval ties it in the last minute of regulation to keep their season alive. Paquette unassisted with 39 seconds left. Off to OT we go.

Laval got the only power play in the first period...and allowed a goal. 1-0 Syracuse after 20 minutes.

I think they do make some sort of financial commitment on that end, for anyone wondering. There's only so much they can do realistically - it's not on them alone to magically turn the QMJHL from being the weakest CHL development league by a wide margin to a better one. If there aren't a lot of top QMJHL players available (and most years there aren't), they're right to pick a better player from elsewhere. I agree with the 'birth certificate is irrelevant' crowd, the location of the hospital someone is born in has no bearing on their ability to play hockey (assuming it's in a hockey-playing nation, of course). Thinking that a team needs a quota of locals to create some sort of magic intrinsic chemistry that won't exist otherwise makes no sense to me. Plenty of Cup-winning teams don't have any local players and it doesn't hurt them any.