Hockey Today April 11

NHL SHORT SHEET

First Round
Game One
Series Tied 0-0
Philadelphia at Washington, 7:05 ET

Philadelphia:
21-53 SU revenging a same season loss
48-61 SU after a game where they covered

Washington:
15-6 SU after playing 2 consecutive home games
28-15 SU second half of the season

First Round
Game Two
Pittsburgh Leads, 1-0
Ottawa at Pittsburgh, 7:05 ET

Ottawa:
4-9 SU revenging a blowout loss vs opponent of 3+ goals
16-23 SU after 1 or more consecutive losses

Pittsburgh:
8-2 SU in the 2nd game of a playoff series
61-30 SU as a favorite

First Round
Game Two
Rangers Lead, 1-0
NY Rangers at New Jersey, 7:05 ET

NY Rangers:
34-57 SU on Friday nights
20-35 SU off a road blowout win by 3+ goals

New Jersey:
24-7 SU in April games
6-2 SU revenging a blowout loss vs opponent of 3+ goals

First Round
Game Two
Colorado Leads, 1-0
Colorado at Minnesota, 9:05 ET

Colorado:
26-15 SU after playing a road game
5-1 SU in the first round of the playoffs

Minnesota:
8-17 SU after having won 4 or 5 of their last 6
18-22 SU after playing a home game

NHL Trend Sheet

Ottawa at Pittsburgh
Favorite is 4-0 in the last 4 meetings.
Senators are 8-2 in the last 10 meetings in Pittsburgh.
Under is 4-1 in the last 5 meetings in Pittsburgh.
Senators are 6-2 in the last 8 meetings.

Philadelphia at Washington
Over is 4-1 in the last 5 meetings.
Under is 8-3-1 in the last 12 meetings in Washington.
Flyers are 2-6 in the last 8 meetings.
Road team is 4-0 in the last 4 meetings.
Underdog is 4-0 in the last 4 meetings.

NY Rangers at New Jersey
Under is 20-7-6 in the last 33 meetings.
Under is 11-4-4 in the last 19 meetings in New Jersey.
Rangers are 18-37-11 in the last 66 meetings.
Rangers are 8-24-2 in the last 34 meetings in New Jersey.

Colorado at Minnesota
Under is 8-0-1 in the last 9 meetings in Minnesota.
Favorite is 10-1 in the last 11 meetings.
Home team is 9-2 in the last 11 meetings.
Under is 8-2-1 in the last 11 meetings.
Avalanche are 1-5 in the last 6 meetings in Minnesota.

Hockey Today

Philadelphia at Washington (7 p.m. EDT). Alexander Ovechkin, who led the NHL with 65 goals and 112 points, makes his playoff debut as the Capitals host the Flyers.

STARS

-Henrik Zetterberg, Red Wings, broke a tie at 6:54 of the third period and added an empty-net goal, lifting Detroit to a 3-1 win over Nashville.

-Brendan Morrow and Marty Turco, Stars. Morrow had a goal and two assists and Turco had 23 saves to lead Dallas to a 4-0 win at Anaheim.

-Evgeni Nabokov, Sharks, stopped all 21 shots he faced in San Jose's 2-0 win over Calgary.

ALL TIED UP

San Jose evened its first-round series with Calgary at a game after a 2-0 win on Thursday night.

STAR STRUCK

Dallas scored all of its goals on the power play and beat defending champion Anaheim 4-0 in the opener of that first-round series. The Stars ended a six-game losing streak in Game 1s and took an opening game for just the second time in their past 10 tries.

BROTHERLY LOVE

Sergei and Andrei Kostitsyn scored goals 1:28 apart in the opening minutes of their playoff debuts to help Montreal beat Boston 4-1 on Thursday night.

LONGEVITY

Detroit's Chris Chelios tied Patrick Roy's record by playing in his 247th playoff game on Thursday night and the 46-year-old defenseman extended his mark with 23 postseason appearances - two more than Ray Bourque and three more than a pack of five players, including Gordie Howe and Steve Yzerman. Fellow defenseman Nicklas Lidstrom set a Red Wings record by playing in his 16th straight postseason, one more than Yzerman.

OFF THE MARK

Minnesota coach Jacques Lemaire said Thursday that right wing Mark Parrish likely will have to sit out Game 2 against Colorado because of a head injury. Parrish was injured in the second period of the Wild's Game 1 loss on Wednesday night after colliding with Avalanche defenseman Ruslan Salei and hitting the boards. Parrish was taken to a local hospital for tests.

CAPTAIN COMEBACK?

Defenseman Jason Smith practiced for the first time this week on Thursday and hopes to return from his upper-body injury for Game 1 of Philadelphia's playoff series against Washington. Smith, the team captain, missed the last game of the regular season and sat out a pair of practices this week.

IT'S OFFICIAL

Craig Leipold officially took over as owner of the Minnesota Wild on Thursday, completing the purchase of the team from Bob Naegele in the middle of the first-round playoff series against Colorado. The NHL's Board of Governors unanimously approved the transaction, and Leipold said he doesn't have any immediate plans for sweeping changes. He said he would like to keep general manager Doug Risebrough, who has been mentioned as a possible replacement in Toronto.

SPEAKING

``I was very upset about the officiating. I'll share those thoughts with the league and with the supervisor of the officials. I can't comment on how it affected my players. We had a good first period, and then there was a total imbalance in the second.'' - Calgary coach Mike Keenan after the Flames were whistled for six consecutive penalties during the second period of Thursday night's 2-0 loss to San Jose that tied the first-round series at a game.

NHL playoffs Opening Round

Washington won last seven games, allowing total of 11 goals; they split four games with Flyers this year, with road team 4-0 in those games, after Caps went 4-0 vs Flyers LY. Nine of last twelve series games went over total. Philly won seven of last nine games, shutting out their last two opponents.

Penguins were only home team to win Wednesday, killing off 10:24 while a man down, including 1:48 when down two skaters. Win was just second in last seven home games vs Ottawa, but Senators lost seven of last nine games now, need win here or they go golfing soon. Six of last nine series games went over.

Rangers won eight of nine against Devils this year; Drury won 14 of 18 faceoffs in Game 1, while teammates were just 17-21 on rest of draws. Under is 9-3-1 in last 13 series games. Devils are 4-2 in last six games, but scored total of just nine goals in their last five- they split last eight at home, with all four wins in OT.

Colorado used OT goal by Sakic to win Game 1, grab home ice in series vs Minnesota that beat Avalanche six out of eight in regular season. Wild rallied from 2-0 deficit to tie Game 1, but scored one power play in 8:55 with man edge, while Colorado scored on its only power play chance of game.

Jacques Martin out as Florida Panthers coach
April 11, 2008

MIAMI (AP) -Jacques Martin will not serve as the Florida Panthers coach next season, the Miami Herald reported early Friday.

Martin has been Florida's general manager and its coach, but the Herald reported on its Web site that team owner Alan Cohen told season ticket holders Thursday night that Martin's duties would be split.

``More than anything, we needed a change as coach,'' Cohen told the newspaper after the event. ``Jacques has done a good job as GM. That's the bottom line.''

Cohen brought in Martin as coach and Mike Keenan as general manager in May 2004. Martin assumed both duties when Keenan resigned after a little more than two years running the team's day-to-day operations.

``Jacques and I have talked about splitting the responsibilities and him staying on as GM,'' Cohen wrote in an e-mail to The Herald. ``In that role, he would be responsible for selecting the new coach.''

Florida went 38-35-9 to finish with 85 points this season, nine behind Southeast Division champion Washington.

The Panthers haven't won a playoff game since 1997, and haven't reached the postseason since 2000.