PITTSBURGH – Ilya Bryzgalov stood on a riser in the dressing room surrounded by reporters. The spotlights were shining on him. The microphones were ready to capture any colorful quotes.

They captured this:

"Beeeaaaars!" teammate Jaromir Jagr shouted as he walked past, trying to sound ominous, but sounding more like a baaing sheep. "Beeeaaars!"

This could have been frightening for the Philadelphia Flyers. Bryzgalov had been his Bryz-arre self before this first-round playoff series, saying in his Russian accent: "I'm not afraid of anything. I'm afraid of bear, but bear in the forest."

After a slow start, Ilya Bryzgalov settled down in goal. (Reuters)

Then fans showed up in bear costumes, the Pittsburgh Penguins took a three-goal first-period lead, and it looked like Game 1 would be a blowout. It looked like Bryzgalov would be the butt of jokes.

But the Flyers got a couple of breaks, came back and earned a 4-3 overtime victory. This, after they had rallied from two 2-0 deficits to beat Pittsburgh during the regular season. This, making them

Read More »from Philadelphia Flyers goalie Ilya Bryzgalov survives explosive Penguins and mocking bears

The last time Sidney Crosby appeared in the playoffs, it was May 2010. The Pittsburgh Penguins were the defending Stanley Cup champions. They were shocked in the second round by the eighth-seeded Montreal Canadiens.

It was the first time in the Crosby era the Penguins had taken a step backward. They had gone from missing the playoffs, to losing in the first round, to losing in the Cup final, to winning the Cup, to that.

Crosby scored only once in seven games against the Habs.

"You have high expectations," Crosby said as he prepared for the 2010-11 season. "You expect to be in the finals every year. But if anything, I think you appreciate how tough it is to get there, probably what it takes, even more so."

Even more so now.

We all know what has happened since. Crosby elevated his game to a new level, separated himself from his peers, then suffered a concussion. He missed the second half of last season. He missed the playoffs last year - along with Evgeni Malkin, who had a knee Read More »from Cast of stars, role players make Penguins the Cup favorite

A Pittsburgh Penguin should be the most valuable player, but not Sidney Crosby. A Boston Bruin deserves a trophy for smothering the opposition, but not Zdeno Chara or Tim Thomas. A skilled Swede earned the title of best all-around defenseman, but not Nicklas Lidstrom. A King was the best goaltender, but not King Henrik.

My picks for the 2012 NHL awards:

HART TROPHY (most valuable player): Evgeni Malkin, Pittsburgh Penguins

Pittsburgh Penguins' Evgeni Malkin (71) and Sidney Crosby (87) sit on the bench during the third period of an NHL hockey game against the Philadelphia Flyers in Pittsburgh. 

It's not just that Malkin won his second scoring title, or that despite missing seven games, he did it by 12 points. It's that he led the Penguins to the second-best record in the Eastern Conference as they slogged through another injury-plagued season. Crosby played only 22 games. Still, the Pens had the best player in hockey.

Healthy again and motivated more than ever before, Malkin was dominant. He was better than he was in 2007-08 and '08-09, when he was the runner-up for the Hart in back-to-back seasons, and his teammates benefitted. While Malkin set a Read More »from 2012 NHL awards: Evgeni Malkin’s gotta have the Hart, Karlsson deserves the Norris

Anything can happen. It's true. Two years ago, the seventh-seeded Philadelphia Flyers and eighth-seeded Montreal Canadiens met in the Eastern Conference final. In 2006, the eighth-seeded Edmonton Oilers came within a win of the Stanley Cup.

Just get in. You can win.

But that doesn't mean your odds are good if you’re a low seed. Despite the salary cap and the parity in the NHL, the playoffs are still a world of favorites and underdogs. There are no flip-a-coin shootouts to pad win totals. There are no loser points to keep things close. There are marathon overtimes and seven-game wars of attrition to separate the best from the rest. Though David can take down Goliath, make no mistake: David better aim his rock just right.

Forget going all the way. Only one bottom-four seed has won the Cup since the league started seeding one through eight in each conference in 1993-94, and that was a fifth seed, the 1995 New Jersey Devils.

It's hard enough to get out of the first round. Despite the

Read More »from NHL playoffs: Underdogs, upsets and first-round predictions

Four deceased players – Reggie Fleming, Bob Probert, Rick Martin, Derek Boogaard. Four dissected brains. Four cases of degenerative brain disease, according to Boston University researchers. They have sounded the alarm about the potential consequences of concussions and repetitive brain trauma in the NHL, while sparking a debate about what we know, what we don't know and what we need to do.

A new study hopes to deepen our understanding of brain trauma by studying hundreds of athletes over a broad spectrum of sports, including professional hockey.

Researchers plan to follow players from high school to college to the pros, measuring their exposure to traumatic forces and their brain function along the way. They will keep following them into retirement, all the way to death.

Eventually researchers will have detailed data to compare athletes to each other – both women and men; from non-contact

Read More »from NHL players to participate in ambitious concussion research project

Dale Tallon had made so many moves to breathe life into the Florida Panthers. Now he needed to make one more.

The team he had torn down and rebuilt in two years, the team that had risen from last to first, was in danger of letting its banner season slip away. The players were struggling down the stretch. They were tense. They were tired.

So Tallon did something rare for a general manager. While coach Kevin Dineen gave the players Saturday off to recharge on the road, Tallon tried to add an extra jolt of energy. He didn't speak to the team for long, only about a minute-and-a-half, but Dineen said he spoke from the heart. He told the players he was proud of them. He told them he believed in them. He told them to keep battling.

"That's not my job," Tallon said later. "But I just … I felt a little push … Maybe they needed to hear a different voice, for a second. It was just a gut feeling I had."

This is gut-check time.

Beat the Winnipeg Jets on Tuesday night, and the Panthers can clinch

Read More »from Florida Panthers: One more push, and they're finally back in the playoffs

DETROIT – A quick hug, a back slap, and that was that. David Poile and Barry Trotz sat down in a couple of metal folding chairs in the visiting coaches' office at Joe Louis Arena, savored it for a few seconds and went back about their business.

"That was as big a moment as anything," Trotz said. "I was able to do something with David that was sort of unique."

Sort of unique?

When their Nashville Predators defeated the Detroit Red Wings on Friday night, 4-1, Poile and Trotz won their 500th game together.

That's impressive enough. So is the fact that Poile became the first general manager in NHL history to win 500 games with two franchises, having already won 594 with the Washington Capitals from 1982-97. So is the fact that Trotz became the fifth coach in NHL history to win 500 games with one team, following Al Arbour, Toe Blake, Billy Reay and Lindy Ruff.

But that isn't the heart of the story. These are truly their Nashville Predators. Poile is the only GM the Preds have ever had.

Read More »from Landmark win has special meaning for David Poile, Barry Trotz

They are the crown jewels of the National Hockey League and iconic institutions of Canadian culture. The Montreal Canadiens and Toronto Maple Leafs have won more Stanley Cups than anyone else – the Habs 24, the Leafs 13. They have proud traditions and passionate fans. They sell out every game and rake in the revenue.

But the Habs haven't held the Cup since 1993, the last time a Canadian team won a championship, and the Leafs haven't done it since 1967, giving them the longest drought in the league. And now they have plummeted to the bottom of the Eastern Conference – the Habs last, the Leafs second-to-last.

The Habs fired coach Jacques Martin in December; the Leafs fired coach Ron Wilson in March. The Habs fired general manager Pierre Gauthier on Thursday, and though Leafs GM Brian Burke should be safe for now, the normally quiet, corporate crowd at the Air Canada Centre has gone from calling

Read More »from Montreal Canadiens & Toronto Maple Leafs: NHL's flagship franchises must return to relevance