FLYERS LOOK TO REACH DEAL WITH STREIT

The free agent market lacks puck moving defensemen, which is a reason we saw Sergei Gonchar receive a 2 year, $10 million contract from the Dallas Stars this week who traded for his rights.

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Going up 3-0 in the playoffs just takes the life out of the team in the 0-3 hole. The Penguins missed that opportunity Sunday night by letting Game 3 slip out of their hands with a breakdown late in regulation. "Obviously we let this one slip away," goaltender Tomas Vokoun said. "Getting scored on on our power play with 30 seconds, sometimes you have to go through adversity and this is ours."

This series could still only go five games but the Penguins have now made this series tougher than it needed to be by not closing out Game 3 when they could.

The Senators aim to tie the series up at 2-2 tonight and the buzz in Ottawa is that the Senators overtime win has them getting their swagger back that they had in the first round against Montreal. They know they have to get a win tonight to have much chance of knocking off the favorite Penguins in the series.

The Penguins, though, are 7-2 in their past nine Game 7's.

By contrast, in the other Eastern Conference semi-finals series, the Boston Bruins have taken a 3-0 series lead against the New York Rangers after a 2-1 win in Game 3. In the final month of the regular season, the Penguins emerged as the clear favorite over the Bruins in the East, but things have changed to this point.

A Penguins - Bruins Eastern Conference Finals matchup would be a "tossup" to me. In evaluating the Bruins this post-season, the play of David Krejci, leads the NHL in playoff points with 16, obviously stands out but when asking around about the Bruins, scouts are bringing up the play of Milan Lucic (3G-7A-10Pts-+10) and Nathan Horton (4G-5A-9Pts-+14) in regards to the two finally getting to their games in the post-season as big reasons the Bruins are back to being a top Cup contender in the East and a serious threat to the Penguins were the two teams meet in the Eastern Conference finals.

When Horton and Lucic are playing up to their ability like they are right now, Boston boasts one of the top lines in hockey in Lucic - Krejci - Horton.

Jussi Jokinen has been a healthy scratch for five straight playoff games but when you breakdown the Penguins group of forwards, without question Jokinen is one of the Penguins top-12 forwards.

The issue for the Penguins was always going to be finding a successful role for Jokinen when Sidney Crosby returned. In his first 11 games (10 regular season, 1 post-season) as a Penguin, Jokinen had 7 goals and 13 points, all while playing a top-2 line center role with Sidney Crosby sidelined due to a broken jaw.

In his last three games, Games 2, 3, and 4 of the Islanders series, all with Sidney Crosby in the lineup, Jokinen had no points, a minus-1 rating and just 1 shot on goal.

The 2013 NHL Playoffs begin Tuesday night and this is a post-season where the two No. 1 seeds in both conferences, Pittsburgh Penguins in the East and Chicago Blackhawks in the West, are clearly superior teams to rest of the field in their respective conferences.

The Blackhawks and Penguins are heavy favorites to reach the Stanley Cup Finals in what would be a tremendous matchup, but both No. 1 seeds reaching the Stanley Cup Finals rarely happens in the NHL.

The last time it did happen was the 2001 Stanley Cup Finals when the New Jersey Devils, 1st in Eastern Conference, and Colorado Avalanche, 1st in Western Conference, met in the Finals, a series that went seven games.

Since 1993-1994 season when the NHL adopted the concept of 16 teams qualifying for the playoffs, eight from each conference, 2000-2001 is the only season where a No. 1 seed from the Eastern Conference and a No. 1 seed from the Western Conference faced each other in the Cup Finals.

Will the Penguins and Blackhawks change that trend this spring?

Of the two, the Blackhawks have a tougher road in the Western Conference. The consensus team from scouts I've polled who feel have the best shot of upsetting the Blackhawks is the defending champions Los Angeles Kings, a potential second round matchup.

The Blackhawks are so deep up front and have a puck mover on every defensive pair, and scouts feel it's going to take a big team that can keep them to the outside and be physical with them. The Kings are a big, structured group and the best team out there in Western Conference that excel in those two areas.

If there's one achilles heel for the Blackhawks it's the uncertainty of their goaltending. "Boy those two {Ray Emery, Corey Crawford} would give me an uneasy feeling," an Eastern Conference scout said.

Many wonder if it's bound to happen that one or both were to breakdown in a seven game series. The Kings have a superior edge in goal in Jonathan Quick.

The Kings, though, are far from a lock to get out of the first round with a first round matchup against the St. Louis Blues who have home-ice in the series and are one of those sleeper teams you don't want to play.

The Blues could also become a surprise thorn in the Blackhawks side in a potential second or third round series were they to get by the Kings.

The Vancouver Canucks are also a team that scouts, coaches and analyst peg as being a tough out in the West for the Hawks. Anaheim doesn't appear to be a team that many inside NHL circles feel are a serious threat to the Blackhawks, despite being the No. 2 seed.

The Washington Capitals continue their surge in the standings, defeating the Tampa Bay 4-2 tonight and the Capitals after a horrific start have emerged as the favorites to win the Southeast division and earn the No.3 seed in the Eastern Conference. It's a stunning turnaround for the Capitals who looked like a mess the first 8 weeks of the season and now a team that could get a favorable first round playoff  matchup and make some noise.

The biggest storyline in Washington is the re-emergence of Alexander Ovechkin into an elite player and Ovechkin showing signs of being back to his old form is good for hockey.