Well this is is a first. FSN Pittsburgh is in some hot water with the NHL for its actions during a Flyers-Pens game last week, and it's all because they didn't provide officials with every replay angle during a shorthanded attempt by Simon Gagne. Via Philly.com....

The NHL yesterday said it was investigating why the Pittsburgh Penguins' TV-rights holder withheld from replay officials a videotape that showed the Flyers' Simon Gagne scoring a shorthanded goal against the host Penguins last Thursday.

"At the heart of the matter is the integrity of the system," said Gary Meagher, the NHL's senior vice president of public relations.

Gagne appeared to score on a second-period shot that goalie Brent Johnson smothered and carried into the net. It would have given the Flyers a 6-3 lead with 2 minutes, 53 seconds left in the second period.

The play was reviewed, and officials in Toronto said replays were inconclusive and did not count the goal.

A few minutes later, FSN in Pittsburgh gave its viewers a replay that showed the puck across the goal line. The NHL said that replay was not sent to its review team in Toronto until after the puck was dropped following the review. Once the puck is dropped, the ruling cannot be reversed, the NHL said.

"The league is investigating why we didn't get all angles of the replay," Meagher said.

You know I always say that if you're going to say something that a person or group would find offensive, it's best to not say it at all, but the uproar of the latest case of verbal diahhrea even has me rolling my eyes.

Paul Steigerwald is an announcer for the Pittsburgh Penguins, and today he's under fire for making a joke about the Hobey Baker Award (Best College Hockey Player). See Baker quit the game of hockey to serve his country in WWI, but tragically crashed and died during a postwar flight in 1918. Steigerwald's boothmate Bob Errey made a point of saying that former Hobey Baker Award winner Mike Mottau went down hard, to which Paul chimed in and said, "Not as hard as Hobey Baker went down, though. He went down in a plane crash." Here's your video....

Everyone in and around the World of Hockey knows that you absolutely DO NOT touch the trophies after winning the Conference Championship. Well yesterday, following the Penguins sweep of the Carolina Hurricanes, Sidney Crosby did the unthinkable by picking up the Prince of Wales Trophy and skated it over to his teammates. Here's the clip....

With both the Red Wings and Pens on the verge of closing out their respective Conference Finals, the NHL is in a bit of a pickle. The current Finals schedule is set to start on Friday, June 5th, and if both teams finish off their respective series, the two wouldn't play for over a week. With that taken into account, the NHL is considering a move up. Via Associated Content....

As it looks now, the Red Wings and Penguins could both wrap up berths in the 2009 Stanley Cup Finals within two days. The Penguins can finish a sweep of the Carolina Hurricanes tonight, with the Red Wings set to close out the Chicago Blackhawks in five tomorrow.

The start date of the 2009 Stanley Cup Finals schedule was set for Friday, June 5, since both the Eastern and Western Conference Finals would not end in a sweep. But if nothing changes in the Stanley Cup Finals schedule, and both the Red Wings and Penguins win their next game, they will not play each other for over a week.

For teams that have a long rest going into the championship series, they face constant, incessant questions about being off too long. The Phillies got this question before the World Series last year, but still handled the Tampa Bay Rays in five.

Both the Red Wings and Penguins could face those questions when they finally start the 2009 Stanley Cup Finals schedule. As usual, the needs of television would get the blame, as NBC and Versus need to set the Stanley Cup Finals dates on specific nights. TV needs are also the reason that the first two games of the 2009 Stanley Cup Finals will take place on back-to-back nights.

But in this case, a week plus layoff for the Red Wings and Penguins may be pushing it. So the NHL and NBC are set to save face, assuming the Red Wings and Penguins do win their next games.

Obviously I'm biased here, but Simeon Varlamov could have quite possibly made the best save of the Playoffs just now. Nearing the end of the second period, Sidney Crosby did a wonderful drag and drop with Chris Kunitz, and had a wide open net to shoot at. Somehow Varlamov dove backwards and kept the puck out of the net with his stick.