Pinch hitting a little bit of Pens Points this Sunday morning to freshen the old blog up. So here we go with some links prior to the team taking back to the ice for practice for the first time since Thursday night:
Matt Murray, injured in Game 1 warmup on 4/12, has yet to return to the ice but did some off-ice workouts on Saturday, according to coach Mike Sullivan. [Tribune-Review]
Sullivan says he hopes for "timely returns" for all the injured players, but of course no real updates on statuses. It does appear that Chris Kunitz is skating more regularly at this point than Carl Hagelin and could be the closer to a return. [Post-Gazette]
The Penguins still have some areas of concern even in victory [Tribune-Review]
The Olli Maatta - Trevor Daley pairing was no liability in the Columbus series. [The Pensblog]
The Pens are keeping up with the the happenings around the league, including the Toronto/Washington series for obvious reasons. [Trib]
It's crazy to think a guy like Evgeni Malkin still gets nervous before games, but he says he was when he returned. With 11 points in 5 games it would be difficult to tell. [Post-Gazette]
And from around the NHL...
The Rangers eliminate the Canadiens in 6 games with a win last night. [Blueshirt Banter]
The Oilers also punch their ticket to the next round, taking out last year's Western Conference champs, the Sharks. [Fear the Fin]
Finally, the 3rd elimination of the day yesterday was the Blues advancing past the Wild. St. Louis and Nashville will clash next round. [Hockey Wilderness]
Also from that game, Eric Staal went into the boards like a ton of bricks and had to be hospitalized. Luckily he was released soon after, scary moment. [HW]
Old Bruce Boudreau still hasn't figured out how to playoff. "They weren’t the better team, but they won four games." [Puck Daddy]
Montreal getting knocked out and PK Subban and Nashville advancing hasn't been lost on anyone. [PD]
The Vezina finalists are: Holtby, Bobrovsky and Price. Luckily for Bobby boy, the votes are collected prior to the start of the playoffs. [NHL.com]
The Caps are looking to push the Maple Leafs "off a cliff" tonight. That doesn't sound very nice. [NHL.com]
Ilya Kovalchuk is talking about making a return to the NHL for next season. Who knows if it will happen or where he will play but it will be interesting to see if the now 34 year old ends his self-imposed 4 season exile from the NHL. [Twitter]