Sittin' at the end of the bar...

-- Three of four games won by the road (read: lower seeded) team last night… convenient warning sign for the Caps to ponder going into tonight’s game. You fight for 82 games to get home ice advantage, you can lose it in 60 minutes.

-- Think a defenseman with offensive skill is a luxury? Look at the New Jersey Devils with six forwards on the ice at the end of last night’s game against the Flyers.

-- The hockey gods are a fickle bunch… Craig Adams, who has yet to score a regular season goal for Pittsburgh, gets his fourth playoff goal in 25 post-season games for the Penguins. Then the gods left an edge showing on the boards behind Marc-Andre Fleury that knocked a hard around back out in front of the net.  Fleury was behind the cage looking to cut off the dump-in. Chris Kelly says, “thank you, hockey gods.”

-- Brian Boucher… no playoff wins since 2000, 0-4, 2.56, .895 in seven playoff games since. Stops 23 of 24 shots in a hostile rink to steal Game 1. Well, it’s early.

-- The Flyers had 24 shot attempts last night. I will repeat that… the Flyers had 24 shot attempts last night. Not 24 shots. Not 24 shot attempts in the first period. 24 shot attempts… for the game… over 60 minutes. No Flyer had more than two shots on goal.

-- There were two goaltender interference calls made last night – one in Phoenix, one in New Jersey, both against the home team. Maybe there is something to this paying attention to running the goaltender. Well, it’s early.

-- Last night’s theme… “Rise of the No-Name.” Mike Richards got a game-winning goal (you’ve heard of him). But the others were scored by Chris Stewart, Derek Morris, and Jarkko Ruutu.

-- Speaking of grinders (no, not the sandwich)… Ruutu, Chris Neil, and Chris Kelly were 3-3-6, plus-6.

-- And Morris… 1-2-3 for the night? He was 1-3-4 for the 18 regular season games he played for Phoenix. Well, it’s early.

-- Sidney Crosby finished the game upright and with three assists, and didn’t get a star in his own rink? Huh…

-- OK, we get giving Craig Anderson, Ryan Clowe (sort of), and Scott Hannan stars in the Colorado/San Jose game, but Paul Stastny should get a slice o’ pie… 20-plus minutes, two assists, plus-1, a blocked shot, and he took 24 of the 53 total draws for Colorado, winning 14 of them.

-- Ilya Kovalchuk was the most dangerous man on the ice in the first period of the Devils/Flyers game, but he finished with ten shot attempts, four shots on goal, no points, and a bit of an embarrassing face-plant in the third period as he was rushing into the Flyers’ zone with the puck. Trying to do too much?

-- Chris Pronger didn’t do anything stupid. Ditto Daniel Carcillo…

Well, it’s early.