• Viggo Mortensen is a huge Montreal Canadiens fan. What better way to remind the world of this fact than by wrapping Kirsten Dunst in a Habs flag at Cannes, continuing an odd red carpet tradition for Aragorn. [OMG Yahoo!, via Martin Leroux]
• Marty Brodeur on the Mark Messier guarantee ghosts of 1994 haunting the New Jersey Devils in Game 6: "I know if you guys look at it, it looks the same, but it's different teams and a different way of playing the game and it's 18 years ago and that's a long time. I know I'm feeling a lot different. I'm feeling a lot more appreciative of what's going on." [Fire & Ice]
• Bruce Driver on 1994: "I ended up going to New York and played with Mark, a tremendous leader and one of the best captains of all time. In 1994 against us, Mark did what he did, backed it up and scored three goals. But from our standpoint, the way we looked at it, we blew the game." [NYT]
• Great piece on the friendship between Devils fans and Rangers fans, unnatural that it is. [WNYC, via Michael Raphael]
• No structural damage in Michal Rozsival's knee after that Dustin Brown hit. [Sportsnet]
• Mirtle with poll on fighting that finds hardcore fans love it, non-fans loathe it. [Globe & Mail, and see graphic]
• Earl Sleek sees a lot of the 2003 Mighty Ducks of Anaheim in the 2012 Los Angeles Kings. Say, are those the Devils on the other side of the bracket? [Battle of Cali]
• Los Angeles Dodgers President Stan Kasten wants to pursue a Winter Classic at Dodger Stadium. Read this and other stories in our new book "[Expletive] No One Would Be Saying If The Kings Weren't In The Cup Final." [LA Times]
• Rich Hammond on the matter: "Gary Bettman has sneered (literally) at any suggestion that a Winter Classic could be played in a warm-weather environment. And while the Kings would love to host an outdoor game — Luc Robitaille is a particularly big proponent — AEG is also in the planning stages of a new downtown football stadium, which would probably be a more likely location in the event that Bettman stops sneering." [LA Kings Insider]
• The 10 most annoying hockey fans. Including you, Guy Trying To Get on TV. [THW]
• In praise of Lou Lamoriello: "The backbone of the team, though, are the ordinary grunts. In the early 2000s, players like Jay Pandolfo, John Madden, Grant Marshall and Sergei Brylin did the defensive slogging in the trenches and chipped in with important goals in the playoffs when stars like Jason Arnott, Patrick Elias and Brian Gionta had trouble scoring thanks to the increased checking." [Globe & Mail]
• The Photoshop on this Devils/Rangers wrap up was priceless. [WhatsUpYaSieve]
• Great piece by Dellow yesterday on shot blocking in the NHL: "The Rangers shouldn't be praised for their shot blocking, which was a little bit more significant for them than it is for most teams in the regular season. They should be criticized for not being interesting to watch. You can't choose to win the Stanley Cup. You can choose not to play a passive sort of game that sees you block a bunch of shots and isn't all that interesting to watch." [MC79Hockey]
• Mini-Doc by Bleacher Report on the Playoff Beard.
• Good gripe from Tim Campbell of the Winnipeg Free Press on playoff hockey: "Hand passes are allowed by the defensive team in its own end. Falling on the puck continues to be given the green light, too. Not shooting the puck over the glass, though. So which is it, NHL GMs? Do you want more offence or less? The 30 men who are 'guardians' of the game worry me deeply when they can't make up their minds on these items, and even more when they have the power to make head contact illegal but simply won't." [Free Press, via Kukla]
• Ryan Kesler's agent does not take kindly to Alain Vigneault's assertion that Kes's injury didn't factor into his lack of production. Said Kurt Overhardt: "I am not a doctor, I'm a lawyer, but after having conversations with the player and with the club, anyone who thinks this injury did not affect his play must have fallen off a turnip truck." [Province]
• Cassie McClellan on While The Men Watch: "Now, I'm not outraged here. Hockey is trying to reach out; they really are. But they're not asking what female fans want first, or are even seemingly interested in their feedback. They're just making their best guess and hope it makes the majority of female fans happy. It's classic of at least NHL marketing - do something, then throw it at the wall and see if it sticks. Has no one ever heard of focus groups?" [Raw Charge]
• Here's Heather over on Pension Plan Puppets on WTMW: "Yes, there is a problem with the fact that the CBC felt the need to pick up this blog ahead of fostering female talent in commentary, but focusing on the fact that what these women are writing about is not 'right' or 'good' fandom ties into the greater problem of being a sports fan who is female - that you are female first, and that this fact apparently makes others think it's ok to judge how you watch hockey or if you're truly a 'real' fan at all." [PPP]
• Daniel Wagner on WTMW: "The issue of stereotyping is a tough one, but the fact is that anything that has a 'target audience' is stereotyping to some degree. If the target market is 18-24-year-old males, certain assumptions are going to be made. If the target market is middle-aged housewives, different assumptions are going to be made. And if the target market is people who don't normally watch hockey but whose significant others do, they're going to make other assumptions about what those people would rather be talking about and listening to. This is simply a reality of marketing: any assumption of a broad swath of people will involve stereotypes. The hardcore female hockey fans that are upset about While the Men Watch are not the show's demographic. They don't fit the stereotype that CBC is aiming for with their target audience for the show." [Backhand Shelf]
• Jesse Rogers on the Chicago Blackhawks: "It would be difficult to replace the skill of Kane or the two-way prowess of Hossa or the sharp-shooting of Sharp. But there is one player who could be considered redundant on the Hawks roster. Dave Bolland." [ESPN Chicago]
• Ryan Russell gets a deal with the Columbus Blue Jackets. [CP]
• Finally, congrats to the Florida Everblades for winning the ECHL Kelly Cup on Wednesday. The local news coverage was adorable:
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