Four consecutive days in winter without covering a hockey game is like ... well, let's just say I spent the weekend watching other hockey instead.
Came away with this handful of hockey thoughts, too, to open today's Grind:
1. It's almost inconceivable the Penguins will face a goaltender in the first two rounds who can beat them.
The Flyers, lining up as the likely first opponent, still don't have Brian Elliott back practicing from a six-week injury, and he's iffy even if he returns. The Capitals have that downgraded version of Braden Holtby who faces the Penguins and, identically, the Blue Jackets have that all-out-meltdown version of Sergei Bobrovsky who faces the Penguins.
That's hardly a free pass to the Eastern final, but it's a head start.
2. The Lightning are still the favorites.
That could never be a popular sentiment in these parts, so rather than make a case, I'll just list Tampa Bay's lines and pairings for their 3-1 victory yesterday over the Oilers:
J.T. Miller-Steven Stamkos-Nikita Kucherov
Yanni Gourde-Brayden Point-Tyler Johnson
Chris Kunitz-Cedric Paquette-Ryan Callahan
Alex Killorn-Anthony Cirelli-Adam Erne
Victor Hedman-Jake Dotchin
Ryan McDonagh-Dan Girardi
Mikhail Sergachev-Anton Stralman
That's omitting Ondrej Palat, who's about to be back from a two-month injury, and Andrei Vasilevskiy in goal, and not having the previous-season fatigue factor since they missed the playoffs, and all the quality experience they got from taking the Penguins to the Eastern final the previous spring and ... yeah, that and more.
3. In that same game for the Bolts, Kucherov scored his 35th and 36th goals. He's got a four-point lead on Evgeni Malkin, 93-89. The MVP decision's as simple as could be, from this perspective: If Kucherov wins the scoring title, he's it. Best player on the best team.
4. Wouldn't it be incredible if Marc-Andre Fleury had to leave a two-time Stanley Cup champion for an expansion team to experience his first real Vezina Trophy candidacy?
Here you go: Among goaltenders with 40-plus starts, Fleury's got the NHL's best goals-against average at 2.20, and he's tied with the Predators' Pekka Rinne for the best save percentage at .929. Plus, obviously, he's part of the best collective story in hockey in Vegas.
5. Josh Jooris should never have been sent back to Wilkes-Barre, as I wrote from New York. So now that Carter Rowney's injury has forced his return, it's time for the Penguins to seriously consider moving Riley Sheahan to wing.
Look, Mike Sullivan's openly acknowledged wanting to rotate Sheahan through the top two or three lines. Just pick one and make it stick. Could put him on the third line and bump Bryan Rust up with Sidney Crosby. Could also just put him up there with Crosby -- that's happening now, anyway, with a third-period lead -- and leave Rust where he is. Either plan would bump Conor Sheary, which would be addition through subtraction.
Don't worry about the fourth line. Coaches don't. It's a place to store penalty-killers.
6. If Daniel Sprong will be up at any point between now and next season, it'll be during the playoffs in the extraordinarily unlikely event the Penguins find themselves in need of a pure finisher against some sizzling goaltender. It couldn't be clearer now that the front office doesn't even see a bit part for him in the current scenario.
Don't know about you, but I'm trusting the guys with the rings.
As our Taylor Haase GIF'd up Saturday ...
? GOAL! ? Daniel Sprong's first goal since Feb. 23, first even strength goal since Jan. 26. His 22nd goal of the season. Unassisted.#WBSPens trail 2-1.#HFDvsWBS pic.twitter.com/PLY6CNXyfM
— Taylor Haase (@TaylorHaasePGH) March 18, 2018
And that's to say nothing of Sprong being a healthy scratch yesterday, which she's got covered in this morning's Wilkes-Barre Watch.
7. This is Sullivan's finest coaching job to date. He's had to go against his own grain to keep his cool, and yet he's never lost sight of who he and his team need to be.
8. The NHL's general managers begin their annual meetings this morning in Boca Raton, Fla., and high atop the agenda will be trying to decipher what constitutes goaltender interference anymore. Whatever they decide -- and it's got to be an upgrade over status quo -- here's hoping they additionally implement the change immediately. All that's needed are guidelines, not any new rules. Everyone just wants clarification.
9. Quick: Name the NHL's assist leader right now. I'll grant you a dozen guesses, and you won't get it. Answer at very bottom.
10. I'm on Team Chad Ruhwedel. Always have been. But the bar that's set is that he needs to be good enough that Sullivan and Jacques Martin can't feel compelled to bury the third pairing in the biggest games. That won't help anyone, least of all Olli Maatta.
• There's nothing to dislike about the Steelers signing Jon Bostic. Maybe his injury history, but that's it.
Bostic will turn 27 in May, he's got second-round pedigree out of Florida, he overcame missing all of 2016 to a foot injury by immediately winning the starting job in Indianapolis in 2017, and he led the Colts in tackles with 97 -- six for losses plus a sack, three pass defenses and a fumble recovery -- before a season-ending right knee injury in Week 15.
Again, there's the health. It was the foot, then the knee. But you'll take those stats from your inside linebacker, especially 6.92 tackles per game, especially if he's being acquired as depth/competition and if he comes on a two-year cap-friendly contract.
Put it another way: He's an upgrade on Sean Spence -- the Colts clearly thought so, too, since they cut Spence twice last year -- and over Tyler Matakevich. The chart's deeper.
Here's the Christopher Carter breakdown.
• The challenge of replacing Ryan Shazier is that it can't be done directly. It shouldn't even be attempted. The defense had a hole in the middle the Jaguars exposed, and it wasn't limited to Shazier's absence. Javon Hargrave has been good at nose tackle, hardly dominant, hardly a signature run-stopper. Vince Williams was exceptional with the eight sacks, but he'd be the first to tell you he was victimized that day, too.
There are lots of ways to improve that facet, including simply performing and scheming better. Wasting energy searching for another Shazier, even conceptually, isn't one of them.
• Vontaze Burfict is an idiot.
I don't find his recent travails amusing. Concussions are serious stuff. Same with PEDs. But if he's so spectacularly numb to the hardcore fact he's spent so much of his adult life willfully injuring people he can't shut up about the one time it was done back to him ... then my original assessment stands.
• The Bengals, as a collective, are idiots. Always worth reiterating.
• The Pirates will have a very frustrating defensive outfield this summer.
Starling Marte's a natural center fielder and blessed beyond words with speed and skill. He told me a couple weeks ago in Bradenton, "I'm so happy there," and it shows. Gregory Polanco's gotten better in right, and he's got that hose, but he's going to be maddening at times. And Corey Dickerson, as one American League scout told me down there, flat-out can't play left field at PNC Park.
Now, on top of that, Clint Hurdle declares his backups in center -- a vital designation on any baseball bench -- to be Sean Rodriguez and Adam Frazier, neither of whom should play center in the majors other than on an emergency basis. Which, translated from Federal Street Speak, means Marte had better never get hurt.
• Spring stats mean precious little, but they don't mean nothing. As an example, Chad Kuhl giving up three home runs comes with zero significance, as is the case for anyone taking a mound in windswept Manatee County. But Kuhl giving up 17 hits and six walks over 11 innings ... that's something else. We're not talking about some grizzled vet just getting his arm loose. We're talking about a 25-year-old who wouldn't have a rotation spot guaranteed on most teams.
All it'll take is one weak link among these five starters to undo the whole process.
• Vegas oddsmakers currently have the Pirates at 76.5. Meaning victories, not millions in profits or the attendance at the second home game.
Thanks. I'll be here all week.
• Oh, the answer to the question about the NHL's assists leader: It's Blake Wheeler, the Jets' captain, with 61, including this spectacular effort last night against the Stars:
What a hockey player.
Or as the Stars' Ken Hitchcock would moan to Winnipeg reporters, "I mean, the guy's on his belly and he makes a pass that goes through three people."
I would say it's wonderful to see Wheeler finally getting his due with the Jets nearly atop the league's overall standings, but it still really isn't happening.