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It's a Thursday edition of Marek vs. Wyshynski beginning at 2 p.m. ET/11 a.m. PT, and we're talking about the following and more:

Special Guest Star: Ken Daniels of the Red Wings broadcast team joins us.

• Daniel Alfredsson's 'probably not' problem.

• The Canucks' coaching change.

• Brad Richards gets scratched.

• Previewing tonight's games.

Question of the Day: What's the last thing you want to hear from your captain? Email puckdaddyblog@yahoo.com or hit us on Twitter with the hashtag #MvsW to @wyshynski or @jeffmarek.

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Getty ImagesJohn Tortorella scratched a fourth liner for Game 4 against the Boston Bruins on Thursday night.

Granted, it’s a fourth-liner signed through 2021, whose contract was valued at $60 million when he signed with the New York Rangers as a free agent.

Granted, he was their No. 1 center to start the season.

Granted, he’s a former Conn Smythe winner who is now a healthy scratch in his team’s most important playoff game of the season.

Such is the disastrous season for Brad Richards of the New York Rangers.

From Rangers Rants on Thursday:

“I’m surprised, I guess,” said Richards, who turned 33 on May 2 and is still owed $36 million through 2020. “I’m disappointed.”

… Richards said Tortorella called him this morning at home with the news. “Nothing’s over,” Richards said. “Work harder and try my best to never let it happen again.”

It's the beginning of the end, according to Rick Carpiniello:

The next step is then obvious. The Rangers will use their one remaining compliance buyout within the new CBA to end Richards’ relationship with the team this summer. Richards, who received $12 million in 2011-12 and most of his $12 million for the lockout 2013 season, will get a $24 million going-away present this summer (spread out over twice the remaining seven years), removing his contract from the books and his salary from the decreasing salary cap.

Richards will then be an unrestricted free agent, able to strike a deal with any of the other 29 teams, but not with the Rangers. And he surely will resurface after a summer of conditioning, and sign somewhere at a much smaller salary.

Torts has handled the rapid decline in Richards’ game with kid gloves, never torching his former No. 1 center publicly.

The demotion couldn’t have been easy for the Rangers coach, who won a Cup with Richards as his playoff MVP in Tampa Bay. To scratch Richards shows what a non-factor he’s become in the semifinals, skating 8:10 in Game 3 and getting benched in the third period.

Richards came to the Rangers because the money was right and he felt they could challenge for the Cup. But he also signed because of Tortorella. He believed in Torts; and Torts believed in Richards as a veteran leader in that room who could act as his proxy.

Now, Richards is scratched in what could be Tortorella’s last game as Rangers coach.

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Jonathan Toews has no goals in the 2013 Stanley Cup Playoffs, through eight games. He had two last postseason, through seven games. He had one in seven games against Vancouver in 2011. In 2010, when the Chicago Blackhawks won the Stanley Cup, Toews had one goal in the final 11 games of their run to the championship. It was still good enough for the Conn Smythe.

We’re no math majors, but Toews has four goals in his last 33 playoff games.

During that span, defenseman Brent Seabrook has three goals. For context’s sake.

Reader ‘Hollis 22’ is wondering why Toews doesn’t take flack for this drought:

“If Alex Ovechkin was in that kind of drought, the hockey media would be in his face with torches and pitchforks. In contrast, Joe Thornton has 5 goals in his last 27 playoff tilts, yet he and Patrick Marleau are viewed as guys that crumble in the playoffs.

“Why this stat hasn't made its way to the forefront of the Chicago-Detroit series is mind-boggling to me.”

The line of Toews, Marian Hossa and Brandon Saad has two points in three games against the Detroit Red Wings, who lead their series 2-1. That came on a Marian Hossa power-play goal in Game 1, on which Toews earned an assist.

Otherwise, they’ve watched Henrik Zetterberg’s line do to them what they did to Zach Parise’s line in the Minnesota Wild series: Shut them down, while generating their own offense on the counterattack.

Which is why criticism of Toews’s postseason offense can be sort of tricky.

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Daniel Alfredsson of the Ottawa Senators has, for the most part, achieved Beloved Player status in the National Hockey League: a veteran whose work ethic, results and dedication to the only franchise he’s played for makes him exempt from most criticism.

So imagine, if you will, if Alex Ovechkin or Joe Thornton or Henrik Sedin or another captain who carries less respect than Alfredsson uttered the following when asked if it was feasible his team could win three in a row against the Pittsburgh Penguins after Wednesday's 7-3 Game 4 thumping:

"Probably not.”

Oh captain.

My, captain.

Getty ImagesBrian Burke was the architect of the USA Hockey team that rode the hot goaltending of Ryan Miller all the way to overtime of the 2010 gold medal match in the Vancouver Olympics.

He was the general manager of the Toronto Maple Leafs then. Now, he’s out of a GM gig; according to Sportsnet 590 in Toronto, that’s the reason he won’t be back in the same capacity for Team USA in Sochi 2014.

As reported on the “Brady and Lang” show by co-host Greg Brady, Burke will not be asked back as the team’s general manager. As Brady tweeted:

“Burke was told, as suspected, USA Hockey wants a current NHL GM. [Nashville GM David] Poile a strong candidate. Burke definitely wanted the job - obviously he made a huge commitment to after his son's tragic passing. Might be a mistake by USA Hockey.”

Burke’s son Brendan died in a car accident on Feb. 5, 2010; the Winter Olympic hockey tournament in Vancouver began on Feb. 13, 2010. Burke worked through his personal tragedy, which served as an inspiration for the American players.

He also made some bold decisions at GM that helped Team USA earn silver: Most notably the addition of Chris Drury to the roster, as the veteran center had become a high-priced punchline for the New York Rangers. Drury was one of the team’s best players in the tournament, and rewrote the legacy of his latter years in the NHL.

The notion that a general manager needs to be currently employed in the NHL to take the reins of Team USA seems a bit odd.

There are certain inalienable truths in hockey. Ice is cold. Skates are sharp. And Pavel Datsyuk is a [expletive] magician.

Via TSN’s SportsCentre, these were deemed the Top 10 Pavel Datsyuk goals of all-time, which is a bit like trying to narrow down the 10 best entrees ever served by Thomas Keller.

A few thoughts:

• Datsyuk owns the Nashville Predators. Just owns’em.

• We like to pretend that Datsyuk’s “change-up” goal in the shootout against Antti Niemi and the Chicago Blackhawks was a subversive satire about the shootout.

• We’re not sure what's more embarrassing for the goaltender on No. 1: that he got completely bamboozled, or that it happened in a Mooterus jersey.

• We’re sure that this video was in no way a response to Glenn Healy’s claim that Datsyuk doesn’t have “god-blessed talent” on rival CBC. Nope. No way.

Vancouver Canucks GM Mike Gillis didn’t mince words during his postseason press conference, calling the team’s 2012-13 campaign a “terrible season” after their ouster at the hands of the San Jose Sharks in Round 1.

"We’re going to have to reinvent ourselves and do things differently in order to be successful. The macro look at this team is that changes have to be made,” said Gillis.

On Wednesday, changes were made: According to Louis Jean of TVA, head coach Alain Vigneault and assistant coaches Rick Bowness and Newell Brown were all fired by Gillis in a massive house cleaning for the franchise.

It was later confirmed by the Canucks:

“We have made the very difficult decision to relieve Alain Vigneault, Rick Bowness and Newell Brown of their coaching duties today,” said Canucks President and General Manager, Michael D. Gillis. “Alain, Rick and Newell worked tirelessly to lead this team to great on-ice success. I am personally grateful to each of them and their families for their commitment to the Canucks and the city of Vancouver and wish them continued success in future.”

Vigneault coached the Canucks from 2006-2013, winning 313 games. He captured the Jack Adams in 2006-07, and coached Vancouver to the playoffs in six of those seasons, including that Stanley Cup Final loss to the Boston Bruins in seven games.

Getty ImagesDaniel Alfredsson had the diagnosis for what ailed the Ottawa Senators penalty kill in Game 1 vs. the Pittsburgh Penguins.

“The goals they got were scramble goals,” he said after the 4-1 loss, in which the Penguins tallied two power-play goals. “We've got to be stronger in front of our net."

Stronger, the Senators have been: They’ve shut down the best power-play unit still playing in the Stanley Cup Playoffs (27 percent conversion rate) to the tune of one goal in their last 12 chances. Ottawa's penalty kill went 6-for-6 in Game 3, and has gone 9-for-9 overall. That included a 5-on-3 kill against the Penguins in the second period, during which they only had two shots.

Oh, yeah: There was also the matter of that Daniel Alfredsson shorthanded goal that knotted Game 3 with 29 seconds left. That too.

Again, this is a Senators team stifling a Penguins power play that has slightly fewer stars than “This Is The End.” The kind of all-star unit you’d compile through trades, create-a-player and waiver wire chicanery on a hockey video game.

Can the Senators keep the kill going in Wednesday night’s Game 4?