Jersey Fouls is our ongoing exploration of the rules and etiquette for proper hockey jersey creation and exhibition. If you spot what you think may be a foul in your arena, email a photo to us at puckdaddyblog@yahoo.com for inclusion in future installment.

Well, this was bound to happen.

Perhaps no other athlete has been defined by a particular food item like Los Angeles Kings forward Dustin Penner has been with pancakes. At least not since David "Morning Kegger" Wells of the N.Y. Yankees.

Ever since he was "injured" while eating a stack of pancakes, Penner has been associated with flapjacks and has been more than willing to embrace the meme for a good cause.

John Hoven (aka The Mayor) passed this along before Game 3 of the Western Conference final. Foul? Well, yes, but we respect someone for using the official (or close to official) nickname of a player.

But for the record: We're not sure how a couples' jersey in which the other one reads "MRS. BUTTERWORTH" would affect the acceptability of the original jersey.

(Coming Up: God-awful Devils/Rangers FrankenJersey, and another one from Dallas; the Jets celebrate return of hockey and beer; Danny Briere Fouls; and a rather offensive Flames fan.)

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Here are your Puck Headlines: a glorious collection of news and views collected from the greatest blogosphere in sports and the few, the proud, the mainstream hockey media.

• All of this has happened before, and will happen again. (via reader Jon Ward)

• Dave Tippett on the keys to Game 2: "First and foremost, if you're not willing to jump in and win a few more one-on-one battles, then the tactical stuff you might as well throw out the window." [AZ Central]

• Alex Semin on Dale Hunter Hockey: "The whole year it was up-and-down, we win a game, we lose a game. By the time we got to playoffs, the team finally understood how to play the game he wanted, defense first, no mistakes, blocking shots, all five guys together. But during the regular season, intensity is not the same as in the playoffs. In postseason, every goal is worth its weight in gold." [Russian Machine]

• What on earth did Alex Ovechkin mean about jealousy in the Capitals' locker room? [Puck Drunk Love]

• Larry Robinson will not be heading to Montreal: "Devils assistant coach and 2000 Cup-winning head coach Larry Robinson vehemently ripped a report suggesting he is interested in joining the new Montreal regime, saying that comments attributed to an agent, whom he called a friend, were five years old and that there has been no such contact or interest." [NY Post]

• Raffi Torres will watch Gary Bettman deny his appeal on Thursday. [Sportsnet]

• Oh, it only the Coyotes had moved to Winnipeg; then it would be the Jets making this run in the Western Conference. [QMI]

• Elliotte Friedman, on Dale Hunter Hockey: "This is where I strongly disagree with statistical analysis, which mocked Hunter's system as being terrible for puck possession and, therefore, determined he was coaching a style that allowed opponents to control the game. This is one where numbers don't tell anything close to the real story. They played hard, they played together and I would've liked to see how things evolved over the offseason. If it's decided that the team must go in a different direction, there are going to be some very unhappy players. It's a delicate balance for McPhee." [CBC]

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Here are your Puck Headlines: a glorious collection of news and views collected from the greatest blogosphere in sports and the few, the proud, the mainstream hockey media.

• Yeah, about that …

• The latest Bovada odds on winning the Stanley Cup: Los Angeles Kings (7/5); New York Rangers (11/5); New Jersey Devils (10/3); Phoenix Coyotes (6/1).

• Neither Game 7 of the conference finals will appear on NBC, but rather on NBC Sports Network. [Puck The Media]

• Simon Gagne has been cleared for contact for the Los Angeles Kings, but won't begin practicing quite yet. [LA Kings Insider]

• Who might coach the Washington Capitals now that Dale Hunter's out? How about Marc Crawford, Ron Wilson or Patrick Roy? [NHL]

• Nikita Filatov will play in the KHL next season, which is probably the best thing for all parties. [TSN]

• Here's Yahoo! Sports' own Nick Cotsonika on the Evolution of John Tortorella: "Tortorella's style has worked with the team because he has the right players, stays consistent and, yes, shows another side of himself behind closed doors." [Y! Sports]

• It's only $900 to watch the Devils and Rangers at the Garden. Wow. [NYT]

• Dater picks the Devils in six: "The Rangers have lived dangerously this spring, barely escaping their series against Ottawa and Washington. You can only do that for so long. The Devils have more offensive depth than those teams, and they like to forecheck. Brodeur has won four conference titles. Lundqvist? Zero." [SI]

• Ken Campbell on how the Rangers' shot-blocking style is terrible for the NHL: "I think the New York Rangers are bad for hockey. And if we've learned anything about the NHL over the past century, it's that once one style of play garners some success, teams will be lined up to steal the blueprint." [THN]

• Patrick Kane's drunken weekend in Madison has now become fodder for the Chicago media, urging for the Blackhawks to trade him. From Steve Rosenbloom: "Everyone at the Madhouse on Madison would have a reason for wanting to be rid of Kane. The reasons would be legit, too, more legit than Kane playing center. So, maybe the Hawks' silence isn't because they're hoping this goes away but because they're fighting to see who gets the honor of making the problem child go away." [Tribune]

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Hello, this is a feature that will run through the entire season and aims to recap the weekend's events and boils those events down to one admittedly superficial fact or stupid opinion about each team. Feel free to complain about it.

There's been a lot of talk about what this season has meant for the Washington Capitals in the hours leading up to, and then immediately following, their final game of the remarkably eventful 2011-12 season.

Wysh had a pretty good recap of the reasons the Capitals felt this little run to a pair of one-goal Game 7s against the Nos. 1 and 2 seeds in the Eastern Conference — both having been heavy favorites — vindicated the Dale Hunter system of everyone playing defense and collapsing to within three inches of the crease, and it's perfectly reasonable for people to feel that way.

Certainly, no one expected these Capitals to do much damage in the postseason given that they frittered away a division they were picked to dominate. But the thing that everyone seems to forget is that, again, they were picked to dominate the Southeast, be a superpower in the East and the League at large.

If the team tuned out Bruce Boudreau, and it appears they did, then wasn't his replacement, whoever it happened to be, more or less expected to get this far?

Therefore, it becomes a question about what changed, and really, what didn't.

Let's not forget, Boudreau came in originally and let guys like Alex Semin, Alex Ovechkin, Nicklas Backstrom and Mike Green have their run of the rink. Two-minute shifts? Sure! Goals aplenty? You bet. But in the end, what did it get them? Bounce-outs, and if you believe the talk, disappointing ones at that. So Boudreau changed the style, focusing more on defense, tethering Ovechkin and Co. to an extent, and … getting the same amount of success. Under each of the two clearly definable Boudreau regimes, the team lost in the conference quarter- and semi-finals.

Which is of course notable because the latter is exactly how far Hunter got in his first chance at the tiller, despite doing everything in his power not to: like limiting Ovechkin to fewer than 20 minutes a night in every game in this series save for Saturday's Game 7 and the three-overtime Game 3, in which he played 35:14 — or, if you prefer 17:37 per three periods of play. This therefore vindicates Hunter only as far as it vindicated Boudreau; which, with a roster like this, and given the "choker" label being hung liberally on the former Caps coach this time last year.

The philosophy changed radically under Hunter, and worked only as far as it did for Boudreau. Why?

(Coming Up: Team USA, international ass-kickers; getting stupid about Patrick Kane's drinking; Parise's future; Could Brad Stuart return to the Sharks?; Kevin Lowe says Ryan Murray is the top player in this year's draft class; Suter/Weber questions; Pancakes Penner's revenge; Bruins pumped for Dougie Hamilton; Alfredsson retirement watch; Leafs/Penguins trade?; Lundqvist is King; Alex Burrows runs and hugs a goalie; and Winnipeg Jets fans are burning Coyotes jerseys.)

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"You're the hardest team we've played all year," Dallas Eakins, the coach of the AHL's Toronto Marlies, told Abbotsford Heat head coach Troy Ward as the two men shook hands.

The Marlies had just scored the overtime winner in Game 5 of the second round playoff series between the two clubs, eliminating the Heat, 4-1. It was a disappointing end to what was, arguably, the best season in the Heat's 3-year history.

The Heat are the AHL affiliate of the Calgary Flames, who boast a prospect pool that was ranked 26th in the NHL by Hockey's Future just two days ago. But, while they may not be stacked with prospects, as long as Ward is behind the bench, they'll be well-coached.

The problem is, he may not be behind the bench for long. Eakins wasn't the only hockey mind to recognize how hard the Heat play; there are strong rumblings that Ward has done enough to make himself not just a candidate in the Calgary Flames' search for a new head coach, but the only publicly acknowledged candidate thus far.

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Here are your Puck Headlines: a glorious collection of news and views collected from the greatest blogosphere in sports and the few, the proud, the mainstream hockey media.

"What's that, Ilya? I'm scared, Ilya. Hold me, Ilya."

• The NHL has approved a bid led by former collegiate hockey player Tom Stillman to buy the St. Louis Blues. [STL Today]

• The Manitoba government promises irate Jets fans that it'll crack down on free hockey tickets being given to government officials. I love Canada. [The Star]

• It sounds like Erik Karlsson's next contract with the Ottawa Senators is going to take quite a while and cost quite a bit. Drew Doughty's contract negotiations from this past summer are brought up as a comparison. "Some league executives and agents contacted by the Ottawa Sun in the last couple of days predict there's not going to be anything fast about these talks unless the Senators immediately fork over $7 million per season." [Ottawa Sun]

• Finally, someone defends anti-Russian sentiment! "We're talking about sports here, not life and death. Jingoism, xenophobia, the worshipping of local heroes — all are natural and, to a point, essential elements of sports fandom, especially when it comes to historic rivalries like Canada vs. Russia. Canadians like to imagine themselves superior just like everyone else, and hockey is one of the chief lenses through which we perceive that superiority." [National Post]

• Speaking of Russia, Vladimir Putin celebrated his presidential inauguration by playing a game of ice hockey. He and his team of amateurs beat a team of Russian hockey legends, and if that doesn't seem incredibly fishy, he also scored on his first shift, set up the game-tying goal in the final minute, and scored the game-winning overtime goal on a penalty shot. Great, completely non-staged day of hockey for Putin. [RT]

• The top 5 craziest John Tortorella moments. [Capitals Outsider]

• The promo video for Farmer's Field, AEG's planned football stadium for downtown Los Angeles, gives some pretty strong hints that one of the first events AEG hopes to host there is the Winter Classic. [Life in Hockeywood]

• Ruslan Fedotenko, on teammate Artem Anisimov learning English: "He understands basically 95% of everything, and if he has a word he's not sure of, he'll just ask. He learned quick — even all the swear words. So that's awesome." Swear words are awesome. [NY Daily News]

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Hello, this is a feature that will run through the entire season and aims to recap the weekend's events and boils those events down to one admittedly superficial fact or stupid opinion about each team. Feel free to complain about it.

Occasionally you will hear that playing top teams several times a season, like those in the Atlantic and Central Divisions did this season, is a great way to prepare yourself for the postseason.

They say it makes you ready to face the tougher competition in the playoffs, and by extension, those teams playing in softer divisions must logically be ill-prepared for similar rigors once the postseason rolls around. Both of the Atlantic and Central divisions were littered with 100-point teams, boasting eight of the league's 10 to eclipse the century mark between them (the other two being Boston and Vancouver), and it therefore stood to reason that they would likely send the lion's share of competitors to the conference finals.

The better teams in the regular season tend to do about as well in the postseason, because they are, after all, very good teams. That makes sense.

It turns out, though, that having a bunch of teams even in the neighborhood of 100 points in your division at the end of the regular season actually may be more of a detriment to a squad's postseason success. Since the lockout, only two teams have played in a Stanley Cup Final after playing in a division with three teams that managed 100 points. However, both those teams (Anaheim in 2007 and Chicago in 2010) won the Cup. If you expand that number out to even 97 points — which typically assures you a playoff berth but not home ice — only two more teams are added to the mix, the 2008 and 2009 Penguins.

Conversely, teams coming out of divisions with two or fewer 97-point teams got into the Cup Finals with far greater frequency, doing so eight times since the lockout (including both Boston and Vancouver last year).

But now we've seen the Los Angeles Kings advance to the Western Conference Final for the first time since 1993, and the Phoenix Coyotes stand on the precipice of doing the same for the first time since ever. Phoenix won the Pacific Division with 97 points, and is only a home ice team by virtue of its division title. Had seeding been based on points, they'd have slotted into the sixth spot. Los Angeles, meanwhile, finished with 95. The now-eliminated Sharks were sandwiched between them with 96.

Three teams from one division in the playoffs, yes, but one terribly underwhelming division from which not much was expected.

(Coming Up: America is a hockey superpower, thanks to Jack Johnson; Barry Trotz is wrong; Dustin Brown is awesome; Jordan Staal of Carolina; Thomas Vanek makes bank; Luongo to the Blackhawks?; Rick Dudley to the Habs; Jonathan Quick vs. Terry Sawchuck; trading Sidney Crosby; Todd McLellan-to-Calgary rumors; and the best and worst of the Capitals.)

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The Montreal Canadiens have selected Chicago Blackhawks assistant GM Marc Bergevin as their new general manager, as first reported by Chris Kuc of the Chicago Tribune and later confirmed by the Canadiens, who have a 2 p.m. press conference on Wednesday.

And he speaks French!

Bergevin, 46, spent several seasons in the Chicago front office, including work as a scout and a stint as director of player personnel. He was an assistant coach under Joel Quenneville with the Blackhawks and played 1,191 games as an NHL defenseman from 1984-2004.

One by one, the other candidates for Pierre Gauthier's old job began being eliminated this week. Francois Giguere, former Colorado Avalanche GM, was told he wasn't in the running. Toronto Maple Leafs assistant GM Claude Loiselle was also out.

In the last few days, the focus has narrowed to Bergevin and NBC Sports analyst Pierre McGuire, as Michael Farber of Sports Illustrated reported they were "the only men given lengthy follow-up interviews after initial phone conversations."

A bit about Bergevin from the Globe & Mail:

Bergevin, a 45-year-old who was an NHL defenceman for 20 years, is known for his vast network of contacts and McGuire-esque encyclopedic knowledge of players, but he's only been an assistant GM for just over a year (he was a scout for their Cup-winning team), and as a legendary prankster and cut-up doesn't fit the gray-suit-and-milky-tea idiom of the seventh floor at the Bell Centre.

While it's not the audacious pick that McGuire or Patrick Roy would have been, or the paradigm-shifting hire that a Pat Brisson (Sidney Crosby's agent) or a Julien BriseBois (the 34-year-old wiz from the Tampa Bay Lightning) would have been, Bergevin's nonetheless an interesting hire.

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Hello, this is a feature that will run through the entire season and aims to recap the weekend's events and boils those events down to one admittedly superficial fact or stupid opinion about each team. Feel free to complain about it.

Watching Saturday's Capitals/Rangers game was an exercise in masochism.

Sitting through that game was a test — not unlike that delivered unto Abraham — to see just how much you actually like watching hockey. Two teams playing hockey not so much against each other but rather at each other, or, to put it another way, in defiance of every hockey fan's patience. In that game, four goals were scored on 32 shots. That was between both teams, and not just one, in case you were wondering.

Certainly, convention states that playoff hockey is more defensive by nature than the regular season. And though you'd be a fool to subscribe to the belief that defensive hockey is boring hockey, even the most stoic men would have been reduced to tears by the kind of temerity it takes to dare people to sit through 60 minutes of whatever that was on Saturday afternoon.

But one team, at least, flatly refuses to play anything like boring hockey. That would be the Philadelphia Flyers, whose efforts have thrilled all viewers not openly supporting their opponents, and enlivened what is otherwise shaping up to be a rather drab final few rounds of the playoffs.

(Coming Up: Pierre McGuire as Habs GM; trading Patrick Marleau; Jagr vs. Brodeur; Matt Greene's unlikely goal; Predators' revenue troubles; Nail for Staal?; Landeskog graded; Columbus addresses its goalie needs; Alex Ovechkin controlled by Rangers; in praise of Danny Briere; the Winnipeg Jets are dogs; and the future of Tim Thomas.)

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Jersey Fouls is our ongoing exploration of the rules and etiquette for proper hockey jersey creation and exhibition. If you spot what you think may be a foul in your arena, email a photo to us at puckdaddyblog@yahoo.com for inclusion in future installment.

Via reader Tatum Biggs comes this completely accurate yet undoubtedly offensive Jersey Foul, as a Philadelphia Flyers fan honors forward Wayne Simmonds.

Wow.

Now, the first question is whether this jersey makes you laugh. At face, it did not make me laugh. Had it read "Ya Know, The Black Guy?", then it would have made me chuckle. Harrison Mooney, Puck Daddy associate editor and self-identified "person of color," said "The Black Guy" made him laugh but that "Token" would have made him laugh harder. (He watches a lot of South Park.)

Look, we all just went through something with Joel Ward this week that makes a jersey like this wicked awkward. Not to mention Simmonds' own problems with racial "humor" earlier this season. Maybe you find it funny. Maybe you find it offensive. Maybe you're saying "typical Philadelphia", or maybe you're saying, "Oh crap, this is going to make people say 'typical Philadelphia.'" Maybe you're saying "but what if they had re-signed Ray Emery? Would the jersey have to be amended to "A Black Guy"?

Whatever your reaction, know that it's a Foul. Although a Winnipeg Jets Kyle Wellwood jersey with "The Fat Guy" …

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