Puttin' on the foil. The Habs are threatening not to be outgooned by the Bruins when the Eastern Conference quarterfinal resumes play tomorrow night in Boston. Kyle McLaren has been suspended for Game 5 for elbowing Richard Zednik in the waning minutes of Game 4 and knocking the Montreal star out for the remainder of the playoffs.

"If they try to go after our best players, if that's part of (Boston coach Robbie) Ftorek's strategy, we have no choice -- we'll go after theirs," said (Montreal coach Michel) Therrien, red-faced with anger after the game.

When asked if his threat will only escalate the violence, Therrien said: "I don't care. This is what they did and this is what we're going to do."

On Friday, the Canadiens called in some muscle from their AHL affiliate in Quebec City. Matt O'Dette, a 6-foot-5, 221-pound defenseman, had 136 penalty minutes, along with seven goals and an assist, in 48 games with the Citadelles this season.

I'm a Bruins fan second only to my adopted Blackhawks, so perhaps it's not surprising that I saw the hit a little differently than Howard. To me, it appeared that McLaren was preparing to put a hit on Zednik when Zednik cut toward the middle with the puck, leaving McLaren to stretch forward to still make contact. The result was that the hit was high and caught Zednik in the face with the back of McLaren's arm. It was certainly a penalty and perhaps even merited a one game suspension given the danger of such hits, but I didn't think he was headhunting.

Tomorrow's game could get ugly, especially if the Canadiens fall behind by a few goals.

But dreading the future in Chicago: The team showed a lot of grit, despite their inability to score. And Sutter was a great coach all year, you can't take that away from him.

But next year does not look that great... there is no indication that the Blackhawks are going to re-sign captain Tony Amonte. Daze has been great this year, but he will not hold up without another scorer on the team.

I weep, not for the franchise, but for the fans. Like in Anaheim, the ownership is rich beyond imagination and you would have to give them a root canal to see them be any more tight-fisted.

The Blackhawks finally put me out of my misery by knocking themselves out of the playoffs with last night's 5-3 loss to the Blues. The Hawks were held scoreless longer than Rosie O'Donnell at an NRA swingers party (10 consecutive periods) and were 0-for-16 on the power play before finally finding a way to beat Brent Johnson in the second period. As we're used to saying here in Chicago regarding every sport, there's always next year.

Great FARK headlines: Flyers scoreless in regulation now 316+ minutes. Bob Clarke busy preparing list of why it is Eric Lindros' fault.

Zed: Richard Zednik may only have a concussion, a broken nose and a broken cheekbone. He might even be able to play in the NHL again next year.

But Get Kyle McLaren outta here now.

Shameful ending to Bruins win

Therrien promises revenge

Jay Bouwmeester is number one: Of course he is, he kicks ass.

The Central Scouting Bureau's rankings of North American skaters were released yesterday, and they ranked Jay number one. The 6-foot-3½, 206-pound Bouwmeester's 61 points for the Medicine Hat Tigers ranked third among Western Hockey League defensemen. He scored 12 goals.

The Florida Panthers have the No. 1 overall pick, followed by Atlanta, Columbus, Tampa Bay and Pittsburgh.

Rick Nash, a left wing for the Ontario Hockey League's London Knights, was rated No. 2. He had 32 goals and 40 assists in 54 games.

Boston University defenseman Ryan Whitney was the top-rated U.S.-born prospect at No. 3, followed by forward Joffrey Lupul and right wing Scottie Upshall.

Jeff Deslauriers of the Quebec Major Junior Hockey League's Chicoutimi Sagueneens was the top-ranked North American goalie.

The top European skater is Joni Pitkanen of Finland, and the continent's top goalie is Kari Lehtonen of Finland.

Other leafs had already fallen: There were already some Toronto players on the sidelines. Their most consistent defenseman, Dmitri Yushkevich; winger Mikael Renberg; and (sometimes decent, other times a five-story tall pylon) defenseman Cory Cross. They were in rough shape already. It will take some poor play by the Isles to blow this series now.

To anyone who reads this blog regularly: Please welcome new PuckHog contributors Lawrence and Geoff. More should be on the ice soon. Although Scott Ganz appears to have turned down the offer to join the team... I have dispatched pugilist Tony Twist to change his mind...

Fallen Leaf. Well Howard, it seems that one of your ifs has come to pass. Mats Sundin will miss the rest of the playoffs with his broken wrist. While I am excited that it improves the Isles' chances of winning the series, it's disappointing knowing that the Leaf's best offensive player won't be out there.

Let's Go Leafs! I must admit to being impressed by the refs last night. It takes more balls than most zebras can muster in an entire season to call those kinds of penalties late.

But that does not change the fact that I am... miserable. Not that I believe Alexei Yashin is about to become some great playoff performer in the mold of a superstar... cause he ain't. But if he can score, CuJo keeps letting in cheap goals and Captain Mats cannot return from whatever wrist injury ails him... the Leafs are toast.

While it is not yet warranted, I am already pondering the free agent signings the Leafs need to make for their beleaguered squad of minor leaguers (Bryan McCabe excepted, of course).

Go Isles! I will devote my first post on here to congratulating my beloved New York Islanders for evening up their series with the Toronto Maple Whiners...er I mean Leafs. Last night's game was amazing: how often do you see a penalty shot called with 2:30 left in the third period of a tight playoff game, and then another penalty called with 1 minute left to play? Despite what some ahem bloggers might think, hockey is the greatest sport!

Woman to sue the NHL and the Chicago Blackhawks because she ate puck: The NHL had medical evidence showing that fans are more likely than players to leave a game with stitches, yet it did nothing to increase protection for spectators, according to a lawsuit to be filed Wednesday.

The lawsuit, the details of which were reported by the Chicago Sun-Times in Wednesday's editions, on behalf of a woman who suffered brain injuries after she was struck by a puck at a Blackhawks game in January, cites a study of hockey fan injuries by two emergency-room doctors. It showed that during 127 NHL games at the MCI Center in Washington, 122 fans suffered puck injuries -- nearly one per game. Of the injured fans, 90 required stitches and 45 were taken to emergency rooms. The research found similar results at other arenas.

Results of the study, conducted by David Milzman and Andrew Bachman, were given to the NHL two years ago, the suit alleges. But the league failed to increase safety measures to protect fans. (ESPN)

Did I mention my heart was bleeding? Those poor NY Yankee fans can't watch baseball on cable television.

Time for them to know what it feels like to be forced to get a dish to watch your sport.

Brett Hull says 'f&*^ the fans in Detroit': "That's disappointing," he said. "Those are the people you need the most and ... expect to be with you. When they turn on you it's just kind of like, 'OK, we'll stick it up theirs.' ... I guess they can pay the money so they can do whatever they want, but as a group, we're disappointed in that. ...

"It's really disappointing especially when they get on Dom, who has played so fantastic for them all year. ... Hopefully we can come in and take a couple here and go back home ... and we won't listen to them then, either." (Pgh Post-Gazette)

Playoff beards: Some guys look stupid with them. Todd Bertuzzi's works.

Trevor Linden is working on his. He's had the goatee going most of the season and is now sporting the full facial. But he's not sure for how much longer. "I've already taken this down a notch," Linden said Monday, while scratching both of his cheeks. "It's itchy. I don't know what I'm going to do."

Doh!