Aw, buckle this: Ludicrous speed, GO! (side note: If we actually turn this thing around and qualify for the playoffs, I'm taking full credit for starting the late season rally with a Spaceballs reference)

Blues News:

• Score your 400th career goal and suddenly the Blues give a shit about re-signing you. JR nails it by describing Kariya as someone who is no longer a scoring threat but can still be more useful than other guys, especially if he's willing to play for a little less than he could get elsewhere. I'll welcome him back at about the $3 million dollar range.
• EARLY START ALERT: 6 PM in New Jersey on FS-MW.
  

NHL News:

• Canucks re-sign Ryan Kesler for 6 more years at an average of $5 million per year. This'll really fan the flames of future Blues/Nucks contests once the Blues ink David Backes long term. Also, what sort of benchmark does this set for the Blues efforts to retain guys like EJ, Perron, Steen, Osh, Bergie, and Backes (among others) in the next couple of off-seasons?
• Nucks Misconduct has their say on the matter. Something about him endorsing some obscure non-EA sports NHL video game franchise in the caption.
• Mike Milbury interviews Colin Campbell. "But I wanted to suspend Cooke" excuse doesn't fly with me.
• Wendel Clark has an interesting take on the changes in physical play compared to decades past: Could the equipment designed to protect actually be encouraging a player to hit with more fearless abandon? It's certainly food for thought.
• Stanley Cup of Chowder is mad as hell, and they're not gonna take it anymore. They're advising Bruins faithful to stay home to protest a tumble in the standings.
• Scores. Detroit gets a charity point, the Flames win, Anaheim wins. But, hey, Minnesota lost, so we got that goin' for us, which is nice.
• Schedule. Root for Ottawa over Dallas, Columbus over Nashville (there's no way the Jackets climb back in this thing, right?), Vancouver over Detroit, and the Islanders over Los Angeles.
• Standings. Need to find a spare 6 points in the couch cushions to get us back in.

Other Stuff:

• This sort of shit's always at Goodwill.
• Fozzie Bear's my favorite to win it all.
• Luvhockey sends an eclectic link that has plenty of laughs. Some highlights include: Farts are like snowflakes, Zodiac Crayons, and a Muppets tattoo about halfway down the main page.
• NateTheGreat gives us Baby Dictators. That's right...baby dictators.
• Exactly how college works.
• You wanna know how I know you're a puck bunny?

Video:

When making a late-season run at playoff contention, it's important to focus on the present. Let's not get too bogged down with what might happen in the next game or what happened last game. We're at "now" now.

Newly minted "Coffeemaker" (or whatever the hell title it is now) CrossCheckRaise brings you his musical stylings for tonight's road game. Game Thread will follow.

Send me anything you find that's link-worthy at gametimelinks (at) gmail.com