Habs Take Out Defending Cup Champ Pens 5-2

They won the first game at Civic Arena in Pittsburgh 2-1 behind Jean Beliveau 42 years ago. Tonight, the Montreal Canadiens won the last game at Mellon Arena in Pittsburgh 5-2 sending the Penguins home for the summer.

The 8th seed Habs now wait for either the 6th-seed Philadelphia or the 7th-seeded Boston as they figure out who wants to win their series in the eastern conference.

Gionta scored twice as the bleu, blanc, et rouge stormed out to leads of 2-0 after one period and 4-0 in the second period.

But as the HQ says: The key to the playoffs is a hot goaltender and Jaroslav Halak certainly qualifies...

Another HQ note: TBH is not shedding any tears over the loss of Sidney Crosby to her playoff bracket...

Here's the Brian Gionta goal that started the whole thing...
((HT: NHL/CBC/Fel0096))

NHL Free Agency: Day One

We're, pretty much, going to defer to TSN on this one...

Mike Komisarek from MTL to TOR, 5-yrs and $22.5M
Brian Gionta from NJD to MON, 5 for $25M
Dwayne Roloson from EDM to NYI, 2 for $5M
Nikolai Khabibulin from CHI to EDM, 4 for $15M
Marian Hossa ((pictured, thanks Gregory Shamus/Getty)) from DET to CHI, 12 for $62.8M
Mike Cammalleri from CGY to MON, 5 for $30M
Marian Gaborik from MIN to NYR, 5 for $37.5M

Elsewhere:
Chris Neil stays in Ottawa
Niedermayer stays in Anaheim
The Habs sign Jaro Spacek and Hal Gill for a $16M total
Tomas Kopecky follows Hossa to Chicago
Martin Havlat has a verbal agreement in place to go from CHI to MIN ((6 for $30M))

TSN's "Sortable Tracker" is in black...
Sportsnet's version is here...

There were a few, under the radar, deals that we liked...

Nashville signed Steve Sullivan, but lost a boatload of defensemen...
John Madden went from NJD to CHI
Erik Cole stayed in Carolina

We see where Brian Burke is going... Getting rid of Pavel Kubina while picking up Garnet Exelby ((Perpetual good dude- we don't think the GTA is ready for his wardrobe, though)) and Colton Orr. He still has money under the cap to play with.

And Mark Spector is still chasing the possible Dany Heatley to Edmonton scenario. Apparently, all parties are meeting in British Columbia to talk it out...