Hockey musings

The Star-Ledger

Ryan Carter and the New Jersey Devils stayed alive in the Stanley Cup playoffs by defeating the Los Angeles Kings 3-1 in Game 4 on Wednesday night. LA leads the series 3-1 with it moving back to Newark on Saturday. I was among many who said this series was over after the Kings won Game 3, but remember, LA won the first two games in overtime. ...

Apparently Ryan Carter's mustache (really, an inability to grow a proper playoff beard, has inspired at least one teammate). ...

Back to the world of college hockey, Nebraska Omaha has hired Mike Hastings' replacement, nabbing Steve Johnson from the St. Cloud State staff. Johnson. Johnson is an old rival of Hastings, having coached the Lincoln Stars in the USHL for many of the same years Hastings was in Omaha. Johnson played at North Dakota when Blais was an assistant coach there. He's been an assistant coach in St. Cloud the past two seasons. Interesting that there's already speculation that Johnson might be Blais' successor at UNO, a label that Hastings had for the last three years.

As for Hastings' staff at Minnesota State, there has been no official word yet about assistant coaches. Associate head coach Darren Blue (who has a full year left on his contract) and assistant Todd Knott (whose contract expires at the end of the month) remain at work in the Mavericks' offices. Right now, they are listed as the assistants for next year on the MSU website, and no job opening has been posted. Stay tuned. ...

Currently, there are two WCHA assistant jobs open, St. Cloud State and North Dakota. ...

Representatives of the future WCHA are scheduled to meet next week in Detroit. Among the items to be hashed out: playoff format, championship venue and what to do about Alabama Huntsville. ...

There's been some administrative movement among future WCHA teams, as Northern Michigan hired Alaska's Forrest Karr as its new athletic director. ...

The NCAA hockey rules committee is meeting this week. Among the issues they're dealing with: three-quarter face shields instead of full shields/cages, as well as overtime formats (shootouts, 4x4, longer OTs), replay and goals off skates. ...

Finally, the first looks at next season have begun over Inside College Hockey. They have Minnesota as their preseason No. 1.