Watching the defending Stanley Cup champions just utterly emasculate the

Maple Leafs, the entire city of Toronto, almost all of the province of Ontario except for that small portion that

pulls for the senators. And it occurred to me that the Florida franchise is sitting in a pretty

good spot for years to come. It got me thinking about something else. Good morning to you. Good.

Thursday morning, I'm Dan Kovachovich of DK. Pittsburgh Sports.

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The final of that game, by the way, was 6 to 1, and it was nowhere near that close.

This was a clinic conducted in real time, this Game 5 that gave the Panthers a 3-2 lead in the series,

taking it back to sunrise.

This was Paul Maurice hockey over all 285 of ice, and by the way, it was also exactly what

the Maple Leafs, and their regulars tend to do this time of year over all 200 by 85 of ice.

So where I took this was, who's on the way up, who's on the way down

in the Eastern Conference? Who are the teams that when, or I should say if the Penguins return

to being competitive or contending within the next couple of years. And I only say

that not to strike some sort of optimistic tone, but that's the most plausible time frame to get the

most out of the rest of Sidney Crosby's brilliant career. So I first started thinking about the

teams that are perceived, and I believe fairly so, to be really kind of entrenched, like they're

not going to go away anytime soon. They are who they are. And the ones that I'd put in that

category are the lightning, because they still have all their main guys, and then they got a little

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