Here's a fun fact - Martin has a no-trade clause in his contract....

I'm not actively advocating we move one of our Superstars, but am just stating that we'd be just fine without one of them. Every other successful team wins without the world's 1/1A players. Gretzky wasn't alone in his success, but he didn't have Mario on his team either.

Here's a fun fact - Martin has a no-trade clause in his contract....

Season-wrap presser with Shero, Bylsma, and some players: Seems to be alot of talk about Staal as if he's a UFA or something. Sounds like that tweet about him not being happy may have had some real truth to it. I sense Staal's days as a Pen are numbered.

http://penguins.nhl.com/club/news.htm?i ... ins#4:30PM

On if he wants to test free agency:
That’s the plan. If there is no CBA discussion I would expect to be talking July 1st. But that’s the only thing holding both sides to wait a bit. That’s the only thing.

If Twitter is any indication, a lot of people are confused about how pro curfew works, and in some cases, how a team functions.

Curfew isn’t imposed every night of the season, but generally is on nights you’re heading into the second half of back-to-backs. When you’re on the road, you’ll always have one. And, throughout all of playoffs there’s a hard and fast curfew, usually something completely reasonable like 11. With it being around 11, You can still go out have a nice evening, but after that time not a whole lot of good can happen for people whose job involves being at their physical peak the next day.

The thing is, guys respect the “concept” of curfew. Nobody actually calls your home or knocks on your door, so if you’re out at a movie that runs to 11:15, you’re not sprinting to make it back. You don’t sign in anywhere – it just is. You follow it casually but respect it, because you’re not just messing with your life if you’re ragged the next day and playing below your potential. Guys do hold each accountable when the time is right. If a guy goes out and has a few too many one night in the middle of a back-to-back, his stallmate isn’t gonna go tell the coach or something, but when playoffs arise, I’ve seen a captain bawl out players more than once.

Because you aren’t checked on, that means you could go out and chase the ladies until 2am. You could hide it from your teammates (especially when you’re at home). And, with hockey teams being comprised mostly of healthy young men, that’s going to happen from time to time, and guys are going to get away with it. Hell, I wrote an article on how to get away with it a couple years ago.

So, to get caught, you have to really screw up. The biggest red flag going is showing up late to morning skate – it draws immediate scrutiny. Missing morning skate? You’re boned. You can’t have booze on your breath, you can’t be late for video, you have to be responsible and still do your job. If you do that, it’s never really a problem.

So to get suspended for a playoff game in a series in which they’re down 2-0 and headed home, Radulov and Kostitsyn must have really screwed up. They weren’t 30 minutes late after some fine dining - their offense was far bigger than that, I promise.