It’s the Friday before a long weekend, and couldn’t we all use a nice break right about now? Look out for the thunder storms passing through the city today and tomorrow. Here’s the news of the morning.

The NHL will not have the full “red carpet” style event for the NHL Awards this year, opting for a more streamlined show which will last one hour on a day off during the Cup Final. Some awards will be announced in advance on the days leading up to that event. Here’s the schedule:

Chloe Primerano is making a name for herself in the men’s hockey world by showing enough skill to be drafted into the WHL yesterday.

The Predators extending John Hynes as Head Coach? Not sure that’s the right move.

Playoff Series

The Tampa Bay Lightning took a 2-0 series lead last night against the Florida Panthers scoring the game winning goal with only three seconds left.

The St. Louis Blues tied up their series 1-1 against the Colorado Avalanche, winning their game 4-1.

Tonight we have the second games of the Hurricanes vs. Rangers series at 8:00 p.m. and the Calgary Flames vs. Edmonton Oilers at 10:30 p.m.. We’ll see if the Flames and Oilers can produce as wild a games as they had on Wednesday with the 9-6 Calgary win.

We’ll be here with new FTBs all weekend as the second round teams play out their games #2 through #4. See what I did there? Games #2 to #4 for May 24. Except the 24th is after the long weekend is over. But the joke still works as May two-four!

For now, have a good Friday.

From The Branches