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Host, TSN The Reporters with Dave Hodge

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It's Stanley Cup playoff time, and that means all sorts of exciting things are happening….off the ice. Thumbs up to big news whenever and wherever it is made, but I do that half-heartedly because the games should be getting all the attention.

Fans of the Canadiens, Senators, Flames and Canucks have a right to ignore the draft lottery, and the big shakeup in Edmonton, and the Randy Carlyle interview in San Jose, and the search for new head coaches in Toronto, Buffalo and Philadelphia. It's hard to find time to follow it all.

But there was at least one moment that saw the two kinds of news intersect. The look on Mike Babcock's face when Tyler Johnson scored Tampa Bay's overtime goal that put the Lightning even with Detroit at two games apiece made you wonder what he was thinking. With all else that might be going on in his head regarding his whereabouts next season, there was suddenly a very different thought process regarding his next game.

His task is to keep himself in the game stories for as long as possible, but if there aren't more of those for the Red Wings after the first round, the Johnson goal, and that look on Babcock's face, will be even more memorable, and representative of how much happens in the NHL in late April.

Desperation is a powerful spark when one team has it and the other doesn't.

Thumbs up to the Ottawa Senators for playing with desperation, and thumbs down to the Montreal Canadiens for appearing to believe they don't need to do the same.

That's the way it seemed in Game 4, when the Canadiens left it to Carey Price to nail down the inevitable sweep, but not even the NHL's most valuable player can win a game 0-0. His teammates showed a renewed effort with last night's first-period flurry. It was only as good as their ability to take the lead, and Craig Anderson was having none of that.

Ottawa's desperation began with the need to avoid a sweep, and now the Senators sense the possibility of an improbable comeback - now they're desperate to win. So, suddenly, the roles are reversed and it is Montreal playing not to lose, because to lose is to be part of history that the Canadiens have never known. Desperate times, for both teams.