The Great One met up with one of country music's best at Game 4 of the Stanley Cup Final.
Wayne Gretzky was in attendance as the Nashville Predators hosted the Pittsburgh Penguins, and Carrie Underwood - who's married to captain Mike Fisher - took the opportunity to snap a pic, as one does.
The Nashville Predators rookie tallied his third goal of the playoffs in the second period on Monday on a wild play. After it looked as though Matt Murray made an incredible save on Gaudreau's wrap-around effort - play was blown dead after the league deemed the puck had crossed the line.
With the goal, Gaudreau's first three goals of his NHL career have now come in the Stanley Cup Final, making him just the second player in NHL history to have started his career in that fashion.
Frederick Gaudreau is one of two players in NHL history with their 1st three goals in the #StanleyCup Final (John Harms, 1944 CHI). #Preds
Gaudreau had just nine games of experience under his belt before he was inserted into the Predators' lineup in Game 5 of the Western Conference Final after Ryan Johansen was forced from the lineup with acute compartment syndrome.
The 24-year-old has made a dramatic impact and you can bet he's not coming out of the lineup anytime soon.
The atmosphere inside Bridgestone Arena has been nothing short of electric during the Stanley Cup Final, with Pittsburgh Penguins goalie Matt Murray bearing the brunt of some organized chanting.
Next time he's in town, Roberto Luongo expects to hear it too.
If I don't get one of these " it's all your fault " chants in Nashville next season I'll be super upset
The play actually began when Crosby lost a defensive zone faceoff to Mike Fisher (No. 12). After an ensuing shot attempt from Roman Josi (No. 59) went wide of the net, Crosby played it along the boards with his backhand. With two Penguins and two Predators fighting for the puck along the boards, Crosby - pictured below at the far right - kept a watchful eye on the play, attempting to anticipate in which direction it would move.
The puck eventually came loose, and Crosby - guessing right - was able to swoop in, gobble it up, skate through the crowd and clear the zone.
With Nashville's defense stuck after pinching to keep the puck in Pittsburgh's zone, the responsibility of tracking the puck fell to James Neal (No. 18), who immediately sent it across the ice while pressured by an attacking Crosby.
The pass was not received by a Predator, but instead by Penguins defenseman Brian Dumoulin (No. 8), who no doubt had eyes on Crosby (top left), who has skated over center after failing to strip Neal of the puck.
Dumoulin (bottom right) played the puck off the boards and fired it up to Crosby (still top left), who had snuck in behind, well, everyone.
Crosby broke in all alone on Pekka Rinne (No. 35), and dropped a devastating backhand move before anyone could catch up.
It's never a good idea to give Sidney Crosby a breakaway.
The Nashville Predators did just that and the Pittsburgh Penguins captain made them pay, scoring his eighth goal of the postseason to tie Game 4 at 1-1.
For Crosby, the goal was his first in six games and his first in a Cup Final game since 2009.
One Nashville Predators fan put a new twist on what's becoming an old tradition.
Prior to the start of Game 4 of the Stanley Cup Final, several catfish were tossed onto the ice. One in particular was quite unique, in that it was decked out in a rally towel and a sparkly blue cowboy hat, and also had a stuffed penguin in its mouth.
(Image courtesy: NBC)
Hat tip to the ice crew member who scooped the fish up with his bare hands.
By now, most of us know that Charles Barkley is a pretty big puckhead. But that still doesn't fully explain why he was on hand Monday at Bridgestone Arena prior to Game 4.
Barkley appeared from backstage as Paul Coffey and Wayne Gretzky announced the NHL's 10 greatest teams of all time - the 1984-85 Oilers were voted by fans as the top team.
No word yet on which club Barkley is betting on tonight.
It appears to be just a matter of time before the Vegas Golden Knights announce their first trade as a franchise.
General manager George McPhee was in Buffalo for the NHL Combine this past weekend where he was able to pick the brains of many teams regarding potential trade opportunities with the expansion draft a mere weeks away.
Talks with several teams appear to have gone very well, so much so that McPhee feels trades may start happening this week.
"We're far enough along with a few teams that my plan is to sit on the phone all day Monday, Tuesday to see what we can accomplish," McPhee said this weekend, according to NHL.com's Dan Marrazza.
"We've had some real good discussions and I expect some things will start happening next week."
Teams can make trades with the Golden Knights so that they don't chose a certain player in the draft or with the promise that they will select a certain player over another. This ability gives the Golden Knights a lot of power heading into the expansion draft.
"There are teams that really want to protect some people and protect their rosters, and they're willing to pay a pretty fair price to get us to lay off certain people and go in a different direction," McPhee said.
"Most of the guys have been really forthright in what they want to do, who they'll probably expose and who they'd like to protect," McPhee said. "We're trying to find ways to accommodate each other. We won't be able to do that with everyone."
Teams must submit their lists of protected players to the league by June 18, meaning the next two weeks could get very interesting.
Co-chairs of the NHL/NHLPA competition committee - namely Mathieu Schneider and Colin Campbell - issued a statement on minor rules recommendations following a meeting Sunday in Nashville.
They are as follows:
Rule 87 Time-outs: No time-out shall be granted following an icing for the team that committed the icing infraction.
Rule 80.4: When a team has a power play and a player on the team at full strength causes a stoppage of play as the result of striking the puck with a high stick in the offensive zone, the resulting faceoff shall be made in the neutral zone on the nearest faceoff spot. This would make the rule consistent with the how the faceoff is addressed when there is a stoppage under the same circumstances when both teams are at full strength.
These recommendations would require approval from the NHLPA's executive board and the NHL's board of governors in order to be implemented moving forward.
The legendary winger is set to become an unrestricted free agent on July 1, and the sense is any agreement between the two parties would be announced following the upcoming expansion draft. This would keep the Panthers from having to protect Jagr from the Vegas Golden Knights.
Jagr, of course, could choose to wait until July 1 and see what's available to him on the open market.
The 45-year-old is coming off a one-year deal that carried a cap hit of $4 million, and he registered an impressive 16 goals and 30 assists in 82 games.
