*The second round is beginning to come into focus for us now, and you’d probably be lying if you said things have shook out the way you expected. These playoffs have been a big steaming pile of parity thus far and oh boy does the league love that. [Calgary Sun]
* If you were too busy doing holiday things this weekend to notice the news that was uh… everywhere non-stop for two days, then you missed the fact that the Flyers have elected to retire Kate Smith from the game time festivities. And also remove her statue. [Philly.com]
*Anyway, Alain Vigneault is going to be a busy man here for the next few weeks, as he coaches the Team Canada boys at Worlds and begins his role as the Flyers’ head coach. [NBC Sports Philly]
*Speaking of Big Al, a look back at the way he ran his old teams should provide at least a little insight into how he might run ours. [Flyers]
*One thing that AV has, blissfully, identified as something he wants to fix quickly is the Flyers’ very bad habit of starting games slowly. [Philly.com]
*Now that Chuck has his man, how will that shape his offseason plans? [Courier-Post]
*So with all of these top seeds begin knocked off, who is the favorite to win now? [ESPN]
*One of the big stories in these playoffs has been the success of rookie coaches. Flyers connections abound. [ProHockeyTalk]
*And finally, last season was, looking back, a hilarious mess of ridiculousness, and that’s pretty well reflected in the over/under list we put together before the season began. [BSH]
