Much of this week in the NHL has been dominated by the trading and signing of many different players. There are no big headliners in this group, but almost every team has seen someone come and someone go. There will undoubtedly be some bigger players getting moved around in the next few weeks. In other news, the All Star Game will be in Phoenix. Guaranteed by the NHL. They haven’t announced a year, but they certainly want to bring the game to Glendale, AZ in the relatively near future. The Coyotes are in a bidding war about who actually owns the team and who should be in charge of it. They ahve been having headaches for several months now, since it was revealed that the team has been in bankruptcy since last fall. In other words, it’s possible that the Coyotes will be the team that’s unable to make any trades or new signings. But it seems that a previously-floated plan to send them to Canada is on ice for now.

Claude Lemieux just became an American. He’s been in the NHL for a long time, about 20 years, but now he’s an American. He was born in Canada, but during much of his NHL career, he’s lived in the US. He says that it isn’t a statement about which country is a good one and which one isn’t. He still loves his homeland, but we suppose it makes sense that he has decided to become an American now along with the rest of his family. This way he can officially vote; while travelling to away-games, he can go through the US citizens line. We look forward to seeing him back with the Sharks next season, the team for whom he came out of retirement, this time as an American citizen.

Sergei Fedorov will be leaving the Washington Capitals after some big plays this year. He was becoming a big player in the league but he has decided he wants to join his brother over in Metallurg, in Russia, where he has signed a deal to play. This will probably be more fitting for him, although he has been a big leader on the team for the last several years. The team has been in the playoffs for both of the last two years and has become a great team with him back. Fedorov will be headed back to his native Russia and it will be a good place for him to be. We’ll be ready to see him playing over there and hopefully he’ll come on back to the NHL in a year or two!

The NHL is moving in the direction of the draft. When hockey is in the offseason, there isn’t as much going on as usual. The draft is coming up soon and then we’ll see some of the best players from the college and minor leagues come into the NHL finally. It’s hard to find information about a lot of these players because they’re relatively unknown, since college hockey isn’t the juggernaut that NCAA football is, but there are reports of great players out there who will give several of the most struggling teams a good bump. It will be great to see these teams back near the top of the rankings. Hopefully, it will be a lot of fun and the draft will give us a better idea who’s moving up in the league.

Washington Capitals star Alex Ovechkin won three different major awards at the NHL Awards last night. He dedicated one of them to his grandfather who passed away earlier this season. He also received one of the awards from a former Detroit Red Wings star who was paralyzed in an auto accident at the end of the 90s. He came up to the podium without the help of a walker, wheelchair or anything, apparently. This was an emotional moment for the people there, because he doesn’t walk otherwise.

Ovechkin had a fantastic year, with the most goals and led the league in many of the other stats this year. He wasn’t able to secure the Stanley Cup as he might have hoped, but he had an outstanding year in most other ways. Plus, they came close to winning their conference championship. Next year will probably be even better for him!

The Detroit Red Wings just didn’t have enough energy to take down the Penguins in the end. After starting off the series ahead 2-0 and pushing ahead again after 5, the Wings ended up dropping off a cliff at the end of the series and lost in Game 7. This means that the Penguins have won the Stanley Cup! Sidney Crosby and the other big players on the team have finally put together a winning team after a long and complex season. They were up and then they were down, they were good and then they were mediocre. But they won.

In other news, the 7th game was the most watched NHL game in the US since 1973’s Stanley Cup Finals. About 8 million people watched the game at some point and people were very excited about this series, especially since it got all the way to a 7th game, which was much further than anyone had anticipated.

The final game of the Stanley Cup Finals is going to be played tomorrow evening in Detroit. On Tuesday night, the Penguins and the Red Wings ended up with a tied series. The Penguins have been able to erase a 2-0 deficit in the series and then a 3-2 deficit in the series. They won Game 6 2-1 on Fleury’s great saves, especially at the end of the series. Tomorrow night’s game is as high-stakes as it comes in this league and it’s going to be one of the most exciting of the year. Even if it’s a blowout, the tension is so high and these teams have been known to get several goals in a very short time. No lead will be safe and both teams will be relying heavily on their goaltenders. Do you have a prediction? Leave it in the comments below!

Game 6 of the Stanley Cup Finals will be occurring tomorrow evening and it will be interesting to see if the Red Wings will close it out. The decisive Game 5 happened over the weekend and it was exciting to see them dominate the Penguins. The Penguins slid their way to a 5-0 loss and will hope to regroup for their Game 6 at home. Obviously, number 6 is a must-win for Pittsburgh. Detroit can win either of the next games, although they would probably prefer to simply win it in the next game. Pittsburgh is pushing them to either 6 or 7 games which is better than anyone else has been able to do this postseason. Obviously, they would have rather won, but they’ll be back with more experience and many talented players, like before. It’s going to be a lot of fun to watch that team in the future and their rematch has been impressive so far!

When last we met, we discussed the fact that the Detroit Red Wings had swept back-to-back games last weekend at home and looked like they were on the way to a strong win in the Stanley Cup Finals. After a couple of games in Pittsburgh, it is now 2-2 in the series and headed to an important Game 5 in Detroit. The Wings have looked better, but they seem to be dropping fairly impressively right now. They will have to win some important games now. They didn’t get their hoped for clinch of the series or at least a 3-1 series lead. They are simply stuck in a tie now. As we mentioned the other day, Pittsburgh seems to have an amazing ability to push themselves and quickly catch a strong opponent. Detroit will have to hope that their experience and confidence can get them through!

In what felt like a double-header this weekend, the Detroit Red Wings came up big, with a 2-0 lead in the Stanley Cup Finals. Last year was essentially the same position between the Wings and the Pittsburgh Penguins. When you want to win the the Stanley Cup, this is a great start for them. And Detroit isn’t even at full strength, having sustained a few injuries during the last series. They didn’t have enough time to make a full scale recovery, but that doesn’t seem to have affected them in any particular way. It looks like they will take this series pretty quickly, but Pittsburgh is kind of a comeback kid kind of team, so we shouldn’t think of this series as over. But they have a serious hill to climb!