It’s that time of the year again for the NHL to present the Coach of the Year with the Jack Adams Award. This time, three candidates were named. Those with potential to bring home the Jack Adams award are Bruce Boudreau from the Washington Capitals, Mike Babcock from the Detroit Red Wings and Guy Carbonneau of the Montreal Canadiens. Rumors are rife that Boudreau might be a shoo-in for the winner for this award due to his excellent contributions within the Washington Capitals. He became their coach only months ago in November 2007 and certainly proved to be a better coach, unlike Glen Hanlon, who might be the underlying reason as to why the Washington Capitals came in last in the Eastern Conference with a dismal 6-14-1 record. Boudreau took over and showed great results, including presenting the Capitals with seven wins in a row in their path to be champions in the Southeast Division.

Fans should stay tuned and witness the emergence of the award winner come June 12 when they attend the NHL Awards ceremony held in Toronto.

Colorado Avalanche entered the next round of NHL by clinching Minnesota Wild for 2-1 win on Saturday. Jose Theodore was sculpture of this win as he stopped 34 shots of the Wild and Avalanche took the series in six games. Ryan Smith and Ben Guite scored the two goals for Colorado Avalanche which will lead the team to the second round. The coach of Avalanche hockey team Joel Quenneville said that Theodore was great and his consistency, quickness and alertness formed the back bone of the team’s defense.

Though Minnesota Wild was competent enough to win the first division crown for the season, they could not maintain the lead this time. Minnesota Wild made only three penalties and Colorado Avalanche made just one penalty. The key game that made the difference was the game 5 according to Jacques Lemaire, the Wild coach. Theodore made some spectacular saves in this game and his team mates are really proud of this hockey player.

The Ducks failed to defend their title as champs when they became the 4^th reigning champion last Sunday to fall flat in the first preliminary round. Instead, the Dallas Stars successfully strut their stuff and managed to win the match, taking them to the second round of the game and one step closer to bringing home the Stanley Cup. Stephane Robidas sustained a broken nose earlier on but chose to continue playing and play he did when he scored the tying goal, then managed to prepare Stu Barnes for yet another excellent shot 52 seconds later, culminating in the Dallas Stars’ victory over the dejected Anaheim Ducks with a score of 4-1.

To date, the Anaheim Ducks are the fifth defending Stanley Cup title holders to have been unsuccessful in holding on to their Cup. There has not been a repeat winner in the history of the NHL since Detroit made that happen in the 1997-1998 season.

Jacques Martin said that he has decided to accept the proposal of Panther’s team owner Alan Cohen to stay with the Panthers as a General Manager after he was sacked from the coaching duties of the team last week.  Jacques, a committed hockey coach, said that he was happy that he has been provided the opportunity to carry on with the work that he has started with the Panthers as the GM and is very much excited about the new challenge that he will be facing.

A formal announcement of the appointment of Martin as the Florida Panthers NHL team’s General Manager will be sometime during the course of the week. Jacques Martin held both the coaching job as well as the post of the General Manager of the Panthers during the 2006-07 season and the poor showing off the team resulted in him being stripped off the coaching job. Martin hopes to rebuild the confidence in the Panthers team and will do everything to help them to perform better in the season ahead.

The NHL is expected to make changes to the ice hockey rule book in order to protect goaltenders. This move was also set to be counter action to avoid incidences such as Sean Avery’s comical but annoying interference of Martin Brodeur.

During Sunday’s playoff game against the New Jersey Devils, Avery, who was a New York forward player, stood and waved his arms in front of New Jersey goaltender Brodeur with the intention to distract him.

The NHL announced today that it would amend the rule book and label attempts such as these as goaltender inference and they would suitably award “an unsportsmanlike conduct penalty to the offending player”.

In the end, the Devils won with the score of 4-3, gaining an overtime victory to deny the Rangers’ victory in the Eastern Conference first round series to two games to one. Game Four of the series is expected to be held this Wednesday at Madison Square Garden.

Jacques Martin will no longer remain as the Florida Panthers’ coach but he is given an opportunity to instead be at the helm of the Panthers’ team as General Manager.

Since the 2006-2007 season, Martin has his hands full being both the coach as well as the GM but that does not mean that he will continue to agree being their GM shortly after resigning from the post of team coach. He has been a faithful boss with the Florida Panthers and all eyes are on him to see if he will indeed say yes and concentrate in his front office duties this season.

Team owner Alan Cohen refused to say if Martin is pressured into accepting the role as GM. He further added that he and Martin has spent time discussing hs future with the Florida Panthers and that he will be glad with whatever decision Martin comes up with by end of next week.

The Anaheim ducks will be the first team after Detroit Red Wings to bag consecutive Stanley Cup wins. The coach of the hockey team Randy Carlyle and the players sounded upbeat and confident after they defeated the Phoenix Coyotes 3-2 on Sunday to conclude the regular season schedule of the NHL.

 The team had started the 91st NHL season in London. They will start the first championship against Dallas at home on Thursday. The team concluded in the fourth place in the Western Conference scoring 102 points and setting a record of 47-27-8. Getzlaf, with 81 points scored the maximum in the team. Chris Pronger, captain of the team returned for the final match after being suspended for eight games following his stamping of Ryan Keslers leg in a match against the Vancouvers. The team concluded with 1481 penalty minutes. Carlyle said that they now need to perfect their performance even more so that they can continue to play brilliantly.

The Phoenix Coyotes has signed top scoring player of Wisconsin Kyle Turris last Monday by virtue of an entry level contract. The center player is one of the prized catches for the Coyotes as he was ranked the second best prospect in the NHL League. Turris was the star for the Wisconsin University where he scored 11 goals and 25 assists in 36 games. He was instrumental in the Canadian team win the world junior hockey championship title.

Turris has been performing consistently well for the past two years and is at the prime form of his life. In the 2006-07 seasons, Turris won the most valuable player award while he was playing for the British Columbia Hockey League and had made 55 assists and 66 points in his 53 game stints. The last three first round picks made by Coyotes have all been under contract and fans are hoping that the badger’s center proves to be a star performer for the Phoenix Coyotes.