The Predators new owners are doing all that they possibly can to keep the young players in their team and are also on the look out for young blood in a bid to rebuild their team. The testimony to this fact can be got from the fact that the Preds have signed a seven year contract with forward Martin Erat, the longest contract in the history of the franchisee. Polie felt that bringing in new and raw talent will augur well for the franchisee and he expects that the young talents will be able to put Nashville and Predators back on the map of glory.

The Philadelphia Flyers defensive line up will be slightly weaker for Game 3 of the NHL Eastern Conference finals against Pittsburgh Penguins due to a swollen left eye injury caused to defenseman Braydon Coburn. He said that he is otherwise fine and will take a decision on what to do next once his swollen eye fully opens up. It is by God’s grace that Coburn has come out of his eye injury without breaking any bones or causing serious damage to the eye. The injury happened when puck hit by Penguins defenseman Sergei spooned of the hockey stick of Malkin and hit Coburn plush on the face. 

Fabian Brunnstrom, a Swedish free agent player who was being watched closely by a handful of NHL teams, has been roped in by Dallas Stars last Friday and news is that he has signed a two year entry level contract with the Stars last Friday. Brunnstrom said that he felt that Dallas was a better accommodative team than Detroit or Montreal and was really amazed with the practice facility as well as the American Airlines Center of the Dallas team. Stars general manager Jackson felt that the introduction of Brunnstrom will boost the prospects of the team next season and it is young players like him that will take the Stars hockey to a new and different level.

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.

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.

After nearly three years of the salary cap system in the National Hockey League, nobody can come up with a way to fix it. The General Managers are catching a lot of flack from the teams and the players. They are thinking after three years of frozen salaries, they may be able to start paying the players again until they hit another cap. Some say you should give the raises to the top players in the league. There are no two situations alike though, and all the players will find some illegal loop hole for them to get a raise too. This is why the General Managers must keep the players unaware of what is going on with some of the top players. Sometimes it can be a ten percent all the way up to a thirty percent pay cap. Whoever owned the teams had to step in and try to straighten it all out. They didn’t want players leaving because of financial reasons.

Most of the players believe there will be a strike during the season. Owners weren’t listening to the teams and trying to force different policies that weren’t good for the team or the players. Money has become a ruling chip in this arena and it is hard for some of the newer players to keep up with the times. It is a sad world that causes the managers to do these types of lowdown tactics. But they do work sometimes, especially if you are looking for another person in another train car.

If the Washington Capitals win tonight at the Toronto’s Air Canada Centre it will be their first 5 game streak of wins in seven years.
With Monday’s 6-5 win over Pittsburgh the Capitals took their season-high streak of wins to four games . The Capitas Alexander Semin came up with the game-winning goal in the final round  for Washington.  Semin skated toward the net and finished with an impressive backhand past goalie Ty Conklin to clench the victory. Alexander Ovechkin scored two goals, and Viktor Kozlov has his second two goal game in a row. The last time this time won five games in a row was March, 2001.
Moreover Ovechkin has scored six goals and four assists in the last five games. The Russian player is leading the league with 38 goals.  Ovechkin has scored at least one goal in every one of his last five games while Kozlov has four goals in his last two contests. It would appears as though Washington is going to cause a ruckus in the Southeast Division. Washington has won five of their last seven games against the Maple Leafs and three of the last four in Toronto.

Fours after the fatal crash that killed Chicago Blackhawks Keith Magnuson, Toronto Maple Leaf Rob Ramage has been sentenced to serve  four years in prison. Ramage will then be banned from driving for the next five years after his release. Ramage told the Newmarket court that he could only imagine what a loving father and husband Magnuson was. Ontario Superior Court Justice Alexander Sosna made sure to note that Ramage was an “exemplary citizen”. The Ontario Court of Appeal decided that Ramage will be able to appeal the conviction. Ramage’s appeal says that the judge was in the wrong when he admitted evidence regarding the alcohol concentration of his urine samples. The appeal also states that the judge gave his opinion concerning factual findings and then made errors regarding critical evidence during the trial. Ramage was released from custody and is returning to his home in St. Louis.

After Kariya lit up the Stars for a third-period hat trick the last time the teams met, expect coach Dave Tippett to try to get Mike Modano’s line out against Kariya as much as possible. With Kariya a left wing and Halpern a right wing. The Blues rank last in the NHL in average shots on goal per game at 25.3. Dallas ranks fourth in fewest shots on goal against at 26.0.

The Chicago Blackhawks recalled right wing Troy Brouwer from Rockford of the American Hockey League on Saturday. The 22-year-old Troy has 17 goals and 29 points. And the team assigned center Petri Kontiola to Rockford.