The Detroit Red Wings made it to the NHL Finals the last two seasons, but are presently sitting in the last playoff spot in the Western Conference with a host of teams nipping at ankles. Injuries have played a big part in the disappointing play in Detroit, but it certainly isn’t crazy to wonder if something is amiss with the Red Wings. Pavel Datsyuk and Henrik Zetterburg have both been healthy all season, but losing Johan Frazen and Valterri Filppula for long periods of time definitely have hurt them this season. Considering the strength of the Western Conference the Red Wings are in real danger of not being involved in the postseason. The sports fans in Detroit already have to deal with the clueless Lions in the NFL and the slumping Pistons in the NBA, but if their dear Red Wings don’t make the playoffs it will be one dark day in the Motor City. Head coach Mike Babcock might have nabbed a gold for Canada at the Olympics, but if he doesn’t turn the season around for the Red Wings he’ll have a lot of answering to do in Hockeytown.

Alexander Ovechkin and the Washington Capitals are flying high atop the NHL’s Southeast Division after they made it eight wins in a row Wednesday night with a thrashing of the Anaheim Ducks 5-1. The Caps scored three goals in the opening minutes of the third period to put the game out of reach. Ovechkin, who is second in the NHL in points, scored a goal and had two assists against the Ducks. The Russian has been earning his paycheck ever since he became the highest paid player in the NHL, but he’s had help from his team mates on this win streak. Fellow countryman Alexander Semin has scored six goals and notched eight assists over the last six games. The left winger has scored a total of 25 goals this season which combined with Ovechkin’s 34 goals makes the pair as lethal as any duo in the NHL. The Capitals will try to extend their win streak to nine when they face the Carolina Panthers on Friday night.

The Penguins were struggling until recently. But now they are really on a roll. In the last 11 games they have gone 9-0-2 and look to be on the path to take the second place spot in the Eastern Division. This comes at a time when other strong teams seem to be falling off, from the Boston Bruins to the Chicago Blackhawks and several other teams. These teams have been sustaining losing streaks quite well. But the Penguins, with the leadership of Evgeni Malkin who has scored in 13 of the last 16 games, are on their way back to the level they were at last year at this time. USA Today says that it’s kind of funny that Sidney Crosby hasn’t been discussed much lately and that he seems to be having an off year, despite being the league’s second leading scorer. The Penguins are headed to the playoffs and it will be an exciting spring for them. If they can keep the momentum into next month, they’ll be in great shape.

New Jersey Devils’ general manager Lou Lamoriello isn’t foolin’ around anymore. After last season’s embarrassing fourth-worst goals per game ratio (2.42 per game), Lamoriello has added some much need firepower to the near-absent Devils offense, adding veterans Brian Rolston and Bobby Holik.

Bringing back Rolston, a former Devils player, from the Minnesota Wild should give the Devils incredible goal scoring power. Though Rolston is now 35, age has not slowed him one bit. In his last three seasons he posted 30-plus goals. Holik, too, is no stranger to double-digit goal scoring seasons. In his twenty year career (he is now 37 years old) he has never failed to put up at least 10 goals in the NHL. Often, he scored in the mid twenties.

The addition of these powerful attackers, as well as the retention of defender Bryce Salvador and goalie Martin Brodeur, should propel the Devils into the postseason. Brodeur, the backbone of the Devils, was one of the sole reasons that the Devils were able to stay in the playoff hunt for so long last season. Now that they have some scoring power the Devils can take some of the pressure off of Brodeur.

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.