Fittingly, hockey's free agency period takes place on a national holiday in Canada, as for NHL fans, July 1 is like Christmas in the summer.

This time around, it's not a deep group of free agents, but there are certainly some all-stars to be had, as Brian Campbell, Mats Sundin, Marian Hossa, Jaromir Jagr, Brian Rolston and Markus Naslund will all likely have new homes within the next few hours.

As the rumours swirl, myself, Eric McErlain and the rest of the NHL FanHouse gang will be in a live chat.

Here's hoping you can join us, beginning at 11 a.m.

Hi, I'm James Mirtle. You might remember me from such chats as Look! Ryan Getzlaf!, Detroit Really Won Good Didn't They? and James Has A Hart-on For Awards.

Please join me for another live chat this afternoon on all things entry draft, including a mock draft, special guests and discussion of the latest trade rumours and happenings.

And if you haven't Seen Stamkos yet, be prepared for a whole lotta him later tonight. (There's also a picture of him in this post.)

The No. 1-ranked prospect in the world will be snapped up tonight by the Tampa Bay Lightning with the first pick, but after that it's anyone's guess how things unfold.

It all kicks off here at 1 p.m. Hope you can make it out.

James's Top Five

1. Steven Stamkos
2. Zach Bogosian
3. Drew Doughty
4. Alex Pietrangelo
5. Nikita Filatov

The Stanley Cup is on hand in Detroit, and may be awarded in about 11 hours time. We're marking the occassion with a bit of star power of our own here at FanHouse.

Please join myself and Anaheim Ducks star Ryan Getzlaf for a live chat beginning at 1 p.m. today, where we'll discuss tonight's game and the playoffs in general. Getzlaf will be taking questions for half an hour, offering his thoughts on what might be the final game of the 2007-08 season.

Last time around we had more than 1,000 participants, so I hope you'll join that merry crew on your Monday afternoon and tune in to hear what one of the game's young stars has to say about the Stanley Cup finals.

Every day from Monday to Saturday, The Ice Sheet will take a look at the biggest stories in the league that happened on the ice and elsewhere the night before.

Only two games last night: One between two of the top teams in the Eastern Conference, the other... not so much.

With a week to go in the regular season, it's all over but the lottery draft for 10-12 teams in the NHL, depending on how optimistic you are. Which means we've got more than a few meaningless games to play down the stretch.

Atlanta and Tampa Bay battled to a stalemate much of last night, with neither team scoring until 5:06 left in the third period when Ilya Kovalchuk finally potted the winner. It was almost as though no one wanted to win this one.

That's not to suggest that there's a tank job in effect among the players; it's only stating the obvious. From an organizational point of view, it pays to lose this game, with both teams neck-and-neck for last place in the league.

Realistically, with the Thrashers' win, only Tampa Bay and Los Angeles can take that spot at this point.

Every day from Monday to Saturday, The Ice Sheet will take a look at the biggest stories in the league that happened on the ice and elsewhere the night before.

Only two games last night: One, a divisional battle between the Wild and Avalanche, won 3-1 by Minnesota, and the second a hard-fought Canucks' win over the on-the-fringe Coyotes.

Those were the 1,093rd and 1,094th games of the season, with just 136 to go until the playoffs. That's an average of just more than nine per team, and you're about to notice a trend in the games: It's almost all interdivisional, from here on out.

Beginning on Friday, March 21, the 17th last day of the regular season, every single remaining game is between teams int he same division, a span of 113 games that will decide playoff races and seedings. The NHL has tried its darndest to get divisional rivalries going in the league, and barring making first-round playoff matchups take place between the clubs, this might be the best way to make that happen.

Just get used to your favorite team seeing a lot of its neighbors.

Every day from Monday to Saturday, The Ice Sheet will take a look at the biggest stories in the league that happened on the ice and elsewhere the night before.

It was what they call a showcase game. And Alex Ovechkin was the show.

The Washington Capitals romped to a surprising 10-2 victory over the Boston Bruins last night, running up a 6-0 lead in the first period on the back of Ovechkin's 50th, 51st and 52nd goals of the season. With five points on the night, he took over the NHL scoring lead from countryman Evgeni Malkin, becoming the first in the league to break the 90-point barrier in the process.

Also having a big night was Swedish rookie Nicklas Backstrom, who netted four points to take over the rookie scoring lead.

On the whole, a pretty good night for Capitals hockey.

Every day from Monday to Saturday, The Ice Sheet will take a look at the biggest stories in the league that happened on the ice and elsewhere the night before.

Hockey's trade deadline has turned into something quite odd, by anyone's standards.

Morning to night coverage, 25-plus deals involving 40 to 50 players, teams throwing away their futures for the rights to old-timers with little to no history of playoff success.

It's a strange thing.

If you're going to follow the coverage, here are a few links to know:

Spector - Lyle Richardson in PEI provides up-to-the-minute analysis on the deals
TSN - Canada's ESPN treats deadline day like a presidential election
Sportsnet - The other television sports network will be on board as well
The blogosphere - Hockey blogs from almost every team
Kukla's Korner - Paul Kukla's a link-a-minute blogging machine
FanHouse - 'Nuff said

Yesterday saw a little bit of activity on the trade-and-signing front, all of which was covered off here earlier.

Every day from Monday to Saturday, The Ice Sheet will take a look at the biggest stories in the league that happened on the ice and elsewhere the night before.

Normally, a four-player swap in the NHL in mid-February's no big deal. In fact, it's the norm.

But the trade front this season has been ridiculously quiet, with the majority of player movement taking place via waivers (think Ilya Bryzgalov to Phoenix, or Mark Recchi to Atlanta) and the rumor mongers have almost been put out of business. (Okay, wishful thinking.)

But that all changed yesterday when the Ottawa Senators dealt youth for experience, swapping Joe Corvo and Patrick Eaves for Cory Stillman and Mike Commodore. FanHouser Greg Wyshynski offered up his take, and I went to town as well over at Mirtleblog.

Today marks exactly two weeks from when the real trade furor will take over hockeydom, trade deadline day, when the all-sports networks (at least the Canadians ones) will turn Karlis Skrastins for a second-rounder into all-day programming.

Personally, I can't wait.

Here's a very quick look at a few of the highest paid pending UFAs who could be on the move in the next two weeks (some of their teams would need to fall out of the race):