FanHouse Andrew Brunette

It's often said that a fight can turn around a hockey game. This was definitely true Tuesday night in St. Paul.

Entering this season, Minnesota Wild forward John Scott had three NHL regular season fights to his credit. Anaheim's George Parros was the veteran of 82. It may have seemed odd, then, for Scott to challenge Parros to a scrap in the third period Tuesday. However, the Ducks led 3-0 at the time, and the Wild were almost literally going through the motions in their home opener. Oh, how things can change with one punch. Video after the jump.

FanHouse's Bruce Ciskie reports from Wild training camp.

ST. PAUL, Minn. -- It's not terribly common for a player with 300 goals and plenty of gas in the tank to try out for a team. For Petr Sykora, there may have been a tryout, but it was extremely short and equally effective.

The veteran winger agreed Thursday to a one-year deal with the Minnesota Wild, just a couple days after word leaked that he was going to be in St. Paul for a tryout during training camp.

With his team desperately seeking an offensive boost to help their playoff push, Minnesota Wild star Marian Gaborik now says he is looking at returning to action Sunday afternoon.

Gaborik has missed all but six games this season because of a groin injury that led to hip surgery, and he has been skating with the team off and on for a couple weeks. He was with the Wild on a recent road trip, and it looks like he's set to start playing in games again.

It's been pretty obvious since his consecutive games streak ended February 21. Minnesota Wild forward Andrew Brunette has only missed one game since, but he hasn't looked right since, either.

Speculation was rampant that Brunette had suffered some sort of ligament damage to his knee. Were he to have surgery, his season would likely (depending on the severity of the damage) be over. Instead, Brunette has forged ahead, continuing to be a fixture in the Wild lineup.

When the NHL trade deadline passed Wednesday without the Minnesota Wild making a significant move, no one was really surprised. After all, the Wild have never really been known for their deadline aggression. Not only that, but they are on the fence when it comes to buying or selling, and those teams usually tend to stand pat at the deadline, hoping to sneak into the playoffs with what they already have.

General manager Doug Risebrough had a chance to do something significant Wednesday. Instead, he may have committed his biggest blunder by not pulling the trigger on a deal for his best player.

One of the perks of signing a guy like the Wild's Andrew Brunette is that you can rely on him to be in the lineup, despite his style of play. He's a rugged leader, and he goes in the tough areas. When he gets in the tough areas, he makes things happen.

Brunette played in 509 consecutive games, dating back to New Year's Eve of 2001. That streak, which was the longest active consecutive games streak in the NHL, ended Saturday night in St. Paul, where the Wild beat Detroit 5-2.

Penguins 4, Lightning 3: I feel as if I've said this before, but this could be the game that turns the Penguins season around. It has to be. If it doesn't spark something with this group, nothing will.

Trailing 3-0 in the third period, Evgeni Malkin transformed himself into a one-man wrecking crew as he scored a pair of goals -- including the game-winner in overtime -- and assisted on another in Pittsburgh's 4-3 overtime win against Tampa Bay. After Malkin scored the Penguins first goal of the night, Mark Eaton and Petr Sykora scored a pair of goals in the final six minutes of regulation to send the game to overtime.

Sykora's goal came on the power play after Gary Roberts -- who became a cult hero of sorts during his year-and-a-half stay in the 'Burgh -- was suckered into a foolish penalty by Matt Cooke.

There are certainly at least two really good teams in the NHL's Western Conference. Defending Stanley Cup champion Detroit and fast-starting San Jose appear in the clear to duke it out for the right to play for the Stanley Cup later this year.

Of course, we know that anything can happen in a best-of-seven series. In addition, we still have half a season left to play. What we don't know is which team in this conference is set up to challenge either the Red Wings or Sharks. They've beaten - at least once - pretty much everyone who has stood in their way, including each other.

While the top of the conference appears to virtually locked in place at this point, there are still serious battles to be fought, especially for the last four positions in the West. Currently, eight teams are separated by just six points. St. Louis, the last-place team in the West, is just nine points out of eighth.

Welcome to the NHL FanHouse 2008-09 season preview. While other sites are previewing "30 teams in 30 days," we decided to take advantage of the extra time off before the start of the season to bring you all 30 previews over the next three weeks. We're counting down in reverse order of finish from last season in each conference every weekday from now until October 3. Look for an Eastern Conference preview every morning and a Western Conference preview every afternoon. Click here to read them all.

Who's In: Andrew Brunette, F (FA-COL); Owen Nolan, F (FA-CGY); Marc-Andre Bergeron, D (Trade-ANH); Marek Zidlicky, D (Trade-NSH); Antti Miettinen, F (FA-DAL); Craig Weller, F (FA-PHX)

Who's Out: Brian Rolston, F (FA-NJ); Pavol Demitra, F (FA-VAN); Todd Fedoruk, F (FA-PHX)

What's Changed: Hopefully, the Wild found some stability. General manager Doug Risebrough acknowledged he made a mistake by employing ten players in contract years last year. As a result, there was a lot of player movement over the summer. Rolston should have been re-signed during the previous off-season. Once it was clear he would test free agency, it was also clear he wouldn't be back.

Risebrough tried to make up for his blunders (too many free agents and not re-signing Rolston) by taking a stab at Marian Hossa, placing a bid for Kristian Huselius, and also making a play at a contract extension for Marian Gaborik. None of these moves have been successful, however the potential for a Gaborik deal is far from dead as of this writing.

(Of course, this hasn't stopped fans of other teams from dreaming.)

Who's In: Scott Hannan, D (FA-SJ), Ryan Smyth, LW (FA-NYI), Jeff Jillson, D (FA), Dale Purinton, D (FA)

Who's Out: Patrice Brisebois, D (FA-MTR), Ken Klee, D (FA-ATL), Antti Laaksonen, LW (FA-Swiss), Brett McLean, LW (FA-PHX,) Pierre Turgeon, C (Retired), Ossi Vaananen, D (FA)

What's Changed: There was quite an exodus from the Rocky Mountains this summer, as the Avalanche lost six members from their active roster, and brought back only four.

This, however, went fairly unnoticed compared to the headlining signings of Ryan Smyth (away from the clutches of the Oilers) and Scott Hannan.

Smyth was the perfect signing for the Avalanche, who lacked a strong power-forward type that could take severe punishment and chip in offensively. The bulk of the Avalanche forward corps are either grinding checkers, or offensive-minded finesse forwards. Smyth's disturbing presence in the corners and in front of the opposition's net will free up even more room for the likes of Joe Sakic and Marek Svatos.

While the Avs failed to make the playoffs last season, they finished the season quite strongly, and hope to keep the momentum going heading into this season. With the fourth best Power Play in the NHL in 2006-07, and the most goals scored by any NHL team in the second half of the season, the Avalanche are an offensive powerhouse that will be hard for any team to handle.