FanHouse Dan Boyle

It's been a couple days since Dany Heatley was shipped from Ottawa to San Jose, so we've all had a little time to take a step back and look a the trade. Today, some of the best and brightest in the two blogospheres involved have taken the time to share their views on the trade with us. I have an odd feeling that the Senators' bloggers feel a lot of relief now that the trade has been mad but, to find out, follow me through the jump.

SAN JOSE -- Patrick Marleau doesn't always pay attention to trade rumors, but Thursday night's report on ESPN that he'd been traded to the Kings was a little different because his phone started ringing non-stop.

Marleau, the Sharks' all-time leading scorer, knew there was no three-way deal with San Jose, Ottawa and Los Angeles. He has a no-trade clause and no one had asked him to waive it.

The recent SABR explosion in Major League Baseball has changed the way fans watch the game and evaluate the players taking part. Out are batting average and ERA; in are On-Base Percentage and WHIP. If you're a hockey fan looking for the same type of advancements, Behind The Net is a must-bookmark, as well as the folks at Puck Prospectus.

Hockey may be trailing baseball and the other major sports when it comes to advanced statistical analysis, but the gap is starting to close, and Gabriel Desjardins, lead man of Behind The Net and contributor to Puck Prospectus, is one of the people at the forefront.

FanHouse's Adam Gretz takes a look at his top 50 players in the NHL. No. 46 is San Jose Sharks defenseman Dan Boyle.

In a way, Dan Boyle might represent everything that is wrong with the Tampa Bay Lightning at the present time. OK, maybe everything is a bit harsh, but he's at least an example. One of the better power play quarterbacks in the NHL, extremely productive offensively, and a player that helped the Lightning win its first, and to this point only, Stanley Cup, Boyle was pressured into waiving his no-trade clause prior to last season, and was ultimately moved to San Jose for defenseman Matt Carle, prospect Ty Wishart, and a 2009 first-round pick.

On the surface, it's an acceptable return. Not great, not awful. Acceptable. The problem? Less than a year later, only Ty Wishart remains with the organization.

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After jumping out to a 1-0 series lead in the Western Conference Final, Red Wings head coach Mike Babcock held a press conference on Monday and fielded a variety of questions from the media. For the most part, it was your typical, run-of-the-mill press conference.

About half way through, a reporter started asking Babcock about how he once joked that he was ready for the salary cap to break up the young talent the Chicago Blackhawks have assembled over the years. In Babcock's mind, he wasn't joking.

Hostilities began when the puck dropped, and in a penalty-happy Game 6, the Ducks took better advantage of the man advantage and knocked the top-seeded Sharks out of the playoffs.

San Jose, which finished with a league-best 117 points, fell 4-1 at the Honda Center and became the fourth President's Trophy winning team to fall in the first round. Perennial disappointments who have yet to make it to the Stanley Cup Finals, the Sharks do not have a good relationship with sixth games in playoff series, and are now 2-13 overall and 1-7 on the road in those games.

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Patrick Marleau has borne the brunt of the criticism during San Jose's recent postseason disappointments, and that carried right into the first two games of the Sharks' first-round series against the Anaheim Ducks.

That is until the Sharks' captain came up with the game-deciding goal in Tuesday night's 4-3 victory over Anaheim at the Honda Center. Marleau's tip-in from the slot came with 10:33 left in the third period and the Sharks on a power play after Corey Perry was called for hooking San Jose's Dan Boyle.

That gave the Sharks their fourth one-goal lead of the night, and they held on as Bobby Ryan got off the only shot for Anaheim after the Ducks pulled goalie Jonas Hiller with 1:30 left. The eighth-seeded Ducks lead the series two games to one over the President's Cup winners.

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Thanks to the lottery on Tuesday night, we now know the order of selection for the draft. The Islanders will lead off from the pole position and, as I discussed earlier in the week, they've got an awful lot on their plate. But what about the other teams that sent representatives to TSN studios on Tuesday night?

Well, today we have an inside look at the war room of the Tampa Bay Lightning*. Since Oren Koules and Len Barrie took over the franchise last year, the Lightning have made some interesting personnel decisions. They hired and fired Barry Melrose as coach, shipped out Dan Boyle and Matt Carle, leaving the team almost devoid of defense, and had Lecavalier trade rumors swirl around them faster than a tornado. After the jump, I'll give you a little more insight into what is going on behind the scenes.

* - May not actually be the what the Lightning are planning.

It's been a rough couple of months for the Tampa Bay Lightning, as they're already on their second head coach of the season, the stud rookie is looking like somewhat of a dud, and the team is currently sitting with the fourth-worst record in the league. About the only way things could possibly get worse for the Lightning is if management did something completely crazy, off-the-wall and relatively insane, such as, oh, I don't know, trading team captain and franchise player Vincent Lecavalier.

Sounds crazy, sure, but earlier this week rumors began to surface that the Lightning may be shopping their captain before his new contract -- and no-trade clause -- kicks in this offseason.

Good news, however, as Bob McKenzie of TSN reports the Lightning have told Lecavalier the rumors are just that, and they have no intentions of trading him.

Thanks to a pair of goals from Matt Ellis, the Buffalo Sabres ended Boston's 10-game winning streak with a 4-2 victory at TD Banknorth Garden on Saturday afternoon. The loss not only snaps Boston's 10-game winning streak, it also ended a 14-game home winning streak, while also giving the Bruins their sixth regulation loss of the season.

Ellis opened the scoring for the Sabres just three minutes into regulation, while Thomas Vanek added his 26th goal of the season just two minutes later.

After Phil Kessel cut the deficit in half with his 24th goal of the season, Ellis added his second goal of the game early in the second period to score what proved to be the game-winner. Paul Gaustad added his fourth goal of the year for the Sabres, while Ryan Miller turned aside 29 shots in net.

The win for Buffalo, combined with Pittsburgh's loss to Florida, moved the Sabres into the eighth and final playoff spot in the Eastern Conference.