FanHouse Dustin Byfuglien

Reports began to surface this week regarding some significant moves by the Chicago Blackhawks. Five-year deals are coming for forwards Patrick Kane and Jonathan Toews, and defenseman Duncan Keith is apparently going to sign a mammoth 13-year deal for less annual money.

USA Hockey knew what it was doing when it named Brian Burke to run the national team. As they try to build the team on the ice into a more serious international contender, Burke will keep them in the headlines. After a relatively silent experience at the IIHF World Championships, where Team USA placed fourth, Burke is back in midseason form.

In Chicago for Team USA's orientation camp in advance of the 2010 Winter Olympics in Vancouver, Burke spoke Tuesday about what fans can expect to see from the Americans. Needless to say, he spoke with brutal honesty, something that fans can equally appreciate and despise.

Dale Tallon made a tremendous blunder this offseason when the qualifying offers for Cam Barker, Kris Versteeg and the team's other restricted free agents didn't get sent out in time. Tallon admitted it was his responsibility, admitted he screwed up, and in the end, worked out contract extensions with the key players (Barker, Versteeg), assuring that they wouldn't hit the open market as unrestricted free agents, free to sign with the highest bidder with no compensation coming back to Chicago.

In the end, it appears that blunder cost him his job, as reports out of Chicago early Tuesday morning indicated that Tallon was removed from his position, and replaced by Stan Bowman.

I don't have to beat you over the head with numbers. A team that goes down 3-0 in a best-of-seven is pretty much cooked.

This is especially true when you're playing a team more than capable of winning the Stanley Cup. Chicago faced this reality Friday night, and you have to tip your hat to them for how they responded to adversity. The adversity and pressure increased tenfold when the Blackhawks blew a 3-0 lead.

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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.

Winning on the road is so very important in the Stanley Cup Playoffs. The Chicago Blackhawks seemed to be a good candidate for road success, being that they set a franchise record for it in the regular season.

That performance has indeed carried over. Chicago improved to 3-3 in road games during this postseason, and 2-1 in this series, as they bested Vancouver 4-2 Saturday night at GM Place.

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Vancouver's Roberto Luongo turned aside 26 shots to earn his seventh shutout of the season in Sunday's 4-0 win over Chicago, but the highlight of the game was the epic line brawl that erupted at the 5:50 mark of the third period.

It's great to see quality NHL action return to Chicago after years of disappointing hockey, and man, what a team the windy city has. With their 4-1 win in Minnesota on Sunday, the Blackhawks picked up their ninth straight victory, improving their record to 20-6-7, good enough for the fifth best record in the league.

Chicago received a four-point performance from Dustin Byfuglien, who scored a pair of goals in the first period and also added a pair of assists later in the game, as the Blackhawks dominated Minnesota. Cristobal Huet faced only 19 shots, turning away 18 of them to pick up his fifth consecutive win in goal. During his personal winning streak, Huet has allowed only four goals, posting a .967 save percentage.

Cal Clutterbuck scored Minnesota's only goal, while Martin Havlat and Kris Versteeg added tallies for the Blackhawks.

While Chicago has been reeling off win after win, the Wild have been going the opposite direction winning just two of their past 10 games.

I don't know what's been happening across the NHL the past two nights, but it's almost as if everyone jumped into a time machine (perhaps a DeLorean) and traveled back to 1985. Have you seen some of these scores? I'm talking 9-2, 8-5, 6-5, 7-3. It's crazy, like somebody went into the locker rooms across the league and shrunk down the goalie pads, or something.

One night after the Penguins steamrolled the Islanders to the tune of 9-2, and four different players across the league registered hat tricks, the goal-scoring barrage continued on Friday. Let's start in Newark, where the Devils outscored the Rangers, 8-5, in a game that had to be played with empty nets.

Midway through the second period, New Jersey was sitting with a seemingly comfortable 5-1 lead, before the Rangers roared back to tie the game at the 11:18 mark of the third period, thanks to Ryan Callahan's eighth goal of the season. The Rangers actually outshot the Devils by a 16-4 margin in the third period, though, New Jersey made the best of its few opportunities, scoring on three of them. Just 11 seconds after Callahan's equalizer, Patrick Elias scored the game-winner, before Brian Gionta and Jamie Langenbrunner sealed the win.

Not one of Ilya Bryzgalov's best performances for Phoenix, as the Chicago Blackhawks lit him up seven times on 28 shots, as the Coyotes lost a laugher, 7-1. Chicago received a pair of goals from Ben Eager, while also getting tallies from Dave Bolland, Jonathan Toews, Patrick Sharp, Dustin Byfuglien, and Andrew ladd in the win.

Ladd also picked up three assists in the win, earning himself No. 1 start honors with his four point effort. The four points, by the way, were a career-best for the 22-year old forward.

With the Coyotes trailing 7-0 in the second period, Envir Lisin at least got them on the board with his fifth goal of the season, which was the shot they could sneak behind Chicago goalie Cristobal Huet, who stopped 20 shots in the win.