FanHouse Eric Godard

Every Friday, FanHouse sifts through the rubble and picks the best NHL fight, with the help of HockeyFights.com.

Sometimes, we scour the internet looking for the best fight, only to be left underwhelmed. There are other weeks where this job couldn't possibly be any easier. The good fights jump at you, and the players involved are the guys you would expect to see in the big fights. This week's winning fight has some blood in it, so use caution as you proceed.

I don't know how Penguins general manager Ray Shero pulled it off, but he managed to not only retain the services of Ruslan Fedotenko and Bill Guerin, two of the teams top-six forwards from their Stanley Cup winning team, but he did so while getting them to take paycuts.

After signing Guerin to a one-year deal on Monday, the Penguins announced that they agreed to terms with Fedotenko Friday afternoon. Rob Rossi of the Tribune Review reports the deal as being worth $1.8 million, down from the $2.25 million he made a season ago.

Nine months ago, Petr Sykora scored one of the most important goals in Pittsburgh Penguins playoff history, roofing a laser of a wrist shot behind Chris Osgood in the third overtime of game 5 of the Stanley Cup Final, forcing a game 6 in Pittsburgh (in case you didn't know, Detroit won). Fast forward to this year's opening round playoff series with Philadelphia -- and the past month of the regular season -- and Sykora is nowhere to be found on the score sheet, or the ice, for that matter.

While the 3-0 score may not completely reflect it, the Detroit Red Wings were dominant in their win against Pittsburgh on Sunday in the much hyped Stanley Cup Finals rematch from a season ago. Detroit smothered the Penguins with a relentless defensive performance that was reminiscent of the six-game series from this past June.

It's even more impressive when you consider Detroit was without the services of Johan Franzen and Tomas Holmstrom.

The Penguins needed a game like this, and it's quite a way to open up the second half of the season as they scored five third period goals on their way to a 6-2 win over the New York Rangers. Marc-Andre Fleury kept the Penguins in it early, turning aside 32-of-34 shots, while the offense took over in the third period, peppering Henrik Lundqvist with 16 shots.

Every week there are minor moves and stories around the National Hockey League that tend to fall through the cracks. Consider this our weekly roundup of those stories from the previous week, all wrapped up in one neat little package.

A little over a week ago the NHL released its All-Star ballots for this year's exhibition, which takes place in Montreal on January 25. After a quick look at the names on this year's ticket, fans were, predictably, a little cheesed with some of the omissions from the list. And for good reason.

Take for example Boston Bruins goaltender Tim Thomas, who actually played in the All-Star game a year ago. Currently, he's pacing all NHL Goalies with a .944 save percentage, and, naturally, he's not on the ballot. Yet, Penguins defenseman Sergei Gonchar, who hasn't played a game all season, and likely won't play one until March, is on the ballot. That probably makes up for him not being on the ballot a year ago, when, you know, he was playing.

Having said that, the folks over at Battle of California have taken it upon themselves to start their own campaign for San Jose winger Devin Setoguchi. The 21-year old forward currently has nine goals and 17 points for the Sharks (second on the team) who are off to a dominating 13-3-1 start.

Did you have an Obama 08 or McCain Country First sticker on your car? It's time to throw those out because here's the official start of Vote Setoguchi 09. It's going to have to be a write-in vote, but thanks to the magic of the inter-tubes and text messaging, we can manipulate, erm, boost the results to give us all the Chomp We Need.

So, get out there and vote ... or something.

As far as November regular season games go in the NHL, tonight's Penguins - Red Wings tilt is a pretty big one, if for no other reason than it's the much anticipated rematch of last season's Stanley Cup Finals, which the Wings ultimately won in six games.

It was a bad omen for the Penguins when, prior to game one, goaltender Marc-Andre Fleury tripped and fell over the red carpet as he was exiting the tunnel. I was at Joe Louis Arena that night, and as soon as he went face-first into the ice it was difficult to not get that feeling of, "oh, so it's going to be that type of series." The rest of the team followed in that path for the first two games, falling all over themselves, as Detroit was clearly the superior team.

The Penguins fought back, however, pushing it to six games only to fall inches short as Marian Hossa's last ditch effort was stopped as time ran out on the season.

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: Miroslav Satan, F (FA-NYI), Ruslan Fedotenko, F (FA-NYI), Matt Cooke, F (FA-WAS), Eric Godard, F(FA-CGY), Janne Pesonen, F (FA-Kärpät, Finland)

Who's Out: Marian Hossa, F (FA-DET), Ryan Malone, F (FA-TBA), Jarkko Ruutu, F (FA-OTT), Gary Roberts, F (FA-TBA), Georges Laraque, F (FA-MTL), Ty Conklin, G (FA-DET), Adam Hall, F (FA-TBA)

What's Changed: Everything is different but nothing has changed in Pittsburgh. Hossa, Malone, Roberts, and Ruutu are gone, but this was Sidney Crosby and Evgeni Malkin's team when they were all in Pittsburgh and the team still belongs to them with those four gone. A lot has been made about the guys that have departed, especially Malone and Hossa, but Malone's breakout was greatly aided by Malkin and the Penguins earned the second seed in the playoffs last year almost entirely without Hossa's help. At this point, there's no use in talking about the guys that are gone because they're gone.