FanHouse Ilya Kovalchuk

Hockey fans in Atlanta have known nothing but losing and front office incompetence since the Thrashers joined the NHL a decade ago. Even the best season in franchise history, the 2006-07 campaign that saw the Thrashers qualify for their first and only playoff appearance, ended in disappointment as they were quickly swept under the rug in four games by the New York Rangers.

In the two seasons following that trip to the postseason, the Thrashers have returned to their sub-80-point ways, toiling at the bottom of the Eastern Conference standings. Thanks to a couple of shrewd moves at the start of the offseason, and some returning young talent, this year's version of the Thrashers looks like it has a chance to make some noise.

It's officially the offseason, meaning the time is right to look into the future. We continue our division-by-division preview of the potential wheeling and dealing with the Southeast Division.

The Southeast is probably going to be the most boring division in hockey this offseason. Three of the teams don't have the financial capability to make the sort of splash they need, and the other two were good enough to mostly maintain the status quo.

Still, we've got two top-5 draft picks to look forward to, as well as the ongoing sagas surrounding the stars for both Florida franchises.

Here's Ilya Kovalchuk of the Atlanta Thrashers holding forth on why the Washington Capitals are going to make it to the Stanley Cup Finals. Kovalchuk is currently in Switzerland playing with the Russian national team in the 2009 IIHF World Championship.

Thanks to our buddy Dmitry Chesnokov, Washington correspondent for Sovetsky Sport, for passing along the video.

In our final installment of this season's power rankings, we take a look at how the teams might finish in the NHL standings. The San Jose Sharks have yet to claim the President's Trophy, but a win in their regular season finale, or one loss by the Boston Bruins, will give the Sharks the best record in the NHL for the first time in franchise history.

Meanwhile, at the bottom of the standings, the New York Islanders are hoping that all of this losing will mean a big win in June.

Long gone from the playoff race, the Atlanta Thrashers are busy playing out the proverbial string. While they did lose Thursday, 3-2 to Florida, there's no denying the Thrashers have been playing some pretty good hockey as of late. They're also feisty. In Thursday's game, captain Ilya Kovalchuk decided it was time to throw some punches, as he got into it with Florida defenseman Bryan McCabe. It was just the fifth fight of Kovalchuk's NHL career (second this season), but there's no doubt he more than held his own.

For the third time in three weeks we have a new team on top of our power rankings, as the NHL-leading San Jose Sharks take over the top spot.

The Devils take a fall thanks to their recent six-game losing streak, while Anaheim continues to climb the rankings.

Newsmakers in the NHL is a weekday morning attempt to clear yesterday's rebounds and look to the day ahead.

Blues 5, Blue Jackets 2: After knocking off Columbus in a shootout on Saturday, the St. Louis Blues completed their weekend home-and-home sweep of the Blue Jackets with a 5-2 win at Nationwide Arena. Patrik Berglund picked up a goal and two assists for the surging Blues, while Brad Boyes scored his 30th goal of the season, giving him two straight 30-goal campaigns.

T.J. Oshie made some highlights on Saturday for his crushing hit on Rick Nash, and followed it up on Sunday with his 14th goal of the season.

Thanks to his two-goal, two-assist effort in Washington's 5-3 win over Tampa Bay on Friday night, Alex Ovechkin hit the 100-point plateau for the second consecutive season and third time in four years.

He's essentially clinched his second Rocket Richard award as the league's leading goal scorer, and is within six points of Pittsburgh's Evgeni Malkin for the Art Ross Trophy for most points overall. His two goals on Friday also pushed him past Mario Lemieux's mark of 215 goals in the first four years of his career.

In the process, Ovechkin joins a list of all-time greats.

In this week's power rankings, the New Jersey Devils remain one of the hottest teams in the NHL, holding off the Detroit Red Wings for the top spot thanks to an historic week for goaltender Martin Brodeur.

Vancouver makes a big jump, while the Montreal Canadiens continue to fade at the absolute worst time of the season.

On Tuesday, ESPN hockey writer Pierre Lebrun penned an entry on his blog about Dallas Stars forward Loui Eriksson and his under-the-radar, meteoric rise to 30-goal scorer in the NHL.

The basic premise of the article was essentially: this guy has more goals than a host of star players, and you probably don't know who he is.