FanHouse JakubVoracek

The Columbus Blue Jackets are getting ready to play the first home playoff game in franchise history on Tuesday night, and while they find themselves in a 2-0 hole against the defending Stanley Cup Champion Detroit Red Wings, some good news might be on the horizon. Hopefully, for the Blue Jackets sake, it's not a case of too little, too late.

According to Tom Reed of the Columbus Dispatch, 21-year-old center Derick Brassard has been cleared for physical contact, and while he's not likely to play on Tuesday, it's possible he could see action in game 4 on Thursday.

Thursday night, the Columbus Blue Jackets will begin their quest into the strange new world that is the NHL playoffs. To get an idea of the atmosphere around town, and to continue to learn more about this once anonymous franchise, we discussed its upcoming series against the Detroit Red Wings with Aaron Portzline, beat writer for the Columbus Dispatch. Portzline, one of the most net-savvy of hockey's beat writers, also helps run a blog for the paper called Puck-rakers and has an excellent Twitter page.

Portzline has covered the Blue Jackets since their inaugural season in 2000-01, and has seen all of the ups and downs the franchise has offered over the years.

For the second game in a row Jamie Langenbrunner scored the game-winner in overtime, leading the Devils to a 4-3 come-from-behind win against Pittsburgh. Langenbrunner has now scored two goals in three consecutive games, while registering seven points.

It's the Devils' eighth win in a row, as they overcame a 3-1 deficit with eight minutes to play in regulation. Brendan Shanahan started the rally for the Devils with a power play goal, while Langenbrunner was credited with the game-tying goal with 30 seconds remaining when his centering pass deflected in off of Ryan Whitney's skate.

Columbus goalie Steve Mason entered Friday's game in Colorado having registered three consecutive shutouts. He managed to keep the Avalanche off the board for 17 minutes, until Darcy Tucker snapped Mason's streak with his fifth goal of the season at the 17:20 mark of the opening frame. The 20-year old rookie posted 199 consecutive minutes of shutout hockey for Columbus, and Tucker's tally in the first period was the only goal he surrendered on the night, as he turned aside 23-of-24 shots in a 6-1 Blue Jackets win.

Mason has been a great story for the Blue Jackets, as he's pretty much carried them this season when you consider they've scored only nine goals in the eight games he's lost, including being shutout three times. He's allowed more than three goals only two times this season, and has yet to surrender more than four in a single game. Should be interesting to see how long he can continue to ride this hot streak.

As for the rest of the Blue Jackets, following Tucker's goal they pretty much took this game over and erupted for six goals over the final two periods. Rick Nash finished with a four-point night (penalty shot goal, three assists) while Kristian Huselius (two goals), Mike Commodore, Jakub Voracek and R.J. Umberger also scored for Columbus.

The win actually puts Columbus one-point ahead of Colorado for the eighth and final playoff spot in the Western Conference, while the Blue Jackets are 3-0 to open their current six-game road trip, extending their winning streak to four games overall.

Entering Thursday's game against the Islanders, Pittsburgh found itself with a three-game losing streak. Consider the streak over, as the Penguins systematically dismantled New York with a 9-2 thumping at Mellon Arena. The Penguins received hat tricks from both Petr Sykora and Pascal Dupuis (each player's first ever hat trick) as they never let up, while fans chanted "we want 10" during the final minute of regulation.

The Penguins scored four goals in both the first and second periods, before Dupuis completed his hat trick late in the third period. Defensemen Mark Streit and Andy Sutton scored the only goals for New York, as Penguins goalie John Curry picked up his second NHL win (both against the Islanders) making 24 saves.

The biggest problem for the Islanders was the fact they couldn't stay out of the penalty box, picking up 34 penalty minutes throughout the game, including three separate occasions where they handed Pittsburgh five-on-three advantages.

Pittsburgh had eight different players finish with multiple points, including Evgeni Malkin (goal, assist) and Sidney Crosby (three assists) who continue to distance themselves from the rest of the pack in the NHL scoring race. Amazingly, Jeff Taffe, recently called up from the minors, found a way to finish the game as a -1.

Should you feel sorry for the Islanders after a loss like this? Of course not. This is the big leagues, and as long as they're going to keep playing hard and physical (as they did), you should expect the other team to keep clicking on all cylinders in an effort to score as many goals as possible. You never know when the other team could mount an unexpected, late-game comeback.

After being completely shut out in his first eight games, Steven Stamkos finally registered his first point on Tuesday night when he assisted on Vincent Lecavalier's game-winning goal in Toronto. On Thursday night, Stamkos broke through in the goal-scoring department when he picked up his first two NHL goals in Tampa Bay's 5-2 win in Buffalo.

His first goal was originally awarded to Lecavalier, but replays showed Stamkos, parked in front of the net, deflected the shot past Sabres goaltender Ryan Miller for his first career goal.

"I knew it hit my stick right from the beginning, and Vinny knew that too, so it was just a matter of them correcting it," Stamkos said. "I had some butterflies when they announced Vinny as the goal scorer, but he told the ref that I tipped it in. It was obviously a great feeling when they corrected it."

The 18-year old added an assist on Ryan Malone's goal later in the opening period, and scored his second goal of the night in the second period. Stamkos has now registered four points in two games.

This is one in a series of profiles of the International Scouting Service's 2007 Top 15 NHL Draft Prospects, and relies heavily on the 2007 NHL Entry Draft Media Guide. Check back often leading up to the June 22 Entry Draft for more profiles and draft coverage and analysis.

Name: Jakub Voracek
Team/League: Halifax/QMJHL
Vitals: 6'1", 187 pounds, right wing, shoots left
Born: August 15, 1989 in Kladno, Czech Republic

The low-down: Great speed with plenty of skill and creativity... tries to do too much at times... needs to become more consistent... has a reputation for being clutch (bolstered by his 24 points in 12 playoff games this year)... was named the "Q's" Top Offensive Rookie in 2007 (23 goals, 86 points in 59 games)... nicknamed "Voraz"... patterns his game after Peter Forsberg (pictured)... the three people he'd invite to dinner: Ronaldhino, Bill Gates and Jessica Alba... favorites: NHL player -- Jaromir Jagr; movie -- Hitch; music groups -- U2, AC/DC, Queen; actors -- Kurt Russell and Martin Lawrence.

Matchmaker, matchmaker, make me a match: Voracek is one of the safer picks in this year's draft and with high-end talent and the intangibles he brings to a team, he would by no means be a bad first overall pick. He's unlikely to go that high, however, and is more likely to end up being taken by Phoenix at third or Los Angeles at fourth. Let's send him to LA for now.

Finally, not only does Voraz bring an appreciation of fine cinema and entrepreneurship to the table, but he's not afraid to drop the mittens either, as evidenced by this clip (he was wearing #21 at the time and, to be fair, this was his one fight -- a preseason scrap with a midget -- which you can read about here):