FanHouse JiriHudler

It's been a one-way street out of Detroit this offseason, as the Red Wings have watched Marian Hossa, Mikael Samuelsson, Ty Conklin and Tomas Kopecky sign with rival teams in the Western Conference, while Jiri Hudler attempts to make a jump to the KHL (even though the NHL isn't all that happy about it). Such losses would be a sizable blow to most teams, but the Red Wings aren't like most teams.

While it's true they lost some talent and production, and haven't added anything of consequence in the early stages of the offseason, it still shouldn't put much of a dent in the Red Wings' Stanley Cup chances for 2009-10.

Let's take a look at what Detroit is really losing, and what it has coming up through the Grand Rapids pipeline.

There has been a lot of talk about hits to the head in the NHL playoffs so far. Washington's Donald Brashear got a controversial six-game suspension for his shot high on Ranger Blair Betts during Game 6 of their series.

Friday night, Anaheim and Detroit met to open their Western Conference semifinal series. During the first period, the intensity got cranked up big-time on a late and high hit by Anaheim's Mike Brown on Red Wing forward Jiri Hudler in Detroit's 3-2 win.

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When they're on, there's no doubt the Detroit Red Wings are among the best teams in the NHL. More often than usual this season, the Wings were a tad less than adequate defensively, leaving their goaltenders in impossible positions and generally giving up too many goals.

The playoffs are different, however, and the experienced Wings showed that on Thursday. They easily dispatched Columbus, 4-1, in Game One of the Western Conference Quarterfinals.

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You're going to hear about Sidney Crosby and Alex Ovechkin quite a bit during the NHL playoffs (probably more than you care to hear about them) but they are far from the only players in the NHL that could make an impact in the race for the Stanley Cup.

Here are four under-the-radar players that could play big roles for their teams this postseason.

Johan Franzen has declared himself ready to return to the lineup, reports Detroit beat writer Ansar Khan. The big Swedish forward has been out since taking a teammate's shot off his hand in the team's February 7 win over Edmonton.

Franzen's return will bump a forward from the lineup, though head coach Mike Babcock would provide no information on who will sit. He told Khan that he may keep Ville Leino in the lineup, which narrows the choice down to the veteran Kirk Maltby and the young Tomas Kopecky. Given his somewhat lackluster season, Kopecky may be the odd man out here.

Panthers 5, Hurricanes 0: With the No. 8 spot in the Eastern Conference on the line the Florida Panthers went into Carolina and pulled out a 5-0 win. The Hurricanes actually held a commanding edge in the shots department, firing 42 shots at Tomas Vokoun, who stopped them all to pick up his fourth shutout of the season.

Florida managed only 23 shots on goal, but was able to get four behind Cam Ward and another past Michael Leighton. The Panthers now hold a three-point edge over Carolina for the final playoff spot in the Eastern Conference.

One of the biggest criticisms of Gary Bettman's NHL is the fact the league does a terrible job marketing its sport. It's a legitimate problem. Detroit Red Wings goalie Chris Osgood would seemingly agree, though, for reasons that probably differ from every other sane and rational person not currently wearing a tin foil hat with wire coat hangers dangling from the ceiling.

In an article appearing in Tuesday's Windsor Star, Dave Waddell writes about how several members of the Red Wings -- including Osgood -- feel the NHL -- and fans across the league -- have it out for the team, while everyone is rooting against them. Oh the horror.

Nikita Filatov, the No. 5 overall pick in this year's Entry Draft, entered play on Saturday night for Columbus with one goal in his first five NHL games. During the Blue Jackets 4-2 win over Minnesota, the 18-year-old rookie notched his first career hat trick -- and recorded an assist -- helping lead Columbus to its second straight win and sixth in its past eight games.

Steve Mason continued his strong play in net for the Blue Jackets, turning aside 21 of 23 shots to pick up his 15th win of the season. It's a big win for Columbus, as it entered the game trailing the Wild by one point in the Western Conference standings.

Mason is still leading the league in goals against average and save percentage, and he is still not an all-star. Crazy.

On Thursday afternoon, the Detroit Red Wings and Chicago Blackhawks hit the ice at Wrigley Field in the Winter Classic. After a sluggish first period that saw Chicago jump out to an early 3-1 lead, the Red Wings roared back and claimed a 6-4 victory, thanks in large part to a pair of goals from Jiri Hudler, and a highlight reel goal by Pavel Datsyuk. You might have heard a thing or two about it, as it was a pretty big deal. NBC even let Bob Costas cover it so, in the words of Empty Netters, he could pretend like he cared about hockey.

Meanwhile, Eric McErlain was everywhere in Chicago, collecting locker room insight from the Red Wings and interviewing crazed fans taking in all of the excitement.

The early returns are in, and it seems that this year's version was an even bigger success than the first Winter Classic in Buffalo a year ago. This was actually the third outdoor game in NHL history, as the Oilers and Canadiens played in the Heritage Classic back in 2003. Oh, and in case you haven't heard, Ty Conklin played in all three games.

So, seeing as how the NHL has actually marketed something correctly for a change, and in the process has created a monster that will need to be fed each and every season -- or so it seems -- now is as good a time as any to start looking ahead to 2010.

Pavel Datsyuk's goal (shown above) was perhaps the highlight of a great day of hockey in Chicago, and we have to give a well-deserved tip of the cap to Eric McErlain for giving us all a front row seat for the festivities and excitement around Wrigley Field.

Chicago jumped out to an early 3-1 lead after the first period, looking like it was out to send a message after Tuesday night's loss in Detroit, only to have the Red Wings roar back with five consecutive goals -- including a pair from Jiri Hudler -- to take the Winter Classic, 6-4. The Wings are now 4-0 against their original six rivals this season, while improving their record to 25-7-5.

This year's version of the classic, I thought, was far better than last season's game in Buffalo, mainly because this game wasn't played in blizzard conditions. Sure, that was exciting and awesome to look at, but it definitely hurt the on-ice play, while the ice itself was in horrible condition, resulting in multiple stoppages in play to fix massive holes. No such problems this year, just exciting hockey in a historic stadium between two classic teams wearing some awesome, awesome uniforms. Not a huge fan of the rendition of take me out to the ballgame, however. The hockey song would have been a nice touch, but, really, if that's the only negative throughout the event, well, that's a great, great thing for the sport.

Ty Conklin, playing in his third outdoor game in the NHL, stopped 33 shots in the win, while Chicago's Cristobal Huet had to be lifted early in the third period after giving up six goals on 30 shots.