FanHouse JonathanQuick

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 Pacific Division.

San Jose saw its Presidents' Trophy campaign come to a surprising end in the first round of the NHL playoffs, Los Angeles is still the perfect spot for Dany Heatley, and is there any hope for success on the ice in Phoenix?

We're less than one year away from the 2010 Winter Olympics in Vancouver. Once again, the NHL will take a mid-season break and allow its players to participate in the Games.

After a wonderful run to silver in Salt Lake City back in 2002, Team USA was nothing short of disappointing in Torino three years ago. The Americans went just 1-3-1 in pool play, including an inexplicable tie against Latvia, before dropping a 4-3 decision to Finland in the quarterfinals. Heading into 2010, general manager Brian Burke has plenty of decisions to make, mainly surrounding the question of age.

Before the season, you probably could have turned a lot of heads by predicting that the Los Angeles Kings would make a run at a Western Conference playoff spot. They finished dead-last in the West a year ago, 20 points out of a playoff spot.

There is still a lot of hockey to go, but the Kings are on the verge of one of the league's better turnarounds this season. Heading into the start of a three-game homestand Thursday night, the Kings are just three points out of the eighth spot in the West, and they're playing the best hockey of any of the teams they're fighting with.

Kings 5, Capitals 4: Exciting game in Washington as the Caps and Kings combined to light up the scoreboard with nine goals and 80 shots in Los Angeles' 5-4 win. The Kings had a number of two-goal leads throughout the night, including a 5-3 advantage late in the third period. With just over a minute to play in regulation, Brooks Laich scored his 13th goal of the season, closing the deficit to just one.

Jonathan Quick managed to hold on for the Kings in net, as Washington fired 22 shots on goal in the third period, and 45 for the game. Alex Ovechkin scored his 37th goal of the season -- and 200th of his career -- for the Capitals.

Capitals 5, Devils 2: The Washington Capitals took advantage of their three power play chances on Tuesday night, converting on all of them on their way to a 5-2 win over the New Jersey Devils. Mike Green and Brooks Laich scored a pair of goals with the man advantage just three minutes apart in the first period, while Michael Nylander picked up his second goal of the game at the 10:59 mark of the third period.

Jose Theodore stopped 32-of-34 shots in net for Washington, including 16-of-17 in the third period. The loss for New Jersey snaps its eight game winning streak, despite receiving another goal another Jamie Langenbrunner, who has now picked up seven goals in his past four games.

Wednesday's action across the NHL marked the end of the first half of the season, and there were nine games on the schedule.

Bruins 4, Maple Leafs 3: For a while, it appeared as if Toronto had a chance to knock off the top team in the Eastern Conference, jumping out to a 3-1 lead over Boston. The Bruins, however, proved why there's a 30-point difference between the two teams in the standings and scored a pair of power play goals in the third period, forcing overtime. Michael Ryder scored the game-winner in a shootout, leading the Bruins to a 4-3 win.

Brian Burke's acquisition of tough-guy Brad May helped add to some of the intensity and entertainment value in Thursday's Montreal-Toronto game, as the two teams beat the snot out of one other physically, while the Canadiens dominated on the scoreboard, pulling out a 6-2 win. The victory for Montreal is its third in a row, and eighth in its past 10 games.

We've already talked about the penalties and wrestling matches between Mikhail Grabovski and a linesman, so let's talk about the game itself. The Canadiens jumped out to a 3-1 lead in the first period, thanks to goals from Sergei Kostitsyn, Maxim Lapierre and Guillaume Latendresse. Jaroslav Halak, making his fourth straight start in goal for Montreal, turned aside 30 shots to pick up his eighth win of the season.

Bruins 6, Senators 4: Boston snapped a brief two-game losing skid on Thursday night with a 6-4 win over Ottawa. The Bruins let a 3-1 lead slip away late in the second period, and then scored three consecutive goals of their own in the third, as Ottawa goalie Martin Gerber had a rather forgettable start in goal, stopping only 16 of 21 shots. Marc Savard scored what proved to be the game-winning goal, while also adding two assists.

Thanks to a pair of goals from Matt Ellis, the Buffalo Sabres ended Boston's 10-game winning streak with a 4-2 victory at TD Banknorth Garden on Saturday afternoon. The loss not only snaps Boston's 10-game winning streak, it also ended a 14-game home winning streak, while also giving the Bruins their sixth regulation loss of the season.

Ellis opened the scoring for the Sabres just three minutes into regulation, while Thomas Vanek added his 26th goal of the season just two minutes later.

After Phil Kessel cut the deficit in half with his 24th goal of the season, Ellis added his second goal of the game early in the second period to score what proved to be the game-winner. Paul Gaustad added his fourth goal of the year for the Sabres, while Ryan Miller turned aside 29 shots in net.

The win for Buffalo, combined with Pittsburgh's loss to Florida, moved the Sabres into the eighth and final playoff spot in the Eastern Conference.

Okay, so maybe the title is a bit of an overreaction. Still, that doesn't change the fact the New York Islanders are a terrible, terrible third period hockey team, and they proved it once again on Tuesday, giving up four goals in the final 20 minutes on their way to a 5-4 loss to the Rangers.

The Islanders actually entered the third with a 2-1 lead, only to watch the Rangers beat Joey MacDonald -- starting in place of Rick Dipietro -- four times on their final 12 shots. Petr Prucha, playing for the first time in eight games, tied the game just 49 seconds into the third period, while Michal Rozsival gave the Rangers their first lead of the night two minutes later. Markus Naslund and Nigel Dawes also tallied late goals for the Rangers, while Scott Gomez tapped in a tic-tac-toe pass from Nikolai Zherdev and Brandon Dubinsky in the second period, opening the scoring for the Rangers.

Mike Sillinger, Kyle Okposo, Blake Comeau and Mike Comrie scored for the Islanders.

Physical game between the crosstown rivals, resulting in a pair of fights in the first 10 minutes, and capped off with a crushing hit by Ryan Callahan on Trent Hunter early in the third. Callahan smashed the Islanders forward into the penalty box door, forcing it open, resulting in Hunter's midsection smashing off the boards. He was down for quite a while, and appeared to be in severe pain, resulting in a stretcher being brought on the ice. Hunter, however, managed to bring himself to his feet and skate off because, you know, he's a hockey player.

Montreal's Andrei Kostitsyn recorded his first career hat trick on Saturday night, while Carey Price stopped 31 shots, including 16 in the third period to lead the Canadien's to a 3-2 victory in Pittsburgh. With the win, Montreal moves ahead of the Penguins in the Eastern Conference standings, while the Penguins failed to win consecutive games yet again -- they haven't won two in a row since November 13-15. Just sayin'.

Kostitsyn scored a pair of goals in the first period before completing the hat trick early in the third period with a quick slap shot that beat Penguins goalie Marc-Andre Fleury through the five-hole.

Following Kostitsyn's goal, Price turned into a brick wall, as the Penguins had a trio of power plays in the final period, and peppered the Montreal netminder. Of course, if you're Pittsburgh, you have to be a tad frustrated you failed to convert on five power plays, after going 0-for-5 one night ago in New Jersey. How a power play that features Evgeni Malkin, Sidney Crosby, Petr Sykora and Ryan Whitney, among others, can consistently have so many 0-for-5 and 0-for-6 nights seems to defy all logic. Yet, here we are.

Crosby and Pascal Dupuis each finished with a goal and an assist for Pittsburgh.