FanHouse JussiJokinen

Well this is kind of a letdown. After watching the Penguins take on long-time rivals Philadelphia and Washington in the first two rounds of the Eastern Conference playoffs, they're now taking on the Carolina Hurricanes in the conference final. It's a match-up that offers nothing in the way of hatred, bitterness or rivalry. Hopefully the Staal brothers pull a Keith and Wayne Primeau and fight sometime in the first two games. You know, just to stir the pot a little bit.

Having said that, this is an interesting match-up when it comes to hockey and that, of course, is the most important thing. It should be an exciting series, and who knows, perhaps by the end of it both teams will end up hating each other anyway.

When the Detroit Red Wings signed Johan Franzen to an 11-year contract extension back in April, reactions were mixed. Some folks, like a number of the commenters at the Hockey's Future boards, thought the Red Wings were out of their minds for signing a soon-to-be 30-year-old forward to an 11-year contract. Others, like the good people at Abel to Yzerman, applauded general manager Ken Holland for not messing around when it comes to keeping the guys he wants.

We're only a month into the new deal, but the early results are stellar. Franzen has continued to excel as one of the better power forwards in the NHL, and has proven himself to be one of the best playoff, big-game goal-scorers the NHL has seen in quite some time.

The Boston Bruins were the best team in the NHL's Eastern Conference for most of the season. They were a serious threat to win the President's Trophy, which goes to the best team in the league. During a first-round sweep of rival Montreal, the Bruins looked like a real contender.

After Friday night's loss to the underdog Carolina Hurricanes, the Bruins are one loss away from a tee time at the local country club. That great regular season is in danger of going up in smoke.

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As we continue to digest the incredible events of Tuesday night's Carolina-New Jersey game in Raleigh, it's obvious that at least one Devil is still quite bitter about what went down.

Goalie Martin Brodeur impressed nobody when he slammed his stick around as he skated off the ice after the last-second Hurricanes goal was reviewed and allowed to stand. After the game, his anger hadn't settled down very much, and he made sure everyone knew why he was upset.

The NHL playoffs have been a bit dull so far. There have been some dominating performances by great teams, and some of the underdogs clearly don't belong on the same ice. The best series, by far, has been New Jersey against Carolina. They did it again Tuesday night. The Hurricanes took a 3-0 lead, threatened to run away with the game, and promptly kicked the lead away. The Devils were the stronger team for much of the third, but could not take the lead. Just when we were looking at a third straight overtime game, the Hurricanes pulled a mighty large - and somewhat controversial - rabbit out of their hat.

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Red Wings 8, Oilers 3: Here's a fun fact: at the end of the first period of Saturday's Detroit-Edmonton game, the Red Wings had as many goals (five), as the Oilers had shots. One word can sum this up: domination. The Wings continued to pour it on, completing an 8-3 thrashing of Edmonton at Joe Louis Arena.

It's the second time in just over a week that the Oilers have been on the wrong end of a blowout, getting steamrolled by Buffalo, 10-2, back on January 27. The Oilers have now lost four of six, while the Red Wings extended their modest winning streak to three as they head into their NBC tilt with the Penguins on Sunday.

What a dreadful month of December for the Penguins. After their 2-0 loss to Tampa Bay on Tuesday night, the Penguins find themselves with a 4-6-1 record this month, and have dropped back-to-back home games to Toronto and Tampa Bay by a combined score of 9-3, while getting outshot 69-38 in the process. There's no way to sugarcoat it -- that sucks. Even worse, the Penguins haven't won two straight games since November 13-15. Ouch.

Tampa Bay picked up goals from Matt Pettinger and Paul Szczechura, while Mike Smith turned aside all 15 shots he faced. Though, he received a little help from the Penguins, when Petr Sykora honked a pair of shots wide of the goal when he had Smith beat, and then Evgeni Malkin inexplicably attempted to make a pass when he had a breakaway. Perhaps he's serious about that century mark with the assists, I don't know.

Though, the save of the night was when Malkin, shorthanded, had another breakaway in the third period -- in what was still a one-goal game -- and was stoned by Smith. Tampa Bay turned it around the other way and Szczechura redirected a pass from Jussi Jokinen passed Marc-Andre Fleury to ice the game.

It's important to realize it's only December and that the Penguins had a similar record a year ago today -- and, hey, that season turned out okay -- but that doesn't change the fact this is some really bad hockey right now.

Costly win of sorts for the Ducks on Friday, as they lost Teemu Selanne to a leg injury in the first period when it appeared his own skate cut his left leg. He was helped off the ice and didn't return to the game. If he's out for any extended period of time it would obviously be a tremendous blow to Anaheim's offense, as the 38-year old forward leads the team in goals (14) and is third on the team in points (27).

As for the game itself, Anaheim took it, 3-2, in a shootout, thanks to some stellar goaltending from Jonas Hiller, who stopped 51 shots in regulation and overtime, and all three shots he faced in the shootout. The 51 saves actually matched a franchise record, so, way to go Jonas.

The Ducks special teams provided the offense, as Rob Neidermeyer picked up a shorthanded goal with 20 seconds to play in the first period, while Corey Perry notched a power play goal midway through the second period, giving the Ducks a 2-0 lead.

That lead would hold up until the third, when Kyle Brodziak put Edmonton on the board at the 6:32 mark, while Erik Cole tied the game seven minutes later with a power play goal.

Perry scored the only goal in the shootout, giving Anaheim the win.