FanHouse Justin Abdelkader

The real NHL awards will be handed out Thursday night in Las Vegas, so FanHouse decided to hand out its own special awards for the 2008-09 season.

During the 2007-08 season, Toronto Maple Leafs goalie Vesa Toskala made blooper reels across the NHL for allowing a goal against the New York Islanders from 190 feet away. Hey, it happens to the best of them, and just to prove it, we introduce you to the 2008-09 nominees for the Vesa Toskala Award, celebrating the worst goal allowed of the year.

It's officially the offseason, meaning the time is right to look into the future. We'll be running our division-by-division preview of the offseason beginning later in the week, but we wanted to give the two top dogs their own space. Today: the summer outlook for the Red Wings. Tomorrow, the Stanley Cup champion Penguins.

The Red Wings came within one game of repeating as Stanley Cup champions. A goal or two here or there, and their mission – and Marian Hossa's – is accomplished.

Instead, Detroit's first question mark going into the summer months is Hossa. It's widely expected he'll re-sign with the Wings for five years or so, but that will push Detroit essentially to the limit when it comes to the cap, which is projected to be about $57 million again.

After missing six consecutive games with a foot injury, Red Wings forward Pavel Datsyuk appears to be inching closer to a return, as he's expected to be a game-time decision for Thursday's Game 4 in Pittsburgh. In the past three games, he had yet to make it to "game-time decision."

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The face-off battle in the Stanley Cup Final has been an interesting one to watch, as the Red Wings dismantled the Penguins in Game 1, winning 39 of 55 draws, only to have the Penguins rebound in Game 2 by winning 27 of 51 (though, Detroit still won the game, due in large part to face-off wins in the offensive zone leading to goals).

How would things play out in Game 3? Results after the jump.

One of the key factors in Pittsburgh's Game 1 loss was Detroit's dominance in the face-off circle, leading to puck possession, scoring opportunities and, ultimately, goals. The Penguins showed considerable improvement in this area in Game 2, but it still wasn't enough as the Red Wings managed to take a 2-0 series lead as it shifts back to Pittsburgh on Tuesday night.

The Penguins actually won the face-off battle on Sunday (27-24) and even scored a goal as a result of one of their wins, but they still struggled to keep possession of the puck at times, and still gave up scoring chances (and goals) off of their losses.

Echoing last year's Finals and mixing in some hints of Game 1, the Red Wings kept up the brand of hockey that took them to the title in 2008.

For the second consecutive year, Detroit has taken the first two games of the Stanley Cup finals against Pittsburgh. On Sunday, it was some of the lesser lights who gave the Red Wings a 3-1 victory at Joe Louis Arena, while on the other side, the Penguins' star player was silent.

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For Marc-Andre Fleury, this year's Stanley Cup final got off to a much better start than last year's seeing as how he didn't trip and fall when coming onto the ice. Unfortunately for him, that's where the good news ended. Two of Detroit's goals in its 3-1 win took odd bounces off of Fleury from bad angles on their way into net, as the Red Wings managed to take a 1-0 series lead on Saturday night.

Brad Stuart started it for the Wings midway through the first period when his slapshot took a bounce off the active Joe Louis Arena boards and deflected in off of Fleury's backside, reminiscent of the game-winning goal in last year's series-clinching win for Detroit. After Ruslan Fedotenko tied it later in the period, Johan Franzen was credited with his 11th of the postseason, and the eventual game-winning tally, when his shot from behind the net bounced in off of Fleury's leg.

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The Detroit Red Wings are getting ready to take on the Anaheim Ducks Sunday evening with their Western Conference semifinal series tied at two. They're likely going to be without forward Tomas Kopecky who is looking at the possibility of surgery following his one-sided (not Kopecky's side) fight with Francois Beauchemin on Thursday night.