FanHouse MIke Green

FanHouse's Adam Gretz takes a look at his top 50 players in the NHL. No. 7 is Detroit Red Wings defenseman Nicklas Lidstrom.

At 39, I still have Lidstrom as the best defenseman in the NHL, and in my opinion, the debate shouldn't be where does he rank among the current defensemen, but where does he rank all-time? Everybody is fighting for second behind Bobby Orr, but who is next? Lidstrom? Ray Bourque? Somebody else?

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FanHouse's Adam Gretz takes a look at his top 50 players in the NHL. No. 26 is Washington Capitals defenseman Mike Green.

The inclusion of Sergei Gonchar in the top-30 ignited quite a debate and plenty of disagreement, and I'm expecting an equal amount at the placement of Washington's Mike Green. A couple of weeks ago, I asked if we would ever see another NHL defenseman hit the century mark in a single season, and came to the conclusion that Green is the only player with a legitimate chance. He not only led all defensemen in scoring this past season, he obliterated the competition, leading Andrei Markov, the No. 2 defenseman, by nine points, despite playing in 10 fewer games.

That all has to be worth something. Right?

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Before Bobby Orr entered the NHL way back in 1966, the idea of a defenseman scoring 100 points would have been considered lunacy. After all, forwards were rarely coming within spitting distance of the century mark, and defensemen were never really used as offensive weapons. Orr, of course, changed all of that, and not only became the first rearguard to ever lead the NHL in scoring, he eclipsed the 100-point plateau an unthinkable six times.

Only four other defensemen have ever accomplished the feat (Paul Coffey, Al MaCinnis, Brian Leetch and Denis Potvin) while only Coffey did it more than once (five times).

Will we ever see another one?

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WASHINGTON -- After watching the Pittsburgh Penguins and the Washington Capitals play six of the most tightly-contested playoff games in recent memory, just about every last one of the 18,277 fans who showed up at Verizon Center on Wednesday night were probably expecting yet another nail-biter between two teams that couldn't be more evenly matched.

What they got instead was a 6-2 blowout win by Pittsburgh.

How did it happen? Simply put, the Penguins put their foot on the gas early and didn't let up.

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When most of us got out of bed Wednesday morning, we probably didn't expect to see Pittsburgh Penguins defenseman Kris Letang in the lineup for the Penguins that night, not after the way he left the ice in obvious pain during Game 2 in Washington. But whatever vitamins they're feeding the players in Pittsburgh, they worked on Letang.

He gutted out three-plus periods before scoring the game-winning goal in overtime to give the Penguins a needed win in Game 3 of their second round series with the Caps, cutting Washington's series lead to 2-1.

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It's the series everybody is talking about, as Sidney Crosby and Alex Ovechkin prepare to hit the ice in a one-on-one, steel cage battle for NHL supremacy. Wait. What's that? There's actually other players involved in this series? We take a look at the series after the jump.

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The news around the Devils Tuesday should rightfully be about their Game 7 against the Hurricanes, but Sports Business Journal had other plans. They reported Tuesday morning that the team was looking for a business executive to take over revenue-building duties, stripping those duties from do-everything honcho Lou Lamoriello and allowing him the opportunity to focus solely on the hockey operations side.

Apparently, the league has been bitten for the second day in a row by an erroneous report. After ESPN wrongfully reported Monday one-game suspensions for Capitals Donald Brashear and Mike Green only to redact the report shortly thereafter, Devils chairman/managing partner Jeff Vanderbeek called the Lamoriello report "very inaccurate."

After a fake news report, a six-game suspension, an allegation of biting, and a coach being banished to a suite for turning a water bottle into a projectile against opposing fans, it is hard to imagine there being anything more unexpected in a mere first-round hockey playoff series. But there is something more unanticipated in this set of great interest now between the Rangers and Capitals. It is that the series wound up where it is scheduled to be Tuesday night -- at a deciding Game 7.

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After watching his team drop the first two games of their opening round playoff series with the Rangers, Bruce Boudreau decided he needed to make a change. Out of the lineup came play-making center Michael Nylander, and in his place fell perennial enforcer Donald Brashear.

After those two games, it was clear that the Rangers had gained something of a physical edge over the surprised Capitals. And on Sunday in New York, Brashear showed exactly why Boudreau gave him another shot at postseason hockey, first picking a fight with Rangers enforcer Colton Orr during pre-game warmups and then crushing penalty-killer Blair Betts with a borderline hit that sent him to the locker room in the first period, never to return. Later reports today say that Betts suffered a broken orbital bone and is done for the rest of the playoffs.

Brashear will have to answer for both of those actions later today, when the league holds a hearing at 1:00 PM.

There were plenty of distractions entering Sunday's Game 6 between the Capitals and Rangers. New York head coach John Tortorella was suspended and watching from a sky box; winger Sean Avery, who was a healthy scratch for Game 5, was back on the ice; and Rangers GM Glen Sather was doing his best to provide the press with another distraction, as he issued an open letter to NHL Commissioner Gary Bettman chastising the Capitals organization for failing to provide adequate security behind the visiting bench during Game 5.

But with all the static in the air, the Washington Capitals stayed focused, jumping out to a 3-1 lead after the first period, never looking back on their way to a 5-3 win to force a Game 7 in Washington on Tuesday night. That early lead came thanks to offense from an unlikely source: a trio of defensemen who seemed to have figured something out about Rangers goalie Henrik Lundqvist.

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