FanHouse MartinGerber

The defending champs claim the top spot in this week's power rankings, while the Anaheim Ducks and Carolina Hurricanes make jumps of their own as they look to earn playoff berths in their respective conferences.

There's also a new team taking over the basement, thanks to a pair of blowout losses on home ice in the past week.

Toronto goalie Martin Gerber was ejected in the final minute of Tuesday's game with Washington for making contact with an official following a controversial goal. With the Maple Leafs leading, 2-1, there was a scrum in front of Gerber, resulting in Capitals forward Brooks Laich jamming a loose puck in for the game-tying goal.

We're in the home stretch of the NHL season, and both conference playoff races are heating up as the standings change on a daily basis. The Eastern Conference has seven teams separated by just seven points in the No's 4 through 10 spots, while everybody except Phoenix and Colorado is still competing for a playoff spot in the West.

Sabres 5, Canadiens 1: Patrick Lalime faced 39 shots on Wednesday night and turned aside all but one in Buffalo's 5-1 thrashing of Montreal. Derek Roy and Paul Gausted each scored a pair of goals for the Sabres, as they raced out to a commanding 5-0 lead.

Lalime weathered the storm in the first period, turning aside 18 Montreal shots, until Roy started the party for Buffalo netting a power play goal at the 17:53 mark of the period.

Predators 6, Oilers 5: Edmonton and Nashville entered Tuesday's game separated by only one point in the standings. Thanks to the Predators 6-5 overtime win, the two teams are now tied with 68 points at the bottom of the Western Conference playoff picture.

Jason Arnott scored the game-winner in overtime, as the two teams combined for five goals in the third period. Nashville has now won 11 of its past 16 games, including four in a row.

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 series of injuries to goalies Jose Theodore and Brent Johnson, the Washington Capitals have had some rather unfamiliar faces suiting up the past two nights. On Friday, Ted Starkey told you the story of Brett Leonhardt, the Capitals web producer who had the opportunity to sit on the bench and serve as the backup goalie until Simeon Varlamov could make it to the arena, fresh off his callup from the minors.

On Saturday, it was Varlamov's moment to shine, as the 20-year old rookie turned aside 32 shots in his first NHL start, helping lead the Capitals to a 2-1 win in Montreal. The Canadiens peppered the former first-round pick with 27 shots over the final two periods, but he was up to the challenge, keeping the game tied at one until Michael Nylander scored his third goal of the season at the 17:28 mark of the third period, giving Washington the lead.

Nicklas Backstrom also scored for the Capitals, while Patrice Brisebois tallied the lone goal for Montreal. Jaroslav Halak picked up the start filling in for Carey Price, stopping 24 shots.

The Ottawa Senators are a highly-skilled team with a horrible disease of some sort. Call it cancer, but realize that something was amok as the Sens' season spiraled into a sweep at the hands of the Pittsburgh Penguins.

How else can a team with the likes of Wade Redden, Dany Heatley, Daniel Alfredsson, Andrej Meszaros, Jason Spezza, and a bunch of other talented players completely collapse after starting the season 15-2?

There has been a lot of speculation about the nighttime exploits of certain players, as they prefer to party and booze it up rather than worry about their hockey job.

The #1 culprit, as everyone knows, appears to be Sugar Ray Emery, the guy who showed up late for practices, loves to get into fights, and is far too immature to be counted on as a #1 goaltender.

It's no small wonder, then, why the Sens want to get rid of the cancer, and get rid of Emery ASAP.

Ray Emery wore out his welcome as an Ottawa Senator because of his unprofessional approach to being a professional athlete, arriving late for practices and not working hard enough.

He also tested the patience of the team when stories reached general manager and coach Bryan Murray of Emery's partying in various Ottawa nightspots.

Friday, Murray said enough was enough. After talking to the 25-year-old goalie on Thursday, Murray put the For Sale sign on Emery, and will now try to trade him. If Murray can't trade Emery, then he'll have to decide whether to buy out the remaining two years of his contract.

"My plan is not to have him back," said Murray.

A buy-out may be the only option, because I just can't see anyone taking on Emery and his expensive contract right now.

Ottawa blogger Erin Nicks heard that the Senators would be bucking their "win and in you're in" goalie rotation by planning to start Ray Emery in Philadelphia tonight after he lost in the previous game; naturally, so close to the trade deadline, this set off some alarms. "Could this be an attempt to showcase Emery in the hopes of pawning him off on some unfortunate buyer? (And if he's going to give it up again a la the second Jersey goal on Saturday, what the [expletive] is the point?)," she pondered.

According to Bruce Garrioch of the Ottawa Sun, there will be no goalie showcase tonight or any other night before the deadline. Senators GM Bryan Murray said Emery and Martin Gerber will be the Ottawa goaltenders going forward:

While a top forward and defenceman remain on Murray's list, he says there's no sense in trying to find a goalie because there aren't any upgrades on the market. "I don't know that there's anybody to look for," said Murray. "Realistically, that's the way it is right now. Financially, we're committed to (Emery and Gerber) ... We believe that they're both good goaltenders. For whatever reason, whether it's alternating games or whatever it may be, they're just not playing to the best of their ability. Hopefully, we can get that to turn around."

I was a guest on Sirius Hardcore Sports Radio's "Relentless" two weeks ago when one of the boys made an analogy that's really stuck with me: Are the current incarnation of the Ottawa Senators the reincarnation of the Lindros Flyers? Amazingly talented up front, professionally sound on defense, but ranging from a question mark at best to a postseason flop at worst between the pipes season after season? To be fair: Emery wasn't the problem in last year's Finals. The same certainly can't be said this regular season.

This video goes all the way back to the lockout, which would have been the 2004-05 season. That year, lots of NHL players went overseas to stay on top of their game including Zdeno Chara and Sheldon Souray. This video pays tribute to the pair, who signed on with Farjestads BK Karlstad of Elitserien (a.k.a. the Swedish Elite League). Marian Gaborik, Mike Comrie and Martin Gerber were also on the team but did not kick the crap out of as many people. If you're like me and have the attention span of a goldfish, congratulations on making it this far into the post, and also fast forward to the :50 mark of the video to watch Chara absolutely destroy a guy. For the rest of you, enjoy the highlights and Swedish music. I assume that the music is Swedish, but I can barely speak my native language, English, half the time so don't take my word for it.


Man, that was some pretty intense stuff. Not nearly as deathly intense as Lenny Clarke, but intense nonetheless. I would say it ranks somewhere between watching the Omen for the first time (the original version) and sitting on the Calgary bench in front of Mike Keenan for a game.

If you were wondering, Farjestads BK finished the regular season in fourth but led the league in penalty minutes. Naturally. Chara and Souray combined for 249 minutes, finishing second and third on the team to Emil Kaberg who had 213.