FanHouse MartyTurco

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?

The Stanley Cup won't be handed out until June, but this is the time when we see teams making runs at the playoffs. And you can't win the Cup if you don't make the playoffs. Race for the Cup is your daily check of where your favorite team stands as the season dwindles.

They won't win the Central Division, but the Columbus Blue Jackets are one of the real intriguing stories of this NHL season. A 5-0 blowout of Calgary Thursday night put the Jackets in great position to make the playoffs for the first time in franchise history. It was another shutout for Steve Mason, and another big night for Rick Nash. Mason pitched the shutout, while Nash dished out four assists.

Sharks 1, Stars 0: The only game on the schedule Monday night was a goaltending battle as San Jose's Evgeni Nabokov turned aside all 29 shots he faced to lead the Sharks to a 1-0 win in Dallas. Devin Setoguchi scored the game's only goal at the 7:55 mark of the third period, giving San Jose its fourth straight win.

Marty Turco was strong for Dallas, stopping 24-of-25 shots in what was his 30th consecutive start in goal. He's been outstanding the past three months.

Hurricanes 5, Avalanche 2: Led by Matt Cullen's hat trick, Carolina picked up a dominating 5-2 win over the Avalanche on Sunday to move within one point of the No. 8 spot in the Eastern Conference. The Hurricanes held a commanding 39-19 edge in the shots department, as the Avalanche spent nearly a third of the game down a man.

Cam Ward stopped 17-of-19 shots in net, while Joni Pitkanen, Ray Whitney and Chad LaRose each finished with two points in the win.

Earlier this season I, like many, I assume, was quite critical of the play of Dallas Stars goalie Marty Turco. Mainly because for the first two months of the season he was the hockey equivalent to Swiss cheese on skates.

I like to think I'm a reasonable person, willing to eat my share of crow when the opportunity presents itself, and Turco has offered up quite a dish. While the Stars fell to Chicago on Saturday, 3-1, Turco put forth another strong performance in net, turning aside 33-of-36 shots, including an incredible stop on Jonathan Toews in the second period. Video after the jump.

Blues 2, Rangers 1: A day after getting crushed on their home ice, the New York Rangers dropped a 2-1 decision in St. Louis, losing for the eighth time in their past nine games.

At this point, it's anybody's guess as to how long Tom Renney remains behind the bench, as the Rangers continue to slide down the Eastern Conference standings.

Flyers 3, Thrashers 2: Thanks to a pair of goals from Jeff Carter the Flyers were able to hold off a late rally from Atlanta to pick a 3-2 win. Trailing 3-0 late in the third period, the Thrashers were able to cut the deficit to just one thanks to a pair of power play goals from Ilya Kovalchuk and Slava Kozlov, before Antero Niittymaki and the Flyers shut the door to preserve the win.

After winning three in a row a little over a week ago, Atlanta has now lost six of its past seven games.

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.

During the All-Star break, we presented a look at the jumbled mess that is the Western Conference. Since then, the standings haven't been sorted out one bit. In fact, things might be even messier. As of Tuesday morning, eight points are all that separate last-place St. Louis from sixth-place Dallas.

Yes, I said "sixth-place Dallas." A team that was left for dead multiple times during the first half of the season has clawed its way back to playoff position. The Stars are 6-1-1 in their last eight games, and their best player has started to play like it.

The Bruins and Capitals helped kick off the second half of the NHL season on Tuesday, and the top two teams in the Eastern Conference did not disappoint in Boston's 3-2 overtime win.

While it was an exciting game for much of the night, the best action came in the overtime period as goaltenders Tim Thomas and Jose Theodore exchanged incredible saves at each end of the ice. Following a Niklas Backstrom hooking penalty, David Krejci sent a pass through the slot only to have it bounce off Shaone Morrison's skate and find the back of the net behind Theodore for the game-winner.