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Every day from Monday to Saturday, The Ice Sheet will take a look at the biggest stories in the league that happened on the ice and elsewhere the night before.

Day 1 of the 2008 Stanley Cup Playoffs is complete, with the Rangers whipping the Devils, and the Senators picking up right where they left off with even more futile play.

Ever since the Senators started the season 13-1, they have been a sub-.500 hockey club with terrible chemistry and little cohesion. The Penguins, on the other hand, recovered from a slow start to nearly take the conference crown.

It was no surprise, then, to see the Penguins begin with a 4-0 shutout victory in Game One. If the Sens want to show us that the regular season troubles are behind them, they aren't doing a very good job.

How bad was it for the Sens? Hmm ...

• Gary Roberts opens the scoring just 68 seconds into the game. Good start, Ottawa.
• The Ottawa Power(less) Play goes 0-7, including whiffing on a key 5-on-3 advantage in the third period.
• Marc-Andre Fleury, a goalie with just ONE playoff victory under his belt, managed to shut out one of the more talented offensive groups in the game. How sad is that?
• Ottawa was already without key injured regulars Daniel Alfredsson, Mike Fisher and Chris Kelly, and played most of the final two periods without defenseman Anton Volchenkov, who was cut in the forehead by Malkin's slap shot midway through the second.

Yep, not a good start for the Sens.

Every day from Monday to Saturday, The Ice Sheet will take a look at the biggest stories in the league that happened on the ice and elsewhere the night before.

It's been a rather frustrating year for Sidney Crosby as he's fought an ankle injury and watched as Evgeni Malkin and Alexander Ovechkin steal his spotlight. With just six points in six March games, Crosby wasn't much of a factor as the Penguins battled the likes of the New Jersey Devils and New York Rangers to Atlantic Division supremacy.

Last night, Sidney finally put his stamp back on the team with a two-goal performance in the Penguins 4-2 win over the Flyers. With the win, the Pens win the division for the first time since 1998, and can finish no lower than second place in the Eastern Conference.

"We ended up losing Crosby (for 28 games) and Marc-Andre Fleury (for three months) and so many other guys during the course of the season, and we were just trying to focus and maintain our position to make the playoffs," coach Michel Therrien said. "The guys surprised me with their commitment."

Another interesting note: The Penguins sold out all 41 home games for the first time in their 41 year history. Given the team's past attendance problems, this is just more icing on the cake for the revived antarctic dwellers. Still, I find it amazing that they never sold out a season back when Mario Lemieux and the Pens were winning Stanley Cups. What the hell?

Every day from Monday to Saturday, The Ice Sheet will take a look at the biggest stories in the league that happened on the ice and elsewhere the night before.

With the Nashville Predators nipping at their heels, and Peter Forsberg starting to get into the groove, the Vancouver Canucks have picked the worst time to go into the tank.

After a give-the-points-away 3-2 loss to the Flames on Tuesday, the Canucks gave away another two points as the Avs pounded them 6-3. This was a game in which the Canucks had a 2-1 lead and looked halfway decent at one point, but then decided to stop putting out an effort altogether.

With the Avs win, and the Wild beating up on a red-hot Edmonton Oilers squad, the Northwest Division is providing hockey fans with one hell of a race. Every game is important, and every game provides a seemingly massive swing in the standings and the emotions of fans.

As of this morning, both Nashville and Edmonton have realistic playoff hopes if they can run the table and get some help from the hockey gods.

	Team	GP	PTS
1.	Detroit	77	108
2.	San Jose	76	100
3.	Minnesota*	78	91
4.	Anaheim	78	96
5.	Calgary	77	90
6.	Dallas	76	89
7.	Colorado	78	88
8.	Vancouver	77	86
9.	Nashville	77	84
10.	Edmonton	78	83

Every day from Monday to Saturday, The Ice Sheet will take a look at the biggest stories in the league that happened on the ice and elsewhere the night before.

Prior to last night's action, the Edmonton Oilers were suddenly looking like they might just be able to sneak in and grab the 8th and final spot in the Western Conference playoffs. Despite a putrid goal differential of -15, the Oilers were just five points out of a playoff spot and had an essentially .500 record.

After four straight wins, the Oilers went to 8-2 in their past 10 games, and had that dangerous 'nothing to lose' mentality that helped their players relax and just play their guts out.

Of course, being five points out in this point in the season is a dangerous proposition, and one big loss, such as the 4-1 defeat the Oilers were handed by the Vancouver Canucks last night, can pretty much end your playoff aspirations faster than you can say 'Kevin Lowe Sucks!'

Every day from Monday to Saturday, The Ice Sheet will take a look at the biggest stories in the league that happened on the ice and elsewhere the night before.

It's not often that the average hockey fan from a small prairie town gets a chance to make millions and shoot pucks on a NHL Ice Surface.

Well, Darwin Head of Prince Albert, Saskatchewan had that very chance during last night's Avs/Canucks tilt. Standing at center ice, with a stadium full of spectators and the legendary Bobby Orr watching, Head buried enough biscuits to win himself a cool seven figures.

Head scored 15 goals – the exact number needed – in 24 seconds into an open net from the far blue line at General Motors Place to win $1 million in a one-time payout.

"This is just unreal. I can't wait to have a huge party and celebrate with my family and friends back home in Prince Albert," said Head. "And it feels so great that my wife and I will be able to look after our kids' futures with this money."

I think Mr. Head could probably buy the entire town of Prince Albert and have enough change left over for a 2-4 of Molson Canadian.

The Ice Sheet will take a look at the biggest stories in the league that happened on the ice and elsewhere the night before.

Well, so much for some theory that the weakening economy will put a dent into trend of rich men buying pro sports clubs. Not long after the owners of the Edmonton Oilers accepted a lucrative offer to buy the club, we run into the Tampa Bay Lightning being sold to a willing buyer: Oren Koules, the man famous for bringing us the never-ending SAW series of horror flicks.

Palace Sports & Entertainment and OK Hockey LLC have a definitive purchase agreement for the Tampa Bay Lightning, the leasehold rights to the St. Pete Times Forum and approximately 5.5 acres of land in Tampa's Channelside District. Details of the deal were not released, but earlier reports had set the purchase price in the $200 million neighborhood.

Of course, the team was just about sold a few months back, before the whole thing unraveled like a poor movie plot (Something the prospective owner should know all about).

While Koules might love horror shows, he can't like the fact that the Lightning are in last place in the Eastern Conference, have 95% of their payroll tied up in three players, and have very little in the way of good prospects in the system. It'll take some Hollywood Magic to turn this franchise around, that's for sure.

Every day from Monday to Saturday, The Ice Sheet will take a look at the biggest stories in the league that happened on the ice and elsewhere the night before.

If you had to build a franchise around one of the league's young players, and it couldn't be either Sidney Crosby or Alexander Ovechkin, you would probably go with Calgary defenseman Dion Phaneuf. Rarely does a club get the chance to utilize a defenseman that is the complete package of size, toughness, grit, strength, shooting power, and offensive acumen.

Therefore, you can be sure the Flames knew they had something special in their modern day Scott Stevens-like stalwart, and they were going to do everything in their power to keep the boy around.

How about a big nice contract extension for six years at about $6.5 million per season? Yeah, that ought to do it.

I'm excited about the prospect of playing another six years in Calgary," said Phaneuf. "In fact, I never thought I would be playing anywhere else. I am proud to be a member of this organization and will continue to concentrate on the job at hand - making and advancing in the playoffs this year and for years to come."

Maybe, just this once, we'll see a smile from the guy with the perma-sourpuss on his face?

Every day from Monday to Saturday, The Ice Sheet will take a look at the biggest stories in the league that happened on the ice and elsewhere the night before.

Not a day goes by without another silly rumor coming from the dark depths of the Toronto sports media.

Normally, I don't give two shakes of a lamb's tail about what comes out of the orifices of the mainstream mediots in that section of Canada, but TSN.ca's Darren Dreger takes the cake with this nutso conspiracy theory. Put on the tin-foil hates and lock the bomb shelter.

Theory: The Leafs are 'tanking' games to get a better draft position.

I won't call it "tanking," but some have.

A 3-2 loss to the St Louis Blues on home ice doesn't provide evidence of that, but if you scratch beneath the surface of the loss, there's a case to be made.

Jiri Tlusty's promotion to Toronto's top-line seemed a tad peculiar despite injuries to Alexei Ponikarovsky and Alex Steen. With 1 goal, 3 assists and a plus\minus of -9 in his last 27 games, did the 19 year old, who has struggled to earn a regular shift, all of sudden win over his head coach?

He won't call it tanking, and admits that one game doesn't provide proof, but he devotes an entire article to the subject. Uh-huh.

Every day from Monday to Saturday, The Ice Sheet will take a look at the biggest stories in the league that happened on the ice and elsewhere the night before.



After Ilya Kovalchuk hit Rangers' defenseman Michal Rozsival from behind, we knew there would be *some* kind of discipline.

Some, in NHL terms, being very minimal.

The punishment for this dangerous hit? A single game, a slap on the wrist, and a 'bad boy!' Basically, Ilya gets a nice day off and certainly won't think twice about making the same type of play in the future.

With the All-Star Game rosters already hemorrhaging star players due to injury (Sidney Crosby), or personal reasons (Roberto Luongo), you can be sure that the league took every measure to ensure Kovalchuk would play in front of the hometown fans in Atlanta. If this hit occurred three games ago, the suspension would have likely been just a bit longer.

Every day from Monday to Saturday, The Ice Sheet will take a look at the biggest stories in the league that happened on the ice and elsewhere the night before.

Sports fans in Buffalo have been kicked in the balls far too many times (No Goal! Wide Right!), so losing is nothing new and unusual to the people in that wintry city.

That said, the Buffalo Sabres' current problems must be enough to give more than a few Buffalonians a monster case of heartburn. With last night's 2-1 loss to the downstate New York Rangers, the Sabres have now lost TEN games in a row, and are falling from playoff contention with each passing day.

The Sabres are 0-5-5 in their last 10 games. They haven't won since Dec. 22 in Philadelphia and, in fact, are the only team in the NHL without a win in the 2008 calendar year.

"We didn't make a lot of good plays," coach Lindy Ruff said. "We didn't make good decisions and Al [Kotalik] pounded the puck right into Betts every time. I can't yell, 'Don't shoot it,' but you have to bury your head and move it around those guys. We didn't and that was a disappointing part of the game."

Perhaps Lindy and assistant James Patrick ought to lace 'em up and give directions from the ice. At this point, the Sabres need some creative ideas if they are to put a W in the win column some time this calendar year.