FanHouse Pascal Leclaire

We're trying something different to replace the old Newsmakers in the NHL posts. Hopefully you'll like it. Each weekday we'll take a look at one positive performance from the previous night (a plus), and one negative performance from the previous night (a minus). It's the plus/minus.Tell us what you think at nhlfanhouse@gmail.com.

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Thursday night, the Columbus Blue Jackets will begin their quest into the strange new world that is the NHL playoffs. To get an idea of the atmosphere around town, and to continue to learn more about this once anonymous franchise, we discussed its upcoming series against the Detroit Red Wings with Aaron Portzline, beat writer for the Columbus Dispatch. Portzline, one of the most net-savvy of hockey's beat writers, also helps run a blog for the paper called Puck-rakers and has an excellent Twitter page.

Portzline has covered the Blue Jackets since their inaugural season in 2000-01, and has seen all of the ups and downs the franchise has offered over the years.

You're going to hear about Sidney Crosby and Alex Ovechkin quite a bit during the NHL playoffs (probably more than you care to hear about them) but they are far from the only players in the NHL that could make an impact in the race for the Stanley Cup.

Here are four under-the-radar players that could play big roles for their teams this postseason.

The Columbus Blue Jackets took a small step towards solidifying their status as a playoff team in the Western Conference by acquiring Antoine Vermette from the Ottawa Senators in exchange for goaltender Pascal Leclaire and a second round pick, as reported by TSN.

Vermette has always been filled with potential and talent, but he's never really put it all together on the ice. He's averaged 20 goals the past three seasons, but has only scored nine in 62 games this season.

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Panthers 6, Capitals 2: After a couple of blowout losses this past week, the Florida Panthers rebounded for a convincing 6-2 win in Washington on Sunday, thanks in large part to a 3-for-6 effort from their power play. After Alexander Semin gave the Capitals a 1-0 lead, the Panthers picked up three consecutive power play goals on their way to a four goal first period.

Bryan McCabe registered four points in the win, while Stephen Weiss picked up a goal and two assists. Jay Bouwmeester, Brett McLean and Keith Ballard also added two points.

Tuesday night's game against Edmonton is probably one that Columbus goalie Pascal Leclaire would like to permanently erase from his memory, seeing as how it's probably the worst game he's ever played in the NHL. Leclaire gave up seven goals on just 19 shots, as the Oilers rolled to a 7-2 victory, snapping a three-game losing streak.

Columbus finished with a commanding edge in the shots department, firing 39 shots at Dwayne Roloson -- he stopped 37 of them -- and still managed to skate away losing by five goals.

Seven different players scored for Edmonton, including Dustin Penner, who returned to the ice after being banished to the press box for the past two games for, well, not being fit enough to help the club. Penner was also a factor on Edmonton's first goal, as he parked his massive frame in front of Leclaire, providing a screen on Sheldon Souray's blast from the point. Andrew Cogliano, Tom Gilbert, Marc-Antoine Pouliot, Shawn Horcoff and Lubomir Visnovsky also scored for the Oilers.

Kristian Huselius and Rick Nash scored the only goals for the Blue Jackets.

Things have been bleak in New Jersey ever since Martin Brodeur went down with his elbow injury, and they didn't exactly get any better on Friday night when the Devils fell, 3-1, to Washington. The Devils are now 1-5 since Brodeur's injury, and have scored just five goals in the five losses. Perhaps instead of acquiring a new goalie to replace his injured star, Lou Lamoriello should consider picking up somebody that can actually fill the net. Just a thought.

Scott Clemmensen was the hard-luck loser for the Devils on this night, giving up only two goals on 26 shots (the third goal for Washington was of the empty-net variety).

Battle of New York with the all too familiar recap for Devils fans:

It's already becoming a familiar script. A good effort by an undermanned Devils team, but the offense can't put the puck past a goaltender you wouldn't expect to play well and despite acceptable goaltending on their own end, it's all just good enough to lose. That's what's facing the Devils right now after their 3-1 loss in Washington, dropping them to .500 (7-7-2) just two weeks after being four games over.

Alex Ovechkin continued his recent hot-streak by scoring his fifth goal (empty net) of the year and also picking up an assist. He's now scored in three straight games, after going ten in a row without a goal. It was only a matter of time before he started to catch fire.

Brooks Laich and Tomas Fleischman also scored for the Capitals, while Patrick Elias scored the lone Devils goal.

Unfortunately for the Capitals, the win came with a price as they lost the league's leading scorer, Alexander Semin, to an "undisclosed injury" in the second period. He did not return to the game.

There's a meme that has been circulating among hockey blogs and message boards for probably as long as those forums have existed that basically asserts that Martin Brodeur isn't a particularly talented netminder and that his frequently gaudy numbers are merely the result of playing in a painfully boring, but effective, defensive system. At least that's the meme in its current form, as the causal clause has had to be tweaked a few times (from "playing for Jacques Lemaire" to "playing behind Scott Stevens and Scott Niedermayer" to the more generic way it's repeated now) in order to isolate the true reason behind Marty's perennially minuscule goals against average (which is most certainly not the result of, you know, talent).

But whether or not Martin Brodeur is a fraud is a discussion for another day. Today we're taking a look at a guy -- Pascal Leclaire -- who just might be the heir apparent to Brodeur's throne. No, not in terms of all those wins, Cups, wives and Vezinas (though who knows?), but in terms of being called out as merely the beneficiary of a painfully boring, but effective, defensive system.

Unlike the cut-and-dry Lidstrom Norris Trophy race, the Vezina race, for the NHL's top netminder, is much more interesting at the half-way point. Looking at the top of the stats, we see that leader board is clogged like a gas station's toilet.

Roberto Luongo (who pwned Crosby last month, if you'll remember) should definitely be considered the #1 goaltender in the NHL right now. Besides the fact that he just continues to make so many saves, as The Puck Stops Here notes, he also has the largest workload out of the top performers. Over the course of a season, being able to 'bring it' night in and night out is extremely valuable, and means that a team doesn't have to rely on their backup goaltenders nearly as much.

Name	Team	GP	MIN	W	L	OTL	SV%	SO
C.Osgood	DET	23	1356	19	2	1	0.932	2
T. Thomas	BOS	27	1608	13	9	3	0.931	1
R. Luongo	VAN	34	2014	19	12	3	0.930	6
P. Leclaire	COB	28	1557	13	8	3	0.928	7
C. Huet	MON	22	1335	11	6	5	0.926	1

Chris Osgood continues to astound with what can't be considered but anything than a cosmic outlier. One would have to think that he'll be coming down to Earth any day, once his contract with Satan (not Miroslav, mind you) expires. Osgood also gets a few demerits for playing behind the elite team in the NHL and facing so few shots every night.

The race for second place is then between young Pascal Leclaire and old man Tim Thomas. Both goalies have done an amazing job carrying rather poor teams to competitive levels. If shutouts are your thing, Leclaire already have seven this season, and may break double digits. The league's GMs, who vote on the award, seem to love shiny shutouts. Thus, I'd rank Luongo first, Leclaire second, and Thomas third.

Eric Duhatschek of the Globe & Mail takes a rather in-depth look at the Hart Trophy race near the midpoint in the season, summarizing the non-goalie field -- he believes that as offensive hockey continues to thrive, "the voting pendulum should theoretically swing back to position players and away from goaltenders" -- and eliminating some candidates.

Sidney Crosby? Even as the Penguins are streaking, the Kid's on pace for fewer points than last season. Vincent Lecavalier? Not if the Lightning are sucking tailpipe in the Eastern Conference; as the voters proved with Jarome Iginla in 2002, you have to make the postseason to win the Hart, even if you're the league's best offensive player. (Or was it racism?)

Iginla is currently second in the league in goals (31), third in points (57) and first in game-winning goals (6) for Calgary, which enters the weekend fifth in the Western Conference; despite having Miikka Kiprusoff at 29th in the League in GAA and having this writer cursing the damn day he drafted him for his fantasy team. (Which, in case I haven't mentioned, is called the Elias [el-eee-ahsh] Sports Bureau.) With both Ottawa and Detroit having multiple candidates, and some of the other stars having their drawbacks, Duhatschek sees Iggy as the first-half MVP.