FanHouse Pierre McGuire

It's problematic when only one team shows up.

This isn't meant to discredit the Detroit Red Wings, who allowed a couple early flurries, but were otherwise nearly flawless Saturday night. Instead, it's one of those mysterious things that happens once in a while in sports. For the Pittsburgh Penguins, it was an awful time to play a very poor game.

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Since the NHL returned from the 2004-05 lockout it has had only one broadcast television partner, NBC. The league has not been paid for the broadcast rights to NHL games -- despite getting money from Versus -- and if a report from the Globe and Mail is true, these trends are going to continue.

So whether or not you like NBC's coverage get used to it because we are likely stuck with it for another two seasons. That means potentially another two years of awkward intermission exchanges between Mike Milbury and Pierre McGuire as well as, hopefully, more great Winter Classic moments.

A crucial offseason, possibly the most significant in franchise history, is underway for the Minnesota Wild. Head coach Jacques Lemaire and general manager Doug Risebrough, the only people to ever hold those positions for the Wild, are both gone.

The process of finding a new general manager took precedent for owner Craig Leipold, and he made sure to take his time and get things right. After a series of interviews, and a list of candidates that included high-profile broadcaster Pierre McGuire, Leipold has settled on a front-office veteran with a track record of helping build winning teams.

A series billed as youth versus experience got its start Sunday, with the experience controlling most of the 60 minutes. Detroit's mix of amazing skill and unending will was more than enough to hold off Chicago at Joe Louis Arena. The opening game of the Western Conference Finals wasn't a blowout, but there was not much of a feeling Chicago could break through in this one.

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When the Minnesota Wild fired longtime general manager Doug Risebrough April 16, it was obvious that the team was about to embark on the most significant offseason in its almost decade-long history. Relatively new owner Craig Leipold made it clear that the standard of mediocrity on the ice was not going to be allowed to stand.

In searching for a new person to lead the franchise, Leipold appears to have reached out to a great variance of candidates. The list of finalists reported by Michael Russo of the Minneapolis Star-Tribune is quite intriguing, as is word of a Tuesday interview with one of the candidates.

Thanks to the events of Tuesday night, as the Capitals and Hurricanes advanced in their game 7 victories, the Pittsburgh Penguins and Washington Capitals will be taking part in a playoff series that could very well consume us all. We've seen playoff series' get hyped before, but nothing will come close to the tidal wave of Sidney Crosby and Alex Ovechkin coverage that is about take the NHL by storm. Consider yourselves warned.

Before we look ahead to the madness, let's take a few minutes and remember the glory days of one of the best playoff rivalries the 1990's ever produced.

Things are getting ugly in New York as the Rangers continued their recent slide with a 5-2 loss to the Philadelphia Flyers on Sunday afternoon, their seventh loss in the past eight games, putting them in the quagmire that is the bottom of the Eastern Conference playoff picture.

Aside from getting booed much of the afternoon (the only emotion the Madison Square Garden faithful showed) the Rangers were also getting crushed by NBC analysts Pierre McGuire and Mike Milbury for their lack of effort and intensity.

On Saturday night, TSN hockey analyst Gord Miller became the latest person to jump on the Pittsburgh is doomed because it has too much cap money tied up in too few players(!) bandwagon.

According to Miller, the Penguins can't compete with Sidney Crosby and Evgeni Malkin making as much money as they do, because it forces the Penguins to surround them with bargain basement players. This is apparently because Ray Shero couldn't get his star players to sign cap friendly contracts like Ken Holland did in Detroit. Because of this, the Penguins must (his opinion, not mine) trade Malkin.