FanHouse Ryan Kesler

The USA Olympic orientation camp made for some strange bedfellows. Vancouver forward Ryan Kesler found himself rooming with T.J. Oshie of the Blues, who'd sent some cheap shots Kesler's way in the past, according to Kesler.

"I wasn't a fan," Kesler told FanHouse by phone this week. "And Paul Stastny once got me with a stick on a faceoff and chipped a couple of my teeth. But we sat down and talked and they're good guys. Stastny apologized for high-sticking me in the face."

Could it be that some of the other USA hopefuls felt equally ambivalent about Kesler going into the camp?

A rather odd story was making the rounds in western Canada Thursday. The rumor involved Vancouver Canucks first-round pick, Jordan Schroeder. He's a forward with the University of Minnesota, and was one of the top freshmen in college hockey last year.

The rumor had Schroeder signing an entry-level deal with the Canucks, then either making the team (possible) or playing the season with the Everett Silvertips, who own his Western Hockey League rights (more likely).

USA Hockey knew what it was doing when it named Brian Burke to run the national team. As they try to build the team on the ice into a more serious international contender, Burke will keep them in the headlines. After a relatively silent experience at the IIHF World Championships, where Team USA placed fourth, Burke is back in midseason form.

In Chicago for Team USA's orientation camp in advance of the 2010 Winter Olympics in Vancouver, Burke spoke Tuesday about what fans can expect to see from the Americans. Needless to say, he spoke with brutal honesty, something that fans can equally appreciate and despise.

Elie Seckbach, the Embedded Correspondent, brings his exclusive video reporting to FanHouse. Check back regularly for more videos.

It's the hottest hockey video game yet, NHL 2K10, and it's coming out September 15. In this FanHouse exclusive we catch up with NHL stars Ryan Kesler and Kevin Bieksa of the Vancouver Canucks as well as Jack Johnson of the Los Angeles Kings as they shoot a commercial for the game on location in L.A. Find out why hockey players fight, who the toughest player in the league is and why Kevin Bieksa should have his own reality show.

Check out the video after the jump.

Winning on the road is so very important in the Stanley Cup Playoffs. The Chicago Blackhawks seemed to be a good candidate for road success, being that they set a franchise record for it in the regular season.

That performance has indeed carried over. Chicago improved to 3-3 in road games during this postseason, and 2-1 in this series, as they bested Vancouver 4-2 Saturday night at GM Place.

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Most teams suffer their first loss of the NHL Playoffs before they've won a series. In the case of the Vancouver Canucks, they won five straight before Chicago took them down 6-3 on Saturday.

Game 3 of this physical series was played Tuesday night in Chicago. Not only was Vancouver coming off a loss, but they were dealing with injuries to a stalwart defenseman and one of their top six forwards. With this as a backdrop, the Canucks responded with a 3-1 win at United Center.

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Earlier this season we took a look at the power play/penalty kill differential for every team in the league to gain a better understanding of which team may (or may not) benefit from penalty calls during games. When all was said and done, the Philadelphia Flyers were at the bottom of the barrel, while the Carolina Hurricanes were the most disciplined team in the NHL (again).

Some of you asked to see a similar analysis for the postseason, and because we aim to please, your wish is our command.

If Detroit Red Wings center Pavel Datsyuk is going to claim his second straight Selke Trophy as the league's best defensive forward, he's going to have to overcome two excellent players in Philadelphia's Mike Richards and Vancouver's Ryan Kesler.

Regarded as one of the top defensive players in the game, Datsyuk finished second with 89 takeaways, trailing only Pittsburgh's Evgeni Malkin, who finished with 94. It's the first time in two years that Datsyuk has not led the league in that category, while he was also credited with 33 blocked shots and won over 56 percent of his faceoffs.