Give Rangers general manager Glen Sather credit; he found somebody to take on one of the team's ugly contracts when he sent Scott Gomez to the Montreal Canadiens for Chris Higgins, Doug Janik, Ryan McDonagh and Pavel Valentenko on Tuesday afternoon. Gomez, 29, signed a seven-year, $51 million deal with the Rangers prior to the 2007-08 season, and the signing proved to be a mistake from the very beginning.
After jumping out to a 1-0 series lead in the Western Conference Final, Red Wings head coach Mike Babcock held a press conference on Monday and fielded a variety of questions from the media. For the most part, it was your typical, run-of-the-mill press conference.
About half way through, a reporter started asking Babcock about how he once joked that he was ready for the salary cap to break up the young talent the Chicago Blackhawks have assembled over the years. In Babcock's mind, he wasn't joking.
Exactly 1,230 regular season games have been played. We're down to the best eight teams in each conference. The Stanley Cup Playoffs begin Wednesday night with four series lid-lifters.
In the Eastern Conference, the Boston Bruins rallied from a bit of a swoon around the All-Star Break to easily win the top seed. Even if you subscribe to the idea of Boston being favored because of their strong overall record, there are no sure things in these here playoffs. Who will threaten to knock the Bruins off their pedestal?
The playoffs might not start for another week, but Tuesday's throw down in Madison Square Garden between the Rangers and Canadiens might as well be a playoff game. How big is this game? Well, if we believe Larry Brooks of the New York Post, this is the biggest regular season game the Rangers have played since the lockout. Yeah. It's that big.
In what was the New York Rangers' weekly appearance on the NBC game of the week, Nikolai Zherdev scored the game-winning goal late in the third period when he pounced on a fortunate bounce off the end boards and fired it into a wide open net, giving the Rangers a 4-3 win over Boston.
With the game tied, 3-3, late in the third, Rangers defenseman Marc Staal carried the puck into the Boston zone and fired an innocent shot off the boards. Boston goalie Manny Fernandez, who struggled all day, found himself out of position well out of his crease, giving Zherdev the entire net to shoot at.
Flames 5, Flyers 1: The Calgary Flames were the big winners during the NHL's trade deadline, picking up Olli Jokinen from the Phoenix Coyotes and Jordan Leopold from the Colorado Avalanche. It didn't take the two newcomers long to make an impact for the Flames, as they each scored in the first period of Calgary's 5-1 win in Philadelphia.
Jokinen scored a pair of goals in the first period, while Leopold added his seventh of the season to help the Flames race out to a 4-0 lead.
Weeks of rumors, innuendo, and e5s will finally come to a head on Wednesday. At 3pm Eastern, the NHL trade deadline will pass. You can follow all the activity with our NHL Trade Deadline Tracker.
Entering play Tuesday night, 23 NHL teams are either in a playoff position or within six points of one. While this is great for the playoff races, it's not so good for the deadline. It minimizes the number of potential sellers, drives up the trade market for the few players who should be available, and leaves us wondering if any big deals will go down. Here's a look at how the Eastern Conference looks heading into the deadline.
Each Friday throughout the season, I'll provide you with my predictions on whose stock is on the rise and whose is failing miserably like the American job market pretty much everything these days. It's a neat little segment entitled Buys and Sells. There are a few teams/players/issues to buy and a few to sell.
The playoff race in the middle of the Eastern Conference has taken a lot of twists and turns over the past week. The Rangers fired their coach and hired another, the Penguins shipped off Ryan Whitney and the Buffalo Sabres lost their starting goalie to an ankle injury.
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.
After jumping out to a 1-0 series lead in the Western Conference Final, Red Wings head coach Mike Babcock held a press conference on Monday and fielded a variety of questions from the media. For the most part, it was your typical, run-of-the-mill press conference. 
In what was the New York Rangers' weekly appearance on the NBC game of the week, Nikolai Zherdev scored the game-winning goal late in the third period when he pounced on a fortunate bounce off the end boards and fired it into a wide open net, giving the Rangers a 4-3 win over Boston. 
Flames 5, Flyers 1: The Calgary Flames were the big winners during the NHL's trade deadline, picking up Olli Jokinen from the Phoenix Coyotes and Jordan Leopold from the Colorado Avalanche. It didn't take the two newcomers long to make an impact for the Flames, as they each scored in the first period of Calgary's 5-1 win in Philadelphia. 
Weeks of rumors, innuendo, and e5s will finally come to a head on Wednesday. At 3pm Eastern, the NHL trade deadline will pass. You can follow all the activity with our NHL Trade Deadline Tracker.
Each Friday throughout the season, I'll provide you with my predictions on whose stock is on the rise and whose is failing miserably like 
Rangers 3, Islanders 1: For one night, everything was great at Madison Square Garden as the Rangers picked up a much needed 3-1 win over the Islanders. Scott Gomez, Nigel Dawes and Fredrik Sjostrom all scored goals in the win, while Chris Drury picked up an assist on each score. 
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.
