FanHouse ValtteriFilppula

It's been a one-way street out of Detroit this offseason, as the Red Wings have watched Marian Hossa, Mikael Samuelsson, Ty Conklin and Tomas Kopecky sign with rival teams in the Western Conference, while Jiri Hudler attempts to make a jump to the KHL (even though the NHL isn't all that happy about it). Such losses would be a sizable blow to most teams, but the Red Wings aren't like most teams.

While it's true they lost some talent and production, and haven't added anything of consequence in the early stages of the offseason, it still shouldn't put much of a dent in the Red Wings' Stanley Cup chances for 2009-10.

Let's take a look at what Detroit is really losing, and what it has coming up through the Grand Rapids pipeline.

Following Niklas Kronwall's hit on Martin Havlat Friday night, there's been plenty of discussion about the officiating in the Western Conference final. Actually, there's always a lot of discussion about officiating in the NHL, and following Detroit's 6-1 dismantling of Chicago on Sunday afternoon, Blackhawks head coach Joel Quenneville sounded off, blaming the referees for ruining a good hockey game. Seriously.

That sound you're hearing is Red Wings fans laughing out loud.

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One of the more confusing story lines in this year's playoffs has been the sudden disappearance of Pavel Datsyuk's offensive production. In Detroit's 13 postseason games, the Hart Trophy finalist has recorded just one goal to go with six assists after putting up his second consecutive 97-point performance in the regular season.

During the Red Wings' overtime win in Game 2, Datsyuk was reportedly injured when he was hit in the foot by a puck, which leaves his availability for Game 3 on Friday up in the air. The 30-year-old forward sat out practice on Thursday, while Helene St. James of the Detroit Free Press reports that Datsyuk will be a game-time decision in Chicago. Could this be the break the Blackhawks need to get back in the series?

In hockey, the home team gets the last line change before a faceoff. This typically means the coach of that team will be able to pick the line-on-line matchups throughout the game.

For a team like Columbus, one that only has one really lethal line, this can be a major deal. While Rick Nash was shut down in the first two games against the Wings, the Blue Jackets get to play at home Tuesday night. That means Ken Hitchcock picks the matchup for Nash. That's a good thing, right?

When they're on, there's no doubt the Detroit Red Wings are among the best teams in the NHL. More often than usual this season, the Wings were a tad less than adequate defensively, leaving their goaltenders in impossible positions and generally giving up too many goals.

The playoffs are different, however, and the experienced Wings showed that on Thursday. They easily dispatched Columbus, 4-1, in Game One of the Western Conference Quarterfinals.

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The Detroit Red Wings continued to keep their Stanley Cup core together on Saturday with news that the team has agreed to a contract extension with forward Johan Franzen, as reported by TSN. According to the Red Wings, it's an 11-year deal that will keep Franzen in the motor city through the 2019-20 season.

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.

The game of the night -- or so we thought -- was that monster matchup in Detroit, between the defending Stanley Cup champions, and the team that, thus far, has been the best team in the NHL this season. On paper, it looked like it was going to be an epic tilt. Possible Western Conference Finals preview, Mike Babcock vs. Todd Mclellan, teacher vs. student, etc. etc. etc. Of course, it was the second time they faced off this year, but, hey, it still looked like it was going to be awesome.

This, of course, is why the games aren't played on paper, as the Red Wings disposed of San Jose quite easily in a 6-0 romp at Joe Louis Arena. It's the Sharks' second straight loss, and the first game they've dropped in regulation in over a month.

On Monday, we told you about former Lightning head coach Barry Melrose who openly admitted that he is taking great delight in the struggles of the organization that fired him, not to mention the fact he's openly rooting for them to lose every game they play. Well, Melrose has to be loving this current nine-game losing streak Tampa Bay is on, as it dropped another one on Wednesday night in Buffalo, 4-2.

The Lightning actually jumped out to an early 2-0 lead in the first period, thanks to goals by Mark Recchi and Martin St. Louis.

With less than a minute to play in the opening period, Buffalo's Drew Stafford picked up a power play goal, which set the stage for Thomas Vanek to tie the game and, ultimately, give the Sabres the lead in the second period with a pair of goals, giving him a league-best 22 on the season. Vanek has four goals in his past three games, all Buffalo victories.

Jason Pominville picked up an empty net goal late in the third, while Ryan Miller stopped 26 shots in the win.

The Detroit Red Wings avoided a potentially ugly trip to arbitration and continued the off-season phase of their bid to repeat today when they signed restricted free agent forward Valtteri Filppula to a five-year, $15 million contract.

The 24-year-old Finn filed for arbitration on July 5th, taking himself off the Kevin Lowe-syle RFA poaching market in the process. The intervening weeks have been agonizingly quiet for Wings fans hoping to see #51 sign a contract so this outcome is a welcome one, though the $3 million-a-year reality of the deal puts a damper on the news. That's about $500,000 more than the Wings were hoping to spend, but the length of the deal should make it a bargain by the end.

Filppula is something of a poor man's Henrik Zetterberg at this stage in his career. He's got great offensive skills and a keen sense for the defensive side of the game. He's frustrating to Wings fans for his penchant for falling down at inopportune times, but he brings enormous value to the team overall. His play in the Stanley Cup Finals was at least one of the non-flu-related reasons for Evgeni Malkin's disappearance and he was a major contributor to his linemate Johan Franzen's incredible post-season. The kid is clearly a major part of the Wings' future and has made himself a key part of the current squad ever since forcing his way into the lineup with a strong training camp in 2006.