The real NHL awards will be handed out Thursday night in Las Vegas, so FanHouse decided to hand out its own special awards for the 2008-09 season.
It's designed to maintain competitive balance and parity across the league, but if you waste valuable salary cap space on free agents that don't pan out or contribute the way you expected, you're pretty much stuck without a paddle because nobody is going to bail you out and take that albatross contract off your hands.
Introducing the FanHouse nominees for the Wade Redden Award for Wasted Cap Space.
It's officially the offseason, meaning the time is right to look into the future. We'll be running our division-by-division preview of the offseason beginning later in the week, but we wanted to give the two top dogs their own space. Today: the summer outlook for the Red Wings. Tomorrow, the Stanley Cup champion Penguins.
The Red Wings came within one game of repeating as Stanley Cup champions. A goal or two here or there, and their mission – and Marian Hossa's – is accomplished.
Instead, Detroit's first question mark going into the summer months is Hossa. It's widely expected he'll re-sign with the Wings for five years or so, but that will push Detroit essentially to the limit when it comes to the cap, which is projected to be about $57 million again.
The handshake line that follows every NHL playoff series is a great tradition. The teams battle it out for four, five, six, or seven games. When it's all over, the two teams line up at center ice, take the gloves off their right hands, and shake hands with each other.
That disastrous Game 5 performance by Marc-Andre Fleury seems like an eternity ago, doesn't it? The Penguins' 24-year-old goaltender was brilliant in their Games 6 and 7 wins, and in each contest was responsible for the game-clinching, game-saving and game-winning saves to help the Penguins claim the third Stanley Cup in franchise history.
On Friday night, with 6.2 seconds to play in the season, Fleury made two of the biggest saves of his career as he not only turned aside a shot from Henrik Zetterberg through traffic, but he also stopped future Hall of Fame defenseman Nicklas Lidstrom on the rebound as time expired. Video after the jump.
The Pittsburgh Penguins and Detroit Red Wings have combined to play 209 games this season, and at 8 PM ET Friday, not one of those games will matter, as everything these two teams have accomplished this season will come down to 60 minutes. Perhaps the biggest 60 minutes any of these guys will ever play in their careers.
If you like the historical perspective of a Game 7, and if you're the superstitious type (and who among us isn't?) there's plenty of odd facts and dates that will make fans for both teams feel good about their chances in this winner take all game. From the department of stats that sound cool but don't really mean anything, consider the following.
One of the great Stanley Cup traditions is its presentation. Yes, commissioner Gary Bettman -- after getting booed lustily -- takes a moment to congratulate the owners and general manager who helped put the team together. But the first person to touch the Stanley Cup after it is brought out to the ice surface is not an executive or a coach. It's the captain of the winning team.
Once the captain has his moment, he picks the second player to hoist the Cup. Since we know who gets it first, the only fun we can have is figuring out who will get it second.
In The Face-Off Circle: A game-by-game look at the face-off matchups in the Stanley Cup Final
Tuesday's game 6 between the Pittsburgh Penguins and Detroit Red Wings proved to be one of the most intense, exciting, and nail-biting games in this year's Stanley Cup Playoffs, as it literally came down to a matter of inches in the closing minutes of the third period. It was also the first game in the series where the two teams were even in the face-off circle, as both teams won 24-of-48 draws.
Which ones had an impact on the game? Find out after the jump.
In The Face-Off Circle: A game-by-game look at the face-off matchups in the Stanley Cup Final
Saturday was a rather forgettable night for the Pittsburgh Penguins, to say the least, as they were on the receiving end of a 5-0 rout at Joe Louis Arena, falling behind the Red Wings, 3-2, in the Stanley Cup Final. While Detroit didn't win the majority of the face-offs in game 5, it managed to take advantage and capitalize on the ones it did win, especially in the second period as the Penguins were in the process of self destructing with a series of penalties.
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.
Red Wings 5, Penguins 0: Recap | Box Score Red Wings lead series 3-2
During the Penguins' game 4 win on Thursday night, captain Sidney Crosby finally had his bust-out game of the Stanley Cup Final, recording a goal (the eventual game-winner) and an assist in Pittsburgh's 4-2 win to tie the series at two games apiece. The performance helped him eclipse the 30-point mark this postseason, joining his teammate, Evgeni Malkin, who is currently the leading scorer in the playoffs with 35 points, putting the duo in some elite, historic company.
The real NHL awards will be handed out Thursday night in Las Vegas, so FanHouse decided to hand out its own special awards for the 2008-09 season.
The 
The handshake line that follows every NHL playoff series is a great tradition. The teams battle it out for four, five, six, or seven games. When it's all over, the two teams line up at center ice, take the gloves off their right hands, and shake hands with each other.
The Pittsburgh 
One of the great Stanley Cup traditions is its presentation. Yes, commissioner 
In The Face-Off Circle: A game-by-game look at the face-off matchups in the Stanley Cup Final
