FanHouse Joffrey Lupul

The Philadelphia Flyers raised quite a few eyebrows at the NHL draft when they acquired defenseman Chris Pronger from the Anaheim Ducks. It was a bold move, and one that solidified the Flyers as a contender for the Stanley Cup this season. The concern was that Philadelphia traded away what amounted to three consecutive first-round picks and Joffrey Lupul, for what appeared to be one year of a soon-to-be 35-year-old Pronger.

On Tuesday, the Flyers raised a few more eyebrows when they locked up Pronger to a seven-year contract extension that will reportedly pay him close to $35 million. The key phrases to repeat are "35-year-old" and "seven years."

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.

The Clash once posed the question: Should I stay or should I go now? We take a look at the big names surrounding the NHL trade deadline and whether they'll be staying in place or going to finish the season in another city.

Chris Pronger is the classic case of a player you love when he's on your team, and absolutely hate when he's not. A hulking 6-foot-6, 214-pound mass of humanity, Pronger has been one of the game's best (and most controversial) defenseman for the past decade.

He's won a Stanley Cup with Anaheim and helped lead the Edmonton Oilers to the finals during the 2005-06 season. Currently, the Ducks are in a four-way tie with Minnesota, Dallas and Edmonton for the No. 8 spot in a wide-open Western Conference playoff race.

A couple of weeks ago, TSN hockey analyst Gord Miller came to the conclusion that in order for the Pittsburgh Penguins to remain competitive in the NHL, they would have to deal the league's leading scorer, Evgeni Malkin, for a first-line winger, a No. 2 center, and "hopefully" a pick or a prospect. It was a laughable proposal.

On Sunday night, Rob Rossi, Penguins beat writer for the Tribune-Review, appeared on a weekly Pittsburgh talk show and suggested the team would be wise to put Sidney Crosby on the trade block this offseason. I guess this is what happens when you go from being two wins away from hoisting the Stanley Cup to being the No. 10 team in the Eastern Conference in a matter of one season.

What a dreadful month of December for the Penguins. After their 2-0 loss to Tampa Bay on Tuesday night, the Penguins find themselves with a 4-6-1 record this month, and have dropped back-to-back home games to Toronto and Tampa Bay by a combined score of 9-3, while getting outshot 69-38 in the process. There's no way to sugarcoat it -- that sucks. Even worse, the Penguins haven't won two straight games since November 13-15. Ouch.

Tampa Bay picked up goals from Matt Pettinger and Paul Szczechura, while Mike Smith turned aside all 15 shots he faced. Though, he received a little help from the Penguins, when Petr Sykora honked a pair of shots wide of the goal when he had Smith beat, and then Evgeni Malkin inexplicably attempted to make a pass when he had a breakaway. Perhaps he's serious about that century mark with the assists, I don't know.

Though, the save of the night was when Malkin, shorthanded, had another breakaway in the third period -- in what was still a one-goal game -- and was stoned by Smith. Tampa Bay turned it around the other way and Szczechura redirected a pass from Jussi Jokinen passed Marc-Andre Fleury to ice the game.

It's important to realize it's only December and that the Penguins had a similar record a year ago today -- and, hey, that season turned out okay -- but that doesn't change the fact this is some really bad hockey right now.

Of all the big offseason moves over the summer, Boston's signing of Blake Wheeler is looking to be like quite a steal. Wheeler, if you'll recall, was a former first-round pick of the Phoenix Coyotes (fifth overall) and, well, it didn't exactly work out as he never signed with Phoenix, instead electing to become a free agent this summer. In early July, he inked a deal with the Bruins, made the roster out of camp, and thus far has been quite a contributor to the best team in the Eastern Conference.

The 22-year old forward scored a pair of goals in Sunday's 6-3 win in St. Louis, both of which came in the games first five minutes. Through Boston's first 32 games, the rookie has 11 goals and nine assists, placing him fifth among NHL rookies in points, five behind Columbus' Derick Brassard, who, by the way, could miss the remainder of the season due to a shoulder injury.

Anyway, back to the Bruins, they've now won five in a row, and 10 of their past 11, while scoring a boatload of goals in the process. During their current five-game winning streak, for example, the Bruins have lit the lamp 29 times. Granted, those games have been against Atlanta (twice) , Toronto and St. Louis, but, hey, 29 goals in five games is still 29 goals in five games.

Bizarre game in Philadelphia on Saturday afternoon, as the Capitals fired 48 shots at Flyers goaltender Antero Niittymaki -- including 25 in the first period -- only to get their lunches handed to them on the scoreboard in the form of a 7-1 dismantling at the hands of Philadelphia.

The Capitals went into the third period with a 39-13 edge in the shots department, yet trailed on the scoreboard 3-0. Perhaps their spirit was crushed, or something, because they allowed the Flyers to strike four more times in the final frame.

Scott Hartnell recorded a hat trick for Philadelphia in the win, which was its sixth victory in the past seven games. Jeff Carter added two goals, giving him 24 on the season, while Simon Gagne and Joffrey Lupul also joined in the goal-scoring fun, tormenting the Washington goaltending duo of Brent Johnson and Jose Theodore.

Brooks Laich scored the only goal for Washington, as Niittymaki made 47 saves for the Flyers.

NHL Refs are always an easy target. The media pounds on them, the coaches are always mad at them, the fans aren't fond of them, and the players certainly don't appreciate their efforts. Thus, few ever stick up for the Zebras when guys like Tom Poti make idiotic comments like this (in regards to his tripping call, which gave the Flyers the game-winning Power Play).

"To have the referee decide the series like that, with two teams battling like that, is tough to swallow. I definitely didn't think it was a penalty," Poti said.

Who really decided last night's game? Was it Tom Poti, who decided to break the rules and trip the guy? Was it Joffrey Lupul, who scored the winning goal, or was it the guy DOING HIS JOB?

Unless the ref seriously blows a call (See Mick McGeough), the striped man NEVER decides the game. It is the ref's job to call fouls and penalties, and it is up to the players not to get caught taking penalties and to play by the rules. The fact that the refs hadn't called a penalty in over a period is irrelevant, since the rules for hooking and holding are always in effect, and the players ought to know that by now.

Why can't Tom Poti simply stop spouting stupid clichés and admit that he SCREWED up and let his team down? Rather than blaming the ref for doing his job, maybe Poti should apologize to his team for taking a bad penalty at the worst time.

No, we know that won't happen, and we know Poti won't be the last moron to use the tired excuse of officials 'deciding' the game.

Every day from Monday to Saturday, The Ice Sheet will take a look at the biggest stories in the league that happened on the ice and elsewhere the night before.

If I was attempting to be as trite as possible, I would follow that title with more of Mick Jagger's words: "I'm a man of wealth and taste." This would be misleading because I am certainly not a man of wealth and most people that know me would argue that I'm a man of questionable tastes (you know the idiot that plays Kid Rock at the bar every Friday? That's me). I am, however, new to the NHL FanHouse and this is my first Ice Sheet, so let this serve as my real introduction to you.

Similarly (WARNING! TENUOUS METAPHOR AHEAD!) eight NHL teams have introduced themselves to us during the first round of these playoffs. That means that after a quick rundown of last night's frenetic Game 7 action, we're going to take an even quicker look at all eight teams that have advanced and what they've done to introduce themselves to us during the first round. Groan. I think that metaphor's all used up and I promise you won't find it again after the jump.

Some might say that in a fairer world that the Washington Capitals deserved to win Game Seven of their Eastern Conference Quarterfinal playoff series against the Philadelphia Flyers. But just as Clint Eastwood reminded Gene Hackman in the final moments of the film Unforgiven, "Deserve's got nothing to do with it."

So whether you're a corrupt sheriff living on the frontier, or a hockey team desperately battling back from a 3-1 series deficit and throwing your all into winning a seventh game at home, it's all about earning it. And like it or not, in between long stretches where the Capitals completely dominated the run of play, the Philadelphia Flyers leaned on goaltender Martin Biron and did all the little things they needed to do to bury the chances they had and eek out a 3-2 win in overtime to advance to the second round of the playoffs.

Each of Philadelphia's three goals demonstrated just how slim the margin between these two teams was over the course of the seven game series. After falling behind 1-0 on yet another goal by rookie Nicklas Backstrom (his fourth of the series and fourth straight game with a goal), Philadelphia tied the score on a power play goal by Scottie Upshall with the puck just barely trickling past Cristobal Huet and into the back of the net. But as agonizing as that score must have been for Washington, there was more aggravation just around the corner.