FanHouse Marc Andre Fleury

We're trying something different to replace the old Newsmakers in the NHL posts. Hopefully you'll like it. Each weekday we'll take a look at one positive performance from the previous night (a plus), and one negative performance from the previous night (a minus). It's the plus/minus.Tell us what you think at nhlfanhouse@gmail.com.

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The Carolina Hurricanes rewarded Cam Ward with a six-year contract extension this past summer, and based on Wednesday's game against Pittsburgh, it was money well spent.

The Hurricanes overcame a 2-0 third period deficit to force overtime, and while Ray Whitney scored both goals in the rally, it was Ward that made it possible with his sprawling glove-save on Bill Guerin after some tic-tac-toe passing from Sidney Crosby and Chris Kunitz midway through the third period.

Video after the jump.

It's officially the offseason, meaning the time is right to look into the future. We continue our division-by-division preview of the potential wheeling and dealing with the Atlantic Division.

It will be an interesting summer for the five teams in the Atlantic. Four teams made the playoffs, including the eventual Stanley Cup champion, and the one team that didn't make it -- the New York Islanders -- holds the first pick in Friday's draft, which isn't a bad consolation prize. All around it was a pretty successful season for these five teams.

DETROIT -- Extraordinary. Wait, that word isn't grand enough to describe what happened here Friday night. Thrilling? Stunning? It was both, and so much more. It was babyface goalie Marc-Andre Fleury making a couple of huge saves in the final, throat-clutching seconds. It was Sidney Crosby lifting the silver chalice and kissing it once, twice, barely buckling under his twisted knee. It was heavy-handed Maxime Talbot scoring a pair of improbable goals, while Evgeni Malkin raised his game to an entirely different level.

It was Marian Hossa dropping to his knees in sorrow, the pain that accompanies having to watch another team celebrate on his home ice for the second straight season almost unbearable. It was Chris Osgood, dazzling in goal, but not dazzling enough. It was a wave of wing-wheeled, veteran Europeans pushing the reigning champions as hard as they could be pushed, and the young, energetic pups in black refusing to budge.

It was Pittsburgh 2, Detroit 1, the Stanley Cup changing hands in spectacular fashion.

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Yet again, it wasn't easy, but battles of titans never are. In the wake left behind by the Penguins and Red Wings, it's time to consider one thing: the Wings, with their tradition and history of excellence, have been unseated atop the hockey world.

While there's no shame in losing in seven games to a team as talented as the Penguins, especially when you've set the bar unreachably high for a decade-plus, this loss feels more significant, more grave for the Wings. It feels like the making of a new superpower. It feels like the Penguins are poised to occupy the spot the Red Wings have inhabited, and that they'll be there for a long time.

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Why not make it seven?

When there's hockey being played as urgently, breathlessly, and brilliantly as Tuesday night's Game 6, and you're given the gift of more, you don't ask why. You just accept it and offer gratitude to the two teams who made it possible. Forget Saturday's anti-climax, a 5-0 win for the Red Wings over the Penguins that again had Detroit looking epic and Pittsburgh embodying the lamb. Forget what you've known through six games.

These two teams deserve the most poignant of climaxes to the thrilling narrative they've written thus far.

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One of the key factors in Pittsburgh's Game 1 loss was Detroit's dominance in the face-off circle, leading to puck possession, scoring opportunities and, ultimately, goals. The Penguins showed considerable improvement in this area in Game 2, but it still wasn't enough as the Red Wings managed to take a 2-0 series lead as it shifts back to Pittsburgh on Tuesday night.

The Penguins actually won the face-off battle on Sunday (27-24) and even scored a goal as a result of one of their wins, but they still struggled to keep possession of the puck at times, and still gave up scoring chances (and goals) off of their losses.

Echoing last year's Finals and mixing in some hints of Game 1, the Red Wings kept up the brand of hockey that took them to the title in 2008.

For the second consecutive year, Detroit has taken the first two games of the Stanley Cup finals against Pittsburgh. On Sunday, it was some of the lesser lights who gave the Red Wings a 3-1 victory at Joe Louis Arena, while on the other side, the Penguins' star player was silent.

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Click here for more NHL playoff previews.

After what seems like forever, the NHL gets back on the ice tonight with the start of the Western Conference Finals tonight in Detroit as the Red Wings host the Dallas Stars. The Eastern Conference Final gets in gear tomorrow night for the battle of Pensylvania as the Penguins host the Flyers in Pittsburgh.

I'm not sure anyone is surprised that Detroit and Pittsburgh made it this far, though seeing Dallas and Philadelphia still alive this late in the game has to count as something of a shocker. As you'll see from our panel, while the discussion was nearly unanimous regarding predictions for both series, there were plenty of folks who were hedging their bets.

Here's a little brain exercise for a lazy Sunday afternoon. Out of all the recent storylines in the NHL, try and think about which one seemed the most unlikely to occur two months ago.

• Winter classic a massive success
• Pamela Anderson hooks up with mascot
• Chris Simon sets NHL suspension record
• A Philadelphia Flyer does something dumb (again)
• Ty Conklin fills in for an injured Marc-Andre Fleury and goes 7-0

Yeah. I would have said the last one, too. If you had told me two months ago that Ty Conklin was going to be a serious threat to scoring in the NHL I would have thought you took one too many blows to the skull as a child. The Pamela Anderson thing is a close second, but really, most of Hollywood hasn't had standards in decades, so nothing that comes out of there really surprises me anymore.

But Ty Conklin. Now that's something else. Conklin has helped the Penguins to go from worst to (almost) first in the Atlantic division with ease. He has a 7-0 record since he started filling in for Fleury, and the Penguins have won eight of ten to move to within one point of the Atlantic Division lead. During that span, Conklin has surrendered only 12 goals, giving him a 1.71 GAA during that time with two shutouts. This is from a guy who has been a career backup and has not posted a GAA of under 2.80 for a season since prior to the lockout. Thanks to the recent run, his career save percentage has now finally gone above .900 to .905.

How is this even possible?