During the post-game interviews immediately following the New York Rangers’ third straight loss to the Pittsburgh Penguins, Jaromir Jagr was quoted as saying this may be his last year. Clearly, the star forward was frustrated by the team’s inability to win a crucial game on home ice, but many are thinking that Jagr may be hinting at retiring or at the very least, leaving the New York Rangers. There’s talk the 36-year-old may be headed back to Russia to play hockey. (Read more Jaromir Jagr here.)

And then there’s Brendan Shanahan, whose one-year contract with the New York Rangers is up at the end of the season. At 38, Shanahan’s been in the game longer than most and his retirement wouldn’t come as much of a surprise. Still, he’s not ready to give up just yet.

“I don’t want to talk about that stuff. I’m just thinking about that next game,” Shanahan told reporters. “I dig for everything I have on every shift of every game I play. But it’s now a matter where we’re facing the realization that, unless the production is there from us individually and as a team, obviously [the Penguins] found a way to be on top in each and every game.

Game 4 between the Pittsburgh Penguins vs. New York Rangers goes down tonight. Also facing elimination are the Colorado Avalanche, who are at home to the Detroit Red Wings. Get all your Stanley Cup playoffs betting here.

Pittsburgh players Evgeni Malkin and Jarko Ruutu both scored second-period goals to help send the Penguins into the second round of the Stanley Cup playoffs. With their series sweep over the Ottawa Senators, many are thinking that this may be the team to beat down the stretch.

Penguins’ captain Sidney Crosby scored on the empty net in the dieing seconds of the game and goalie Marc-Andre Fleury made 21 saves on the night. This is the Penguins’ first sweep in 16 years and their first playoff series win since 2001.

“It feels great,” Crosby said. “Obviously, it was a different situation last year and we definitely went through some learning experiences there, but we responded well here in the first round.”

Currently most sportsbooks have the Pittsburgh Penguins at 4/1 odds to win the 2008 Stanley Cup.

The first round of the NHL playoffs has the same kind of frisson as March Madness. The No. 6 Philadelphia Flyers (25-1 at press time to win the Cup) and the No. 7 Calgary Flames (12-1) are making a lot of Cinderella noise, but chalk still rules.

Fast-forward to the Stanley Cup finals, where I expect to see the top seeds in both conferences: the Detroit Red Wings (11-4) from the West and the Montreal Canadiens (11-2) from the East. Anything can happen in a seven-game series, and the Habs have the hot goalie in Carey Price, so they’re my value pick on the futures market.

My prediction, on the other hand, stays with the Wings. They dominated the NHL this year at 54-21-7. If Dominik Hasek (a substandard .902 save percentage in 2007-08) has one of his occasional playoff meltdowns, Chris Osgood (.914) is there to pick up the slack. Put the champagne and the octopus on ice.

Excellent timing. March Madness is over, and now hockey poolies are getting their fill with the greatest tournament of all, the Stanley Cup playoffs.

Working a 16-team bracket is a lot easier than the 64-team monstrosity college basketball fans fill out every year. There’s little point in relying on seed vs. seed numbers, especially this season with the playoff races going to the wire in both conferences.

For a quick and dirty way of projecting who will advance, the Detroit Red Wings are runaway leaders in goal differential at plus-73 and the deserving favorites to win the Cup at 3-1. The Montreal Canadiens are tops in the East at plus-40, although the Pittsburgh Penguins (plus-31) are 13-2 for the Stanley Cup compared to 7-1 for the Habs. If you choose to focus on the differentials, plug Detroit and Montreal into your bracket for what would be an Original Six finals matchup and go from there.