I predict the Montreal Canadiens will win the Northeast Division.

Oh, wait, that already happened. Montreal blanked the Ottawa Senators 3-0 on Tuesday to clinch the division title. The Central (Detroit Red Wings) and Pacific (San Jose Sharks) have also been decided. The Pittsburgh Penguins have all but wrapped up the Atlantic.

The drama is concentrated in the Southeast, where the Washington Capitals beat the Carolina Hurricanes 4-1 on Tuesday to tie Carolina for first at 90 points with two games remaining. The Hurricanes have the tiebreaker, leaving Washington in ninth place in the East, one point out of a playoff spot. It could be either feast or famine for both these clubs.

Strength of schedule won’t matter, since each team is playing the Tampa Bay Lightning and the Florida Panthers at home to finish the season. It’s only two games, so Carolina has to be the smart choice to win the division just because of the tiebreaker.

Today a hockey great hits a mile stone in his life. Today is Gordie Howe’s 80th birthday.

Howe has played 26 seasons in the NHL, plus another four in the WHA. He is a player who is respected and idolized and was a player all forwards following him strive to emulate. With the nick name like “Mr. Hockey” who wouldn’t love this guy.

“I played religious hockey: It’s better to give then to receive.”

Gordie truly is one of the greatest hockey players of all time with his longevity, strength and scoring power.

With so many hockey greats to choose from I decided to give one greatest player title for each position. I know that there is no right or wrong person here, its all just personal opinion.

Goaltender- Patrick Roy
There is no goaltender in history that has more success in the NHL than Patrick. He’s not only the all time leader in victories in the playoffs but holds the record for regular season wins in the NHL. Patrick, in his rookie year captured the Stanley Cup and got his first Conn Smythe trophy as playoff MVP.

Center- Wayne Gretzky
Know as “the great one” Wayne is the NHL’s all time leading scorer, has won 4 Stanley Cups and holds almost every scoring record in NHL history. In his 1,487 NHL games he’s made 894 goals, 1,963 assists for a total of 2,857 points.

Defensemen-Bobby Orr
This guy proved that forwards weren’t the only ones who could dominate games. Bobby is the only defensemen to ever win the Art Ross trophy for the League scoring championship twice. This former rookie of the year produced 270 goals and 645 assists in his career.

Right Wing- Gordie Howe
Although this guy had a rough start in his 24 year NHL career, Grodie went on to win 6 Heart Trophies and the League’s MVP, 6 scoring titles and was voted First Team All-Star 12 times. In his 1,767 games played he finished with 801 goals and 1,049 assists for a total of 1,850 points.

Left Wing- Bobby Hull
This guy struck fear into the hearts of goalies. “The Golden Jet” had a shot that was clocked at 120 mph, which made him a nightmare. Bobby was voted the top NHL player of the 60’s bringing in 610 goals and 560 assists in his career.

The cool thing about hockey’s players is that even if you have no interest in the game (which is hard for me to believe) you some how know these players. Their greatness extends beyond the ice.

It’s pretty rare that you get an impact rookie in the NHL these days. We did get both Sidney Crosby and Alexander Ovechkin in 2005-06; the yield from this year’s crop is more typical.

The Chicago Blackhawks have arguably the two best rookies in Patrick Kane and Jonathan Toews. But Toews suffered a strained MCL and has played just 55 games, opening the Calder Trophy door for his teammate. Kane has 17 goals and 45 assists after 73 games to lead all first-year players in points.

Nicklas Backstrom of the Washington Capitals was two points back at press time with 11 goals and 49 assists. The top rookie defenseman appears to be Tobias Enstrom, who is playing 24:33 a game for the Atlanta Thrashers. There is one goalie of note that could crash the Calder party: Montreal Canadiens starter Carey Price (.915 save percentage). Nashville’s Dan Ellis (.920 SV%) deserves kudos, but remains virtually anonymous as the Predators backup.

Since when can an NHL goalie get away with throwing his stick at a referee? If you watched last night’s game between the Edmonton Oilers and the Phoenix Coyotes you know exactly what I’m talking about…

Sure, they were getting their butts kicked (5-2) but for the Phoenix Coyotes goaltender to lose his cool and throw his stick against the boards, narrowly missing the referee, and not get a call? Well, that’s just wrong. Especially when the refs are calling lesser unsportsmanlike penalties — like the one handed out to Canuck defenceman Kevin Bieksa (in the Vancouver vs. Dallas game) — who was penalized for elbowing when his team was already shorthanded and then had another two minutes added for slamming the door to the penalty box.

Playing by the rules…

According to the NHL Rulebook, Rule No. 88 “Stick Throwing” states: “A misconduct or game misconduct penalty, at the discretion of the Referee, shall be imposed on a player who throws his stick or any part thereof outside the playing area. If the offense is committed in protest of an Official’s decision, a minor penalty for unsportsmanlike conduct plus a game misconduct penalty shall be assessed to the offending player.”

And according to Rule No. 41, “Unsportsmanlike Conduct”, which states: “A gross misconduct penalty shall be assessed to anyone who throws or shoots any equipment or other object in the general direction of an Official but does not come close to making any kind of contact. This action may occur on or off the ice.

Right now in most sportsbooks the Phoenix Coyotes are listed at 80/1 odds to win the Stanley Cup. The Edmonton Oilers are listed at 200/1 odds to win the Stanley Cup.

This one is hard to judge. The greatest of any sports always comes down to personal opinion no matter how you try to look at it. Some would argue that points aren’t the only thing that matters. When it comes to greatness there is a lot of things to consider.
According to the Hockey Hall of Fame’s special point system here are their picks for the greatest goaltenders.

1. Patrick Roy
2. Dominik Hasek
3. Glenn Hall
4. Jacques Plante
5. Ken Dryden
6. Martin Brodeur
7. Terry Sawchuk
8. Ed Belfour
9. Tony Esposito
10. Bill Durnan

The NHL regular season will end in three weeks, and at press time all 30 teams were still mathematically alive for the playoffs. But don’t bet your hockey dollar on all 30 teams. It would take some heavy quantum lifting to get the Los Angeles Kings, Tampa Bay Lightning and a few others into the postseason.

The Kings (27-38-6) are the worst team in the league this year, 20 points back of the eighth and final playoff spot in the Western Conference with 11 games remaining. Tampa Bay isn’t much better at 27-35-8; the Bolts need at least 18 more points to get into the Eastern playoff picture. They also have 12 games to get there. But really, they’re toast.

It won’t be long before we can write off all the pretenders. The 10th-place teams in each conference (there are six such teams, including ties) are seven points off the pace. One of them might sneak in; the Washington Capitals have the shortest Cup odds of this sextet at 30-1.

Things have gone to hell in a handbasket for the Ottawa Senators. They were still the favorites to win the Eastern Conference at press time, checking in at 11-4, but that’s a very slim lead over the Pittsburgh Penguins at 3-1. Ottawa is 3-6-2 in its last 11 games, firing head coach John Paddock in the process. The Penguins added former Senator star Marian Hossa at the trade deadline, and Sidney Crosby returned Tuesday night from his ankle injury. The Pens were 11-6-4 without the league’s reigning MVP.

The mighty Detroit Red Wings are in a tailspin, too. Although they remain 11-8 favorites to take the West, the Wings are 2-8-2 since Feb. 5. That gives the Dallas Stars a chance to grab the green at 5-1; the Stars are just five points behind Detroit in the standings after winning 13 of 15. The Brad Richards trade might even earn Dallas the Stanley Cup at 10-1.

The big event for 35 year old Darwin Head happened during the intermission between Colorado and Vancouver last week. Head, a sawmill worker from Saskatchewan is now Canada’s newest millionaire.

He scored 15 goals- the exact number needed- in 24 seconds into an open net from the far blue line to win the $1 million one time payout that was televised live on TSN and TSN HD.

“This is just unreal. I can’t wait to celebrate with my family and friends back home in Prince Albert,” said Head. “And it feels so great that my wife and I will be able to look after our kids’ futures with this money.”

Chevrolet Malibu was the host of the million dollar shoot out and also gave away 4 Chevrolet Malibu Hybrids to fans who also had shoot outs of their own. Head also was given’ one of the Hybrids to top off his amazing prize.

Head was chosen form 8.6 million total online entries and a day prior to the shootout he got a chance to have a one hour practice session with Bobby Orr as apart of the contest.

Darwin Head started playing hockey at the age of 10 and continued playing recreationally until he was 25. Head is the father of 3 children and partner to his wife Criste.

Click here to watch it all go down.

After posting back-to-back shut-out losses, Sens fire head coach John Paddock. General Manager Bryan Murray fills in.

Well, you something had to give. And in this case it was NHL head coach John Paddock. Considering the Ottawa Senators got off to such a great start (15-2), they’ve been slip sliding away ever since, winning just 21 or their last 47 games. The last two were particularly brutal — a 5-0 loss against Toronto and a 4-0 loss against Boston. Also turfed was assistant coach Ron Low. Double ouch.

“It’s always a surprise when a coach gets let go,” center Jason Spezza told reporters. “We’ve been struggling, but as a team I don’t think we thought it would come to the coach getting fired.”

“It just shows the high standard we have in our dressing room, the city of Ottawa, and that our owner has. It shows how competitive a team they think we have.”

General Manager Bryan Murray will resume coaching duties until a new head coach has been hired. Even with Paddock gone, the Sens are 6/1 odds to win the 2008 Stanley Cup.