Juuust a Bit Outside

Sabres First Round Pick Mark Pysyk: Who the hell is he?

2010-07-11T22:47:00Z

So you were watching the NHL Draft a couple weeks ago and heard all the hype about Hall, Seguin and the rest. Your team didn't get those guys, because, well let's face it, your team didn't stink up the joint. No, you like the Buffalo Sabres, who were good enough to win the Northeast Division and then flop to the Bruins in round one of the playoffs. That gave you a pick in the twenties in the first round, so unless you're a die hard like me, you have little to no idea of ANY of the guys available.

You're in luck...as before the draft I wrote a preview piece on Pysyk, who the Sabres selected twenty third overall in the draft. He'll come in handy, since the team lost Henrik Tallinder and Toni Lydman to free agency, and only picked up Jordan Leopold to help fill the blue line out. That's kind of like using prevera when you're got wrinkles that look like Bigfoot tires running through your face...it's not really more than a stopgap, last ditch effort.

So read on, and try to gather some information on a guy that may crack the lineup sooner rather than later.

Mark Pysyk was born on January 11, 1992 in Edmonton, Alberta, Canada. He is an athlete who plays hockey. He is a defenseman, who most recently played for the Edmonton Oil Kings of the Western Hockey League. Pysyk is eligible to be selected in the 2010 NHL Draft, which commences on Friday, June 25, 2010, where he is expected to be a first round selection due to his talents.

Pysyk was ranked the seventh best skater by the National Hockey League's Central Scouting Bureau when their final rankings were released in April 2010, a jump of two spots from his ninth position at the midterm rankings that came out in January 2010. Pysyk is also rated seventeenth by the International Scouting Services organization.

Pysyk was the first draft choice of the new incarnation of the Oil Kings, being selected third overall in the 2007 WHL Bantam Draft. He is a fluid, mobile defenseman who is expected to be a top two pairing defenseman in the National Hockey League with exceptional hockey sense and IQ. He has physical play, but is expected to use his hockey smarts to cut off gaps and angles more than using the body.

2009/10 Season

Pysyk was solid in the 2009/10 campaign for the Oil Kings, though his season was ended early after sustaining a broken foot. He played in forty eight games, scoring seven goals and adding seventeen assists for a total of twenty four points. He posted a minus nineteen plus/minus ranking and totaled 47 penalty minutes on the season. Pysyk was still named the team's Most Valuable Player despite missing a third of the season by his teammates. He also was named the team's top defenseman and most scholastic player.

Pysyk was also a member of the gold medal winning Team Canada at the Ivan Hlinka Memorial Tournament which was held in August 2009. He also was a participant in the 2010 CHL Top Prospects Game as a member of Team Orr, and a member of the WHL team that faced a Russian squad in the Subway Series.

2008/09 Season

Pysyk had a very good rookie campaign in the WHL for the Oil Kings. In sixty one games, he scored five goals and added fifteen assists for twenty points. He also averaged over twenty minutes of ice time as a sixteen year old. For the season, he was a minus five on the plus/minus and incurred twenty seven minutes in penalties.

Pysyk also appeared in four playoff games for the Oil Kings. He was held scoreless in the series, posting a minus nine plus/minus rating and picking up one minor penalty for two penalty minutes. The Oil Kings were swept out in round one of the playoffs.

Where Will Ilya Kovalchuk Land?

2010-07-11T21:35:00Z

When NHL free agency got underway on July 1, there were plenty of questions, almost as many as potential free agents available on the market. We had to see what the Chicago Blackhawks would do to deal with cap issues, if anyone would sign Evgeni Nabokov or Marty Turco, whether Mike Modano would test the waters elsewhere or retire, and a myriad of other questions surrounding the cap and destination cities of skilled players, young and veteran.

Ten days later, a lot of those questions are answered. The Blackhawks dealt away a fair amount of talent, and salary, in order to comply with the cap and keep Patrick Kane and Jonathan Toews at the forefront of their plans. Among those gone include Dustin Byfuglien and Kris Versteeg, who potted 20 goals as a third line center with time on the penalty kill. He went to the Toronto Maple Leafs, where he'll see top six ice time for certain. I like his potential to be a 25 to 30 goal man with the ability to log some serious minutes as the Leafs continue to retool.

Nabokov ended up going to the KHL where he'll reportedly make right about the $6 million he was making last season with the Sharks. Modano is still mulling over options, but hasn't committed to anything, which is his right after playing two plus decades with one franchise. In all honesty though, seeing Modano in a uniform that isn't related to the Stars/North Stars franchise will be almost surreal, as if Steve Yzerman were to suddenly unretire and put on a Lightning sweater. It's as if suddenly age spot remover is going to turn back the hands of time.

The one vexing question that has yet to come with an answer is possibly the biggest of them all. Where will Ilya Kovalchuk play in 2010-11? Kovalchuk, you'll remember, turned down several lucrative contract extensions from the Atlanta Thrashers before the trade deadline last year, including a seven year, $70 million deal that would have kept him in Atlanta for the long term. The gamble was that he could force a trade (he did, to New Jersey), parlay his skills into a long playoff run (not so much, as the Devils went out in round one), and have teams throwing buckets of money at him (again, not so much).

He balked at a deal offered by the Islanders of ten years and $100 million. The Kings were in the running, then dropped out, then got back in, only to pull out again due to the sheer lunacy of the numbers Kovalchuk's camp are looking for. Kovalchuk is a gifted scorer as the numbers bear out, but he is weak defensively and has little postseason track record to prove he could continue that trend when goals are at a premium. I don't blame the Kings management for balking. They have a solid young nucleus and they can't afford to overpay if they want to keep that group together for the long term. They've offered deals with a cap friendly number that they can live with...Kovalchuk has yet to bite.

What does that leave? The KHL has stated their interest in Kovalchuk. There might be teams lingering to see if the price tag drops any...and then there's the Devils.

Reports today say that the Devils are dangling a staggering SEVENTEEN year deal worth north of $100 million. Think about that...Kovalchuk would be under contract until he was 44. I don't think the kid is Chris Chelios, nor do I think that this offer makes much sense. Is it a front loaded deal, whereby Lou Lamiorello would be handcuffed financially in the short term? Will it be a deal that has deferred cash, still screwing the team down the line?

The contract is ludicrous on its face...much like I didn't like the 12 year deal Marian Hossa got last season. There should be a cap on the number of years a deal has, along with deferred or front loaded money, to prevent deals being made that circumvent the cap.

Will Kovalchuk put his name on the dotted line? Who knows? We'll find out.

MLB All Stars: Still Can't Stand Em

2010-07-10T20:37:00Z

The Major League Baseball All Star Game comes to fruition this Tuesday as teams finish up their pre All Star Game schedule this weekend. I've written several articles over the past three years since I started this endeavor about how ridiculous the voting structure for All Star Games in professional sports has gotten in recent years, with ballot box stuffing and players getting voted in based on name recognition instead of actual game performance over the course of the season.

It's become abundantly clear that pro sports try to cater to the lowest common denominator, that being a drunken "fan" with an IQ somewhere around room temperature who thinks that only the players on his or her favorite, and/or local team, should be capable of being called an All-Star. Never mind that the guy is hitting .230 with home run and RBI totals lower than most leadoff hitters, or that a guy has missed massive amounts of time to injury, or in some cases, like with Tracy McGrady last season in the NBA, not even PLAYED a minute to that point in time.

You could give these guys life insurance quotes with obscene premiums and little to no payout, and they would jump at the chance. They make heads of lettuce look intelligent. Just to show an example: Yadier Molina of the Cardinals was named the starting catcher as an All Star. Sure, he's a great defensive catcher with a cannon of an arm. However, at this point of the season, he's hitting all of .222 with three homers and 33 runs batted in. Those are not All Star numbers, regardless of defensive ability. Atlanta's Brian McCann is hitting .267 with ten homers and 37 RBI. Other catchers have better numbers but were not tabbed for the role.

Meanwhile, Joey Votto of the surprising Cincinnati Reds was left OFF the All Star team, only to be voted in via the final man voting for each league. How was this possible? As of this article, Votto was first in the league in on base percentage (.421), fourth in total bases (179), first in adjusted OPS, second in slugging (.593), first in homers (22), first in OPS (1.014), third in runs scored (59), fourth in walks (53), fifth in RBI (60) and 7th in average with a .315 clip. If those sort of numbers don't get you selected, what does?

So another All Star Game fraught with missteps and errors in judgment will play out with the home field advantage for the World Series on the line. The American League has seemingly won six billion in a row, and will look to continue that trend in Anaheim. One can only hope that Bud Selig wakes up and changes the structure involved in getting players in the game, before yet another mockery takes place.

JaMarcus Russell: Out of the League for Good?

2010-07-10T18:25:00Z

Just a few short years ago, Jamarcus Russell was on top of the world. He was the first overall pick in the 2007 NFL Draft, and made millions upon millions of dollars after signing his contract for what can generously be termed as less than expected numbers as far as on field performance goes.

This week, Russell found himself in more off field trouble as he was arrested for illegal possession of codeine syrup in a narcotics sting down in Alabama. Russell was released by the Raiders in May after three unproductive seasons marked by inconsistent play, lack of improvement and weight gain. Let's be frank, there was no one out there that was going to mistake Russell for someone suffering from the side effects of hydroxycut judging from his frame.

Codeine syrup is commonly used in a substance called "purple drank", which is codeine syrup or cough syrup, mixed with either 7UP or Sprite and Jolly Ranchers candy. Shannon Sharpe, former tight end in the NFL and current CBS analyst, has told the USA Today that there is a burgeoning problem around the league with the substance and that it's getting worse. Russell is not the first NFL player to be nailed with codeine syrup by law enforcement officials.

In 2006, Terrence Kiel of the Chargers was charged with two felony counts of transporting a controlled substance and three counts of possession for sale of a controlled substance. He was trying to ship a case of codeine cough syrup to a friend to make purple drank. Then in 2008, Johnny Jolly of the Green Bay Packers was arrested after being pulled over for excessively loud music. Officers found a Dr Pepper bottle in the left cup holder of the center console next to two Styrofoam cups containing soda and ice. The officers said the cups and the bottle all emitted strong odors of codeine. The case was dismissed but was refiled in December 2009 with the charges still pending.

Russell won just 7 of 25 starts he made for the Raiders in his three seasons, completing a paltry 52.1 percent of his throws. He threw just 18 touchdowns against 23 interceptions and lost fifteen fumbles, tallying a passer rating of 65.2 for that time span. To put in perspective, a perfect passer rating is 158.3, meaning that Russell barely hit the 40th percentile as far as performance goes. For that, he was paid roughly 36.4 million dollars. Not bad for being absolutely horrendous.

Is this the end of the line for Russell? Marcellus Wiley doesn't necessarily think so, saying that there is always a chance for a reclamation project or rehabilitation story. I'm not so sure. In this day and age of sports, teams are becoming increasingly wary of signing players that have had issues with the law, or with being good teammates. Russel has had both issues. Certainly the Raiders are partially to blame, as they were a team in shambles, as they have been most of the decade. However, after letting him go, the choices made were Russell's and his alone.

With luck, he'll straighten himself out. Time will tell...I wish him the best in his efforts.

Lebron to Miami: A Free Agent Sham?

2010-07-10T17:35:00Z

NBA free agency began last week with some big names on the market, arguably none bigger than Lebron James of the Cleveland Cavaliers. Rampant speculation had James, Dwyane Wade and Chris Bosh playing in a handful of different cities, with guesses as to which team might sign two of them to play for the foreseeable future for their franchise. There were more potential storylines and destinations for the aforementioned stars as there are touted cures for hair loss.

When it came down to it, however, something sinister, almost WWE like in the way it was scripted seemed to unfold.

Instead of there being a lot of drama involved centering around where the players would end up, it was reported on more than one occasion that Bosh, Wade and James met to discuss where they would play basketball in the 2010-11 season and beyond. Wade and Bosh hired camera crews to follow them around, as if they were in a basketball version of HBO's "Hard Knocks". James negotiated a deal with ESPN for a one hour show to announce where he was going to play, with the caveat that the ad revenue go to the Boys and Girls Club.

When the dust settled and the smoke cleared, all three men signed with the Miami Heat. James walked away from the city that embraced him as the first overall pick, and that he led to the top of the Eastern Conference. More galling than that might have been the way he did it, considering all the perks he was afforded by owner Dan Gilbert over his career. James is from the area, fans grew up with his exploits in high school and thought that he would bring them the championship that had long eluded the city in any professional sport.

James' decision led to some serious backlash and bitterness from the owner of the team, who told a reporter from the Associated Press that James quit on the team in the postseason. Fans burned James jerseys in the streets. It was bizarre, it was strange, it was surreal, it was...the passion of fans who watched a native son turn his back on the community that embraced and supported him throughout his career only to watch him bolt for seemingly greener pastures at the first possible opportunity.

What does it mean in the grand scheme of things? For the Cavaliers, it means a complete overhaul of plans and thought processes. No longer do they have the superstar cornerstone of the franchise, and with it, guaranteed sellouts and massive revenue streams. For the Heat, well, it gives them three top notch players, guys that represented the USA at the 2008 Beijing Olympics, and who are in the prime of their careers. That's the plus side.

On the flip side of that equation however, are a few things. For one, will there be enough shots to go around for these three? All of them averaged better than 24 points a game last season for their respective clubs and are used to being the first, and in some cases, second and third options offensively for their former clubs. Now in crunch time, who's going to get the ball to take that crucial shot? Second, who is going to be on the roster for the Heat with these three? They traded Michael Beasley to try and free up more cap room, leaving Mario Chalmers as the ONLY other player under contract for 2010-11. That means a lot of bargain shopping, trying to fit minimum salary or slightly better contract players into the rotation.

No truth to the rumor that Pat Riley is looking at adding me to be a perimeter shooter as of yet. He's yet to contact my agent, the lovely and talented Sandi Schiffmaker, about setting up a long term deal that would be favorable to both parties. We'll see if a deal can be struck in the coming days. Needless to say, that the Heat are going to need to convince some players that taking less money for a shot at a title will be worth it. Whether that pans out given the impending lockout remains to be seen.

My condolences to Cleveland fans...you've had the Drive, the Fumble, the Shot, Art Modell, Jose Mesa, and even Willie Mays robbing Vic Wertz back in 1954. The last thing you needed was what Lebron James did to you. Here's hoping for brighter days for the city by the lake.

NBA Draft Tonight: Will Wall Go #1?

2010-06-24T15:31:00Z

After last week's stirring seventh game of the NBA Finals between long time rivals the Boston Celtics and Los Angeles Lakers ended with the Lakers escaping with a four point victory and the NBA title, the attention turned to the offseason and all the buzz that surrounds it.

We've seen coaches get fired, others like Phil Jackson and Doc Rivers state that they don't know of their intentions for the 2010-11 season yet, and marquee names like Chris Bosh, Dwyane Wade, and of course, Lebron James prepare for free agency and the potential waterfalls of cash that could come raining down from a moribund franchise looking to catch lightning in a bottle and reverse their fortunes in the scrawl of a pen.

Of course, things don't always work out that way. Ask the Los Angeles Clippers about that particular route of revamping.

Then there is the NBA draft, when the stars of tomorrow are picked to try and help either extend the window of a team's chances or to be a building block in creating one. Some of these kids are still young enough that they need 10 - acne products to keep them from breaking out on a regular basis.

The centerpiece of the draft is Kentucky point guard John Wall, who played just one year collegiately before deciding to turn pro and rake in millions of dollars. Wall is expected to be selected first overall by the Washington Wizards, a team in total disarray after the Gilbert Arenas gun incident and the departure of Antawn Jamison and Brendan Haywood via a trade to the Dallas Mavericks last season. Other top picks include Evan Turner from Ohio State and Georgia Tech forward Derrick Favors, who sources say the Nets are interested in drafting, either to help rebuild or as a potential trade commodity.

With free agency set to start in a week, it's anyone's guess what will happen. Tonight though, it's all about the kids...let's let the younger generation shine in the spotlight for a moment or two before we get caught back up in the rush of big names and big dollars.

A Marathon Match at Wimbledon

2010-06-24T14:31:00Z

Certainly, I am not one to sit and talk about tennis on a regular basis. It rarely is exciting or enthralling, and even at its best, watching paint dry is about as entertaining in my opinion. I'd rather watch the grass grow or even research the best allergy bedding on the market than force myself to watch tennis. Now certainly in the days of Anna Kournikova or even Maria Sharapova now, moments of tennis are tolerable seeing them move fluidly across the court, but as for watching an entire match, I'd rather have a root canal.

Why then, am I talking about tennis this morning you might ask? The answer for that my friends, is quite simple. There is a monumentally epic contest going on at the moment between John Isner and Nicolas Mahut on the green grass courts at Wimbledon. One that may never be seen in our lifetimes again with the length and ferocity of it. An ongoing saga that has now entered its third day with no resolution in the matter.

When play was suspended on Wednesday, the match was tied at two sets apiece, and 59-59 in the third set. That's correct, I said 59-59. The scoreboard read 6-4, 3-6, 6-7 (7-9), 7-6 (7-3), 59-59. The fifth set alone had gone 118 games, while last year's final between Andy Roddick and Roger Federer went 77 total in being the longest Grand Slam championship match in history.

Both men had obliterated the record for aces hit in a match, previously set by Ivo Karlovic last year with 78. Isner had served 98 aces, Mahut 95. The match had gone on for ten hours, the fifth set alone 7 hours and six minutes, or 33 minutes longer than the longest MATCH ever, set back in the 2004 French Open. The stamina, drive and will to win of both these athletes is amazing. For one, there will eventually be no tomorrow at Wimbledon this year. Someone will end up losing this match at some point in time. The other will not rest on his laurels, as there will be other matches, other competitors to face in an effort to claim the title. Neither man is considered a threat to win, but in my book, both are already winners for what they have pulled off over the past three days.

The match was slated to continue this morning, and many experts were predicting a quick end to the affair. We'll have to see how it all plays out.

Cubs Tag Angels, Head To Seattle

2010-06-22T00:45:00Z

Maybe you can go home again.

Chicago Cubs manager Lou Piniella will return to the city where he had quite a bit of success as the North Siders from Chicago head to the Pacific Northwest to face the Seattle Mariners in a three game set at Safeco Field. Piniella led the Mariners to 7 winning seasons and three division titles in his ten years with the ball club, including a record tying 116 wins in the 2001 campaign.

One thing the Cubs don't need is to worry about bringing batting helmets for the pitchers, or pond filters. After all, Safeco Field is near Puget Sound and the Pacific Ocean, not someone's koi breeding ground.

The Cubs will hope to find a spark in Seattle that might propel them toward the .500 mark and contention in the National League Central. They currently stand 31-38 after yesterday's 12-1 thumping of the Los Angeles Angels of Anaheim, avoiding a sweep by the Halos. Carlos Zambrano was effective, throwing seven frames of one run ball and adding two hits at the plate as the Cubs jumped to an 8-0 lead after three innings and coasted to victory.

Of course, going to Seattle means the DH and it also means the Cubs get to see former teammate, disgruntled outfielder Milton Bradley. Bradley was dealt to Seattle for Carlos Silva in the offseason, in a deal that saw bloated salaries and disappointments trade sides. However, while Bradley has struggled to the tune of a .215 batting average with six home runs and twenty five runs batted in while fanning 53 times, Silva has thrived. He's posted an 8-2 record with a 3.01 ERA and a WHIP of just 1.079 on the season. Not bad for a guy that won a total of five games the past two seasons. He'll throw in the series finale Thursday against Felix Hernandez.

Aramis Ramirez is reportedly finished with his rehab assignment for his thumb and flew with the team to Seattle today. Whether he'll be activated during the series and if so, whether it will be a DH role or playing third base, remains to be seen. One thing is certain, the Cubs can't have a run producer like Ramirez hitting .168 this late in the season if they expect to get back in any kind of playoff race at all.

Here's hoping for a turnaround for the Cubs. A true fan is an optimist, even in the wake of overwhelming odds. Come Thursday, we'll see if the odds have improved any, or if Jim Hendry will start working the phones to consider making moves for 2011 and beyond.

College Teams Changing Conferences

2010-06-14T20:45:00Z

In the past week, the college athletic scene has gone from calm and tranquil to jumbled and turbulent, all seemingly in the blink of an eye while the College World Series continues to go on.

Already, two teams have defected from the once powerful Big 12 Conference, as the University of Colorado has accepted the opportunity to take part in the Pac-10 Conference, and the University of Nebraska is also pulling up stakes, heading to the Big Ten Conference. Ironically, now the Big 10 has 12 teams, and the Big 12 has 10 teams. Figure that one out if you are so inclined. Boise State has left the WAC, a conference they dominated for years, to go to the Mountain West Conference, in an effort to face stronger competition and help that conference gain a BCS berth instead of fighting for at large ones.

Let's take a second here to use the brain for something other than a paperweight. Do we REALLY think that it's all about competition, about opportunity, about the ability to have better fitness equipment on campus? Is that the drivel that chancellors and boards of trustees, etc, are trying to pitch to the alumni and non athletes?

Please. Spare us the pathetically veiled reasons and focus on the real one that is on the tip of everyone's tongues and yet people are too afraid to throw out there for the public flogging: the almighty dollar.

Sure, Texas, Oklahoma, Oklahoma State and Texas Tech were rumored to be bolting to the Pac-10. Missouri and Kansas were expected to then be gobbled up by the Mountain West. Notre Dame was headed to the Big 10, who then would try to snag another team or two from the east coast. The SEC and ACC would expand, gobbling up smaller conferences like Pac-Man would power pellets. The landscape was going to turn into an Armageddon prophecy in college athletics.

Now Texas is leaning toward staying in the slimmed down Big 12. Missouri has thrown its hat in to commit to saving the conference as well, citing their long history with teams like Kansas and Kansas State among others. When one really looks in depth though at the situation, is the root cause for these decisions any different? Texas would make more money with a redone television deal with the Big 12. The other schools in the conference would as well, but Texas would seriously benefit, as they would still get to have their own TV network as well, garnering them another revenue stream.

Reports say that Texas will have their answer for the waiting public no later than Tuesday. Whether it will be one that keeps a relative status quo or one that completely turns a conference on its ear remains to be seen. A conference hasn't been as dismantled as we can expect the Big 12 to be should Oklahoma, Oklahoma State, Texas and Texas Tech bolt since Arkansas left the then Southwest Conference back in the early 1990s to join the SEC. That was the first major expansion by a conference beyond ten teams, when Arkansas and South Carolina were added. The SEC then had 12 teams and suddenly could have a conference championship game.

What did that translate to? You got it: more bucks. It seems that no matter how you slice things in sports these days it all comes back to the greenbacks, the cashola, the bucks, the dough, the money. Sadly, that mentality has permeated from the professional ranks to the collegiate ones now. Perhaps with time, this trend can be reversed and there will be a sense of normalcy on the horizon.

Then again, maybe the world will stop spinning, fall off its axis and send us all hurtling into the sun. I'll be waiting to see which one of these becomes reality over the other.

Blackhawks End Drought, Win Stanley Cup

2010-06-14T19:26:00Z

Relax, Blackhawks fans. The long wait is over at last.

Patrick Kane scored the game and Cup winning goal in overtime in Game Six in Philadelphia, stunning the Flyers 4-3 and taking the series four games to two, for their first Stanley Cup since the days of Glenn Hall and Stan Mikita back in 1961. It was the Flyers sixth consecutive Stanley Cup Finals series loss since the second of back to back Cup wins in 1975.

It wasn't easy for the Hawks, who took the first two games in the series, and then proceeded to drop the next two to send the series back to the United Center for Game Five all knotted up. It was kind of like two variants of the same team, like trying all the different wrinkle creams on the market in order to try and convince yourself that what you went with initially wasn't working. They changed the crash the net, physical play that marked their success through the regular season and first three plus rounds of the playoffs and got soft, passive, and let the Flyers dictate the flow of play.

Then as suddenly as they got away from the physical style, the Blackhawks were the aggressors again, and with a 7-4 victory in Game Five, they were poised to take Lord Stanley's chalice for the first time in nearly half a century. When Kane scored the winner at 4:06 of overtime in Game Six, on a goal that was reviewed to see if it was good, half a century of angst, bitter defeats and ineptitude was washed away. For a team with young talent, such as forwards Kane, Jonathan Toews, Duncan Keith and Brent Seabrook, along with goaltender Antti Niemi, who took over for the faltering Cristobal Huet and cemented himself in Blackhawk lore, it was a moment to be savored, to be treasured, remembered fondly always.

For the Flyers, it was a bitter pill to swallow, facing defeat on home ice knowing there would be no more games for the season. Still, the Flyers can hold their heads high. They needed to win a shootout on the final day of the season to even make the playoffs. They then upended the Atlantic Division Champion New Jersey Devils in round one, before rebounding from a staggering 3-0 hole in games and a 3-0 score deficit in game seven against the Boston Bruins in round two just to get to the CONFERENCE finals. Once there, they dispatched the only team in the East seeded lower than them, the eight seed Montreal Canadiens, to get to the finals.

Michael Leighton, as brilliant as he was in the contests against Boston and Montreal, faltered when the team needed him the most against Chicago. He was pulled twice and had a goals against average of 3.96 for the series. It's uncertain if he'll be back in Philly next season or not, but either way, someone will sign him. Danny Briere will be back, after finding his way playing center again, leading all scorers in the postseason with 30 points, a dozen of those goals.

Hockey season has drawn to a close once again, but the memories of how it ended will remain etched in thoughts and minds across the globe for months to come.