And a loss to the Red Wings

Buffalo inched closer to being mathematically eliminated by losing to the Red Wings 4-1 in a game that wasn't even close.

While there was a back and forth first period, Buffalo predictably gave up and allowed the game to get out of hand.

The one exception as usual was Paul Gaustad. After Detroit scored to go up 3-0, the camera went to Gaustad on the bench and he looked rather pissed that his team had been scored on. Had Gaustad been out on the ice for that shift he probably would have prevented that goal. Next shift when he did get on the ice, he put in Buffalo's only goal of the night.

Official Three Stars

Marian Hossa

Tomas Holmstrom

Chris Osgood

My Three Stars

Marian Hossa (two goals, one assist, plus two)

Nicklas Lidstrom (one goal, one assist, plus three)

Pavel Datsyuk (two assists, plus two)

Some big names sign (elsewhere)

First Brooks Orpik signed a six year deal for $3.75 million per season with the Penguins. This is a real deal for Pittsburgh. It would have been nice if he extended his hometown discount to his actual hometown, but its understandable that he wanted to stay in Pittsburgh. The team has Crosby under contract for a number of years, just signed Malkin to a four year extension, and went to the finals last year, and look to be one of the best teams around for a few years to come. While I would have loved for him to come to Buffalo, I'm also not going to rip on him for wanting to stay with the Penguins. In fact choosing to stay with that group for that price is a real class move.

One former Penguin who did jump ship is Marion Hossa who surprisingly signed a single year agreement for $7.4 million. It had widely been speculated that Hossa who was this years most sought after free agent would be looking for a long term deal for around $10 million a year. In fact it is expected that he was actually offered that much in some places, but turned it down to play for Detroit instead. Perhaps every European player just feels required to play for the Red Wings.

I was just starting to like the Marty Turco lead Dallas Stars these past two seasons, overlooking the whole foot in the crease deal in order to root for an awesome goaltender. However the team has gone ahead and signed Sean @#%&-ing Avery for $15.5 million over four years. Why a team would waste that much on a player like that is beyond me. It's times like this when I love Buffalo for doing absolutely nothing...

This Off Season's Most Coveted Free Agent

Marián Hossa was a critical part to the Pittsburgh Penguin's run to the Stanley Cup finals this past season, but now he is the most sought after unrestricted free agent in the National Hockey League.

Hossa had a very good post season, earning 26 points in 20 games for Pittsburgh, and ten points in the 12 regular season games he played with the team. However, the Penguins are already pretty close to the salary cap, and are approaching an off-season in which half of their roster (10 players including Hossa) will be unrestricted free agents. Given that this doesn't even include the fact that Malkin is still on his rookie contract with only one season remaining, there is no way they can afford to resign him.

Marian Hossa earned seven million last season, but due to the nature of his contract only counted six million against the cap. His value is only going up, and to see him sign for five years at ten million a year is a very real possibility. This is big money, but any team with room would be willing to add a player of this caliber to their lineup.

Besides Pittsburgh the other two teams Hossa has played for are the Ottawa Senators and the Atlanta Thrashers, but he is unlikely to return to either of these teams. It seemed all season as if he wanted out of Atlanta, and after being traded for Daniel Heatley it remains unlikely he would want to return to the team that drafted him. Both teams could use him, but as a free agent the choice really belongs to Hossa.

The two teams most likely to pick Hossa up this summer are the Dallas Stars, and the Washington Capitals. Both teams made the playoffs this past season and are expected to next year as well even without any big moves this off season. They would give Hossa the chance not only to be the star, but to actually play for a good team as well. Dallas has relied to greatly on their goaltending to win games for them, and could benefit from the additional talent up front.

The Capitals on the other end already have plenty of talent up front with Alexander Ovechkin, but are still a young team and could use the added depth and leadership that Marian Hossa could provide. The Capitals have a good amount of cap space, and only really need to resign Huet in goal. Their long term big money commitment to Ovechkin shows that they aren't afraid to pay their top guys well either. This is also the potential downside of this match, as Washington my be wary of committing too much money to their top two guys, which is a strategy that has backfired greatly in Tampa Bay.

A few other teams such as the Wild, and Boston Bruins, but that's less likely. At the end of the day Marian Hossa can go to wherever team he wants to, and the whole league wants him for their own.

Defense wins championships

The Detroit Red Wings won the Stanley cup against the Pittsburgh Penguins in six games. The sixth game wasn't all that close for the first two periods, and then down 3-1 the Penguins only managed to get one shot on goal in the first 16 minutes of the third. They really did try hard for the final few minutes of the game, but thats a strategy I've seen fail for the Sabres time and time again these past two seasons.

Henrik Zetterberg won the Conn Smythe, and Crosby and Hossa also did very well for their team as well. It should be interesting to see where Hossa ends up during the off-season. For the Red Wings both Cleary, and Lindstrom had very good series as well.

Hasek got another cup as he put up a 2-2 playoff record for his team. Osgood was probably the biggest surprise player of this post season, but he did get plenty of help from his defense. Marc-Andre Fleury played well for the Penguins especially in game five where he had 50 saves. Still he let in to bad goals in game six, and wasn't the overwhelmingly dominant player that Pittsburgh needed to be to bail them out at that point.

Given how flat the Penguins were in games one and two of the series, it's hard to say that the best team didn't win. Crosby will have to wait another year.

Defensive mistakes allow Atlanta to win

The Buffalo Sabres played very well for parts of their game against the Atlanta thrashers, but lost 5-2 on the heals of some major defensive mistakes. If the Sabres can't even beat the teams in the southeast division then they are really going to have a hard time making the playoffs.

There were far to many big time defensive meltdowns in this game. All of Atlanta's first three goals were unassisted, and for the first one Kalinin gave up the puck behind the net on what should have been an easy play. On Atlanta's fourth goal Hossa was able to come down the wing with the puck all by himself to score the goal.

The Thrashers had a very good penalty kill throughout the game, and spent alot of time pressuring the Sabres, including what was a six on four advantage at the end of the game. The three best players on the ice for Buffalo were Campbell, Hecht, and MacArthur. Why MacArthur keeps getting sent down to the Amerks is beyond me. He keeps playing well every game he is up with the Sabres, and picked up another goal in the game this afternoon.

Official Three Stars

Marian Hossa

Johan Hedberg

Colin Stuart

My Three Stars

Marian Hossa (first two points of the game)

Colin Stuart (a goal and plus three)

Eric Perrin (an assist and 15 for 20 on faceoffs)