Stanley Cup

The Toronto Maple Leafs switched around their line-up quite a few times this past season, switching through different forwards until they figured out who deserves a spot on the team.

Well judging by last season, I narrowed my top 12 forwards if the Leafs season started right now.

Granted the fact that this list might change in a few weeks... *cough* top six forward *cough*

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The Sabres lineup has not seen many moves since the beginning of the offseason. The loss of Henrik Tallinder and Toni Lydman didn’t surprise many fans. The addition of Jordan Leopold and the expected call up of Mike Weber will replace those openings.

NY Islander GM Garth Snow and owner Charles Wang want to fill some more seats in 2010-11 by securing a playoff berth for the team. What will it take to achieve that goal?

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The Blackhawks are looking to return to the position to be back-to-back as champions next season, and to do this many believe they will need a goalie that has won the big prize before.

Though many want the goalie Annti Niemi who was between the pipes for the magical run last season, that may not come to fruition.

Another Stanley Cup winning goaltender may be starting for the Blackhawks when the season starts in a couple of months, and that may be none other than former Hawk' Nikolai Khabibulin.

With the introduction of the salary cap, teams have been forced to ice young, cheap talent in order to squeeze higher-paid veterans onto rosters. In fact, 11 first round picks from the 2008 draft saw NHL ice time last season.

Often, youngsters find themselves as depth players barely able to skate with the veterans. Once in a while, though, a teenager jumps to the league and contributes right off the hop.

The year, in my eyes, did not start on Friday, Oct. 2 in that magical 2009-10 Stanley cup runner-up season.

In fact, the Flyers year kicked off on my birthday; it was as if Paul Holmgren rewarded my 12 years of loyal service to the team that is the Philadelphia Flyers by finally signing "that guy."

The guy who was finally supposed to lead Philly to the promised land. The day was June 10, and "that guy" was Ray Emery.

The Stanly Cup: a trophy awarded annually to the NHL champion after a best of seven Stanley Cup Championship Series.

The Stanley Cup is known as the The Cup, Lord Stanley's Cup, The Holy Grail, or as Lord Stanley's Mug.

The Cup has been around for more than 100 years, and has been won by 26 different teams in the Cup's 117 years of existence.

It the prize of all prizes.

Ken Holland comes from a world where the TV announcers say, “He’d probably like to have that one back.”

He comes from a world where, when you make a mistake, they turn a red light on and 15,000 zealots with leather lungs might try to boo you out of the building.

It’s a world where you’re assailed with dozens of vulcanized rubber discs every night as the last line of defense. And when Holland played goalie for the Red Wings, he was often the only line of defense.

Drafting a high-ranked goalie early on draft day can be a high risk/high reward situation.

On the one hand, you could end up with the next Roberto Luongo or Marc-Andre Fleury. But you could also end up with the next Brian Finley—the sixth overall pick in the 1999 draft who has appeared in only four NHL games since being drafted.