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Every day from Monday to Saturday, The Ice Sheet will take a look at the biggest stories in the league that happened on the ice and elsewhere the night before.

The Ottawa Senators have gone from last to first.

Oh, but it's not a good thing this time.

In 2007, Ottawa was the last team eliminated from the Stanley Cup Playoffs, losing the Finals to Anaheim in five games. In 2008, Ottawa is the first team eliminated from the postseason. The Pittsburgh Penguins completed a four-game sweep of the Sens Wednesday night.

It's not been a season to remember in Canada's capital city. The Senators battled injuries, a coaching change, and struggles in goal to make the playoffs. Once they got there, they were simply overwhelmed by a deeper, more talented Pittsburgh team.

Lost in the sweep is the leadership and courage shown by Senators captain Daniel Alfredsson. No one will ever forget that stunt on Scott Niedermayer in the Finals last year. However, there's too much goodwill built up over the years to hold that against him forever. He showed how valuable he is to this Senators franchise by giving it his all to help the team in these home games. No matter your opinion of him, Alfredsson is the kind of man most teams would love to have as a captain.

His presence simply wasn't enough. There was a clear emotional boost early in Game Three, but Ottawa was not good enough. Too many injuries sapped the Senators' depth.

(Still to come: Ian Laperriere's ironic comments, the Devils try to level with the Rangers, Nashville tries to take advantage of momentum from Game Three, and we'll preview the five games coming up Thursday night)

Devils fail to draw even. For New Jersey, turnovers are a big part of why they find themselves down 3-1 to the Rangers heading into Game Five Friday night. The Devils were careless with the puck, as mistakes by Zach Parise and Patrick Elias led to Ranger goals in a 5-3 New York win. The Elias turnover turned into Mark Staal's game-winning goal late in the third period.

On a side note, I've about had it with the flopping and acting up from Martin Brodeur. I don't have a dog in this fight, but Brodeur's been driving me nuts. Every time someone comes near him, he flails and acts as if he's being run over and getting his personal space invaded. Sure, he's getting hit a bit. Sean Avery isn't afraid of going after an opposing goaltender, and others (including captain Jaromir Jagr) have been crashing the net occasionally. However, Brodeur looks like a wimp with how he's behaving. It's sad to see a legendary goaltender resort to such pathetic tactics. It's even sadder that the officials are compelled to buy his crap.

I understand that we've gone to a system in the NHL that overprotects goaltenders. Yes, they're valuable players, much like quarterbacks are in the NFL. But when the system is devised in a way that it rewards goalies who embellish, the system is broken and in need of repair.

Is Detroit in trouble? In a way, yes. I still think they're going to beat Nashville, but this is a series that should have been over in five games. Detroit possesses more talent and more depth. However, Nashville has a decided edge in goal, as we pointed out in our playoff preview. So far, the play of Dominik Hasek for Detroit has been the only reason this series is close. He allowed three more goals, including two 32 seconds apart and another one right after Detroit had gotten on the board, in Game Four Wednesday night. Nashville hung on to win 3-2. Hasek was pulled for Chris Osgood, who shut the Predators out for the 32 minutes he was in the game.

Osgood was easily sharper than Hasek, and it would be a stunner if he didn't start Game Five Friday in Detroit. I'll stop short of saying that Mike Babcock would be an idiot to put Hasek back out there. I do feel like Osgood has to be the choice. He had superior numbers during the regular season, and he did give his team a chance to pull off a comeback Wednesday.

Nashville has to be flying high. They were four minutes away from a 3-0 series hole, and instead they find themselves in a best-of-three with the Presidents' Trophy winners. The Predators must find a way to win at least one game in Detroit, obviously, but the Wings have been hardly unbeatable at home in recent playoff runs.

Oh, the delicious irony. A tap of the stick goes to Michael Russo of the Minneapolis Star Tribune for catching this, but apparently Avalanche hack Ian Laperriere was somewhat complimentary (note: "somewhat") of Minnesota's Stephane Veilleux after Game Four.

Russo notes that Laperriere appreciated Veilleux's willingness to fight after a nasty hit he put on Colorado's Paul Stastny. Laperriere said Veilleux knew he had to "back it up".

Um...wait. You respect Veilleux because he backed up his hit on Stastny, yet you have refused to fight any of Minnesota's "tough guys" after goading Wild captain (and non-fighter) Marian Gaborik into fisticuffs during the season finale. I understand that Derek Boogaard, Todd Fedoruk, Chris Simon, and Aaron Voros are all bigger than you are, but it would be nice if you could hold yourself to your own standard, Ian.

Then again, Laperriere should have felt no need to fight Veilleux, because Veilleux should have been thrown out of the game for his hit on Stastny. The Wild's behavior Tuesday night was embarrassing, but I'm certain it won't be repeated. Not in Game Five, and not any other night in this series.

Thursday's schedule. A quick, handy guide to the five matchups on the docket. All times Eastern, by the way.

Boston at Montreal, 7pm. Montreal goes for the clinch against a Boston team that's been spunky, but lacks the scoring punch to put a serious dent in Carey Price. Good thing for the Bruins that Tim Thomas showed up, too. There were two great goaltending duels in Boston. If Thomas can keep it going, the Bruins might not be dead, yet.

Washington at Philadelphia, 7pm. The Flyers took a 2-1 series lead with a 6-3 win Tuesday night. They're doing a super job creating traffic in front of Cristobal Huet, and their physical style is causing problems for Alexander Ovechkin. I'd love to see a Caps win here. It would even the series (and I'm a fan of long, competitive, fun series), and it would at least temporarily shut up those idiotic Philadelphia fans that apparently think they should treat Ovechkin worse than they do Sidney Crosby.

Anaheim at Dallas, 8pm. The Ducks scored on three of their first four shots in Game Three, eventually led 4-0, but had to survive a late Dallas charge to win 4-2. While they're back in the series, I'm not convinced that Dallas has left the door open wide enough. The Stars need, however, to win this game to re-gain command in the series. If it goes back to Anaheim even at two wins apiece, Dallas might as well start reserving tee times for the middle of next week.

Colorado at Minnesota, 9pm. As already covered above, the Wild won't play like that again. What's up in the air is whether their tiring defensemen can continue to play well, or if Game Four was simply a sign of things to come. As good as Niklas Backstrom is, he's not good enough to overcome consistent defensive mistakes.

Calgary at San Jose, 10pm. The Sharks are alive again after Tuesday's comeback win. It's a best-of-three now, and the Sharks need to seize the momentum on home ice. Calgary is good enough to steal this series if the Sharks aren't careful. After the chokejob that was Game Three for San Jose, it would be smart of them to take advantage of this second life.

Random YouTube Embed. Somewhere, somehow, there is going to be a Game Seven in the playoffs. Hopefully it will happen sooner rather than later.

The thought of a Game Seven leads to many stories of legendary performances. This one is probably the most unlikely Game Seven overtime winner you could ever ask to see. I mean, Darius Kasparaitis? Seriously?