(Technically, he isn't getting fired, as his contract is up. Just an FYI.)

The Colorado Avalanche are now looking for a new head coach.

The Colorado Avalanche Hockey Club announced today that Joel Quenneville will not return to coach the team next season.

"After meeting with Joel, we mutually agreed that the best decision for both parties involved is to go separate ways," said Avalanche Executive Vice President & General Manager Francois Giguere. "On behalf of the organization, I want to thank Joel for his years of service and wish him the best in his coaching career."

I have to admit that I'm surprised by this. I thought Quenneville did a super job in the Avs' first-round upset of Minnesota, and the injuries that played a large role in Detroit's second-round sweep weren't his fault.

However, the Avalanche were practically non-competitive during that series, especially in that Game Four embarrassment. It's one thing to get run off the rink, and it's another to look like you're going through the motions.

I may be surprised, but Rick Sadowski of the Rocky Mountain News was a day ahead of the story.

(Tap of the stick: Kukla's Korner.)

Not too long ago, the Avalanche/Wings rivalry was, by far, the very best in the NHL. From Claude Lemieux's cheap-shot on Kris Draper, to goalie fights, to Marc Crawford going nutso, to Patrick Roy's "Statue of Liberty" mishap, the Avs/Wings rivalry brought us great hockey and plenty of animosity. Even a fan who hated both teams, such as myself, enjoyed watching the two clubs battle each other tooth and nail.

This year? Not so much. With the Wings sweeping aside the Avs like a wisp of dust, it was obvious that the Avs can longer holder hold their end of the bargain. What used to be a great rivalry, and what was expected to be a must-see series, turned into a pretty boring 4-game affair, with few fireworks and little excitement.

As Ian Winwood notes, the Avs/Wings rivalry used to have everything a fan could ask for.

Amid the breathlessness of brilliant hockey (between 1996 and 2002 the two teams combined for five championships) came a flurry of brute force and bad form. The tendency not to drop one's gloves during the play-offs was overlooked with such gusto that even the goalies had a fight - not once, but twice! One game saw a head coach become so angry it looked for all the world like he might well clamber over the Plexiglas divider and land someone a swinger. Then there was Lemieux, busy putting people in hospital. There was everything you couldn't want: there was verbal abuse, bad blood, sucker punches, fist-fights ... and all of this from men wearing ice-skates.

So, why did the rivalry die as much as it has? You'd figure that the years of intense battles, combined with the Avs having a bunch of players who've been through the wars, would have at least contributed to a new chapter in the blood feud.

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.

Things couldn't have been more different last night for the New York Rangers and Colorado Avalanche. Both teams were facing a sweep and the potential of Sunday morning tee times this weekend. Both also had superstars that could have been seeing their last shifts, helping to create what could make for a legendary Hall of Fame class in a few years (Forsberg, Sakic, Shanny and Jagr, oh my!). But two roads diverged in a wood and well, you know how that goes.

This wasn't necessarily the last game for Joe Sakic -- a class act as far as I know -- but, if for some reason it turns out to be just that for the 19-year NHL vet, it was the worst way in which his stellar career could have ended. The Avs were outmatched from the get go in this series. The injuries mounted and they were riding a ticking time bomb between the pipes. I'm not making excuses, but the odds were stacked against them. On the other side of the ice, the Red Wings -- still coming off that President's Trophy -- were given a scare in the first round from Nashville, one that likely shook them and woke them up in a cold sweat at 3 AM. That's what appears to have happened at least. Last night the Red Wings took it to the Avs, firing on all cylinders in front of the home fans in Detroit (whoops ... It was in Detroit) and came away with an 8-2 victory.

Here's another interesting item from the hive mind inside NHL FanHouse: If all of the current playoff series on tap tonight run to what seems to be their inevitable conclusions, we might very well be on the verge of seeing the most significant set of departures from the league since the lockout.

With the New York Rangers and Colorado Avalanche staring down the barrel of what look to be insurmountable leads in their respective three playoff series (both 3-0), tonight could see the last shifts in the careers of Jaromir Jagr, Joe Sakic, Brendan Shanahan, and Peter Forsberg.

For those of you scoring at home, those players occupy spots 1, 2, 4 and 17 on the NHL's active scoring list. And if you toss in the possible retirements of Mark Recchi and Jeremy Roenick, you add nos. 3 and 7 to a crowded retirement calendar.

So how likely is it that tonight will be the last time we'll see any of these four Hall of Fame locks on the ice? Let's take a look at each:

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.

From an efficiency standpoint, these playoffs are delivering possibly the quickest second round in NHL history. Three series got a lot less interesting last night when the New York Rangers, the San Jose Sharks, and the Colorado Avalanche all came up short in must-win Game Threes. They will all be hearing lots about the brutal history of a 3-0 series deficit, a hole no NHL team has conquered since the 1975 New York Islanders. Well, maybe the Sharks won't have a chance to hear that much history -- they actually face elimination tonight.

I guess there's a bright side to one-sidedness: with the Pittsburgh Penguins, the Dallas Stars, and the Detroit Red Wings all on impressive winning streaks, it's looking to be an interesting third round. That there are three series at 3-0 less than a week into Round Two seems an odd phenomenon, though, as most games seem to have been toss-ups. Collectively, the Penguins, Red Wings, and Stars are 9-0 this round despite scoring the opening goal of the game only three times.

Stars 2, Sharks 1 (OT): In Dallas, defenseman Mattias Norstrom scored at 4:37 of the first overtime to propel the Stars to a comeback win over San Jose. For the fourth game in a row, the Stars surrendered the game's first goal, a shorthanded breakaway by Patrick Marleau. For the fourth game in a row, they fought back for victory, with Sergei Zubov tying the game on a 5-on-3 power play early in the third period. Dallas seems to have a real knack for playing past the forty-minute mark these playoffs: during third periods and overtimes they have collectively outscored their opponents 19-5. The Sharks also managed to extend a franchise streak: for the third year in a row, they lost three consecutive games in Round Two. Ouch.

(After the break, more on the win streaks of the Stars, Penguins, and Red Wings, plus some comeback advice from an unlikely source.)

There's little in sports that's as important as Game 3 when a team finds itself down 2-0 in a series. A 2-1 deficit is manageable. Someone's gotta be ahead after three games and you know you've got two home games left. A 3-0 deficit is the kiss of death. In all major sports with best of seven playoff series, teams with a 3-0 lead are 260-3.

Down 2-0 was the exact deficit that the Rangers, Sharks, and Avalanche all found themselves facing going into last night's games. The Rangers and Avs had the benefit of playing in front of their home crowd, hoping to take advantage of the old adage that a series never starts until each team plays a home game. The Sharks faced the unenviable task of trying to start their comeback on the road in Dallas.

How did our three squads fare? Umm ... yeah ... about that ...

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.

Guy Carbonneau can't be happy. It's one thing to lose because your opponent played a strong game and earned the victory.

It's another to lose because you bring practically zero intensity to the table, you got overrun over about a 15-minute stretch, gave up two awfully soft goals, and your team showed up too late to do enough.

That was the case Monday night in Philadelphia, where the Flyers survived a late charge by Montreal to take a 3-2 win, along with a 2-1 series lead. All Much of Montreal's troubles can be traced to the second-period collapse of goaltender Carey Price, who looks lost and confused just often enough to overcome his immense skill and fundamentals.

Scottie Upshall's second-period goal broke the ice, and it was a bad sign. It was a shot where Price was screened, but still should have made the save. Not the softest goal we've seen in these playoffs, but when your team is anemic offensively, and the opposing goalie is absolutely on his game, it's not a goal you can afford to let in.

Oh, but it would get worse for the youngster.

(Still to come: How the stupidity of Derian Hatcher let Montreal back in the game, three teams have their backs to the wall Tuesday night, a Forsberg groin update, and a YouTube for everyone)

The team that continues to be the biggest surprise of the 2008 Stanley Cup Playoffs has to be the Dallas Stars. For the second series in a row, Dallas has faced a higher seed yet still come away with a pair of victories on enemy ice.

The first victim was the defending Stanley Cup champion Anaheim Ducks. Now the team Dallas has tied in knots is the San Jose Sharks, one of the prohibitive favorites to win the Cup going into the 2007-08 regular season. After stealing Game One thanks to an overtime goal from team captain Brendan Morrow, the Stars faced a 2-1 deficit entering the third period -- a deficit that would have been larger if it wasn't for the play of goalie Marty Turco and an incredible bad angle goal from behind the net in the first period from Mike Ribero.

The comeback was sparked early in the third when Brad Richards (who finished the night with four points, alli in the third period) jumped on a Joe Pavelski turnover in the San Jose zone and wired a wrist shot past Nabakov to tie it, 2-2. A few minutes later Sergei Zubov, who had been out with an injury since January 17, made a blind backhanded pass to Mike Modano. He ripped the puck past Nabakov to give Dallas a lead it would never relinquish

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.

After a night without hockey (and boy was it hard to take) we're back and better than ever. Two games to get to this morning and they were both worth the price of admission ... Or the effort of turning on your TV. Whichever. The first game of the night saw the Habs start their series against the Flyers at home. And don't worry folks -- no cars or stores were harmed in the making of this one.

The way the night started at the Bell Centre, it sure seemed like something would be destroyed, but out of anger and not happiness. The visiting Flyers started off the scoring by netting two goals late in the first to take a 2-0 lead into the intermission. Netminder Marty Biron was stellar through the first half of the game as well. He held the Habs in check, even stopping a penalty shot from Andrei Kostitsyn (great move, but an even better save). But that would be null and void, as the brothers Kostitsyn continued their hot play by combining to put the Canadiens on the board. Kovalev would level things a bit later, as he banged home a shot that appeared to be a high stick. Either way it counted, tying the game at 2-2.

Click here for more NHL playoff previews.

After just one night off, it's time to kick the NHL playoffs back into gear again with the start of the second round. The first round had a little something for everyone: Regional rivalries, four-game sweeps, plenty of OT and three Game Sevens. Not a bad showing if you asked me.

But the second round is looking just as compelling. In the East, we've got a pair of Original Six squads (New York and Montreal) taking on two of the more successful expansion franchises (Pittsburgh and Philadelphia). Out West we've got the renewal of the most intense rivalry of the 1990s (Avs/Red Wings) while the consensus pick to win it all -- San Jose -- gets to battle a team that's experienced plenty of recent playoff disappointment in Dallas.

With that, it's time to consult our distinguished panel.