Finishing out a season where there wasn't a whole lot to cheer about, the St. Louis Blues had an opportunity to forget about the impending end of their NHL season when they were able to celebrate the 500th goal of Keith Tkachuk's career.

The goal, an empty-netter, came with just 1:34 remaining to salt away a 4-1 win for St.Louis over the Blue Jackets. The goal was his 27th of the season.

While "Walt" deserves a pat on the back -- he's lost in the crush of his teammates in that photo to the right -- I can't help but think about his achievement in terms of many of his American-born contemporaries in the NHL.

This season we saw Jeremy Roenick pot his 500th goal as he found a reason to keep skating in San Jose, while Mike Modano managed to take the all-time scoring lead for American-born players while continuting to play a diminished role in Dallas.

Simply put, we're watching a whole generation of American-born players in the twilight of their careers. All three were part of the post-Lake Placid generation of players who were inspired by the Gold Medal win in 1980, and all three wore Team USA colors in the inaugural World Cup of Hockey, helping that team to a victory that shocked the entire hockey world, Canada in particular.

But now there are fewer days ahead than behind, and one wonders if the new generation of Americans, represented by players like Patrick Kane, Jack Johnson and Kyle Okposo, among others, will be able to represent the Red, White and Blue as ably in international play.

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.

This hasn't been a season to remember for Caps' goalie Olaf Kolzig, the cagey veteran who has been playing with a giant fork stuck in his back the entire season.

Want a good reason why the Caps won't make the playoffs? Kolzig, and his near-the-basement 89.2% save percentage. There is a reason why the Caps went out and traded for a different #1 goalie.

Well, at least Olie the Goalie was able to 'cap' off his career with win #300, a 3-2 win over the Calgary Flames. Kolzig has been quite the soldier for the Capitals, and it's hard to blame him for being so overused by his club.

With the Capitals trying to keep realistic hopes alive for a playoff spot, Kolzig had little chance to focus on his accomplishments in 17 seasons with Washington. Kolzig is the 23rd goalie to win 300 NHL games.

"I think it'll set in a little more when the season's over, or my career's over," Kolzig said. "I kind of just approach it as a playoff game for us. We're in a must-win situation every night, and it just happened that tonight was my 300."

"It was huge to get this win," Kolzig said. "It was good to get this game to get rid of the demons from the weekend and move forward."

And, yes, Alexander Ovechkin scored, again! Two more goals for 1d8 gives him 56 on the year, and it looks more and more like the NHL will finally have a 60-goal scorer. Wow.

Late last month, I labeled a nine-game stretch as "The Most Important 2 Weeks in the Short, Painful History of the Columbus Blue Jackets." That stretch ended with Sunday's 5-3 victory over the Tampa Bay Lightning, and the Jackets went a respectable 4-3-2 during that run; here's how it happened:

• Feb. 19: Loss at Toronto, 3-1
• Feb. 21: Win at Ottawa, 3-2
• Feb. 23: Win at Montreal, 3-0
• Feb. 27: Loss vs. San Jose, 4-2
• Feb. 29: Win at Vancouver, 3-2
• March 2: OT Loss at Edmonton, 4-3
• March 4: Loss at Calgary, 1-0
• March 7: OT Loss vs. Edmonton, 2-1
• March 9: Win vs. Tampa Bay, 5-3

Columbus started the stretch three points away from the eighth seed; after Sunday's win, it's five points in back of Vancouver, and the Canucks have two games in hand. While the beginning of the run was very impressive -- there's no denying the valor in those wins in Montreal and Vancouver -- taking just two points from those games against the Alberta teams is a devastating setback this late in the season. One of the culprits was the Jackets' power-play: Jason Chimera's goal late in the third period against Tampa snapped what was an 0-for-34 drought. Since this offensive anemia could keep the Jackets out of the postseason (again), the question becomes: What if GM Scott Howson had been a buyer rather than a seller at the deadline? Or, better yet: What would their goal totals have been had the team won the Brad Richards sweepstakes? Inquiring season-ticket holders waiting to renew want to know...

I'd say Columbus survived its brutal stretch, even with the frustration heading into March. But time and the standings are not on the Jackets' side. The schedule, however, is: Two four-point-swing games against Nashville, and four (!) games against the Red Wings. And while the prospect of facing a Winged Wheel that's still trying to hold off Dallas for tops in the conference might seem daunting, Columbus is a remarkable 2-1-1 against Detroit this season. Ken Hitchcock is coaching his heart out right now; he'll need to continue to if the Jackets have a prayer for their first postseason berth.

In the love-fest surrounding Adam Foote's return to Colorado, it's easy to forget that there was another team that felt a tad differently about the defenseman at the deadline: The Columbus Blue Jackets. With the trade frenzy nearly a week old, news about the kind of hardball Foote played with his former team has come to light in The Columbus Dispatch, and it doesn't make the ex-captain look very good:

It's believed that Foote and his agent, Rick Curran, set their contract demands at a height they knew the Blue Jackets wouldn't accept. Proof: The Blue Jackets moved up from their first offer of two years, $6 million to two years, $7 million, but Foote and Curran refused to budge from their initial demand of two years, $8 million.

When Howson suggested to Foote that the sides continue negotiating beyond the trade deadline -- that the Blue Jackets' playoff hopes, faint as they are, deserve a hearty attempt -- Foote responded in a way nobody could have predicted.

Brand new Washington Capitals Sergei Fedorov and Cristobal Huet were introduced to the Washington press corps yesterday afternoon, and it proved to be quite a media crush, especially for a team that usually struggles to attract attention in a crowded sports market that's usually dominated by the Washington Redskins.

Though I couldn't make it out to the practice rink, my friend Dmitriy Chesnokov from Sovetsky Sport did. As luck would have it, I just started a new job about a week ago, and thanks to serendipity and nothing else, Dmitriy is actually ensconced in the same office suite as me. Hence, it wasn't too much trouble for him to stop by yesterday and ask to borrow my camera.

When Dmitriy stopped by later in the afternoon, the first thing he passed along to me was how "shell shocked" Fedorov seemed to be, as if he was surprised to be in Washington and was still trying to get his head around how this had happened. Here's the money quote from Tarik el-Bashir:

"To be honest with you, I had to gather my thoughts yesterday," Fedorov said. "But today is a brand new day. The old chapter is closed and a new chapter is open. I'm looking forward to working with the organization and hopefully be part of something special, like make a playoff run and making the playoffs. I just met the coach, and he told me that I'm going to play a little bit more than I played in Columbus. For me, that's exciting news."

Adam Foote said yesterday was the "weirdest day" of his life, as he watched a contract extension with Columbus quickly morph into a return to the Colorado Avalanche by the trade deadline. And it only got stranger: Foote was whisked from the airport to the Avs' road game against the Flames last night by an off-duty Calgary police officer, arrived at the game with 6:26 left in the first and went on to play 29 shifts over 18:30 minutes. Colorado won the game, 3-2 in overtime.

His return to the Avs has naturally led many to comment on the absurd nostalgia in the Avs bringing home Foote and Forsberg -- Lord knows I made my own "Back to the Future"/"Where are Valeri Kamensky and Sylvain Lefebvre?" jokes yesterday. But Woody Paige is drinking The Kool-Aid:

Just give us that old-time religion. Think what you will about the actions and transactions, but in the past two days the Avs went from also-rans to also-contenders. I'll take the good Foote and the bad foot over the left feet that were available at trade time. Avalanche general manager Francois Giguere, the former numbers cruncher, did serious creative accounting to make the acquisitions happen. He added, not subtracted. Pierre Lacroix and Claude Lemieux will be proud. So what if this is a Reunion Tour? Everybody wanted to see the Eagles in one more concert.

So while it appeared the Avs had already filled their big lumbering defenseman quota with Ruslan Salei and Kurt Sauer, Foote has been warmly welcomed back. Now he and Sakic can get back to stealing Bacos and fighting with local DJs:

If you asked any educated Washington Capitals fan at the start of the day where they though the team needed some help, the checklist might look something like this:

An upgrade in goal -- which was addressed earlier today when the team acquired Cristobal Huet from Montreal.

A physical defenseman -- somebody who can clear out the front of the crease. We've still got about 15 minutes.

More grit up front -- All too often Matt Bradley looked like the only forward who was committed to bringing the pain on the forecheck outside of Alex Ovechkin. General Manager George McPhee did well to address that when he swapped speedy winger Matt Pettinger to Vancouver for all-purpose pest Matt Cooke.

And finally, the team needed to fill the hole at center that was created when Michael Nylander was lost for the season. The book on the Caps is pretty simple -- shut down Ovechkin you shut down the Caps. And without a legitimate pivot on the second line, all too often Ovechkin and his linemates were expected to carry the day.

Consider that hole now filled with the addition of three-time Stanley Cup winner and former Hart Trophy winner Sergei Fedorov. Federov was pried out of Columbus for the relatively reasonable price of 2007 2nd round draft pick Theo Ruth, a freshman defenseman at Notre Dame.

Darren Dreger of TSN reported today that the Tampa Bay Lightning have alerted center Brad Richards they're trying to deal him. Richards has given management a list of teams for which he'd be willing to waive his NTC; GM Jay Feaster will take the offers he's received -- allegedly from Vancouver, Columbus and Dallas -- to ownership, and a former Conn Smythe winner making $7.8 million per season until 2011 could be gonzo by the trade deadline.

If you go by the hockey rumoristas, Richards has been on the block longer than a septuagenarian prostitute. But this time could be different, if Dreger's on point with this line from his TSN.ca piece: "Tampa Bay's incoming owner Oren Koules is said to be heavily involved." Koules has taken over a losing team with the gross national product of Guyana tied up into three players; snipping a valuable but under-performing Richards would, I imagine, be something he might be interested in.

There are several teams rumored to be in the hunt for Richards. But would he improve any of them in the short term or the long run?

"You're hoping the players on this club will understand the magnitude of the situation. We're trying to get this organization into the playoffs for the first time. That's a big deal. I don't think we all appreciate how big a deal that is." -- Michael Peca, center, Columbus Blue Jackets

And that's why you sign Michael Peca as a free agent: For leadership, for perspective. The Blue Jackets play in Toronto tonight, entering the game three points out of the last two playoff slots in the Western Conference; two weeks from now, they will have traveled to Ottawa, Montreal, Vancouver, Edmonton and Calgary, with a home game against the San Jose Sharks sandwiched in between. It's a treacherous road trip for a team that has the second-fewest number of victories away from its home arena. And it couldn't come at a more critical moment.

It arrives as General Manager Scott Howson decides who to keep, who to dump, who to bring into his locker room from other teams. He's making these decisions in an attempt to secure his team's first voyage into the Stanley Cup Playoffs; but more importantly, he's making these decision with the future of the team's season ticket base potentially hanging in the balance.

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.

With 22 games to go and a 10-point lead on the Dallas Stars for the top spot in the Western Conference, I'm not sure anyone is really panicking in Detroit over the play of the Red Wings as of late. But now that the team's current losing streak has hit five, perhaps it should be time to wonder whether or not the league's commitment to parity hasn't finally caught up with the Wings in the West the way it has with Ottawa in the East.

Last night's 5-1 loss to Columbus in Detroit should be a pretty good object lesson. Less than 48 hours before, Columbus had been dive-bombed by the Chicago Blackhawks at home, 7-2. But after getting first period goals from Rick Nash, Fredrik Modin and Nikolai Zherdev, the Blue Jackets cruised the rest of the way.

Granted, the Wings were without Brian Rafalski (the dreaded strained groin), Dom Hasek, Nik Kronwall and Dan Cleary, all suffering from various injuries, but this is a team that has thoroughly dominated the rest of the West with ease most of the season. And if Detroit wants to right things, they're going to have to do it the hard way on the road, as they're about to embark on a five-game trip that will take them to Dallas, Colorado, Calgary, Vancouver and Edmonton.