One day, you're worth a second-round pick in the 2009 Entry Draft. Two months and change later, you're likely worth upwards of $5 million per year.

Such is life for former Canadiens backup netminder Cristobal Huet, who was stolen acquired by the Washington Capitals at the trade deadline and is now on the verge of perhaps testing his value on the open market as an unrestricted free agent (to be fair, Huet wasn't in the Habs' long-term plans with Carey Price having taken over the number one job, so moving him for a pick made some sense... until they had to start Jaroslav Halak in the playoffs).

How good (and under-rated) was Huet's season? Consider that only one goalie in the entire NHL (Jean-Sebastien Giguere) had both a better GAA and SV% than Huet in 2007-08. And that Huet won the highest percentage of games played of any goalie in the League with more than 43 appearances (and only the two Detroit goalies had a better percentage if you lowered the games played requirement to two). And that he ended the regular season on a 9-0-0 run during which he posted a 1.52 GAA, a .941 save percentage and allowed only seven even strength goals as he snuck the Caps into the playoffs by a single win.

As a confirmed tech nerd, I like to count myself lucky to have become an adult in the kind of world that I only dreamed about as a child. In uplifting moments I'm grateful for all the awesome information technology that's transformed the world. Then again, in other small minded moments, I'm grateful for a lot of the mischief this same awesome technology has facilitated.

Case in point: Carey Price, Pension Plan Puppets and Hockey Reference.

All I'll say right now is that Hockey Reference, like its sister sites, allows individuals to sponsor pages with personalized messages. PPP, albeit with some help from its readers, decided it was time to strike in defense of Leafdom, with Montreal goalie Carey Price being the first target. When you get to his page, the sponsorship line now reads:

More Ken Dryden (Liberal leadership candidate) than Ken Dryden (1971 Conn Smythe Winner)

Fresh off its foray into online hijinks, PPP is embarking on a long-term plan to buy up as many pages as possible to annoy fans of rival teams. Childish? Perhaps. But in terms of online marketing, it's sheer brilliance. I can't wait to see who might be next in line. In fact, if I was a less charitable man, I'd think that the folks at Hockey Reference might actually be behind this campaign. But that would just be naked speculation.

Now excuse me for a moment, I need to check out Cam Ward's page.

For the past couple of months now we've been reading rumors of a relationship between Calgary Flames defenseman Dion Phaneuf and actress Elisha Cuthbert. Now it seems as if we've got some serious photographic evidence via that paragon of journalistic integrity, Hollywood Tuna:

So it looks like Elisha Cuthbert gets passed around the NHL more than a hockey puck. Here she is with Dion Phaneuf from the Calgary Flames. Now I'm not 100% sure that's him since his face looks like it's taken more beatings than Lindsay Lohan's ...

Yowch, feel the snark! Hollywood is a rough place.

Though the folks at HT don't seem to be completely sure that it's Phaneuf that they've captured walking beside Cuthbert, the hockey braintrust here at FanHouse is happy to confirm their suspicion -- that's certainly Phaneuf in this blowup.

As other have noted, this would mean that Cuthbert has completed something of an NHL dating hat trick, progressing from Rangers bad boy Sean Avery, through Habs defenseman Mike Komisarek and now to Phaneuf, the highest paid of the three.

As far as I'm concerned, we're very happy that Cuthbert has decided to cut a swath through the NHL. In fact, we're just waiting for the moment she gets hitched to a hockey player and starts dishing to the press much like Willa Ford, aka Mrs. Mike Modano.

HT: The Big Lead.

Before the Montreal/Philadelphia series started, I said that I thought that Philadelphia matched up well with the Habs. In light of their 6-4 victory tonight and their 4-1 series win, I suppose I was right, though this wasn't really what I had in mind at all. What I meant was that I expected the Flyers, a team that was one loss away from having the eight seed, would give the top-seeded Canadiens a battle better than or equal to what the Bruins gave them.

What ended up happening was Flyer dominance from start to finish in the series, save a few minutes at the end an in overtime of Game 1. In the Game 5 clincher, Montreal flew out to a 3-1 lead that lasted past the halfway point of the game, when the Flyers proceeded to score three goals in three minutes to regain their chokehold on the game and the series. The Habs managed to tie, but couldn't stop Scottie Upshall's game winner shortly after the four minute mark.

The Flyers now get to sit back and watch their two division rivals battle it out in the other Eastern semi. They certainly seem to be playing as well now as they were during the early part of the season and neither the Pens nor the Rangers will be happy to see them waiting for them in the Eastern Conference Finals.

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 Dallas Stars didn't want to put a test to that old "third time's a charm" saying.

Much better to just close this deal in San Jose Friday night, and avoid giving the Sharks any more chances to crawl back into the series they had seemingly fallen out of already.

However, things don't always happen the way we plan them.

San Jose pulled off an improbable two-goal rally, then Joe Pavelski scored just over a minute into overtime to give the Sharks a 3-2 win. Dallas' lead in the series is now 3-2, with Game Six Sunday in Dallas.

Dallas had to be happy with the first period. Nothing happened, but the big thing for them was that nothing good happened for San Jose. It kept a usually-boisterous crowd from getting riled up, and it kept San Jose's top line (which has been invisible even-strength for pretty much the entire series) from generating any major chances.

(Still to come: The NHL screws the Stars, a brief rant about the league's inexcusably bad television deal, Guy Carbonneau readies his players for a tall task, and the usual dose of YouTube)

In the wake of last season's finish at the bottom of the NHL standings, the Philadelphia Flyers have been seeking vengeance all year long -- or at least their marketing department would have us think so.

But as it turns out, one of their key players really is out for vengeance against the Montreal Canadiens this year.

So who's the player who can't let go of a grudge? How about goalie, Quebec native and ex-Nordiques fan, Martin Biron?

"I used to paint my face blue and white as a kid," the 30-year-old Biron recalled. "We were big fans. My parents had season tickets in the early '80s for a few years. We used to go down for games."

Nords fans still talk about the Good Friday brawl in 1984 at the Montreal Forum: fourteen fights. So many, in fact, that referee Bruce Hood lost track of who was tossed from the game and who was not.

"My parents still talk about that game," Biron said. "How the Canadiens cheated. It runs deep. People who are Quebec fans will always be Nordiques fans. It runs deep within families. They will always have that feeling inside them."

So you say you've never seen that brawl before? Fear not, my friends, we've got it for you after the jump.

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 took an incredible risk Wednesday night.

It was admittedly a risk, even though I felt like it was necessary. Carey Price struggled, and it looked like the confidence was gradually seeping from him. Carbonneau was given almost no choice. Yes, Price was incredible down the stretch after Cristobal Huet was traded to Washington. But he looked to be slipping, and Montreal needed a win Wednesday to keep alive realistic hopes of winning this series.

With that in mind, Carbonneau went with fellow youngster Jaroslav Halak, who was asked to make just two third-period saves in relief of Price in Game Three.

The Canadiens' hopes are dwindling quickly. A power-play goal by Daniel Briere late in the third period nullified a late Montreal comeback, as the badly-outshot Flyers rode the goaltending of Martin Biron to a 4-2 win over Montreal and a 3-1 series lead.

The brilliant WhoWins website reports a probability of over 90 percent that a team up 3-1 in a best-of-seven will win the series. The percentage only falls to 87.5 percent when the team up 3-1 has to play Game Five on the road, as Philadelphia does.

This wasn't Halak's fault, however, as the Canadiens' netminder played well, with his highlight coming as he stopped an early breakaway by Jeff Carter. He was just outplayed by Biron, who is out of his head right now and carrying his team. He was also undone by another lackluster effort from Montreal's forwards. Alex Kovalev was practically a no-show, with Tomas Plekanec, the Kostitsyn brothers, Saku Koivu, Chris Higgins, and others taking turns making bad decisions with the puck.

Philadelphia isn't necessarily as talented as Montreal, but they're proving the age-old thought in hockey that "will beats skill". The Flyers have more will in their top line than Montreal's entire roster has shown so far.

(Still to come: The Stars try to close out Ron Wilson San Jose, Sean Avery's season is over, his teammates should soon follow, and we'll take a random look into the wonderful world of YouTube)

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 ...

For a moment, let's take a quick break from the playoff action to stop, smell the roses and admire the work of some of the people behind the scenes in the sports industry. I direct your attention to the photo above, which was taken by Phillip MacCallum of Getty Images before Game Two of the Habs/Flyers series Saturday night. It's an absolutely stunning shot, and one of thousands of examples which show us that sports photographers aren't simply clicking away clumsily during the game. This shot is so much more than the average picture. It's clearly well thought out and carefully crafted. Photography is a hobby of mine, so I've got a bit of an idea about what goes into shots such as this one -- not that I could take something so nice but I actually do have some idea of what I'm talking about. It's really one of those shots that makes you want to get up, go to a rink and play some hockey.

One of the great things about FanHouse is that we have access to Getty Images and all the great work they do. We're able to grab great pictures like this one and include them in our posts. And even if you're not a subscriber to Getty, you can still click around their website and sample all kinds of great images (yes, even the ones of Pamela Anderson kissing Fin the Orca). Check them out at gettyimages.com.

Here in Washington, we all had a few laughs when in between whistles on the jumbotron the home team decided to play a couple of scenes from Rocky IV where Ivan Drago was beating the spit out of the (fictional) pride of Philadelphia. As it turns out, Rocky is a more popular target than one would imagine, as the following video evidence suggests:



The culprits here are a pair of shock jocks from 96.9 CKOI-FM, a French-language station in Montreal.

HT: The 700 Level.