When Mike Keenan resigned his GM position as a member of the Florida Panthers' organization, it was rumored that Jacques Martin, his so-called 'friend', cozied up to the owner and had Iron Mike shoved out the door.

Given Martin's close relationship with Panthers' owner Alan Cohen, it isn't too surprising that the Panthers decided to give Jacques a lucrative extension through 2012.

Martin, who also was the team's coach the past three seasons, was asked by Cohen last week to vacate the post after Florida missed the playoffs for the seventh consecutive campaign. Cohen did, however, offer Martin the opportunity to keep his job as GM.

"I put considerable thought into (the decision to stay)," Martin told the Sun-Sentinel. "I did really enjoy coaching, but I did feel this year, with all the different issues, it made it difficult. It was clear (the dual role) was too much for one person.

I could never understand why owners would allow anyone to have both the roles of GM and coach, given how much time and dedication is needed to do just one of the jobs at a satisfactory level. It's just silly, and reeks of egotism.

Like Bob McKenzie over at TSN, I'm having a tough time getting my head around the dismissal of Dave Nonis as GM of the Vancouver Canucks. Sure, the Canucks took a pretty horrible tumble from last season, dropping from a Northwest Division title and 107 points to a ninth-place finish (technically 11th) in the West just three points outside a playoff spot. Then again, as others have recounted, the Cancuks blue line had to be held together with spit and bailing wire this season after getting hit with a tsunami's worth of injuries that saw six defensemen miss a significant amount of playing time.

For me, and I'm sure for many others, Nonis should be remembered and hailed for just one thing: His acquisition of Roberto Luongo from the Florida Panthers for Todd Beruzzi, Alex Auld and Bryan Allen. The Canucks also got defenseman Lukas Krajicek back in the deal. Still just 29 27, Luongo probably has anywhere between 8-10 seasons of elite-level play left in his career, more than enough time for the Canucks to make a few changes around the margins to acquire the offensive pieces they need to get back into the playoffs and make a serious Cup run.

And as we all know from our hockey history, time and time again, it's the elite goalie who makes the difference in the Stanley Cup playoffs. And while the current ownership group in Vancouver would like you to forget about Nonis starting right about now, hockey fans in the know understand all too well that he put the franchise in the position to do some damage in the Stanley Cup Playoffs every year they manage to qualify. That is, as long as Luongo is in the picture. It won't be long before Nonis finds another job.

More thoughts from Orland Kurtenblog and Canucks and Beyond.

In Carolina yesterday, Hurricanes GM Jim Rutherford delivered his year-end state of the team speech to the local media, and it's probably safe to say the performance came a couple of weeks early as far as Rutherford was concerned.

Coming a little less than a week after a loss in the regular season finale against Florida that effectively opened the door to Washington stealing the Southeast Division title, it's understandable that Rutherford was a tad cranky -- especially as GM of a team that missed the playoffs for a second year in a row after winning a Stanley Cup in 2006.

Given that Rutherford telegraphed his intention to shake up his roster at the trade deadline in a radio interview back in January, Joe Ovies of 850 AM The Buzz made sure to ask Rutherford about the status of head coach Peter Laviolette:

[L]et me just say I don't think Peter Laviolette is going to get the axe. However, when I gave Rutherford an opportunity to clear up his status, he continued to keep it vague and offered up verbal clues as to why he wants to remove himself from the end of the season before having a serious talk. Bottom line for Rutherford, "everyone in our business is under review."

Or as Dan Patrick used to say, he's listed day to day, but aren't we all?

So is the new trend in the NHL using season-ticket holder meetings to break huge news? First Ted Leonsis unveils Ovechkin's elephantine contract to the loyal customers; now, Florida Panthers owner Alan Cohen reveals there will not be a dual GM/coach next season, and later explained that he meant Jacques Martin's days behind the bench are numbered but that he will remain the team's general manager.

A change had to be made, because Martin had been an ineffective coach for the Panthers and was alienating their star player. Yes, it's rather silly that a guy who couldn't coach a winner in Florida will be tasked with selecting a coach that will turn the Panthers into winners. But Cohen said, "Jacques has done a good job as GM. That's the bottom line." And I don't think he's necessarily wrong. In the last two years, Martin-as-general-manager has:

• Traded Todd Bertuzzi to Detroit for impressive young center Shawn Matthias.
• Radek Dvorak, Brett McLean and Richard Zednik as free agents last off-season; while Dvorak was an offensive flop, McLean and Zednik contributed until the latter's grizzly injury.
• Traded three picks for Tomas Vokoun, who helped solidify the Panthers' crease for the first time since Luongo was traded.
• Flipped Ruslan Salei for Karlis Skrastins at the deadline, getting a pro and saving some coin; didn't pull the trigger on what would have been a regrettable Olli Jokinen deal.

Besides a coach, Martin's first priority should be a puck-moving defenseman -- and UFA John-Michael Liles played with Skrastins in Colorado. Looking at a franchise that's made the postseason once since 1998, it might make sense to just clean house, hit reset and send Martin packing to whatever franchise recycles him next. But his record warrants him at least another off-season in the front office. As a coach, Jacques Martin is a pretty decent general manager.

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 end is near. Very near. Of the remaining playoff contenders, only Anaheim plays both Saturday and Sunday. Everyone else in the hunt is down to one game.

Carolina really screwed themselves last night. They got every break you could give a team. The Panthers had nothing to play for, having already been eliminated. Florida goalie Tomas Vokoun went out after one period with back spasms, meaning Craig Anderson had to step in. The Panthers took nine penalties to none for Carolina.

(Read that again. It's true. The Hurricanes had nine power plays, and Florida didn't have any. Amazing.)

With the loss, Carolina now needs the Panthers to beat Washington in regulation Saturday night, or Carolina is out of the playoffs.

In the West, we know the eight-team field, and we know the top five seeds. Calgary and Colorado are still slugging it out for the sixth seed. Nashville plays Detroit in the opening round, as the Predators are locked into the eighth seed.

As far as seeds go, the East is still a mess, with almost endless possibilities. I'll explain those after the jump.

(Still to come: Playoff possibilities, first-round matchups to root for and potentially dread, and the cheesiest hockey-related YouTube I could find.)

Interesting story in the Tampa Bay Business Journal today (h/t The Biz of Hockey) regarding Miami Air International, the carrier that charters road trips for the Lightning, the Miami Heat, Florida Marlins, Florida Panthers and other professional and college teams. Last Thursday, 84 percent of the ballots cast by crewmembers approved a strike against the company; a battle over wages and benefits has continued for 18 months. The strike, however, shouldn't affect the Lightning, as the Journal explained:

The Lightning has one road trip remaining after tomorrow's return from Fort Lauderdale. The team is scheduled to fly on April 1 to play Carolina, Washington and Atlanta, returning on April 5. Miami Air assured the team that any action from the union would come after the Lightning season ends, said Bill Wickett, team spokesman.

You'd expect the same courtesy to be extended to the Panthers, who travel to Tampa Bay on Tuesday and have the same trio of stops as the Lightning in April. But should Florida make the Stanley Cup Playoffs -- and the Panthers are three points out as of Monday -- they'll certainly be traveling north (and perhaps over the border) for the first round. Will the crewmembers wait it out? If a strike hits, I imagine the Panthers will make other air arrangements ... then again, as "Slap Shot" taught us, nothing builds team unity better than a few days on the old team bus. Hey, if it's good enough for the Niagara Ice Dogs, it should be good enough for the Florida Panthers.

After a big Saturday night in the NHL's Eastern Conference, things are no clearer than they were before we started.

They're still a bit of a longshot with two teams between them and the eighth position in the East, but the Florida Panthers have stayed hot.

Florida beat Tampa Bay 4-2 Saturday night to pick up their eighth win in their last nine games. The other game was a shootout loss, so they have a nine-game point streak.

As of now, the Panthers are three points behind the seventh-place tie between Boston and Philadelphia. Boston moved into that seventh-place tie by getting a point in their shootout loss to Montreal.

The mess in the Eastern Conference didn't get any clearer when Toronto got two goals early in the third period to beat Ottawa, 5-4, in a very entertaining game. The Maple Leafs are just four (!) points out of a playoff spot.

With teams firmly entrenched in division play for the rest of the season, we're in for a very entertaining two-week stretch run. Boston plays Buffalo and Toronto twice each, along with two games with Ottawa and one remaining non-divisional game at New Jersey.

Toronto still has two left with Montreal and Boston, so their schedule is hardly a cupcake, either. Florida and Washington benefit from the fact that two of their division rivals are the only two Eastern teams mathematically eliminated from the playoffs. However, they also play each other twice, meaning that one of them is likely to miss the playoffs.

Frankly, this isn't any clearer than it was when we did our roundtable earlier in the week.

Nine days ago yours truly wrote a piece about the Eastern Conference detailing how the race for the final playoff spots was almost all but over. Whoops. I wrote off the race for the spots in the East to being between the top eight teams and Buffalo. I know I wasn't necessarily in the majority, but I wasn't the only one who had called off the dogs.

What a difference a week can make.

The Capitals were left for dead by many after Nicklas Backstrom put a game winner into his own net. A little more than a week later, the Caps find themselves only two points back of the Flyers for the final spot in the East. That's what a three game win streak coupled with faltering teams ahead of you can do.

In Sunrise, Florida it's a similar story. On March 1st, the Panthers were nine points out. They're on a seven game win streak since that time, reducing the deficit to only two points. And talk about defense. Only 9 goals have beaten Panther net minders during the streak, which they will try to continue Thursday night against Carolina.

The list doesn't stop there.

Every week, or as often as I remember, I'll provide you with my poorly thought-out predictions on whose stock is on the rise and whose you should avoid like Enron. It's Buys and Sells. A few teams/players/issues to buy and a few to sell. It's simple stuff, folks. That is, if you could actually buy and sell things like these. Oh, whatever. Never mind.

As you probably know, we're now going head first into the NHL's stretch run. With just one month remaining in yet another NHL season we are now just 30 days and 30 nights away from it's conclusion (OK, 31 days but 30 flows so much better and is the about the same title as some lame movie so by MSM standards it's a "catchy" headline. I'm grasping at straws here). Sort of makes me feel older every time I think about how another season/year has gone by. But along with the depressing reminders that come with the end of the season (dammit, we're this close to losing hockey for the summer) we can at least take solace in the fact that we are edging ever closer to the playoffs. And the playoffs are what it's all about. So, to help guide you through this most troubling and exciting of times, here's another edition of Buys and Sells with what we can hope for to make this one hell of a stretch run.

Strong buy: Exciting divisional races that are tighter than [insert your own comparison here]. If you haven't taken a look at the divisional standings lately, please do yourself a favor and take a peek. We all know how ridiculously close the conference races are, but there are a few divisions to watch down the stretch. First up is the Atlantic division. One point separates the first place Pens from the Devils and 12 points separate the Pens from the last place Islanders -- tied for the smallest margin of any division. And the best part? With the Isles three points out of 8th in the conference, every team is still in the playoff hunt. 12 points also separates worst from first in the Northwest where Calgary and Minnesota are tied at the top. Even with the Oilers more or less out of it, it still leaves four teams within five points of each other. In the Pacific, Dallas is the current leaded with San Jose and Anaheim within four. The Northeast race has also heated up lately as the Sens and Habs are now tied for the top spot. Thanks to the NHL scheduling a multitude of divisional games in late March and April, these races are sure to be exciting as they come down to the wire.

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 ripping apart the NHL like a lion picking apart a newly-caught gazelle, the Detroit Red Wings finally ran into a few bumps in the road.

Injuries, which the Wings had few of for most of the season, poor play, general malaise, and bad luck turned a nearly-unbeatable squad to a team that couldn't win a game during a 1-8-2 stretch.

As the injuries heal, and the team wakes up from their slumber, expect more results like tonight's 4-1 win over the St. Louis Blues.

Detroit was forced to play almost three games without its top four defensemen: Lidstrom, Rafalski, Kronwall and Chelios. Kronwall and Hasek returned this past Friday, and Rafalski was back in the lineup against St. Louis on Wednesday night. Rafalski even scored a goal, while Lidstrom is expected back Sunday against Nashville.

"Finally to have these two guys back, it really helps our defense," said Hasek, who made 18 saves. "Not only defense, but I would say, once we get to the puck, they can skate with the puck, they can move the puck very quickly and give it to the forwards. It looked like we didn't spend as much time in our zone. One of the reasons was because we moved the puck much, much faster than before."

During the dark days, the Dallas Stars looked like they might just usurp the league crown from the Wings. With these two wins, the Wings are now seven points ahead with two games in hand. If the Wings don't end up with the President's Trophy, it'll be a choke worthy of Jean van de Velde.