It's no secret that the 2007-08 NHL season didn't end the way New Jersey Devils goalie Martin Brodeur wanted it to. As if seeing his team flushed out of the playoffs in just five games wasn't enough, Brodeur also got to endure a public beatdown at the hands of winger Sean Avery. No, Avery never laid a glove on Brodeur. Instead, he did something far worse: Avery shamed him with his antics, something that Brodeur only compounded as he refused to shake Avery's hand at the end of the series.

It's also no secret that Brodeur is closer to the end of his career than even he wants to admit, but if he has his way in a meeting with some fellow players and general managers in a few weeks, he'll be sure to have a significant influence on the game for many years after he's gone.

What am I talking about? This morning, the NHL and NHLPA announced the formation of the Goalie Equipment Working Group, a body consisting of five players and four general managers. According to a statement from the NHLPA, the group will "examine the configuration and dimensions of goaltender equipment with respect to safety and performance."

"If the working group decides alterations to the rules governing goaltender equipment are warranted, and will not jeopardize the safety of the goalies, these recommendations will be forwarded to the Competition Committee for consideration," the statement said.

In other words, if there's any way this group can figure out a way to shrink the equipment in order to increase goal scoring without jeopardizing the life and health of goaltenders, they'll do it. Then again, taking a look at the members of the group, my guess is we won't be seeing any dramatic changes after that June 11 meeting.

The Ottawa Senators are a highly-skilled team with a horrible disease of some sort. Call it cancer, but realize that something was amok as the Sens' season spiraled into a sweep at the hands of the Pittsburgh Penguins.

How else can a team with the likes of Wade Redden, Dany Heatley, Daniel Alfredsson, Andrej Meszaros, Jason Spezza, and a bunch of other talented players completely collapse after starting the season 15-2?

There has been a lot of speculation about the nighttime exploits of certain players, as they prefer to party and booze it up rather than worry about their hockey job.

The #1 culprit, as everyone knows, appears to be Sugar Ray Emery, the guy who showed up late for practices, loves to get into fights, and is far too immature to be counted on as a #1 goaltender.

It's no small wonder, then, why the Sens want to get rid of the cancer, and get rid of Emery ASAP.

Ray Emery wore out his welcome as an Ottawa Senator because of his unprofessional approach to being a professional athlete, arriving late for practices and not working hard enough.

He also tested the patience of the team when stories reached general manager and coach Bryan Murray of Emery's partying in various Ottawa nightspots.

Friday, Murray said enough was enough. After talking to the 25-year-old goalie on Thursday, Murray put the For Sale sign on Emery, and will now try to trade him. If Murray can't trade Emery, then he'll have to decide whether to buy out the remaining two years of his contract.

"My plan is not to have him back," said Murray.

A buy-out may be the only option, because I just can't see anyone taking on Emery and his expensive contract right now.

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)

Every team in the league has some sort of pre-game video routine they use to amp up the home crowd, but the Senators tried something different in Ottawa before Game Three of their playoff series with Pittsburgh:



Obviously, the presentation didn't exactly work terribly well, but it's also left me a little confused. I've always thought the Senators were supposed to be riffing off the Roman Senator motif, and the logo on the jersey was a Roman centurion. But the guy they had dressed up last night looked a lot like a Spartan warrior from the movie 300. And well, they're Greeks.

Then again, those guys in 300 were massacred at the Battle of Thermopylae, so perhaps it was appropriate after all. I guess the Sens were just sacrificing themselves to allow the rest of the NHL more time to stop the Penguins before they enslave all of Greece ... I mean, win the Stanley Cup.

HT: Mirtle.

* I originally thought this presentation took place last night before Game Four. It was actually performed before Game Three. Thanks to Sean Leahy for pointing it out.

There comes a point in a series where you know that it's over: Nick Lidstrom sailing a shot from center ice past a stunned Dan Cloutier, Ty Conklin making a bone-headed play to give Rod Brind'Amour a freebie, and the current day Ottawa Senators versus the Pittsburgh Penguins.

With the series 3-0 in favor of the Pens, you have to believe that it's pretty much automatic. NHL teams have returned from being down three games to none only twice, EVER ... and not since 1975.

As part of a last-ditch effort to save his team from elimination, and to save his own job, Coach/GM Cryin Bryan Murray is going to put all of his eggs into one basket..

The Ottawa Citizen calls it "The Cash Line" – because they take up most of the Senators' payroll.

The Ottawa Sun calls it "The Pizza Line" – because if the Senators score six goals in a game, everyone in the stands gets a pizza coupon.

Call it what you will, coach Bryan Murray is calling on it tonight when he will reunite the team's big line of Jason Spezza at centre, Daniel Alfredsson on right with and Dany Heatley on left. Desperate times call for desperate solutions – and "desperation" was a word used by every single player and coach at today's morning skate.

Oooh, I bet Pittsburgh is so scared.

How about this? Since the Sens have no chance in hell of winning this series, why not save everyone an extra flight or two and just throw the game? It'll allow the boys to hit the links earlier, and give Sens ownership an easy out in canning their pathetically inept GM. Let the healing and rebuilding happen as soon as possible. Why drag it out?

Really, is loading up the 'big line' going to do much of anything? Can a team that is now 3-9-1 in their last 13 games really pull off three straight wins against a cohesive, superior squad?

Jason Spezza has one measly assist in three games, and ditto for Dany Heatley. When Mike Commodore is your leading scorer, it's pretty much over.

Cya next year, Ottawa.

With all the talk about Sean Avery's antics on Saturday night at Madison Square Garden, it's easy to forget that goalies have plenty of options of their own when it comes to distracting the opposition. Even a rookie like Montreal's Carey Price has something interesting to share. In this clip, he actually knocks Chris Neil's helmet so it slides in front of his eyes:


Somewhere, Ron Hextall is smiling.

If there's anything that I don't need to remind you of, it's that the Pittsburgh Penguins and Ottawa Senators don't like each other. They faced each other last year in the playoffs in what was a hard fought series and they're back at it again this year. Last night was Game 1 of the first round series between the Pens and Sens, and as you can see from the photo above, there has been no love lost.

That's Sens coach Bryan Murray who was in the spotlight earlier in the week for openly accusing the Penguins of tanking their game on Sunday against Philadelphia in order to obtain a more favorable first round matchup against the Sens. Pittsburgh, as you might imagine, wasn't all that happy about it. But this is what makes the spring so great. Rivalries, playoff feuds and oh yeah, playoff hockey. We've only had one night of games, but I'm loving it. This should be one heck of a ride to the 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.

Day 1 of the 2008 Stanley Cup Playoffs is complete, with the Rangers whipping the Devils, and the Senators picking up right where they left off with even more futile play.

Ever since the Senators started the season 13-1, they have been a sub-.500 hockey club with terrible chemistry and little cohesion. The Penguins, on the other hand, recovered from a slow start to nearly take the conference crown.

It was no surprise, then, to see the Penguins begin with a 4-0 shutout victory in Game One. If the Sens want to show us that the regular season troubles are behind them, they aren't doing a very good job.

How bad was it for the Sens? Hmm ...

• Gary Roberts opens the scoring just 68 seconds into the game. Good start, Ottawa.
• The Ottawa Power(less) Play goes 0-7, including whiffing on a key 5-on-3 advantage in the third period.
• Marc-Andre Fleury, a goalie with just ONE playoff victory under his belt, managed to shut out one of the more talented offensive groups in the game. How sad is that?
• Ottawa was already without key injured regulars Daniel Alfredsson, Mike Fisher and Chris Kelly, and played most of the final two periods without defenseman Anton Volchenkov, who was cut in the forehead by Malkin's slap shot midway through the second.

Yep, not a good start for the Sens.

Click here for more NHL playoff previews.

There's nothing like renewing acquaintances in the playoffs.

Pittsburgh and Ottawa butted heads last season in the first round, but that was a different ballgame, a 4-versus-5 matchup where the then-powerful Senators held home-ice advantage and romped all the way to the Stanley Cup finals.

That doesn't seem likely this time around, and public sentiment certainly isn't on Ottawa's side.

Let's face it, this season has been a disaster for the Senators. Favoured to win the conference heading into the year, they kicked things off with a red-hot 15-2-0 start, but have played at just an 80-point pace since then, sinking all the way down between rebuilding Philadelphia and Boston as one of the final playoff seeds.

Ottawa may be the league's highest-scoring team, but no one's picking them to win this series against Crosby and Co.

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 biggest story of the weekend would have to be the abrupt about face Colin Campbell delivered on Saturday when he decided -- albeit belatedly -- that Chris Pronger should serve an eight-game suspension for stomping on Ryan Kesler of the Vancouver Canucks. Bruce Ciskie, our newest addition to the team at FanHouse, was all over the story this weekend, so there's not a lot to add, save to say the following.

The NHL, for all the talk about speed, skill and playmaking, is still about intimidation. Pronger, like it or not, is simply the most intimidating player in the game. Combined with his own impressive talents, he's also one of its most valuable.

Given his previous record, it's hard not to conclude that Pronger believes that he simply isn't subject to the same rules that constrain most of the rest of the players in the league. And given the league's reluctance to discipline him with any real force, it's easy to see why he might have come to that conclusion.