Waddell has been asked by the Atlanta Thrashers to give up his duties and accept another management position, ESPN.com has learned.

Waddell, one of the managers of the U.S. entry in the World Championships, will apparently make his decision after the tournament, a source close to the team said Friday.

Ownership is believed to have given Waddell a contract extension earlier this season, even though the team has never won a playoff game since entering the league in 1999. But even though ownership has been preaching patience and insisting publicly that it supports the work done by Waddell, multiple sources close to the team say that ownership has been rethinking that stance after the Thrashers finished 28th overall this season.

The assumption, the source told ESPN.com, is that if Waddell declines to take the as-yet-unidentified management position, he will leave the organization.

Entering play Saturday, 2,058 goals had been scored this season in the second period, compared to 1,683 in the first period and 1,844 goals (excluding 185 empty-net markers) in the third frame. Part of the reason could be the fact defencemen have a longer skate to the bench on line changes in the second period and more times than not are forced to stay on the ice longer. As a result, they get tired and are more prone to giving up goals at a frequent rate.

"Fatigue is the best creator of offence there is," Mellanby, who retired from the NHL in April 2007, said. "If you switched the goaltenders to the other end of the ice, you would have the offensive zone in front of your bench twice. The idea is to create better matchups for your offensive players."

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."

We don't like this deal at all on many levels.

1.) Hossa is a noted playoff underachiever. He's produced only 35 points in 55 postseason games. After racking up 100 points during the regular season last year, he disappeared in Atlanta's four-game sweep at the hands of the Rangers producing only one assist.

Thursday night you took the ice in Raleigh, North Carolina after having ONE HUNDRED AN SEVENTEEN HOURS OFF between games!!! Between this and the last game YOU played your opponents played TWO GAMES! And you guys STILL let up FORTY-SIX shots on the FREAKIN' GOAL!!! Did you give up 20 in the first again? NO...YOU GAVE UP TWENTY-ONE!! The man who faced, and turned away, all 21 shots called it, "a big joke". Only...no one is laughing!

You gave up THREE %$#@! Shots LESS on Kari then you allowed the Islanders given NINETY-SIX more hours of rest!!! Hey...maybe if we give you a %$#@& MONTH off you can get it back down to, oh I dunno ... THIRTY-FIVE??

Like we said yesterday: Trade deadline time is when it all gets very nutty with the rumors and the sources. That Marian Hossa-to-the-Habs story, based on the "Hossa" equipment uncovered by a Canadian journalist? Yeah, that was for Marcel Hossa of the bleu, blanc and rouge Rangers. Now there's an even more hilarious case of mistaken identity involving Valtteri Filppula of the Red Wings and the Facebook page that isn't his.

Christy Hammond of Behind the Jersey was tipped off that what appeared to be Filppula's Facebook page included the message: "... has been traded to Atlanta." She monitored the page and updated her blog with several edits that had been made over the following 24 hours. Bruce MacLeod of Red Wings Corner reported on a Wings message board that he spoke with Filppula at practice, who said the Facebook page was not his. Craig Custance of the Atlanta Journal-Constitution said that Filppula had informed Detroit's front office that someone was impersonating him on Facebook. The rumor even made the opening paragraph of Kevin Allen's trade deadline rundown for USA Today.

What a wacky 48 hours of trade scuttlebutt. Of course, it could get even wackier if The Falconer is correct and Detroit could actually ante him up for Hossa. Now, if you'll excuse me, I'm going to head over to Brad Richards' MySpace page to see if he's updated his wallpaper in Columbus Blue Jackets colors.