Matt Cooke is now week-to-week with his groin injury. It is that bad. Do not expect him back until the third round if they make it there. 

Sean Hill has been suspended for 20 games for violating the performance enhancing program. The suspension starts immediately. No word on who the Isles will replace him in the lineup with.

The IIHF is starting a "Champions League" where the best clubs in Europe will compete for an annual title. The winner of this will play the Stanley Cup champion in September starting in 2008 or 2009. 

Todd White missed last night's contest with a sinus infection. My buddy and I – our potential careers in the NHL were thwarted by sinus problems. Nobody would 'sinus'.  

Scott Mellanby will likely retire. He was an original member of my original keeper league team 17 years ago…

Atlanta potential UFA's: Keith Tkachuk, Eric Belanger, Slava Kozlov, Andy Sutton, Pascal Dupuis, Jon Sim, Shane Hnidy, J.P. Vigier, Eric Boulton and Brad Larsen.

There is a groundswell of support in the forum to vote DobberHockey in as the best sports blog site. Well, not really a groundswell…more like eight people. Seven, if you don't count me voting for myself. Which I did. Anyway, if you want to push me up the list a little (there's no way I can win, but it would be nice to top all hockey blog sites), visit LINK

Eric Lindros was back in the Dallas lineup last night. He played just under 10 minutes, but will see more ice as he plays more games. Antti Miettinen was a healthy scratch to make room for the Big E.

Francois Beauchemin was back in the Anaheim lineup last night. He had missed the prior game with a swollen jaw.

With the Wild, the Pens and the Thrashers out, I'm already 1-2 in my predictions. Nobody on the DobberHockey panel is 3-0. Further proof of my theory – if you do playoff predictions prior to making your list, it is pointless to predict round-by-round. You are guaranteed to get some wrong in the first round…which would then screw up your seedings/predictions the rest of the way. It is best that you just choose the first round winners and the finalists/or final four, and draft accordingly.

Chicago has re-signed goalie Patrick Lalime to a one-year contract.

In NHL playoff history, teams have trailed 3-1 in a best-of-seven series a total of 214 times. The trailing team came back to win the series 20 times (9.3 percent).

Steve Sullivan's back will not allow him to play tonight, even though his team could be eliminated. If he can play, Nashville is doing a damn good job of hiding it.

So far so good for Dainius Zubrus – five points in four playoff games. Plagued throughout his career by inconsistency and injuries, he was traded to Buffalo where his production slipped – he no longer played on a line with Alexander Ovechkin so of course it would slip. I predicted a poor playoff showing, but he is so far proving me wrong with five points in four games (I had an angry email writer point it out to me). I still think he'll hit a wall, but time will tell. 

Robyn Regehr was unable to play last night. His knee was too sore.

Detroit line combos: Samuelsson/Calder/Filpulla, Bertuzzi/Franzen/Lang.

Erik Christensen and Georges Laraque were back in the lineup last night in place of Nils Ekman and Ronald Petrovicky. I had suggested Thorburn and Laraque. It wouldn't have mattered, it was goal-scoring that the Pens needed.