Free Agency Preview

                        Tommorrow, the NHL will start it's annual Free Agency Period. Teams always battle out for the best players that are avalible. Some people consider this years free agents class to be weak compared to past years. The names that highlight the list are Zach Parise, Jamie Benn, Dustin Penner, Carey Price, P.K. Subban, Martin Brodeur, Nick Foligno, Jaromir Jagr, Shane Doan, T.J. Oshie, Mike Green, Alexander Semin, and Cory Schneider. Here's a list of all this years free agents.


ANAHEIM DUCKS

Group 2 (Restricted)
Nick Bonino, Luca Caputi, Mathieu Carle, Marco Cousineau, Kyle Cumiskey

Group 3 (Unrestricted)
Mark Bell, Jason Blake, Troy Bodie, Sheldon Brookbank, Dan Ellis, Niklas Hagman, Jean-Francois Jacques, George Parros, Rod Pelley, Teemu Selanne, Matt Smaby

Group 6 (Unrestricted)
Ryan O'Marra, Sean Zimmerman

Unrestricted Free Agents (UFA)
Sebastian Erixon (Contract bought out by the team), Riley Holzapfel, Dale Mitchell, Rick Schofield, Iiro Tarkki


BOSTON BRUINS

Group 2 (Restricted)
Jamie Arniel, Matt Bartkowski, Andrew Bodnarchuk, Stefan Chaput, Adam Courchaine, Lane MacDermid

Group 3 (Unrestricted)
Joe Corvo, Josh Hennessy, Nathan McIver, Zach McKelvie, Mike Mottau, Michel Ouellet, Brian Rolston, Marty Turco, Greg Zanon

Group 6 (Unrestricted)
None

Unrestricted Free Agents (UFA)
TBD


BUFFALO SABRES

Group 2 (Restricted)
Alex Biega, T.J. Brennan, Tyler Ennis, Patrick Kaleta, Dennis Persson, Drew Schiestel, Paul Szczechchura

Group 3 (Unrestricted)
Brad Boyes, Jochen Hecht, Ales Kotalik, David Leggio, Drew MacIntyre, Shaone Morrisonn, Michael Ryan, Colin Stuart, Derek Whitmore

Group 6 (Unrestricted)
Travis Turnbull

Unrestricted Free Agents (UFA)
TBD


CALGARY FLAMES

Group 2 (Restricted)
Akim Aliu, Mikael Backlund, Paul Byron, Leland Irving

Group 3 (Unrestricted)
Guillaume Desbiens, Scott Hannan, Raitis Ivanans, Olli Jokinen, Tom Kostopolous, Pierre-Luc Letourneau-Leblond, David Moss

Group 6 (Unrestricted)
Brian Connelly, Stefan Meyer

Unrestricted Free Agents (UFA)
Ryley Grantham, Logan MacMillan


CAROLINA HURRICANES

Group 2 (Restricted)
Drayson Bowman, Zach Boychuk, Evgeni Dadonov, Mike Murphy, Justin Peters, Jerome Samson, Chris Terry, Jeremy Welsh

Group 3 (Unrestricted)
Bryan Allen, Chris Durno, Mathieu Roy, Jaroslav Spacek

Group 6 (Unrestricted)
Justin Soryal, Brett Sutter

Unrestricted Free Agents (UFA)
Cedric Lalonde-McNicoll, Kyle Lawson, Matthew Pistilli


CHICAGO BLACKHAWKS

Group 2 (Restricted)
Simon Danis-Pepin, Chris DiDomenico

Group 3 (Unrestricted)
Andrew Brunette, Cristobal Huet, Sami Lepisto, Brett McLean, Brendan Morrison, Sean O'Donnell

Group 6 (Unrestricted)
None

Unrestricted Free Agents (UFA)
Jonathan Carlsson, Igor Makarov, Alexander Salak (Released)


COLORADO AVALANCHE

Group 2 (Restricted)
Trevor Cann, Zach Cohen, Jonas Holos, Erik Johnson, Jamie McGinn, Jake Newton, Mark Olver, Ryan O'Reilly

Group 3 (Unrestricted)
David Liffiton, Joakim Lindstrom, Greg Mauldin, Jay McClement, Danny Richmond, Patrick Rissmiller

Group 6 (Unrestricted)
Evan Brophey, Cedrick Desjardins, Justin Mercier, Ryan Stoa

Unrestricted Free Agents (UFA)
Peter Mueller, Kevin Porter


COLUMBUS BLUE JACKETS

Group 2 (Restricted)
Maksim Mayorov

Group 3 (Unrestricted)
Darryl Boyce, Alexandre Giroux, Kristian Huselius, Aaron Johnson, Brett Lebda, Radek Martinek, Curtis McElhinney, Curtis Sanford, Martin St. Pierre

Group 6 (Unrestricted)
Dane Byers, Mark Dekanich, Nick Holden

Unrestricted Free Agents (UFA)
Taylor Ellington, Brent Regner


DALLAS STARS

Group 2 (Restricted)
Richard Bachman, Jamie Benn, Jordie Benn, Mark Fistric, Ryan Garbutt, Luke Gazdic, Philip Larsen, Colton Sceviour, Tom Wandell

Group 3 (Unrestricted)
Adam Burish, Jake Dowell, Radek Dvorak, Maxime Fortunus, Brad Lukowich, Toby Petersen, Andrew Raycroft, Raymond Sawada, Sheldon Souray, Dan Spang

Group 6 (Unrestricted)
None

Unrestricted Free Agents (UFA)
Angelo Esposito, Jake Hauswirth, Michael Neal, Mikhail Stefanovich


DETROIT RED WINGS

Group 2 (Restricted)
Justin Abdelkader, Kyle Quincey

Group 3 (Unrestricted)
Fabian Brunnstrom, Ty Conklin, Chris Conner, Garnet Exelby, Tomas Holmstrom, Jiri Hudler, Doug Janik, Jamie Johnson, Chris Minard, Andrew Murray

Group 6 (Unrestricted)
None

Unrestricted Free Agents (UFA)
Travis Ehrhardt, Logan Pyett


EDMONTON OILERS

Group 2 (Restricted)
Devan Dubnyk, Sam Gagner, Linus Omark, Theo Peckham, Jeff Petry, Alex Plante, Chris Vande Velde

Group 3 (Unrestricted)
Yann Danis, Josh Green, Darcy Hordichuk, Ryan Keller, Bryan Rodney, Ryan Smyth

Group 6 (Unrestricted)
Taylor Chorney

Unrestricted Free Agents (UFA)
Cam Barker, Milan Kytnar, Johan Motin, Hunter Tremblay


FLORIDA PANTHERS

Group 2 (Restricted)
Michael Caruso, Roman Derlyuk, Keaton Ellerby, Brian Foster, Dmitry Kulikov, Michal Repik, Eric Selleck, Kris Versteeg, James Wright

Group 3 (Unrestricted)
Krys Barch, Scott Clemmensen, Mark Cullen, Jason Garrison, Bracken Kearns, John Madden, Greg Rallo, Mikael Samuelsson, Marco Sturm, Sean Sullivan, Bill Thomas, Mike Weaver, Wojtek Wolski

Group 6 (Unrestricted)
Jonathan Matsumoto

Unrestricted Free Agents (UFA)
Justin Bernhardt, Matt Bradley (contract bought out by the team), Tyler Plante (Contract terminated by the team), Ondrej Roman, Mike Santorelli (contract bought out by the team), Keith Seabrook


LOS ANGELES KINGS

Group 2 (Restricted)
Justin Azevedo, Andrew Campbell, Thomas Hickey, Dwight King, Stefan Legein, David Meckler, Jacob Muzzin

Group 3 (Unrestricted)
Trent Hunter, Cam Paddock, Scott Parse, Dustin Penner

Group 6 (Unrestricted)
Patrick Mullen, Jeff Zatkoff

Unrestricted Free Agents (UFA)
Ray Kaunisto


MINNESOTA WILD

Group 2 (Restricted)
Cody Almond, Dennis Endras, Justin Falk, Chay Genoway, David McIntyre, Carson McMillan, Jarod Palmer, Nick Palmieri

Group 3 (Unrestricted)
Erik Christensen, Jon DiSalvatore, Kurtis Foster, Mike Lundin, Jed Ortmeyer, Warren Peters, Jeff Taffe

Group 6 (Unrestricted)
Jeff Penner

Unrestricted Free Agents (UFA)
Kris Fredheim, Nick Johnson, Guillaume Latendresse


MONTREAL CANADIENS

Group 2 (Restricted)
Rafael Diaz, Lars Eller, Andreas Engqvist, Blake Geoffrion, Aaron Palushaj, Carey Price, P.K. Subban, Alexei Yemelin

Group 3 (Unrestricted)
Joe Callahan, Chris Campoli, Mathieu Darche, Alex Henry, Nathan Lawson, Garrett Stafford, Brad Staubitz, Brian Willsie

Group 6 (Unrestricted)
Frederic St. Denis

Unrestricted Free Agents (UFA)
Hunter Bishop, Michael Blunden, Andrew Conboy, Olivier Fortier, Dany Masse, Mark Mitera, Robert Slaney


NASHVILLE PREDATORS

Group 2 (Restricted)
Niclas Bergfors, Jonathon Blum, Atte Engren, Ryan Flynn, Sergei Kostitsyn, Teemu Laakso, Jack Maclellan, Alexander Radulov, Jeremy Smith, Ryan Thang, Shea Weber, Colin Wilson

Group 3 (Unrestricted)
Francis Bouillon, Sebastien Caron, Andrei Kostitsyn, Brian McGrattan, Tyler Sloan, Ryan Suter, Jordin Tootoo

Group 6 (Unrestricted)
Brodie Dupont

Unrestricted Free Agents (UFA)
Jack Hillen, Zack Stortini


NEW JERSEY DEVILS

Group 2 (Restricted)
Matt Corrente, Mark Fayne, Vladimir Zharkov

Group 3 (Unrestricted)
Martin Brodeur, Johan Hedberg, Jay Leach, Brad Mills, Zach Parise, Alexei Ponikarovsky, Bryce Salvador, Tim Sestito, Petr Sykora

Group 6 (Unrestricted)
Matt Taormina

Unrestricted Free Agents (UFA)
Kory Nagy, Timo Pielmeier


NEW YORK ISLANDERS

Group 2 (Restricted)
Sean Backman, Justin DiBenedetto, Mark Katic, Mikko Koskinen, Tomas Marcinko, Matt Martin, Rhett Rakhshani, Ty Wishart

Group 3 (Unrestricted)
Jeremy Colliton, Mark Eaton, Trevor Frischmon, Trevor Gillies, John Grahame, Milan Jurcina, Al Montoya, Jay Pandolfo, Pierre Parenteau, Dylan Reese, Steve Staios

Group 6 (Unrestricted)
Micheal Haley

Unrestricted Free Agents (UFA)
Yury Alexandrov, Anton Klementyev (contract terminated by the team), Tyler McNeely, Yannick Riendeau, Tony Romano


NEW YORK RANGERS

Group 2 (Restricted)
Lee Baldwin, Francois Bouchard, Chris Chappell, Michael Del Zotto, Sam Klassen, Anton Stralman, Cameron Talbot, Andreas Thuresson, Pavel Valentenko, Casey Wellman, Mats Zuccarello

Group 3 (Unrestricted)
Brendan Bell, Andre Deveaux, Steve Eminger, Ruslan Fedotenko, John Mitchell, Kris Newbury, Brandon Prust, John Scott, Jeff Woywitka

Group 6 (Unrestricted)
Stu Bickel, Chad Johnson, Michael Vernace

Unrestricted Free Agents (UFA)
Sean Avery (contract terminated by the team), More TBD


OTTAWA SENATORS

Group 2 (Restricted)
Stephane Da Costa, Kaspars Daugavins, Nikita Filatov, Nick Foligno, Eric Gryba, Jim O'Brien

Group 3 (Unrestricted)
Alex Auld, Matt Carkner, Tim Conboy, Matt Gilroy, Zenon Konopka, Filip Kuba, Francis Lessard, Corey Locke, Mike McKenna, Mark Parrish, Jesse Winchester

Group 6 (Unrestricted)
Rob Klinkhammer

Unrestricted Free Agents (UFA)
Craig Schira


PHILADELPHIA FLYERS

Group 2 (Restricted)
Marc-Andre Bourdon, Ben Holmstrom, Tom Sestito, Jakub Voracek, Harry Zolnierczyk

Group 3 (Unrestricted)
Jason Bacashihua, Johan Backlund, Blair Betts, Matt Carle, Matt Ford, Jaromir Jagr, Dan Jancevski, Pavel Kubina, Michael Leighton

Group 6 (Unrestricted)
None

Unrestricted Free Agents (UFA)
Joonas Lehtivuori, Andrew Rowe, Mike Testwuide


PHOENIX COYOTES

Group 2 (Restricted)
Kyle Chipchura, Brett MacLean, Chris Summers, Viktor Tikhonov

Group 3 (Unrestricted)
Dean Arsene, Adrian Aucoin, Mathieu Beaudoin, Alexandre Bolduc, Shane Doan, Daymond Langkow, Patrick O'Sullivan, Nathan Oystrick, Marc-Antoine Pouliot, Taylor Pyatt, Michal Rozsival, Kurt Sauer, Ray Whitney

Group 6 (Unrestricted)
Tyler Eckford, Justin Pogge, Brock Trotter, Matt Watkins

Unrestricted Free Agents (UFA)
Gilbert Brule, Colin Long, Nick Ross


PITTSBURGH PENGUINS

Group 2 (Restricted)
Robert Bortuzzo, Marc Cheverie, Alex Grant, Carl Sneep, Brian Strait, Eric Tangradi, Keven Veilleux

Group 3 (Unrestricted)
Arron Asham, Ryan Craig, Brent Johnson, Steve MacIntyre, Colin McDonald, Scott Munroe, Richard Park, Steve Sullivan, Jason Williams

Group 6 (Unrestricted)
Brad Thiessen

Unrestricted Free Agents (UFA)
Mattias Modig, Cal O'Reilly, Alexandre Picard, Casey Pierro-Zabotel, Boris Valabik


ST. LOUIS BLUES

Group 2 (Restricted)
Jay Barriball, Jori Lehtera, T.J. Oshie, Anthony Peluso, David Perron, Brett Sonne

Group 3 (Unrestricted)
Jason Arnott, Jonathan Cheechoo, Carlo Colaiacovo, Brennan Evans, Kyle Hagel, Kent Huskins, Jamie Langenbrunner, Chris Porter, Brett Sterling, Danny Syvret

Group 6 (Unrestricted)
None

Unrestricted Free Agents (UFA)
TBD


SAN JOSE SHARKS

Group 2 (Restricted)
T.J. Galiardi, Tim Kennedy, Brandon Mashinter, Frazer McLaren, Matt Pelech, Nick Petrecki, James Sheppard, Alex Stalock

Group 3 (Unrestricted)
Ben Guite, Torrey Mitchell, Dominic Moore, Mike Moore, Antero Niittymaki, Jim Vandermeer, Colin White, Brad Winchester, Daniel Winnik

Group 6 (Unrestricted)
John McCarthy

Unrestricted Free Agents (UFA)
Benn Ferriero, Tony Lucia, Cam MacIntyre, James Marcou, Tyson Sexsmith


TAMPA BAY LIGHTNING

Group 2 (Restricted)
Jaroslav Janus, Anders Lindback, Evan Oberg

Group 3 (Unrestricted)
Brett Clark, Mike Commodore, Bruno Gervais, Richard Petiot, Dwayne Roloson, Brandon Segal, Ryan Shannon, Trevor Smith, Tim Wallace

Group 6 (Unrestricted)
Scott Jackson, Jonathon Kalinski, Michael Kostka, Alexandre Picard

Unrestricted Free Agents (UFA)
Sebastien Piche, Benoit Pouliot


TORONTO MAPLE LEAFS

Group 2 (Restricted)
Cody Franson, Mark Fraser, Matt Frattin, Richard Greenop, Simon Gysbers, Korbinian Holzer, Nikolai Kulemin, Juraj Mikus, Marcel Mueller, Jussi Rynnas, Ben Scrivens

Group 3 (Unrestritced)
Joey Crabb, Philippe Dupuis, Jeff Finger, Ryan Hamilton, Mike Zigomanis

Group 6 (Unrestricted)
Matt Lashoff, Jay Rosehill

Unrestricted Free Agents (UFA)
Colby Armstrong (contract bought out by the team), More TBD


VANCOUVER CANUCKS

Group 2 (Restricted)
Eddie Lack, Mason Raymond, Cory Schneider, Dale Weise

Group 3 (Unrestricted)
Nolan Baumgartner, Byron Bitz, Matt Climie, Andrew Ebbett, Sami Pahlsson, Steve Pinizzotto, Steven Reinprecht, Aaron Rome, Sami Salo

Group 6 (Unrestricted)
Mark Mancari

Unrestricted Free Agents (UFA)
Mike Duco, Marc-Andre Gragnani, Victor Oreskovich, Ryan Parent


WASHINGTON CAPITALS

Group 2 (Restricted)
Jay Beagle, John Carlson, Mike Green, Zach Hamill, Kevin Marshall, Mathieu Perreault

Group 3 (Unrestricted)
Keith Aucoin, Sean Collins, Kyle Greentree, Jeff Halpern, D.J. King, Mike Knuble, Jacob Micflikier, Zach Miskovic, Alexander Semin

Group 6 (Unrestricted)
Christian Hanson, Jordan Henry, Joel Rechlicz

Unrestricted Free Agents (UFA)
None


WINNIPEG JETS

Group 2 (Restricted)
Brett Festerling, Michael Forney, Evander Kane, Arturs Kulda, Maxime Macenauer, Spencer Machacek, Ben Maxwell, John Negrin, Frederik Pettersson, Paul Postma

Group 3 (Unrestricted)
Mark Flood, Tanner Glass, Jonas Gustavsson, Jason Jaffray, Randy Jones, Peter Mannino, Chris Mason, Derek Meech, Tim Stapleton, Kyle Wellwood

Group 6 (Unrestricted)
Kenndal McArdle

Unrestricted Free Agents (UFA)
Eric Fehr, Andrei Zubarev


FREE AGENT CLASSIFICATIONS (Courtesy of nhl.com)

Group 2 (Restricted Free Agents) - Subject to compensation and right to match. The following players have been tendered a qualifying offer by their respective clubs and are subject to draft-choice compensation and right to match. The draft choice compensation scale is based on compensation offered by the new club (These are last summer's figures and are meant as a general guideline for compensation. If new figures are released, they will likely be released on July 1, 2011):

$1,034,249 or below - No compensation
Over $1,034,249 to $1,567,043 - Third-round choice
Over $1,567,043 to $3,134,088 - Second-round choice
Over $3,134,088 to $4,701,131 - First-round and Third-round choice
Over $4,701,131 to $6,268,175 - First-Round, Second-round, and Third-round choice
Over $6,268,175 to $7,835,219 - two First-round choices, one second-round choice, and one Third-round choice
Over $7,835,219 - four First-round choices

Group 3 (Unrestricted Free Agents) - The following players have qualified for Group 3 Free Agency (age 27 or older or with at least seven accrued seasons) and are Unrestricted Free Agents.

Group 6 (Unrestricted Free Agents) - The following players qualify for unrestricted free agency, having met the requirements for Group 6 free agency. These players, whose contracts have expired, are age 25 or older, have completed three or more professional seasons, and (i) in the case of a player other than a goaltender, have played less than 80 NHL games (regular season and playoffs), or (ii) in the case of a goaltender, have played less than 28 NHL games (regular season and playoffs).

Unrestricted Free Agents (UFA) - The following players were not tendered a qualifying offer and are therefore unrestricted free agents not subject to a right to match or draft choice compensation.

           Check back tommorrow fora alist of all the free agents signings and trades! It should be another great year of signings!

NHL Stanley Cup Finals Starts Tonight

              The 2012 Stanley Cup Finals kick off tonight in New Jersey. This series is set to be yet another thrilling match-up between the Veteran lead New Jersey Devils and the shocking ,8th place finish, Los Angles Kings. As Time Magazine puts it, its all about the magic of momentum. The Devils look to win they're 4th Stanley Cup. The Devils past 3 Cups were lead by Marty Brodeur who yet again will lead his Devils in this battle against the Kings who are looking for their first cup. The Kings were last in the Finals lead by the legendary Wayne Gretzky. There's defiantly a new era of players playing for the Kings. The Kings are lead by the likes of Anze Kopitar and Jonathan Quick. "You never know when you're going to get here or when you're going to come back again," Kopitar said at Tuesday's off-day press conference. "Right now everybody is really excited to get going. I think it's obviously going to be fun and hard working at the same time. We have to make sure we're ready." The Kings are ready to show everything they got here on the Big stage after shockingly throwing off the Canucks, Blues, and Coyotes. Now they face the biggest task yet, beating the Devils for the holy grail of hockey.

                The Devils will not let this happen very easily. "It's excitement really. A little nervous," Parise said about being in the Finals for the first time. "Maybe today now going through all this, but I guess it hasn't really sunk in that we're in the Final yet. But we got a lot of work. That's the thought process. We got a lot of work to do. We know how great a team L.A. is." The Devils beat the Kings 2-1 in a shootout earlier this season in their 1st match-up.Quick stopped 36-of-37 shots in a losing effort in the 1st game. Brodeur only faced L.A. for 20 minutes in the regular season, leaving the 1st game after one period due to body soreness. The 2nd match-up ended with a 3-0 Devils victory. Patrik Elias and Dainius Zubrus had two goals each in the season series for New Jersey, while Gagne had the lone goal for L.A.
                 

                What should really make this series interesting is the combination of great goaltending. Marty Brodeur and Jonathan Quick have both been spectacular throughout these playoffs. You should defiantly expect this to be a low scoring series. They both have similar Save Percentages (Quick .946 Brodeur .923.) Quick has a better GAA with a 1.54 but Brodeur only has a 2.06. These to goaltenders will more then likely be the difference makers in this Stanley Cup Final. One thing Brodeur has over Quick is his previous 3 Stanley Cup rings and many more years of experience. However, Quick has proved against tough opponents in these playoffs and appears to be ready for almost any challenge ahead of him.

               Both teams may also see a key player return to their line-up. The Devils may see the return of defensmen Henrik Tallinder after he suffered from a major blood clot. For the Kings, the may see the long awaited return of Simon Gagne. Gagne suffered a concussion back in December and he would be a very important return to this Kings line-up. If the Kings put Gagne with Richards and Carter, they will defiantly be a shut-down line as they were during their Philly days.

                This series is yet again going to be another amazing year for the Cup. Fans will not be able to see this great show down between the Kings and Devils. The epic battle of goaltending should defiantly highlight this series along strong goal scoring. As everyone knows, there can only be one Champion. Two teams, one common goal. Only one can be victorious and the battle shall begin.   

Philly Flys Out of Playoffs After Game 5 loss to Devils

            The Philadelphia Flyers were eliminated yesterday from the Stanley Cup Playoffs at Wells Fargo Center in Philly. The Flyers struggled throughout the series to find strong goaltending from Ilya Bryzgalov. The Flyers were strong scorers, however when it came to stopping the puck at vital times, Bryzgalov was unable to be solid to lead the Flyers to victory. Yes, Bryzgalov was able to make some huge saves, however, he wasn't able to stop them when the Flyers needed him to the most."I wanted to put the puck in the corner for Kimmo (Timonen) to start back up," Bryzgalov said about the numbing pass he attempted that ended up behind him, "and the puck, I don't know, hit him in his stick and going in the net. A bad bounce, unfortunately. It could go anywhere — in the corner, higher, lower, but it goes straight between the legs." Bryzgalov was very disappointed in his play. The Flyers signed Bryzgalov to a 9-year, $51 million contract this past summer and fans now are starting to question "Was he worth the money?"

               Even with the key additions of Bryzgalov, Jaromir Jagr, Max Talbot, and Brayden Schenn, they still suffered many key losses. They traded Richards and Carter away during last off-season. Also, the Flyers were hit by the injury bug through out the entire season. The list included key players such as Danny Briere, James van Riemsdyk, and the long term injury to Chris Pronger. During the 2011/12 season, the Flyers suited up 14 different rookies. 

               Veteran forward Jaromir Jagr stated after the lose, "From the organization to the last player on the team, and the fans, they were so nice to me, I hate to finish it right now. That's the worst feeling. You finish the whole story, the whole year, that's a sad day.I want to cry right now."

            The Future of Jagr with the Flyers is uncertain. The 40 year old veteran has been in this league for many years and felt similar results in the past. The former 2-time Stanley Cup Champion, hopes he can win another cup sometime. However, does he have enough in him? He was third on the team with 54 points, but faded in the playoffs and was a non-factor against the Devils. Most teams would still be interested in Jagr, although the question is, where will he decide to play?

             Head Coach Peter Laviolette stated after the lose, "We could never seem to get down that road." Laviolette knew his team was struggling to get past the Devils, but was unsure how to shake up the struggling Flyers. Some fans may ask "Why didn't you give Sergei Bobrovsky a chance?" The Flyers had to much faith in Bryzgalov, that they didn't want to give up on him. Bobrovsky may have been the starter for most of last season and the playoffs, but if you remember, the Flyers had goalie trouble last season as well. The Flyers continually would switch between Bobrovsky and current Hurricanes back-up Brian Boucher. Is it a goalie problem in Philly or is it just poor defense? The answer is both. The Flyers have put a lot of effort in finding great goalies as they also have Michael Leighton playing for their minor league team the Adirondack Phantoms. The Flyers should look more into strengthen their defense and not as much their goaltending. They already have plenty of talent in the net even if it didn't show in the playoffs.

             Even though the Flyers played poorly, you can't  say that the Devils didn't have a strong series.They had a lot of success from veteran goalie Martin Brodeur. They also had strong scoring from players like Ilya Kovalchuk, Zach Parise, and David Clarkson. Clarkson stated following the Game Five 3-1 victory, “I’ll take ’em any way I can get ’em,” referring to the goal he scored that was the go ahead winning goal after a bad play by Flyers goalie Bryzgalov. “I’ve never been this far,” said Zach Parise, the first-year captain. “It’s a good feeling. But we’re only halfway there. It’s only going to get harder.” The Devils know they have a long road ahead of them in the Eastern Conference Finals. Now, they need to get ready to face off against the winner of the Capitals-Rangers Series. They know it'll not be an easy road ahead as the continue their battle for the Cup. When asked if  he was excited for a break as they wait for the end of the Capitals-Rangers series, Kovalchuk responded, “I want to play as soon as I can.”

             No one on this Devils team wants to wait long as they are ready to make a run for the cup. The Devils have not won a Stanley Cup since 2003 and would love to add another banner to the rafters of the Prudential Center. "It seems forever for a lot of guys," Future hall of famer goaltender Marty Brodeur said following the win. "It's tough to do that. We're fortunate to have made it there so far." Brodeur is another veteran that many fans are unsure how many years he's got left. The Future Hall of Famer has been part of all 3 Devils Stanley Cup Championship teams and has been the solid backstop for the Devils since 1993. The Devils have a huge task in front of them and will have to play even better if they want to advance to the Stanley Cup Finals.