2013 Stanley Cup Playoffs Preview

BECAUSE IT'S THE CUP...

 Oh, it's the most wonderful time of the year. The Stanley Cup Playoffs are set to begin, and yet again, the NHL has delivered some delicious first round match-ups right to your front door. Possibly as a result of the shortened, 48-game season, some teams that seemed to be locks for the playoffs a few months ago are left to the cold, cold, embrace of beach vacations and country clubs while some new faces get to participate in the postseason.
 So say goodbye to any chance at productive nights over the next few weeks, because the quest for Lord Stanley's Cup is beginning, and there's no way you should miss it. Eight different series, eight winners, and eight rosters full of broken dreams, that's the first round of the playoffs. Here's a closer look at this year's combatants:

Standings for Monday's NHL Draft Lottery

 The playoff picture has finally taken shape, with all eight available spots in each conference clinched. This also means the 14 teams on the outside looking in have been determined as well. Yes, their seasons all ended in disappointment, one way or another, but a new quirk introduced to the Draft Lottery process this year gives one team a chance to end on an unexpected high note.
 The 2013 Scotiabank NHL Draft Lottery, to be held on Monday at 8 p.m., will be the first in league history in which all 14 teams that missed the postseason have a chance to win the No. 1 overall pick based on a fixed percentage chance. In years past, lottery winners could only move up four spots in the draft, and the likelihood of winning was weighted heavier based on how poorly a team did.
 The Florida Panthers finished dead last in the NHL in the lockout-shortened season, but the new lottery format creates new story lines. Could Colorado win the first overall pick and thus Seth Jones end up playing for the team that introduced him to hockey as a child? Does one of the teams who barely missed out on the playoffs suddenly leap to first overall? Or if the "leader" does win the top pick, do the Florida Panthers, who have a history of trading down from No. 1, give it up to a hungry suitor? After all, in a stacked draft like this, the yield for the first pick could be higher than it was for Florida in 2002 and 2003.

Forbes Makes Sense of Jones/Jay-Z Rumors

 One of the more interesting, yet seemingly underreported, rumors from this past week was that the consensus first overall pick in this year's upcoming draft, Seth Jones, could end up with hip-hop legend and entrepreneurial genius Jay-Z as his agent. This seemed too good to be true at first, and although Jones and his current agent, Pat Brisson, have come out and said that isn't quite the case, it could be close to reality.
 Forbes' Chris Smith, a business of sports writer, makes a lot of sense out of rumors, and hints that a relationship between Jay-Z and Jones could be a very real thing in the near future. See Smith's great article here: http://www.forbes.com/sites/chrissmith/2013/04/25/could-jay-z-make-seth-jones...
 Not only would it be smart for both sides, it would be completely and totally awesome, too.

HOV!

Stefan Matteau No Longer on the Armada

 The New Jersey Devils' first round pick in 2012 got up and quit- no, he was released by manage- wait, we really have no idea what happened. The bottom line is Stefan Matteau is no longer a member of the Blainville-Boisbriand Armada amid their QMJHL Semifinal series with Baie-Comeau.

 Stephane Leroux of RDS has been all over the abrupt conclusion of Matteau's career with the Armada, originally reporting that Matteau had quit the team and refused to take the team bus back to Boisbriand with his (ex)teammates after the team's Game 2 loss to the Drakkar. As the news spread, Armada management was swift to put forth an official statement regarding the matter, saying that the Devs prospects had been "released" by the team due to behavior considered "unacceptable to our organization."

 Now this story has become the classic he-said she-said. The good ol', "No, she didn't break up with me, I broke up with her!" The proverbial, "You can't fire me! I QUIT!" We may never actually know who quit on who or who released who, but what we do know is that Matteau was not too happy with being benched in Game 2 after taking a reckless slashing penalty. After that came the end of his season.

Evaluating the Play of Filip Forsberg

John Russell / Getty Images

 There are only a few certainties in life: Death, taxes, and prospects move on trade deadline day. Every year, transactions at the NHL trade deadline include players who have never suited up for a game in the show. Some players make you scratch your head and go, "Who?" Others are high profile draft picks.
 When it comes to prospects, the biggest name moved at this season's deadline was Swedish forward Filip Forsberg, who was dealt from the Washington Capitals to the Nashville Predators in exchange for Martin Erat and Michael Latta. Considering Latta is, with all due respect, a nobody, and Erat had only four goals with the Preds this season, the Caps' willingness to move one of their top prospects was a bit of a head-scratcher. People theorized that the Capitals felt Forsberg's NHL ceiling wasn't as high as we once thought, and others took to Twitter to criticize Forsberg's foot speed and cite that as the reason Washington didn't mind ditching Sweden's captain at the most recent World Juniors.
 Surprisingly, Forsberg, who is 18 years old and never even suited up for Washington's AHL team, found himself injected into the Predators line-up on Sunday and he already has two NHL games under his belt. Now his detractors and his supporters alike have a small sample size of what Forsberg is capable of at the highest level of competition in the world. This is what they've seen.

2013 Frozen Four Preview

 The NCAA is always proud to declare how more European and Canadian prospects are choosing the
college route for their development, and this influx of international talent into the collegiate ranks has created more parity than ever over the past few years. This competitive balance was on display two weekends ago, as thrilling regional match-ups had college hockey fans on the edge of their seat and scribbling on their brackets. Now that only four teams remain after working their way to Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania to battle for glory, the team that wins it all will have earned their school their first NCAA National Championship in program history.
 Yes, your Frozen Four finalists, Quinnipiac, UMass-Lowell, St. Cloud State, and Yale, are all competing for their school's first ever national title. In fact, Yale is the only school to reach the final four remaining teams of the national tournament before, albeit it was in 1952. With that in mind, this is sure to be an exciting conclusion to the tournament.
 Here's a chance for you to get to know each team in the Frozen Four a little better before the puck drops at the beautiful CONSOL Energy Center on Thursday. There's profiles on each team, list of their NHL prospects, and the Hart of Hockey's predictions for the final.

What Giguere's Comments Mean For Gabe Landeskog...

Seriously though, Jiggy's "Vegas trip"
comment is among the best quotes ever.
(Doug Pensinger, Getty Images)

 At the conclusion of another lackluster performance by the Colorado Avalanche last night, goaltender Jean-Sebastian Giguere had a ton of rich, long-winded quotes for reporters after the team's 3-1 loss to the Calgary Flames. Calling Giguere frustrated would be an understatement. "Fuming with anger" or "handing back genuine rage" is probably a more appropriate way to describe his comments.
 Jiggy has always been known as a team-first guy, and stats and salary aside, he's a well respected person throughout the hockey community. So if he is this upset and not afraid to voice it with such colorful quotes, his feelings are probably shared with at least some of his teammates, putting a rift in the Avalanche locker room. What does this all mean for Colorado's 20 year-old captain, Gabriel Landeskog?
 Originally reported by Denver Post beat writer Adrian Dater, Giguere had the following to say about the team he backstops: