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.

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:

Evaluating the "Downie Deal"

 The trade deadline's annual chaos kicked off 6 days early this year, as Steve Yzerman and the Tampa Bay Lightning were busy molding what will most likely go down as the most wild deal of 2012.  The Bolts came to terms with the Colorado Avalanche on a deal that sent agitator Steve Downie to the Mile High City and solid puck moving defenseman Kyle Quincey to Tampa Bay.  Solid trade for both sides, I suppose, but while everyone was still trying to figure out how they felt about the move, Tampa's GM Yzerman was not done.

Yzerman is on his way to taking the steps necessary
to improve his team after this year's disappointment.

 Minutes after the Downie deal broke, TSN's Bob McKenzie quickly went to Twitter and made it known that he was already hearing that Quincey was on the move again.  Sure enough, the Lightning traded Kyle Quincey to the Detroit Red Wings in return for a 2012 1st round draft pick and some no-name prospect.  It's not every day that an NHL team turns right around and trades a new acquisition within the same hour they got him to begin with, but that's exactly what happened here, and it was GM masterclass on Yzerman's part.
 Look at it this way, when Tampa moved Downie to Colorado, then dealt what they got in return for a 1st round pick in a separate trade, the Lightning essentially traded Steve Downie for a 1st round draft pick.  Let that sink in for a moment... and read it with an underline: The Lightning traded Steve Downie for a 1st round draft pick.  If you told me Stevie Y could have moved Downie for a 1st rounder 3 hours ago, I would have called whatever chump on the other end of Yzerman's phone line a moron.  But here we are now, approving the bravado of the Bolts' bold back-to-back deals in order to bolster their draft picks.
 Now, just because Tampa was able to put together a brilliant series of moves, do not take the Avalanche and Red Wings for fools either.  Colorado clearly felt they needed the services of Downie to improve their on-ice product if they were willing to move Quincey for him.  Detroit lands a solid blue-liner and former Wing who the organization feels they can trust if they lose Brad Stuart to free agency over the summer or the legendary Nicklas Lidstrom retires.  Seeing that everyone on all sides of these trades look like winners, the question has to be asked, why don't these moves happen more often in the NHL?
 The three-way trade or the back-to-back transaction is very rare in hockey.  Two in one season happens probably as frequently as a Haley's comet!  Looking at the results of the Downie deal, GMs should take a page out of Yzerman's book and put the pieces in place for these puzzle trades and make their own "Steve Downie for a 1st rounder" deal.