ESPN.com - What's hot, what's not for the NHL

ESPN.com: Page 2

Wednesday, April 9, 2003
What's hot, what's not for the NHL

By Jim Wilkie
Page 2 columnist

Rookie coaches, untested goalies and uncertain calls by NHL referees -- a new look is sweeping across the NHL as legends retire and fade away in the 21st century.

With the Stanley Cup playoffs -- sports' toughest tournament -- kicking off tonight, Page 2 explains who and what to watch for ... and who and what you can safely ignore.

Here's what's hot and what's not as 16 teams race to see who can win 16 games first -- and the 2003 Stanley Cup:

WHAT'S HOT, WHAT'S NOT FOR THE NHL PLAYOFFS
Category	Hot	Not Hot
Goalie	Martin Brodeur	Chris Osgood
Mask	Patrick Lalime	Patrick Roy
Subplot	Alexi Yashin vs. Senators	Robbie Ftorek dumpers (Devils vs. Bruins)
Side show	Mood swings, betting advice and tax tips from Jaromir Jagr	Incredible shrinking Alexei Yashin
Battle Royale	Brad May vs. Keith Tkachuk	Tie Domi vs. Christopher Falcone
Swede	Peter Forsberg	Markus Naslund
Detroit color	White Stripes	Red Wings
Celeb fan	Kiefer Sutherland	DB Sweeney
Canucks question	Will the Sedins produce?	Is Dan Cloutier over his 2002 meltdown?
Fedorov motivation	Unrestricted free agency	Showing Anna how to win
First-round series	Flyers-Maple Leafs	Avalanche-Wild
Trade deadline pickup	Steve Thomas	Dan McGillis
Line	Brett Hull-Pavel Datsyuk-Henrik Zetterberg	Jason Blake-Dave Scatchard-Jason Wiemer
Infraction	Diving	Obstruction-hooking
Diver	Paul Kariya	Darcy Tucker
Pest	Vaclav Varada	Brenden Morrow
Sentimental story	Dave Andreychuk	Doug Gilmour
This year's Carolina	Lightning	Bruins
Gary Bettman nightmare	All-Canadian final	Referees call interference as they did in October
Coach	Ken Hitchcock	Peter Laviolette
Playoff question	Are the Senators tough enough?	Who'll play in goal for the Wild?
Badge of honor	Getting hacked in the face by Brendan "The Butcher" Shanahan's stick	Concussion on hit from behind into glass
Accessory	Good old-fashioned wood stick	Garth Snow's extra shoulder pads
Chance for upset	Oilers over Stars	Islanders over Senators
Disappearing act	Sami Kapanen	Robert Reichel
Arena pump-up music	Tragically Hip	Justin Timberlake
Pool pick	Peter Forsberg	Peter Bondra
Pool sleeper	Matt Cooke	Claude Lemieux
Conn Smythe front-runner	Daniel Alfredsson	Patrick Roy
Eastern final prediction	Senators vs. Maple Leafs	Lightning vs. Bruins
Western final predicition	Red Wings vs. Canucks	Wild vs. Mighty Ducks
Stanley Cup final prediction	Senators vs. Red Wings	Stars vs. Devils

Jim Wilkie is a regular contributor to Page 2.