Only one week left in the season but still plenty of story lines surrounding the League. As of this writing, and mostly thanks to the Dallas Stars, only three teams in the Western Conference — Detroit Red Wings, Vancouver Canucks and San Jose Sharks — have clinched.  However, not everything in the Western Conference is focused on winning and losing as we do see five teams already well out of contention, focusing their attention on try-out and to a lesser extent scouting.

RED WINGS CLINCH PLAYOFFS, THEN DIVISION

With a victory over arch-rival Pekka Rinne and the Nashville Predators on Saturday, the Detroit Red Wings clinched a playoff spot.

Instead of resting on their laurels, they sent newly-healthy Jimmy Howard back out to the wolves against the Minnesota Wild the next day and earned the Central Division. In addition, the team even sent Pavel Datsyuk back into the lineup, having him center a line with Henrik Zetterberg once again, a sign that the two may combine for one of the more powerful lines to enter the playoffs.

After an embarrassing 10-3 loss to the St. Louis Blues earlier in the week, the Red Wings want to enter the playoffs on a strong note.

Defeating the Predators and “lighting” Rinne up for four goals might have given this sleeping monster all the fuel they needed. In fact, the entire team may have awoken, starting with Todd Bertuzzi — who fought Shane O’Brien not once, but twice. The Red Wings rarely find the need to carry an enforcer or a planned fighter but perhaps Bertuzzi would be more than happy to take on that role. Adding a bit of extra snarl certainly never hurts in the postseason, although history may indicate that Bertuzzi lets his emotions get the best of him, so the team could be dealing with a double-edge sword, or blade in this instance…

For the Red Wings to play well, they need an even effort from all involved, from Zetterberg and Datsyuk to Justin Abdelkader and Bertuzzi, as cited by Mike Babcock via Mlive:

“I thought Bertuzzi was great today. He was physical, he was standing up for his teammates a lot. Abdelkader played real well. Howie made some big saves down the stretch, the guys stuck with it and we were able to win.”

It seems like they are doing just that with Darren Helm even drawing comparison in terms of leadership to Kris Draper.

This older Red Wings team has the ability to strike fear into their opponents with their plethora of offensive talent. Now, playing with an edge, and a budding superstar in Howard between the pipes, they could very well get back into the Stanley Cup Finals for the third time in four years.

STARS MAKE THINGS A BIT MORE INTERESTING

The Dallas Stars have been incredibly fun to follow this season for a variety of reasons.

First, they were never expected to make the playoffs and by all means still may not. Second, their ownership situation has been questionable at best with the controversy surrounding Tom Hicks and the team’s inability to re-sign Brad Richards. Third, their coverage is just incredibly good thanks to Mark Stepneski, who ran the independent news source Andrew’s Stars Page, which eventually was bought out and now featured by ESPN Dallas.

Stepneski posted this excellently worded tidbit prior to last night’s regulation win over the Ducks. Let me paraphrase.

If the Stars win in regulation (which they did) they essentially make things a little more interesting. Exactly 15.5 percent more interesting as they not only climbed their way back into the race with a 24.6 percent chance of making it, but they also prevented all three of their Pacific Division rivals — Phoenix Coyotes, Los Angeles Kings and Anaheim Ducks — from clinching!

All the Ducks needed to do was win in regulation and they would have made the big show. So would the Coyotes and the Kings, making the Stars just that much more compelling as a team.

However, before we move forward, let’s take a small step back.

The Stars play in one of the most challenging divisions, especially this season where all five teams likely would qualify if they played in the Eastern Conference. In addition, this team withstood lengthy injuries from Loui Eriksson, Richards, Jamie Benn and Adam Burish up front and Karlis Skrastins, Nicklas Grossman and Mark Fistric on the back end. Last night they had journeymen Brad Lukowich and Jason Williams dressed.

Resiliency seems like a very nice word to use here.

Furthermore, the team got a full season out of Kari Lehtonen and got him for a player who was since traded from the Atlanta Thrashers and has yet to make an impact on the NHL level, or the AHL level for that matter. They made a shrewd move re-acquiring Jamie Langenbrunner from the New Jersey Devils and managed to look great in acquiring Alex Goligoski — who may be their best puck-moving defenseman since Sergei Zubov.

For what it is worth, the Stars made 2010-2011 very interesting and Joe Nieuwendyk and company deserve a good deal of respect because of it, regardless if they make the playoffs this season.

COREY CRAWFORD FOR CALDER?

Most of the Calder Trophy discussion has been limited to Logan Couture and Jeff Skinner (especially after Skinner lightning up Carey Price and the Habs) but Corey Crawford gets my (non PHWA) vote.

The man breaks into the NHL after five years in the AHL and takes the defending Stanley Cup Champions back into the playoffs after they stumbled out of the gate. More importantly, Crawford has 31 wins and is in the top 10 in terms of GAA while Couture and Skinner play less important roles as secondary scorers on the second or third line. While one could certainly make the argument for Skinner — who plays mostly with Finnish forwards Jussi Jokinen and Tuomo Ruutu — Couture definitely has more comfortable surroundings than his likely competitors come awards time.

Yes, Crawford is arguably on the top team in the League, or the team expected to be that, but the Blackhawks have really struggled this season.

They have played without Patrick Kane, Marian Hossa and Patrick Sharp for lengthy amounts of time while dealing with uneven seasons for guys like Duncan Keith, Brian Campbell and to a lesser degree Niklas Hjalmarsson. Notice how I fail to mention losing Dustin Byfuglien, Andrew Ladd and others to the offseason.

One of the biggest knock on the Blackhawks have been their defense, or lack of this season which has been sheltered by their above-average offensive — nine different players have 12 goals or more; six top 17 tallies. Life in Chicago has been no picnic, opposed to last season when the Blackhawks clearly coddled their netminders.

Both Cristobal Huet and Antti Niemi last season saw their save percentage plummet simply due to boredom as they got less work and therefore stayed less sharp throughout the game. Niemi’s “exposure” during the Finals is evidence to this catching up to them at the wrong time with the offense bailing them out.

This year has been a completely different story with Crawford facing close to 27 shots per game. The 26-year-old has stood on his head for lengthy periods of time, showing signs of perfection (four shutouts). The addition of Crawford has legitimately made the Blackhawks a better team which is more than you can say for Couture, and to a lesser degree even Skinner.

SITTING OUT WHEN IT DOESN’T COUNT

Yes, we have five teams officially eliminated for the playoffs. Should those teams let their superstars, or better players rather sit out their remaining games?

The Edmonton Oilers probably take the least amount of blame in this situation since they have been blistered by foot injuries. Their reckless (in a good way) play led to an exorbitant amount of blocked shots and injuries, from captain Shawn Horcoff to Calder nominee Taylor Hall. Due to a slew of injuries, the team has been forced to field a team with Chris Vande Velde and Teemu Hartikainen on the top line. At this point, head coach Tom Renney is hoping he can get through the rest of the week without re-calling anyone from Oklahoma City.

But honestly, the gripe should not be with the Oilers. Especially when the most important players on the Columbus Blue Jackets, Colorado Avalanche and (arguably) the Minnesota Wild sit out.

St. Louis Blues forward TJ Oshie was berated by team brass for missing a team practice, forcing him to miss two games, however Rick Nash will not be forced into any games because the Blue Jackets would prefer him healed up for next pre-season. Makes sense, right? The scarce populace inhabiting Nationwide Arena would prefer seeing Derek MacKenzie center Kristian Huselius, who returned last night after a lengthy absence, but Nash’s season is lost because if there is nothing worth playing for then their star needs to be held out.

Likewise, the Wild may be jeopardizing their AHL affiliate Houston Aeros by taking all of their NHL-ready talent. Not only have they already lost Marco Scandella for the year but they risk hurting Maxim Noreau, Justin Falk, Colton Gillies and Carson McMillan because Marek Zidlicky, Nick Schultz, John Madden and Martin Havlat could not bear to play with only three games left in the year. No use putting these kids into a position where they can succeed, just throw them on a sinking team.

Don’t even get me started on the Avalanche, where John Michael Liles and Paul Stastny are done for the year as is their offensive chemistry. Can’t seem to recall a team that shot up so fast before crashing so hard. Remind me to never trade for Erik Johnson…

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Thanks for reading. If for some reason you made it through my rant, please stick around for several other new articles from today as the entire staff does excellent, hard work here. You can contact me at amonaghan@nhlhotstove.com.

• The Blackhawks defeated the Sharks in overtime on the second goal of the night from Troy Brouwer.  ”We had exactly the right start that we wanted,” Brouwer said. “We had a little hiccup in the middle of the game, but we were able to fend them off and pull it out in overtime.”
• Blue Jacket fans reminded the team that the game lasts 60 minutes as Columbus fell to Los Angeles 4-0.  ”This is painful,” left winger R.J. Umberger said. “We heard the boos, and rightfully so.”
• After climbing their way back into the playoff picture, the Red Wings fail to keep a solid foothold on their position with only one win since mid-January.  ”Lately we’ve been finding ways to lose instead of finding ways to win,” captain Nicklas Lidstrom said.
• The Predators and coach Barry Trotz claim no fear when facing the Red Wings tonight.  ”We’re not afraid of the Detroit Red Wings and we haven’t been in a number of years,” Trotz said. “But we respect them because they have been so dominant as a team and organization for so long.”
• Alexander Steen scored his twelfth goal of the year to push the Blues past Edmonton 2-1.  ”We didn’t want the game to go any longer than it needed to, but you’re not going to knock a team out, especially when we didn’t feel that we were at our best,” Blues coach Davis Payne said.

Northwest

• Another shootout loss brings the Flames losing streak to nine games. “We know shootouts can go either way but these are two road games where we were playing two good home teams so we’re going to stick with it and keep going,” said captain Jarome Iginla.
• The Avs bored themselves to a 1-0 loss against the Wild.  ”They always seem to play a boring trap game,” Chris Stewart said. “They just want to keep it close and hope you make a mistake and capitalize. We let that happen tonight.”
• Even though Gilbert Brule and Mike Comrie returned to the lineup the Oilers lost. “Maybe the addition of guys will make the team play little bit on the defensive of the game and that will help us get a better result,” Oilers coach Pat Quinn said.  Too bad for Quinn the offense couldn’t muster enough to win.
• Wild backup Josh Harding persevered to give his team a 1-0 victory and the first road win of the new year. “If I was him, I know that I’d want the other guy to battle pretty hard, too. But the team made it easier on me than maybe it looked out there,” said Harding.
• Canucks Depth blueliners Nolan Baumgartner, Aaron Rome and Brad Lukowich need to dig deep for this upcoming road trip.

Pacific

• Despite his scars Teemu Selanne still puts a smile on his face as he practices with the Ducks.
• Mike Modano played with over 300 linemates in his illustrious 20+ season career.  This year is no different as he shifts from playing the top line to the fourth on a nightly basis. “He definitely has the experience where he can adapt his game,” said captain and on-and-off linemate Brenden Morrow.
• The Kings won four in a row now with their recent drudging of the Blue Jackets. Although out shot in the first ten minutes of the game, defenseman Matt Greene fired one in and changed the game.    ”The whole game changed,” Columbus Coach Ken Hitchcock said. “The energy changed and we didn’t grab it back.”
• Robert Lang scored the game winner in shootout, putting one past fatigued netminder Miikka Kiprusoff.  ”You’re either gonna beat him, or you don’t,” Lang said. “Everybody has their moves. He likes to poke-check and likes to be aggressive in the net, I saw him getting ready, and I froze him a little.”
• Even though the final score appeared close, coach Todd McLellan believes their poor start contributed more to their loss.  ”The start was unacceptable,” McLellan said.  ”We’re all going to talk about how hard we fought and that we worked our way back into the game, but that start was unacceptable.”