The Vancouver Canucks have dealt Lukas Krajicek and Juraj Simek to the Tampa Bay Lightning for Michel Ouellet and Shane O'Brien.

I have mixed emotions about this trade. Part of me is ecstatic, because I've been a fan of O'Brien ever since his Anaheim days. He's tough and nasty but a decent skater for his size and good for 15 to 20 points.

Another part of me is feeling pity. Because when Rypien is injured ten days into the season, he won't have Krajicek to keep him company on the injured reserve.

Listening to the 1040 broadcast of the Canucks-Ducks preseason game, I'm hearing an announcement during the first intermission that the 12 pay-per-view Canucks games this year are going to be in HIGH DEFINITION.

This is

AWESOME NEWS!

Before, the Canucks' Pay Per View looked something like this:

But now we can expect something like this:

FANTASTIC!

Three of the Final Four could win their first Cup in franchise history. Three of the four goaltenders are wholly unproven or, prior to seasons start, less than stellar. All four teams are offensively oriented, and only a few years ago two of them were staring bankruptcy induced self-destruction in the face.

Right now we sit on the threshold to three remaining series that will be full of complete unknowns, and in Sports nothing is more exciting than just that. But it’s a far cry from where the game was only 5 years ago.

For those that don't know the back story...
1) Shane Doan was picked for Captain on Team Canada's squad at the World Championship
2) The Bloc Quebecois will always be able to suck my tiny Asian Dong, no matter what the circumstances. Like I could be in the middle of my wedding with Keira Knightly and if this person which could figuratively represent the mental spirit and physical assets of the Bloc Quebecois walked in, I'd drop my pants and have it orally pleasure me in front of my parents.

It’s been a few too many days since there was an update on the site, and in that time we’ve seen the Canucks rekindle the kind of slow-burning gameplan that got them into the playoffs in the first place. In a fashion that would make Jacques Lemaire blush the Canucks have, for the last two games at least, forced the Ducks to play a game they would rather avoid completely; no flow, tight checking, and low scoring chances.

Tonight will undoubtedly see the Canucks bring their A-game, and then we’ll see if that’s good enough. As much a flaw it is that this team needs constant wake-up calls and reminders, they're still a prideful bunch and so far throughout the year they’ve never failed to bounce back after tough embarrassing losses.

Here is the TowelPower.net preview for the four series in Round 2 of the Stanley Cup Playoffs. In the last round, we overestimated the Minnesota Wild and Pittsburgh Penguins. In this round, our analysts are fairly divided among their picks. In most cases, picks are split two aside for each team with good cases to back up each side - so read on and see what is being debated.

Click on any series below to get our extensive preview of the series:

The active NHL leader in Game 7 performances does it again.

I was amazed at the turnaround in this game. In the first period we played like we had in Games 5 and 6. Then, in period 2 we just turned things around and outshot the Stars 14-4 with sustained pressure. We kept momentum even through the PK, which ended fairly quickly as Morrow took his opportunity to slash Alexandre Burrows back.