In case you missed it at the NHL Awards, the NHL posted the skit of gold medalist Ryan Getzlaf and silver medalist Bobby Ryan, both Anaheim Ducks team-mates, feuding. It is surprisingly funny and definitely worth a look.

The talented but underperforming forward Nathan Horton and Gregory Campbell was sent by the Florida Panthers to the Boston Bruins for the 15 pick in this year’s draft, struggling blueliner Dennis Wideman and a third round pick.

It is always tough to project the long-term winner in any trade, but the Florida Panthers seem to have got the better of the deal. This year’s draft has two super-stars, but it is also fairly deep in talent so there is a good chance that the Panthers will get a player who will one day contribute at the NHL level.

Both Horton and Wideman struggled this season and the Bruins and Panthers are both gambling that a change of scenery will get them going.

Nathan Horton has struggled with injury and there are questions about his competitiveness on a nightly basis. There is no denying that he has a ton of talent, but he has shown it too rarely in his young career.

Big power forwards like Horton tend to take a longer time to develop. He could turn out to be a player like Todd Bertuzzi who struggled until his late 20s before dominating physically and on the score sheet for a few years. However, if injuries and a lack of competitiveness keep hampering him, he could end up being a second or third line player.

One thing is for sure, he will have every opportunity to succeed with the Boston Bruins. If he can’t find any chemistry with one of Patrice Bergeron, David Krejci and Marc Savard  at center, Horton will likely never meet his potential.

Dennis Wideman struggled this season after being demoted to the second power play unit. His points total fell for the first time in his young career dropping to 30 points after scoring 50 last season.

Wideman can move the puck well and he should help the Panthers power play.

Defensemen usually take a long time to develop and it is not unusual for defensemen to struggled a bit with his confidence particularly after seeing reduced playing time.

Of the two main players in this deal, Wideman is more likely to reach his potential, but Horton has a much higher upside. The short term winner will likely be Boston. Horton seems like a perfect fit there and he should help their offense even if he doesn’t meet his potential particularly since opponents will be paying more attention to Boston’s high end forwards.

The Bruins are currently listed at +1600 in odds to win the Stanley Cup while the Panthers are +6600 reflecting their need to improve in all areas.

The Montreal Canadiens traded goalie Jaroslav Halak to the St. Louis Blues for a pair of decent prospects in Lars Eller and Ian Schultz.

Worst blockbuster ever.

Montreal did the right thing in trading Halak who will be a restricted free agent on July 1 because Halak’s value is at its highest right now. Halak is a streaky goaltender who got hot at the right time. Everyone sees how well he did for a month and his value goes way up.

What they don’t remember is how he has gotten hot like that before only to go on equally bad cold stretches. Additionally, Montreal’s defense deserves a lot of credit for making him look good.

Halak is also going to get a bundle of money after playing his best at the most profitable time. Halak will be an over-paid goaltender for St Louis roughly the same caliber as their previous goaltender Chris Mason who also has a penchant for playing brilliantly for short stretches.

The two players coming to the Montreal Canadiens are C Lars Eller and LW Ian Schultz.

Lars Eller is the better prospect of the two. Eller has decent size, which is something Montreal desperately needs at forward, and a decent scoring touch, but he is a better playmaker and looks to be a solid two-way second line center.

Ian Schultz projects to be either a second or third line winger. He plays a very physical game and could become a power forward if he develops a bit of a scoring touch.

While there is nothing wrong with what the Canadiens got from the St. Louis Blues, you have to think that if they’d signed Halak before trading him, they could have got a whole lot more and that’s why this trade is so bad. They could have done better.

The other problem that Montreal has is the goaltender that they kept. Carey Price has a ton of potential, but he’s too fragile to play in Montreal where the fans compare every goaltender to Patrick Roy and Ken Dryden. The best thing for Price would be to get traded to some non-hockey town, preferably without any night-life, where he can quietly salvage his career.

Eller might play next season for the Canadiens, but he is still a few years from making any impact.

For the Blues this is a sideways move because they aren’t going to win more games with the hot and cold Halak. But watch for them to win in bunches with Halak in net and bet accordingly.

St Louis plays in the toughest division in hockey. As a result, they are going to have a hard time making the playoffs and are +5000 in odds to win the Stanley Cup.

Montreal has it much easier. They are +2200 to win the Stanley Cup despite trading away their playoff hero.

The NHL released a video of the top 10 plays from the Stanley Cup Finals between the Chicago Blackhawks and the Philadelphia Flyers. Chicago of course won in 6.

The Chicago Blackhawks are listed as the early favorites to repeat as Stanley Cup Champions at +450 with the Washington Capitals next at +500 even though the Blackhawks are going to have a big challenge keeping this team together with a number of players due big raises and the Hawks right up against the salary cap.

The Chicago Blackhawks finished their quest for the Stanley Cup with a Game 6 4-3 overtime victory. All of the highlights can be seen in the video.

The Philadelphia Flyers acquitted themselves well in the series, but Chicago was just too much for them.

The biggest disappointment was how anti-climactic the game-winning goal was. It was hard for people watching to tell that the puck went in the net.

Jonathan Toews won the Conn Smythe trophy as the playoff MVP. He was definitely the MVP through the first three rounds, but he was kept in check in the final. I’m not sure who is more deserving, but I’m not sure anyone really distinguished themselves as a clear playoff MVP.

The Chicago Blackhawks look to end their 49-year Stanley Cup drought with a Game 6 road win against the Philadelphia Flyers. The puck drops at 8 PM ET on NBC.

The Game 6 Stanley Cup odds are a pick ‘em with both teams listed at -110.

The Chicago Blackhawks are coming off of their most dominant performance of the playoffs after a 7-4 victory in which pretty much every aspect of their game looked good.

Dustin Byfuglien ended his scoring slump with two goals while Patrick Kane reasserted himself in this series with a goal and an assist.

Chicago’s power play went 2 for 4 after being 0 for the series through the first four games and they were perfect on the penalty kill for the first time.

The Philadelphia Flyers will need to ignore all of the hype surrounding the Blackhawks and do the things that won them Games 3 and 4 and kept them close in Games 1 and 2.

Chris Pronger has been public enemy number one for Blackhawks backers, but he was -5 in Game 5. Pronger will need to be a rock on defense and a contributor on offense for the Flyers to stave off elimination.

The other key for the Flyers is goaltending. It hasn’t been good enough for them in the finals and that has to stop tonight.

The Flyers are 9-1 at home in the post-season and the home team has won every game in this series.

Finally, we see the Chicago Blackhawks that everyone was expecting to see as they attacked the Philadelphia Flyers net in waves to get a 7-4 victory.

The Blackhawks best players performed as they split up the top line to get some of their best players away from Flyers star defender, Chris Pronger. Patrick Kane and Dustin Byfuglien combined for three goals and six points on the night after being virtually invisible for the first four games.

The Hawks power play was lethal for the first time in the series connecting twice on four opportunities. They furthered their special teams advantage by killing all three penalties that they took after letting the Flyers connect on nearly 30 percent of their power plays in the first four games.

While most of the pundits are questioning whether the Flyers have another comeback in them, the odds-makers seem to like their chances of evening the series at three on home ice. They are listed as -125 favorites in Stanley Cup odds over the Hawks who pay -105.

The Philadelphia Flyers hope the trend of the home team winning in the Stanley Cup Finals continues as they face a Chicago Blackhawks team that is desperate to not let their advantage in the series slip away. The puck drops at 8 PM ET on Versus.

The Stanley Cup odds list the Flyers as slight favorites at -120 with the Blackhawks paying +100. The total is 5.5.

All of the games so far in the series have been very close with Chicago taking Game 1 6-5 in a wild back-and-forth affair before prevailing again at home 2-1 in a tight defensive battle. Game 3 in Philly went the home team’s way 4-3 in overtime.

Chris Pronger has been the best performer for the Philadelphia Flyers so far in the series. He has been dominant on the defensive side of the game holding Chicago’s top line to just one goal through three games. The Flyers penalty kill has been perfect so far thanks in no small part to Pronger’s ability to keep the front of the net clear.

Philly’s second line led by Danny Briere has contributed most of the offense. Briere has two goals and four assists through three games in the series and he leads the Flyers in points (24) and goals (11) in the playoffs.

Philadelphia has been very strong at home in the playoffs with an 8-1 record.

The Chicago Blackhawks are turning to the media to get an edge on Pronger and the Flyers. They have been pointing out all of the calls that he gets away with since their Game 3 loss hoping that it will influence the officials and give them some more space.

With their top line silent, the Blackhawks have been relying on their secondary scoring to get them their wins. Troy Brouwer leads all Blackhawk scorers with two goals and two assists through three games while Marian Hossa has come back from the dead with a goal and three assists.

Antti Niemi has been winning the goaltending duel for the Blackhawks with a .917 save percentage in the playoffs and, most importantly, he’s given up fewer soft goals than his Flyers counterpart.

It took overtime, but the Philadelphia Flyers finally have a win over the Chicago Blackhawks in their Stanley Cup Final series after winning Game 3 4-3 in overtime. The Blackhawks now lead the series 2-1.

Like the first two games, this was a fairly even affair with the Chicago Blackhawks enjoying a slight edge at even strength. The Flyers didn’t deserve this game any more than the first two, but they certainly don’t deserve to be down 3-0 so justice was served.

Chicago’s power play has to be a concern, they still haven’t scored in the finals while Philly got some big goals on the power play which made all of the difference.

Chris Pronger and the rest of the Flyers seem to be slowly wearing down the Blackhawks. I think the longer the series go, the more it will favor the Philadelphia Flyers. Chicago doesn’t appear to be intimidated and they are dishing out plenty of punishment too, but the Flyers definitely have the advantage in the war of attrition.

The Stanley Cup betting lines for Game 4 list the Flyers as narrow favorites at -120 with the Blackhawks at +100

The Philadelphia Flyers hope the home ice is enough to turn their Stanley Cup Finals series around and give them a win after dropping two close ones on the road against the Chicago Blackhawks.

The Game 3 Stanley Cup Odds list the Flyers as favorites at -130, with the Blackhawks close at +110. The total is 5.5.

The Chicago Blackhawks have been in this situation before. Up 2-0 against a team that fought them very hard and probably didn’t deserve to be down. They just kept winning and swept their series against the San Jose Sharks.

The impressive thing about the Hawks is that they’ve been winning without their top line. Patrick Kane, Jonathan Toews and Dustin Byfuglien have combined for one assist through two games in the finals. Kane hasn’t put the puck in the net for six straight games while Toews is on a four game futility streak.

Chicago’s depth players have been the ones doing the scoring. Marian Hossa ended a prolong scoring slump and Ben Eager would score shortly after to give Chicago a 2-0 lead in Game 2. It would be all of the scoring they’d need as Philly would find the net just once on the power play.

The Blackhawks defense improved a little in Game 2, but they still gave away too many quality chances and needed Antti Niemi to be brilliant in net.

The Philadelphia Flyers have to feel pretty good about how they played in Game 2. They didn’t give up many quality scoring chances and were almost even in the faceoff circle after being embarrassed by Chicago in Game 1.

Feeling good won’t help them win. They are going to have to get more traffic in front of Niemi which will put themselves in position to get favorable bounces like they did on their lone goal in Game 2.

The Flyers have been down before in these playoffs coming back from a 3-0 series deficit against the Boston Bruins, but they can’t expect to repeat that feat against a more talented Chicago Blackhawks team.