Just some quick stuff today:

* This is a cheat sheet for all the Ranger fans who don't pay attention to the other local teams. For everyone else, it's a refresher.

* Ken Dryden continues to complain about hokey violence as if he didn't run one of the meanest, nastiest franchises of the last 10 years. Could it be Dryden is banging this drum again because he's no longer in power in Toronto?

Canuck goalie Dan Cloutier is a trooper.
He's got a hip flexor issue, but he's playing past it.
And it's actually sharpening his game.
He shut-out LA last night.
The Canucks were wrecked by Todd Bertuzzi's suspension. Their top line had to be reconfigured. Morale has to be awful. Things are bad in Vancouver.
And let's be honest, here. Cloutier isn't known to be a clutch goalie during the best of times. He knows that they all have to step up.
He did. He more than stepped up.
I don't know about you, but I'm proud of Cloutier.
Let's hope he can keep the momentum going.

Stephen Cannella has an interesting piece about the backdoor deals associated with the trade deadline moves.
Cannella mentions the Geoff Sanderson trade. Sanderson was sent to Vancouver from Columbus. Reports said that if Vancouver decided they were done with him this summer, Columbus agreed to re-acquire him via the waiver wire. Cannella says it's even more of a done deal, with Vancouver agreeing to place Sanderson on waivers after the season.
You have to wonder if any of this is written down anywhere, though. Like what if Vancouver GM Brian Burke leaves Vancouver at the end of this season? Is the deal still on?
Apparently this kind of behind-the-scenes wheeling and dealing is pretty common in Europe.
It makes me nervous.

How freaking hot is the Paul Kariya, Peter Forsberg, Matthew Barnaby line?
Seriously. Colorado is playing Detroit on ESPN tonight. Watch the game. Because this line, which came together during Colorado's tie with Chicago, is really something to see.
And you know what? Watching Joe Sakic, Milan Hejduk, and Steve Konowalchuk isn't too hard on the eyes either.
Seriously. Check out Colorado tonight. They're a genuine pleasure to watch. Wake your kids, even. Don't have kids? Adopt some and make them watch.
If the Avalanche manage to stay healthy, which they really haven't been able to all season, they're the team to beat in the playoffs. And that's just based on their top two lines.

Filip Bondy goes after Madison Square Garden for forcing Ranger fans to watch a horrible product.
It's about the Rangers, but it could really be about any horrible team. Bondy takes the Garden for task for not letting fans return tickets to horrible games. He makes the point that with Broadway shows, you can return your ticket if the stars miss a performance. But now, with the star-depleted Rangers, you're stuck if you optimistically bought tickets to a late-season game. You know. Like last night's 5-2 loss to the Penguins.

Oh man. Chris Simon, the human penalty magnet, picked up a two-day suspension for kneeing Sergei Zubov.
I didn't see the hit, and obviously Simon says it was clean, but Simon is just perceived as a mean player. It really works against him with the refs. Interestingly, Calgary is setting Simon up in front of the net on their powerplay. They want his hulking frame as a screen/deflector. But the thing is, when you put Simon in traffic like that, he's going to get into altercations. Altercations that could make him miss more games down the stretch.

I love that the season is ticking down and that eighth seed in the West is still totally up for grabs.
Right now, it's owned by Edmonton and Nashville. But the Kings and Blues are within two and one respectively. And the Predators, Blues and Kings each have a game in hand on Edmonton. I don't even know who to pick. Although I must admit to rooting for Edmonton a little bit since this would be the first playoff in who knows how long where they didn't have to face (and be eliminated by) Dallas.

I'm man enough to admit I picked the Coyotes as my sleeper team.
And they are kind of sleeping. They just wrapped up a 15 game winless streak.
Geez. Like it's not hard enough getting people in Arizona to watch hockey.
Like a lot of people, I really thought Mike Comrie would push Phoenix to the next level. Looking back, it wasn't a very realistic expectation. He missed too much of the season holding out in Edmonton to be any kind of force this season. Although he did score last night's game winner, which was probably appreciated.
The Arizona Republic has a nice look at Comrie's crazy season.