NHL

Following the success of the NHL's outdoor game the past two years, the AHL has decided that it will get in on the act this winter.

Today, the league announced that it will be holding its own version of the Winter Classic on February 20th. The Mirabito Outdoor Classic will pit the Syracuse Crunch against the Binghamton Senators on the New York State Fairgrounds in Syracuse, New York.

After nearly making it into the Western Conference finals last year, then re-signing Scott Niedermayer and obtaining Saku Koivu, the Ducks appeared poised for a sure-fire playoff spot.

Instead, Anaheim is struggling to find its footing, with a division-low 19 points, making the Ducks the West's counterpart to inexplicably slow-starting Carolina. The talent level is unquestioned, but the postseason is going to be a dream unless the Ducks get it going fast.

Anaheim does have one good roll going. Corey Perry is riding a 15-game scoring streak.

We're trying something different to replace the old Newsmakers in the NHL posts. Hopefully you'll like it. Each weekday we'll take a look at one positive performance from the previous night (a plus), and one negative performance from the previous night (a minus). It's the plus/minus.Tell us what you think at nhlfanhouse@gmail.com.

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While the NHL still tries to figure out a way to handle hits to the head, they are also trying to curb other dangerous hits plaguing the game.

Saturday night, we saw this kind of hit in Montreal. Georges Laraque took out the knee of Detroit defenseman Niklas Kronwall. Despite pleading innocence and claiming it was an accident, Laraque was suspended five games on Monday.

The idea of 65 minutes of hockey (including overtime) being decided by what is essentially a skills competition is one of the most polarizing rule changes hockey has seen over the the past decade.

Love it or hate it, the shootout is a part of the NHL and it's not likely to be going away anytime soon. So, is it worth it for a team to carry a "shootout specialist," even if he has potentially no other value as an NHL player?

We're trying something different to replace the old Newsmakers in the NHL posts. Hopefully you'll like it. Each weekday we'll take a look at one positive performance from the previous night (a plus), and one negative performance from the previous night (a minus). It's the plus/minus.Tell us what you think at nhlfanhouse@gmail.com.

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Each and every Saturday this season I'll be taking a look at the random happenings and absurdities that occur in the world of hockey. Feel free to suggest stories, complain or otherwise babble at me via electronic mail.

Seriously. What's with you hockey fans, teams and players? Why don't you know what refs are thinking about doing? Why don't you know what they intend to do? More importantly, you should know why the ref is intending to do what he hasn't done yet but will since he intends to do what he's about to do.

Confused? So am I, and so is the majority of the hockey world.

Every Friday, FanHouse sifts through the rubble and picks the best NHL fight, with the help of HockeyFights.com.

Sometimes, we scour the internet looking for the best fight, only to be left underwhelmed. There are other weeks where this job couldn't possibly be any easier. The good fights jump at you, and the players involved are the guys you would expect to see in the big fights. This week's winning fight has some blood in it, so use caution as you proceed.

Losing Alex Ovechkin for two weeks didn't stop the Washington Capitals from winning games, and he picked up right where he left off in his return, scoring his 15th goal of the season in a 4-2 win against the New York Rangers on Tuesday night. With that, the Caps take over the top spot in this week's NHL Power Rankings, while another team reclaims its familiar spot at the bottom of the pile.

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The NHL has always been at the forefront of the major American sports leagues when it comes to the internet. The league streams most of its games online through its GameCenter Live application and has openly embraced bloggers and websites like Twitter, Facebook and YouTube. Given all of that, maybe it's no coincidence that an internet savvy sports fan has chosen these same websites with which to embark on an NHL social media experiment.