NHL vancouver Canucks

Just mere minutes after the NHL free agency period started Wednesday, the Tampa Bay Lightning jumped in the pool.

Looking for a veteran defenseman to help tutor rookie Victor Hedman, the second overall pick in the NHL Draft last weekend, the Lightning apparently found their target quite quickly. They had to head all the way to Vancouver to do it, but they have signed Mattias Ohlund away from the Canucks, according to multiple reports.

Not even an hour before the start of NHL free agency, the first hammer fell.

TSN's Darren Dreger reported that twin brothers Daniel and Henrik Sedin have agreed to matching five-year contracts, and they will be staying with the Vancouver Canucks.

July 1 is a significant day in the National Hockey League. It's the day that unrestricted free agents are finally able to negotiate with any team they want. Even with a fading economy, it's a safe bet that money will be spent, and it will probably be spent freely by at least some teams. With this big day in mind, FanHouse offers up a position-by-position look at the top free agents, as well as some guys you may want your team to avoid.

Whether your team is looking to score goals, stop the other team from scoring goals, or find someone to set up its own top goal-scorers, there's a good chance that the right free agent can be found in this year's crop.

It's officially the offseason, meaning the time is right to look into the future. We continue our division-by-division preview of the potential wheeling and dealing with the Northwest Division.

It appears we are setting up for an offseason of significant change in the Northwest Division. Only the Vancouver Canucks will have the same coach as last year, and there could be some real upheaval in terms of personnel. Not only that, but two teams (Minnesota and Colorado) have changed general managers.

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There were eight first-round series in the NHL playoffs. Three of them ended in sweeps, and six of them were over before they got to a seventh game. While no one complained about getting a couple of super Game 7s in the first round, it was hardly as competitive as some thought it would be.

As we approach Game 7 between Pittsburgh and Washington (Game 7s between Carolina-Boston and Anaheim-Detroit will be played Thursday night), let's take a moment to talk about how great this second round of action has been.

After watching Vancouver play stout defense in front of All-Star goalie Roberto Luongo during a sweep of St. Louis in the first round, more was expected. The Canucks looked like a team committed to playing strong in their zone, and they knew if they could keep lanes clear for Luongo and make the extra effort to get to rebounds, they could go far.

It all blew up on them in the second round. A younger, faster, exceptionally determined Chicago team took out the Canucks in six games, and they scored 21 goals to do it. It's got some in Vancouver wondering about Luongo's future, which is the last thing that should be up in the air now.

With most eyes on the splendid series going on in Pittsburgh, the Canucks and Blackhawks waged a stirring Game 6 of their own, each team answering back repeatedly until Chicago's young stars put the game away - and put the Blackhawks into the conference finals for the first time since 1995.

After essentially a decade of futility, once-great Chicago is poised for a another lengthy run of success with players such as 20-year-old Patrick Kane, who had a hat trick in Monday night's 7-5 victory over Vancouver, and 21-year-old captain Jonathan Toews. Toews ended a nine-game goal-less streak by putting two in - including the go-ahead score, an attempted pass that deflected in on a power play with 6:11 left.

Winning on the road is so very important in the Stanley Cup Playoffs. The Chicago Blackhawks seemed to be a good candidate for road success, being that they set a franchise record for it in the regular season.

That performance has indeed carried over. Chicago improved to 3-3 in road games during this postseason, and 2-1 in this series, as they bested Vancouver 4-2 Saturday night at GM Place.

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It's a thin line between being clutch and being a goat. The Blackhawks are learning how to handle that delicate balance.

Another dreadfully slow start had Chicago staring at a 3-1 series deficit to the Canucks, until they decided to stop playing with fire and start turning that heat on Vancouver. As a result, the NHL saw another late goal change the landscape of a game this postseason, with the Blackhawks getting the better of this one and leveling the series at two games apiece.

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Most teams suffer their first loss of the NHL Playoffs before they've won a series. In the case of the Vancouver Canucks, they won five straight before Chicago took them down 6-3 on Saturday.

Game 3 of this physical series was played Tuesday night in Chicago. Not only was Vancouver coming off a loss, but they were dealing with injuries to a stalwart defenseman and one of their top six forwards. With this as a backdrop, the Canucks responded with a 3-1 win at United Center.

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