Every Thursday, Earl Sleek will conspire with his pen and scanner to bring you another installment of PuckToons. Hopefully you will find these amusing, relevant, well-drawn, or you're a person who is tolerant towards mediocrity.

There certainly has been a lot of strange salary cap-related moves in the last few days around the league, particularly in the Pacific Division. Players have been waived, demoted, and even promoted in order to maximize spending under this year's $56.7 million cap ceiling.

In San Jose, defenseman Kyle McLaren was sent through waivers in an attempt to have his $2.5 million claimed by another team, but since nobody grabbed him, McLaren was demoted to the AHL Worcester affiliate. It's not an ideal solution for the team or the player, but it does at least allow the Sharks to begin the season below the salary ceiling. In Dallas, promising youngsters James Neal and Mark Fistric were demoted to the Central Hockey League's Oklahoma City Blazers, but then were recalled the following day to take advantage of Sergei Zubov's long-term injury. Anaheim went through most of its salary-shedding a few weeks ago, with the waiving then trading of defenseman Mathieu Schneider, the demotion of Bobby Ryan, and the trading of defenseman Sean O'Donnell. On top of that, the Ducks promoted goaltender David LeNeveu just for a day to take full advantage of the long-term injury exception.

On the other end of the salary spectrum, the Los Angeles Kings' GM Dean Lombardi and forward Patrick O'Sullivan finally finished their contract negotiations, and Lombardi's stubbornness appears to have paid off, as O'Sullivan signed a very affordable 3-year deal. With the signing, Los Angeles should be comfortably above the salary cap floor, though it still looks to be a tough year for the low-spending Kings. With all the promotions, demotions, trades, and signings of the last few days, one thing is clear: the salary cap is changing the way hockey teams operate in dramatic ways, and it's becoming tough for even hardcore fans to understand what their teams are up to. Regardless of silly salary cap math, though, the North American NHL season begins tonight! Hooray!

Welcome to the NHL FanHouse 2008-09 season preview. While other sites are previewing "30 teams in 30 days," we decided to take advantage of the extra time off before the start of the season to bring you all 30 previews over the next three weeks. We're counting down in reverse order of finish from last season in each conference every weekday from now until October 3. Look for an Eastern Conference preview every morning and a Western Conference preview every afternoon. Click here to read them all.

Who's In: Sean Avery, W (FA-NYR)

Who's Out: Niklas Hagman, W (FA-TOR); Antti Miettinen, W (FA-MIN); Stu Barnes, C (Retirement); Mattias Norstrom (Retirement); Brad Winchester, W (FA-STL)

What's Changed: Playoff success over their divisional rivals. Since beating the 8th-seeded Edmonton Oilers in the first round of the 2003 playoffs, Marty Turco and the Stars hadn't even enjoyed a series lead until this past postseason. Last year, after finishing third to the Sharks and the Ducks in a tough Pacific Division, the Stars eliminated both of their divisional rivals, winning the first two games in Anaheim and the first three games against San Jose. Then, as the cartoon illustrates, Dallas ran headfirst into a Red Wings machine and was eliminated in the conference finals in six games.

Still, it was a triumphant return to playoff success for the Stars, who got excellent performances from Turco, the top line of Mike Ribiero, Brendan Morrow, and Jere Lehtinen, deadline acquisition Brad Richards, a defensive core led by Stephane Robidas and Trevor Daley, and of course Mike Modano. This year, the Stars figure to improve on that disciplined puck-pressure formula that worked well for them in the playoffs. Right, Avery?

Here at FanHouse, we never need an excuse to write about Willa Ford, aka Mrs. Mike Modano. Whether she's opening up to a reporter in a manner that would cause nothing but heartburn for the Dallas Stars or furthering her budding acting career, it's always a good day when Ford shows up in the news.

So what's today's excuse? It turns out that Ford is appearing in a new pictorial in Maximal, better known as the international edition of Maxim. What's the news hook there? Apparently, somebody is trying to talk up Ford's portrayal of Anna Nicole Smith in a biopic of the same name.

But as near as I can tell, though the movie was slated for release last weekend, there isn't any evidence that you can actually see it anywhere in the U.S. I guess that's just par for the course for Ford, as her last movie, Impulse, was another direct-to-DVD special.

Sean Avery's adventures in the world of fashion took another turn yesterday when The Gap announced that the brand new Dallas Stars winger is going to be one of the celebrities featured in the company's Fall marketing campaign.

Also appearing in the ads along with Avery are Liv Tyler, Ginnifer Goodwin, Hugh Dancy, Edgar Ramirez, Catalina Sandino Moreno, Melvil Poupaud, Clemence Poesy, Nate Parker, Joe Anderson, Georgina Chapman, Julia Restoin Roitfeld, Scott Schuman, Leigh Lezark, David Benioff, Max Lugavere & Jason Silva, Cecilia Dean and Ryan McGinley.

Here's Sarah Mahoney from Marketing Daily:

The ads, featuring the first full collection by Patrick Robinson, Gap's head designer, rely on portraits of a quirky list of celebrities ... a group that is considerably less recognizable than celebs Gap has used in the past.

As for Avery, he'll be pictured wearing the "Classic V-Neck," soon to be available at your local Gap outlet for $44.95. Then again, perhaps Liv Tyler wearing the "Boyfriend Cardigan," might be more your speed. For those of you who might actually be interested in what Avery ought to be expected to produce on the ice next season in Dallas, click here.

HT: Andrew's Dallas Stars Page.

For a behind the scenes shot of Avery at the photo shoot, look after the jump.

Is it too hot for hockey? You may be right, but until the cold weather returns, welcome to The Bag Skate, FanHouse's afternoon roundup of everything that's happening on a typical offseason weekday.

Today's primal scream comes from the guys at Melt Your Face Off, who have penned an open letter to NHL Commissioner Gary Bettman in wake of the news that a small knot of his own owners engineered a loan to help a penniless businessman -- William "Boots" DelBaggio -- boost a piece of the Nashville Predators.

Did I forget to mention that they did it behind Bettman's back?

HOW DO YOU LET THAT HAPPEN? You are the commissioner for a top-flight sports league in the most industrialized nation in the world. You are supposedly the most powerful man in your sport. Now, you claim that while owners are lending each other money to keep the franchises in their own little AllTel Circle of Friends, you thought everything was hunky dory?

"Most powerful man in your sport?" Come now, everybody knows that Brian Burke is the most powerful man in the NHL. Just ask him.

That being said, the very moment when Bettman discovered this little bit of chicanery has to be marked as the low point in his tenure at the top of the league. It's one thing for everyone fan in the world to use you as a human punching bag, but it's another thing entirely when the very men who hired you to do the job don't trust you enough to let you know what they're doing.

Every day from Monday to Saturday, The Ice Sheet will take a look at the biggest stories in the league that happened on the ice and elsewhere the night before.

Tom Petty said it best and it's certainly true. With the NHL keeping us collectively holding our breath in anticipation of the Stanley Cup Finals, they can't get here any sooner. The past few days have been a barren wasteland of hockey nothingness, more reminiscent of late-August than late-May. And heck, there have been some stories, but they're nothing when compared to the elephant in the room -- the Finals. Modano is coming back? So what. I want to see Datsyuk/Zetterberg vs. Crosby/Malkin. The NHL is putting out killer commercials? Whatever. I want to see Lord Stanley's silver chalice.

But here we are. It's Friday and we're only a day away. Almost ... Almost ... I feel like I'm getting my freaking teeth pulled here. Thanks a lot, Gary. Nice scheduling.

Oh, hey! Look ... News updates after the jump!

With Jeremy Roenick recently signing on for another season, another American hockey legend, Mike Modano, also decided to stick around for at least one more season.

Despite the fact that Modano has two years left on a five-year deal, it wouldn't have surprised many if the 38-year old heartthrob decided to call it career after 1300 NHL games. It seems that the Stars' semi-successful playoff run helped shape Modano's decision.

"I've thought about it some, but Brett [Hull] wouldn't let me retire," Modano said.

"To be completely honest, I'm sure there will be some tough times," he said. "It's not as easy as it used to be, but the playoffs were so much fun, and I just think there's more that we can accomplish. I just have a really good feeling about that."

Modano spent time as a wing alongside Brad Richards as well as seeing action as a checking line center during the playoffs, so it remains to be seen what his role in 2008-09 will be. Will he be asked to play primarily on the third line, ala Roenick, or will Mikey be expected to carry a heavy offensive load once again?

Despite Modano's advanced age, the guy can skill skate and the guy can still play. Averaging over 19 minutes per game this season, Modano finished with a respectable 57 points and played in every game. Certainly, Modano can provide value for the $2.5mil he'll be paid next season.

Like him or not, Modano is one of the best Americans to ever play the game, and it's good to see one of the NHL's bigger names stay around for another go-around, especially if we get to see more of his hot wife.

Every day from Monday to Saturday, The Ice Sheet will take a look at the biggest stories in the league that happened on the ice and elsewhere the night before.

The Stanley Cup Finals matchup is now set. The Detroit Red Wings will face off against the Pittsburgh Penguins in the first all-American Final since 2003.

Detroit advanced to the fourth round after an emphatic 4-1 win over the Dallas Stars in last night's Western Conference Finals Game 6. The win cut short a Dallas comeback attempt that led to wins in Games 4 and 5 after Detroit pushed the Stars to the brink of elimination through Game 3. The game was covered live by FanHouse's Bruce Ciskie, Eric McErlain and James Mirtle.

The Wings jumped out to an early lead, with their first goal going in off Kris Draper's chin at 3:45 of the first. Pavel Datsyuk added a power play goal just under eight minutes later and Dallas Drake extended the lead at 16:17. Henrik Zetterberg finished off Detroit's scoring for the night with a shorthanded breakaway goal at 3:11 of the second period. Dallas broke Chris Osgood's shutout with a Stephane Robidas tally at 2:27 of the third period.

Are we about to witness history?

It's been 33 years since a team won a series in the NHL Playoffs after dropping the first three games. Dallas not only lost the first three games, but never led in any of them.

Now, the Stars have a chance to force a Game Seven. To do so, they need a home win tonight against the suddenly sinking (maybe?) Red Wings.

We'll be here to cover it live, via Cover It Live. Join us after the jump for our liveblog, beginning at around 7:45pm Eastern.

Bruce MacLeod, the hockey beat writer for the Macomb Daily, reports that the Detroit Red Wings will formally shuffle their second, third, and fourth lines for tonight's Game 6 of the Western Conference Finals. The top line, composed of Henrik Zetterberg, Pavel Datsyuk, and Tomas Holmstrom, will remain unchanged.

The main move is the promotion of Jiri Hudler from the fourth line to the second, where he spent much of Game 5. He'll skate on Valtteri Filppula's wing with Dan Cleary.

With 13 points, the diminutive Czech is Detroit's fourth-leading playoff scorer despite averaging just 10:58 in ice time troughout the postseason. He scored the only Detroit goal in Game 5.

Hudler has long produced consistently at a rate out of proportion to his ice time, but has had trouble gaining a second line spot on a deep Detroit squad. He has a bit of a reputation of having a poor work ethic and is considered to be among the weakest Detroit forwards in his own end. The first charge is largely unfounded, as Hudler generally shows a lot of hustle. There's something to the second charge, but he has made enormous strides since hitting the NHL. Apparently, not enough, as his continued relegation to fourth line purgatory indicates.

As a consolation, head coach Mike Babcock lets him out of the doghouse long enough to quarterback the second power play unit. He has matched Zetterberg's power play production this post-season.