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As the regular season reaches its conclusion, the Eastern Conference's eight best clubs move on in search of greater glory while the seven also-rans try to figure out what went wrong and how to fix it. Here are a couple of noteworthy postmortems as Stanley Cup fever kicks off:
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CHIRPIN'
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"I'm not sure if I want to be part of a rebuilding process. I've been wrestling with that for a while now."
-- Pittsburgh owner/star Mario Lemieux on whether he'd consider returning for another season
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THE NUMBER
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The number of playoff games the New Jersey Devils have competed in, which is the same number that defenseman Ken Daneyko has played as an original member of the club. It's possible that his streak could end this year.
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WHO'S HOT
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Tampa Bay goalie Nikolai Khabibulin. We picked him last week, but he's worthy of recognition again. He has a career-best 16-game unbeaten streak with a 1.23 goals-against average and .954 save percentage.
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WHO'S NOT
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Boston center Brian Rolston has gone 14 games without a goal.
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THIS WEEK'S SIGN
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This week's sign the earth is off its axis: The genius from Philadelphia -- 38-year-old Christopher Falcone -- who scuffled with Toronto enforcer Tie Domi in the penalty box on March 29, 2001, is suing Domi because of the incident. "To be honest, I thought it was an April Fool's joke," said Domi. Us, too. With everything going on in the world, nuisance suits seem even more despicable.
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The curtain came down on the Carolina Hurricanes' strange season on Wednesday night in a 3-2 loss to the Pittsburgh Penguins. The Penguins, who have their own problems not the least of which is that they've probably seen the last of owner Mario Lemieux as a player, rallied for a pair of goals in the game's final three minutes. That collapse was a microcosm of the Hurricanes' whole season, the architect of whom had to be someone named Murphy (as in Murphy's Law). The team still has two games left on the schedule, but the Pittsburgh contest was notable because it clinched dead last in the league for Carolina.
From the best team in the Eastern Conference to the worst team in the entire NHL all in less than 11 months. What a fall from grace. But, true to form, general manager Jim Rutherford has been able to keep his sense of humor and sense of perspective. In other words, rotten season, great draft position.
"As silly as it sounds, I feel better about being in the position we're in than if we were out of the playoffs and would pick 12th or 14th," said Rutherford. "This has been a bad season and nobody feels any good about it, but this is one time where you say if you're going to be bad, you might as well be real bad."
On Monday, when the NHL holds its draft lottery, the Hurricanes will find out where they will pick. They have the best chance (48.2 percent worth) of earning the No. 1 selection. At worst, they'd pick No. 2 in what is slated to be a very deep draft.
As much as their misfortune weighed on the players and GM, perhaps no one suffered as much as coach Paul Maurice. At least this year he didn't have to deal with all the rumors he was going to be sacked, but dead last is tough to swallow.
"It's not like we thought we were in 17th place and found out we were in 30th," said Maurice, when asked about their dubious distinction. "We've been battling on the bottom for a long time. We're not real excited about it. It won't go on our brochures."
Some seasons are better left forgotten. For Carolina, this was one of them.
Shuffling out of Buffalo?
The Buffalo Sabres made more noise because of their financial woes and ownership situation than for anything they did on the ice. But one on-ice issue facing the Sabres this summer will be what to do with coach Lindy Ruff, the winningest coach in franchise history whose contract expires at the end of the season. Will new ownership want their own bench boss? Does Ruff even want to come back? How much retooling must they do to get back to being in contention?
Ruff didn't have the easiest start there. He replaced popular coach Ted Nolan, the Jack Adams winner who has yet to land another NHL gig. But he's been there now for six seasons.
"Everyone knows the situation the team is in and where he's at," said defenseman Rhett Warrener. "Nobody knows what the future holds. So you want to do good for him. He's done a lot for this team and this city and this organization."
Depth chart
When the Sabres rallied from a three-goal deficit to beat Atlanta, 4-3, it marked the first time they'd come back from that far behind since Oct. 17, 1998 when they did it against Montreal. Scoring three in the final period to win it marked the first time they'd done that since Jan. 23, 1992 against Pittsburgh.
Ed Belfour became the seventh NHL goaltender to win 400 regular-season games on Tuesday when the Maple Leafs beat the Devils, 3-2, in overtime. He also passed Curtis Joseph for most wins in a single season by a Leafs goaltender with his 37th after a 2-1 win over Minnesota on Thursday. Belfour's excellence has provided a big payoff for the club signing him as a free agent last summer to replace Joseph and has long put an end to the brutal booing he endured early in the year. "Being a goalie, you get booed a lot," said Belfour. "You get used to it. It's something where for myself, it's always motivating. When I do get booed, I want to play my best. That way, I get to hear all the cheers."
Ottawa enforcer Rob Ray played just one shift, lasting 39 seconds, in Tuesday's outrageous penalty-filled 3-2 win over the Bruins. Part of the reason Ray was little used was because the Bruins were undisciplined to the point that the Senators had 13 power plays, which translated to the equivalent of over a period of man-advantage time, not exactly Ray's forte.
If Lemieux opts to retire for the final time, as many believe he will, he'll have ended his career on his longest goal-scoring drought ever -- 9 games. The previous of eight games was back in 1996-97, his final season before his initial retirement. This year, the Penguins are assured of earning the fewest points in a season since 1984-85, Lemieux's rookie season.
The Islanders are limping toward the finish line and for too long have given arch rival the Rangers life. Heading into the final two games, the club was just 4-9-3-0 in their last 16 games since March 3 and were 14-23-9-1 against teams in contention for and who had already clinched playoff spots.
One player who is starting to get more attention is Flyers' defenseman Kim Johnsson. He's been no small reason for the Flyers' success this year and it's appreciated by his teammates. "The kid never ceases to amaze me," said veteran forward Jeremy Roenick. "He doesn't get as much credit as he deserves. He's consistent every single night. If he has a bad night, he never has two in a row."
Florida has a very young roster but that doesn't mean the Panthers aren't frustrated over their inability to master the best of their division. They went into the weekend just 0-5-3-2 against Tampa and Washington. "All the games we play in the division, we haven't been able to score enough goals," said Panthers' forward Olli Jokinen. "Games with Atlanta, it's been more open-ice games. If you look at the goals we've scored all year, we're pretty much at the bottom of the league. Even Atlanta, somehow they've been able to score. Tampa Bay has been able to score."
Speaking of Tampa, as terrific a year as the franchise has had, so far it hasn't translated to postseason ticket sales. Through 8 p.m. on Wednesday, only 12,600 tickets had been sold for Game 1 and 11,900 for Game 2 -- although they did sell roughly 2,000 more tickets after clinching the Southeast Division title Thursday night. Arena capacity is 19,758. Interestingly, though, the club's attendance in the regular season is up by quite a bit -- from 644,610 to 658,801 with one home game left -- but the slow playoff sales are troubling. "That's the thing that scares the living daylights out of me," said general manager Jay Feaster, who deserves executive of the year honors. "I don't know how to go to [owner] Bill Davidson if it doesn't [sell out] and explain why."
Nancy Marrapese-Burrell of the Boston Globe is a regular contributor to ESPN.com.
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