Hi Barry. I am really pleased with the Avs defense and Patrick Roy's play, but should they be concerned that only the first and second lines pose a scoring threat? -- Bill Gosser, Sandusky, Ohio

	Alex Tanguay is one of many playoff-tested scorers in Colorado.

Melrose: Well, that is the case for just about every team in the NHL. Not many have four lines that score on a regular basis. They all hope for the third and fourth lines chip in a little bit, and that has happened for Colorado in the past. But they still have five great forwards -- Peter Forsberg, Milan Hejduk, Alex Tanguay, Joe Sakic and Steve Reinprecht -- and three defenseman who can score in Rob Blake, Derrick Morris and Adam Foote, so the Avs will be solid no matter what happens with the third and fourth lines.

Barry, without Barrett Jackman's performance, the Blues would have been in dire straights this year. Without Henrik Zetterberg's performance, the Red Wings still would have been really good. Doesn't that mean that Jackman, and not Zetterberg, should win the Calder? -- Matt Haggans, State College, Pa.

Melrose: Jackman has been outstanding this year, but it's hard for a defenseman to win the Calder Trophy because the voters want to see numbers. Zetterberg has 20 goals, and Jackman is a tough, defensive defenseman who only hockey guys really appreciate, so it's going to be tough for him to win.

Another guy who deserves some ink, though, is Ales Kotalik from Buffalo. He has just two fewer goals than Zetterberg and averages over 15:00 of ice time per game for a team that is not nearly as good as Detroit.

Will Rick Kehoe keep his job in Pittsburgh? Rumors are flying about Ted Nolan, who seems like a good fit with the youth movement they're in. How does Mario Lemieux affect all this? -- Matt, DuBois, Pa.

Melrose: Mario is going to decide who the coach will be next year, but Rick Kehoe has done a good job this year. Pittsburgh just doesn't have any players. The Penguins are playing with an AHL lineup and traded away all the stars for financial reasons, so just keeping things together and keeping everyone sane is a major task. A coaching chance isn't going to make that team any better unless it gets some talent to go along with a new coach, and Kehoe is the wrong guy to blame for everything that has gone wrong this winter in Pittsburgh.

Why did the Los Angeles Kings give up Mathieu Schneider and not Aaron Miller? Schneider was their top D-man, and if it was a salary dump why did they resign Miller? -- Tony, Alma, Mich.

Melrose: The Kings had to look at the numbers in terms of what it would cost to re-sign each guy, and also in terms of age and what they could get in return for each player. They obviously decided it was going to be an either/or situation and knew they could get more out of the Red Wings for Schneider than for Miller.

Los Angeles knew it couldn't afford both so they went for the biggest return, and getting Maxim Kuznetsov and Sean Avery in exchange -- as well as two first-round draft picks -- was a terrific deal for the Kings.

Barry, with Dan Cloutier coming back and a strong performance against Phoenix on Thursday, does it look like the Canucks are going to be able to hold off Colorado in the Northwest Division? -- Josh, New York

Melrose: Yeah, I think they will hold off the Avs because the Canucks are four points up and I don't see them losing three out of the next five games. Vancouver is just too good overall and played too well against the Coyotes, and even if Colorado wins out I still think the Canucks will win the majority of its remaining games and have home ice in the firs round.

Hey Barry, which do you think is the best forward line in the league as the playoff approach? Is it Hull-Zetterberg-Datsyuk in Detroit, Sakic's line in Colorado or Bertuzzi-Morrison-Nasland in Vancouver? -- Dan, Motown

Melrose: Those are all great combinations, but in looking ahead to the playoffs its hard to overlook Forsberg, Tanguay and Hejduk for the Avs. They have been through tough postseason battles before and have all scored big playoff goals. All three have incredible skills, Forsberg may be the best all-around player in the world, and they play against the opponents best defensemen every night.

The Hull line has been hot lately, but Datsyuk and Zetterberg don't have the playoff experience of that combination in Colorado, and Bertuzzi's line has yet to show it can be a force in the postseason. Remember, they were shut down pretty well by Detroit in the last four games of the first round last year.

Barry Melrose, a former NHL defenseman and coach, is a hockey analyst for ESPN.