Hype for March 28, 2010

With his team poised to make a return to the post-season, Daniel Alfredsson likes how the Ottawa Senators are rounding into form.

The Senators captain scored 20th goal of the season early in the third as the Senators won their fourth straight, 3-2 over the Florida Panthers 3-2 on Saturday night.

Jonas Gustavsson is starting to show why the Toronto Maple Leafs fought so hard to sign him last summer.

The rookie goaltender outduelled Swedish counterpart Henrik Lundqvist on Saturday, turning aside 36 shots as Toronto beat the New York Rangers 3-2 in overtime.

For Donald Fehr, it was a subtle shift but a potentially significant one.

Last November, Fehr said he had no interest in taking a leadership role in the troubled N.H.L. Players’ Association. But speaking to reporters in Toronto on Thursday, Fehr left open that very possibility.

“If I ever got to the place where I said, ‘This is a job I want,’ and so on, then obviously that would have to be communicated,” he said, stressing that any decision would have to be made by the players.

Over the last 13 years, two things have been a constant in New Jersey - the Devils playing in the post-season, and Martin Brodeur tending goal.

Brodeur continued his mastery of his boyhood team with 25 saves as the New Jersey Devils clinched their 13th straight playoff berth with a 4-2 win Saturday over the Montreal Canadiens.

The Detroit Red Wings and Nashville Predators both solidified their playoff chances while dealing another crippling blow to the fading Calgary Flames.

Niklas Kronwall, in his first career shootout try, scored the winning goal in the 11th round to give the Red Wings a 1-0 victory over the Predators on Saturday night. Jimmy Howard stopped 10 of Nashville's 11 shootout attempts to make Kronwall's goal stand up as the winner.

The Phoenix Coyotes' storybook season has landed them in the playoffs for the first time since 2002, and the best could be yet to come.

The Coyotes, still owned by the NHL after going through protracted bankruptcy proceedings last summer, clinched the post-season spot earlier in the day when Calgary lost to Boston, then celebrated with a 6-2 victory over the Colorado Avalanche on Saturday night.

Playing simple hockey has translated into three straight wins for the San Jose Sharks.

Behind a goal and two assists from Patrick Marleau, the Sharks maintained a two-point division lead over Phoenix and a three-point edge over Chicago in the race for the top seed in the Western playoffs. Marleau's 42nd goal gave the Sharks the lead midway through the second period. They went on to beat the Vancouver Canucks 4-2 on Saturday night.