Stanley Cup Playoffs

I have created a bracket for the Stanley Cup Playoffs for everyone to download. As you fill it out, remember that the teams are reseeded in the second round. So if 1, 2, 6 and 4 advance, 1 plays 6 and 2 plays 4. Comment below if you would like me to create some desktop backgrounds for the playoffs as well.

Iginla to Pittsburgh

As most of you know, the Pittsburgh Penguins have acquired Jarome Iginla from the Calgary Flames for the rights to F Kenneth Agostini, F Ben Hanowski, and Pittsbrugh's 2013 1st Round Draft Pick. Agostini is currently playing at Yale and Hanowski is playing at St. Cloud State.

TSN reported Wednesday night that Iginla was headed to Boston in a similar deal. In fact, Calgary GM Jay Feaster and Boston GM Peter Chiarelli agreed to a deal in principle earlier in the day. This changed around 12:30 AM ET, The Flames announced that instead of trading their captain to the Bruins, he would head to the Penguins. It has now been confirmed that Iginla preferred Pittsburgh over Boston stating that he couldn't pass up the chance to play with the best two players in the world.

It is not known right now when Iginla will arrive in the Steel City because of immigration. When he does arrive though, it will be interesting to watch where Penguins' head coach Dan Bylsma fits Iginla into the lineup. Iginla played on Crosby's line at the 2010 Olympics, but the Kunitz-Crosby-Dupuis line is the hottest in hockey, so expect to see Iginla somewhere else in the lineup.

Pittsburgh Trades

Ray Shero, General Manager of the Pittsburgh Penguins, has been dealing assets left and right lately.The first trade came Sunday night when The Penguins sent defenseman Joe Morrow and 2013 5th Round Draft Pick to Dallas for left wing Brenden Morrow (no relation) and 2013 3rd Round Draft Pick.

This morning, the Penguins made another move with the San Jose Sharks. Pittsburgh was able to make a deal for defenseman Douglas Murray in exchange for 2013 2nd Round Draft pick and a conditional 2014 2nd Round Pick.

TRADE: Minnesota and Ottawa

The Minnesota Wild and Ottawa Senators have agreed to a trade that sends forward Matt Kassian from Minnesota to Ottawa. The Wild have received Ottawa's sixth-round draft pick in the 2014 NHL Entry Draft in return. Kassian has a goal and twelve penalty minutes in nine games for the Houston Aeros (AHL).

-NHL.com

TRADE: Columbus - Philadelphia

Seems like Columbus and Philadelphia have a good relationship going. There have been numerous trades between the two teams in recent history, and this just adds to that list.

Philadelphia has traded minor-leaguer Matthew Ford to the Blue Jackets for future considerations. Matthew Ford was an eigth-round pick for the Chicago Blackhawks in 2004. The right wing has four goals and nine assists in 35 games for the Adirondack Phantoms. Ford will report to Springfield (AHL).

-NHL.com

Realignment Update

I tried to post some of this last night, but it wasn't working for some reason. The NHLPA gas agreed to the realignment plan set forth by NHL officials on Thursday. The NHL Board of Governors will now vote on the issue at hand. Expect to hear the result of that vote sometime next week. According to Aaron Portzline, the vote will be done via fax. He also stated that this is a good sign that the realignment will be agreed upon.

NHL Standings After 20

All of the teams in the NHL have finally completed 20 games, with Boston being the last. this is a major milestone in the season because of what it can forecast. The 1994-95 season started with a lockout that resulted in a 48 game schedule. The same happen this year. The part that is most interesting though is that out of the 16 teams that were in playoff position, 15 of them actually made it. We can expect to see something similar this season. I do not foresee 15 of the 16 teams making it because there are four more teams this year than there were then (Columbus, Minnesota, Nashville, Winnipeg).

	Eastern	DIV	GP	W	L	OT	P	ROW	GF	GA	Diff	Home	Away	S/O	L10	Streak
1	Boston	NE	20	14	3	3	31	12	60	46	14	6-2-1	8-1-2	2-1	6-2-2	OT 1
2	Pittsburgh	ATL	20	13	7	0	26	12	69	54	15	5-4-0	8-3-0	1-0	6-4-0	Lost 1
3	Carolina	SE	20	11	8	1	23	11	60	57	3	5-4-0	6-4-1	-	6-4-0	Won 2
4	Montréal	NE	20	13	4	3	29	12	58	43	15	8-3-1	5-1-2	1-2	7-1-2	Won 1
5	Ottawa	NE	20	12	6	2	26	9	48	37	11	9-1-2	3-5-0	3-1	6-3-1	Won 5
6	Toronto	NE	20	12	8	0	24	12	57	46	11	4-4-0	8-4-0	-	7-3-0	Won 1
7	New Jersey	ATL	20	10	6	4	24	10	49	52	-3	6-2-2	4-4-2	0-2	4-5-1	Lost 3
8	NY Rangers	ATL	20	10	8	2	22	8	51	51	E	8-4-1	2-4-1	2-2	5-3-2	Won 2
9	Winnipeg	SE	20	10	9	1	21	10	55	61	-6	4-5-0	6-4-1	0-1	6-4-0	Won 3
10	Tampa Bay	SE	20	9	10	1	19	9	71	64	7	6-4-1	3-6-0	0-1	3-6-1	Lost 3
11	Philadelphia	ATL	20	9	10	1	19	9	58	61	-3	5-2-1	4-8-0	0-1	5-4-1	Won 1
12	Washington	SE	20	8	11	1	17	8	55	59	-4	5-5-0	3-6-1	-	6-4-0	Won 1
13	NY Islanders	ATL	20	8	11	1	17	7	57	68	-11	2-8-0	6-3-1	1-0	4-6-0	Lost 2
14	Florida	SE	20	6	9	5	17	5	51	73	-22	3-4-4	3-5-1	1-1	2-4-4	OT 1
15	Buffalo	NE	20	7	12	1	15	6	50	64	-14	3-6-1	4-6-0	1-0	4-6-0	Won 1

* Designates division leaders

	Western	DIV	GP	W	L	OT	P	ROW	GF	GA	Diff	Home	Away	S/O	L10	Streak
1	* - Chicago	CEN	20	17	0	3	37	15	64	37	27	8-0-1	9-0-2	2-3	9-0-1	Won 7
2	* - Anaheim	PAC	20	15	3	2	32	11	71	53	18	8-1-0	7-2-2	4-2	8-1-1	OT 1
3	* - Vancouver	NW	20	11	5	4	26	9	59	50	9	6-3-2	5-2-2	2-4	5-3-2	Won 1
4	Los Angeles	PAC	20	11	7	2	24	10	54	47	7	6-1-1	5-6-1	1-1	8-2-0	Won 1
5	St. Louis	CEN	20	11	7	2	24	9	59	56	3	5-5-1	6-2-1	2-1	5-3-2	Won 1
6	San Jose	PAC	20	10	6	4	24	7	47	41	6	7-1-3	3-5-1	3-3	3-4-3	Won 1
7	Nashville	CEN	20	9	6	5	23	7	44	47	-3	5-2-3	4-4-2	2-4	4-4-2	Won 1
8	Dallas	PAC	20	10	8	2	22	9	56	57	-1	4-3-1	6-5-1	1-0	6-3-1	Won 1
9	Minnesota	NW	20	10	8	2	22	8	45	48	-3	7-2-1	3-6-1	2-1	6-3-1	Lost 1
10	Detroit	CEN	20	9	8	3	21	8	59	56	3	7-4-1	2-4-2	1-0	4-4-2	Lost 1
11	Phoenix	PAC	20	9	8	3	21	8	57	55	2	6-4-1	3-4-2	1-2	5-4-1	Lost 1
12	Calgary	NW	20	8	8	4	20	8	57	65	-8	5-5-2	3-3-2	0-3	5-4-1	Won 1
13	Colorado	NW	20	8	8	4	20	7	50	59	-9	6-2-1	2-6-3	1-1	4-2-4	OT 1
14	Edmonton	NW	20	8	8	4	20	6	49	53	-4	4-4-2	4-4-2	2-1	4-5-1	Lost 1
15	Columbus	CEN	20	5	12	3	13	4	44	61	-17	3-4-3	2-8-0	1-1	2-6-2	OT 1

* Designates division leaders

As I suspected, a little over 20 points is the cut off point for playoffs spots right now. In fact, both eighth place teams have 22 points. I expect to see the cut off for actual playoff teams to be in the 50-55 range.

Standings from NHL.com. Table converted from Excel to HTML with the help of TABLEIZER.