Surprise: I guess you can have only so many exciting 7th games. As to the question of goalie styles:

Butterfly: Tony Esposito

Stand Up: Ken Dryden

Hybrid: Anyone and everyone (Doug Favell?)

Slinky: Hasek

OK, so I was wrong. I predicted that Hasek would be the difference-maker in last night's Game 7 of the Western Conference finals, but that distinction surely belongs to St. Patrick. The Aves' hopes for a second straight Stanley Cup engraving via Royhoo! were dashed by the rare appearance of Roywho?

Totally shocking. The greatest goalie of his time, and maybe of all time, was off form from the start. Even though Roy had no offensive support, you've gotta wonder whether that horrible show-off blunder in Game 6 didn't have some overlapping effect on his performance last night.

As hot as Hasek and the Wings look coming into the finals, it's hard to be optimistic about the Canes' chances. However, I said the same thing about the Diamondbacks last November and the Patriots last February (unusual months for both championships).

In keeping with the upset trend I'm picking the Canes to win the Cup, which is fair warning to everyone that the best money is indeed on the Wings since my consistent failure to correctly predict winners is nearly a proven rule.

So, if I'm wrong, I'll be right about being wrong, and if I'm right... well, I told you so.

Analysis shows the bargains and the busts this NHL season: The Ottawa Citizen reports on a Bloomberg News analysis:

The Ottawa Senators know a good bargain when they see it, and none was better at the forward position than centre Todd White...

White, Phoenix Coyotes defenceman Radoslav Suchy and Dallas Stars goaltender Marty Turco were the best buys at their respective positions in the National Hockey League during the 2001-02 regular season, the analysis found.

Those players graded the best when comparing salaries with performance -- points for forwards, plus-minus ratings for defencemen and save percentage for goalies.

As a team, the Ottawa Senators ranked second to the Vancouver Canucks in terms of wins per $1 million spent on salaries. The Senators had a payroll of about $27 million U.S. and won 39 games, translating to 1.44 wins per million spent.

The Canucks won 42 games, translating to 1.47 wins per million spent.

The worst-spending team was the Florida Panthers, who had a $37.7 million payroll and 22 wins, or 0.58 of a win per million spent.

... All the news wasn't good for the Senators. Right-winger Bill Muckalt, who scored a grand total of zero goals and eight assists in 70 games, but made $1.1 million, was rated in the bottom five among forwards.

The biggest regular-season busts were Dallas Stars goalie Ed Belfour and Detroit Red Wings forward Darren McCarty, according to the analysis.

Other Bargains

The New York Islanders' Shawn Bates was second in the survey among forwards. He had 52 points and made a 265th-ranked $500,000 for a difference of plus-191. Other low-priced successes among forwards included Anaheim's Matt Cullen, Edmonton's Michael York and Vancouver's Brendan Morrison.

Suchy's $425,000 salary ranked No. 147 among 153 NHL defencemen, while he was fifth with a plus-25 rating -- meaning the Coyotes scored 25 more goals than their opponents when he was on the ice.

Among defencemen, the Senators' Zdeno Chara was also one of the league's bargains. Chara, who scored 10 goals and 13 assists in 75 games and was a plus-30, earned $1.1 million.

Vancouver's Brent Sopel, St. Louis's Alexander Khavanov and Boston's Nick Boynton, a former Ottawa 67's star, were other top bargains.

The survey included 43 goalies who appeared in at least 25 games. Turco, who had a third-ranked .921 save percentage and made a 34th-ranked $600,000, was the top bargain. Senators backup Jani Hurme, who made $700,000, had a record of 12-9-1 and a save percentage of .907 to rank ninth. San Jose's Evgeni Nabokov, Anaheim's Jean-Sebastien Giguere, Philadelphia's Roman Cechmanek and Buffalo's Martin Biron were also on the list.

... Expensive Production

Some of the league's most productive players didn't grade well because they make so much money.

For instance, Colorado goalie Patrick Roy ranked second with a .925 save percentage, but was also first among goaltenders with a $8.5 million salary. Detroit defenceman Chris Chelios was fifth with a $5.5 salary and first with a plus-40 rating. New York Islanders centre Alexei Yashin was 12th with a $6.5-million salary and 32 goals and 43 assists.

Detroit's McCarty, who signed a three-year, $5.4-million contract last summer, and Washington's Dmitri Khristich were forwards who were among the worst buys. McCarty made $1.95 million and had 12 points to finish with a minus-194 grade. Khristich made $3.2 million and had 21 points to finish minus-188. The lowest-ranking defencemen were Florida's Robert Svehla, who made $2.75 million with a minus-19 rating, and Chicago's Lyle Odelein, who made $2.4 million with a minus-28.

History Channel does the Hockey Hall of Fame next week: Tune in on Tuesday, June 4 at 8pm ET/PT (7pm CT) for "Stories From The Hall Of Fame: Hockey."

The Philadelphia Flyers' Jeremy Roenick hosts this special presentation which journeys inside the Hockey Hall of Fame in Toronto, Canada to uncover some of the most dynamic and exciting figures in sports history.

Hey Howard! Here in Washington, don't we refer to it as the John Druce myth? Some Rangers fans might think so.

Fundamentals, Fundamentals, Fundamentals: Yessir Mr. Haws, you're absolutely right, it was certainly satisfying to see "His Supreme Arrogance", Patrick Roy, undone by such a foolish mistake. But as I've noted, it isn't the first time "Saint Patrick" has let his showboating ways get the best of him. Take a look at this video (Real Player or Quicktime), for a reminder of a Roy mistake that nearly cost the Avs game 2.

Essentially, what this mistake came down to was another unwritten rule of the rink that our youth coaches drilled into our heads -- always play until the whistle. Roy, who revels in dramatically displaying the puck for the refs, forgot this basic rule. Meanwhile, Brendan Shanahan, who was in the midst of a Sahara-like scoring drought, proved that all the best players make their own luck by combining hard work, discipline and talent in order to win.

Please, don't get me wrong, I'm not suggesting that Roy, who is clearly the greatest goaltender of his generation isn't a great player. What I am suggesting is, however, is that when teams are so evenly matched as in this case, the party that ignores fundamentals and expects to coast on talent usually winds up on the losing end of things.

Do you Royhoo!? The Anche are hoping to tomorrow night, but my two cents are on the Dominator to be the difference-maker.

I also got a big kick out of watching Roy show off his empty glove while Shanahan scored what turned out to be the game winning goal.

Could Coffey return to the NHL? Yes, but only as a consultant. Wayne Gretzky has been talking about appointing Paul as the Phoenix Coyotes powerplay consultant.

Unknown scorer myth: Call it the Dave Lowry myth: the myth that every post-season, an unknown plugger arises from nowhere to score a bushel.

Whoo-hoo! Seven games, I love it! More time for whomever wins to get tired and injured before they face the mighty Carolina whatevers.

Hasek comes through: What a great game. I love it when a well matched series goes to 7 games. I didn't like that cheap shot by Duchesne, though.

Leafs blown away: It was a sad night, but it had to happen sooner or later. Carolina's OT elimination of Toronto (after the stirring game-tying goal from Captain Mats with twenty seconds left in regulation) means I now get to root for them in the Finals. Not that I care about Carolina, but they're underdogs and they're menshes.

Congress Threatens To Leave D.C. Unless New Capitol Is Built: The Onion reports, "Calling the current U.S. Capitol "inadequate and obsolete," Congress will relocate to Charlotte or Memphis if its demands for a new, state-of-the-art facility are not met, leaders announced Monday."

United, not: To Martin's question, no I am not the United representative everyone is seeing on TV. I'm just an analyst and a writer. I do get on TV sometimes, but just to be interviewed, and I don't seem to get paid for it.

If I were a corporate executive rather than an analyst and a writer, I'd be sponsoring a Puck Hog radio show, or something like that, not running this blog for free... Hey, I'm not that cheap!

From Time To Time, When Time Magazine. . . Chooses it's Man of the Year, it isn't uncommon for the magazine to catch some flak for choosing an unsavory character. When that happens, the editors usually trot out the explanation that Time is simply naming someone whose actions were newsworth and influential, and not passing any sort of judgement on that person.

As I was watching the NHL2Night on Friday, echoes of that argument started to bounce inside my head as I watched a highlight package John Buccigross introduced as "Plays Of The Playoffs." All of the usual suspects were there -- overtime goals, big hits, and tape to tape passing ending in a bang-bang play. You name it, it was there.

But also inserted into the package were three hits whose inclusion made me uncomfortable. I'm talking about the three cheapest shots in the playoffs -- Kyle McLaren on Richard Zednik, Gary Roberts on Kenny Jonsson, and Darcy Tucker on Michael Peca. Now, if the highlight package were something serious, perhaps including some narration from Buccigross about how these hits affected their respective series (and it's hard to deny that each didn't have a massive effect on the playoffs), I wouldn't have had a problem with seeing these highlights one more time.

Unfortunately, when the hits are replayed backed with a death metal soundtrack, it's clear the highlight reel is being put together for pure entertainment purposes only. Something tells me that the package could have been put together without including gratuitous cheap shots where players get seriously injured. Let's hope they leave them out next time.

Colorado taunting: Stephen Green is talking trash again. I don't see any Wings fans keeping him honest. After the Avs snowed all over my Kings, I can't really talk, but I won't let that stop me. The Wings can beat the Avs at home or on the road, but to do that they have to show up and play. They remind me of the Lakers sometimes.

Both teams have goalies that can steal a series by themselves. Keep watching, hockey fans. (Like you have something else to do?) Not to be outdone by Charles Tupper, I'll leave you my diagram of how Patrick Roy cuts off the angle. Note, this is an overhead view of the net (requires Flash):

________________
{----------------------------R
{----------------------------O
{----------------------------Y
{----------------------------R
{----------------------------O
{----------------------------Y
{________________P


Next time we'll examine Hasek's technique in detail.

California Blading: Alas, the patio is carpeted Charles. But this spot is a 10 minute walk or 5 minute blade away. From there you can blade past this spot. The view is breathtaking. And the ocean is nice to look at as well....

Out Of All The Player Analysts On ESPN. . . The soon to retire Ray Ferraro has to be one of the best. But if you caught the opening to NHL2Night on ESPN2 last night, it's hard not to draw the conclusion that Ray was being held hostage in Bristol, Conn. by his new paymasters at ESPN. For God's sake Ray, loosen up!