In the spirit of the NHL playoff finals, here’s a video of some incredible shootout goals. Enjoy!

The Conn Smythe Trophy is awarded every year to the player judged most valuable to his team during the NHL’s Stanley Cup playoffs. The Conn Smythe Trophy has been awarded 42 times to 36 players since the 1964-65 NHL season. And while there’s always been an underlying myth that amazing goaltending in the playoffs make championship winners and MVP honours, Marc-Andre Fleury and Chris Osgood aren’t the clear favorites for their teams.

Fleury, who struggled early in his career, was in danger of giving up the No. 1 job earlier this season to teammate Ty Conklin. The first overall pick in the 2003 draft elevated his play down the stretch with a 12-2 postseason record, a 1.70 goals-against average, a .938 save percentage and a playoff-leading three shutouts. Osgood, who replaced a struggling Dominik Hasek in Game 5 of the first round against the Nashville Predators, has been equally impressive with a 10-2 record, a 1.60 goals-against average and .931 save percentage.

As both netminders have been this spring, it’s hard to ignore the other candidates that are playing on the rest of the ice . For Pittsburgh, Evgeni Malkin has a very good chance to capture the Hart Trophy and playoff MVP honours in the same season. The forward has also shown the tough side of his game.

Captain Sidney Crosby is also a major contender, sharing the league lead the postseason scoring with 21 points in 14 games. While his goal total (4) is rather low, the 20-year-old has proven his worth as a top playmaker. He leads the league in playoff helpers with 17 assists and is averaging a point and a half a game.

The Red Wings’s Henrik Zetterberg is the other player who shares the league lead in postseason scoring, and another solid pick for MVP. The 2008 Selke Trophy is second in goals (11) and game-winning goals (3), and also leads in plus-minus with a plus-15 rating. The Red Wings’ other Selke finalist is Pavel Datsyuk. He has been Detroit’s on the road charm, with 14 of his 19 playoff points (nine goals, five assists) scored while not on home ice. Johan Franzen’s contributions should also be considered. He was arguably the MVP-favourite through the first two rounds, and still leads the postseason in goals and game-winners despite missing five games.

The other dark horse for the Conn Smythe Trophy is Pittsburgh’s Marian Hossa. The Penguins paid a steep price for his at the trade deadline, and the soon-to-be-free agent has certainly not disappointed. With 11 points in his last six playoff games, he could continue his hot streak into the final and potentially take over the postseason scoring lead.

Still, there are four-to-seven games remaining in the Stanley Cup playoffs and the race for MVP should be wide open right to the last minute.

The Pittsburgh Pens will try to nail a spot in the Stanley Cup finals tonight, when they aim for another sweep, this time of the Philadelphia Flyers in Game 4 of the Eastern Conference finals. The second-seeded Penguins have grabbed a 3-0 edge in the series people are calling the “Battle of Pennsylvania” by clinching a pair of 4-2 victories on home ice in Games 1 and 2 and defeating the Flyers in Philadelphia on Tuesday. Crosby and company will now try to end the series in Philly and reach the Stanley Cup finals for the first time since winning the second of back-to-back championships in 1992.

The Penguins won Tuesday’s Game 3 at the Wachovia Center by a 4-1 count as Marian Hossa scored twice to lift Pittsburgh. The Pens are now 11-1 overall in this postseason and have won 22 of the last 28 games dating back to the regular season.
Ryan Whitney and Ryan Malone have been amazing for the Penguins. Sidney Crosby added a pair of assists to share the NHL playoff scoring lead with 19 points, while Marc-Andre Fleury stopped 17-of-18 shots to record the win.

R.J. Umberger tallied for the Flyers, who are facing an 0-3 series deficit for the first time since falling to the Detroit Red Wings in a four-game Cup finals sweep in 1997.Martin Biron gave up three goals on 24 shots.

The Dallas Stars made it back to the Western Conference finals and it only took the eighth longest game in NHL history to do it. The deciding game lasted 5 hours, 14 minutes — ending the third-longest in Stars history. Brenden Morrow scored a power-play goal 9:03 into the fourth overtime by deflecting a pass from Stephane Robidas as the Stars eliminated the San Jose Sharks 2-1 in a game that ended early Monday morning. It was the longest game in San Jose’s franchise history.
The Stars are going to the conference finals for the first time since 2000, when they returned to the Stanley Cup finals the year after winning the franchise’s only championship. They play Game 1 on Thursday night against the Detroit Red Wings, who finished their second-round sweep of Colorado on Thursday night.

And they aren’t just benchwarmers - these guys are the team stars.

Dallas Stars (10 of 23) – Stu Barnes, Philippe Boucher, Trevor Daly, Mark Fistric, Brendan Morrow, Steve Ott, Mike Ribeiro, Brad Richards, Stephane Robidas, Marty Turco.

Detroit Red Wings (8 of 24) – Daniel Cleary, Dallas Drake, Kris Draper, Mark Hartigan, Darren Helm, Darren McCarty, Chris Osgood, Brad Stuart.

Philadelphia Flyers (14 of 24) – Martin Biron, Daniel Briere, Jeff Carter, Braydon Coburn, Riley Cote, Steve Downie, Scott Hartnell, Randy Jones, Mike Knuble, Joffrey Lupul, Ryan Parent, Mike Richards, Jason Smith, Scottie Upshall.

Pittsburgh Penguins (9 of 21) – Sidney Crosby, Pascal Dupuis, Marc-Andre Fleury, Tyler Kennedy, Georges Laraque, Kristopher Letang, Gary Roberts, Jordan Staal, Maxime Talbot.

The Dallas Stars will open the NHL Western Conference final in Detroit against the Red Wings this Thursday.

A power play goal at 9:03 of the fourth overtime period brought the Dallas Stars a well fought 2-1 win over the San Jose Sharks in Game 6 of their NHL Western Conference semifinal. The Red Wings, who posted an NHL-best 115 points in the regular season, swept the Colorado Avalanche in four games in the other conference semifinal.

In the Eastern final, the Flyers will meet the Pittsburgh Penguins, which begins on Friday in Pittsburgh. Marian Hossa scored the winning goal at 7:10 of overtime Sunday as the Penguins as they squeaked out a 3-2 win, eliminating the New York Rangers in five games in the semifinal.
Pittsburgh led 2-0 after two periods but the Rangers fought back as Lauri Korpikoski and Nigel Dawes scored 82 seconds apart early in the third, forcing an overtime period.

The New York Rangers announced that forward Sean Avery has suffered a lacerated spleen in Tuesday night’s Stanley Cup playoff game and will be gone for the remainder of the playoffs.
The Rangers said Avery was admitted to St. Vincent’s Medical Center following a CT scan and is expected to make a full recovery. According to the teams spokesman, Avery is in “stable” condition.
This is the last thing Rangers needed, losing the last game 5-3 against the Pittsburgh Penguins at Madison Square Garden. The Penguins have taken a 3-0 series lead with the win.

20-year old Rookie goaltender Carey Price put two hard to swallow losses behind him to save the Montreal Canadiens‘ playoff run and destroy the Boston Bruins’ hopes of an unlikely comeback. Price stopped 25 shots, including 11 in the opening period. Price had allowed a combined 10 goals in two losses after he got his first playoff shutout in a 1-0 victory in Game 4.

Price posted his second shutout and Andrei Kostitsyn scored twice to lead Montreal to a 5-0 victory over Boston last night in the deciding game of their best-of-seven Eastern Conference first-round playoff series. The Canadiens took control of the game in the second period, outshooting the Bruins 17-6 while building a three-goal lead by Mark Streit halfway through the period and Kostitsyn’s second goal of the series at 15:13.

Montreal, the East’s top seed, will face either the New York Rangers or Philadelphia in an East semifinal series.

Boston Bruins 5 Montreal Canadiens 4
Forcing a game 7, the Bruins fought hard and came out strong in a tense game on Saturday. Montreal has been struggling after initially holding a 3-1 series lead.

Colorado Avalanche 2 Minnesota Wild 1
The Avalanche stood thier ground against another attack from the Wild for a series-clinching 2-1 win Saturday night.

Washington Capitals 3 Philadelphia Flyers 2
The Capitals jumped to an early lead, and the Flyers just waited too long to respond Saturday in Washington’s 3-2 must-win Game 5 victory in the first-round playoff series.

Detroit Red Wings 3 Nashville Predators 0
At Nashville, Tenn., Nicklas Lidstrom and Jiri Hudler each scored, and the Red Wings closed out their opening series by beating the Predators in Game 6.

Dallas Stars 4 Anaheim Ducks 1
At Dallas, Stephane Robidas scored the tying goal on the power play early in the third period then set up Stu Barnes for the go-ahead goal 52 seconds later, sending the Stars past Anaheim to end their first-round series in six games.

Flames 2 San Jose Sharks 0
Miikka Kiprusoff made 21 saves and the Calgary Flames beat the Sharks 2-0 Sunday, forcing Game 7 in the first-round playoff series.

In a complete shift from last year, the Ottawa Senators were swept out of the first round by the Pittsburgh Penguins last night. Evgeni Malkin and Jarko Ruutu scored second-period goals and Sidney Crosby scored into an empty net with 7.5 seconds remaining. The Pens were knocked out of last year’s playoffs in five games by the Senators. Ottawa went on to make its first Stanley Cup finals appearance in modern franchise history, losing in five to the Anaheim Ducks. The Penguins are now the first team to advance to the second round.