AOL Fanhouse is reporting that the Tampa Bay Lightning is being sold by Palace Sports to a group led by Doug MacLean, the former coach of the Florida Panthers and GM in Columbus. No word yet on the price, but considering the Bolts have managed to build a fan base in the tropical heat and won the Stanley Cup just a couple seasons ago I’m betting it’s a lot more than what those hillbillies paid for the sadsack Preds up in Nashville.

But still, couldn’t Bill Davidson have put in a call to Balsillie to at least let him know the team was going on the block? Maybe Gary Bettman told Davidson to keep the deal on the DL because he didn’t want to have to break it to Balsillie once again that, no, the NHL won’t let him move a team to Hamilton. That just leads to tears and who can stand to see billionaire Canadians cry?

Down in Tampa the Lightning lost their series in six games after getting beat 3-2 by New Jersey. Martin Brodeur came up with 32 saves while Brian Gionta proved to be the difference maker on offense scoring twice for the Devils.

Now I know that the Bolts have developed into regular playoff contenders and won the Stanley Cup back in 2004, and so the good people of Tampa now have hockey fever, but did you see the ice conditions at the St. Pete Forum? The sheet was so thin that crews had to patch holes during intermission where the concrete was showing. Seriously, if you can’t maintain a sheet of ice because it is too tropical then you shouldn’t have a hockey team, no matter what Gary Bettman and his bean counters think.

On the other hand, the Devils are in to the second round. Ho hum, wake me when it’s over.

Last night, meanwhile, the Calgary Flames were playing for their lives, but not even a rowdy home crowd could motivate them past the Red Wings one more time. The Flames played well enough to fend off Detroit for 80 minutes as they took a 1-1 tie into a second overtime, but Johan Franzen eventually found a way around Miikka Kiprusoff for the game winner.

Now I’m sad to see Calgary out of the playoffs because that means there’s only two teams left to try and defend Canada’s honor and end the 14-year sojourn of the Cup, but really the Flames could not have been a worse playoff team. Sure at home they played well, but it was like night and day seeing them away from the Saddledome. Even if the Red Mile had found a way to get past the Red Menace, Calgary would have been going down in the second round anyway.

On the other hand, Detroit is in to the second round. Ho hum, wake me when its over.

The chase for the Cup gets underway on Wednesday when the Penguins of Pittsburgh face off against the Ottawa Senators. The Pens, of course, have that young phenom Sidney Crosby, who led the league with 120 points, including 36 goals. The Sens, meanwhile, have a bunch of players not named Sidney Crosby, but they do have Dany Heatley and goalie Ray Emery. Still, they don’t have anyone named Crosby or Jordan Staal or Evgeni Malkin, so I’m pretty sure Ottawa is going down in the first round (sorry Canada), but this could be the best series of the whole post-season.

Also on Wednesday, the Dallas Stars get their series underway against Vancouver. Now you might be thinking you heard once that Dallas is pretty good, but that was in 1999 when they won the Cup; this Stars team is the one that sorta just gets into the playoffs and then gets booted in the first round. The Canucks, with the Sedin twins and goalie Roberto Luongo will be tough to beat this year.

You’ve also got the Minnesota Wild kicking off their series against Anaheim. This should be a pretty good series, too, since this is Minnesota’s first trip to the playoffs since the first Bush was president and they had a team called the North Stars, so those fans in Minneapolis should be plenty fired up. It might even be enough for them to steal this one away from The Team Formerly Known as The Mighty Ducks.

Lastly, the San Jose Sharks take on the Nashville Predators. The Preds look pretty good on paper, but they play in a division with Chicago, Columbus, and St. Louis, so looks can be deceiving. Still, I’m picking Music City over Silicon Valley because Sharks fans cursed themselves last year by booing the Canadian national anthem.

On to Thursday night and more Eastern Conference action, the Buffalo Sabres start their run for the Cup with a little practice time against the Islanders, while the New Jersey Devils go through the motions against Tampa Bay. The Isles have no hope of making it past the first round, but it’s nice to see them back in the hunt, I guess. The only hope for Tampa is . . . well, there really is no hope for them either.

The last series in the East is the Rangers vs. the Thrashers. The who? That’s right, the Atlanta Thrashers are not only in the playoffs but they are in as a division champion. Of course, saying Atlanta had the best team in the Southeast is like saying you’re the smartest one on the short bus. Still, the mighty NY Rangers aren’t much better and will probably get booted in the first round.

That leaves us with Calgary and Detroit. Yes, Detroit is one of the best in the league and the top seed in the West, but how can you possibly root for the Red Wings? That’s like rooting for the Yankees, yawn. Plus, they’re owned by a pizza empire, a bad pizza empire at that. No, everyone out there should be rooting on the plucky Flames to score an upset here, and they just might, though it’ll mean they have to win at least one on the road, which they haven’t been able to do often this year. But this is the playoffs and everything changes now.

So America, are you ready for some hockey?

In a league with too little coverage and where the players are finned for speaking out this provides great media attention. And the players were able to speak their mind without being fined. How great! So, some quotes that followed today:

Ray Emery (Goalie, Ottawa Senators) - “If the lady is attractive it might be a nice tradition instead of hats”

Alain Vigneault (Coach, Vancouver Canucks) - “I saw it and I don’t know what I’m supposed to say about that, I usually got something to say about everything, but that one, I’m not sure.”

And best of all

Craig MacTavish - “I heard that they were trying to win a couple of cups out there”