Housley, who coached the U.S. in the 2013 world juniors, will be an assistant on Barry Trotz's staff. It'll be interesting to see how Housley affects Nashville's long-dormant offense, particularly on the power play. Trotz very much prefers a defensive, two-way game, which seems to contradict Housley's playing style. Then again, Horachek was fired Monday after the Predators finished with the second-worst record in the Western Conference, which also included one the lowest goals-score totals in the league. At the very least, the former All-Star should have a big impact on the organization's wealth of young defensemen.

Unless the scout knows something we don't -- and there's surely a chance of that -- we'd be pretty surprised if Jones wasn't the pick. For one, the Avs have spent multiple first-round choices on elite forward talent over the past few years while largely neglecting their back end. Also, the story of Jones' possible return to Denver, where he learned to play hockey while his father, Popeye Jones, played for the Denver Nuggets of the NBA, is about as poetic as they come. This all sounds like standard pre-draft posturing at this point.

It's hard to blame Crawford for this one considering two of the goals were of the highlight-reel variety. Overall, the Hawks and Crawford played pretty well but were doomed by a couple bad penalties in the third period and a questionable goalie interference call that negated what would've tied the game at 2-2. With the loss, Crawford and the Hawks fell behind 2-1 in the series and have an obviously important Game 4 coming up in Detroit on Thursday night.

After facing just 20 shots in Game 2, Howard was under constant threat Monday night. He also got the benefit of the crossbar stopping Viktor Stalberg and an interference call negating what would've been the game-tying goal in the third period. Still, it's hard to deny that Howard was one of the better Red Wings on the ice and one of the main reasons Detroit has a real change to upend the favored Blackhawks.