The day Bruce Boudreau was named a finalist for the Jack Adams Award, the Anaheim Ducks coach admitted the timing of the NHL's announcement wasn't great.

Boudreau was still stinging from Monday's 3-2 loss to the Detroit Red Wings in Game 7 of the Western Conference Quarterfinals.

"It's hard coming on the heels of probably your most depressing moment in a year, when you're still decompressing from losing in the playoffs," Boudreau said during a conference call Friday. "But it certainly is a great honor."

The Capitals met for exit interviews Wednesday less than 48 hours after a 5-0 loss in Game 7 of their Eastern Conference Quarterfinal series against the New York Rangers at Verizon Center.

"Coming up in the elevator, [Green] mentioned that he didn't want to have to sit down and have this talk," McPhee said of the exit interview. "But he also said ‘When we win [the Stanley Cup], it's going to be that much better. It's going to be glorious.' … I hope he's right."

The question remains whether that day will ever come for the only NHL team to qualify for the Stanley Cup Playoffs in each of the past six years and not advance past the second round during that time.

However, the 2012-13 season has to be dubbed a successful one for the Islanders. After all, they did participate in the Stanley Cup Playoffs for the first time in six years. The Penguins, who are the No. 1 seed in the East, needed overtime to beat the Islanders twice.

So now that the Islanders are indeed back in business, the next logical step is to build off what they were able to accomplish on the ice this season. With Hart Trophy finalist John Tavares at the forefront, and more young players (Nino Niederreiter, Ryan Strome and Griffin Reinhart, for instance) on the way, the Islanders look like they have the talent to contend for years to come.

"Our expectations are to win every year," coach Jack Capuano told reporters Tuesday. "That doesn't change. You have to understand the expectations of how tough it's going to be. There's other teams in the Eastern Conference that didn't make the playoffs. Sometimes there's coaching changes, sometimes there's personnel changes. They're going to make their clubs better. We have to understand that when we get out of the gate in Game 1 [next season] that the feeling that they had down the stretch and the belief in the system that they had has to start immediately."

BROSSARD,Quebec – When Carey Price was asked Saturday if he felt like he was 25 years old, the Montreal Canadiens' goaltender answered that he felt much older than that.

Carey Price

Goalie - MTL

RECORD: 1-2-0
GAA: 3.26 | SVP: 0.894

His general manager clearly disagrees.

Canadiens GM Marc Bergevin met with the media Monday to discuss his team's 2012-13 season and the overwhelming topic of conversation was not only the play of his starting goaltender, but his comments Saturday that gave the impression the pressure of the Montreal fishbowl was beginning to wear on him.

When Price admitted that he missed being anonymous and that he no longer even went to the grocery store, or anywhere for that matter, he compared his existence in Montreal to that of a "hobbit in a hole."

Those comments were interpreted by some in Montreal as a sign that Price is wilting under the pressure, even though that's not at all what he said. In fact, he said on numerous occasions that he's accepted that pressure and scrutiny as a reality of his chosen profession.

BROSSARD, Quebec -- Another Montreal Canadiens offseason has begun with question marks surrounding goaltender Carey Price, something that seemingly has become a harbinger of spring in the city he calls home for eight months of the year.

Carey Price

Goalie - MTL

RECORD: 1-2-0
GAA: 3.26 | SVP: 0.894

Price was resoundingly outplayed by Ottawa Senators counterpart Craig Anderson in a five-game loss in the Eastern Conference Quarterfinals. Anderson had a save percentage of .950 in five games; Price's was .894 in four games before a second-degree sprain of the MCL in his left knee forced him to miss Game 5 of the series.

Canadiens fans questioning their goaltender is far from a novelty, with Hall of Fame goalies Ken Dryden and Patrick Roy having generated similar doubts from the public.

But the scrutiny Price is under seems like it's at another level, perhaps because the advent of social media makes it so much easier for fans to voice their opinions. Ever since Canadiens management chose to keep Price and trade Jaroslav Halak to the St. Louis Blues just after he had led them to the 2010 Eastern Conference Finals, everything Price has done has been a source of potential criticism.

Saturday, as the Canadiens held their exit interviews and physicals, Price admitted it's an aspect of his job he's still growing accustomed to.

ST. PAUL, Minn. -- As the parade of players with frowns and scowls slowed to a trickle and the Minnesota Wild locker room started to empty, one man remained surrounded at his locker stall with a smirk -- almost a smile -- on his face.

No, goaltender Josh Harding was not happy the season is over. Nobody in the room was.

But no player in the room had to endure what the 28-year old veteran had to endure off the ice. And though there is plenty of uncertainty surrounding the Wild as they head to a 10th straight offseason without advancing past the first round of the Stanley Cup Playoffs, perhaps no one in the room had the positive outlook Harding had.

"It's one of the reasons I re-signed back here [last summer]," Harding said. "I know this hockey team is headed in the right direction."

The same could be said about Harding, diagnosed last fall with multiple sclerosis, a revelation that not only cast doubt on his hockey career but changed his life.

Unlike this year's playoffs, he wasn't willing to say the changes would be quick or sweeping.

Amid widespread speculation coach Alain Vigneault would be fired after being swept by the San Jose Sharks, Gillis instead preached patience and promised a proper evaluation of "every element of the organization," identifying several areas that need improvement but stopping short of saying he will break apart a team two years removed from Game 7 of the Stanley Cup Final.

"There will come a day where the core group will be dismantled but it's not today in my mind," Gillis said of a group led by identical twins Daniel Sedin and Henrik Sedin, and gritty center Ryan Kesler. "We need to supplement them. We need to help them. We need to have a different look. We need to get younger."

A common response from people when they hear about the National Hockey League planning an outdoor game at Dodger Stadium in Los Angeles is, "Won't the ice melt?"

It won't, promises Dan Craig, the NHL's Senior Director of Facilities Operations. The reason: reflective insulated blankets.

Those blankets and the refrigeration truck parked outside the stadium will be Craig's best friends when he and his crew of 10-plus members build the rink for the 2014 Coors Light Stadium Series game between the Anaheim Ducks and Los Angeles Kings, set for Jan. 25 at Dodger Stadium (10 p.m. ET, 7 p.m. PT).

"When the sun comes up in the morning we will put reflective insulated blankets on top of the surface," Craig told NHL.com. "When the sun goes down, we remove the blankets and then we will continue to make ice overnight."

Now that the NHL announced Monday that outdoor hockey would be coming to Dodger Stadium in January, fans in Southern California can pay tribute to the Los Angeles Kings and California Seals, each of whom played their part in bringing the game to the area in 1967.

But it can also be said that hockey really didn't arrive in "The Golden State" until the summer of 1988 with Wayne Gretzky's arrival to the Kings via a trade with the Edmonton Oilers.

In their first season with Gretzky in 1988-89, the Kings improved from 68 points to 91, and won a Stanley Cup Playoff series for the first time since 1982. In 1990-91, they won the only division title in club history and finished with 102 points. Two seasons later, they had their unforgettable run to the 1993 Stanley Cup Final.

James Lipton, the celebrated host and executive producer of Bravo's "Inside the Actors Studio," is a man of many tastes. He's primarily known as dean emeritus of the Actors Studio Drama School at Pace University in New York City. But he's also an accomplished equestrian and pilot who has been known to enjoy travel and countless other activities.

And when he engages in most of these activities, he just so happens to have a member of the Hockey Hall of Fame by his side.

"I met Rod [Gilbert]… I don't even remember, it goes back so far. We spend a lot of time together, out in the Hamptons, here in New York, at the games," Lipton said of the Rangers legend. "We do a lot of things together. He's one of my best friends."

Gilbert is one of the iconic former Rangers to have befriended Lipton over the years. Through friendships with Ron Duguay and Mark Messier, Lipton has shared a unique link to Rangers history. For the 86-year-old who grew up playing hockey in Detroit, it's a dream to have been present for many of the team's most memorable moments.