ST. LOUIS -- After winning the William M. Jennings Trophy and being the backbone of the St. Louis Blues' 49-win season a year ago, the barometer was set high for both Jaroslav Halak and Brian Elliott.

The duo allowed 165 goals in 82 games (2.01 per game) and captured only the second Jennings Trophy in franchise history (Roman Turek claimed the award following the 1999-2000 season). They combined for a League-high 15 shutouts (Elliott nine, Halak six), which tied a modern NHL record set by the Chicago Blackhawks in 1969-70 and surpassed the franchise record of 13 set by Glenn Hall and Jacques Plante in 1968-69.

Halak and Elliott are also the first tandem in NHL history to record at least six shutouts apiece in the same season. Elliott led the League in goals-against average (1.56) and save percentage (.940).

It was only natural to raise expectations.

Chris Stewart

Right Wing - STL

GOALS: 16 | ASST: 14 | PTS: 30
SOG: 69 | +/-: 2

The St. Louis Blues' power forward, who had just experienced a sweep with the rest of his teammates against the Los Angeles Kings in the second round of the Stanley Cup playoffs, completed the most challenging season of his brief four-year career in May.

After back-to-back 28-goal seasons, there were some that projected Stewart, 25, could become the League's next 40-goal scorer. And why not -- he displayed the ability to bulldoze his way to the net and power in goals just as easily as he's displayed soft hands with a deft touch in delicate areas.

CHICAGO -- Twenty-year-old rookie Brandon Saad has earned something so coveted and so unique, something that has nothing to do with a spot on the Chicago Blackhawks roster but everything to do with the respect of his teammates.

He has a nickname, the unofficial membership card into the NHL fraternity. He's in.

"Man-Child," Jonathan Toews tells NHL.com as he looks at Saad inside the Blackhawks dressing room at United Center.

Why "Man-Child?"

"He looks like he's 35 years old but he's 20," Toews answers, smiling. "He plays like he's a lot older than he is, too."

DETROIT -- There wasn't a game Saturday at Joe Louis Arena, but it sure was a busy day on the ice and in the Detroit Red Wings locker room.

It started with rookie free-agent acquisition Dan DeKeyser, who's from suburban Detroit, signing an entry-level contract prior to his first NHL practice then leading the Red Wings in stretches before getting a stick-tap welcome.

After practice, news started breaking right there in the locker room -- Red Wings coach Mike Babcock told reporters that injured veteran forwards Johan Franzen (lower body) and Mikael Samuelsson (finger fracture) were cleared to play against the Chicago Blackhawks in Sunday's NBC Game of the Week (12:30 p.m. ET) at Joe Louis Arena.

"Samuelsson and Franzen are cleared to go," Babcock said. "So we'll decide [Sunday] morning when we get in here on a lineup and all of that. I don't even know where we are roster-wise and all of those things right there, so we have to get all of that worked out."

Mike Babcock doesn't mince his words when he talks about how much captain Henrik Zetterberg has meant to the Detroit Red Wings this season.

Henrik Zetterberg

Left Wing - DET

GOALS: 5 | ASST: 11 | PTS: 16
SOG: 43 | +/-: 5

"To be honest with you, he's driving our bus big time," Babcock told NHL.com. "He's been our best player by a country mile."

Nobody should be surprised by this, considering Zetterberg has been one of the Red Wings' best players for a long time -- long enough to prompt The Great One himself, Wayne Gretzky, to say Zetterberg has been his favorite player in the NHL over the last decade.

"I think he's the best Swedish player they've ever put in the NHL," Gretzky told NHL.com.

His resume aside, Zetterberg, now 32, is leading the Red Wings with 16 points (five goals, 11 assists) through 11 games. He has points in nine of those 11 games, including a hat trick and two assists in a 5-1 win against the St. Louis Blues on Feb. 1. It was his first five-point regular-season game since Nov. 14, 2009.

For years, hype for contests between the Washington Capitals and Pittsburgh Penguins centered on Alex Ovechkin and Sidney Crosby, with Evgeni Malkin lurking as one of many fascinating subplots in what became the best rivalry in the NHL.

The two franchises meet again Sunday (NBC, 3 p.m. ET), but it might be time for Malkin to take center stage. He is the reigning League MVP, and while Crosby's journey back from concussion-related problems dominated the NHL landscape, Malkin's return to dominance in 2011-12 after back-to-back injury-marred seasons is no less critical to Pittsburgh's near- and long-term outlook.

"I think it was more than anyone expected coming off the knee injury that he had," Phil Bourque, the Penguins' radio analyst, said. "It is one thing when you're talking about Sid and Geno [Malkin] and [Ovechkin], depending on what month it is -- Alex might catch fire when Sid and Geno aren't quite there, and people will say [Ovechkin] is the best player in the world."

Even with rookie goalie Braden Holtby inspiring the Capitals through his confidence and swagger, Washington still find itself stuck in a major hole heading into Game 2 of the Eastern Conference Quarterfinals in Boston on Saturday (3 p.m. ET, NBC, TSN).

"They'll be done in five if they lose Game 2," NBC Sports analyst Jeremy Roenick told NHL.com Friday.

Roenick said as impressed as he was with Holtby -- "he was better than any one of us expected him to be," were J.R.'s words -- he can't get over the fact that the Capitals let a huge opportunity slip out of their grasp Thursday at TD Garden.

The Detroit Red Wings and Chicago Blackhawks will renew their fierce rivalry Saturday at Joe Louis Arena in the regular-season finale on NBC's NHL Game of the Week (1 p.m. ET, NBC, TSN2).

The Blackhawks took a 3-0-2 lead in the season series following a 2-1 victory in Detroit on March 4 -- the fifth one-goal game between the teams this season.

No team has more home wins than Detroit's 31 this season and the club will look to add to that total, and in the process, even up its six-game series and head into the Stanley Cup Playoffs on a positive note. The Wings have lost three of their past five games.