The Winnipeg Jets are in the playoff hunt, something that was rare while the team was in Atlanta. Think they will make it? Place your bets now at topbet.com.

One key factor is the stellar play of goalie Ondrej Pavelec, who did his best to keep the Jets in the game on Tuesday against Philadelphia.

Pavelec stopped a season-high 50 shots against the Flyers but it wasn’t enough. The Flyers won 5-4 in overtime.

Check out Ondrej Pavelec stretching out to make a beautiful save, reaching back across the net to pull the puck out of the air on an empty net shot by fellow Czech Jakub Voracek. Wow!

OK, you hear it a lot but here’s one of those videos you just must see.

Up in Calgary at the IIHF World Junior Hockey Championship in a match between Canada and Finland, Canadian goalie Mark Visentin makes an amazing save as he gloves the puck out of mid-air after it rolls off his back and almost over the goal line.

Canada would win by blanking out Finland 4-0 Thursday in the bronze-medal game. But this odd save by Visentin is one for the ages. Yeah, he got the win. But he also did this!

Technically, the New York Islanders are not the worst team in the league. They just play like it most nights.

The Columbus Blue Jackets currently sit at rock bottom but the Isles are just a couple of games ahead of the Jackets.

One of the few bright spots on the Isles is the play of goalie Al Montoya who is trying to grab the starting role with Nabokov injured and Rick DiPietro being himself.

Montoya, a Chicago native, faced the Blackhawks for the first time Friday night to try to extend his win streak to three. He missed out in a shoot-out with the ‘Hawks in which Chicago’s Jonathan Toews netted the only goal.

But it was the great play and a little Isles offense that kept the game close. Midway through the first period, Al Montoya drops his stick while trying to make a save and had to improvise with his blocker. It worked and gives us a great clip.

The gem popped up from the weekend during the Bruins – Sabers game on November 12th. It was the same game in which Lucic slammed into Sabres goalie Ryan Miller.

After crashing the net, the Sabres Kaleta gets his stick stuck between Bruins goalie Tim Thomas and the net…..then Timmy attempts to snap it.

Great shot of a guilty act.

The 2-2-2 New York Rangers are still struggling after starting out slow with their Europe opener. Now back home they have won 2 in a row until they hit the young Oilers.

Midway through the first there’s this awesome save by Rangers goalie Henrik Lundqvist, sliding over and stopping a point-blank opportunity. Nice. Too bad Oilers goalie Nikolai Khabibulin showed Lundqvist up with a 2-0 shutout.

Ouch! LA Kings goaltender John Quick has his mask popped off by a hard shot in the second period against Philadelphia. Quick was alright after taking a shot to the noddle but on the stat sheet, and this is important, it lists it as a save so that’s what counts.

Former Flyer Mike Richards led the Kings to an OT victory, 3-2, over Philly while Quick improved his record on the season to a sweet 2-0-1.

It took awhile but the New York Islanders finally got their man. Goalie Evgeni Nabokov wanted to come back to the NHL last year to play with a winning team and go into the playoffs, specifically the Detroit Red Wings. But the Islanders popped up during the waiver process and claimed Nabokov and let’s just say Evgeni was not very happy.

He didn’t show up at all last year to the team but finally realized that if he was going to ever play in the NHL again he would have to honor the Islanders claim. So now he’s on Long Island playing hockey again in the NHL.

And good for him. The Islanders need a goalie (among other things) to carry them through the season. To mark his new home Evgeni even made up a new goalie mask so you know it’s official now.

In his first game as an Islanders, Evgeni Nabokov stopped 15 of 16 shots in two periods. It didn’t do much good as the Flames blanked them to win 2-0. Even though it’s still preseason, the regular season kicks off shortly and the Isles need to find someone to kick up the offense. Because Evgeni cannot do it all himself.

Here’s the play of the night as Nabokov shows that at the age of 36 he still has the skills to compete. On this attack on the net Nabokov makes a great toe save.

Bruins goalie Tim Thomas came out to the press after their Game 4 loss to the Lightning and did what any good player trying to motivate his team would do. He guaranteed a win in Game 5.

In today’s sports the “guaranteed” win has lost a lot of its luster. Players use it too much and don’t always deliver. But what makes Thomas stand out above the rest is that his team not only lived up to the prophecy but the win was helped out by the outstanding play of Thomas and one critical save in particular.

In the playoffs, momentum and confidence are everything. Should Boston go onto the Cup Finals, Bruins fans will be talking about the save by Tim Thomas that cliched their win and Game 5 and gave them the momentum to win the series. It’s one of those great moments in hockey when you can look at an individual play and say it was at that moment the team knew it was their time.

It happened in the 3rd period with Boston up 2-1 and the Lightning pushing hard to tie the game. Tampa’s Downie goes in to make a goal as Thomas is out of position. With a diving save, and the tip of his stick, Thomas miraculously stops the puck. Beautiful save.

When we were summing up our playoff previews we mentioned that the Nashville Predators playoffs rested firmly on the shoulders of superb goaltender Pekka Rinne. Being in a small market of Nashville a lot of hockey fans are just now seeing the greatness of the Finish goalie.

Pekka Rinne was crazy enough to be drafted 258th overall in the 8th round of the 2004 NHL Entry Draft by the Predators in a pickup that rivals the Patriots grabbing QB Tom Brady near the end of the 2000 NFL Draft. Rinne had his awesome rookie year in 2008 after spending most of his time developing in the Predators minor league affiliate in Milwaukee.

Since then, it’s been nothing but Rinne. He has compiled 95 wins in just a few years and is a finalist for the Vezina Trophy for the best goalie of the year this year.

Now, the Preds will go as far as Rinne will allow them since he’s the backbone of the team. That’s not a knock on the rest of the team as much as it is to show how important Rinne is. And the Vancouver Canucks now know this better than anyone.

Rinne stood on his Saturday night in Vancouver and stopped 34 shots to help the Preds win 2-1 in OT. Their series is tied 1-1 as the games travel to Tennessee for tomorrow’s matchup. And the reason Nashville won game 2 is because of Rinne. More importantly, this play.

The NHL has compiled a few more awesome clips of Rinne flopping around the ice and stopping pucks for a sweet commercial for the playoffs. Kinda reminds me of that guy named Hasek bending almost backwards to make a stop. The Preds can use that for influence if they want. Just make sure there’s no guy named Brett Hull in the crease making a goal.

There was a lot of debate heading into Sundays Game 6 matchup between the Vancouver Canucks and Chicago Blackhawks about which goalie would get the nod for Vancouver. The Canucks lead the series 3-2 as the teams headed back to Chicago after dropping 2 embarrassing games to the ‘Hawks.

Vancouver led the series 3-0 but struggled over the last two games as Chicago stormed out of the gate early in both games and outscored Vancouver 12-2 to make the Canucks question their goaltending. Could the Blackhawks come back to win a series after being down 3 games?

Before the game the Canucks showed they were uneasy putting in the veteran Roberto Luongo and sure enough the Canucks went with backup Cory Schneider. Oddly enough Cory Schneider, with only 35 NHL regular season games started in his career, was replaced in the third period after a fluke injury. Luongo was back in the game and held off the Blackhawks to take the game into OT.

And it was a tough game. Look at this hit on Henrik Sedin. Poor Sedin took quite a hit here and if he’s lucky he can play in Game 7 because in the end the ‘Hawks got that one lucky goal in OT to push a Game 7 and threaten the best team in the NHL.

Blackhawks fans can thank rookie Ben Smith for his first playoff goal and it couldn’t come at a better time. With time dwindling in the OT, Smith took a funky rebound from Luongo and flipped it in. Smith may not have had much experience coming into the game but you can guarantee this game-winning goal will secure the young pup some more playing time.