NHL's second-half crunch begins with Olympic Games

LOS ANGELES -- There's no rest for the Red Wings and Avalanche.

They renew one of the league's biggest rivalries in Denver tonight, two days after eight players from the teams, including both goalies, completed a busy All-Star weekend.

The Red Wings will then send a league-high 10 players to the Salt Lake City Olympics in the middle of the month while the Avalanche send seven.

Then there's the playoff push.

"You don't try and conserve energy -- there's none left," said Detroit's Sergei Fedorov, a Russian Olympian.

Red Wings forward Brendan Shanahan, who will play for Canada, barely caught his breath.

"First game back, you're right back in the fire," he said. "Anytime you play the Avalanche it's special."

The Red Wings have a league-best 80 points while the Avalanche are second in the Western Conference with 67 points. Colorado trails only Philadelphia with 70 points and Boston with 68 in the overall standings.

Boston plays in Columbus on Monday while the Flyers -- coming on strong the past month -- play in Los Angeles.

Washington's Jaromir Jagr thinks Philadelphia is the team to chase for the East's spot in the Stanley Cup finals, particularly because of the Flyers' goalie duo of Roman Cechmanek and Brian Boucher.

"It's a 1-2 punch -- they're both solid players, he said. "They also have size, they play smart and have a great coach."

Capitals chasing playoff spot

The Capitals are seven points out of the eighth and final playoff spot. Jagr spent much of the All-Star weekend complaining of fatigue and finished it with a dire summary of Washington's season.

"Am I happy that we are out of playoffs now? No," he said after the World team beat the North American team 8-5 Saturday. "It is a disaster for me and a disaster for the team. I want it to change."

As for the All-Star weekend, he said: "I would rather stay home and get healthy. That's what's important now."

Jagr and his Czech teammates will defend their gold medal in Salt Lake City, but the Russian team's stock is rising after the All-Star weekend.

Atlanta's Ilya Kovalchuk scored six goals in the rookie game on Friday, Fedorov recorded the hardest shot in the skills competition and skated the second-fastest lap that night and goalie Nikolai Khabibulin was the surprise star of the All-Star game.

"Khabibulin just shut the door on us," said North America's Joe Thornton, a first-time All-Star from Boston. "He's having a tremendous year. You look at his save percentage, and it's unbelievable."

Detroit coach Scotty Bowman hopes he has all his players left after the Olympics. The NHL playoffs could be compromised, he said, if anyone is seriously injured in Salt Lake City.

"There are over 100 players playing 4-to-6 extra games," he said. "The injury factor is there. Obviously, it could hurt if a star player goes down."