This season’s Stanley Cup race a wide-open one

You won’t find any true bracket busters in this year’s Stanley Cup playoffs.

There are 16 teams in the hunt for the silver chalice, and from top to bottom every club can make a case that it can skate off with North America’s oldest sports trophy.

Ottawa clinched the top seed in the Eastern Conference on Tuesday, the final night of the regular season, which gave the Senators the right to play the weakest playoff team. Except this year that happens to be the Tampa Bay Lightning – whom they meet tonight. Yes, the guys who won the title the last time it was on the line two years ago before the lockout.

In the new NHL, anything is possible and parity is king thanks to the $39 million salary cap. Only eight teams were more than 11 points out of a playoff spot.

“It’s been one of those years,” said Lightning forward Brad Richards, the MVP of the 2004 playoffs. “We feel now that finally we got in, we can start over here hopefully and try to do something.”

They aren’t alone.

The New Jersey Devils finished the season on a league-record closing run of 11 straight victories. That put them one point ahead of the New York Rangers and into a tie with the Philadelphia Flyers atop the Atlantic Division. The Devils won the tiebreaker and earned the No. 3 seed.

“I think this is as open a year as ever in the NHL for a number of teams to win the Cup,” San Jose Sharks coach Ron Wilson said. “The most important reason is because the rules aren’t going to change in the postseason. It will be the same hockey, called by the same rules.”

The Sharks also fought much of the season just to qualify for the playoffs. The early addition of scoring champion Joe Thornton from Boston after the Sharks started slowly made all the difference. He turned linemate Jonathan Cheechoo into the top goal-scorer in the league by assisting on 38 of his 56 tallies.

San Jose is fifth in the Western Conference and will face the No. 4 Nashville Predators in the best-of-7 series opener tonight.

Also starting tonight in the West is the series between No. 1 Detroit and No. 8 Edmonton, along with No. 3 Calgary hosting No. 6 Anaheim. The remaining Western series is No. 7 Colorado at No. 2 Dallas, beginning Saturday.

In the East, the Lightning and Senators will start tonight. The other three series: the New York Rangers at New Jersey; No. 7 Montreal at No. 2 Carolina; and No. 5 Philadelphia visiting No. 4 Buffalo get under way on Saturday.

The Predators are a story in themselves as they get set to make the second straight playoff appearance in their seventh NHL season.

Paul Kariya has been everything Nashville hoped he’d be when the club inked him before the season. Kariya, who helped lead Anaheim to the Cup finals in 2003, scored 85 points – tops on the Predators.

Offense won’t be the focal point for Nashville, however. The Predators are still dealing with the news that they will be without leading goalie Tomas Vokoun, who is sidelined by a blood-clotting problem. That leaves Chris Mason with the pressure to succeed.

Goaltending is always key in the playoffs but more so this year with many clubs relying on young and inexperienced players.

Blues win draft lottery

The St. Louis Blues won the NHL draft lottery, getting the first overall pick for the first time in team history.

Pittsburgh will pick second, followed by Chicago, Washington and Boston. The draft is June 24 in Vancouver, British Columbia.

Quinn, Patrick out

Pat Quinn missed the playoffs for the first time in seven seasons as Toronto Maple Leafs coach and was fired.

“Craig Patrick, the Hall of Fame general manager who built the Pittsburgh Penguins’ two Stanley Cup winning teams but had to tear the club apart because of financial problems, is being let go.