(No, the first decade of the 21st century doesn't technically end until 2011. Save your bellyaching. But we've had nine NHL seasons and one stolen from us since 1999-2000, and Yahoo! Sports has decided it's time to rank the best and worst of the last "decade." Enjoy, and snark freely in the comments.)

Let's get this out of the way right off the top: This isn't a list of the best individual teams that didn't win a Stanley Cup.

This isn't a list that will feature the 2000-01 New Jersey Devils, 2001-02 Carolina Hurricanes, 2002-03 Anaheim Ducks, 2007-08 Pittsburgh Penguins or 2008-09 Detroit Red Wings -- those four teams (or franchises) got their rings this decade.

This list is about the franchises that have excelled this past decade, but for one reason or another came up short in their quest for a title. Listed here are President Trophy winners, conference champions and annual Cup contenders that couldn't finish the job. They hold the fan bases that had their high expectations dashed by a less than fruitful spring.

With that, our 10 best teams to never win a Stanley Cup this decade are ...

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Urgency. Desperation. These were the words Michael Cammalleri used to characterize the mindset of his Montreal Canadiens heading into last night's game at the Washington Capitals.

Not just because they were one game under .500 and near the bottom of the conference standings, but because their positive momentum was again anchored by bad injury news, as his linemate Brian Gionta's broken foot shelved him indefinitely.

"Much didn't have to be said tonight. It was a real good team, on the road," said Cammalleri, whose power-play goal in the third period gave the Habs a 3-2 win in D.C.

"Usually, it's the team that's the most banged up that sacrifices the most. The bumps and bruises feel good when you get a win."

There wasn't a chance to ask Cammalleri's linemates Scott Gomez and Travis Moen about that theory after the game; both were injured in the win, and are questionable for tonight's game against the Detroit Red Wings back in Montreal. So for a team that's shown signs of consistency recently, the roster shuffle could be on once again.

"I got used to it," said center Tomas Plekanec, whose line with Andrei Kostitsyn and Max Pacioretty produced a goal and was arguably the best in the game. "For most of the season, I played with almost every single winger on our team. But obviously it would be better for us to have constant lines."

Especially when the top line looked as promising as it did for Montreal, albeit briefly.

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No. 1 Star: Dany Heatley, San Jose Sharks

Coach Todd McLellan stacked his best players on the same line against the Philadelphia Flyers: Heatley, Joe Thornton and Patrick Marleau. The result? A 6-3 win over the Flyers and a hat-trick for Heatley. His first goal was on a patient 2-in-1 with Thornton; so was his second goal, set up by Jumbo Joe (4 assists on the night) while shorthanded. He completed the hat trick with a power-play goal in the third. Heatley now has 17 goals on the season, best in the NHL.

No. 2 Star: Owen Nolan, Minnesota Wild

Nolan scored the game-winning goal with just 67 seconds remaining on a quick shot in front of Marty Biron (26 saves) after an Eric Belanger pass. It was his second of the night, having opened the scoring in the first on another feed from Belanger. Good win for the Wild, rallying with two goals in the third for the 3-2 win over the visiting New York Islanders. 

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Mike Vallely is a pro skater and a celebrity fan for the Anaheim Ducks, who had done some blogging for them in the past (screen cap here).

That relationship has been severed by the team, according to the OC Register, which reported that police said 'Mike V.' was arrested and cited for fighting in public for his part in the wild fan brawl over Scott Niedermayer's(notes) stick. Video of the fight was posted here on Friday morning.

We were tipped off earlier today that the "little girl" Niedermayer referred to in his awkward postgame interview on Fox Sports was in fact Vallely's daughter, and that Vallely became physically involved when another fan attempted to snatch the stick after Niedermayer tossed it to her over the glass.

Curtis Zupke of Ducks blog confirmed those details and that Vallely, 39, had been arrested, though police said "none of the parties involved wished to press charges."

Zupke writes that the Ducks were doing a bit of damage control today:

A link to Vallely's blog had been on the Ducks' official Web site. The link was taken down by Friday afternoon. Ducks spokesman Alex Gilchrist said that Vallely was not an official employee of the organization, but that the Ducks have terminated their relationship with him.

The Ducks are evaluating the practice of players handing their sticks to fans in the stands, Gilchrist said. The tradition began this season.

Puck Buddy Bredan emailed us about Mike V participating in the fight, telling us that he's obviously cut his hair (and we imagine had a shave since this George Parros(notes) photo in 2007) and that the Web is littered with clips of him involved in other fights.

The Ducks incident is already up on Mike V's Wikipedia page, whose references to Powell Peralta in 1987 have made us feel about as old as watching John Carlson(notes) (D.O.B.: Jan 10, 1990) skate for the Capitals tonight. Sigh.

Here are your Puck Previews: Spotlighting the key games in NHL action, news and views as well as general frivolity. Make sure to stop back here for the nightly Three Stars when the games are finished.

Preview: Philadelphia Flyers at San Jose Sharks, 10 p.m. EST. The big news here, according to the Sharks, is Coach Todd McLellan putting together the mega-line of  Patrick Marleau, Joe Thornton and Dany Heatley. McLellan told Working The Corners: "Things may be going great for (the Thornton line), but if it's not going good for the other three lines, we can't leave them out in the dark and have a one line game." Aw, who cares about those other nine guys; play these dudes for 60.

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NCAA Hockey 101 is a weekly feature on U.S. Division I college hockey. Stick around and you just might learn a thing or two.

Last week I talked about some of the great traditions in college hockey, and the common theme to all of it was fan interaction. College hockey has great fans but, as I alluded to, sometimes the fans can go a little too far.

Personally, I'm more than a little comfortable with profanity, and chants featuring the word [expletive], [expletive] or even [expletive] don't bother me. I get it, it's college-age kids having a good time and being vocal in support of their team at a college sporting event. If it were up to me, I'd let the kids go crazy, say whatever they want.

But the problem is that probably the biggest percentage of college hockey attendees are families. Families have little kids. Parents don't like their kids hearing sweary cursey words thrown around liberally. And if they're motivated enough, they can raise a stink and cause schools to do something like this:

"After much public discussion through e-mails surveys of our season ticket holders and communication with our students, we feel we have put together some measures that will enhance the atmosphere at our home men's hockey games," said University of North Dakota athletics director Brian Faison.

"The overriding sentiment from our fans is that they love the energy in the building, but we need to make sure the passion of all of our fans is directed in a positive fashion."

That's an awful long quote that basically says, "Hey kids, your swearing is going to start costing us money, so stop." Similarly, Minnesota-Duluth just had a crackdown on student behavior as well.

(Coming Up: An interview with UMass Minutemen blogger, Fear the Triangle; Fenway Park hockey news; and why Hobey Baker candidate Chay Genoway is out for this weekend.)

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James Neal(notes) of the Dallas Stars is getting a two-game suspension for his hit from behind on Derek Dorsett(notes) of the Columbus Blue Jackets last night, after a hearing earlier this afternoon. He was given a five-minute major for boarding and a game-misconduct in the Stars' 4-1 loss to the Jackets.

Here's the hit and a TSN roundtable about the hit.

Bob McKenzie, as Bob McKenzie does, nails it: The "optics" of the hit make this a slam-dunk suspension, according to the NHL Wheel of Discipline. High hit to the back of the head, sandwiching Dorsett's noggin against the glass, and then the Blue Jackets player flopping to the ice like a marionette with his strings cut.

Anyone that's been following Colin Campbell's thought process on these things had to know something was coming Neal's way.

Was it malicious? Neal said he had no intent to injure. One can argue he was coming in to split the defenders and not even to hit Dorsett, and that's the argument made by Brandon Worley on Defending Big D. Without the injury, it's a fine and a game misconduct; with the injury, it's a 2-game example made by the NHL.

Worley and Mike Heika of the Dallas Morning News both make the point that this is Neal's first disciplinary incident in his two NHL seasons, and Heika thinks the suspension is bad news because of that fact:

He is a player at age 22 who now has a record, and we have seen that the league treats players who have records differently than others. "Repeat offender" will be on his resume for any future hits.

Too true, and the NHL has shown us suspension after suspension that once you're on the Wheel of Discipline, it's not easy to climb off. At least according to the flow chart.

Minor League Malarkey focuses on the goofy world of minor-league hockey; from the characters to the fights to the promotions to the die-hard fans that half-fill the stands. Know of a quirky upcoming hockey promotion? Drop us a line at puckdaddyblog@yahoo.com

There's a never-ending supply of pure comedic gold when minor league sports teams develop jerseys for special promotional nights. As we saw recently with the Bakersfield Condors of the ECHL and their Michael Jackson-inspired jerseys for "King of Pop Night", the limits on the ridiculousness of how a jersey is presented knows no bounds.

The latest minor league hockey team to show off their fashionista skills will be the Missouri Mavericks of the Central Hockey League this Friday as they host the Tulsa Oilers. For "Truman Night," which will benefit the Harry S. Truman Library and Museum, the Mavericks will wear these ridiculously ridiculous jerseys honoring the 33rd President of the United States:

While patriotic indeed, the floating head of the man who was thought to have lost to Thomas Dewey front and center is both eerie and inspirational at the same.

After the game, the jerseys will be auctioned off for fans in attendance and lucky winners will get a photo with the player whose jersey they won.

Stick tap to Jason Cohen of Zamboni Rodeo for the find.

Here are your Puck Headlines: A glorious collection of news and views collected from the greatest blogosphere in sports and the few, the proud, the mainstream hockey media.

• The Ari Gold Jersey Foul? Llllllllloyd! At least now he'll have something to wear when E rocks his Tavares jersey. [NHL]

• In Year 2 of a four-year contract and being the coach of Brian Burke's U.S. Olympic hockey team, Toronto Maple Leafs Coach Ron Wilson could be spared the axe despite presiding over the biggest disaster in the NHL this season; and, after last night's loss, the worst team in the League. [Sportsnet]

• The Vancouver Canucks are the latest team to fight allegations that they jumped the line for H1N1 vaccine. No word if they attempted to pass Kyle Wellwood off as pregnant to do so. [Fox Sports]

• Making the case for Ryan Wilson of the Colorado Avalanche to be suspended for his hit on Ethan Moreau of the Edmonton Oilers. The "driving upward into the hit" argument is a pretty good one. [Jibblescribbits]

• Meanwhile, James Neal's hit on Derek Dorsett of the Columbus Blue Jackets last night (hearing at noon EST) may earn the Dallas Stars winger a suspension; Brandon suggests it has everything to do with bad timing and the current media climate. [Defending Big D]

• How nice of Marty Havlat to wait until after his free-agent contract to begin getting injured again. [@russostrib]

• A rather mind-blowing blog about UFC replacing the NHL in some pubs on a Saturday night in Canada, and whether that speaks to the "de-masculinizing and feminizing" of hockey. Mike Milbury already has this article memorized. [Vancouver Observer]

• Really quality piece by Stu Hackel on Twitter and sports journalism today, looking at the Alan Walsh/Montreal Canadiens dust-up and the recent Dion Phaneuf screaming match tweet controversy. [Slap Shot]

• The Phoenix Coyotes lost $5 million in October alone, but the Globe & Mail offers some really fun financial news later in this story: "The court filings also revealed that the club had some unusual expenditures in October. It spent $3,500 on Hockey Hall of Fame 'induction tickets', $970 on the Boy Scouts of America 'scout night patches', and $332.67 on 'tattoos' from California Tattoos Inc. New head coach Dave Tippett, who took over after Wayne Gretzky quit, received $31,000 in October." Tattoos? [G&M]

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If were to make an all-injured player all-star team, it's probably Daniel Sedin, Eric Staal and Marian Hossa up front; Andrei Markov and Rob Blake on the blue line; and Cam Ward between the pipes. Which is to say that there are some pretty damn good players watching the game form the press box right now (though Hossa and Sedin are nearly back).

This infirmary-on-skates was a topic for both the Globe & Mail and the Sun this morning, as the NHL reaches the quarter pole; with Mike Zeisberger of the latter publication writing that the injuries have a devastating effect on the League's marketing:

For a league thirsting for star power, the assembly line of sidelined marquee performers truly is a punch right in the NHL's P.R. gut. That's especially true south of the border, where, in the absence of a true national television contract (sorry, Versus, but you are no ESPN), big names are crucial in the wooing of fans.

There's no question that the NHL's marketing focus has been star-centric ever since Gary Bettman came over from the NBA, where the name on the back of the uniform might as well be on the front, too.

That's why the NHL flopped and flailed in its promotion of the game during the trap years: How does one market stars when their talent is literally being held back? That's why the NHL has found its stride after the lockout, as the new rules have opened up the offense; players like Sidney Crosby, Evgeni Malkin and Alex Ovechkin have become marketable stars; and the shootout provides SportsCenter-ready highlights in games that would otherwise end in a tie. (Though as Puck Buddy Walt wrote over email today: Take the helmets off already.)

So Zeisberger is correct that big names are "crucial in the wooing of fans" because the NHL has set it its marketing up to be that way. But it's that "especially true south of the border" part that we're wondering about: Do star players make a difference in the NHL's popularity in the U.S.? Or is it still about the logo on the front?

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