Sixteen teams. One Stanley Cup.

I want to be bold. I want to predict the unpredictable. As I compile playoff power rankings – listing the teams in order of their odds to persevere through four punishing rounds – I want to identify the underdog who will shock us all.

But I can’t. The Vancouver Canucks are too good. They’re so good that they can shake off 40 years of frustration, recent playoff disappointments and the supposed curse of winning the Presidents’ Trophy as the NHL’s best regular-season team. They’re so good that, even in a relentlessly competitive league, at a time when anything can happen, anyone can win, they can be the surprise team by actually living up to the hype.

The Canucks deserve to be the prohibitive favorites. They were 10 points better than anyone else in the regular season, which is even more impressive when you consider that 10 points separated the next 12 teams. They scored the most goals and allowed the fewest. They ranked first on the power play, third on

CHICAGO – It looked like they had blown it. All the Chicago Blackhawks needed to do Sunday was earn one point against the Detroit Red Wings – one point, and they would have clinched a playoff spot and a chance to defend their Stanley Cup championship.

But they lost by one goal, 4-3, and all coach Joel Quenneville could do afterward was crack a joke.

“I should call the Rangers,” Quenneville quipped. “Certainly, it’s not where we want to be. We’ve got to be them today, unfortunately. It’s a rotten spot, with your fingers crossed, rooting for your season.”

Little did he know the Blackhawks would be just like the New York Rangers, backing into the playoffs on the final day of their season, watching another team determine their fate.

The Carolina Hurricanes had a chance to clinch a playoff spot Saturday night. But they lost to the Tampa Bay Lightning, 6-2. And so the Rangers squeaked into eighth in the Eastern Conference.

When the Blackhawks lost to the Wings, that gave the Dallas Stars a

DETROIT – The championship belt sat on the bench in the visitors’ dressing room at Joe Louis Arena, propped against the wall, plated in faux gold, a wrestling replica. On the front, in black marker on a piece of tape, was the nickname “TAZER.” It had belonged to Jonathan Toews(notes), the captain of the Chicago Blackhawks.

Now it belonged to Ben Smith(notes).

“I think just the hard worker …” Smith said Friday night, his voice trailing off as he tried to explain the belt’s significance. He seemed stumped. He was a 22-year-old rookie, called up from the minors just two days before.

Smith turned to an equipment man.

“You want to help me out on that one?” he asked.

“No,” the man said, without looking up as he packed a bag. “New guy. Played well.”

Let me explain: The belt is like a lot of locker-room symbols in sports – hard hats, lunch boxes, hammers, whatever – that teams use to recognize blue-collar effort, and Toews didn’t award it to Smith simply because the kid scored his first NHL

This is why the NHL awards ballots aren’t due until after the regular season is over. The most dramatic, defining moments can come at the end – like Wednesday night, when the Anaheim Ducks were fighting for a playoff berth, when Corey Perry(notes) scored a hat trick against the San Jose Sharks in a 6-2 victory, when the fans chanted, “M-V-P! M-V-P!”

Those three goals didn’t hand Perry the Hart Trophy. One game, no matter how magnificent or timely, does not make a most valuable player. And four days remain in the regular season. But this performance underscored a candidacy that has been building, especially in recent weeks, and as long as the Ducks make the playoffs, it could put him over the top.

Perry has 50 goals for the first time in his career, and he probably will be the NHL’s only 50-goal scorer this season. He leads the race for the Rocket Richard Trophy as the league’s goal-scoring champ by six

It was September. Jeff Skinner(notes) was just a peach-cheeked rookie playing in a prospects tournament in Traverse City, Mich. Carolina Hurricanes general manager Jim Rutherford was looking forward to training camp, thinking he had a good, young group set up to succeed in the long term – and that maybe, if some of that youth was precocious enough, it could compete for a playoff spot this season.

“And we know what our team does once we get in the playoffs,” Rutherford said then. “Once we get in, we’re very capable of having a good run.”

Now here are the Hurricanes on the brink, ninth in the Eastern Conference, four points behind the eighth-place New York Rangers and five behind the seventh-place Buffalo Sabres. With three games to go, they have a game in hand on each.

Beat the Detroit Red Wings on Wednesday night, and at least the Hurricanes can put some pressure on their competitors. Squeak into the playoffs, and yes, anything can happen – especially with a goaltender like Cam Ward

Oh, you better believe Brian Burke was watching Monday night, hopeful when the Boston Bruins took a 3-0 lead, anxious when the New York Rangers cut it to 3-2, profane when the Rangers scored three times in the final minutes to win 5-3 at a roaring Madison Square Garden.

“Yeah,” the Toronto Maple Leafs general manager said early Tuesday morning, already back in the office before dawn, “I’m watching the TV cursing the Boston Bruins and not being able to hold a 3-0 lead. It impacts us directly and significantly. But they don’t owe us that. They don’t owe us a win last night. We’ve dug this hole. We’ve got no one to complain to. We’ve just got to keep winning.”

Even if the Leafs keep winning, their surge almost certainly will leave them short of the goal Burke set before the season – the playoffs. They have gone 18-7-5 since the all-star break, racking up 41 points, tied for fourth-most in the NHL in that span. They have won six of their past seven games. Still, they sit in 10th place in

He cut me off before I could finish the question. If Sidney Crosby(notes) does come back this season, I started to ask Pittsburgh Penguins goaltender Marc-Andre Fleury(notes), won’t it be hard to expect him to play at the level …

“Why is that?” Fleury responded, smiling.

Because, I started to say, he’s coming off a concussion and …

“But we’re talking about Sid,” Fleury interrupted again, still smiling. “The guy’s got a great work ethic, great talent. I’m sure as soon as he comes back, his presence is going to be felt on the team and other teams also.”

I wouldn’t put it past him. It would just add to his legend. It’s obvious why there has been so much excitement over every nugget of news, like when Crosby started skating on his own a couple of weeks ago and when he started participating in morning skates with his teammates Thursday, before their game against the Tampa Bay Lightning.

“Who wouldn’t want to

If anyone should be suffering from a Stanley Cup hangover, it should be Marian Hossa(notes). He went to the 2008 Cup final with the Pittsburgh Penguins, and he lost. He went to the 2009 Cup final with the Detroit Red Wings, and he lost. Then he went to the 2010 Cup final with the Chicago Blackhawks, and finally, he won.

Having played so much hockey the past three years, he should be exhausted. Having waited so long to win it all, he should be satisfied. But here was Hossa on Monday night, double-shifting against the Wings, flying all over the ice, firing a wicked shot in overtime to lift the ’Hawks to a 3-2 victory – the most important victory of the season, according to coach Joel Quenneville.

And here was a reminder to the rest of the NHL that no matter what has happened to the ’Hawks to this point – the salary-cap purge, the slow start, the injuries, the fight to the finish – these are still the defending champions. As long as they make the playoffs, they are still dangerous.

“What