Unfortunate end.

Gary Roberts played a very anticlimactic final game in the NHL.

He was last in the lineup with the Tampa Bay Lightening on March 1 against Calgary (he got 1 assist). The Lightening placed Roberts on waivers previous to the March 4 NHL trade deadline.

However he was not picked off waivers by the time the trade deadline rolled by on Wednesday. And his $2million dollar contract has him squeezed out of Tampa Bay because of their salary cap situation.

Since breaking into the league in 1986 with the Calgary Flames Roberts became one of the fearless leaders in the NHL. A character "glue" guy, who would rather block a shot with his face then have it go in the net.

In recent years, his off-ice conditioning became legendary. players started noting that he was one of the fittest guys in the NHL (the guy was doing crazy mountain bike races in the off-season for fun!)

He even took on legendary status while playing with the Pittsburgh Penguins. Gaining almost cult status as fans (and media) began comparing him to Chuck Norris.

If you ask me, the Lightening effed this one up. They signed him in the off-season — they should have made sure they had room for him. This is no way to treat a veteran player. There's some cliche out there about karma being a bitch... yah.

If you ask me, Roberts is just another victim of the absolutely disastrous Tampa Bay management team.

Monkeys could manage a herd of cats better.

TSN is reporting that the Lightening will make an official announcement about Roberts' retirement today. Official or not — I think it's a sad end to a storied career.

And so, sadly, I leave you with some last What Would Gary Roberts Do's:

• Gary Roberts does not shoot the puck. The puck seeks to escape Gary as fast as possible to the relative safety of the net.

• Gary Roberts does not have a gym membership. The gym has a Gary Roberts membership.

• Every day, Gary Roberts meditates for one hour. This is the only time the rest of the NHL can relax.

• Georges Laraque named his fists Gary and Roberts.

• The grass is always greener on the other side. That is, unless Gary Roberts has been on the other side. In that case, the grass is most likely the color of blood and tears.

• Gary Roberts ordered a Big Mac at Burger King. And he got one.

• What's known as UFC, or Ultimate Fighting Championship, doesn't use it's full name, which happens to be "Ultimate Fighting Championship, Non-Gary-Roberts-Division."

Tampa is going to be Ridiculous (capital R on purpose)

From the Canadian Press: "A day after being traded from Ottawa, restricted free-agent defenceman Andrej Meszaros has signed a six-year deal with the Tampa Bay Lightning."

Add that they've just signed Vincent Lecavalier to one of those "you might die before your contract expires" deals and subsequently named him captain. (In case you were wondering: 11 years, $85 million.)

They also managed to pick first overall in the draft (see: Eastern Conference Doormat 2007-08) and now own The Next-Next One.

Oh yea, and they went on a free-agent frenzy signing that would even make Pierre McGuire blush. Ryan Malone, Gary Roberts, Radim Vrbata, Olaf Kolzig, Matt Carle, Mark Recchi, and somehow managed to talk ESPN commentator Barry Melrose into the head coach job.

Looks like their evil plan is coming together nicely.

It's here!!! It's here!!!

The finals start today.

Now I know the number one of the burning questions is... who did the TSN hockey panel pick to win it all?

Bob MacKenzie: Detroit
Mike Milbury: Detroit
Pierre McGuire: is remaining neutral? Can you do that?
Darren Dreger: Pittsburgh
Geno Reda: Pittsburgh

So with those predictions, it's tied 2-2 because of Switzerland over there screwing up the tiebreaker. Well, what better to replace Pierre McGuire with than with a MONKEY!

Maggie picked Pittsburgh.

And now the real burning question. Who do I think will win? Pittsburgh. Why? Because I have a blind faith in the magic of Sidney Crosby.

Kidding. There are also some other factors. Anyway, talk about a situation that's been over analyzed, pundits have had nothing to do for like 5 days now. And for the most part, it seems most are picking Detroit to take it home. Most seem to cite the team's recent past of overachieving in the regular season and underachieving playoffs, making them somehow more hungry. Don't buy it. They also seem to be saying that Chris Osgood is the more experienced goaltender with a few Cups to his name. Last time I checked Osgood was riding the bench for those Cup runs. Yep, I checked again... still true. I will agree that Detroit has the edge in faceoffs, but as long as Detroit is soooo fast. Um, so is Pittsburgh. Detroit is sooooo dreamy. Ok, well maybe they didn't say that. You get my point, I don't think there's an underdog in this one.

Some other notes about tonight.
Gary Roberts, despite being cleared by doctors after his stint with pneumonia, and was even quoted as saying,
"The rest has been great for me and I feel like I'm ready to go."
Yet for some reason... he is a healthy scratch. Seriously? How can you healthy scratch Gary Roberts in the playoffs. He's a playoff monster. He eats other teams for breakfast in the playoffs. He crushes their spirits. That's pretty hard to do from the press box.

Also, Chris Chelios will sit out for game one, he has a "leg-area injury" although he apparently wanted to play. And scoring machine, Johan Franzen is still out with "concussion-like symptoms" but could possibly be back for game two.

The week that wouldn't end.

Gary Roberts sat out game three with pneumonia. Gary Roberts doesn't have pneumonia, they just don't want him to kill any flyers.

Isn't that cute... the Flyers think they're gonna win a game.

The Detroit Red Wings failed to sweep the Western Conference finals last night as they lost to the Dallas Stars, pushing off the inevitable for one more night.

Dave Nonis has been in interviews for the General Manager position with the Toronto Maple Leafs for three days now. Three days? They've got to be going steady by now.

Canada beat Norway 8-2 to move onto the Semi-Finals against Sweden, to be held in Quebec City. (I will rant about this later).