Hearing a favorite NFL player is slated to be on the cover of latest installment of Madden is enough to leave a fan in a cold sweat.

In video gaming and football circles it is known as the "Madden Curse ," and it usually results in injuries or disasterous seasons for that season's cover boy.

The curse is hit or miss when it comes EA's NHL series. Some cover athletes have suffered devastating injuries or disppointing seasons. Others have experienced career years. The most notable has to be Chris Pronger, who won the Hart Trophy as league MVP in 1999-2000, the year he was on NHL's cover. Strangely, as Chicago Blackhawks winger Patrick Kane recently discovered, the "curse" of NHL cover boys extend to run-ins with the law.

EA published generic action shots on its NHL series covers until 1997 when Florida Panthers goaltender John Vanbiesbrouck became the first to have the cover to himself.

Below is a breakdown of EA's NHL cover athletes and their highs and lows from that season:


NHL '97 - John Vanbiesbrouck
Season: 1996-97
A year after guiding his team to the Stanley Cup Finals,  Vanbiesbrouck backstopped the Florida Panthers to their best start in franchise history. The Cats opened the season 8-0-4 and boasted a 15-3-6 record through the first two months of the season. Down the stretch, Florida collapsed. The Panthers won just one of 10 games in late February and were defeated by the New York Rangers, 4-1, in the first round of the playoffs. Florida has not won a playoff game since.

NHL '98 - Peter Forsberg
Season: 1997-98
Forsberg had an outstanding season, earning first-team all-star honors and finishing second only to Jaromir Jagr in the scoring race. His 91 points were the fourth highest total of his career. The following season, Forsberg suffered a shoulder injury which limited him to just 49 games.

NHL '99 - Eric Lindros
Season: 1998-99
Like Forsberg, Lindros had an exceptional season the year he graced the NHL cover. The Flyers captain registered his fourth 40-goal season and finished with at least 90 points for the third time in his career. Things turned in March, however, when Lindros suffered the first of many concussions which would ultimately end his career. He missed the Flyers' last 18 games and his relationship with then-GM Bobby Clarke began to deteriorate. The following season he suffered a potentially fatal rib injury and openly criticized team doctors. The Flyers stripped Lindros of his 'C.'

NHL '00 - Chris Pronger, Markus Naslund
Season: 1999-2000
For the first time, EA released North American and European versions of the game. The cover athlete for the North American edition, Pronger had a career year with 14 goals, 62 points and a plus-52 rating. He won the Hart and Norris Trophies. Naslund's production dipped from the previous seasons. Both players saw their luck go in opposite directions the following season. Pronger missed 31 games due to injury, while Naslund experienced a breakout year with his first 40-goal season.

NHL '01 - Owen Nolan, Jere Lehtinen
Season: 2000-01
Regarded as one of the league's more durable power fowards, Nolan missed 25 games the year EA selected him for the cover of NHL's North American edition. Nolan dealt with nagging abdominal injuries at the start of the season. In February, he received an 11-game suspension for elbowing Dallas' Grant Marshall in the neck. Lehtinen, meanwhile, rebounded from a disappointing 1999-2000 campaign in which an ankle injury limited him to just 17 games. He recorded his third 20-goal effort in five seasons.

NHL '02 - Mario Lemieux
Season: 2001-02
Lemieux, who came out of retirement the previous season, appeared in just 24 games with the Penguins because of a nagging hip injury. He underwent surgery in November and returned in time for the 2002 Winter Games. Lemieux won a gold medal with Team Canada in Salt Lake City, but received criticism for putting his Olympic ambitions ahead of the Penguins, who finished last in the Atlantic Division that season.

NHL '03 - Jarome Iginla
Season: 2002-03
One season after posting a league- and career-high 52 goals, Iginla's numbers took a dive. The Flames winger suffered a finger injury during a fight early in the season and it hampered his play. Iginla finished with a respectable 35 goals and 67 points, but many considered the effort a disappointment given his breakout season the year before.

NHL '04 - Dany Heatley, Joe Sakic
Season: 2003-04
EA originally chose Joe Thornton for the cover, but decided to forego the decision after the center was accused of assaulting two police officers. EA opted for Heatley as his replacement. Shortly after the game shipped, Heatley was involved in a car crash which resulted in the death of teammate Dan Snyder. Midway through the season, EA changed its cover athlete yet again, this time selecting Joe Sakic. The Avalanche captain finished third in league scoring with 87 points and earned a gold medal with Team Canada at the 2004 World Championship.



NHL '05 - Markus Naslund, Olli Jokinen
Season: 2004-05
Despite a lockout, EA continued with the NHL series, again with North American and European versions of the game. Both players experienced strong seasons in Europe. Naslund, who appeared with MoDo (Sweden) that year, posted 17 points in 13 games. Jokinen split time among EHC Kloten (Switzerland), Sodertalje (Sweden) and HIFK (Finland) and finished with 46 points in 45 games.

NHL '06 - Vincent Lecavalier, Tuomo Ruutu
Season: 2005-06
Lecavalier experienced his best season to date, posting 35 goals. His numbers were on par with previous seasons, but Tampa Bay, the defending Stanley Cup champion, failed to advance past the first round of the playoffs. On the international front, Lecavalier made his Olympic debut at the 2006 Winter Games in Torino. He returned without a medal. Ruutu, who graced the cover of the European edition, saw his season decimated by back and ankle injuries. He appeared in just 15 games.

NHL '07 - Alex Ovechkin, Teemu Selanne, Henrik Lundqvist
Season: 2006-07
All three players had outstanding seasons. Ovechkin, the North American cover athlete, and Teemu Selanne, the player on NHL's Finnish edition, each recorded at least 40 goals and 90 points. Lundqvist, the cover athlete for the Swedish edition, appeared in 70 games and won 37. Selanne won a Stanley Cup as a member of the Anaheim Ducks this season. It is worth noting this is, so far, the only season in which Ovechkin has failed to score at least 50 goals.

NHL '08 - Eric Staal, Jaromir Jagr, Henrik Zetterberg, Teemu Selanne, Mark Streit
Season: 2007-08
Staal rebounded from a disppointing 2006-07 campaign, but found himself in the headlines prior to the season when he and 12 others were arrested during a rowdy bachelor party. Jaromir Jagr saw his relationship with the New York Rangers deteriorate over contract issues. Despite a respectable 71-point season, the Rangers declined to pick up his option for the following season. On the flip side, Selanne (Finland), Zetterberg (Sweden) and Streit (Switzerland) each had good years. Selanne re-signed with the Ducks in mid-season and finished with 23 goals in 26 games. Zetterberg won his first Stanley Cup with the Red Wings. Streit experienced a breakout season in Montreal and too advantage of his success by signing a five-year, $20.5 million contract with the New York Islanders as a free agent.

NHL '09 - Dion Phaneuf
Season: 2008-09
One year after posting a career-high 60 points and finishing as the runner-up for the Norris Trophy, Phaneuf posted a career-low 47 points. Phaneuf, who never posted a minus rating in his first three seasons, finished minus-11.

NHL '10 - Patrick Kane, Mikko Koivu, Mikkel Boedker, Mark Streit, Nicklas Backstrom
Season: 2009-10
Kane, EA's North American cover athlete, is the first of this group to make headlines. He was arrested in Buffalo on August 9 for allegedly punching a cab driver over 20 cents change. The Blackhawks winger faces felony robbery charges and two misdemeanor counts. EA has slated Koivu to be on the Finnish version of the game, Boedker on the Danish version, Streit on the Swiss version and Backstrom on the Swedish version.

ATLANTA -- Are you ready for some content?

I sure hope so, because I've got plenty to keep you entertained until the all-stars take to the ice for tonight's SuperSkills competition.

Today's day started with team captains Vincent Lecavalier and Jarome Iginla holding a formal press conference. They had some interesting comments, but you guys will have to wait for details on that -- be sure to check out Wes Goldstein's story tonight, which will cover that.

I didn't get a chance to watch much of the All-Star practices. The crowd attending was average, with a good part of the upper level being empty. Granted, we'll give the Atlanta fans a bye on this one as it was held at 9 a.m. on a Saturday morning. We'll hold off on giving them a grade until we see what the turnout for the SuperSkills and All-Star Game are.

One thing that I give the Thrashers credit for is having a marching band perform on the ice between the practices. Before you roll your eyes at that, they weren't just a boring marching band that forms letters and shapes. These guys dance while they're playing and are real entertaining. If you've seen the battle between the Southern and Grambling bands at the Bayou Classic, you get the idea. They were real entertaining, but probably didn't get to put on the same show they normally would have because of the ice -- I imagine high-stepping on ice is rather dangerous, not to mention, a lawsuit waiting to happen.

And I still don't know who the heck the Jonas Brothers are, but I can tell you this: if you were in the arena when they took the stage, the high-pitched screams probably damaged your hearing.

On that note, onto the guts of what came out of media day.

WarpedMind, since you asked about Marian Gaborik, you got it. I'll be posting his interview shortly. (To give a quick briefing, though, he'll be competing in the Elimination Shootout and Breakaway Challenge events tonight.)

ATLANTA -- When first asked whether he thought about putting a new version of the Russian Five together at Sunday's game, Eastern Conference coach John Paddock's initial response was nyet.

Actually, Paddock never got to elaborate on his thought process during the coaches roundtable. But when a member of the Russian media followed up with the same question during a media scrum, the Senators coach seemed to be changing his stance on the possible combination.

Paddock explained that he hadn't thought about putting a forward line of Alex Ovechkin, Evgeni Malkin and Ilya Kovalchuk together because both Ovechkin and Kovalchuk were left wings with right-handed shots. The journalist informed Paddock, however, Ovechkin said he was excited about the prospect of playing with his fellow countryman and willing to play right wing if thats what it took.

Andrei Markov and Sergei Gonchar would fill out the five on defense.

"I never thought of it before. I probably should have," Paddock said. "I thought of how I'd play the lines. I don't think I'd play them as a regular group, but I think since it has been brought up, sometime during the game, or at the start of a period, it would be entertaining and further the players' enjoyment. It's certainly something we'd consider now."

Paddock also hinted at possible line combinations including: Kovalchuk-Savard-Hossa, Ovechkin-Spezza-St. Louis, as well as seeing if Mike Richards and Eric Staal can play wing. Scott Gomez and Vincent Lecavalier would probably remain at center.

FORT LAUDERDALE, Fla. -- I'm not a morning person, so please bear with my disjointed thought process here... I'm just spouting some thoughts as I wait for my flight and try to wake up.

* Last week, Jak-o posted on our Faceoff question thread asking why the NHL doesn't cash in on other young talent besides Pittsburgh's Sidney Crosby. It is an excellent question, and hopefully one that we should get an answer to this weekend.

I suppose you'd have to ask the NHL's marketing department why they seem to be putting all their eggs in one basket, but my only thought is that they're still living off a Wayne Gretzky (or maybe even Gretzky-Mario Lemieux) mentality. If you had no clue was a puck was during the Gretzky era, chances are his name wasn't a foreign one. And maybe if you were a casual fan, you had some idea that Gretzky and Lemieux had a rivalry comparable to say, Magic and Bird.

The problem with this thinking is that it just doesn't work anymore. Yes, every other league has at least one major superstar. But they've also got plenty of others that would at least spark a debate of "Is superstar A better than superstar B?" If Gary Bettman, a former protoge of NBA commish David Stern, has learned anything from his former employer, it's that when you lose your record-breaking, commercially appealing, everyone-in-the-world-knows-him superstar (a la Michael Jordan), it is OK to branch out.

But getting back to the weekend... The NHL got its ultimate dream game with the Outdoor Classic. They couldn't have scripted it any better between the crowd, the snow, and of course, Sidney Crosby scoring the decisive goal in a shootout. This week is the perfect opportunity to show the world (or the United States) at the very least, the NHL isn't just Sid's league. It's Alex Ovechkin's, Ilya Kovalchuk's, Vincent Lecavalier's, Jarome Iginla's, Joe Thornton's league, too. (There are many others I could add to this list, but you're better of just looking at the All-Star Game rosters.)

I think the league could be moving in the right direction though, just based on the changes to the SuperSkills competition. The new Obstacle Course Relay seems like fun, but it (hopefully) will be the Breakaway Challenge that gets plastered all over highlights packages. It won't be enough to make the NHL the top sport in the United States, but it might be yet another thing that gets people talking at the watercooler on Monday. That is what the league needs more than anything, and they're going to have faith in their "other" Stars to produce that result.

* I think Pascal Leclaire wrote an open letter to the league last night. I think it goes something like, "Dear NHL... So, my seven shutouts weren't worthy enough for a ticket to Atlanta? Here, let me tack another one onto my resume to embarrass you for snubbing me."

Granted, Leclaire is probably just as happy to be spending the next couple of days resting. And the Blue Jackets are probably happy about that, too. Still, you wonder what a guy has to do to get recognized for a stellar season. Maybe not Vezina worthy, but one that was really unexpected and impressive considering the stiff competition he faces in the Central Division.

* Speaking of goaltenders, how great is the story of Tim Thomas? He ends up as Boston's starter last season because their depth in net was in shambles. He gets relegated to the bench again with the acquisition of Manny Fernandez, but ends up regaining the No. 1 job when Fernandez gets hurt. And after putting up very respectable numbers, he earns an All-Star berth.

* Is anyone else drooling over the possibility of seeing Alex Ovechkin, Evgeni Malkin and Ilya Kovalchuk on a line?

* As I mentioned in the last post: please feel free to send questions/comments/feedback... if you've got a question for a player (within reason), I'll do my best to get an answer. We'll be talking to coaches and YoungStars this afternoon.

* Weather in South Florida: Sunny, 65 degrees. Weather in Atlanta: Partly Cloudy, 21 degrees. Brrrrr.