Todd Bertuzzi was suspended for the final 13 regular-season games and the postseason for his vicious hit on Colorado's Steve Moore. AP

Random thoughts as the Todd Bertuzzi flap fades and we look ahead to the playoffs ...

• Ah, things are back to normal. A few days ago I noticed that "Todd Bertuzzi" was among the five most popular sports searches on the Yahoo! Buzz Index, a sort of instantaneous American Top 40 that tracks what people are asking the search engine to hunt for. By noon Wednesday, though, Block Head Todd had fallen off the charts. The highest-ranking hockey-related search was NHL, which placed 12th behind the likes of "Iditarod," "2004 NFL Draft" and "Dallas Cowboys." What information could people possibly need on the 'Boys in the middle of March? I'm pretty sure most of the Cowboys players aren't even thinking about the Cowboys these days.

• It's too bad, now that Bertuzzi's near-criminal act has been chewed up and spit out by the mainstream media, that most American sports fans will go back to ignoring hockey. I have a suspicion that, in a twisted way, the threat of a long work stoppage when the league's collective bargaining agreement expires in September will make the postseason even tenser, more hard-fought and entertaining than usual this year. There's a good chance we won't have NHL hockey next year, so teams that feel they have a shot at winning the Stanley Cup -- especially the ones stocked with veterans, like the Flyers, Maple Leafs, Red Wings and Avalanche -- will go all out. This is a last hurrah for many franchises' nuclei of talent.

• For a short piece in this week's Sports Illustrated on the imminent expiration of the NHL's national television contract with ABC and ESPN, I spent a lot of time talking to people about why hockey is still such a weak draw -- or is perceived that way -- in this country. The consensus seems to be this: The sport isn't in our blood, and the average sports fan is still as lost trying to follow the game on TV as a third-grader at an astrophysics lecture.

In other words, violence isn't the problem. Ignorance is, which is why the uproar surrounding the Bertuzzi flap is so maddening to those who love the sport. John Davidson, the superb analyst for ABC and Rangers broadcasts, said it best. "When you have something like the Bertuzzi thing it's a frenzy out there in this country and everybody piles on," he said. "I call most of the people who do that vultures because I don't think they know the game, they don't understand that they play 1,200 games a year and [these incidents] are very seldom seen."

• The list of stars the NHL would love to see get more exposure in this country -- Martin St. Louis, Jarome Iginla, Markus Naslund, Ilya Kovalchuk and on and on -- is a long one. But the league is also banking on players like Capitals checking center Jeff Halpern for its long-term success. Halpern was born in Potomac, Md., in 1976, a few months after the expansion Caps joined the league. He grew up and played youth hockey in the Washington area. His family owned Caps season tickets. And now he plays for the team he was raised to love.

A touching story, isn't it? Yes, but it's also an example of the way the NHL hopes to expand its popularity. (Granted, the Caps aren't too popular in Washington these days, but they've had their moments.) The league is praying that as youth hockey programs expand the hockey gene will take hold in the U.S. markets it has entered during the last decade or so. People who have played the game at some level (the number is minuscule compared to the number of kids who have shot free throws or played Little League) will make for a more knowledgable, passionate fan base. And maybe even the occasional gritty forward for the hometown franchise.

"Ice hockey participation [among kids] is up well over 100 percent in the last 10 years," says NHL chief operating officer Jon Litner. "Our clubs are going deep into the communities to reach children in schools, build rinks and begin to create a feeder system to create a fan base and also create some future players."

Are we raising the Hockey Generation right now? We won't know for several years. For the sake of the league's long-term future, let's hope so.

• They haven't gotten as much attention as the President's Cup-chasing Lightning or the radically overhauled Flyers, but anyone who happened to catch the Bruins' 2-1 win against the Maple Leafs on Tuesday night has to be convinced that Boston is a legitimate Stanley Cup contender in the East. (By the way, the match was also a great example of how a torrent of goals isn't necessary for a game to be entertaining. The teams traded frequent scoring chances and there was a lot of crisp, back-and-forth action -- a much-needed tonic after a depressing week for the league. )

The Bruins' power play has been humming since the trades for Sergei Gonchar and Michael Nylander earlier this month. (They have a 21.1 percent success rate in six games and went 2-for-4 against Toronto.) Goalie Andrew Raycroft didn't stand on his head against the Leafs but, as has been the case all season, he was dependable and solid when Toronto pressured him. Joe Thornton -- five goals in his last seven games -- has had a noticeable spring in his step in recent weeks.

And, though playoff success is as much about passion and hard work as it is about regular-season trends, here's a stat that shouldn't be overlooked. The win was Boston's league-leading 21st away from home. (Tampa Bay also has 21.) For reasons that are probably obvious, teams that play deep into the spring are generally elite road teams. Here are the Cup finalists of the past five seasons and how their road win totals ranked in the league. History suggests the Bruins, who have advanced past the first round just twice since 1992, are in for a longer ride this year.

Sports Illustrated staff writer Stephen Cannella covers the NHL for the magazine and contributes frequently to SI.com.