By ERIC DUHATSCHEK, Toronto Globe and Mail

"Up in the Air'' is not just a popular Oscar-nominated movie starring George Clooney, but also the primary subtext of the 2009-10 NHL season, a grueling non-stop travel odyssey -- missing only the frequent flyer points because everybody charters now.

Predicting a Chicago Blackhawks-Philadelphia Flyers Stanley Cup final back in October was actually not a puzzling, how-did-we-get-here-from-there sort of stretch.

.Unknown or previously underappreciated goaltenders have won all the Stanley Cup championships since the NHL lockout of 2004-05 and this year will be no exception, given who is left standing after the dust settled and the Final Four emerged.

That 24-hour turnaround between the last game of the first round and the first game of the second round is sweet -- and should happen every year. No endless waiting.

They are the Cinderella Four, joined together by a single common thread.

Every year, it seems, the NHL awards race gets closer and more interesting and 2009-10 will prove to be no exception, with no-sure-thing battles for all of the league's major hardware in every category -- from the Hart for MVP to the underappreciated Lady Byng for sportsmanship and gentlemanly conduct.

So without any further adieu, our choices:

Nothing quite illustrates the NHL's supplementary discipline quandary better than what happened in Sunday's game between its two best teams.

With another successful Winter Classic in the books New Year's Day from Fenway Park in Boston, National Hockey League officials are now looking ahead to 2011, where the tentative plan is to hold two outdoor games if possible -- the first in its regular slot, on New Year's Day; the second in Canada, as part of the annual Hockey Day in Canada celebrations.

Wayne Gretzky played for Canada during the 1998 Winter Olympics in Nagano and then managed the men's hockey team for each of the next two Olympics -- Salt Lake City in 2002 and Turin in 2006.

So there it is. Another year passes and once again, no Canadian-based NHL team enters the winner's circle.
This marks the first full decade (2000-09) since the NHL was formed in 1917 that a Canadian team won't have won the championship.