Money talks in the NHL, but out of both sides of its mouth.

	Forget the No. 1 seed. Martin Lapointe's value should be determined by how far the Bruins advance.

How's this for mixed messages?

On the one hand, three of the top six teams in player payroll this season -- the Rangers, Stars and Capitals -- didn't even make the playoffs.

In Washington, where Sen. William Proxmire made a habit of finding those $1,834.34 screwdrivers in the Defense Department budget, they are used to such inefficient deployment of financial resources. In the spirit of Proxmire's watchdog efforts, Jaromir Jagr should have to wear a Golden Fleece patch on his shoulder next season. The Capitals went from being a bona fide playoff team and even a marginal Stanley Cup threat with a payroll of $34.5 million last season, to being on the outside with a payroll of $53.1 million this season.

The Rangers' money-is-no-object approach, more a holdover from the Neil Smith regime than a Glen Sather strategy, has been discredited long ago. But the Rangers were stuck with Theo Fleury and other deadwood contractual remnants of the previous management, and a complete rebuilding process is impossible in New York, given the unique pressures and expectations.

And in Dallas, where owner Tom Hicks decided that paying Rangers shortstop Alex Rodriguez the gross national product of Switzerland every year was justifiable, the attitude often can be, what the hell, it's only money ... as long as the oil business is prospering. In this case, not only was Pierre Turgeon an injury-plagued disappointment, it was obvious that this suddenly -- but predictably -- had become an ill-constructed team without enough of a mix of young talent and high-salaried veterans.

So those are the three franchises who helped show that money alone isn't the answer in the NHL.

On the other hand, financial commitment sure helps.

It gets into the realm of "What came first, the stick or the puck?", but eight of the 10 teams with the NHL's lowest payrolls didn't make the playoffs. That's a little tricky because the bottom four are the latest expansion franchises, and that isn't as much financial inertia as not having the elite veteran talent to throw money at. (They also have the ready-made excuses that the truly elite free agents won't consider signing with them; so the GMs continue trying to balance the avoidance of raising expectations too high, too soon, with the, ahem, "financial responsibility.")

But for the franchises that are financially aggressive -- such as when Detroit landed and signed Dominik Hasek; when St. Louis added Doug Weight; when Colorado re-signed Joe Sakic, Patrick Roy and Rob Blake -- the standard has nothing to do with the regular season.

The moves are made for the Cup, and only the Cup. The pizza king, Mike Ilitch, will be wondering why he spent all that money if the Red Wings don't win their third Cup title in six seasons. The Presidents' Trophy? Surely you jest.

The moves are made for the Cup, and only the Cup. The pizza king, Mike Ilitch, will be wondering why he spent all that money if the Red Wings don't win their third Cup title in six seasons. The Presidents' Trophy? Surely you jest. And the dueling brothers-in-law -- owners Bill Laurie of the Blues and Stan Kroenke of the Avalanche -- will feel similarly betrayed if their megabucks offseason commitments don't translate into postseason success. (Again for Kroenke, finally for Laurie.)

OK, if they can make it through to at least the conference finals, the added revenue is welcomed; but the Holy Grail is Lord Stanley's present to the dominion of Canada.

So while it's wonderful that fiscally responsible major market teams, such as the Bruins and the Blackhawks, can go through renaissance seasons and finish first and fifth in their conferences, respectively, it all rings empty pending playoff validation.

In Chicago, the problem is credibility. The Wirtz ownership has prevented the nurturing of a new generation of fans in the area -- from Merrillville, Ind., to Kenosha, Wis. -- with its dinosaur views on televising the product locally. During the Blackhawks' slide, the never-correct standard phrase -- there are only 19,000 hockey fans in Chicago, and they're in the arena every night -- became even more laughable. And the reason it became even more laughable was that the Wirtzes were helping drive away the hockey fans with the penny-wise, pound-foolish approach. There were, and are, sufficient multitudes of hockey fans in Chicagoland, but they just had lost the faith -- and the willingness to buy tickets.

Now that Mike Smith, an astute hockey man with a new-world understanding of the game that gibes with the internationalization of the talent pool, is in charge, and also accepts the challenge of running the operation on a decent budget, there is hope -- and beyond this playoff run.

But you wonder if the Wirtzes will wonder what good their nearly 20 percent payroll increase this season -- to $37.6 million, or roughly the league average -- bought them if the Blackhawks don't at least beat St. Louis in the first round. The truth is that the Blackhawks' entertaining season should bolster season-ticket and other advance sales for next season, but if the Blackhawks seem to cutback in the offseason -- whether that means allowing Tony Amonte to get away or anything else -- it all could be undone.

And the Bruins are in a similar situation with Bill Guerin.

Beyond that, the bang-for-the-buck success stories this season are, first and foremost, the Coyotes, who cut payroll by nearly 20 percent this season, yet made the playoffs. Yes, some of us -- the hand is up here -- thought this was a train wreck waiting to happen, with the retrenchment during the wait for the new arena to get off the drawing board and into the construction process. This is the one team that has surprised and overachieved, and anything from here on out is a bonus.

But all in all, the real test of the spending decisions is just starting.

Terry Frei of The Denver Post is a regular contributor to ESPN.com. His feedback address for e-mail signed with full names and hometowns is freifeedback@hotmail.com.