We have what you need to be ready for the best time of the year with our Playoff Preview! We break down every team with analysis, predictions, projected line combos and fantasy player rankings. Also, we've got features on what the 2004 Lightning Cup champs can teach this year's squad, why our 2019 Cup pick was four years in the making, how the Capitals plan to repeat, and profiles on Mark Giordano, Frederik Andersen and Mark Stone, and much more.

Playoff Preview 2019

The Hockey News has been providing the most comprehensive coverage of the world of hockey since 1947. THN is published 18 times a year, including 14 regular issues and four special issues – such as Future Watch, Draft Preview, Yearbook, the #1 selling hockey annual in North America.

The Hockey News Apr. 1/19, 2019 - Playoff Preview Issue

<div class="byline">Jason Kay, Editor in Chief</div><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/jk_2018_29/474434-1-eng-US/jk_2018_22.jpg" title="jk_2018_2" width="689" height="994"><figcaption class="caption-body"><span class="photo-credit">(PHOTO BY JON BLACKER)</span></figcaption></div><p class="dropcap"><b><span>W</span>E&rsquo;RE STILL A </b>rollercoaster ride away from discovering if the Golden Knights were indeed a Stone&rsquo;s throw from a Stanley Cup, but what is clear is their success story is still hurtling. Short of winning a championship in Year 2, Vegas&rsquo; encore season was always going to feel anticlimactic, but if viewed in a silo, their prodigious performance remains unprecedented.</p><p>Entering the stretch, the Knights were hovering around .600, double-digits positive in goal differential and among the very best 5-on-5, consistently outshooting and outchancing opponents. By comparison, since Buffalo and Vancouver joined in 1970, no other expansion club has had a winning record or qualified for the playoffs in either of its first two seasons. The critics, who wondered if Vegas caught lightning in a bottle in Year 1, have been silenced. Mostly.</p><p>The dissenters say the joyride isn&rsquo;t sustainable. High-end draft picks, won via losing, are vital for long-term well-being, they say. A scan of history lends some credence to the doctrine. The Buffalo Sabres and New York Islanders are the most successful post-1970 newbies. The Sabres were gifted the first pick in &rsquo;70 and took Gilbert Perreault. In the ensuing years, Buffalo drafted Jim Schoenfeld and Rick Martin at No. 5 overall. The Sabres made the playoffs seven of the next eight years, getting to the Cup final in 1975. The Islanders picked Billy Harris and Denis Potvin at the pole position in their first two drafts, followed by Clarke Gillies fourth overall in draft three. After some brief pain, the Isles became an elite club, forging the start of its dynasty in Year 8.</p><p>The plan isn&rsquo;t foolproof. The high picks have to pan out, and expansion clubs have been responsible for some of the all-time worst lunch bag letdowns. Greg Joly (Washington), Alexandre Daigle (Ottawa) and Patrik Stefan (Atlanta Thrashers) were all No. 1 overalls who were overall disappointments.</p><p>Where does this leave Vegas? Is their window to win already closing due to a lack of lottery picks? The data suggests it&rsquo;s a definite maybe. The Knights are one of the oldest teams in the NHL, with an average age just greater than 28. Detroit and Minnesota lead the pack at 29. Marc-Andre Fleury turns 35 in November, and there is no heir apparent. Other core players such as Paul Stastny and Max Pacioretty have already had their 30th birthdays. Leveraging them for picks and prospects becomes dicier as they grow greyer. And it&rsquo;s not as though Vegas already has a wealth of whiz kids. In our recently published Future Watch, the Knights ranked 25th of the 31 teams in prospect depth, earning a C-plus grade.</p><p>Hypothetically, had the Knights skated a more traditional expansion route, they would have been in the running for building blocks such as Rasmus Dahlin, Andrei Svechnikov and Brady Tkachuk last year; Jack Hughes and Kaapo Kakko this year. Of course, with the lottery, there are no guarantees.</p><p>There still is time for the Knights&rsquo; brain trust to replenish (or is that plenish?) the system in the coming years, and Vegas owns nine picks in the first five rounds this June (three third-rounders, three fifth-rounders), but with each &lsquo;W&rsquo; they post, their task becomes that much tougher. They&rsquo;re going to have to hit on winners consistently in trades and the draft and, perhaps sooner than later, have the stones to make difficult decisions.</p><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/jasonkay_si_0083/474427-1-eng-US/jasonkay_si_0082.jpg" title="jasonkay_si_008" width="422" height="231"></div><p><span class="end-marker"> &#9632;</span></p>

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Column

CAN VEGAS PARLAY ITS SUCCESS?

<div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/tb_kucherov_080/476825-1-eng-US/tb_kucherov_0802.jpg" title="tb_kucherov_080" width="973" height="1188"><figcaption class="caption-body"><b>NIKITA KUCHEROV</b> <span class="photo-credit">(MARK BLINCH/NHLI VIA GETTY IMAGES)</span></figcaption></div><p class="dropcap"><b><span>W</span>HEN YOU GO</b> down the stretch having locked up the Presidents&rsquo; Trophy, having only lost back-to-back games in regulation once this season and sitting within striking distance of some of the greatest regular-season teams of all-time, it goes without saying you&rsquo;re having a great year. The Lightning&rsquo;s 2018-19 regular season was not a season as much as it was a coronation.</p><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0057-0257/476839-1-eng-US/f0057-022.jpg" title="f0057-02" width="208" height="208"></div><p>It&rsquo;s remarkable, actually, what this team has done. It went into the final month of the season not only atop the NHL standings, but also first in power play, penalty killing, goal differential and goals scored and fourth in goals against. The Bolts have four lines that mesh better than any other in the league and a goaltender that was fighting for the best save percentage in the league.</p><p>They&rsquo;re almost as good on the road as they are at home, largely because of an explosive offense chock full of elite producers who are having career seasons. It&rsquo;s quite possible Tampa Bay will end up with a goal differential 40 better than the next best team while finishing 20 points ahead of the second-place team in the standings.</p><p>But with history as their only competition and home ice advantage through the playoffs booked long ago, the Lightning had almost nothing to play for in the final third of the season. That did not stop them from keeping their foot directly on the gas, a strategy that leaves them vulnerable to fatigue in the post-season. (But, then again, they&rsquo;ll also go into the playoffs playing at a high level and with all sorts of confidence.) The Lightning could very well finish the season with the Hart, Art Ross (Nikita Kucherov), Vezina (Andrei Vasilevskiy), Selke (Brayden Point) and Jack Adams (Jon Cooper) winners, but it will all be for naught if those trophies aren&rsquo;t buttressing the Stanley Cup in this year&rsquo;s team picture. The pressure to finish the job will be immense.</p><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/1st-cup-pass16/480518-1-eng-US/1st-cup-pass.jpg" title="1ST-CUP-PASS" width="600" height="126"></div><p>The two holdovers from the bad old days in Tampa: Steven Stamkos and <b>VICTOR HEDMAN</b>. Expect the captain to hand it over to the alpha-dog defenseman.</p><h2><b>X-FACTOR</b></h2><p>The Lightning enter this post-season as the prohibitive favorite to win the Stanley Cup, but this is not an organization that always handles that kind of pressure well. After falling into an 0-2 deficit to the Washington Capitals in the Eastern Conference final last year, the Lightning clawed their way back in the series and were one win away from advancing to the Stanley Cup final before their vaunted offense dried up and was shut down in the final two games of the series. It&rsquo;s nothing tangible, but there&rsquo;s a notion the Lightning could choke in the playoffs. It&rsquo;s a reputation it can only shed by winning.</p><h2><b>PROJECTED LINES</b></h2><div class="figure-block image-bleed"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0057-0343/476818-1-eng-US/f0057-032.jpg" title="f0057-03" width="1034" height="482"></div><h2><b>PLAYOFF ROSTER</b></h2><div class="figure-block image-bleed"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0057-0167/476811-1-eng-US/f0057-012.jpg" title="f0057-01" width="1573" height="583"></div><h2><b>FANTASY ZONE</b></h2><p>Winning a playoff pool isn&rsquo;t as simple as clicking the name of every elite player. Factoring in how far you expect a team to go means a lot. The Lightning seem poised to play into June, so typically mediocre fantasy options like <b>TYLER JOHNSON</b> might outscore star players over the course of the post-season. Don&rsquo;t be afraid to target Tampa&rsquo;s depth guys.</p><div class="figure-block image-bleed"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/tb/480525-1-eng-US/tb.jpg" title="TB" width="2500" height="1200"></div><p><span class="end-marker"> &#9632;</span></p>

NHL TEAM REPORTS

TAMPA BAY LIGHTNING

<div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/nsh_josi22/476470-1-eng-US/nsh_josi22.jpg" title="nsh_josi2" width="825" height="1348"><figcaption class="caption-body"><p><b>ROMAN&nbsp;JOSI</b></p> <span class="photo-credit">(JOHN RUSSELL/NHLI VIA GETTY IMAGES)</span></figcaption></div><p class="dropcap"><b><span>T</span>HE MOST SUCCESSFUL</b> period in the Preds&rsquo; 20-season history continues. They nabbed their first berth in the Cup final in 2016-17 and their first Presidents&rsquo; Trophy in 2017-18. This season marks their first five-year playoff streak. Few teams have a more consistent and defined identity. We know the many things they do well and the few things they don&rsquo;t.</p><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0052-0248/476484-1-eng-US/f0052-022.jpg" title="f0052-02" width="326" height="189"></div><p>Defense remains the hallmark. The team boasts one of the five lowest goals-against averages for a second straight year and still ices the NHL&rsquo;s best top four on &lsquo;D.&rsquo; No one can trump Roman Josi and Ryan Ellis plus Mattias Ekholm and P.K. Subban. The quartet is so dominant that even its least flashy guy, Ekholm, has a strong Norris Trophy case, swallowing up opposing forwards with his massive wingspan and generating surprising offense for a big shutdown defender.</p><p>The Predators usually get great regular-season goaltending from starter Pekka Rinne, the reigning Vezina winner, and backup Juuse Saros, but Rinne&rsquo;s playoff implosions have become the stuff of legend. He was pulled three times in Nashville&rsquo;s Round 2 loss to Winnipeg last year, including at home in Game 7. The Preds lessened Rinne&rsquo;s workload this season in hopes of keeping him fresher for the playoffs at 36. By mid-March he&rsquo;d started two-thirds of their games, his smallest piece of the pie in a healthy year since 2009-10. If the Preds get good, not even elite, netminding in the playoffs, they&rsquo;re a serious Cup threat.</p><p>Viktor Arvidsson is trending toward star status, and Filip Forsberg is a reliable 30-goal producer, but Nashville&rsquo;s forward group remains a collection of water pistols compared to the bazookas Winnipeg, Tampa Bay, Washington and Toronto bring to the fight. The Preds&rsquo; next 40-goal scorer will be the first in their history. GM David Poile added Mikael Granlund and Wayne Simmonds at the trade deadline to help.</p><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/1st-cup-pass11/480448-1-eng-US/1st-cup-pass.jpg" title="1ST-CUP-PASS" width="600" height="126"></div><p>Rinne is the most accomplished Predator ever, but there wouldn&rsquo;t be a dry eye in the house if cancer survivor and beloved dressing-room guy <b>BRIAN BOYLE</b> got it.</p><h2><b>X-FACTOR</b></h2><p>Wayne Simmonds ranks second to Alex Ovechkin in power-play goals since 2013-14. Nashville&rsquo;s power play ranked last on trade-deadline day, making Simmonds a no-brainer acquisition, even if he&rsquo;s in decline at 30. On top of his net-front presence, he brings physicality and size. Speed and skill trumps brute force in today&rsquo;s game, but the current championship template, the Capitals, blended speed, skill <i>and</i> size. To defeat Winnipeg, the Preds need a power forward fit to battle intimidators Dustin Byfuglien and Jacob Trouba. Simmonds can even flip the script and soften those guys up.</p><h2><b>PROJECTED LINES</b></h2><div class="figure-block image-bleed"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0052-0327/476463-1-eng-US/f0052-032.jpg" title="f0052-03" width="1034" height="482"></div><h2><b>PLAYOFF ROSTER</b></h2><div class="figure-block image-bleed"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0052-0171/476456-1-eng-US/f0052-012.jpg" title="f0052-01" width="1568" height="584"></div><h2><b>FANTASY ZONE</b></h2><p>If you compete in a relatively casual playoff pool, <b>VIKTOR ARVIDSSON</b> is practically a cheat code, as an injury-shortened season suppressed what would&rsquo;ve been an otherworldly goal total. He produced at better than a 50-goal pace this season, but he&rsquo;ll come far cheaper than other top goal scorers in most drafts. He&rsquo;s not quite a name brand yet.</p><div class="figure-block image-bleed"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/nsh/480455-1-eng-US/nsh.jpg" title="NSH" width="2500" height="1200"></div><p><span class="end-marker"> &#9632;</span></p>

NASHVILLE PREDATORS

<div class="byline">BY CHARLIE TELJEUR</div><div class="image-hero"><img title="7213_charli_036" src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/7213_charli_036/474664-1-eng-US/7213_charli_0362.jpg"></div><p><span class="end-marker"> &#9632;</span></p>

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BUZZ

THE INSTIGATOR

<div class="byline">W. Graeme Roustan</div><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/graeme_rous_013/474513-1-eng-US/graeme_rous_0132.jpg" title="graeme_rous_013" width="511" height="529"><figcaption class="caption-body"><span class="photo-credit">(PHOTO BY MICHELLE VALBERG)</span></figcaption></div><p>Dear readers,</p><p>Loyal readers of The Hockey News no longer need me to trumpet all the additional content they&rsquo;ve been receiving since I acquired the magazine in January 2018. It&rsquo;s old news to them. If you&rsquo;re a new reader of the print edition or our digital offerings, you&rsquo;ve chosen a great time to come on board.</p><p>The same group of writers, editors and designers that came over from TVA in 2018 has essentially produced all the extra features to this point. Initially, they worked on pure adrenaline to meet the increased demands, but over time I noticed the lights in the office were still burning in the wee hours. It was terrific to see the work ethic and camaraderie, but championship squads require depth and fresh legs to keep the motor humming.</p><p>Enter two new members of the team: Steven Ellis, digital content producer, and Samantha Fortomaris, graphic designer. They beat out hundreds of applicants to earn their positions. Steven lives, breathes and eats hockey as much as anyone we know. He grew up a Canadiens fan and just purchased his 49th hockey jersey, a game-worn Norwegian women&rsquo;s under-18 sweater. He&rsquo;s an all-around hockey expert who specializes in the amateur and international games. You&rsquo;ll mostly notice his bylines on our digital platforms, though his work will also be featured in print. Samantha, who&rsquo;s another ardent follower of the game and recently worked with the OHL&rsquo;s Oshawa Generals, is an ace graphic artist who possesses terrific vision and creativity. She joins art director Shea Berencsi&rsquo;s team to give us a formidable one-two design punch.</p><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/7213_openin_016/474506-1-eng-US/7213_openin_0162.jpg" title="7213_openin_016" width="384" height="432"></div><p>And we&rsquo;re not done yet. In the next issue we&rsquo;ll be rolling out another investment I&rsquo;ve made that is sure to enhance your experience with The Hockey News. Stay tuned!</p><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/graemeroust_014/474492-1-eng-US/graemeroust_0142.jpg" title="graemeroust_014" width="583" height="123"></div><p>Executive Chairman & Publisher,<br>Roustan Media Ltd.<br><b><a href="http://roustan.com">roustan.com</a></b><br><a datastyle href="https://www.twitter.com/GraemeRoustan"><b>@GraemeRoustan</b></a><span class="end-marker"> &#9632;</span></p>

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Opening Thoughts

Bench Strength Deepened With New Additions

<div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/openingthou_018/474549-1-eng-US/openingthou_0182.jpg" title="openingthou_018" width="479" height="396"><figcaption class="caption-body"><p><b>CONNOR MCDAVID</b></p> <span class="photo-credit">(ETHAN MILLER/GETTY IMAGES)</span></figcaption></div><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0007-0139/474542-1-eng-US/f0007-012.jpg" title="f0007-01" width="781" height="396"></div><p><span class="end-marker"> &#9632;</span></p>

THN POLL

<div class="byline">PHOTO BY FRANCOIS LACASSE/NHLI VIA GETTY IMAGES</div><div class="image-hero"><img title="thousandwor_019" src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/thousandwor_019/474592-1-eng-US/thousandwor_0192.jpg"><figcaption class="caption-body"><p>Montreal&rsquo;s Max Domi gets some serious hang time as a trio of Detroit defenders tries, in vain, to prevent him from shooting and scoring into an empty net.</p><p></p></figcaption></div><p><span class="end-marker"> &#9632;</span></p>

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A THOUSAND WORDS

WINGED MIGRATION

<div class="byline">BY BRYAN LEWIS</div><div class="image-hero"><img title="buzz_lewis2_021" src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/buzz_lewis2_021/474635-1-eng-US/buzz_lewis2_0212.jpg"><figcaption class="caption-body">Lewis saw how different NHL playoff hockey was when he reffed his first game: Sabres vs. Habs in Montreal in 1973. <span class="photo-credit">(GRAIG ABEL COLLECTION/GETTY IMAGES)</span></figcaption></div><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/nhl123/474628-1-eng-US/nhl2.jpg" title="nhl" width="175" height="180"></div><p class="dropcap"><b><span>I</span> REFEREED MY FIRST NHL</b> playoff game on April 5, 1973, at the Montreal Forum. That night the Canadiens were hosting the Buffalo Sabres in the second game of their quarterfinal series.</p><p>By that point, I had spent three years in the NHL as a referee and done my time before that in the WHL, CHL and AHL to name a few leagues, but there is definitely something different about the NHL post-season.</p><p>I remember standing at the red line that night, and as Roger Doucet sang the anthems my knees were shaking so bad that I thought I was going to end up at the blueline by the time he was done.</p><p>Now don&rsquo;t get me wrong, even with all the pressure and scrutiny involved, a playoff assignment is the one that every referee wants. But you don&rsquo;t just get it handed to you. When playoff time arrives, the NHL wants the top referees working the games. It&rsquo;s as simple as that. Just like it was for me, getting to the point where you get that call is a gradual process for all referees, and it&rsquo;s a position that&rsquo;s earned, based on the quality of your work and the experience you&rsquo;ve gained.</p><p>In many ways, we&rsquo;re not all that different than the players. You want to succeed in your job, and as a referee, success is based on the level of the assignments you&rsquo;re given. If you&rsquo;re selected for a playoff game, you&rsquo;re being recognized for the quality of your work, and if you&rsquo;re lucky enough to be chosen for a Stanley Cup final game, you&rsquo;ve reached the top of the profession. Every player dreams of scoring the winning goal in overtime in Game 7 of the Stanley Cup final. Well, the dream of those of us in the pinstriped sweater is to be the referee in that game &ndash; and speaking for all of us in the fraternity, we want it to be a great game.</p><p>The playoffs put additional pressures on everyone on the ice, including the officials. For the crew it&rsquo;s all about the performance, and just like the players, a good showing has a beneficial impact on you, both professionally as well as in your wallet. And because of the high stakes, everything that happens on the ice takes on an added significance.</p><p>Nowhere is this more apparent than in what I call the &ldquo;one-minute penalty&rdquo; or what most others refer to as a &ldquo;marginal call.&rdquo; Now obviously these types of calls can have an effect on a game in November, but when it comes to the playoffs they can be the difference between winning and losing, and ultimately between one team moving on and another heading home. As a result, you try to avoid having to ever make any of these types of calls in the playoffs because the repercussions are just too severe.</p><p>To a man, the players know the value of a power play, especially in the post-season, and they will try their hardest to get one for their team. Because of the circumstances, players will do desperate things to get me to raise my arm, and as the referee I have to be prepared to take a closer look before making that judgment. Give the players credit, they are always aware of the score, the situation and the importance of the moment, and they are trying to gain that &ldquo;edge&rdquo; that will help their team. On the flip side, those same players, especially when it comes down to crunch time, will do their best to try and avoid being the guy who takes the penalty and hurts their team.</p><div class="figure-block image-bleed"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/buzz_lewis1_020/474621-1-eng-US/buzz_lewis1_0202.jpg" title="buzz_lewis1_020" width="1022" height="914"><figcaption class="caption-body"><p><b>CUPS ARE CUPS</b></p><p>Just like the players, an official&rsquo;s goal is to get to the Stanley Cup. Lewis got the call four times in his career.</p> <span class="photo-credit">(THE GEORGETOWN/ACTON INDEPENDENT AND FREE PRESS)</span></figcaption></div><p>At the same time, with all of the experience that you&rsquo;ve gained prior to working a playoff game, you hope to have built up a certain rapport with the players, one based equally on composure and communication. First and foremost, you want to be fair to the players, and show them a level of respect, so that if you do have to call a penalty they realize it was a good, quality infraction, and not a chintzy call. Trust me, players know when they&rsquo;ve taken a penalty and deserve to spend some time in the box.</p><p>The other difference for officials between the regular season and playoffs is the uncertainty involved. When I was the supervisor of officials, I would assign the first four games of each playoff series, because I knew those would be played. After that it can get a little dicier, but you have to be guided by the principle that you want the best officials working the most important games. For some it can be tough because their entire schedule is determined solely by what happens on the ice. A quick playoff series can mean an extra day or two at home with their family, a long one can mean the opposite.</p><p>People often refer to the playoff grind, but I&rsquo;m not sure they are thinking of the officials as part of that. Unlike the players, who travel by charter plane, the officials fly commercial. Taking into account the uncertainty, the travel, and the fact the average referee skates over five miles a night (and it was closer to eight in the one-ref system) and you can understand the toll it takes.&nbsp;<b>&ndash; WITH TODD DENAULT</b></p><p><i>During his officiating career, Bryan Lewis, 76, was the referee in more than 1,000 NHL games, including 30 in the playoffs (with assignments in the 1981, 1983, 1984 and 1985 Stanley Cup finals) and was the NHL&rsquo;s director of officiating from 1989 to 2000</i></p><p><i>For up-to-the-minute coverage, visit&nbsp;<a href="http://TheHockeyNews.com">TheHockeyNews.com</a></i><span class="end-marker"> &#9632;</span></p>

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PLAYOFFS ALSO BLACK & WHITE

<div class="byline">BY MATT LARKIN</div><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/buzz_mask111/474700-1-eng-US/buzz_mask12.jpg" title="buzz_mask1" width="520" height="558"></div><h3>MANTAS ARMALIS | SKELLEFTEA AIK</h3><p class="dropcap"><span>T</span>he comic-book world lost Stan Lee, the creative mind behind the rise of Marvel, in November. Mask artist Dave Gunnarsson idolized Lee, as did SHL goalie Armalis. They collaborated on a design featuring Lee&rsquo;s likeness plus several of his iconic characters: Spider-Man, Thor, Iron Man and Captain America among them. They&rsquo;re drawn with thick, dark lines in homage to how they looked in Lee&rsquo;s original 1960s stories.</p><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/buzz_mask211/474693-1-eng-US/buzz_mask22.jpg" title="buzz_mask2" width="538" height="556"><figcaption class="caption-body"><span class="photo-credit">(MASK BY DAVID GUNNARSSON/DAVEART.COM)</span></figcaption></div><p><span class="end-marker"> &#9632;</span></p>

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BEHIND THE MASK

<div class="byline">BY GIOVANNI SICILIANO</div><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/buzz_mascot_035/474729-1-eng-US/buzz_mascot_0352.jpg" title="buzz_mascot_035" width="655" height="403"><figcaption class="caption-body"><span class="photo-credit">(MARK BLINCH/NHLI VIA GETTY IMAGES)</span></figcaption></div><h3>CARLTON | TORONTO MAPLE LEAFS</h3><p class="dropcap"><span>T</span>he average polar bear measures nine feet tall and 1,800 pounds. By those standards, it&rsquo;s a monstrous creature. &ldquo;Monstrous,&rdquo; however, is not a term anyone would use for the NHL&rsquo;s polar bear: Carlton, mascot of the Toronto Maple Leafs. His official tale of the tape is a mere 6-foot-4 and 270 pounds. But that said, he can be scary. For Halloween 2018, Carlton put a true fright into several Leafs players by standing still and then jolting to life as they walked past him after a practice. Google the video for a good chuckle.</p><p>Carlton&rsquo;s first public appearance was Oct. 10, 1995, at the Leafs&rsquo; home opener against the New York Islanders at Maple Leaf Gardens. The name and number Carlton was given comes from the location of said arena on 60 Carlton St. in Toronto. The Leafs played at the Gardens until 1999, and the mascot moved with the team when they relocated to their current digs at Scotiabank Arena.</p><p>Since his debut, Carlton has made appearances at 20 arenas in 17 cities as well as 13 All-Star Games (he wore the &lsquo;C&rsquo; for the first annual Mascot Summit in 2000, at the NHL&rsquo;s 50th All-Star Game in Toronto), and the gregarious beast has tossed more than 15,000 shirts into the stands.</p><p>As a result of his dedicated service, Carlton is scheduled to pass Leafs legend George Armstrong for the most all-time games during the 2023-24 season. Well, unofficially, at least.<span class="end-marker"> &#9632;</span></p>

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MEET A MASCOT

<div class="byline">BY MATT LARKIN</div><div class="image-hero"><img title="f0013-01" src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0013-0170/474765-1-eng-US/f0013-012.jpg"><figcaption class="caption-body"><span class="photo-credit">(WILLIAMS: FRED KFOURY III/ICON SPORTSWIRE VIA GETTY IMAGES; GUENTZEL: JOE SARGENT/NHLI VIA GETTY IMAGES; CIRELLI: DEREK CAIN/ICON SPORTSWIRE VIA GETTY IMAGES; JOHNSSON: CLAUS ANDERSEN/GETTY IMAGES; BINNINGTON: BRETT HOLMES/ICON SPORTSWIRE VIA GETTY IMAGES; HAGELIN: PATRICK SMITH/GETTY IMAGES)</span></figcaption></div><p><span class="end-marker"> &#9632;</span></p>

f0013-01

PLAYOFF CLAUDE-O-METER

<div class="byline">BY RYAN KENNEDY</div><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/buzz_jersey_024/474794-1-eng-US/buzz_jersey_0242.jpg" title="buzz_jersey_024" width="574" height="583"><figcaption class="caption-body"><span class="photo-credit">(PHOTO BY ROD INCE)</span></figcaption></div><h3>NUNAVUT | 2019 CANADA GAMES</h3><p class="dropcap"><span>T</span>he 2019 Canada Winter Games featured the best under-16 players in the country, representing their provinces in a tourney that saw Quebec edge Ontario in the final. But the Games also had a new entry, as the territory of Nunavut iced a team for the first time. And the kids looked really good, even if they only won one game.</p><p>The sweater, which features the Inukshuk-dominated Nunavut flag set within a circle crest, brought some splashy primary colors to the table, and the combination worked out well while also being quite unique. The striping on the jersey is very solid, too, particularly with the band behind the main crest.<span class="end-marker"> &#9632;</span></p>

buzz_jersey_024

JERSEY HOUND

<div class="byline">BY SAL BARRY OF PUNKJUNK.COM</div><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0013-0258/474823-1-eng-US/f0013-022.jpg" title="f0013-02" width="701" height="689"></div><p class="dropcap"><b><i><span>P</span>ROSTARS</i> WAS A SATURDAY</b> cartoon in 1991 that starred fictionalized, animated versions of Michael Jordan, Bo Jackson and Wayne Gretzky. The trio teamed up to help kids or fight crime &ndash; and in one episode they even saved the Stanley Cup. But the characters were bizarre; Jordan was a technical whiz and Jackson had superhuman strength, while Gretzky was the group&rsquo;s practical joker. He did shoot exploding pucks, though, which was sweet. The similarly named Pro Stars cereal issued <i>ProStars</i> cards inside specially marked boxes, including three of Gretzky.<span class="end-marker"> &#9632;</span></p>

f0013-02

IN THE CARDS

<div class="byline">BY BRIAN COSTELLO</div><div class="image-hero"><img title="buzz_tavare_037" src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/buzz_tavare_037/475048-1-eng-US/buzz_tavare_0372.jpg"><figcaption class="caption-body"><p><b>JOHN TAVARES</b></p><p></p> <span class="photo-credit">(CLAUS ANDERSEN/GETTY IMAGES)</span></figcaption></div><p class="dropcap"><b><span>W</span>E&rsquo;RE NOT KNOCKING</b> the Toronto Maple Leafs, but we would like to go on the record and proclaim the longest Stanley Cup dry spell (54 years by the New York Rangers, from 1940 to 1994) will fall by the wayside in the next decade.</p><p>The Maple Leafs have the horses to end their 52-year skid either this year or in the next two, but it&rsquo;s unlikely that <i>all of</i> Toronto, St. Louis, Buffalo and Vancouver will win a Cup in the next seven years. That&rsquo;s just unlikely to happen in a 31-team league. Those four teams are all within six years of equalling the Rangers&rsquo; dubious distinction.</p><p>In fact, don&rsquo;t be surprised if 30 years from now a half-dozen teams have usurped the Rangers&rsquo; 54 years &ndash; and maybe one or two or three of them have surpassed 70 years. Almost half the league have Stanley Cup droughts of 25 years or more. And even though parity is at an all-time high, the vast number of teams in the business makes winning even once every generation a less than 50-50 proposition.</p><p>And the longer a team&rsquo;s Stanley Cup drought goes on, the odds of it ending sooner rather than later don&rsquo;t really get any better than one-in-31. History doesn&rsquo;t have any compassion, and the opposition doesn&rsquo;t give a hoot about decades-long sob stories. After all, the Chicago Cubs went 108 years between World Series wins.</p><h2><b>1. TORONTO MAPLE LEAFS</b></h2><p align="center"><b>52 YEARS, 1966-67</b></p><p>Ron Ellis, the youngest member of that team, is now 74. Leafs coach Mike Babcock turned four that Cup week.</p><h2><b>2. ST. LOUIS BLUES</b></h2><p align="center"><b>51 YEARS, 1967-68 (INCEPTION)</b></p><p>The Blues lost in the Cup final in each of their first three seasons and haven&rsquo;t returned. The path was easier back then.</p><h2><b>3. BUFFALO SABRES</b></h2><p align="center"><b>48 YEARS, 1970-71 (INCEPTION)</b></p><p>The Sabres made it to the final twice, first in Year 5. The second time was the 1999 Brett Hull foot-in-the-crease loss.</p><h2><b>4. VANCOUVER CANUCKS</b></h2><p align="center"><b>48 YEARS, 1970-71 (INCEPTION)</b></p><p>They were swept by the Isles in 1982, then endured heartbreaking losses in Game 7 in 1994 and 2011.</p><h2><b>5. PHILADELPHIA FLYERS</b></h2><p align="center"><b>44 YEARS, 1974-75</b></p><p>Hard to believe it&rsquo;s almost a half-century since the Broad Street Bullies made their indelible fistprint, er, footprint.</p><h2><b>6. ARIZONA COYOTES</b></h2><p align="center"><b>39 YEARS, 1979-80 (WPG INCEPTION)</b></p><p>The franchise has made it past the first round just three times &ndash; twice in the &rsquo;80s in Winnipeg, then 2012 in Phoenix.</p><h2><b>7. NEW YORK ISLANDERS</b></h2><p align="center"><b>36 YEARS, 1982-83</b></p><p>Is a third-of-a-century drought easier to absorb when the franchise was basking in a dynastic oasis four straight years?</p><h2><b>8. CALGARY FLAMES</b></h2><p align="center"><b>30 YEARS, 1988-89</b></p><p>Fifteen years after its first Cup, Calgary thought it won another with a phantom goal in Game 6 against Tampa in 2004.</p><h2><b>9. EDMONTON OILERS</b></h2><p align="center"><b>29 YEARS, 1989-90</b></p><p>Five Cups in a seven-year run cemented the City of Champions label. They&rsquo;ve had more luck in the draft lottery since.</p><h2><b>10. SAN JOSE SHARKS</b></h2><p align="center"><b>27 YEARS, 1991-92 (INCEPTION)</b></p><p>Since the turn of the century, the Sharks are the No. 1 team in regular-season wins (806-805 ahead of Detroit).</p><h2><b>11. MONTREAL CANADIENS</b></h2><p align="center"><b>26 YEARS, 1992-93</b></p><p>Compared to this current 26-year dry spell, Montreal&rsquo;s most affluent 26-year stretch produced 16 Cups (1953-79).</p><h2><b>12. OTTAWA SENATORS</b></h2><p align="center"><b>26 YEARS, 1992-93 (INCEPTION)</b></p><p>The Sens were the anti-Golden Knights of the 1990s, starting with seasons of just 24, 37, 39 (prorated) and 41 points.</p><h2><b>13. FLORIDA PANTHERS</b></h2><p align="center"><b>25 YEARS, 1993-94 (INCEPTION)</b></p><p>The Panthers lost in the &rsquo;96 Cup final to Colorado in just their third season. That stunned the hockey world at the time.</p><div class="figure-block image-bleed"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/buzz_luongo_038/474999-1-eng-US/buzz_luongo_0382.jpg" title="buzz_luongo_038" width="1020" height="1121"><figcaption class="caption-body"><p><b>ROBERTO LUONGO</b></p> <span class="photo-credit">(RICHARD A. WHITTAKER/ICON SPORTSWIRE VIA GETTY IMAGES)</span></figcaption></div><h2><b>14. NEW YORK RANGERS</b></h2><p align="center"><b>25 YEARS, 1993-94</b></p><p>Rangers fans were shaking their heads before the 54-year quest ended. Guess what? We&rsquo;re almost halfway there again.</p><h2><b>15. DALLAS STARS</b></h2><p align="center"><b>20 YEARS, 1998-99</b></p><p>We remember the controversial win in Buffalo in 1999. But the Stars made the semis in &rsquo;98 and lost in the 2000 final.</p><h2><b>16. NASHVILLE PREDATORS</b></h2><p align="center"><b>20 YEARS, 1998-99 (INCEPTION)</b></p><p>Tough to cheer against GM David Poile, who is nearing his sixth decade chasing a Cup. He started off as a pro in 1970.</p><h2><b>17. WINNIPEG JETS</b></h2><p align="center"><b>19 YEARS, 1999-2000 (ATL INCEPTION)</b></p><p>The franchise never had a chance in its 11 years in Atlanta. Only a few players with Thrashers roots remain with the Jets.</p><h2><b>18. COLORADO AVALANCHE</b></h2><p align="center"><b>18 YEARS, 2000-01</b></p><p>Really? It&rsquo;s been 18 years since Joe Sakic handed the Cup to Ray Bourque? Tyson Jost and Samuel Girard were in diapers.</p><h2><b>19. COLUMBUS BLUE JACKETS</b></h2><p align="center"><b>18 YEARS, 2000-01 (INCEPTION)</b></p><p>Only Edmonton has a poorer regular-season winning percentage since the day the Blue Jackets entered the NHL.</p><h2><b>20. MINNESOTA WILD</b></h2><p align="center"><b>18 YEARS, 2000-01 (INCEPTION)</b></p><p>The Wild got out of the first round three times, including making the final four in their third season, focusing on defense.</p><h2><b>21. NEW JERSEY DEVILS</b></h2><p align="center"><b>16 YEARS, 2002-03</b></p><p>They were the offense-stifling Devils of the Dead Puck Era, and they were hot &ndash; three Cups in a nine-season window.</p><h2><b>22. TAMPA BAY LIGHTNING</b></h2><p align="center"><b>15 YEARS, 2003-04</b></p><p>They were the class of the East with 106 points. This season&rsquo;s juggernaut will eclipse that total by 20-plus points.</p><h2><b>23. CAROLINA HURRICANES</b></h2><p align="center"><b>13 YEARS, 2005-06</b></p><p>There&rsquo;s misconception Carolina was a mediocre team that squeaked into the post-season. They were third overall.</p><div class="figure-block image-bleed"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/buzz_aho/474922-1-eng-US/buzz_aho2.jpg" title="buzz_aho" width="1021" height="790"><figcaption class="caption-body"><p><b>SEBASTIAN AHO</b></p> <span class="photo-credit">(ANDRE RINGUETTE/NHLI VIA GETTY IMAGES)</span></figcaption></div><h2><b>24. ANAHEIM DUCKS</b></h2><p align="center"><b>12 YEARS, 2006-07</b></p><p>Getzlaf and Perry were super sophomores and Selanne, Niedermayer and Pronger were future Hall of Famers.</p><h2><b>25. DETROIT RED WINGS</b></h2><p align="center"><b>11 YEARS, 2007-08</b></p><p>The Wings and Pens met in back-to-back finals, each winning once. Marian Hossa was on the losing side both years.</p><h2><b>26. BOSTON BRUINS</b></h2><p align="center"><b>8 YEARS, 2010-11</b></p><p>If the Bruins don&rsquo;t rebound from final series deficits of 2-0 and 3-2 to Vancouver, the skid is instead 47 years.</p><h2><b>27. LOS ANGELES KINGS</b></h2><p align="center"><b>5 YEARS, 2013-14</b></p><p>Brute strength and a focus on defense were the calling cards for the Kings, who won two Cups in three seasons.</p><h2><b>28. CHICAGO BLACKHAWKS</b></h2><p align="center"><b>4 YEARS, 2014-15</b></p><p>Three Cups in six seasons constitutes a modern-day dynasty. The first of those in 2010 ended a 49-year skid.</p><h2><b>29. PITTSBURGH PENGUINS</b></h2><p align="center"><b>2 YEARS, 2016-17</b></p><p>With Sidney Crosby and Evgeni Malkin running the operation, the Penguins are never out of the running.</p><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/buzz_crosby_0392/474866-1-eng-US/buzz_crosby_0392.jpg" title="buzz_crosby_039" width="592" height="960"><figcaption class="caption-body"><p><b>SIDNEY CROSBY</b></p> <span class="photo-credit">(JEFF VINNICK/NHLI VIA GETTY IMAGES)</span></figcaption></div><h2><b>30. VEGAS GOLDEN KNIGHTS</b></h2><p align="center"><b>1 YEAR, 2017-18 (INCEPTION)</b></p><p>Most expansion teams dream about a playoff berth early on. Second-year Vegas is aiming for back-to-back finals.</p><h2><b>31. WASHINGTON CAPITALS</b></h2><p align="center"><b>DEFENDING CHAMPS</b></p><p>The perennial contenders were predicted to be playoff pretenders last season. They sure fooled us, didn&rsquo;t they?<span class="end-marker"> &#9632;</span></p>

buzz_tavare_037

THE COUNTDOWN

<div class="byline">BY TOM THOMPSON</div><div class="image-hero"><img title="f0016-01" src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0016-0180/475119-1-eng-US/f0016-012.jpg"><figcaption class="caption-body"><span class="photo-credit">(HARRY HOW/GETTY IMAGES & JONATHAN KOZUB/NHLI VIA GETTY IMAGES)</span></figcaption></div><p class="dropcap"><b><span>A</span>S THE 2019 NHL</b> playoffs approach, it seems like we&rsquo;re in a time warp. Flash back to the 2018 playoffs after two rounds, with four Stanley Cup contenders remaining. Virtually all pundits had Tampa Bay and Winnipeg advancing to the final. Wrong on both counts. Two key figures on last year&rsquo;s favored teams were Tampa&rsquo;s Steven Stamkos and Winnipeg&rsquo;s Mark Scheifele. Despite decent stats, both players had disappointing conference finals, and these performances were reflected in the play of their respective teams. Flash forward to the eve of this year&rsquo;s playoffs. The Lightning and Jets are favored once again, and again Stamkos, 29, and Scheifele, 26, are vital components. Last season&rsquo;s failures have both teams under pressure to perform, and key cogs Stamkos and Scheifele must lead the way. Who is more likely to deliver a Conn Smythe Trophy-caliber effort in 2019: Stamkos or Scheifele? Let&rsquo;s take a look.</p><h2><b>CAREERS</b></h2><p>AT 29, Stamkos is&nbsp;three years older than Scheifele. Stamkos burst into the NHL as an 18-year-old and quickly became a dominant player. For the four seasons from 2009-10 through &rsquo;12-13, he averaged more than 50 goals per season and was a two-time Rocket Richard Trophy winner and two-time second-team all-star. In all four seasons, he finished among the top five NHL scorers. Since then, he has had a few major injuries, but he&rsquo;s still a point-per-game player, though he doesn&rsquo;t get used much in defensive situations. Scheifele wasn&rsquo;t an NHL regular until he was 20. He didn&rsquo;t become a front-line player until he was 23. Since then, his career has taken off. He&rsquo;s a point-per-gamer who is on his team&rsquo;s first power-play and penalty-killing units. Right now, Scheifele can match Stamkos&rsquo; production and do even more things. But Stamkos&rsquo; early years in the league gives him the edge.&nbsp;<b>EDGE: STAMKOS</b></p><h2><b>ROLES</b></h2><p>Scheifele is the first-line center on Winnipeg. He plays in all situations and averages 22-plus minutes of ice time, more than any other Jets forward. He played 21-plus minutes per game in the 2018 playoffs, an increase of almost a minute versus the season. Stamkos has centered Tampa&rsquo;s top line for much of this season but was, at times, shifted to second-line wing in the new year. He plays on the top PP unit but gets little time killing penalties. He averages about 18 minutes per game, third among Tampa forwards. In the 2018 playoffs, his ice time was reduced by more than one minute per game from the season. He played about 17 minutes a night, again third among Tampa forwards. This category isn&rsquo;t close. Scheifele plays a much more diversified role and in the most recent playoffs, he received almost four minutes of ice time per game more than Stamkos.&nbsp;<b>EDGE: SCHEIFELE</b></p><h2><b>PRODUCTION</b></h2><p>Both players are basically&nbsp;point-per-game producers in the regular season and playoffs. Stamkos gets a higher percentage of his points on goals, particularly on the power play. A top-level finisher on the PP is often essential for playoff success. Scheifele, like Stamkos, is a lethal shooter on the power play. Unlike Stamkos, who positions himself on his off-wing in order to one-time lateral passes, Scheifele works from the slot area and is particularly dangerous converting quick passes from behind the goal line.&nbsp;<b>EDGE: NEITHER</b></p><h2><b>DEFENSIVE PLAY</b></h2><p>This category is not&nbsp;close. Stamkos is decent defensively, conscious of his positioning and not lazy, but his puck support in the defensive zone is weak, and this may have led to his move from center to right wing. Scheifele is an excellent defensive player. He is a smart forechecker and is strong in his puck support in the defensive zone. Although not as physical as Stamkos, he is much more determined in his 1-on-1 battles. One statistic is compelling: in the past four seasons, Scheifele has been credited with more than twice the number of takeaways as Stamkos.&nbsp;<b>EDGE: SCHEIFELE</b></p><h2><b>DURABILITY</b></h2><p>Stamkos has sustained three serious physical setbacks. After the four monster seasons early in his career, he broke a leg in 2013-14, a blood-clotting condition called Thoracic Outlet Syndrome in 2015-16 and a major knee injury in 2016-17. He is still a powerful straight-line skater but has nowhere close to the agility or flow that he had early in his career. Scheifele has been more fortunate. After his breakout season in 2016-17, he missed 22 games in 2017-18 with what was speculated to be a shoulder injury. When Scheifele returned to the lineup, he performed brilliantly in the playoffs and continued to play elite-level hockey this season. The injury clearly has not hindered his career.&nbsp;<b>EDGE: SCHEIFELE</b></p><h2><b>PHYSICAL PLAY</b></h2><p>Scheifele's agility makes him&nbsp;a more effective forechecker and a better 1-on-1 player defensively. He hounds the puck well and causes a number of turnovers. He uses his large frame to lean on people, but he is not physical and doesn&rsquo;t have a mean streak. Stamkos no longer is a dogged forechecker and he&rsquo;s more stationary in the defensive zone. However, he is a proud competitor and displays a mean streak when either he or a teammate is challenged or physically abused. He delivers more hits than Scheifele and an open-ice hit or a &ldquo;rubdown&rdquo; on the boards from Stamkos can hurt. His hits are not as frequent as when he used to accumulate more than 100 per season, but they still make him a dangerous presence on the ice.&nbsp;<b>EDGE: STAMKOS</b></p><h2><b>CONCLUSION</b></h2><p>The Lightning have been&nbsp;the best team in the NHL this season. Stamkos is one of their best players, and he is a key factor going into the playoffs. But due to injuries, he is no longer the dynamic, powerful skater who could match any goal-scorer in the NHL. He has become a better-than-average sniper with an excellent shot. During last year&rsquo;s playoffs, Stamkos scored one even-strength goal in 17 games. In tight games against top opponents, he is becoming a power-play specialist. Unless he can find a way to produce regularly at 5-on-5, he must give Tampa Bay a solid two-way game and he must produce big goals on the man advantage. For the second consecutive season, the Jets are legitimate Stanley Cup contenders. Scheifele is their main man. He will finish the regular season among the league leaders in ice time among forwards and is sure to continue at that pace throughout the playoffs. His line will likely start every period, and he will be among the first players on the ice in any special-teams situation. He&rsquo;ll be relied upon to generate offense and to negate the opposition&rsquo;s power play. It may be unrealistic for him to match last season&rsquo;s total of 10 even-strength goals in 17 playoff games, but he must come close for the Jets to be successful. The NHL is ruthless competition. You can&rsquo;t afford to be sentimental about past accomplishments that are now history. Scheifele is more of a key factor than Stamkos heading into the 2019 playoffs. His current level of play has earned him this edge. Now let&rsquo;s see how he handles it.</p><p><i>Tom Thompson has been an NHL scout/director/assistant GM since 1985.</i><span class="end-marker"> &#9632;</span></p>

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STEVEN STAMKOS VS. MARK SCHEIFELE

<div class="byline">BY MATT LARKIN</div><div class="image-hero"><img title="buzz_sphl" src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/buzz_sphl/475155-1-eng-US/buzz_sphl2.jpg"><figcaption class="caption-body"><p>Peoria didn&rsquo;t overthink things in the 2018 Challenge Round, wisely choosing to face No. 8 Roanoke.</p><p></p> <span class="photo-credit">(DENNIS SIEVERS)</span></figcaption></div><p class="dropcap"><b><span>I</span>T&rsquo;S TEMPTING TO CALL</b> the Southern Professional League&rsquo;s first-round playoff format a gimmick. The Challenge Round, in which the top four seeds draft or &ldquo;challenge&rdquo; opponents from the bottom four seeds to a best-of-three series, is a gimmick in that&rsquo;s a lot of fun. But Year 1 of the idea also showed it&rsquo;s deceptively complicated for every team awarded the power to pick.</p><p>Last year, after the regular season ended, the SPHL broadcast a live Challenge Round selection show, complete with teams sealing their opponent picks in envelopes and then-commissioner Jim Combs enduring a playful chorus of boos from the fans before each reveal. Top-seeded Peoria played it safe picking No. 8 seed Roanoke, but No. 2 seed Macon chose the team against which it had the best season record: No. 6 Evansville. The big shocker: with No. 7 seed Mississippi still on the board, No. 3 Pensacola chose No. 5 Knoxville, simply liking the matchup more. That meant No. 4 Huntsville got Mississippi by default. Every top seed won its series &ndash; except Pensacola, whose bold strategic play backfired.</p><p>In a small league like the SPHL, however, picking a playoff foe isn&rsquo;t as simple as observing the standings or even reviewing one&rsquo;s seasonal record against each opponent. The amount of bus travel matters, as does rink availability. SPHL teams sometimes get bumped from their home venues for concerts and other events, so a high seed might pick its opponent based on who has the best arena availability on desired nights of the week. As new commissioner Doug Price explains, a team might want to play another team that can yield multiple weekend arena bookings, which will bring better gate revenues than weeknight playoff games. &ldquo;Instead of picking the eight seed, where you split weekends, you might pick the seven seed where you get the potential of two weekend dates,&rdquo; Price said.</p><p>The pure hockey motivations still trump any financial thinking, but the idea of juggling both highlights how complex the Challenge Round can be. For the 2018-19 playoffs, we won&rsquo;t see a live selection broadcast, but the league plans to record a podcast in which the coaches of each team will come on as guests immediately after issuing their challenges. &ldquo;They can give a little bit of background to our fans as to why they made that selection and the different options they considered before making their final decision,&rdquo; Price said.<span class="end-marker"> &#9632;</span></p>

buzz_sphl

PICK YOUR PLAYOFF POISON

<div class="byline">BY SAM MCCAIG</div><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/buzz_slavin_046/475184-1-eng-US/buzz_slavin_0462.jpg" title="buzz_slavin_046" width="654" height="1163"><figcaption class="caption-body"><span class="photo-credit">(PHOTO BY DAVID KIROUAC/ICON SPORTSWIRE VIA GETTY IMAGES)</span></figcaption></div><h2><b>Who was your mentor growing up?</b></h2><p class="dropcap"><span>M</span>y father. He coached me until I was around eight or so. He&rsquo;s just always been there for me. I have two older siblings and two younger siblings, and he helped us all out in the hockey world.</p><h2><b>Who did you model your game after?</b></h2><p>If there&rsquo;s anyone I tried to model my game after, it was Nicklas Lidstrom. I didn&rsquo;t pay a lot of attention to the little details when I was younger. But as I got older, I started to notice all the little things Lidstrom did right.</p><h2><b>First big purchase after signing your first NHL deal?</b></h2><p>My wife&rsquo;s engagement ring.</p><h2><b>Did you have a &lsquo;welcome to the NHL&rsquo; moment?</b></h2><p>In my first pre-season home game in 2015, I was in the starting lineup and we were playing Washington. About 18 seconds into the game, Alex Ovechkin came down and completely dangled me. As he was going by, I tripped him and he still scored. That was my &ldquo;welcome to the NHL moment&rdquo; right there.</p><h2><b>What&rsquo;s the best part about being in the NHL?</b></h2><p>The travel&rsquo;s not bad, being able to fly charter flights and the food on the plane. When my dad comes up for the dads&rsquo; trip, that&rsquo;s always something he&rsquo;ll talk about for a couple weeks after.</p><h2><b>What&rsquo;s the worst part about being in the NHL?</b></h2><p>I don&rsquo;t know if there&rsquo;s a bad thing. Maybe since everybody shoots hard, blocking shots hurts more.</p><h2><b>What advice would you give to your 13-year-old self?</b></h2><p>Watch more NHL hockey, not just as a fan but to learn. That&rsquo;s something I didn&rsquo;t do much of growing up, but once I got older I started watching guys and noticing the little things they did right.<span class="end-marker"> &#9632;</span></p>

buzz_slavin_046

RAPID FIRE WITH CAROLINA’S JACCOB SLAVIN

<div class="byline">WITH MATT LARKIN</div><div class="image-hero"><img title="malarkey_je_045" src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/malarkey_je_045/475213-1-eng-US/malarkey_je_0452.jpg"><figcaption class="caption-body"><p><b>SONIC BOOM</b></p><p>The Jets are fast and skilled &ndash; <i>and</i> big. That was the formula the Capitals used to win last year&rsquo;s Cup. Is Winnipeg next?</p> <span class="photo-credit">(JEFF VINNICK/NHLI VIA GETTY IMAGES)</span></figcaption></div><p class="dropcap"><b><span>R</span>EMINISCING ABOUT DARRYL SUTTER&rsquo;S</b> Los Angeles Kings feels like admiring primitive cave drawings these days. They won Stanley Cups as recently as 2012 and 2014, but hockey has changed so much that those teams look like Dead Puck Era throwbacks.</p><p>Sutter&rsquo;s Kings were dominant possession teams, outstanding defensively and, most memorably, they were huge. The average NHLer in 2011-12 was 6-foot-1 and 204 pounds. The Cup-winning Kings: 6-foot-2 and 210 pounds. The average NHLer in 2013-14 was 6-foot-1 and 202 pounds. The Cup-winning Kings: 6-foot-2 and 211 pounds. They outweighed their typical opponent by an average of nine pounds per guy in 2014. They wore the competition down with a heavy game.</p><p>We know what happened next, of course. The 2015 Chicago Blackhawks won with one of the smallest teams in the league, and coach Mike Sullivan&rsquo;s need-for-speed Pittsburgh Penguins captured consecutive Cups in 2016 and 2017 with a workmanlike defense corps that fired stretch passes to a brigade of fleet-footed, undersized forwards. The 2015 Hawks and 2016 Penguins were about six-foot on average with a mean weight below 200 pounds. Both teams were shorter and lighter than the league average. Being a copycat league, the NHL thus ushered in an era of rewarding speed and skill. The Kings&rsquo; style suddenly became fossilized. They missed the playoffs this spring for the third time in the past five years.</p><p>So would the NHL belong to the Little Guy for years to come, then? Hold on. To assume things would stay exactly the same would mean forgetting how Charles Darwin&rsquo;s theory of natural selection works. A quick refresher: organisms pass on traits to their offspring, certain traits suit them better for survival, and individuals whose traits suit them well to survival will pass on the most offspring to the next generation.</p><p>Giraffes are tall because the generations of shorter giraffes died out from failure to reach food in high places. For a while, big hockey teams bred other big hockey teams because the game was tailored to reward a heavy style. The Kings&rsquo; approach has died out because the game rewards speed and skill more than ever. Starting in 2017-18, stricter enforcement of slashing rules really opened up space for smaller, faster players. The likes of Johnny Gaudreau, Mitch Marner, Brayden Point and Alex DeBrincat could fill the net like they never could&rsquo;ve even five years ago. They were naturally selected to thrive in the new NHL ecosystem.</p><p>Eventually, however, a generational mutation would come along favoring a new set of traits built to thrive. That brings us to the 2018 Stanley Cup-winning Washington Capitals. They oozed skill and speed, no doubt. Evgeny Kuznetsov, Nicklas Backstrom, Alex Ovechkin, John Carlson and T.J. Oshie were high-talent, high-motor offensive weapons, all first-round picks. The Caps had the razzle-dazzle to compete with, and defeat, the skill-oriented Penguins and Tampa Bay Lightning plus a Vegas Golden Knights team that prioritized a rapid, hornet&rsquo;s-nest approach to forechecking and back pressure.</p><p>The Caps, though, also had Tom Wilson. And Lars Eller. And Devante Smith-Pelly. And Brooks Orpik. And Jay Beagle. In an NHL growing noticeably smaller and lighter, this Capitals team averaged 6-foot-1 and 203 pounds, making it the biggest championship squad since the 2014 Kings. The Caps had the size to play a Sutter-like bruising style when necessary and the skill to run and gun. Wilson epitomizes Washington&rsquo;s dual-threat identity. He&rsquo;s a 6-foot-4, 220-pound monster who bludgeons opponents with his hits and fists yet also keeps up with Ovechkin and Kuznetsov in a first-line role, stride for stride.</p><p>Behold, the next phase of hockey&rsquo;s evolution. It&rsquo;s established that small and fast beats big and slow in today&rsquo;s NHL. But it stands to reason a biological mutation to big and fast beats small and fast. The laws of natural selection suggest any team that manages to blend both traits should win the fight to survive.</p><p>The Tampa Bay Lightning have been hockey&rsquo;s most dominant, talented club this season. They also entered 2018-19 as the NHL&rsquo;s 28th-heaviest and 23rd-tallest team. Our Stanley Cup pick, the Winnipeg Jets, entered the season as the league&rsquo;s tallest and seventh-heaviest squad &ndash; while still boasting almost as many elite-skill players as the Lightning. Washington&rsquo;s evolutionary traits made it a champion last year &ndash; and could birth a new Cup-winning offspring in Winnipeg this June.<span class="end-marker"> &#9632;</span></p>

malarkey_je_045

THE EVOLUTION OF DOMINANCE

<div class="byline">BY KEN CAMPBELL</div><div class="image-hero"><img title="Giordano-opener" src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/giordano-opener/479810-1-eng-US/giordano-opener.jpg"><figcaption class="caption-body"><span class="photo-credit">(DEREK LEUNG/GETTY IMAGES)</span></figcaption></div><p class="dropcap"><b><span>E</span>VERY TIME HE WALKS</b> out of the Calgary Flames dressing room and onto the ice at the Scotiabank Saddledome, Mark Giordano passes a cluster of 18 plaques commemorating the franchise&rsquo;s historical achievements, as well as a few that haven&rsquo;t been realized yet. Of course, there&rsquo;s Jarome Iginla&rsquo;s two Rocket Richard Trophies. But, wow, the Flames have had five Calder winners? And remember when Jiri Hudler won the Lady Byng back in 2014-15? That would make a good trivia question. Three of the plaques are empty. One of them is for the Hart Trophy, which would have Iginla&rsquo;s name on it had he not been robbed of the award in 2002. Another is the Selke Trophy and the third is the James Norris Memorial Trophy for the best defenseman in the NHL. This year will mark the 65th time the Norris has been handed out, and the Flames&rsquo; grand total of zero currently puts them 14 behind the Boston Bruins, 11 in arrears of the Montreal Canadiens and nine back of the Detroit Red Wings. But there&rsquo;s no shame in that. The Flames are also in a dead heat with the Toronto Maple Leafs.</p><p>That could all change this June, however. There&rsquo;s a good chance that when Giordano walks out of the dressing room for his first game of next season, he will pass a Norris plaque embossed with &ldquo;Mark Giordano &ndash; 2018-19,&rdquo; two plaques to the left and one down from the NHL Foundation Player Award that Giordano won three years ago. If that happens, he&rsquo;ll probably take a moment to reflect on the journey that brought him there. At 35, Giordano would be the second-oldest first-time winner of the Norris, after former Flame Al MacInnis, who won the award with the St. Louis Blues exactly two decades ago, just shy of his 36th birthday.</p><p>Undrafted in both the OHL and NHL, Giordano once played on a three-way contract, started his pro career as a healthy scratch in the AHL, went to Russia for a year and, in the process, became one of those rare players (Blake Wheeler of the Winnipeg Jets being another) who got better with age. He&rsquo;ll think about his older sister, Mia, whose name is tattooed on the inside of his left bicep. He was 14 the day his parents opened the door of their modest home in north Toronto to two policemen, who told them their daughter had been killed in a car accident on the way to the mall with a friend. Along the way, Giordano has learned a lot about the game, about himself and about other people, and how he&rsquo;d like to treat them.</p><div class="figure-block image-bleed"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/giordano2/475284-1-eng-US/giordano22.jpg" title="giordano2" width="2278" height="2330"><figcaption class="caption-body"><span class="photo-credit">(MINAS PANAGIOTAKIS/GETTY IMAGES)</span></figcaption></div><p><b>ON THIS NIGHT IN</b> mid-March, Giordano is in a really good spot. His team has just decisively beaten Vegas, and he&rsquo;s registered his 49th assist of the season. His 21:58 of ice time is about 2:30 less than his average, but he still spent more time playing than any other Flame. As he crosses his arms and leans back in Matthew Tkachuk&rsquo;s stall, he&rsquo;s kind of whistling through four missing bottom teeth as he speaks, courtesy of a high-stick that knocked two of them out and an errant puck that knocked the other two out when it caught him in the face in Pittsburgh in February. He&rsquo;ll spend a couple hours of a day off in the dentist&rsquo;s chair the next day, play again the night after that, then spend the following night out for dinner with a silent auction winner at an event that helps support his charitable foundation. Life is good all around. &ldquo;Things have gone well for our team, but for me individually, getting recognition around the league, it feels good,&rdquo; Giordano said. &ldquo;I don&rsquo;t care who you are. You feel good about yourself to be mentioned with guys like (Brent) Burns and (Erik) Karlsson. That&rsquo;s where it really hits home, when you look at the past winners.&rdquo;</p><blockquote class="pullQuote">THINGS HAVE GONE WELL FOR OUR TEAM, BUT FOR ME INDIVIDUALLY, GETTING RECOGNITION AROUND THE LEAGUE, IT FEELS GOOD<br>&ndash; Mark Giordano</blockquote><p>Good on Giordano for not robotically mouthing the old &ldquo;I&rsquo;m not even thinking about it&rdquo; malarkey. Of course he&rsquo;s thinking about the Norris Trophy. Why wouldn&rsquo;t he? He&rsquo;s been around long enough to know that hockey is, if nothing, else a team game, but it stands to reason that the more he plays like a Norris Trophy contender, the better off the Flames will be as a team.</p><div class="figure-block image-bleed"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/giordano3/475277-1-eng-US/giordano32.jpg" title="giordano3" width="1380" height="1159"><figcaption class="caption-body"><p><b>GIO CATCHING</b></p><p>Getting mentioned in the same sentence as a Norris Trophy stalwart such as Burns is surreal to Giordano. There&rsquo;s a good chance the Calgary Flames captain will rise to the top of the class this season.</p> <span class="photo-credit">(BRETT HOLMES/ICON SPORTSWIRE VIA GETTY IMAGES)</span></figcaption></div><p>It&rsquo;s also an unbelievable accomplishment for a guy in his mid-30s. To be sure, voters among the members of the Professional Hockey Writers&rsquo; Association will be impressed that Giordano is playing at such an elevated level at his age, and that could sway some voters. But at some point this has to stop being about Giordano the 35-year-old and simply be about how good Giordano is. After all, it&rsquo;s not as though the guy has been cloistered. He&rsquo;s been a top defenseman for a number of years now, hiding in plain sight. &ldquo;When I was 33, I heard someone say, &lsquo;Is this his last real good year?&rsquo;&rdquo; Giordano said. &ldquo;And at 34, I was hearing the same thing, so it does motivate you. I don&rsquo;t know what the numbers would look like, but my games played might be lower than the average 35-year-old in the league, so you have to take that into account, too. Growing up, I never played in the world juniors, and I had a lot of time off in the summers, so maybe that has something to do with it.&rdquo;</p><p>Giordano might be on to something. He never played in any of the Under-17s, Under-18s or World Junior Championships, and he&rsquo;s yet to appear in either a World Cup or Olympics. (In retrospect, he probably should&rsquo;ve been on Canada&rsquo;s roster in 2014, but it&rsquo;s hard to argue with the selection of a team that gave up three goals the entire tournament.) But chalking it up to that would also diminish the fact he had to work that much harder to become a player back then.</p><p>Giordano went through two OHL drafts without being selected. There were 669 players taken in those drafts. The same thing happened in the NHL in 2002 and &rsquo;03, when 583 players were selected. So, during Giordano&rsquo;s formative years as a player, at least 1,252 players were thought to be better pro prospects than he was.</p><div class="figure-block image-bleed"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/giordano4/475270-1-eng-US/giordano42.jpg" title="giordano4" width="2388" height="2162"><figcaption class="caption-body"><span class="photo-credit">(BRETT HOLMES/ICON SPORTSWIRE VIA GETTY IMAGES)</span></figcaption></div><p>He did, however, land with the Owen Sound Attack when then-Attack GM Michael Futa, now the assistant GM of the Los Angeles Kings, convinced him to forego a scholarship at Ferris State University to play major junior. &ldquo;He looked like an Oscar statue in those days,&rdquo; Futa said of Giordano. &ldquo;All upper body.&rdquo;</p><p>Given the inauspicious start to his career, no wonder he was thrilled when he managed to appear in 60 AHL games in his first pro season in 2004-05, a benchmark that turned his three-way ECHL-AHL-NHL deal into a two-way AHL-NHL contract. By 2005-06, he was a full-time AHL player and earned two call-ups, including the last five games of the season to join a D-corps that featured Dion Phaneuf, Andrew Ference, Roman Hamrlik, Robyn Regehr and Jordan Leopold. &ldquo;When you get called up is when you say, &lsquo;Oh s---, I can play with these guys, it&rsquo;s not like they&rsquo;re three steps ahead of me,&rsquo;&rdquo; Giordano said. &ldquo;That was an eye-opener.&rdquo;</p><p>As it was for the rest of the hockey world. This kid could play. Of the 177 defensemen who were selected in the 2002 and &rsquo;03 drafts, when Giordano was eligible, only Duncan Keith, Burns, Ryan Suter, Shea Weber, Dustin Byfuglien, Phaneuf and Brent Seabrook have more points at the NHL level &ndash; both Burns and Byfuglien have also spent considerable periods of their careers as forwards &ndash; and only those seven players, along with Jay Bouwmeester and Trevor Daley, have played more career games. Should Giordano win the Norris this season, he&rsquo;ll become the first draft-eligible defenseman to win the award without having been drafted. A total of 21 players have won the Norris since Bobby Orr gave up his stranglehold on the trophy in 1975 &ndash; all of them were drafted and 12 of them are first-round picks. In fact, no Norris winner in that time has been selected lower than 70th overall, which was where the Kings took 1998 winner Rob Blake back in 1988.</p><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/giordano-numbers/479817-1-eng-US/giordano-numbers.jpg" title="giordano-numbers" width="600" height="875"></div><p>There&rsquo;s nothing overwhelming about Giordano&rsquo;s game, but he&rsquo;s refined his style of play in a big way over the years to the point where it&rsquo;s a triumph of efficiency. Case in point, in mid-March he was on pace for a career-low 57 hits (though he did serve a two-game suspension for a knee-on-knee hit on Minnesota captain Mikko Koivu in December). And with 65 in 68 games, Giordano had already demolished his career high for points. &ldquo;You just keep stacking quality years on top of quality years and you get the respect you deserve,&rdquo; said Flames coach Bill Peters. &ldquo;He&rsquo;s got an unbelievable skill set, and he&rsquo;s a competitive guy. He makes plays that allow you to win. Now, is that a big play defensively, is it a small, little, subtle play holding onto the puck and buying guys time to get open? He just has that sixth sense about him that he makes the right play at the right time. And when there&rsquo;s a big play to be made, he&rsquo;s usually in and around the action.&rdquo;</p><div class="figure-block image-bleed"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/giordano5/475263-1-eng-US/giordano52.jpg" title="giordano5" width="1384" height="1045"><figcaption class="caption-body"><span class="photo-credit">(CHRISTIAN PETERSEN/GETTY IMAGES)</span></figcaption></div><p>There&rsquo;s nothing overwhelming about Giordano&rsquo;s game, but he&rsquo;s refined his style of play in a big way over the years to the point where it&rsquo;s a triumph of efficiency. Case in point, in mid-March he was on pace for a career-low 57 hits (though he did serve a two-game suspension for a knee-on-knee hit on Minnesota captain Mikko Koivu in December). And with 65 in 68 games, Giordano had already demolished his career high for points. &ldquo;You just keep stacking quality years on top of quality years and you get the respect you deserve,&rdquo; said Flames coach Bill Peters. &ldquo;He&rsquo;s got an unbelievable skill set, and he&rsquo;s a competitive guy. He makes plays that allow you to win. Now, is that a big play defensively, is it a small, little, subtle play holding onto the puck and buying guys time to get open? He just has that sixth sense about him that he makes the right play at the right time. And when there&rsquo;s a big play to be made, he&rsquo;s usually in and around the action.&rdquo;</p><blockquote class="pullQuote">YOU JUST KEEP STACKING QUALITY YEARS ON TOP OF QUALITY YEARS AND YOU GET THE RESPECT YOU DESERVE<br>&ndash; BILL PETERS, FLAMES COACH</blockquote><p>Giordano has three more years remaining on his deal, which will take him to a couple months shy of his 39th birthday. At this point in his career, he feels as good as he did in his 20s, though his crouched skating style is particularly hard on his hips and requires more massage treatments and ice baths than it ever has. But when a guy hits his career high and establishes himself as one of the league&rsquo;s top defensemen at 35, there&rsquo;s no reason to believe his level of play is going to drop off precipitously anytime soon.</p><p>Whatever his contributions are on the ice, Giordano will never stop being a positive force for change off it. He&rsquo;s one of the most socially aware players in the NHL today, as evidenced by his Muhammad Ali Sports Humanitarian of the Year Award at the 2017 ESPYs. His middle-class upbringing programmed him to never take anything for granted, particularly a sister, who can be taken away in the blink of an eye. What started with his wife, Lauren, at Habitat for Humanity has grown into Team Giordano, which has raised more than $300,000 and focused its efforts on four Calgary schools, helping to build sports courts, renovate and equip gymnasiums and supply students with iPads to enhance their learning. One of the junior high schools used its funds to establish a quiet room where students could go and decompress. Giordano has also taken an active role in helping Syrian refugee families in the Calgary area. Stroking a check is really good, but there are few who get as intimately involved in the action the way Giordano does. &ldquo;At the end of the day, that&rsquo;s more important than hockey, right?&rdquo; Giordano said. &ldquo;That&rsquo;s real life.&rdquo;</p><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/giordano7/475256-1-eng-US/giordano72.jpg" title="giordano7" width="657" height="1021"><figcaption class="caption-body"><span class="photo-credit">(PHILLIP FARAONE/PATRICK MCMULLAN VIA GETTY IMAGES)</span></figcaption></div><p>Giordano credits his wife as the driving force between Team Giordano and with making him realize he can use his position as a pro athlete to help make people&rsquo;s lives easier. &ldquo;He has worked very hard, but we both grew up modestly,&rdquo; Lauren said. &ldquo;And to have this lifestyle kind of fall into our laps, we just realized how lucky we are. Sometimes I think it&rsquo;s out of guilt. I mean, what did we do to deserve this when people go through so much? We have two kids now, and I&rsquo;m able to be around to raise them. I&rsquo;m not working three jobs. I can&rsquo;t imagine how some of these parents do it. Life can be really tough. It never feels like enough.&rdquo;</p><p>Yes, life can be tough. Giordano knows that firsthand. He has already lived 14 years longer his sister, who would be in her early-40s now if she were alive. Before every game, as the final notes of the national anthem are being sung, Giordano taps his helmet twice with his stick and turns his thoughts toward Mia. Then he goes out and plays the game, almost always very well. Well enough this season that he might be recognized as the best defenseman in the best league in the world.<span class="end-marker"> &#9632;</span></p>

giordano-numbers

FEATURES

RESERVATION FOR IMMORTALITY

<div class="byline">BY BEN RABY</div><div class="image-hero"><img title="capitals1" src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/capitals1/475341-1-eng-US/capitals12.jpg"><figcaption class="caption-body"><span class="photo-credit">(MIKE STOBE/NHLI VIA GETTY IMAGES)</span></figcaption></div><p class="dropcap"><b><span>O</span>N HIS DAY WITH</b> the Stanley Cup last July, T.J. Oshie made sure he got full value. The Capitals winger visited multiple hockey hotbeds in Minnesota via private jet, SUV and antique convertible. He celebrated and took pictures with hundreds of youth hockey players, former high-school classmates, close friends and family. Stanley Cup keg stands and chants of &ldquo;Back to back!&rdquo; went deep into the night at a Minneapolis nightclub. &ldquo;I remember I handed the Cup back right at midnight,&rdquo; Oshie said. &ldquo;And I remember thinking, &lsquo;How could you ever go back to losing in the second round after doing this?&rsquo;&rdquo;</p><p>Nine months later, Oshie and his teammates don&rsquo;t care to find out. As the reigning Cup champs begin their title defense in earnest this spring, the Capitals are on a mission to join the 2016 and 2017 Pittsburgh Penguins as the only teams to repeat in the past 20 years. &ldquo;We know what it takes,&rdquo; said Alex Ovechkin, last year&rsquo;s playoff MVP. &ldquo;We know what it feels like, and now we just want to feel that again.&rdquo;</p><p>While the Capitals are seeking that same feeling at the end of the post-season, there is a different feeling, they say, heading into the playoffs compared to years past. For the first time in the Ovechkin era, the Caps can draw on their own post-season success instead of wondering if that elusive deep run will ever come. &ldquo;It feels different,&rdquo; said defenseman Matt Niskanen. &ldquo;Just mentally we&rsquo;re tougher. We&rsquo;ve been through a lot, we&rsquo;ve been through tough playoff losses where we learned hard lessons and then we got better last year and had a ton of success. We&rsquo;ve kind of figured out a few things mentally, and we look forward to carrying that with us going into this spring.&rdquo;</p><div class="figure-block image-bleed"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/capitals2/475334-1-eng-US/capitals22.jpg" title="capitals2" width="1021" height="706"><figcaption class="caption-body"><p><b>MR. STANLEY, MEET&hellip;</b></p><p>Oshie introduced his family to Stanley moments after the win. They hooked up later last summer in Minnesota.</p> <span class="photo-credit">(DAVE SANDFORD/NHLI VIA GETTY IMAGES)</span></figcaption></div><p>Back in the post-season for the 10th time in 11 years, springtime hockey is hardly foreign in Washington. But entering the playoffs with a target on their backs &ndash; as opposed to the proverbial monkey &ndash; may take getting used to. These aren&rsquo;t your older brother&rsquo;s Washington Capitals. &ldquo;Instead of thinking about all the disappointments from the previous years, I&rsquo;d say we&rsquo;re pretty confident,&rdquo; said Nicklas Backstrom. &ldquo;It&rsquo;s different because we&rsquo;ve done it.&rdquo;</p><p>For years it seemed losing in the second round &ndash; and often in excruciating fashion &ndash; was a rite of spring in Washington. Six times from 2009 through 2017, the Capitals were on the cusp of the conference final. Six times, they fell short. &ldquo;There were always those questions here,&rdquo; Oshie said. &ldquo;Is there a curse? Will Ovie ever win the Cup? Can they ever get past the second round? That was one thing nobody ever knew for sure. I actually wasn&rsquo;t too sure myself until last year.&rdquo;</p><p>The doubts of years past have been replaced by a healthy swagger that emerged last spring, survived an epic summer of celebrations and stuck around for much of the regular season. &ldquo;It&rsquo;s not a good feeling when you can&rsquo;t get through a situation for so many years,&rdquo; said Brett Connolly. &ldquo;But when you finally do and you finally get that belief that you can conquer that, it&rsquo;s so important for confidence and for your own belief that you can get it done at the right time of year.&rdquo;</p><div class="figure-block image-bleed"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/capitals3/475327-1-eng-US/capitals32.jpg" title="capitals3" width="1022" height="727"><figcaption class="caption-body"><p><b>CUP EXPERIENCE</b></p><p>Hagelin is new to the defending-champion Caps, but his back-to-back Cups is what his teammates yearn for.</p> <span class="photo-credit">(PATRICK MCDERMOTT/NHLI VIA GETTY IMAGES)</span></figcaption></div><p>That confidence comes not only from the Cup triumph itself but from the manner in which it was achieved. Besides fighting the injury bug last spring, the Capitals became just the second Cup champion to overcome a series deficit in all four rounds. The stretch began with a 2-0 hole in the first round against Columbus and also saw Washington avoid elimination twice in the Eastern Conference final. &ldquo;We got pushed to the brink numerous times last spring where when we needed a response or we absolutely had to have our best game, and we&rsquo;d get it,&rdquo; Niskanen said. &ldquo;So, I think it&rsquo;s just a mentality and belief we can do it. Systematically, there are a few things we can do to turn the tide in our favor, and we&rsquo;ve learned how to do that when we need to. It&rsquo;s a good quality to have.&rdquo;</p><p>Rather than suffering from a Stanley Cup hangover this year, Washington spent much of the season in its familiar perch atop the Metropolitan Division. A case could be made that the Caps have actually experienced a Stanley Cup carryover as they continue to reap the benefits from last year&rsquo;s run with a nearly identical roster. &ldquo;There&rsquo;s really no situation we haven&rsquo;t gone through,&rdquo; said coach Todd Reirden. &ldquo;We&rsquo;re hardened to some situations.&rdquo;</p><p>Added Lars Eller: &ldquo;It&rsquo;s a battle-tested group. We&rsquo;re likely going to face some serious adversity, but knowing we could fight through that adversity like we did last year, it gives you a deeper confidence as a team. And that helps when the core is really the same, too.&rdquo;</p><p>Trade-deadline acquisition Carl Hagelin is among the few fresh faces in Washington, but Hagelin also has a championship pedigree. The former Penguin is the only Capitals player who has firsthand experience as a back-to-back Cup champ. &ldquo;You&rsquo;ve got to use that swagger to win games,&rdquo; he said. &ldquo;But if you lose a game, you&rsquo;ve got to use your experience to come out flying the next game. If you do that, the other team will be on their heels a little bit. It reminds them, &lsquo;Oh, these are the champs, these guys have won it before. They know what it takes.&rsquo; So, yes, you have a target, but on the other hand, if you handle that the right way, and you set the tone, or respond after a setback, it can create doubt in the opposition.&rdquo;</p><p>Then there&rsquo;s Ovechkin, who a year after silencing his remaining critics has picked up where he left off last spring with one of his best seasons. On the verge of his eighth career 50-goal campaign (and a record eighth career goal-scoring title), Ovechkin is hardly satisfied with one Stanley Cup win. &ldquo;It&rsquo;s not just me,&rdquo; he said. &ldquo;It&rsquo;s everybody on this team. Once you do that kind of thing, we know what we have to do, so why not do it again?&rdquo;</p><p>Reirden knows his captain is game. &ldquo;Right from the first day of camp, and even when he showed up early for camp, he&rsquo;s been ready to go,&rdquo; Reirden said. &ldquo;He liked what he tasted last year at the end of the year, and he wants to get back to how awesome that was. It was something he worked hard for and that he worked at for years. Sometimes until you achieve that, you don&rsquo;t know how special it is, and I think it&rsquo;s been a driving force for him.&rdquo;<span class="end-marker"> &#9632;</span></p>

STANLEY CUP CARRYOVER

<div class="byline">BY MATT LARKIN</div><div class="image-hero"><img title="andersen-main" src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/andersen-main/479994-1-eng-US/andersen-main.jpg"><figcaption class="caption-body"><span class="photo-credit">(MARK BLINCH/NHLI VIA GETTY IMAGES)</span></figcaption></div><p class="dropcap"><b><span>D</span>WAYNE ROLOSON</b> technically has two sons, but on this March afternoon in Vancouver he stares across the table at a third. That&rsquo;s how he feels seeing Frederik Andersen, his former goaltending pupil. The two worked together for four years in the Anaheim Ducks organization. Now a skills coach for the WHL&rsquo;s Victoria Royals, Roloson relishes a chance to catch up on a lunch date with Andersen, whose Toronto Maple Leafs are in town to play the Vancouver Canucks. Roloson&rsquo;s sons would be thrilled. Every time they see Andersen do something on TV, they pepper their dad&rsquo;s phone with updates. &ldquo;Did you see the save he made?&rdquo; He&rsquo;s a big-brother figure to them, and Roloson can&rsquo;t help but swell with pride seeing what Andersen is accomplishing today. It wasn&rsquo;t too long ago the young man&rsquo;s career trajectory looked entirely different.</p><p>&ldquo;Easy&rdquo; might be too strong a word, but hockey certainly felt &ldquo;natural&rdquo; to Andersen growing up in Herning, Denmark. The family name was and still is synonymous with the sport there. His father, Ernst, was a goalie in the national pro league. Uncle Kim? A forward. Brother Sebastian and cousin Victor? Defensemen. Sister Amalie has risen up the Swedish pro ranks as a blueliner, too. There were age gaps of several years between Frederik, the oldest, his two brothers and sister, but the Andersen household oozed competition, even in the summer, when the kids exchanged skates for sun-soaked roller hockey in the driveway.</p><p>You were born into Danish hockey if you were an Andersen. Frederik has no memory of wanting or planning to do anything else. His dad didn&rsquo;t let him play goalie right away, however. &ldquo;He wanted me to skate well first and learn the game a little bit and not just stand there like kids do when they&rsquo;re too young,&rdquo; Andersen said. &ldquo;It took a little convincing for him for me to finally get in net. Even when I was in player gear, I ended up trying to be in net and stop some pucks and have fun with it. I loved it.&rdquo;</p><blockquote class="pullQuote">BECOMING ONE OF THE BETTER GOALIES, AMONG THE BEST, HAS ALWAYS BEEN MY GOAL<br>&ndash; Frederik Andersen</blockquote><p>Ironically, while some parents hate the idea of their kids getting pelted with pucks, selling the idea as &ldquo;safer&rdquo; to his dad worked for Andersen, as he was getting bruised blocking pucks as a skater. Playing goalie meant armoring up. Ernst caved.</p><p>Andersen loved watching Martin Brodeur and Dominik Hasek growing up but says he never emulated their techniques. He didn&rsquo;t believe a goalie should try to copy someone else. He preferred developing his own custom style suited to his big body, and it worked. He rocketed up the Danish ranks in his teens and early 20s, swallowing pucks with his 6-foot-4 frame and massive wingspan. By the time the Ducks drafted him in 2012, following a false start in which he couldn&rsquo;t strike a deal with the Carolina Hurricanes after they drafted him in 2010, Andersen had racked up individual accolades in the Danish League, including an MVP and player-of-the-year award. He even dominated the Swedish League for a year.</p><p>So when Andersen arrived to join the Norfolk Admirals, Anaheim&rsquo;s then-AHL affiliate, in 2012-13, he did so as a cool, laid-back 23-year-old for whom nothing seemed too difficult. Flirting with 250 pounds, he wasn&rsquo;t exactly a shredded, max-performance athlete. Roloson, whose 14-year NHL career took him into his early 40s, understood the importance of fitness and believed Andersen had to slim down. For many prospects coming over from Europe, transitioning to the NHL isn&rsquo;t the biggest hurdle. Transitioning to the AHL is. With the ice surface so much smaller, everything happens faster. Andersen needed to quicken his reactions and reflexes. His size and sound technique wouldn&rsquo;t be enough if he wanted to be an NHLer.</p><p>So Roloson introduced him to his old fitness trainer, California-based Scot Prohaska. The change was almost instantaneous. Andersen committed to Prohaska&rsquo;s intense regimens from Day 1, and they still work together today, with Andersen down to 230 pounds. Under his and Roloson&rsquo;s tutelage, Andersen spent a year in the AHL and leapt to the NHL by 2013-14. &ldquo;It was a pivotal point in my career when I got the chance to meet Scot and work with him,&rdquo; Andersen said. &ldquo;That took me to a level where I was able to make the jump up from the AHL. Working with him every summer and, throughout the year, keeping in touch to make sure everything&rsquo;s where it needs to be, has been great. That helped me keep elevating my game and keep building. Becoming one of the better goalies, among the best, has always been my goal.&rdquo;</p><p>Across his first two seasons in Anaheim, Andersen tied Hall of Famer Bill Durnan&rsquo;s NHL record as the fastest goalie to 50 wins. Both did it in 68 decisions. Andersen was 50-13-5. Durnan went 50-9-9.</p><p>Still, Andersen could never separate himself from 1A or 1B status, whether his battery mate was Jonas Hiller or John Gibson. That&rsquo;s why, when a rebuilding Toronto team traded for Andersen and signed him to a five-year, $25-million extension in the summer of 2016, the move appeared speculative. His sample size wasn&rsquo;t miniscule, and he&rsquo;d been part of a run to Game 7 of the 2015 Western Conference final, but he&rsquo;d averaged a modest 38 starts over his first three NHL seasons. He was leaving an obscure-by-hockey-standards California market for the league&rsquo;s most combustible media volcano &ndash; with a drastic increase in workload looming.</p><p>Yet the same thing that was true of Andersen the day of the trade remains the case today: he&rsquo;s uniquely suited to play in Toronto. He&rsquo;s calm, perpetually poker-faced to the point you can spend half an hour with him and never see his teeth. He maintains his Zen by kicking back and listening to soft rock from his favorite musician, John Mayer. Andersen speaks so quietly that you have to lean in close to pick up all his words. He rarely seems rattled. &ldquo;That&rsquo;s just his demeanor,&rdquo; said Leafs defenseman Morgan Rielly. &ldquo;He&rsquo;s like that all the time. He&rsquo;s not just putting that on. That&rsquo;s his personality. He&rsquo;s very calculated, he&rsquo;s very calm, doesn&rsquo;t get too high or low. I think that&rsquo;s a good quality for any athlete, especially a goalie.&rdquo;</p><div class="figure-block image-bleed"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0030-0181/475377-1-eng-US/f0030-012.jpg" title="f0030-01" width="2276" height="1909"><figcaption class="caption-body"><p><b>HOLDING THE FORT</b></p><p>Toronto&rsquo;s high-octane offense means Andersen faces plenty of high-danger scoring chances on counterattacks.</p> <span class="photo-credit">(MARK BLINCH/NHLI VIA GETTY IMAGES)</span></figcaption></div><p>Not since late-career Ed Belfour in the early 2000s have the Leafs employed a puckstopper so capable of absorbing constant media hounding and displaying a short memory when things don&rsquo;t go well. Andersen&rsquo;s Toronto career began in 2016-17 with four defeats and a nightmarish .851 save percentage through five games. He then posted a .923 SP over his next 61 games. He made himself a magnet for scrutiny again with an .890 SP in the first 10 games of 2017-18, then turned in a .922 SP the rest of the way. In a rough stretch this March when he got pulled in consecutive games, he calmly sauntered out after the second contest to face a swarm of reporters rather than hibernate. Everything&nbsp;deflects off him, or he&rsquo;s at least great at making it look that way. &ldquo;I&rsquo;ve been lucky to have a personality that&rsquo;s pretty even keel,&rdquo; Andersen said. &ldquo;Definitely that&rsquo;s something that&rsquo;s helped me going through some tough times once in a while. And also it helps you handle the highs when you really do play well and you&rsquo;ve got to live with that spotlight in that little bubble in Toronto, where everyone seems to care about hockey.&rdquo;</p><blockquote class="pullQuote">HE IS CALM ON THE OUTSIDE. BUT HE&rsquo;S ABLE TO BALANCE IT WITH&nbsp;THE &lsquo;F--- YOU&rsquo; ATTITUDE, THE ATTITUDE OF &lsquo;NOTHING&rsquo;S GOING TO BEAT ME&rsquo;<br>&ndash; Dwayne Roloson</blockquote><p>Success can be as scary as failure in Toronto, and Andersen, 29, has experienced more of the former than ever in 2018-19. The inconsistency that afflicted him his first two seasons as a Leaf has evaporated. He posted an SP of at least .919 in four of his five completed months. &ldquo;As a goalie you&rsquo;ve got to be calm in certain situations,&rdquo; Roloson said. &ldquo;He is calm on the outside. But he&rsquo;s able to balance it with the &lsquo;F--- you&rsquo; attitude, the attitude of &lsquo;Nothing&rsquo;s going to beat me.&rsquo; It&rsquo;s that determination mixed with the calming of, &lsquo;It&rsquo;s OK if one beat me. I&rsquo;m just going to focus so that nothing else is going to beat me.&rsquo;&rdquo;</p><p>A high win total and .920 SP put Andersen in the 2018-19 Vezina Trophy discussion, and the deeper numbers strengthen his case even more. Among 50 goalies with at least 1,000 minutes played at 5-on-5, his .933 5-on-5 SP ranked ninth, but he led the league in a crucial stat called goals-saved above average, which measures how many goals a netminder prevents compared to what a league-average goalie would allow facing the same number of shots.</p><p>Stopping pucks for the Leafs is no ordinary job, either. The team&rsquo;s identity is entertainment incarnate, generating lots of chances and goals with its loaded group of high-skill players while also bleeding chances on its own net more than any playoff contender. Only the lowly Ottawa Senators allow more shot attempts per 60 minutes than Toronto. Only two teams allow more shots on goal per 60, only five teams allow more scoring chances per 60, and the Leafs rank in the league&rsquo;s bottom half in high-danger shot attempts allowed. Without all-world goaltending, they&rsquo;d collapse. Andersen carries a lot of responsibility, especially given his workload. He leads the NHL in starts and minutes since joining the Leafs and has faced 600 more shots than any other goalie. &ldquo;We need Freddie at the top of his game, we all know that,&rdquo; said coach Mike Babcock during Andersen&rsquo;s mini-slump in March. &ldquo;He&rsquo;s the backbone to our club, so we&rsquo;ve got to do what we can to support him.&rdquo;</p><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/andersen-stats/480001-1-eng-US/andersen-stats.jpg" title="andersen-stats" width="600" height="594"></div><p>In February, the Leafs did acquire Jake Muzzin to shore up their defense, but GM Kyle Dubas otherwise stayed conservative at the trade deadline, meaning no additional short-term support is on the way for Andersen. On top of that, injuries to Jake Gardiner (back) and Travis Dermott (shoulder) weakened the defense corps for the stretch run, and neither was guaranteed to rejoin the lineup to start the playoffs. It&rsquo;s up to Andersen to provide the goaltending that lets the Leafs play to their run-and-gun strengths.</p><p>In his post-season career to date, he hasn&rsquo;t done that consistently yet. He held his own with a .915 SP against Washington during Toronto&rsquo;s first-round loss in 2017, but stumbled to .896 against Boston during last season&rsquo;s early exit, and the standings in March had Toronto booked for a rematch with the Bruins. Dating back to his time with the Ducks, Andersen&rsquo;s record in elimination games is 2-4. His save percentage was .900 or lower in three of those games and .933 or higher in the other three, so it&rsquo;s a matter of finding that cold-blooded consistency when the stakes get sky-high.</p><p>It&rsquo;s not all on Andersen. The Leafs boast quite a collection of big names, and Roloson says Andersen enjoys the insulation he gets from sharing the limelight with the likes of Auston Matthews, John Tavares and Mitch Marner. But when the glare of the playoffs arrives, there&rsquo;s no shade to protect a goalie. Andersen will decide Toronto&rsquo;s fate as much as, if not more than, any other player. Based on what we&rsquo;ve learned about him to date, whatever happens, good or bad, he&rsquo;ll do it without so much as a spike in his heart rate.<span class="end-marker"> &#9632;</span></p>

andersen-stats

FIRE AND ICE

<div class="byline">BY RYAN KENNEDY</div><div class="image-hero"><img title="tampa1" src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/tampa1/475434-1-eng-US/tampa12.jpg"><figcaption class="caption-body"><p><b>BLUE MEN GROUP</b></p><p>The Lightning have dominated the opposition like few other teams in recent decades. There&rsquo;s one thing left.</p> <span class="photo-credit">(MARK BLINCH/NHLI VIA GETTY IMAGES)</span></figcaption></div><p class="dropcap"><b><span>F</span>IFTEEN YEARS AGO, THE</b> Tampa Bay Lightning won their first Stanley Cup after finishing tops in the Eastern Conference. Though they&rsquo;ve come close a few times since, they&rsquo;ve yet to clinch a second championship. This year, however, Tampa Bay flirted with one of the best team performances in NHL history, and there are some intriguing similarities between the club that won the Cup in 2004 and the group that&rsquo;s aiming to lift the chalice this June. Will the story have the same ending? Players from the 2004 champs, some of whom remain with the organization today, and the 2019 hopefuls both know that winning the Stanley Cup is incredibly difficult. But confidence is high across the organization, and if you&rsquo;re looking for historical parallels, you don&rsquo;t have to dig too deeply.</p><h2><b>TOP-SIX</b></h2><p>In 2003-04, the &lsquo;Big Three&rsquo; of Vincent Lecavalier, Brad Richards and Martin St-Louis led the Lightning with a devastating offensive attack. The 2018-19 edition has its own elite trifecta, with captain Steven Stamkos, Nikita Kucherov and Brayden Point. It&rsquo;s easy to stick Lecavalier and Stamkos together, as both are first overall picks who came into town on a wave of bellowing hype. Lecavalier was famously billed as the &ldquo;Michael Jordan of hockey&rdquo; by then-owner Art Williams in 1998, before struggling to just 28 points his first season. The next year, though, Lecavalier more than doubled that output. Exactly 10 years later, &ldquo;Seen Stamkos?&rdquo; billboards went up all over the city for the impending arrival of the team&rsquo;s next superstar. Yet Stamkos, too, sputtered in his rookie campaign, until failed retread Barry Melrose was fired as coach 16 games in. Stamkos eventually finished with 46 points in 79 games and then doubled his output as a sophomore.</p><p>St-Louis, meanwhile, was a mold-breaking player for the Lightning, proving that a guy generously listed at 5-foot-8 could not only compete, but dominate the NHL and win the scoring race, twice in fact. He paved the way for the undersized Point, though it&rsquo;s Kucherov who&rsquo;s going to become the second Lightning player to win the Art Ross Trophy. Besides, Point actually idolized Markus Naslund when he was young. Not only that, he grew up in Calgary, so his memories of the Lightning&rsquo;s championship come from living in the losing team&rsquo;s epicenter. &ldquo;I remember the buzz around the city,&rdquo; Point said. &ldquo;People still talk about it today.&rdquo; (Luckily, his dad was a Sabres fan, so the heartache felt in the city didn&rsquo;t hit the Point household.)</p><p>While the &lsquo;Big Three&rsquo; were entering their prime when they won the Cup, Tampa&rsquo;s current group is in its halcyon days. &ldquo;There were a lot of young guys who were just becoming superstars,&rdquo; said Cory Stillman, whose only season with the Lightning was in 2003-04. &ldquo;The confidence grew with them.&rdquo;</p><p>Stillman arrived in Tampa Bay after three years with the St. Louis Blues. He was expected to replace the offense lost when Vaclav Prospal, the Lightning&rsquo;s scoring leader the previous season, left for Anaheim as a free agent. Now coach of the OHL&rsquo;s Sudbury Wolves, he sees another Tampa team with explosive potential. &ldquo;On the better teams, it&rsquo;s a matter of <i>when</i> they are going to take off in a game and score two or three goals quickly,&rdquo; he said. &ldquo;That&rsquo;s common with both (the &rsquo;04 and &rsquo;19) teams.&rdquo;</p><h2><b>BOTTOM-SIX</b></h2><p>If there is one marked difference up front between the two Lightning editions, it&rsquo;s in the style of play among their depth forwards. When GM Jay Feaster began putting together the team that ultimately became champions, the NHL was at the tail end of the Dead Puck Era, so two of his first moves were for tough guys: Chris Dingman and Andre Roy. This year, Tampa Bay is in the lower third of the league when it comes to fisticuffs, with talented 5-foot-9, 170-pound Yanni Gourde inexplicably leading the way with three tilts through mid-March.</p><p>Nonetheless, both teams relied heavily on their depth. Dingman played all 23 games in the &rsquo;04 Cup run, while Roy missed only two. And what the current Bolts lack in pugilism they make up for in talent throughout, from Gourde and Alex Killorn to energetic youngsters such as Mathieu Joseph and Anthony Cirelli.</p><blockquote class="pullQuote">IT WAS HARD TO MATCH AGAINST US BECAUSE WE HAD TWO POWERFUL LINES, BUT WE ALL KNOW IT&rsquo;S SIX THROUGH 12 THAT GETS IT DONE. WE HAD A GOOD FOURTH LINE. THAT&rsquo;S WHAT&rsquo;S HAPPENING WITH THIS TEAM<br>&ndash; Dave Andreychuk, captain of the &rsquo;04 champs</blockquote><p>&ldquo;It was hard to match against us because we had two powerful lines, but we all know it&rsquo;s six through 12 that gets it done,&rdquo; said &rsquo;04 captain Dave Andreychuk, now Tampa Bay&rsquo;s vice-president of corporate and community affairs. &ldquo;We had a good fourth line, and that&rsquo;s what is happening with this team. Look at what Anthony Cirelli does on the fourth line, that could be the difference. Whether it&rsquo;s finishing checks, holding pucks in the offensive zone or tiring out the &lsquo;D,&rsquo; the depth on this team is pretty good, as the whole league knows.&rdquo;</p><h2><b>DEFENSE & GOALTENDING</b></h2><p>On the back end, offensive wizard Dan Boyle led the Lightning&rsquo;s defense corps in 2004, with big Pavel Kubina also capable of contributing points. Otherwise, it was a solid all-around group, with Darryl Sydor added during the season to be the &ldquo;guy who had been there before,&rdquo; having won a Cup in 1999 with the Dallas Stars.</p><p>This year&rsquo;s Lightning are led on the back end by Victor Hedman, who is coming off his first Norris Trophy. He is the team&rsquo;s undisputed No. 1, but he does have help from Ryan McDonagh and a solid supporting cast behind them, including sophomore Mikhail Sergachev.</p><p>Perhaps the most interesting parallel, however, comes in net. Russian stopper Nikolai Khabibulin manned the crease for the &rsquo;04 champs, while countryman Andrei Vasilevskiy patrols the pipes these days. But the story goes beyond the No. 1s. &ldquo;Both teams had incredible goaltending and great backup goalies as well,&rdquo; said Feaster, who is now Tampa&rsquo;s vice-president of community hockey development. &ldquo;Johnny Grahame was very important to us, and Louis Domingue has put up even better numbers this year than Johnny did.&rdquo;</p><div class="figure-block image-bleed"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/tampa2/475427-1-eng-US/tampa22.jpg" title="tampa2" width="2115" height="1345"><figcaption class="caption-body"><p><b>ANDREI THE GREAT</b></p><p>It&rsquo;s tough to win without stellar goaltending and Vasilevskiy has been providing it at a Vezina-caliber level.</p> <span class="photo-credit">(JONATHAN KOZUB/NHLI VIA GETTY IMAGES)</span></figcaption></div><p>Indeed, when Vasilevskiy missed 14 games with a foot injury in November and December, it was Domingue who held the fort, winning 11 of 13 appearances in that span. For the &rsquo;04 champs, it wasn&rsquo;t an injury that forced Grahame to step in for a stretch, but solid goaltending from the backup was required nonetheless.</p><p>&ldquo;&lsquo;Khabby&rsquo; did not play well in January, he had a bit of a slump,&rdquo; Andreychuk said. &ldquo;Johnny Grahame came on, and the 36 points he got for our team were essential in us finishing first. Same thing happened here, Vasilevskiy goes down for 14 games and Louis comes in and plays unbelievable.&rdquo;</p><h2><b>COACHING</b></h2><p>Behind the bench, the Lightning have found success with two coaches known for their big (albeit polar-opposite) personalities: John Tortorella with the Cup champs and now Jon Cooper with the Cup contenders. Tortorella was famous for his &ldquo;safe is death&rdquo; mantra during Tampa Bay&rsquo;s run, and Cooper also presides over a team that pushes the pace.</p><div class="figure-block image-bleed"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/tampa3/475420-1-eng-US/tampa32.jpg" title="tampa3" width="1021" height="1366"><figcaption class="caption-body"><p><b>SEARCH FOR STANLEY COOP</b></p><p>Cooper will never be compared with Tortorella when it comes to demeanor on the bench. Only his quest to win.</p> <span class="photo-credit">(BILL WIPPERT/NHLI VIA GETTY IMAGES)</span></figcaption></div><p>&ldquo;It&rsquo;s a very businesslike approach, it&rsquo;s about our team, our system,&rdquo; Feaster said. &ldquo;&lsquo;Torts&rsquo; was the same. He wasn&rsquo;t concerned with what the other team was going to do. If we played our system and didn&rsquo;t get the result, he&rsquo;d say, &lsquo;Well, you tip your hat to the other team.&rsquo; I get the same sense from &lsquo;Coop.&rsquo;&rdquo;</p><h2><b>DIFFERENCES</b></h2><p>For all their similarities, however, these two Lightning teams aren&rsquo;t exact replicas. To begin with, the &rsquo;04 champs didn&rsquo;t have a track record of success. The previous season, they&rsquo;d won the lowly Southeast Division and beaten Washington in the first round for the franchise&rsquo;s first playoff series victory. But Tampa Bay lost to New Jersey in the second round as the Devils went on to win the Cup. &ldquo;There wasn&rsquo;t that expectation, that history, to indicate we could go all the way the next year,&rdquo; Feaster said. &ldquo;The core of this (2019) team has been through it all. They&rsquo;ve experienced those heartbreaks.&rdquo;</p><p>Much of the current squad has gone through the wringer several times already, beginning with the Cup final loss to Chicago in 2015. In two of the next three seasons, the Lightning lost the Eastern Conference final in Game 7, both times to the eventual Cup champion (first Pittsburgh, then Washington). In the middle, they missed the playoffs, with Stamkos playing only 17 games because of a major knee injury. Last year&rsquo;s loss to Washington particularly stung, as the Lightning were shut out in the final two games after being up 3-2 in the series.</p><p>&ldquo;We got a little snakebit at the end against Washington,&rdquo; said center Tyler Johnson. &ldquo;It would have been nice if we would have been able to close them out early, and that&rsquo;s something we could have learned, to have that killer instinct right away. Credit to them, they played really well, but in the end there we just couldn&rsquo;t score. We hit a lot of posts and sometimes there are things you can&rsquo;t control.&rdquo;</p><p>But adversity can be a good thing. The &rsquo;04 champs see a 2019 team with a chip on its shoulder, and the current Lightning club is using its recent playoff failures as motivation. Now, it&rsquo;s a matter of walking the walk. The &rsquo;04 champs cruised through the first two rounds of the playoffs, losing just one game to the New York Islanders before sweeping the Montreal Canadiens. That put them in the best position possible heading into a gruelling, physical series against the heavy Philadelphia Flyers that went the distance.</p><p>&ldquo;No team won two games in a row,&rdquo; Andreychuk recalled. &ldquo;It was back and forth, and it was a dogfight. Game 6 in their building, we&rsquo;re up with a minute to go and end up losing. All the discussion on the plane ride home and the next day was about the fact we worked all regular season to get a Game 7 in our building. We had that on our side.&rdquo;</p><p>The 2004 Cup final featured another heavy opponent in the Calgary Flames. Iginla was the offensive catalyst, while Miikka Kiprusoff was the wall in net. The Lightning knew the Flames would be finishing every single check, and Tortorella did a good job of preparing his team for the onslaught.</p><p>After losing Game 5 at home, the Lightning were faced with an elimination game on the road, with the Stanley Cup in the building. A controversial no-goal call on Calgary&rsquo;s Martin Gelinas elicited groans from the Saddledome crowd that the eight-year-old Point probably heard from his house, and the game went into extra frames. St-Louis scored the winner in double overtime, and then Ruslan Fedotenko iced the series in Game 7 back in Tampa Bay with both Lightning goals in a 2-1 Cup victory.</p><blockquote class="pullQuote">IT&rsquo;S A BUSINESSLIKE APPROACH, IT&rsquo;S OUR TEAM, OUR SYSTEM. &lsquo;TORTS&rsquo; WAS THE SAME. HE WASN&rsquo;T CONCERNED WITH WHAT THE OTHER TEAM WAS GOING TO DO&hellip;I GET THE SAME SENSE FROM &lsquo;COOP&rsquo;<br>&ndash; Jay Feaster, GM of the &rsquo;04 champs</blockquote><p>If this year&rsquo;s installment is going to win the Cup, they too will have to get past some heavy teams. Washington knocked them out last year, of course, but Boston will be looking for revenge in the Atlantic Division bracket before that. Can the fancy Lightning win when the going gets rough?</p><p>&ldquo;I know we can,&rdquo; Johnson said. &ldquo;We&rsquo;ve done it in the past. Last year, teams tried to play physical against us and I thought we responded really well. A lot of guys on our team like to play with an edge and people underestimate us in that regard. We&rsquo;re trying to prepare ourselves for anything.&rdquo;</p><p>Thanks to their winning ways, the Lightning have given themselves the luxury of pacing themselves this season. A playoff spot was inevitable long before it became a mathematical certainty, and that allowed Cooper to give his top guns a bit of a break. &ldquo;I think this team has thought about what will happen in the playoffs since November,&rdquo; Andreychuk said. &ldquo;Nobody plays more than 20 minutes up front, Hedman&rsquo;s ice time is down, Vasilevskiy, because of the 14 games (injured), has been rested. The whole year has been geared up for the playoffs. Has the lesson been learned? They&rsquo;ve talked about it.&rdquo;</p><p>And now it&rsquo;s time to do it. This isn&rsquo;t a squad that will simply be happy to be there. This season is the culmination of years of building, with a dose of <i>never again</i> thrown in for good measure. Owner Jeff Vinik has provided the franchise with all the tools necessary and GM Julien BriseBois has continued the solid work that began with his predecessor (and now senior advisor) Steve Yzerman.</p><p>Feaster remembers celebrating on the ice after Tampa Bay&rsquo;s victory in &rsquo;04 and tracking down his boss, owner Bill Davidson, for a heart-to-heart. &ldquo;I thanked him for giving me a chance to manage this team,&rdquo; Feaster said. &ldquo;He put his arms on my shoulders, gave them a squeeze and with a twinkle in his eye, said, &lsquo;Jay, never in my wildest dreams&hellip;&rsquo; The difference this year is that I don&rsquo;t see Mr. Vinik doing that to Julien BriseBois or Steve Yzerman. This is a purposeful march.&rdquo;</p><p>Let&rsquo;s see if the Lightning can finally arrive at their coveted destination for the first time in 15 years.<span class="end-marker"> &#9632;</span></p>

tampa1

WILL LIGHTNING STRIKE TWICE?

<div class="byline">BY KEN CAMPBELL</div><div class="image-hero"><img title="STONE-OPENER" src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/stone-opener/480008-1-eng-US/stone-opener.jpg"><figcaption class="caption-body"><span class="photo-credit">(DAVID BECKER/NHLI VIA GETTY IMAGES)</span></figcaption></div><p class="dropcap"><b><span>T</span>HERE ARE TIMES WHEN</b> events transpire in life and they cause you to come to the realization that things will never be the same again. For Mark Stone, one such moment came last summer, on Aug. 1 to be exact, when he was sitting in the passenger&rsquo;s seat of his agent&rsquo;s car on his way to the Toronto airport. They were returning from a downtown hotel, where Stone had just agreed to a one-year contract with the Ottawa Senators. The deal avoided a potentially messy arbitration hearing scheduled for later that same day. But as it turned out, it only postponed the inevitable. That day, for the first time in his NHL career, Stone began seriously contemplating a future that didn&rsquo;t include the Senators, the only team he&rsquo;d ever known.</p><p>On the surface, Stone being dealt to the Vegas Golden Knights and his unprecedented signing of an eight-year deal moments later look as impetuous and impulsive as an Elvis-themed ceremony at the Lucky Little Wedding Chapel. After all, the whole thing came to fruition in less than an hour and was filed at 2:48 p.m. on trade deadline day. No sense waiting until the last minute. But the reality is that Stone had plenty of time to consider his future, so when it came down to making one of the most important decisions of his life, he was ready.</p><p>Of course, the Knights made it easy. Prior to signing Stone, in his 17-plus years as a GM between Washington and Vegas, George McPhee had given out just one no-move clause, to veteran goalie Tomas Vokoun on a one-year deal with the Capitals, and one signing bonus, a piddly $2 million to Vegas&rsquo; Jonathan Marchessault in the first year of his deal. Not even Alex Ovechkin got any of that stuff. But Stone&rsquo;s contract has complete no-move provisions for the entirety of the deal. And of the $76 million he&rsquo;ll make over the next eight years, $48 million will be paid in signing bonuses. This July 1, Stone will have a cheque for $9 million deposited into his bank account, and on each July 1 for the seven following years, he&rsquo;ll wake up a minimum of $5 million richer. &ldquo;We did that because players of this ability are really hard to find,&rdquo; McPhee said. &ldquo;They just don&rsquo;t come available. He&rsquo;s the right player at the right age at the right time for our team.&rdquo;</p><p>When Stone arrived in Las Vegas after the trade, with a couple days&rsquo; worth of whiskers and mop of messy hair, he was given the full Sin City treatment. Upon stepping off the plane, he was swiftly greeted by the Drumbots, Chance the gila monster, two cheerleaders, a guy dressed up in a full set of armor and a scantily clad woman with an enormous feather headdress with a Golden Knights logo in the middle. It was only then that he got to share a hug with assistant GM Kelly McCrimmon, the man who put his trust in a plodding 16-year-old with the WHL&rsquo;s Brandon Wheat Kings more than a decade ago. Stone politely smiled, but he looked about as comfortable as a dude preparing for a couples therapy retreat weekend. &ldquo;I mean, if you know me, that&rsquo;s not really me,&rdquo; Stone said, &ldquo;but it&rsquo;s something I&rsquo;ll remember for the rest of my life.&rdquo;</p><p>All right, so the humble personality and level demeanor aren&rsquo;t the ideal match for the bachelor party capital of the universe. But when it comes to fitting in with Vegas, Stone is a high-end player who makes one of the top teams in the NHL even better. He was immediately placed on a line with Paul Stastny at center and Max Pacioretty on the right side. The Knights are loath to designate numbers to their lines, but who&rsquo;s kidding whom here? The team that labelled itself &lsquo;The Golden Misfits&rsquo; in its inaugural season is anything but, and acquiring Stone is another example of the organization flexing its muscle and accelerating its program. Vegas&rsquo; roster is a significant upgrade over the one that went to the Stanley Cup final last season, in part because of Stone. It&rsquo;s a strong team that&rsquo;s getting better and has a long shelf life as a legitimate contender. &ldquo;It just seems like a good situation,&rdquo; said Michael Stone, Mark&rsquo;s more talkative older brother and defenseman with the Calgary Flames. &ldquo;He doesn&rsquo;t have to go through a summer of waiting and wondering, and he&rsquo;s going to a team that clearly appreciates him and wants him. They&rsquo;re a good hockey team that looks like they&rsquo;re going to be a good team for a long time. Who wouldn&rsquo;t want to be a part of that?&rdquo;</p><blockquote class="pullQuote">HE&rsquo;S THE RIGHT PLAYER AT THE RIGHT AGE AT THE RIGHT TIME FOR OUR TEAM<br>&ndash; Vegas GM George McPhee</blockquote><p>While Vegas managed to land one of the NHL&rsquo;s best two-way forwards, there are concerns this deal won&rsquo;t age well. In an era when foot speed is more important than it has ever been in the history of the game, the worry is Stone&rsquo;s lack of it will become a detriment, which will only be exacerbated with age. Yet here&rsquo;s the thing: Stone has never been a great skater, but he has always defied conventional wisdom by being a top two-way player. How often do you see players with poor footwork become elite defensive players? Almost never. But Stone, who wasn&rsquo;t on the ice for a single goal against in his first five games with the Golden Knights, does his work with superior angling, a long stick and a brain that processes the game with Connor McDavid-like speed. &ldquo;Watch him play, and you&rsquo;ll see that he&rsquo;s not the best skater out there,&rdquo; Michael Stone said. &ldquo;But he&rsquo;s one of the quickest thinkers, if not the quickest thinker, I know on the ice. He&rsquo;ll bait you into doing something he wants you to do, and he&rsquo;ll take it away from you.&rdquo;</p><p>&ldquo;It&rdquo; being the puck, of course. Stone has an uncanny way of routinely being where opposing rushes go to die. In his five full NHL seasons, including this one, Stone has led or shared the league lead in takeaways in four of them. As of mid-March, he had registered 482 takeaways since 2014-15, which was 132 ahead of the next highest player. Vegas coach Gerard Gallant is far more an eye-test than an analytics guy, which is good since Stone scores well on both counts. &ldquo;I didn&rsquo;t even know the guy,&rdquo; Gallant said. &ldquo;I knew he was a good hockey player, but then you see him and you say, &lsquo;You know what? Now I know why they talk about this guy.&rsquo; His hockey IQ is so high, and he&rsquo;s much better defensively than I thought.&rdquo;</p><div class="figure-block image-bleed"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/stone-stat/480015-1-eng-US/stone-stat.jpg" title="STONE-STAT" width="2500" height="2100"></div><p>When Stone woke up the morning of Feb. 25, he had no idea where he&rsquo;d be at the end of the day. Neither did anyone else. When his agent, Craig Oster, showed up for work the morning of the trade deadline, he hadn&rsquo;t talked with any teams about Stone. That all changed at 2 p.m., an hour before the deadline, when Senators GM Pierre Dorion called Oster telling him he had a deal with the Golden Knights contingent on them signing Stone to a long-term deal. As the two sides continued to negotiate, it became clear that Stone was either going to Vegas on a long-term deal or, if negotiations failed, somewhere else as a rental in a Plan B that had already been formulated. Everything got done 12 minutes before the deadline: Vegas got its man, the &ldquo;rebuilding Senators&rdquo; got a player they hope will be the second coming of Erik Karlsson in Erik Brannstrom, and Stone got peace of mind and an eighth year, something that wouldn&rsquo;t have happened had the contract not been closed before the deadline. The only player he knew on the Golden Knights was Cody Eakin, a fellow Winnipeg native who was a teammate in spring hockey as a kid. In 2002, Stone played with Eakin for the Winnipeg Jr. Jets in the Brick Novice Tournament, losing in the final to a Toronto summer team that featured current Knights forwards Reilly Smith and Brandon Pirri.</p><p>The journey has been a long one, but Stone is happy where it ended. &ldquo;It was possible I was going to be in Ottawa for the next eight years, it was possible I was going to be a rental for three months and there was this possibility,&rdquo; Stone said. &ldquo;This was ultimately the best one for me.&rdquo;<span class="end-marker"> &#9632;</span></p>

STONE-STAT

CASH LANDING

<div class="byline">BY JARED CLINTON</div><div class="image-hero"><img title="nhl_jets1" src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/nhl_jets14/475674-1-eng-US/nhl_jets12.jpg"><figcaption class="caption-body"><span class="photo-credit">(DARCY FINLEY/NHLI VIA GETTY IMAGES)</span></figcaption></div><p class="dropcap"><b><span>A</span>T THE CORNER OF</b> Winnipeg&rsquo;s Portage Ave. and Donald St. stands a fortress of red brick, smooth steel and shimmering glass. It sits atop a parcel of land steeped in history, upon a downtown corner that was for nearly a century the site of the renowned Eaton&rsquo;s department store. A reminder of that bygone era can be found in the concourse, where a 3,500-pound statue of Timothy Eaton rests upon a bronze throne. But this building no longer belongs to the Eaton family. Instead, its facade is emblazoned with Bell MTS Place, and, come April, this castle will be surrounded by a sea of white, a moat of living, breathing souls with numbers creeping into the tens of thousands. Outside, their celebrations will be thundering, loud enough to be heard from miles away. Inside, the cheers and chants will be deafening. This is the most intimidating arena in the NHL. This is the home of the Winnipeg Jets. And this is the great equalizer.</p><p>As they enter the playoffs with hopes higher than there has ever been for any Jets team in NHL history, be it past or present iteration, Winnipeg does so in a unique position. Unlike short-odds Stanley Cup contenders of years past, the Jets do not boast the league&rsquo;s top offense, stingiest defense or an MVP frontrunner among their ranks. Winnipeg does not possess the best power play or penalty kill, nor have they received Vezina Trophy-caliber goaltending from Connor Hellebuyck. Altogether, the Jets have spent not a single day alone atop the NHL standings, and Winnipeg&rsquo;s time as the top dogs in the Western Conference was limited to merely half a month. Yet, Winnipeg remains our pick to win the 2019 Stanley Cup, just as we predicted in these pages in our annual Future Watch edition four years ago.</p><p>The atmosphere inside Bell MTS Place and the way in which the Jets feed off of it is part of the reason why we&rsquo;re going against the odds, which suggest that the Tampa Bay Lightning are the heavy favorites to stand inside the winner&rsquo;s circle this season. But no NHL team enjoys as great a home-ice atmosphere as the Jets, who have not only succeeded but flourished inside the friendly confines of the &lsquo;Phone Booth,&rsquo; as it&rsquo;s colloquially known in Winnipeg. &ldquo;We&rsquo;ve seen it throughout last year and this year, how special we play at home and how special the crowd is,&rdquo; said Jets winger Brandon Tanev. &ldquo;It&rsquo;s electric.&rdquo;</p><div class="figure-block image-bleed"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/nhl_jets24/475660-1-eng-US/nhl_jets22.jpg" title="nhl_jets2" width="1020" height="1371"><figcaption class="caption-body"><p><b>SCORING BONUS</b></p><p>Laine wasn&rsquo;t even part of the equation back in 2015 when we tabbed the Jets as 2019 Cup champs.</p> <span class="photo-credit">(DARCY FINLEY/NHLI VIA GETTY IMAGES)</span></figcaption></div><p>That electricity has powered the Jets to 56 home wins (and counting) since the beginning of 2017-18, the best record of any Western Conference team and second only to the Lightning&rsquo;s 60 wins inside Amalie Arena, and only three visiting teams who have played three or more games in Winnipeg have managed a winning record over that time. (Tampa Bay, it should be noted, has not won in either trip to Manitoba&rsquo;s capital in the past two seasons.) The Jets&rsquo; victories have been aided by one of the most lethal home-ice attacks in the NHL.</p><p>Since the beginning of 2017-18, Winnipeg has lit the lamp 298 times in its own barn, more home-ice goals than any Western Conference club, and when the Jets&rsquo; attack gets rolling, it has drawn on the energy of one of the league&rsquo;s most raucous fan bases in a way that makes their former slogan, &lsquo;Fuelled by Passion&rsquo;, seem less a tagline and more a promise.</p><blockquote class="pullQuote">IT SHOWS THE CALIBER OF PLAYER WE HAVE IN THIS DRESSING ROOM. ANYBODY CAN SCORE<br>&ndash; Brandon Tanev</blockquote><p>Winnipeg&rsquo;s home-ice advantage exceeds the sometimes-nebulous benefits that the so-called seventh man can provide, however. What it also yields is the opportunity for the Jets to hurt teams in the matchup game by utilizing the last change. It&rsquo;s an additional weapon for coach Paul Maurice and a way in which Winnipeg can pick apart the weaknesses of an opponent by throwing their best out against the opposition&rsquo;s worst. And though it would stand to reason that the opposite is then true when Winnipeg hits the road, it&rsquo;s far more difficult to find such holes in a Jets team that possesses the type of genuine top-to-bottom depth that often separates the contenders from pretenders. It&rsquo;s the completeness of the roster that truly sets Winnipeg apart from those gunning for the throne.</p><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/nhl_jets4/475653-1-eng-US/nhl_jets42.jpg" title="nhl_jets4" width="499" height="669"></div><p>The Jets check all the boxes. Hellebuyck, while in the midst of a so-so season, has proven himself to be a big-game goalie with clutch post-season performances last spring. The defense corps borders on unassailable. Dustin Byfuglien is a freak athlete, a unique and gargantuan specimen who can punish teams physically and with his puck-moving and offensive ability. Then there&rsquo;s the rock-solid Jacob Trouba and rangy Tyler Myers, both of whom are as steady as they come with a knack for getting the puck out of danger. This is to say nothing of Josh Morrissey, who has developed into arguably the league&rsquo;s most underrated rearguard.</p><div class="figure-block image-bleed"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/nhl_jets32/475646-1-eng-US/nhl_jets32.jpg" title="nhl_jets3" width="1573" height="958"><figcaption class="caption-body"><p><b>ROLE CALL</b></p><p>Winnipeg has the top-end talent to keep up with anybody, backed up by an enviable supporting cast.</p> <span class="photo-credit">(JONATHAN KOZUB/NHLI VIA GETTY IMAGES)</span></figcaption></div><p>Of course, no shortage of ink has been spilled heaping praise upon Winnipeg&rsquo;s star-studded offense, which features Mark Scheifele and Blake Wheeler, a set of 90-point players, but it&rsquo;s the foundation of size, skill and speed around the Jets&rsquo; dynamic duo that separates Winnipeg&rsquo;s attack from the rest of the field. Super-sniper Patrik Laine may run hot and cold, but when he&rsquo;s on, there is no sight more harrowing for an opposing team than No. 29 loading up a one-timer. Meanwhile, speedsters Kyle Connor and Nikolaj Ehlers can turnstile defenders when a contest opens up. In tight-checking affairs, deadline acquisition Kevin Hayes, who provides more size and skill to a roster that already had an abundance of riches, and Bryan Little can pick apart seams to find a sliver of offense.</p><p>But as is the case in every post-season, the top-six talent will be challenged for every inch of ice by opposing defenses. Thus, as often happens in the playoffs, nobodies will be asked to become somebodies, and Winnipeg can rely on contributions from its unheralded bottom-six skaters more than any other team. As of mid-March, the Jets had 14 players who had registered at least 20 points, tied for the most of any team in the league, with another pair, defenseman Ben Chiarot and pivot Adam Lowry, on the cusp. &ldquo;It just shows the caliber of player we have in this dressing room and how the leadership group is able to lead us on the ice,&rdquo; Tanev said. &ldquo;Anybody up and down the lineup can score, and when we play the way we can play, it&rsquo;s a one-through-four lineup that can go out there and score against the best.&rdquo;</p><p>That&rsquo;s a testament to the draft-and-development strategy employed by Winnipeg, which was one of the primary factors when we heralded the Jets as future Stanley Cup champions back in 2015. The significance of a strong four-line rotation &ndash; and how that can push them over the top &ndash; isn&rsquo;t lost on the Jets. Scheifele described the pressure it can put on an opposing team&rsquo;s top line, how it can wear them down or result in increased minutes for top players when the depth can&rsquo;t keep up, and center Andrew Copp pointed to the defending Stanley Cup-champion Washington Capitals as the prime example of depth acting as the foundation for playoff success. &ldquo;(Devante) Smith-Pelly scored so many big goals for them on their fourth line, (Jay) Beagle was taking big faceoffs,&rdquo; Copp said. &ldquo;We know it&rsquo;s not just going to be one or two lines that&rsquo;s going to carry us throughout the whole post-season. Everyone is going to have to step up at some point.&rdquo;</p><h3 class="ezoeAligncenter" align="center"><b>THE HOCKEY NEWS POWER RANKINGS</b></h3><p align="center"><i>No surprise, we&rsquo;re sticking with our pick that&rsquo;s been four years in the making</i></p><div class="figure-block image-bleed"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/power-rankings-rev/480704-1-eng-US/power-rankings-rev.jpg" title="power-rankings-rev" width="1000" height="4850"></div><i></i><span class="end-marker"> &#9632;</span>

power-rankings-rev

YOU READ IT HERE FIRST

<div class="image-hero"><img title="f0040-01" src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0040-0182/475710-1-eng-US/f0040-012.jpg"></div><h2><b>TEAM FEATURE</b></h2><p>The strengths each team leans on for Cup contention and the weaknesses that might spell doom.</p><h2><b>FANTASY ZONE</b></h2><p>Each team&rsquo;s 10 best fantasy performers and No. 1 goalie are awarded star ratings based not simply on their regular-season values but also on their health and the team&rsquo;s likelihood of a deep run. Players who might still be on the shelf with an injury at the start the playoffs are indicated with a +.</p><h2><b>X-FACTOR</b></h2><p>Intangibles are difficult to quantify, but they can play a big part in teams getting hot and going on a playoff roll.</p><h2><b>PROJECTED LINES</b></h2><p>Linemates and &lsquo;D&rsquo; pairings can change on a coach&rsquo;s whim, but here&rsquo;s our best guess at the team rosters.</p><h2><b>1<sup>ST</sup> CUP PASS</b></h2><p>Which grizzled veteran or sentimental favorite deserves the captain&rsquo;s initial handoff of Lord Stanley&rsquo;s glorious mug?<span class="end-marker"> &#9632;</span></p>

f0040-01

WHAT’S INSIDE

<div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/ari_ekman-l_053/475760-1-eng-US/ari_ekman-l_0532.jpg" title="ari_ekman-l_053" width="688" height="1448"><figcaption class="caption-body"><b>OLIVER&nbsp;EKMAN-LARSSON</b> <span class="photo-credit">(JEFF VINNICK/NHLI VIA GETTY IMAGES)</span></figcaption></div><p class="dropcap"><b><span>A</span> REBUILDING TEAM</b> that ranks second in the league in man games lost to injury isn&rsquo;t supposed to be part of this playoff preview team section. But here are the Arizona Coyotes in all their glory, right here with the big boys.</p><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0041-0253/475774-1-eng-US/f0041-022.jpg" title="f0041-02" width="216" height="224"></div><p>Not only have the Coyotes staved off irrelevance, they&rsquo;ve surged without their starting goalie and a handful of key players. Arizona won 12 of 16 games starting in the dog days of February to secure a wild-card position heading into the final four weeks of the season.</p><p>The fact bottom-six spark plug Brad Richardson led the team in goals for much of the season is a perfect illustration of how the Coyotes perform. Under coach Rick Tocchet, they work their rear ends off. They&rsquo;re heavy on the forecheck, active in the neutral zone and quick on pucks in their own zone. They&rsquo;re the find-a-way Coyotes. They rank among the bottom half-dozen teams offensively, but they&rsquo;re in the top 10 defensively. The power play has struggled all season, but the penalty killing has been superb. It all comes down to Tocchet&rsquo;s attention to detail. He&rsquo;s one of the most active head coaches in the league when it comes to giving direct and immediate feedback to players on the bench.</p><p>The Coyotes prefer not to have games evolve into track meets. Although they have many players that qualify as speedsters, the team would prefer to keep the opposition on the perimeter. But that doesn&rsquo;t always go according to Hoyle. When the shots-against total rises and the game scores increase, Arizona doesn&rsquo;t have the firepower to keep up. The Coyotes might end up the only team without a 20-goal scorer. And when they&rsquo;re down, they often stay down. Only Anaheim has scored fewer goals in the third period.</p><p>At least Arizona can rely on captain Oliver Ekman-Larsson, who was averaging better than 23 minutes a night and sat second on the team in scoring.</p><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/1st-cup-pass/480165-1-eng-US/1st-cup-pass.jpg" title="1ST-CUP-PASS" width="600" height="126"></div><p>Does Ekman-Larsson pass the Cup to 34-year-old <b>BRAD RICHARDSON</b> or 33-year-old Alex Goligoski? Judging by Richardson&rsquo;s unlikely boffo season, it goes to him.</p><h1><b>X-FACTOR</b></h1><p>The last time the Coyotes made the playoffs, Oliver Ekman-Larsson was a 20-year-old rookie on a veteran squad that included Ray Whitney, Daymond Langkow and Adrian Aucoin. The team then known as Phoenix beat Chicago and Nashville before a Western Conference final loss to L.A. The extra nine playoff home dates took some red out of the financial statements, and home attendance spiked 12 percent the following season. It was a steady decline in the next five seasons, but the numbers are up again this year. Owner Andrew Barroway bought the team in 2014 and&nbsp;is eagerly anticipating some extra home gates.</p><h1><b>PROJECTED LINES</b></h1><div class="figure-block image-bleed"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0041-0332/475753-1-eng-US/f0041-032.jpg" title="f0041-03" width="1034" height="482"></div><h1>PLAYOFF ROSTER</h1><div class="figure-block image-bleed"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0041-0173/475746-1-eng-US/f0041-012.jpg" title="f0041-01" width="1570" height="582"></div><h1><b>FANTASY ZONE</b></h1><div class="figure-block image-bleed"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/ari2/480179-1-eng-US/ari.jpg" title="ARI" width="2500" height="1200"></div><p>If the Coyotes squeak into the playoffs and make any noise, they&rsquo;ll do it by winning games 2-1, meaning their goalie has the most potential for fantasy relevance. Even with Antti Raanta inching toward a return from injury,&nbsp;<b>DARCY KUEMPER</b>&nbsp;was so incredible in relief that it would be tough for Arizona to take the crease away from him.<span class="end-marker"> &#9632;</span></p>

ARIZONA COYOTES

<div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/bos_marchan_054/475831-1-eng-US/bos_marchan_0542.jpg" title="bos_marchan_054" width="824" height="1288"><figcaption class="caption-body"><p><b>BRAD&nbsp;</b><b>MARCHAND</b></p> <span class="photo-credit">(CLAUS ANDERSEN/GETTY IMAGES)</span></figcaption></div><p class="dropcap"><b><span>W</span>HEN YOU TALK</b> about super lines in the NHL, they simply don&rsquo;t get any more super than the Bruins&rsquo; top unit of Patrice Bergeron between David Pastrnak and Brad Marchand. The trio is dominant at both ends of the ice and induces migraines among opposing coaches and players. When that group is healthy and on its game, there is almost no way to stop it.</p><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0042-0254/475845-1-eng-US/f0042-022.jpg" title="f0042-02" width="198" height="198"></div><p>The forward depth does fall off rather significantly after the top line, which says as much about how good that trio is as it does about the team&rsquo;s secondary forwards. David Krejci has had a very good season despite a continuous rotation of wingers. The Bruins have a physical team and play a style that skews toward playoff success. Their goaltending, while often maligned by the fan base, is rock solid and has a proven playoff pedigree: in 65 career playoff games, Tuukka Rask has .924 save percentage to go along with a 2.25 goals-against average. And Jaroslav Halak, who&rsquo;s played half the games this year, is known for his past post-season heroics.</p><p>Most of the Bruins&rsquo; problems are on the defensive side. Their D-corps has a propensity for getting lit up and is vulnerable against teams with a lot of speed. But it&rsquo;s not only that. The defensive unit is often responsible for poor coverage even when it can catch opposing wingers. If Rask isn&rsquo;t at his best, the Bruins are often sunk. As good as they are up front, they don&rsquo;t have the ability to constantly outscore their defensive inefficiencies. As dangerous as the B&rsquo;s are on their top line and, to a lesser degree, their second line, their bottom-six forwards struggle to produce even a modicum of offense.</p><p>Many of the Bruins&rsquo; core players have a lot of NHL miles on their bodies and will be tested if the team goes on a long playoff run. Fatigue and burnout, particularly given the path they&rsquo;ll have to take, are legitimate possibilities.</p><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/1st-cup-pass2/480186-1-eng-US/1st-cup-pass.jpg" title="1ST-CUP-PASS" width="600" height="126"></div><p>It&rsquo;s hard to believe it would be anyone other than <b>PATRICE BERGERON</b>, who has embodied excellence and established himself as one of the franchise&rsquo;s all-time greats.</p><h2><b>X-FACTOR</b></h2><p>With every reason to expect the Bruins will face Toronto in the first round, Boston has an enormous mental edge on its opponent. Ever since the Game 7 comeback in 2013, the Bruins have been inside the heads of the Maple Leafs, and there seems to be a notion the Leafs cannot beat the Bruins in the playoffs. Boston also has a very decided physical edge over Toronto, which has in the past had a unique way of silencing Toronto&rsquo;s best players. The problem for the Bruins is that their first two opponents, if they get beyond Round 1, will be among the best teams in the NHL, assuming they meet Tampa in the division final.</p><h2><b>PROJECTED LINES</b></h2><div class="figure-block image-bleed"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0042-0336/475824-1-eng-US/f0042-032.jpg" title="f0042-03" width="1034" height="482"></div><h2><b>PLAYOFF ROSTER</b></h2><div class="figure-block image-bleed"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0042-0181/475817-1-eng-US/f0042-012.jpg" title="f0042-01" width="1578" height="584"></div><h2><b>FANTASY ZONE</b></h2><div class="figure-block image-bleed"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/bos/480193-1-eng-US/bos.jpg" title="BOS" width="2500" height="1200"></div><p>The Bruins&rsquo; first line casts such a large shadow that it could render some of their secondary scorers bargains in fantasy drafts. <b>JAKE DEBRUSK</b> contributed six goals in 12 games last spring and carried the momentum into 2018-19 to smash his career high and post his first 20-goal campaign. He has reasonable upside for someone you can pick late.<span class="end-marker"> &#9632;</span></p>

BOSTON BRUINS

<div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/cgy_giordan_055/475902-1-eng-US/cgy_giordan_0552.jpg" title="cgy_giordan_055" width="790" height="1306"><figcaption class="caption-body"><p><b>MARK&nbsp;GIORDANO</b></p> <span class="photo-credit">(BRETT HOLMES/ICON SPORTSWIRE VIA GETTY IMAGES)</span></figcaption></div><p class="dropcap"><b><span>T</span>HE SMARTEST THING</b> new coach Bill Peters did in Calgary was recognize the talent in the Flames lineup and design a game plan that allowed it to flourish. Where once Calgary was a perimeter team that moved the puck mainly on the outside of the scoring zone, the Flames are at their best when they&rsquo;re making short, crisp passes that can dissect defenses. That has helped boost an offense that ranked 27th a year ago to the top five this season &ndash; with a 35-percent hike in scoring, or almost one goal per game. The chemistry between playmaker Johnny Gaudreau, triggerman Sean Monahan and newcomer Elias Lindholm has been electric. And Matthew Tkachuk has developed into a well-rounded offensive tool who can also antagonize the opposition.</p><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0043-0244/475916-1-eng-US/f0043-022.jpg" title="f0043-02" width="224" height="193"></div><p>Peters has encouraged his defensemen to become part of the offense, to aggressively pinch at the blueline and to not always think low-percentage stretch-pass. As a result, 12-year veteran Mark Giordano reached a career high in points by February, and T.J. Brodie saw his plus-minus swing by a measure of 40. Even Travis Hamonic and Noah Hanifin will hit career highs in goals or points despite little power-play time.</p><p>The Flames struggle when they run into defenses that clog the middle and force them to the outside. During a four-game losing streak in March, Calgary scored just five goals against teams (Minnesota, Toronto, Vegas and Arizona) that created a tight defensive shell with active sticks in interior passing lanes. And even though the neutral-zone trap of yesterday&rsquo;s era has largely been nullified with countermeasures, the use of it against the Flames can frustrate them before they have a chance to mount an attack. Take the body against the Flames and you&rsquo;ll wear them down. They&rsquo;re not a team that ever controls the trenches. Only a few Calgary players have the willingness to push back.</p><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/1st-cup-pass3/480200-1-eng-US/1st-cup-pass.jpg" title="1ST-CUP-PASS" width="600" height="126"></div><p>Giordano is bound to see his No. 5 in the arena rafters one day. He&rsquo;ll pass the mug off to loyal <b>MIKAEL BACKLUND</b>. They&rsquo;ve been teammates for a decade.</p><h2><b>X-FACTOR</b></h2><p>The crease in Calgary is unsettled. Age has caught up to 37-year-old Mike Smith. His reflexes are noticeably slower to the point he plays deep in his crease in order to compensate, which makes his 6-foot-5, 220-pound frame look small. He has had spurts of solid play, but his sub-.900 save percentage doesn&rsquo;t intimidate shooters. David Rittich seized the opening and became the de facto No. 1 as the Flames rose in the West. However, he has run hot and cold since the all-star break. One period he&rsquo;s &lsquo;Big Save Dave&rsquo; and the next he&rsquo;s prone to giveaways, mental lapses and a desertion of confidence.</p><h2><b>PROJECTED LINES</b></h2><div class="figure-block image-bleed"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0043-0335/475895-1-eng-US/f0043-032.jpg" title="f0043-03" width="1034" height="482"></div><h2><b>PLAYOFF ROSTER</b></h2><div class="figure-block image-bleed"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0043-0172/475888-1-eng-US/f0043-012.jpg" title="f0043-01" width="1576" height="584"></div><h2><b>FANTASY ZONE</b></h2><p><b>JOHNNY GAUDREAU</b> is a superstar, but his sublime skill hasn&rsquo;t translated to the playoffs so far in his career. The tighter-checking style has smothered his game. That said, he reached a new stratosphere of production this season, and his last post-season games came before the NHL&rsquo;s slashing crackdown, so he should finally post pinball numbers this spring.</p><div class="figure-block image-bleed"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/cgy/480207-1-eng-US/cgy.jpg" title="CGY" width="2500" height="1200"></div><p><span class="end-marker"> &#9632;</span></p>

CALGARY FLAMES

<div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/car_aho5/475973-1-eng-US/car_aho2.jpg" title="car_aho" width="871" height="1281"><figcaption class="caption-body"><p><b>SEBASTIAN&nbsp;AHO</b></p> <span class="photo-credit">(ANDRE RINGUETTE/NHLI VIA GETTY IMAGES)</span></figcaption></div><p class="dropcap"><b><span>Y</span>OU&rsquo;D BE HARD-PRESSED</b> to find a more modern team than the Hurricanes right now. Carolina is the best possession squad in the league; a burgeoning youngster, Sebastian Aho, paces the attack; and the defense is great at moving the puck and keeping it away from its own net.</p><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0044-0260/475987-1-eng-US/f0044-022.jpg" title="f0044-02" width="295" height="177"></div><p>Had it not been for questions in net and concussion woes for center Jordan Staal, the Hurricanes would&rsquo;ve been even higher in the standings. As it is, the Canes were trending in the right direction in the second half, and the combination of leadership from coach Rod Brind&rsquo;Amour and captain Justin Williams &ndash; the latter of whom spearheaded the fan-favorite &lsquo;Storm Surge&rsquo; post-game celebration craze &ndash; had this franchise in the best place since the Stanley Cup championship team from 2006.</p><p>Keeping in-demand power forward Micheal Ferland at the trade deadline sent a very positive message to the team, too, while Nino Niederreiter has been a revelation since coming over from Minnesota.</p><p>The Hurricanes have played four different netminders, and none has really seized the reins. The main options are Petr Mrazek and Curtis McElhinney, neither of whom has been able to establish himself as the No. 1. McElhinney has the best save percentage, but the 35-year-old backup is streaky, while Mrazek has made a career out of coming close but never quite putting it all together. A .934 save percentage after the all-star break suggested he was figuring things out. That was big news, as anything less than average goaltending in the playoffs spells doom for non-elite teams.</p><p>Offensively, the Hurricanes are just OK, and the power play is not intimidating. The squad also ranks in the bottom third of the NHL in faceoff percentage, which tends to mean more in the high-stakes post-season than it does in the first 82 games. Is this a good team, or does it just play in a mixed-up division?</p><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/1st-cup-pass4/480214-1-eng-US/1st-cup-pass.jpg" title="1ST-CUP-PASS" width="600" height="126"></div><p>As the longest-tenured Hurricane and a veteran who has yet to win a Cup, <b>JUSTIN FAULK</b> is the perfect candidate to take the handoff from captain Williams.</p><h1><b>X-FACTOR</b></h1><p>With a breakout offensive campaign, converted winger Sebastian Aho has shown he can hang with some of the top offensive centers in the league. As a member of Finland&rsquo;s gold-medal WJC team in 2016, he has proven himself to be great in pressure situations. But how will the understated pivot react to the NHL&rsquo;s biggest stage? The last time he was in the playoffs was with Karpat Oulu of the Finnish Liiga. Will the smallish center thrive when the checking gets tighter? So far, Aho has made a living off proving the doubters wrong, and the NHL playoffs simply represent his next challenge to overcome.</p><h1><b>PROJECTED LINES</b></h1><div class="figure-block image-bleed"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0044-0334/475966-1-eng-US/f0044-032.jpg" title="f0044-03" width="1034" height="482"></div><h1><b>PLAYOFF ROSTER</b></h1><div class="figure-block image-bleed"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0044-0184/475959-1-eng-US/f0044-012.jpg" title="f0044-01" width="1574" height="583"></div><h1><b>FANTASY ZONE</b></h1><p><b>JUSTIN WILLIAMS</b>&nbsp;averages more points in the playoffs than regular season and is easily the Hurricanes&rsquo; most experienced spring performer, owning three Cup rings. He gelled nicely on the top line with Niederreiter and Aho and averaged almost a point per game after the all-star break. Williams&rsquo; age (37) masks his upside late-round sleeper.</p><div class="figure-block image-bleed"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/car/480221-1-eng-US/car.jpg" title="CAR" width="2500" height="1200"></div><p><span class="end-marker"> &#9632;</span></p>

CAROLINA HURRICANES

<div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/chi_kane4/476044-1-eng-US/chi_kane2.jpg" title="chi_kane" width="691" height="1191"><figcaption class="caption-body"><p><b>PATRICK&nbsp;KANE</b></p> <span class="photo-credit">(RICK MADONIK/TORONTO STAR VIA GETTY IMAGES)</span></figcaption></div><p class="dropcap"><b><span>Y</span>EARS OF SACRIFICING</b> draft picks and prospects in the name of winning Stanley Cups finally came back to bite the Blackhawks with a last-place finish in the Central in 2017-18, and a mediocre 6-6-3 start to 2018-19 led to coach Joel Quenneville&rsquo;s firing in November.</p><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0045-0254/476058-1-eng-US/f0045-022.jpg" title="f0045-02" width="235" height="204"></div><p>Things remained bleak at first under new coach Jeremy Colliton, but then something happened. He reunited Patrick Kane and Jonathan Toews for a period. It worked, and both players enjoyed their best seasons in years. The Hawks acquired fallen prospect Dylan Strome, plugged him onto a line with old junior teammate Alex DeBrincat and watched both players explode for breakout seasons. Suddenly, the idea the Hawks were a top-heavy team only capable of icing one effective line wasn&rsquo;t true.</p><p>Chicago has the NHL&rsquo;s No. 8 offense, with a 100-point scorer (Kane), three 30-goal men (Kane, Toews, DeBrincat) and a 50-point blueliner in out-of-nowhere sensation Erik Gustafsson.</p><p>A few years from now, the Blackhawks&rsquo; defense corps might look great, led by prospects Adam Boqvist and Henri Jokiharju, but it remains a work in progress at best right now. Future Hall of Famer Duncan Keith enjoyed a resurgent season at 35, but he didn&rsquo;t have a lot of help. Chicago is a porous defensive team. As of mid-March, its 73.1-percent penalty-kill rate was the lowest by any NHL franchise in the past <i>29 seasons</i>, a sample that includes 815 teams. The Hawks are one of two teams allowing 35 or more shots per game this season.</p><p>Whether Chicago has to battle up the Central bracket or the Pacific, it&rsquo;ll face some teams who can blend heavy hockey with skill, and this incarnation of the Hawks can be pushed around, with 14 skaters weighing less than 200 pounds. They rank second-last in the league in hits. The brawn side of the game matters a lot less than it used to, but it&rsquo;s still more of a factor in the playoffs than the regular season.</p><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/1st-cup-pass5/480228-1-eng-US/1st-cup-pass.jpg" title="1ST-CUP-PASS" width="600" height="126"></div><p><b>COREY CRAWFORD</b> battled back from concussion hell. It&rsquo;s a miracle he&rsquo;s playing at all, so he&rsquo;d make a lovely sentimental choice to receive the Cup handoff.</p><h2><b>X-FACTOR</b></h2><p>Goaltender Corey Crawford rejoined the team for the stretch run after another multi-month concussion layoff. If healthy, he&rsquo;s a game-breaker, a clutch stopper with two Cup rings and 48 career playoff wins, but he&rsquo;s also one collision away from exiting the lineup for a long time again. Meanwhile, Duncan Keith looked like his old Norris Trophy self at times this year, but he&rsquo;s 35. He averages more than 28 minutes a game in the playoffs for his career &ndash; but logged the lowest average TOI of his career this regular season at less than 23 minutes. Does that mean he&rsquo;s fresh &ndash; or that he can&rsquo;t do as much now? Can he still be the horse Chicago needs?</p><h2><b>PROJECTED LINES</b></h2><div class="figure-block image-bleed"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0045-0335/476037-1-eng-US/f0045-032.jpg" title="f0045-03" width="1034" height="482"></div><h2><b>PLAYOFF ROSTER</b></h2><div class="figure-block image-bleed"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0045-0174/476030-1-eng-US/f0045-012.jpg" title="f0045-01" width="1575" height="582"></div><h2><b>FANTASY ZONE</b></h2><p>Mid-season team changes create chances to turn profits in pools. <b>DYLAN STROME&rsquo;S</b> season numbers look ho-hum, meaning his default rank won&rsquo;t soar too high in most drafts, but he&rsquo;s delivered high-end No. 2 center stats, approaching a point per game, since becoming a Hawk. He also gets work on the team&rsquo;s No. 1 power-play unit.</p><div class="figure-block image-bleed"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/chi/480235-1-eng-US/chi.jpg" title="CHI" width="2500" height="1200"></div><p><span class="end-marker"> &#9632;</span></p>

CHICAGO BLACKHAWKS

<div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/col_mackinn_062/476115-1-eng-US/col_mackinn_0622.jpg" title="col_mackinn_062" width="803" height="1248"><figcaption class="caption-body"><p><b>NATHAN&nbsp;MACKINNON</b></p> <span class="photo-credit">(JULIAN AVRAM/ICON SPORTSWIRE VIA GETTY IMAGES)</span></figcaption></div><p class="dropcap"><b><span>T</span>HE AVALANCHE&rsquo;S</b> identity one year ago, when they improved by an astounding 47 points to make the playoffs: an exciting but top-heavy team with one dominant line. Nathan MacKinnon, Mikko Rantanen and Gabriel Landeskog scored 36.5 percent of Colorado&rsquo;s goals. Through mid-March of this season: 44.1 percent.</p><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0047-0257/476129-1-eng-US/f0047-022.jpg" title="f0047-02" width="230" height="188"></div><p>Glass half empty: that stat tells us the Avs&rsquo; secondary scoring is even worse this season. Glass half full: it&rsquo;s not that the Avs&rsquo; supporting cast is weaker &ndash; it&rsquo;s just that the star trio is even better. Regardless of the prism through which we see Colorado, we know it can ice one truly outstanding line whenever coach Jared Bednar isn&rsquo;t experimenting with splitting the group up &ndash; and that the Avs still seriously lack scoring depth.</p><p>No. 3 center Carl Soderberg did crest 20 goals for the first time, but most of the young forwards have stalled aside from J.T. Compher. Tyson Jost got demoted to the AHL for a month. Alexander Kerfoot&rsquo;s lucky shooting percentage regressed. An injury in March shelved Landeskog for the rest of the regular season, further exposing the crippling lack of depth.</p><p>Not much else about the Avs stands out aside from their stars. Forever underrated blueliner Tyson Barrie leads a strong power play. He and Samuel Girard move the puck well, while Erik Johnson, Nikita Zadorov and Ian Cole bring physicality on defense. Semyon Varlamov and Philipp Grubauer have provided competent goaltending, not really winning the team games but not losing them, either.</p><p>It&rsquo;s a middling roster &ndash; but that&rsquo;s somewhat by design. Colorado GM Joe Sakic didn&rsquo;t let one ahead-of-schedule season affect his decisions in the summer of 2018. He stayed conservative, knowing his team has last-place Ottawa&rsquo;s first-round pick this June plus some elite prospects in the pipeline, none better than defenseman Cale Makar. A playoff berth this season is just gravy.</p><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/1st-cup-pass6/480351-1-eng-US/1st-cup-pass.jpg" title="1ST-CUP-PASS" width="600" height="126"></div><p>With no obvious sentimental pick, the team&rsquo;s best player makes a fine choice for the handoff, meaning Landeskog gives the Cup to <b>NATHAN MACKINNON</b>.</p><h2><b>X-FACTOR</b></h2><p>The Avalanche are short on experience. Ian Cole is their lone skater with a Stanley Cup ring (with Pittsburgh in 2016 and 2017). But Derick Brassard has some valuable tread on his tires. His 78 games in the past five post-seasons tie him for third in the NHL. From 2013-14 to 2016-17, he went to a Stanley Cup final and two conference finals between the Rangers and Senators. Traded twice this season, he didn&rsquo;t make a significant impact early on with the Avs, but his smarts and willingness to play in high-traffic areas could help him deliver a clutch moment. He has five career game-winning playoff goals.</p><h2><b>PROJECTED LINES</b></h2><div class="figure-block image-bleed"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0047-0342/476108-1-eng-US/f0047-032.jpg" title="f0047-03" width="1034" height="482"></div><h2><b>PLAYOFF ROSTER</b></h2><div class="figure-block image-bleed"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0047-0183/476101-1-eng-US/f0047-012.jpg" title="f0047-01" width="1573" height="582"></div><h2><b>FANTASY ZONE</b></h2><p>Monitor coach Bednar&rsquo;s line deployments closely leading up to your playoff draft. He experimented with playing MacKinnon and <b>MIKKO RANTANEN</b> on separate lines while Landeskog was hurt. MacKinnon and Rantanen are obviously better together, but Rantanen was more adversely affected than MacKinnon when they were split up, so buyer beware.</p><div class="figure-block image-bleed"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/col/480344-1-eng-US/col.jpg" title="COL" width="2500" height="1200"></div><p><span class="end-marker"> &#9632;</span></p>

1ST-CUP-PASS

COLORADO AVALANCHE

<div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/clb_panarin_065/476186-1-eng-US/clb_panarin_0652.jpg" title="clb_panarin_065" width="707" height="1208"><figcaption class="caption-body"><p><b>ARTEMI&nbsp;PANARIN</b></p> <span class="photo-credit">(JONATHAN KOZUB/NHLI VIA GETTY IMAGES)</span></figcaption></div><p class="dropcap"><b><span>T</span>HIS POST-SEASON IS</b> certainly fraught with peril for the Blue Jackets, because the stakes have never been higher. The team will likely lose cornerstones Artemi Panarin and Sergei Bobrovsky to unrestricted free agency in the summer, and trade deadline acquisition Matt Duchene could join them, too. Of course, the players themselves would love to just win a series &ndash; something the franchise has never done.</p><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0048-0259/476200-1-eng-US/f0048-022.jpg" title="f0048-02" width="254" height="219"></div><p>From the outside, Columbus looks like a playoff team: the Jackets play a heavy game laced with skill, helmed by a Stanley Cup-winning coach in John Tortorella (though it has been 15 years since &lsquo;Torts&rsquo; lifted the trophy in Tampa Bay). In Seth Jones and Zach Werenski, the Jackets have an enviable top end to their blueline corps, and both guys can move the puck up ice. There is nice depth up front, and the team has all the motivation in the world to finally break through with a first-round win.</p><p>However, Bobrovsky has historically been as bad in the playoffs as he has been good in the regular season &ndash; and this year he wasn&rsquo;t even good during the first 82 games. The two-time Vezina Trophy-winner has never won a post-season series in his NHL career dating back to his early days with the Philadelphia Flyers. For much of this season, the big Russian has underperformed, and it&rsquo;s hard not to wonder if his mind is already on the next city he plans on working in.</p><p>And for all the leadership Columbus has, this group has not exactly been clutch. The Blue Jackets won the first two games of their series against Washington &ndash; on the road &ndash; last year before losing four straight, including three at home.</p><p>Duchene&rsquo;s production dropped precipitously after he came over from Ottawa, and outside of Brandon Dubinsky and depth D-man Adam McQuaid, there isn&rsquo;t much playoff experience on the roster.</p><p>This team was also on the playoff bubble right till the end.</p><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/1st-cup-pass7/480358-1-eng-US/1st-cup-pass.jpg" title="1ST-CUP-PASS" width="600" height="126"></div><p><b>BRANDON DUBINSKY</b> and Cam Atkinson are both long-time Blue Jackets, but the nod goes to Dubinsky because he&rsquo;s older and has more NHL games under his belt.</p><h2><b>X-FACTOR</b></h2><p>He&rsquo;s one of the most dynamic players in the league, and even if he leaves in the summer, Artemi Panarin will be the key to whatever success Columbus can earn in the playoffs. The ultra-talented left winger is the team&rsquo;s leading scorer and hasn&rsquo;t shown the same drop-off as Sergei Bobrovsky during a tumultuous time. So far in his career, Panarin has put up two impressive playoff showings and one dud: he&rsquo;s been a point-per-gamer with the 2016 Blackhawks and 2018 Jackets while struggling for points with the 2017 Hawks. If Columbus is going anywhere, Panarin is going to be the guy driving the bus on offense.</p><h2><b>PROJECTED LINES</b></h2><div class="figure-block image-bleed"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0048-0340/476179-1-eng-US/f0048-032.jpg" title="f0048-03" width="1034" height="486"></div><h2><b>PLAYOFF ROSTER</b></h2><div class="figure-block image-bleed"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0048-0183/476172-1-eng-US/f0048-012.jpg" title="f0048-01" width="1572" height="582"></div><h2><b>FANTASY ZONE</b></h2><p>Perpetually underrated <b>CAM ATKINSON</b> beat his personal best in goals with a month left in the season and ranks 12th in goals over the past four seasons, sandwiched between Tyler Seguin and Evgeni Malkin. Both those players will go much earlier than Atkinson in playoff drafts. Picking him requires faith in Columbus, but his price will be reasonable.</p><div class="figure-block image-bleed"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/clb/480365-1-eng-US/clb.jpg" title="CLB" width="2500" height="1200"></div><p><span class="end-marker"> &#9632;</span></p>

COLUMBUS BLUE JACKETS

<div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/dal_seguin7/476257-1-eng-US/dal_seguin2.jpg" title="dal_seguin" width="816" height="1201"><figcaption class="caption-body"><p><b>TYLER&nbsp;SEGUIN</b></p> <span class="photo-credit">(FRANCOIS LACASSE/NHLI VIA GETTY IMAGES)</span></figcaption></div><p class="dropcap"><b><span>C</span>OACH JIM MONTGOMERY</b> was known for an up-tempo style at NCAA Denver when the Stars hired him last May, so the expectation was more offense. Interestingly, while Dallas improved, it was for the opposite reason: this club is extremely stingy. By mid-March, it allowed the fewest goals of any Western Conference club. Its young defense corps moves the puck up ice quickly. John Klingberg does it as well as any blueliner, and teenager Miro Heiskanen has shown maturity. He looks like a future Norris threat.</p><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0049-0263/476271-1-eng-US/f0049-022.jpg" title="f0049-02" width="291" height="235"></div><p>Goalie Ben Bishop has enjoyed his best season since his Vezina-contending days with the Tampa Bay Lightning. The Stars, who consistently have one of the league&rsquo;s toughest travel schedules, always play their backups a ton, and Anton Khudobin has sparkled.</p><p>But where would this team be without its superb goaltending? Defensively, aside from a strong penalty kill, there&rsquo;s a smoke-and-mirrors show happening in Dallas. The stat &ldquo;PDO&rdquo; blends shooting percentage and save percentage for an indication of how lucky a team is, and Dallas&rsquo; PDO ranks second in the West. The Stars are a below-average possession team, allowing five more shot attempts than they generate every 60 minutes at 5-on-5. They do a good job limiting high-danger chances but, as a whole, are highly reliant on goaltending &ndash; which is extremely problematic for a team so anemic offensively. The Stars ranked 29th in goals per game through mid-March.</p><p>Their annual bugaboo has been a lack of scoring from forwards not named Tyler Seguin, Jamie Benn and Alexander Radulov &ndash; but the problem has worsened with Benn having a down year. None of the Stars&rsquo; young forwards developed as needed to become scorers worthy of top-six roles. Valeri Nichushkin, a 2013 first-rounder who returned from the KHL, was still looking for his first goal. That&rsquo;s not a typo.</p><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/1st-cup-pass8/480406-1-eng-US/1st-cup-pass.jpg" title="1ST-CUP-PASS" width="600" height="126"></div><p>Benn&rsquo;s bromance with longtime linemate <b>TYLER SEGUIN</b> is well documented, so it would be an upset if Seguin didn&rsquo;t receive the holy grail first.</p><h2><b>X-FACTOR</b></h2><p>Credit to GM Jim Nill for recognizing his team&rsquo;s desperate need for secondary scoring. He went out and got it, acquiring Mats Zuccarello from the Rangers the weekend before the trade deadline. &lsquo;The Norwegian Hobbit&rsquo; arrived from New York on fire, with 22 points in his previous 16 games, and kept it up with two points in his first two periods as a Star. Then, some rotten luck: a blocked shot resulted in a broken arm requiring surgery. Dallas didn&rsquo;t even have him for a full game. His recovery timeline projected a return just before the playoffs. The lineup is much more dangerous offensively with Zuccarello in it.</p><h2><b>PROJECTED LINES</b></h2><div class="figure-block image-bleed"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0049-0345/476250-1-eng-US/f0049-032.jpg" title="f0049-03" width="1034" height="482"></div><h2><b>PLAYOFF ROSTER</b></h2><div class="figure-block image-bleed"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0049-0181/476243-1-eng-US/f0049-012.jpg" title="f0049-01" width="1573" height="583"></div><h2><b>FANTASY ZONE</b></h2><p><b>MIRO HEISKANEN</b> has a promising career ahead of him. Earning an All-Star Game invite as a teenager was quite an accomplishment. His offensive production tanked in the second half, however, likely because he hit a rookie wall playing more than 23 minutes a game. He&rsquo;ll be a vital real-life player this spring, but don&rsquo;t count on much fantasy value.</p><div class="figure-block image-bleed"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/dal/480413-1-eng-US/dal.jpg" title="DAL" width="2500" height="1200"></div><p><span class="end-marker"> &#9632;</span></p>

DALLAS STARS

<div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/min_suter4/476328-1-eng-US/min_suter2.jpg" title="min_suter" width="841" height="1276"><figcaption class="caption-body"><p><b>RYAN&nbsp;SUTER</b></p> <span class="photo-credit">(DEREK LEUNG/GETTY IMAGES)</span></figcaption></div><p class="dropcap"><b><span>S</span>OMETHING STRANGE</b> happened to the Wild this season. Under new GM Paul Fenton, they acknowledged the need for a pseudo-rebuild. They traded forwards Charlie Coyle and Mikael Granlund for younger players who are under team control for longer terms. But instead of sinking out of the playoff picture, they hung around and, for the first time, a Bruce Boudreau-coached team won by preventing goals, not scoring them.</p><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0050-0268/476342-1-eng-US/f0050-022.jpg" title="f0050-02" width="305" height="195"></div><p>The Wild have played elite shutdown hockey this season. Per 60 minutes at 5-on-5, they allow the fourth-fewest shots, sixth-fewest scoring chances and, most importantly, the fewest high-danger shot attempts. Their D-corps, led by Ryan Suter, Jared Spurgeon and sneaky UFA addition Greg Pateryn, isn&rsquo;t overly physical but fits the modern ideal of blending mobility with positioning and good stickwork. Even with captain Mikko Koivu gone for the year with an ACL tear, the Wild&rsquo;s forward group is loaded with defensively conscientious types, from Jason Zucker to Joel Eriksson Ek. Everybody backchecks. Any opponents that penetrate still have to solve Devan Dubnyk, too. He remains one of the league&rsquo;s most reliable starting goalies. In the past five seasons, he ranks in the top three in wins, shutouts and goals-against average and sixth in save percentage among goalies with 100 or more games.</p><p>When the Wild run into elite offensive teams in the playoffs, they&rsquo;ll be challenged. Their offense ranks 25th. In 12 seasons, no Boudreau team had ever finished outside the top 20. No Minnesota player ranked among the league&rsquo;s top 50 in goals, assists or points. At one point in March, Zach Parise called the Wild power play &ldquo;five strangers on the ice,&rdquo; partially in reference to its poor efficiency but also because the Wild were working with so many new faces, with Kevin Fiala, Ryan Donato, Pontus Aberg and Victor Rask arriving in trades.</p><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/1st-cup-pass9/480420-1-eng-US/1st-cup-pass.jpg" title="1ST-CUP-PASS" width="600" height="126"></div><p>It&rsquo;s complicated. Captain Koivu won&rsquo;t play but might still take the Cup handoff. He&rsquo;d pass it to one of the hometown Midwesterners: <b>RYAN SUTER</b> or Parise. We bet Suter.</p><h2><b>X-FACTOR</b></h2><p>Kevin Fiala and Ryan Donato were, theoretically, temporary downgrades from Granlund and Coyle, for whom they were respectively traded, and that&rsquo;s OK, as Fenton was thinking long-term with the acquisitions. But both players flashed some potential upon joining Minnesota, seemingly energized by their new surroundings &ndash; especially Donato, who ripped off 13 points in 13 games. The Wild have one of the lowest offensive ceilings of any playoff contender, but a hot Donato would elevate it. He was a prolific scorer in college before turning pro with the Bruins, so there&rsquo;s pedigree.</p><h2><b>PROJECTED LINES</b></h2><div class="figure-block image-bleed"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0050-0335/476321-1-eng-US/f0050-032.jpg" title="f0050-03" width="1034" height="448"></div><h2><b>PLAYOFF ROSTER</b></h2><div class="figure-block image-bleed"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0050-0184/476314-1-eng-US/f0050-012.jpg" title="f0050-01" width="1573" height="583"></div><h2><b>FANTASY ZONE</b></h2><p>Netminders don&rsquo;t come much more reliable than <b>DEVAN DUBNYK</b> in the regular season. But, among the 15 goalies with at least 20 appearances over the past four post-seasons, his .904 SP ranks last. Don&rsquo;t pay a regular-season price for playoff Dubnyk until he proves himself trustworthy &ndash; especially since the Wild don&rsquo;t project for a deep run this year.</p><div class="figure-block image-bleed"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/min/480427-1-eng-US/min.jpg" title="MIN" width="2500" height="1200"></div><p><span class="end-marker"> &#9632;</span></p>

MINNESOTA WILD

<div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/mtl_price6/476399-1-eng-US/mtl_price2.jpg" title="mtl_price" width="840" height="1216"><figcaption class="caption-body"><b>CAREY&nbsp;PRICE</b> <span class="photo-credit">(MINAS PANAGIOTAKIS/GETTY IMAGES)</span></figcaption></div><p class="dropcap"><b><span>T</span>HERE ARE OTHER</b> teams in the NHL that have exceeded expectations more than the Montreal Canadiens this season, but there isn&rsquo;t one that transformed itself more in the process.</p><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0051-0250/476413-1-eng-US/f0051-022.jpg" title="f0051-02" width="264" height="181"></div><p>Things looked grim going into 2018-19 for the Habs, but what was once a perennial crater in their lineup has suddenly become a strength. With reliable Phillip Danault, trade acquisition Max Domi and rookie Jesperi Kotkaniemi, the Canadiens finally have a center ice corps that inspires confidence rather than dread. And under the guidance of coach Claude Julien, Montreal adopted a speed game, maintaining a blinding pace and dogged determination on the puck.</p><p>When they&rsquo;re at their best, the Canadiens are an incredibly annoying team to play against, sort of like the NHL&rsquo;s version of Finland. The Habs are punching well above their weight class by playing a disciplined, systematic style where their defensemen close the gap and their forwards are committed to playing defensively. And, oh yes, they have one of the best money goaltenders in the world.</p><p>As much as there is to like about the 2018-19 version of this team, there are some glaring weaknesses. At times, they&rsquo;re porous defensively, even after the return of Shea Weber from injury. They&rsquo;d allowed eight and seven goals in games this season had given up five or more goals on 13 occasions.</p><p>Jonathan Drouin has been at times very good and at others tremendously unproductive. The power play has been dead last in the NHL for most of the season and even though they sat top five in shots per game, they were a middling offensive team.</p><p>Despite the upgrades at center, they&rsquo;re one of the worst faceoff teams in the league. The goaltending has been as inconsistent as the players in front of them and as a team they&rsquo;ve displayed a troubling penchant for melting down.</p><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/1st-cup-pass10/480434-1-eng-US/1st-cup-pass.jpg" title="1ST-CUP-PASS" width="600" height="126"></div><p>If the Canadiens do win the Cup, it will almost certainly be because of <b>CAREY PRICE</b> and, assuming he&rsquo;s not completely drained, he will be the second to raise it.</p><h2><b>X-FACTOR</b></h2><p>No franchise in the league has had as many superstar goalies as the Canadiens have in their history. In Patrick Roy, they had a stopper who delivered them Cups in 1986 and 1993 that they simply had no business winning, and there is no way they win the Cup in 1971 without the heroics of rookie Ken Dryden. Despite his middling numbers this year, Carey Price, who passed Hall of Famer Jacques Plante for the all-time franchise wins record in March, has the capacity to deliver that kind of goaltending. And that is precisely what they will need in order to have an extended post-season run.</p><h2><b>PROJECTED LINES</b></h2><div class="figure-block image-bleed"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0051-0336/476392-1-eng-US/f0051-032.jpg" title="f0051-03" width="1034" height="448"></div><h2><b>PLAYOFF ROSTER</b></h2><div class="figure-block image-bleed"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0051-0167/476385-1-eng-US/f0051-012.jpg" title="f0051-01" width="1571" height="584"></div><h2><b>FANTASY ZONE</b></h2><p>Against considerable odds at 33 and coming off knee surgery, vintage <b>SHEA WEBER</b> showed up this season, playing monster minutes and bombing home a double-digit goal total with his sledgehammer of a shot. Habs players aren&rsquo;t strong fantasy bets this spring, but Weber deserves to have his name called in deeper, hyper-competitive pools.</p><div class="figure-block image-bleed"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/mtl/480441-1-eng-US/mtl.jpg" title="MTL" width="2500" height="1200"></div><p><span class="end-marker"> &#9632;</span></p>

MONTREAL CANADIENS

<div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/nyi_barzal6/476541-1-eng-US/nyi_barzal2.jpg" title="nyi_barzal" width="808" height="1221"><figcaption class="caption-body"><b>MATHEW&nbsp;BARZAL</b> <span class="photo-credit">(DEREK CAIN/ICON SPORTSWIRE VIA GETTY IMAGES)</span></figcaption></div><p class="dropcap"><b><span>U</span>NDER THE NEW</b> leadership of GM Lou Lamoriello, coach Barry Trotz and goalie guru Mitch Korn, the Islanders have made a remarkable about-face in just one season. Last year, New York was the worst defensive team in the league; this season, it&rsquo;s been the best. Netminders Robin Lehner and Thomas Greiss put up some of the NHL&rsquo;s best save percentages, with both contributing shutouts, so it&rsquo;s not just about the guys in front of them (though they&rsquo;ve been good, too). Trotz&rsquo;s structure has been the guiding light defensively, while Korn has helped unlock something special in the goalies.</p><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0053-0254/476555-1-eng-US/f0053-022.jpg" title="f0053-02" width="216" height="208"></div><p>Far from relying on one player or line for offense, the Islanders have spread the love around. The famous fourth line of Casey Cizikas between Matt Martin and Cal Clutterbuck continues to contribute, with the center poised for his first 20-goal season. The Isles play old-school, with plenty of hits and blocked shots, and it has flustered the competition all season.</p><p>But there is certainly a sense that New York&rsquo;s miraculous run to the top of the Metro is a mirage, and the fact the Islanders are one of the worst possession teams in the NHL speaks to that. In the regular season, that was masked by great goaltending and hot shooting, but a downturn in either would spell doom for the squad. Lehner has just two career playoff games to his name, while Greiss has a dozen post-season appearances. How will Lehner, in particular, respond to the pressure?</p><p>Speaking of pressure, some of New York&rsquo;s most important weapons began to struggle down the stretch. Mathew Barzal and Jordan Eberle started cold in March after combining for just 14 points in February. Was the team&rsquo;s luck beginning to dry up at the wrong time?</p><p>The Islanders have one of the NHL&rsquo;s worst power plays, and they&rsquo;re not strong on faceoffs. They&rsquo;re middle-of-the-pack in penalty killing, but at least they don&rsquo;t take many minors.</p><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/1st-cup-pass12/480462-1-eng-US/1st-cup-pass.jpg" title="1ST-CUP-PASS" width="600" height="126"></div><p>Not only has <b>ROBIN LEHNER</b> been a crucial contributor, but his bravery in opening up about bipolar disorder and substance abuse make him a worthy candidate.</p><h2><b>X-FACTOR</b></h2><p>The Isles received permission to host first-round games at Nassau Coliseum, the old barn where the franchise won its dynasty Cups in the 1980s. In terms of crowd noise and enthusiasm, this is a big win for the team, which otherwise has played at the less-than-ideal-for-hockey Barclays Center in Brooklyn. On the other hand, since the Islanders have called both rinks their home this season, they may not get the same kind of home-ice advantage that comes with knowing the subtleties of a building inside and out &ndash; the way the puck bounces off the boards or glass, for example &ndash; that other teams will.</p><h2><b>PROJECTED LINES</b></h2><div class="figure-block image-bleed"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0053-0332/476534-1-eng-US/f0053-032.jpg" title="f0053-03" width="1034" height="482"></div><h2><b>PLAYOFF ROSTER</b></h2><div class="figure-block image-bleed"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0053-0175/476527-1-eng-US/f0053-012.jpg" title="f0053-01" width="1573" height="583"></div><h2><b>FANTASY ZONE</b></h2><p>Lehner or <b>THOMAS GREISS?</b> Both cracked the NHL&rsquo;s top five in SP. Both enjoyed sizzling stretches of play. They started the identical number of games. They were separated by .001 in SP and .02 in GAA. A platoon so perfectly balanced creates a fantasy-pool nightmare. Avoid them rather than guess who gets the nod for Game 1 of the playoffs.</p><div class="figure-block image-bleed"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/nyi/480469-1-eng-US/nyi.jpg" title="NYI" width="2500" height="1200"></div><p><span class="end-marker"> &#9632;</span></p>

NEW YORK ISLANDERS

<div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/pit_crosby7/476612-1-eng-US/pit_crosby2.jpg" title="pit_crosby" width="790" height="1288"><figcaption class="caption-body"><p><b>SIDNEY&nbsp;CROSBY</b></p> <span class="photo-credit">(RICK MADONIK/TORONTO STAR VIA GETTY IMAGES)</span></figcaption></div><p class="dropcap"><b><span>P</span>ITTSBURGH&rsquo;S BIGGEST</b> strength is the fact it still employs one of the best all-around players ever, Sidney Crosby. The captain and three-time Stanley Cup champion is having one of his most remarkable seasons yet, and that&rsquo;s saying something. Crosby, at 31, is still putting up points, still dominating the faceoff circle and still shutting down the enemy&rsquo;s top lines. Could he add a Selke Trophy to his overstuffed cabinet this summer?</p><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0054-0246/476626-1-eng-US/f0054-022.jpg" title="f0054-02" width="216" height="200"></div><p>Oh, and behind captain Crosby at center is another legendary pivot in Evgeni Malkin. The Pens also have young playoff wizards such as goalie Matt Murray and winger Jake Guentzel &ndash; both of whom become super-charged in the post-season. Murray has only lost one playoff series ever: last year, to the eventual champs from Washington.</p><p>Overall, the Penguins are chock full of experience thanks to two recent titles, and coach Mike Sullivan has proven himself to be the kind of thinker who can adapt when faced with a challenge and gets it done in crunch time behind the bench.</p><p>Injuries decimated the Pittsburgh blueline in the second half, and health must be a concern, starting with star defenseman Kris Letang. Due to a lack of depth, Pittsburgh traded for big but slow Erik Gudbranson at the deadline, but his game isn&rsquo;t exactly tailored to the kind of pedal-to-the-metal hockey the Pens are known for. Jack Johnson is another veteran D-man who will have to prove the doubters wrong. Can this group hold the fort enough to allow the forwards to flourish?</p><p>While the Penguins have some decent depth up front, they are a top-heavy group. Crosby and Malkin can cover up a lot of deficiencies in that department with their play down the middle, but if the Penguins face a heavy, deeper crew (like Washington last year), it could be the death knell for a group that seems to be at the beginning of the end of its championship window.</p><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/1st-cup-pass13/480476-1-eng-US/1st-cup-pass.jpg" title="1ST-CUP-PASS" width="600" height="126"></div><p>Considering everything <b>JACK JOHNSON</b> has gone through (money issues, injuries), it&rsquo;d be nice to see him get it. Plus, he&rsquo;s one of the only Penguins without a ring.</p><h2><b>X-FACTOR</b></h2><p>Matt Murray has had quite the interesting year in net. In his first 10 appearances, he gave up four goals or more on seven occasions. He also had a concussion during that period and missed more action in November and December due to a lower-body injury. By mid-March, he was beginning to right the ship, having suffered only one regulation loss in nine starts between Feb. 23 and March 12. If Murray gets back to playoff form, he&rsquo;ll be one of the biggest difference-makers in the league. But if the competition has finally figured out the 24-year-old, the Penguins will be sunk. Backup Casey DeSmith can&rsquo;t carry the load.</p><h2><b>PROJECTED LINES</b></h2><div class="figure-block image-bleed"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0054-0330/476605-1-eng-US/f0054-032.jpg" title="f0054-03" width="1034" height="482"></div><h2><b>PLAYOFF ROSTER</b></h2><div class="figure-block image-bleed"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0054-0176/476598-1-eng-US/f0054-012.jpg" title="f0054-01" width="1573" height="583"></div><h2><b>FANTASY ZONE</b></h2><p>As long as they avoid finishing eighth and drawing Tampa, the Pens could offer sneaky value if they wind up playing through the Metro Division bracket. Some injury concerns and the Pens&rsquo; so-so record could cause <b>KRIS LETANG&rsquo;S</b> draft stock to fall enough that he becomes a mid-round steal, the kind of pick that wins you a pool.</p><div class="figure-block image-bleed"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/pit/480483-1-eng-US/pit.jpg" title="PIT" width="2500" height="1200"></div><p><span class="end-marker"> &#9632;</span></p>

PITTSBURGH PENGUINS

<div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/stl_tarasen_076/476683-1-eng-US/stl_tarasen_0762.jpg" title="stl_tarasen_076" width="862" height="1312"><figcaption class="caption-body"><p><b>VLADIMIR&nbsp;TARASENKO</b></p> <span class="photo-credit">(JONATHAN KOZUB/NHLI VIA GETTY IMAGES)</span></figcaption></div><p class="dropcap"><b><span>P</span>EOPLE SAID &ldquo;SELLER&rdquo;</b> in the same sentence as &ldquo;St. Louis Blues&rdquo; just a couple months ago, but a team that made so many summer upgrades finally realized its potential with a sizzling second half.</p><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0055-0249/476697-1-eng-US/f0055-022.jpg" title="f0055-02" width="254" height="203"></div><p>Most prognosticators were bullish in October after the Blues radically overhauled their forward corps, and new No. 1 center Ryan O&rsquo;Reilly has been a revelation, playing the best offensive hockey of his career while still dominating on faceoffs, killing penalties and battling the opposition&rsquo;s best forwards. David Perron&rsquo;s third tour with the Blues is his best yet. He and O&rsquo;Reilly took a lot of pressure off Vladimir Tarasenko, Brayden Schenn and Jaden Schwartz. The &ldquo;one-line-team&rdquo; identity that plagued St. Louis the past couple years didn&rsquo;t ring true anymore. Even young center Robert Thomas started to blossom down the stretch.</p><p>St. Louis remains a defense-first team under coach Craig Berube, who took over from Mike Yeo in November. Built around sturdy blueliners Alex Pietrangelo and Colton Parayko, the Blues are a top-three team in shot suppression. The key to getting rewarded for their play was having a goalie who turned aside the few shots that did get through, and it&rsquo;s no secret rookie Jordan Binnington was St. Louis&rsquo; best player from the moment the calendar hit January. This team isn&rsquo;t in the hunt without his unbelievable second-half play.</p><p>The Blues went from underachiever to overachiever in a matter of weeks &ndash; but where does that leave them relative to their Central Division rivals? They can&rsquo;t match the star power of Winnipeg or the stinginess of Nashville. St. Louis&rsquo; hot streak suggested it could hang with anyone in the West, but what if it was just that &ndash; a hot streak? Even with their forward upgrades, the Blues can&rsquo;t roll out scoring threats on line after line the way the Western Conference&rsquo;s other top dogs can. It&rsquo;s more likely St. Louis will have to win ugly.</p><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/1st-cup-pass14/480490-1-eng-US/1st-cup-pass.jpg" title="1ST-CUP-PASS" width="600" height="126"></div><p><b>ALEXANDER STEEN</b>, the active leader in games and points by a Blue, just turned 35 and is running out of chances at a ring. He&rsquo;s been a warrior over the years.</p><h2><b>X-FACTOR</b></h2><p>Jake Allen was arguably hockey&rsquo;s least consistent goaltender the past few seasons, leaving the starter door open for 25-year-old Jordan Binnington. He vaulted into the Calder Trophy discussion by going 15-2-1 with a .942 save percentage and five shutouts between Jan. 1 and March 1. He epitomizes the idea of a playoff X-factor. On one hand, he&rsquo;s shown the ability to steal games, meaning he could key a St. Louis upset. On the other hand, he&rsquo;s completely untested under playoff pressure. As he goes, the Blues go. They&rsquo;re a team built to win low-scoring games, not end-to-end shootouts.</p><h2><b>PROJECTED LINES</b></h2><div class="figure-block image-bleed"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0055-0331/476676-1-eng-US/f0055-032.jpg" title="f0055-03" width="1034" height="482"></div><h2><b>PLAYOFF ROSTER</b></h2><div class="figure-block image-bleed"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0055-0170/476669-1-eng-US/f0055-012.jpg" title="f0055-01" width="1571" height="582"></div><h2><b>FANTASY ZONE</b></h2><p>Consider picking <b>RYAN O&rsquo;REILLY</b> a few rounds into your draft. He&rsquo;ll fall a lot further than the big names with St. Louis likely drawing a tough Central matchup. Worst case, he gives you point-per-game production for a round. Best case? The Blues become 2019&rsquo;s big playoff surprise team, win multiple rounds, and O&rsquo;Reilly turns a massive profit.</p><div class="figure-block image-bleed"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/stl/480497-1-eng-US/stl.jpg" title="STL" width="2500" height="1200"></div><p><span class="end-marker"> &#9632;</span></p>

ST. LOUIS BLUES

<div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/sj_burns4/476754-1-eng-US/sj_burns2.jpg" title="sj_burns" width="730" height="1272"><figcaption class="caption-body"><b>BRENT&nbsp;BURNS</b> <span class="photo-credit">(CURTIS COMEAU/ICON SPORTSWIRE VIA GETTY IMAGES)</span></figcaption></div><p class="dropcap"><b><span>O</span>FFENSIVE DIVERSIFICATION</b> is the key to San Jose&rsquo;s success. The Sharks will finish the season with Joe Pavelski in the 40-goal neighborhood, Tomas Hertl in the 30s, Logan Couture, Evander Kane and Timo Meier approaching 30 and six other forwards (including deadline day acquisition Gustav Nyquist) with a dozen or more. And that doesn&rsquo;t even include the top goal-scoring defenseman of his era, beastly Brent Burns, whose 183 goals in 12 seasons since 2007-08 average to more than 15 per year. It&rsquo;s tough to shut this group down.</p><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0056-0258/476768-1-eng-US/f0056-022.jpg" title="f0056-02" width="266" height="222"></div><p>And even though the Sharks have several players in their twilight seasons, the offensive strength and depth are better than they&rsquo;ve ever been. Consider that three years ago, when a rock-solid San Jose lost in the Stanley Cup final to Pittsburgh, San Jose received just nine goals in six games from its forwards and averaged just 23 shots in the final series. Today&rsquo;s Sharks average almost 34 shots per game and have the second best offensive output behind Tampa Bay. One reason for that diversification is the addition this season of all-world defenseman Erik Karlsson. He and Burns average almost 25 minutes per night, meaning if you&rsquo;re a Sharks forward you&rsquo;re almost always being iced in an environment to succeed.</p><p>Playing run and gun sometimes catches up to the Sharks. It&rsquo;s been four years since the Sharks fielded a team that was this unreliable defensively. Martin Jones has struggled with consistency behind an experienced defense corps that isn&rsquo;t young anymore. After three years finishing in the top 10 defensively, the Sharks are middle of the pack. Yet San Jose allows among the fewest shots, meaning they&rsquo;re high-percentage chances being allowed or Jones isn&rsquo;t delivering.</p><p>Uncharacteristically, the Sharks can be beat big. They had five games last season in which they gave up six or more goals. This season: eight and counting.</p><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/1st-cup-pass15/480504-1-eng-US/1st-cup-pass.jpg" title="1ST-CUP-PASS" width="600" height="126"></div><p>&lsquo;Jumbo&rsquo; all the way. It wouldn&rsquo;t be a shock if captain Pavelski gave the Stanley Cup only a cursory half-second raise before passing it quickly to <b>JOE THORNTON</b>.</p><h2><b>X-FACTOR</b></h2><p>A lot off of things are hinging on the uncertain groin of Erik Karlsson. The two-time Norris Trophy winner missed most of March with a delicate injury that history has taught us can be nagging for athletes. He also missed a month of duty before and after the all-star break. When he was playing, Karlsson was far from his best. The blueliner scored at a near-17 goal pace per 82 games during nine seasons with Ottawa. That pace this season is just five goals. The Sharks don&rsquo;t necessarily need Karlsson at his goal-scoring best to succeed, but they do require him to be a heavy contributor in other facets of the game.</p><h2><b>PROJECTED LINES</b></h2><div class="figure-block image-bleed"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0056-0332/476747-1-eng-US/f0056-032.jpg" title="f0056-03" width="1034" height="482"></div><h2><b>PLAYOFF ROSTER</b></h2><div class="figure-block image-bleed"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0056-0172/476740-1-eng-US/f0056-012.jpg" title="f0056-01" width="1570" height="584"></div><h2><b>FANTASY ZONE</b></h2><p>It&rsquo;s been a rough season for <b>MARTIN JONES,</b> but he is a playoff beast, with not only a .926 SP across 42 games but also an SP of .923 or better each post-season as a Shark. Analytics say Jones faced an extremely difficult workload in terms of shot quality in 2018-19. His numbers will improve if San Jose tightens up defensively.</p><div class="figure-block image-bleed"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/sj/480511-1-eng-US/sj.jpg" title="SJ" width="2500" height="1200"></div><p><span class="end-marker"> &#9632;</span></p>

SAN JOSE SHARKS

<div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/tor_marner/476896-1-eng-US/tor_marner2.jpg" title="tor_marner" width="755" height="1285"><figcaption class="caption-body"><b>MITCH&nbsp;MARNER</b> <span class="photo-credit">(MARK BLINCH/NHLI VIA GETTY IMAGES)</span></figcaption></div><p class="dropcap"><b><span>F</span>ROM THE MOMENT</b> the Toronto Maple Leafs shocked the hockey world by signing John Tavares last summer, the expectations for this organization went into overdrive, and for good reason. The Leafs are a dynamic, explosive bunch, capable of scoring their way out of trouble and simply overwhelming their opponents with their abundance of skill. Frederik Andersen was having a career season and emerged as a candidate for the organization&rsquo;s first Vezina Trophy since it began being awarded to the best goalie as voted by league GMs in 1982.</p><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0058-0252/476910-1-eng-US/f0058-022.jpg" title="f0058-02" width="217" height="242"></div><p>The Leafs can roll out three dangerous scoring lines and have speed at every position. They can transition the puck from defense to offense more quickly than any team. Only the Tampa Bay Lightning have a better 5-on-5 goal differential, and even though it&rsquo;s still maligned, Toronto&rsquo;s defense has improved to the point where it&rsquo;s in the upper half of the NHL.</p><p>This is not a team, however, without its warts. There are real questions about the Leafs&rsquo; toughness, both mental and physical. They tend to wilt in games against opponents who grind things out, the kinds of affairs coach Mike Babcock refers to as &ldquo;hard games.&rdquo;</p><p>There is very little physicality among the forward group, and even though the defense corps has improved somewhat, there are nights when the errors are glaring. The Leafs also have a propensity for failing to start games on time and often seem to play with the attitude that their skill will be enough to win games singlehandedly. And sometimes that&rsquo;s exactly what they do, with the Leafs often putting in 10 to 15 minutes of quality work and having that be enough to win a game.</p><p>This is a team, Tavares included, that has not experienced a whole lot of playoff success. And there&rsquo;s that little detail of likely having to get past Boston and Tampa Bay along the playoff path. Yikes.</p><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/1st-cup-pass17/480532-1-eng-US/1st-cup-pass.jpg" title="1ST-CUP-PASS" width="600" height="126"></div><p>The Leafs don&rsquo;t have a captain, so Tavares or Auston Matthews would pass the Cup to <b>PATRICK MARLEAU</b>, who will have waited his entire career for this moment.</p><h2><b>X-FACTOR</b></h2><p>As brilliant as Frederik Andersen has been, he has some major doubters to prove wrong in the playoffs. In last year&rsquo;s first-round loss to the Bruins, he was porous, allowing 23 goals in seven games with an .896 save percentage. And when the Leafs needed him most in Game 7, he wilted. The Leafs don&rsquo;t require superhuman goaltending to have playoff success, but they&rsquo;re not good enough to be able to overcome goaltending that is a detriment. Toronto will be looking for the Andersen who backstopped Anaheim in the playoffs, not the one who faltered the past two years.</p><h2><b>PROJECTED LINES</b></h2><div class="figure-block image-bleed"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0058-0329/476889-1-eng-US/f0058-032.jpg" title="f0058-03" width="1034" height="482"></div><h2><b>PLAYOFF ROSTER</b></h2><div class="figure-block image-bleed"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0058-0171/476882-1-eng-US/f0058-012.jpg" title="f0058-01" width="1570" height="584"></div><h2><b>FANTASY ZONE</b></h2><p><b>WILLIAM NYLANDER</b> took a long time to get his legs under him after not signing until December. He improved in February and March, however, and was the Leafs&rsquo; most dangerous forward some nights. He eventually earned a promotion back to Matthews&rsquo; right wing and should come at a discount with season-long stats that still look quite ugly.</p><div class="figure-block image-bleed"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/tor/480539-1-eng-US/tor.jpg" title="TOR" width="2500" height="1200"></div><p><span class="end-marker"> &#9632;</span></p>

TORONTO MAPLE LEAFS

<div class="image-hero"><img title="veg_fleury" src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/veg_fleury6/476967-1-eng-US/veg_fleury2.jpg"><figcaption class="caption-body"><p><b>MARC-ANDRE&nbsp;FLEURY</b></p><p></p> <span class="photo-credit">(JUAN OCAMPO/NHLI VIA GETTY IMAGES)</span></figcaption></div><p class="dropcap"><b><span>T</span>HERE ISN&rsquo;T A</b> team in the league more obsessed with puck retrieval than the Golden Knights. Coach Gerard Gallant has his troops dialled in on the same wavelength. If the other team has the puck in its own zone, it&rsquo;s going to face a full-court forecheck like that puck is the last scrap of food on Earth. If the other team has the good fortune to maintain control in the Vegas zone, it&rsquo;s going to have to endure a five-man back pressure support network with sticks and bodies in every passing lane. That&rsquo;s called complete buy-in. So the secret to Golden Knights success is believing in the coach and each other.</p><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0059-0150/476953-1-eng-US/f0059-012.jpg" title="f0059-01" width="167" height="227"></div><p>It&rsquo;s helped that Vegas has punched up the attack with Mark Stone, Paul Stastny and Max Pacioretty becoming everyday contributors and forming perhaps the NHL&rsquo;s most imposing second line. There&rsquo;s plenty of support on other lines with Alex Tuch, Cody Eakin and Brandon Pirri helping offset market corrections from William Karlsson, Jonathan Marchessault and Reilly Smith. Goalie Marc-Andre Fleury was the league leader in shutouts and deserves full credit for another prove-it-again season. But he does get a lot of help from teammates who work hard to tilt the ice in the other direction. And home ice, where they were collecting points at a .657 clip, is still a big advantage.</p><p>The Golden Knights got off to a slow start this season, losing four of their first five games and eight of their first 11 on the road. Did they let up after a miraculous run as the best expansion-team performance in the history of pro sports? Maybe, but the power play was off from the beginning, and coaching league-wide focused pre-game scouting reports on smothering Karlsson and Marchessault in the offensive zone. Even with new layers added to the Vegas offense, the power play is still bottom 10 in the league. Defensively, the Vegas backline can be prone to giveaways when faced with heavy pressure.</p><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/1st-cup-pass18/480546-1-eng-US/1st-cup-pass.jpg" title="1ST-CUP-PASS" width="600" height="126"></div><p>The Golden Knights have no captain, so its logical that alternate captain Deryk Engelland will pass the Cup off to fellow alternate <b>REILLY SMITH</b> &ndash; or beloved Fleury.</p><h2><b>X-FACTOR</b></h2><p>Even though Mark Stone got off to a slow start offensively after coming over from Ottawa, the team won six straight games with him in the lineup. The Golden Knights scored 23 goals in those six games, and the belief is a player of Stone&rsquo;s caliber is only going to thin out the opposition defense and allow more room for Vegas&rsquo; other dynamic forwards to find room. And Stone will contribute in other areas as well. He&rsquo;s a large body that doesn&rsquo;t wither in high-traffic areas, and he&rsquo;s very astute defensively, leading the league in takeaways with more than 100. He&rsquo;s built for playoff hockey and ups Vegas&rsquo; Cup chances considerably.</p><h2><b>PROJECTED LINES</b></h2><div class="figure-block image-bleed"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0059-0326/476960-1-eng-US/f0059-032.jpg" title="f0059-03" width="1034" height="482"></div><h2><b>FANTASY ZONE</b></h2><p>Last spring, <b>PAUL STASTNY</b> flourished centering a second line between two skilled wingers in Winnipeg. He gets a chance to do the same in Vegas with Pacioretty and Stone flanking him. It took Stastny about 10 games to warm up after an October injury cost him two months, but he&rsquo;s produced at roughly a point-per-game pace since.</p><div class="figure-block image-bleed"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/veg/480553-1-eng-US/veg.jpg" title="VEG" width="2500" height="1200"></div><p><span class="end-marker"> &#9632;</span></p>

VEGAS GOLDEN KNIGHTS

<div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/wsh_ovechki_087/477038-1-eng-US/wsh_ovechki_0872.jpg" title="wsh_ovechki_087" width="958" height="1267"><figcaption class="caption-body"><b>ALEX&nbsp;OVECHKIN</b> <span class="photo-credit">(JONATHAN KOZUB/NHLI VIA GETTY IMAGES)</span></figcaption></div><p class="dropcap"><b><span>S</span>OMEHOW, THE DEFENDING</b> champs look even more impressive this year. Maybe it&rsquo;s because there is no longer a question of <i>if</i> the Capitals can win it all, or <i>if</i> they can beat Pittsburgh in a seven-game series &ndash; because both happened in the 2018 playoffs. So what is left is a well-balanced team with money players at every position, led by future Hall of Famer Alex Ovechkin.</p><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0060-0231/477052-1-eng-US/f0060-022.jpg" title="f0060-02" width="288" height="216"></div><p>Though he partied hard in the summer, Ovechkin was well on his way to winning an eighth Rocket Richard Trophy, while a number of other forwards were in line for 20-goal campaigns. The power play ranked top-10 in the NHL.</p><p>On the back end, John Carlson was playing some of his best hockey ever and the defense was was doing a good job at limiting shots. Adding Nick Jensen from Detroit at the deadline gave the unit some much-needed depth, and his steady hand will serve the team well as they run for back-to-back titles.</p><p>Though all the jokes about a &ldquo;literal Stanley Cup hangover&rdquo; didn&rsquo;t end up coming true (the Caps started the season 5-3-2, including a 7-0 opening-night waxing of the Bruins), there is still a concern about just how physically taxing it can be to go through the NHL playoffs twice in a row. Does Washington have the horses to do it, especially with physical teams such as Columbus and the Islanders lurking in the division?</p><p>In net, Braden Holtby is going through his second straight subpar regular season, though he turned it on in the playoffs last year and guided his team to glory. Does that switch get flicked once again? If it doesn&rsquo;t, can backup Pheonix Copley save the day?</p><p>Elsewhere, Washington has a pedestrian penalty-killing unit and does not do well on faceoffs. In fact, the Caps are the worst team in the league when it comes to draws, and every loss is magnified in the playoffs. Jay Beagle&rsquo;s departure stings in that department.</p><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/1st-cup-pass19/480560-1-eng-US/1st-cup-pass.jpg" title="1ST-CUP-PASS" width="600" height="126"></div><p>Since almost everyone won it last year, no one is in Ray Bourque territory. But this might be the end for <b>BROOKS ORPIK</b>, so give the 38-year-old vet the first victory lap.</p><h2><b>X-FACTOR</b></h2><p>No doubt Tom Wilson will play a big part of Washington&rsquo;s post-season again, but which side of the line will he fall on? If the intimidating power forward spends his nights bashing opponents in the corners and scoring goals in front of the net, then the Caps will be tough to beat. If he&rsquo;s suspended for yet another violent transgression, as he was in last year&rsquo;s playoffs, then Washington is down a crucial player at the most inopportune of times. Given his reputation, Wilson will not get the benefit of the doubt in any sketchy interactions, so the right winger will have be on his (relatively) best behavior.</p><h2><b>PROJECTED LINES</b></h2><div class="figure-block image-bleed"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0060-0321/477031-1-eng-US/f0060-032.jpg" title="f0060-03" width="1034" height="448"></div><h2><b>PLAYOFF ROSTER</b></h2><div class="figure-block image-bleed"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0060-0151/477024-1-eng-US/f0060-012.jpg" title="f0060-01" width="1571" height="583"></div><h2><b>FANTASY ZONE</b></h2><p><b>EVGENY KUZNETSOV&rsquo;S</b> 32 points last spring marked the second-highest playoff total from any player this millennium. He saves his best work for the money games. Playing through the Metro would give the Caps a strong chance to win two-plus playoff rounds, giving Kuznetsov a chance to rack up points. He&rsquo;s a borderline top-10 pick.</p><div class="figure-block image-bleed"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/wsh/480567-1-eng-US/wsh.jpg" title="WSH" width="2500" height="1200"></div><p><span class="end-marker"> &#9632;</span></p>

WASHINGTON CAPITALS

<div class="image-hero"><img title="wpg_wheeler_088" src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/wpg_wheeler_088/477109-1-eng-US/wpg_wheeler_0882.jpg"><figcaption class="caption-body"><b>BLAKE&nbsp;WHEELER</b> <span class="photo-credit">(JONATHAN KOZUB/NHLI VIA GETTY IMAGES)</span></figcaption></div><p class="dropcap"><b><span>W</span>INNIPEG IS BUILT</b> to play in all situations against any style of opponent. The Jets boast big-time skill and star power at forward with Mark Scheifele, Blake Wheeler, Patrik Laine, Nikolaj Ehlers and Kyle Connor. While they don&rsquo;t have the deepest defense corps in the world, they can ice some combination of Jacob Trouba, Dustin Byfuglien and Josh Morrissey for half of every game. And in 2018 Vezina Trophy runner-up Connor Hellebuyck, they have one of the sport&rsquo;s best young goaltenders.</p><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0061-0240/477123-1-eng-US/f0061-022.jpg" title="f0061-02" width="217" height="217"></div><p>The Jets can keep pace with any team in the speed and finesse department and have one of the NHL&rsquo;s top power plays, but they&rsquo;re unique in that they can grind in the mud, too. If the officials pocket their whistles, that&rsquo;s no problem for the punishing Byfuglien and Trouba on defense, and the Jets&rsquo; bottom-six includes an enviable mix of size, scoring touch and nastiness. Towering Kevin Hayes can kill penalties and pose matchup problems with his speed, while energetic Brandon Tanev can shift momentum with thundering hits. And whereas experience was at a premium a year ago, the Jets reached the Western final, and almost every member of that team returns for the 2019 post-season.</p><p>Loaded as they are, the Jets aren&rsquo;t as dominant as they were last season. They allow more shots than they generate, and they&rsquo;re a below-average possession team, especially when it comes to high-danger shot attempts. They surrendered the third-fewest high-danger attempts at 5-on-5 last season compared to the 16th-fewest in 2018-19. That might explain why Hellebuyck&rsquo;s numbers regressed this year. He faces 33 shots per 60 minutes, up from 31 last season. If Winnipeg doesn&rsquo;t tighten up defensively, it&rsquo;ll have to win a bunch of 5-4 games in the post-season.</p><p>Morrissey is expected to return from an upper-body injury in time for Round 1, but it&rsquo;ll be close, and he could be rusty.</p><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/1st-cup-pass20/480574-1-eng-US/1st-cup-pass.jpg" title="1ST-CUP-PASS" width="600" height="126"></div><p><b>BRYAN LITTLE</b> leads the franchise in games, has played his entire career with the club and is one of just three players left with the Jets who played for the Atlanta Thrashers.</p><h2><b>X-FACTOR</b></h2><p>Adjusted for era, Patrik Laine was the most prolific teenage goal-scorer in NHL history, and he&rsquo;s still just 20. But Laine has struggled this season with slumps and, in turn, his confidence. He went 15 games without a goal in and scored just twice in a 28-game stretch. Yet Laine also scored 18 goals in a 12-game span in November, including five times in one game (the first player to net five since 2011). When he&rsquo;s feeling it, he&rsquo;s the most unstoppable sniping force on the planet. While this season has been a disappointment for him, the right hot streak at the right juncture could make Laine the post-season&rsquo;s most important player.</p><h2><b>PROJECTED LINES</b></h2><div class="figure-block image-bleed"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0061-0328/477102-1-eng-US/f0061-032.jpg" title="f0061-03" width="1034" height="486"></div><h2><b>PLAYOFF ROSTER</b></h2><div class="figure-block image-bleed"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0061-0154/477095-1-eng-US/f0061-012.jpg" title="f0061-01" width="1575" height="580"></div><h2><b>FANTASY ZONE</b></h2><p><b>DUSTIN BYFUGLIEN</b> should be one of the first D-men drafted if healthy. He&rsquo;ll load you up in points, hits and penalty minutes. The playoffs suit his aggressive game, too. He had 16 points in 17 games last spring. He was expected back from injury by late March, but all his missed games could drop him down an extra round and make him a relative bargain.</p><div class="figure-block image-bleed"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/wpg/480581-1-eng-US/wpg.jpg" title="WPG" width="2500" height="1200"></div><p><span class="end-marker"> &#9632;</span></p>

WINNIPEG JETS

<div class="byline">BY JARED CLINTON</div><div class="image-hero"><img title="womens_scam_091" src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/womens_scam_091/477173-1-eng-US/womens_scam_0912.jpg"><figcaption class="caption-body"><p><b>KEPT TURNING HEADS</b></p><p>Scamurra is the first player to use NWHL success to gain traction with the U.S. national women&rsquo;s team.</p> <span class="photo-credit">(MICHAEL HETZEL)</span></figcaption></div><p class="dropcap"><b><span>I</span>T&rsquo;S AN INFECTIOUS, EXCITED</b> chuckle, exuding a happiness reserved for the recounting of a truly special memory, and it escapes from Hayley Scamurra as she relives the moment a dream came true.</p><p>It was after Game 3 of the Canada-USA Rivalry Series, Scamurra recalls, that she made her way to the front of Team USA&rsquo;s charter bus after she was summoned by coach Bob Corkum. She knew she had played well during the three-game exhibition, some of the best hockey of her life, each shift as if she had nothing to lose. So, as she moved along the narrow walkway towards Corkum, she was hopeful that he was about to deliver good news. And that he did. No further deliberation necessary. The staff had seen enough. Scamurra was World Championship-bound, a member of the national team on one of grandest stages in women&rsquo;s hockey, for the first time in her career. &ldquo;I was definitely on the brink of crying,&rdquo; Scamurra said.</p><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/buffalo_bea_093/477166-1-eng-US/buffalo_bea_0932.jpg" title="buffalo_bea_093" width="186" height="186"></div><p>Scamurra&rsquo;s pursuit of a place on Team USA has been an odyssey that would have been worthy of a tear or two. For six years, she struggled to earn even so much as an invite to training camp. She remembers her days at Northeastern University, where she registered 22 goals and 74 points in 75 games across her junior and senior seasons and often heard that if she just kept it up, the call was bound to come. But it never did. &ldquo;If it weren&rsquo;t for (the NWHL), there&rsquo;s no way I would have this opportunity,&rdquo; said Scamurra, 24.</p><p>As she was wrapping up her sophomore season at Northeastern, Scamurra was thinking about her future in the game. She is the daughter of former NHLer Pete, who played 132 games as a defenseman for the fledgling Washington Capitals in the 1970s. Pete spent a season at the end of his career playing in Finland. Hayley saw the options overseas, she understood the opportunity the CWHL could provide, but like many women whose careers halted at the culmination of their college tenures, Scamurra was faced with the practicalities of playing across the pond or north of the border.</p><p>Taking either track meant putting her life on hold and education on the back burner, and it was difficult for Scamurra to picture packing her bags for a professional career in Toronto or Montreal or elsewhere.</p><p>The establishment of the NWHL in March 2015 was thus a game-changer. It gave Scamurra not only the chance to continue her career beyond the NCAA but to do so with her hometown Buffalo Beauts. And across two seasons, Scamurra has emerged as one of the most elite offensive talents in the five-team circuit and become arguably the NWHL&rsquo;s greatest success story. She is the first player whose continued development in the league has led directly to a spot with Team USA.</p><p>Truly, Scamurra&rsquo;s growth since the start of 2017-18 has been breathtaking. After winning rookie-of-the-year honors for her point-per-game performance as a freshman, Scamurra had her mettle tested with the return of Olympians to the NWHL this season. Instead of shrinking in the face of tougher competition, she flourished, besting her rookie output with 10 goals and 20 points in 16 games before adding another two points in the playoffs.</p><p>For her rise, Scamurra credits the NWHL&rsquo;s pace and physicality, which showed her what was necessary for success at the next level. Not to be overlooked is what the Beauts have supplied to their players since their purchase by Sabres owners Terry and Kim Pegula (Buffalo is the lone independently owned franchise in the league). &ldquo;Now we have all these resources at our hands,&rdquo; Scamurra said. &ldquo;We&rsquo;re working with skills coaches twice a week, we practice twice a week, we work out, we have a gym. All these things are at our fingertips. I&rsquo;m so grateful.&rdquo;</p><div class="figure-block image-bleed"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/womens_scam_092/477159-1-eng-US/womens_scam_0922.jpg" title="womens_scam_092" width="1023" height="810"><figcaption class="caption-body"><span class="photo-credit">(PHOTO BY TROY PARLA)</span></figcaption></div><p>Scamurra has made good use of those services, too, putting in the work to improve. She can often be found after practice fine-tuning various aspects of her skill set. As with most in an ever-quickening game, Scamurra has put the time in to improve her foot speed and agility. Much of her work of late, however, has gone into her shot release. One of her greatest assets entering the NWHL was the power she could get behind a blast, but finding holes and surprising netminders has made one of her best weapons that much more lethal. &ldquo;It doesn&rsquo;t have to be that perfect, hard shot,&rdquo; Scamurra said. &ldquo;It can just be that quick release, and if it&rsquo;s in the right spot and quick, the goalie might not be able to react to it like they want to.&rdquo;</p><p>Having the tools to score is one thing. Putting them to use is another. And Scamurra&rsquo;s transformation from national-team outsider to World Championship talent has been aided by a shift in mindset as much as an increase in ability. &ldquo;I used to worry about the defensive end to the point I wouldn&rsquo;t even try to do things offensively,&rdquo; Scamurra said. &ldquo;I had to get out of that mental mindset and trust in my abilities.&rdquo;</p><p>And that faith has led her to new heights, with the Rivalry Series proving to her &ndash; and the Team USA brass &ndash; that she belongs after all these years. &ldquo;That was big for me to build that confidence and (realize) I can keep up, I can play in this kind of a game,&rdquo; Scamurra said. &ldquo;But the World Championship is another level, and I cannot wait.&rdquo;<span class="end-marker"> &#9632;</span></p>

womens_scam_091

WOMEN

HOMETOWN HERO

<div class="byline">BY JARED CLINTONBY JARED CLINTON</div><div class="image-hero"><img title="womens_bett_094" src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/womens_bett_094/477209-1-eng-US/womens_bett_0942.jpg"><figcaption class="caption-body"><p><b>ANN-SOPHIE BETTEZ</b></p><p></p> <span class="photo-credit">(MATTHEW MURNAGHAN/HOCKEY CANADA IMAGES)</span></figcaption></div><p class="dropcap"><b><span>A</span>NN-SOPHIE BETTEZ HAD RESIGNED</b> herself to life outside of the national team spotlight. At 31, it felt like her time to make Team Canada had passed. Nearly a decade ago, she had been a member of the under-22 development team, but in the time since her release, and without so much as a single game back in the red and white, she had moved on. &ldquo;For me, I was just playing hockey for the love of it, being with my friends, trying to be in shape during the summertime and making sure I got my workouts in,&rdquo; Bettez said. &ldquo;But I wasn&rsquo;t working towards making a team or being on the national-team level because in my mind it was gone.&rdquo;</p><p>Bettez was satisfied with this life, too. She was happy in her career as a financial planner and happier yet that she could continue to compete at the professional level with the CWHL&rsquo;s Montreal Les Canadiennes. But if she wasn&rsquo;t striving to take the next step and prove herself to be among the world&rsquo;s elite talent, it was hard to tell. Bettez&rsquo;s brilliance in the CWHL is almost unrivalled. In each of her seven seasons, she&rsquo;s been a top-five scorer, compiling an awe-inspiring 118 goals and 263 points in 170 games and forming one of the league&rsquo;s most formidable duos alongside Marie-Philip Poulin.</p><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/womens_bett_095/477202-1-eng-US/womens_bett_0952.jpg" title="womens_bett_095" width="763" height="1059"><figcaption class="caption-body"><span class="photo-credit">(MATTHEW MURNAGHAN/HOCKEY CANADA IMAGES)</span></figcaption></div><p>That led to this past February, when finally, at long last, her performance forced Hockey Canada to sit up and take notice. For the first time since January 2010, she got the call to join the national team, suiting up in the three-game Rivalry Series against Team USA. Though she didn&rsquo;t find the scoresheet in the series, Bettez impressed, earning minutes on the power play and proving she could hang with the best in the biggest rivalry in the sport. And when it came time to pick the roster for the World Championship? Bettez made the cut once again.</p><p>Competing at the worlds will be the realization of a dream for Bettez, though she acknowledges that she, like many young girls who grew up playing the game, has envisioned pulling on the maple leaf at the Olympics. If she&rsquo;s going to get there, though, she&rsquo;s taking it one step at a time. &ldquo;My path has been kind of different,&rdquo; Bettez said. &ldquo;But at the end of the day, that&rsquo;s why I kind of don&rsquo;t want to put any pressure or set goals for the long term&hellip;If you&rsquo;re able to perform, at the end of the day, that&rsquo;s what matters. And to me, I&rsquo;m doing everything I can to be able to be in my top shape in order to be the best I can be at that level.&rdquo;<span class="end-marker"> &#9632;</span></p>

womens_bett_094

GOOD, BETTER AND BETTEZ

<div class="byline">BY RYAN KENNEDY</div><div class="image-hero"><img title="eoe_germany_096" src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/eoe_germany_096/477252-1-eng-US/eoe_germany_0962.jpg"><figcaption class="caption-body"><p><b>OLYMPIC DESTINY</b></p><p>An unlikely silver medal at the 2018 Olympics was an eye-opener for sports fans in Germany.</p> <span class="photo-credit">(HARRY HOW/GETTY IMAGES)</span></figcaption></div><p class="dropcap"><b><span>R</span>IGHT NOW, IT FEELS</b> like Germany is having a moment. The men&rsquo;s national team stunned the world with a silver medal at the 2018 Olympics, while Edmonton star Leon Draisaitl was the second-highest goal-scorer in the NHL, behind only Alex Ovechkin. Draisaitl was also a top-five producer overall, while goalie Thomas Greiss has been crucial to the New York Islanders&rsquo; turnaround. At the junior level, the nation will likely have back-to-back first-rounders in the NHL draft for the first time, if 2019 defenseman Moritz Seider joins 2018&rsquo;s Dominik Bokk of the St. Louis Blues in that club. That tandem also helped Germany&rsquo;s under-20 team win promotion to the top rung of the World Junior Championship for next year&rsquo;s tourney in the Czech Republic.</p><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/german_ice__098/477245-1-eng-US/german_ice__0982.jpg" title="german_ice__098" width="187" height="185"></div><p>In the NCAA, Clarkson&rsquo;s Nico Sturm was one of the NHL&rsquo;s most coveted free agents this spring. And in Europe, Red Bull Munich went all the way to the Champions League final before losing to Sweden&rsquo;s Frolunda. German free agents from the German League (DEL) are also attracting NHL interest, something that hasn&rsquo;t been a regular occurrence of late.</p><p>So is it all smiles in Germany? Well, not quite, but things are looking up. &ldquo;It&rsquo;s not like there was a big step, but it&rsquo;s baby steps,&rdquo; said former NHLer and 2018 Olympic coach Marco Sturm (no relation to Nico). &ldquo;The Olympics helped, because it showed the world and Germany that German guys could play.&rdquo;</p><p>Sturm, who&rsquo;s now an assistant coach with the Los Angeles Kings, is a product of the German system, having come up in the 1990s with Landshut of the DEL. He sees both positives and negatives in his homeland, drawing off his own experiences as a teenager. &ldquo;It was huge,&rdquo; he said. &ldquo;When I started, there were only three imports. My second year, there were five. At 16, I was playing in all situations. Now, even a player like Seider doesn&rsquo;t get a lot of minutes.&rdquo;</p><p>Indeed, Seider &ndash; a big, strapping two-way defenseman with Adler Mannheim &ndash; averaged 12:13 of ice time in the regular season and 11:10 at the start of the playoffs. But it&rsquo;s a positive that he stayed in Germany: Bokk has been playing for Vaxjo in Sweden the past two seasons, while 2019 draft prospect Taro Jentzsch has been developing in the QMJHL with Sherbrooke. Draisaitl, Tobias Rieder and Philipp Grubauer all played major junior in Canada, too.</p><p>These days, DEL teams can carry 11 imports, though only nine can play per game. That may seem like a hindrance to local development, but not everyone sees it that way. &ldquo;It&rsquo;s a good balance right now,&rdquo; said Straubing Tigers GM Jason Dunham. &ldquo;We like to see German players, but we also want the competitiveness. We want those 17- and 18-year-olds to be facing top competition. It&rsquo;s nice to see the kids get an opportunity here. They can finish their German schooling, but they also grow as men. You&rsquo;re going into the corners against a guy who has house payments to make.&rdquo;</p><p>One of Dunham&rsquo;s best young players is right winger Stefan Loibl, a 22-year-old who is attracting NHL interest as a free agent. The 6-foot-2, 188-pounder had 21 goals in 52 games for Straubing this season and has great speed. Dunham and the Tigers are helping Loibl round out the rest of his game, and doing so against men in the DEL the past few years has upped the stakes.</p><p>Loibl is a late-bloomer, but Dunham points out that the dream of making it to the NHL is still alive at 22. Lean Bergmann of Adler Mannheim and Fabio Pfohl from Kolner Haie are two other free agents garnering NHL interest, while Dunham cites Chicago Blackhawks rookie Dominik Kahun as a perfect example of a young guy who eventually got his shot.</p><blockquote class="pullQuote">YOU DON&rsquo;T HEAR ABOUT ANYTHING EXCEPT SOCCER, SO IT WAS NICE TO HEAR MILLIONS WERE WATCHING HOCKEY. WE WERE THE BIG TALK FOR AWHILE<br>&ndash; Marco Sturm, 2018 German Olympic coach</blockquote><p>Kahun was part of the German Olympic team that won silver in Korea, and that squad did a lot for the sport&rsquo;s visibility back home. &ldquo;You don&rsquo;t hear about anything except soccer, so it was nice to hear that millions of people were watching hockey,&rdquo; Sturm said. &ldquo;We were the big talk for awhile and it was nice.&rdquo;</p><p>The only downside was the raised expectations that crashed when Germany didn&rsquo;t earn a medal at the World Championship last spring. &ldquo;A lot of people I talked to didn&rsquo;t realize the Olympics were a second-level tournament last year,&rdquo; said Thomas Roost of NHL Central Scouting Europe. &ldquo;They didn&rsquo;t understand when Germany couldn&rsquo;t even qualify for the quarterfinal at the worlds a few months later.&rdquo;</p><div class="figure-block image-bleed"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/eoe_stefanl_097/477238-1-eng-US/eoe_stefanl_0972.jpg" title="eoe_stefanl_097" width="1574" height="1021"><figcaption class="caption-body"><p><b>ON THE RADAR SCREEN</b></p><p>NHL scouts are intrigued by the speed and skills of lanky right winger Loibl, a 22-year-old free agent.</p> <span class="photo-credit">(MARTIN ROSE/BONGARTS/GETTY IMAGES)</span></figcaption></div><p>But using momentum is key, particularly when it comes to the youth. Dunham, who is Canadian, believes there are a great number of athletes in Germany, but the problem for hockey is that most of the talent goes into soccer. Sturm sees the biggest shortfall coming in the 16-24 age bracket, where a lack of ice time can both hinder development and turn kids off the game.</p><p>To that end, the German Ice Hockey Federation (DEB) recently created the Five Star Program, which is intended to promote the grassroots game at the youth level by engaging pro organizations. Teams get points for specific actions, like having a youth co-ordinator, hosting school events or recruiting days, or having ample ice time available for young players. Teams with the highest scores are deemed to be &lsquo;Five Star&rsquo; and are awarded with extra funding. Twelve different organizations were awarded the &lsquo;Five Star&rsquo; designation in 2017-18, including DEL franchises such as Adler Mannheim and the Krefeld Penguins. The previous year, there were 11 such teams. &ldquo;We have invested a lot in youth hockey in the past seven to 10 years,&rdquo; Dunham said.</p><p>Indeed, with corporate backing from names such as SAP, Red Bull, Thomas Sabo and the Anschutz Entertainment Group (which owns both the L.A. Kings and the DEL&rsquo;s Eisbaren Berlin squad), the money is there and so are the facilities. Now it&rsquo;s a matter of keeping the good work going and growing the young base of talent so the next generation can fulfill its hockey dreams.</p><p>In Canada, Dunham notes, the pool of players is so big that teams don&rsquo;t have to stick with kids who aren&rsquo;t fully committed. In Germany, there may only be one or two promising youngsters coming up in the same cohort, so the development model must work with them longer and more attentively. &ldquo;We&rsquo;re still paddling,&rdquo; Sturm said. &ldquo;We have to take the small group that we have and grow it bigger.&rdquo;<span class="end-marker"> &#9632;</span></p>

eoe_germany_096

EYE ON EUROPE

GERMAN SHEPHERDS

<div class="byline">BY RYAN KENNEDY</div><div class="image-hero"><img title="grassroots__099" src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/grassroots__0993/477295-1-eng-US/grassroots__0992.jpg"><figcaption class="caption-body"><p><b>MASSACHUSETTS MISHMASH</b></p><p>The USPHL, whose last NHL draft pick was Marino in 2015, is one of several loops vying for young players.</p><p></p> <span class="photo-credit">(JOSHUA BOYD/USPHL)</span></figcaption></div><p class="dropcap"><b><span>T</span>HERE&rsquo;S A PHRASE THAT</b> comes up a lot when discussing the grassroots hockey scene in Massachusetts these days: &ldquo;watered down.&rdquo; Still a hub in America for grassroots participation, the state is going through a period where many believe kids are being pushed into playing too many games, while at the elite level a laundry list of league options is hurting the competition balance. &ldquo;It&rsquo;s too watered down, there are too many fishbowls,&rdquo; said one NHL executive. &ldquo;Minnesota has one fishbowl.&rdquo;</p><p>While hockey has expanded greatly in the U.S., a ton of talent still comes out of the Three M&rsquo;s: Massachusetts, Michigan and Minnesota. In Minnesota, high-school hockey is still a huge draw, with the state tournament featuring packed crowds at the Xcel Energy Center, home of the NHL&rsquo;s Wild. In Michigan, youth hockey programs such as Compuware, Little Caesar&rsquo;s and Honeybaked rule the roost. But in Massachusetts, there is a scramble for talent between elite prep schools, the North American League and the United States Premier League.</p><p>The NAHL, which has teams from Alaska to Texas to Pennsylvania, moved into Massachusetts in 2016 with the Northeast Generals and will expand to Maine next season. The USPHL is also adding a team in Maine for 2019-20.</p><p>The USPHL has been around for several years under various names, counting NHL alumni such as Charlie Coyle and Chris Wagner of the Boston Bruins. In its current form, it features leagues for kids as young as eight, right up to junior &ndash; its new National Collegiate Development Conference being the highest level of competition. Some of the USPHL circuits feature teams as far south as Florida, but the NCDC is strictly a Northeast affair for now.</p><p>While NHL scouts keep an eye on the league, no player has been drafted out of the USPHL since Edmonton took blueliner John Marino of the South Shore Kings back in 2015.</p><p>Agent Matt Keator has been a Boston fixture for decades, first as an NHL scout and now as a player rep and a hockey dad. He&rsquo;d love to see an emphasis on practice and development, rather than games. &ldquo;They have to find a way to get away from it being all about tournaments and making money,&rdquo; Keator said. &ldquo;It&rsquo;s an issue.&rdquo;</p><p>One NHL scout had a blunter assessment: &ldquo;It&rsquo;s outrageous what they&rsquo;re charging kids these days,&rdquo; he said. &ldquo;These guys should wear ski masks when they come into the rink.&rdquo;</p><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/grassroots__100/477288-1-eng-US/grassroots__1002.jpg" title="grassroots__100" width="688" height="687"><figcaption class="caption-body"><p><b>BACK WHERE IT ALL BEGAN</b></p><p>Coyle, a USPHL grad, returned to his Boston-area roots when he was traded to the Bruins in February.</p> <span class="photo-credit">(NICOLE GOODHUE BOYD/USA JR. HOCKEY MAGAZINE)</span></figcaption></div><p>Many of those in Massachusetts, including NHL scouts and executives, see eight-year-old kids playing up to 90 games and skating 11 months a year. Parents don&rsquo;t want their child to fall behind the competition, and the result is a lot of expensive tryouts and tournament fees. And the number of people trying to cash in on the state&rsquo;s passion is taking a toll. &ldquo;It&rsquo;s a money-driven state now,&rdquo; said the NHL scout. &ldquo;It&rsquo;s not like when I grew up. Now, a six-year-old shows up with a cheque for $5,000 and all of a sudden he&rsquo;s an elite AAA player. You get teams with two good players and no one else touches the puck. Then the kid gets tired of being a cheerleader and loses interest in the sport.&rdquo;</p><p>And that watering-down of talent hurts the high-end kids, too, because they&rsquo;re not developing by playing soft competition. Numerous professionals interviewed for this piece would like to see a return to &ldquo;town hockey,&rdquo; where kids actually played for their local teams, instead of chasing spots on elite squads in the Northeast. For the NHL scout, he&rsquo;d like to see an elite league of six teams &ndash; but not until the kids are 12 or 13. Keator, the agent, floated a similar idea for an eight-team circuit.</p><p>Back in the day, Massachusetts was famous for developing players, from Jeremy Roenick and Tony Amonte at Thayer Academy to Keith Tkachuk at Malden. Those were prep schools, but before that you had public high-school success stories like Tom Barrasso and Bob Sweeney. The idea of a kid coming out of Acton-Boxborough High now is unthinkable; same with a city high school in Boston proper.</p><p>The happy ending to this story would be for the Massachusetts scene to pull back from its current state of affairs, but those who know the area aren&rsquo;t optimistic &ndash; a lot of folks are making money and it&rsquo;s too tempting to keep the taps turned on. &ldquo;Every other day a new league pops up,&rdquo; said the scout. &ldquo;And everyone is a power-skating coach all of a sudden.&rdquo;<span class="end-marker"> &#9632;</span></p>

grassroots__099

GRASSROOTS

FEEDER SYSTEM IN MASS CHAOS

<div class="byline">BY TODD DENAULT</div><div class="image-hero"><img title="business_fe_101" src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/business_fe_101/477331-1-eng-US/business_fe_1012.jpg"><figcaption class="caption-body"><p><b>PLAYING UP TO PAR</b></p><p>Feherty, middle, and wife Anita have a passion for both golf and hockey, and made for a natural fit with Jones.</p><p></p> <span class="photo-credit">(COURTESY OF BRAD JONES)</span></figcaption></div><p class="dropcap"><b><span>M</span>ENTION THE NAME</b> David Feherty to your average sports fan and the overwhelming response will be one word &ndash; golf, which isn&rsquo;t too surprising since the 60-year-old native of Northern Ireland has been involved with the sport for more than four decades.</p><p>After turning pro in 1976, Feherty spent most of his playing career in Europe, culminating in a spot in the 1991 Ryder Cup. Shortly afterwards, he made the move to U.S. and the PGA Tour before retiring as a player in 1997. And yet it seems that Feherty&rsquo;s career in golf was just beginning. Possessed with a distinctive voice and unafraid to share his personal opinions, Feherty quickly became in demand as an analyst, first with CBS and now with NBC. He also hosts his own show on the Golf Network, is a contributor to Golf Magazine, has authored several bestselling books and is one of the lead announcers on the EA Sports video-game series <i>Tiger Woods PGA Tour</i>.</p><p>What is considerably less known is his fervor for all things hockey &ndash; an enthusiasm that naturally had its roots on the golf course. &ldquo;After I moved full time to the United States in the 1990s, I started to develop new golf friendships with a host of hockey players,&rdquo; Feherty said. &ldquo;I&rsquo;ve played with Wayne Gretzky, Paul Coffey, Brett Hull and Jeremy Roenick, and that led me to get really interested in hockey. At first I was drawn to the speed of the play, but what really got me hooked was the camaraderie amongst those who on the ice give it their all, engage in such a physical game, and play it so hard and yet after the final buzzer sounds can often be found sharing a pop or two afterwards.&rdquo;</p><p>Feherty also couldn&rsquo;t help but notice one particular aspect that he felt both hockey and golf had in common. &ldquo;I came to understand the passion in hockey, especially when it came to the Stanley Cup, which reminded me of the Ryder Cup,&rdquo; he said. &ldquo;To me, both present the purest form of sport. Neither one of them has anything to do with money, in both cases it&rsquo;s all about the Cup.&rdquo;</p><p>Inspired by that passion and by his work with the First Tee program, which is a golf organization that encourages young people to go outside, stimulate an interest in the game, build character, while at the same time installing a sense of fair play, Feherty wondered if a similar program could work in a hockey sense.</p><div class="figure-block image-bleed"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/business_fe_102/477324-1-eng-US/business_fe_1022.jpg" title="business_fe_102" width="1021" height="561"><figcaption class="caption-body"><p><b>TRAVELING HOCKEY FUN</b></p><p>The HockeyFest 4-on-4 street hockey format is played on a surface that is half the size of an NHL rink.</p> <span class="photo-credit">(COURTESY OF BRAD JONES)</span></figcaption></div><p>Enter Brad Jones and his team at HockeyFest &ndash; Game On!</p><p>Labeled &ldquo;a traveling hockey experience&rdquo; by Jones, the head of the Jones Entertainment Group, he and Feherty are hoping to, as Jones said, &ldquo;take the essence of hockey, the integration of real rinks, the support of official referees and produce the largest road-hockey tournament in North America.&rdquo; Using a format that features 4-on-4 street hockey, with divisions for all ages and genders, each game is played on a rink that&rsquo;s half the size of an NHL surface, with real boards and real netting. There&rsquo;s music and food, as well as an area dedicated to interactive games featuring mini-stick rinks, skills competitions and more.</p><p>With five HockeyFest events planned throughout Ontario in May and June (in Peterborough, Kitchener, London, Ottawa and Barrie) as well as one at the United Center in Chicago on June 22-23, HockeyFest &ndash; Game On! is a collaborative effort dedicated to growing the game at the grassroots level, while also engaging the fan bases for the various hosts and their teams during the off-season.</p><p>In the works for two years, various NHL franchises are starting to take notice with both Nashville and Vegas tentatively scheduled for next year, and queries from Montreal and other teams coming in.</p><p>For Jones and his team, the whole concept boils down to the tagline: &ldquo;Real Rinks. Real Refs. Real Fun.&rdquo;</p><p><i>For more information about HockeyFest &ndash; Game On!, visit their website at <a href="http://hockeyfestgameon.com">hockeyfestgameon.com</a></i><span class="end-marker"> &#9632;</span></p>

business_fe_101

BUSINESS

IT’S GAME ON FOR GOLF ICON

<div class="byline">BY RYAN KENNEDY</div><div class="image-hero"><img title="next_malone_105" src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/next_malone_105/477367-1-eng-US/next_malone_1052.jpg"><figcaption class="caption-body"><p><b>POST MALONE</b></p><p>Malone has consistently added new tools to his game. What&rsquo;s next? Shoot more and speak up in the room.</p> <span class="photo-credit">(SCOTT GALVIN)</span></figcaption></div><p class="dropcap"><b><span>O</span>NE OF THE BIGGEST</b> risers in the 2019 NHL draft class has been Youngstown Phantoms center Jack Malone. He was always known as a strong, hardworking player, but he&rsquo;s now added a new level of offensive creativity to his game. &ldquo;He&rsquo;s a 200-foot cerebral player,&rdquo; said coach Brad Patterson. &ldquo;He&rsquo;s got an elite hockey IQ, and he&rsquo;s a tremendous athlete. When you mix everything together, you see the benefits every time he&rsquo;s on the ice. He&rsquo;s been huge for us this year.&rdquo;</p><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/youngstown__104/477360-1-eng-US/youngstown__1042.jpg" title="youngstown__104" width="187" height="187"></div><p>And Malone&rsquo;s development has been steady. Originally from California, Malone and his family moved to New Jersey when he was six. Season tickets to the Devils gave him a steady dose of Ilya Kovalchuk, Zach Parise and Sidney Crosby (Auston Matthews is his new fave) and Malone fell in love with hockey. The youngster was also an excellent shortstop, playing baseball until Grade 7.</p><p>In high school, Malone played for Delbarton, a traditional New Jersey powerhouse that other schools always want to dethrone. &ldquo;We definitely had a target on our backs,&rdquo; Malone said. &ldquo;They looked at our game as a championship game and we took that as a challenge.&rdquo;</p><p>Malone jumped up to the USHL last season, and the level of older, stronger, faster competition was an eye-opener. As Patterson noted, the young center also had to accept that he wouldn&rsquo;t be getting the same amount of ice time as he did at Delbarton, but Malone was an apt pupil. Like many rookies in junior leagues, Malone really found his feet after Christmas last season. &ldquo;It&rsquo;s a big jump,&rdquo; said Malone, who&rsquo;s a potential second-rounder in the 2019 draft. &ldquo;It definitely took awhile to get acclimated to that type of play, but once you get used to it and get that confidence, it&rsquo;s a game-changer.&rdquo;</p><p>This season, Malone has become an integral part of the Youngstown attack, averaging more than a point per game after tallying 14 points in 52 games as a rookie. With Malone ascending and linemate Brett Murray (a Buffalo Sabres prospect) one of the highest scorers in the league, the Phantoms were one of the first USHL squads to clinch a playoff berth and are a title contender.</p><p>Malone, 18, also got his first international experience, helping Team USA win gold at the World Jr. A Challenge in Alberta. If all goes according to plan, he&rsquo;ll head to Cornell next season. In the meantime, he needs to work on shooting the puck more, and his current bench boss sees a player whose personality is still coming out. &ldquo;He&rsquo;s quiet by nature,&rdquo; Patterson said. &ldquo;Guys really respect anything he says, so he could take more ownership in a leadership role, but he&rsquo;s still pretty young. I see him developing in that area.&rdquo;</p><p>Considering the leaps he has made elsewhere, it&rsquo;s only a matter of time for Malone.</p><p> <i>For daily prospect coverage, </i><br><i>visit&nbsp;<b><a href="http://TheHockeyNews.com">TheHockeyNews.com</a></b></i><span class="end-marker"> &#9632;</span></p>

next_malone_105

YOUNGSTOWN ROCKET RIDE

<div class="byline">WITH RYAN KENNEDY</div><div class="image-hero"><img title="buzz_wright_106" src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/buzz_wright_106/477396-1-eng-US/buzz_wright_1062.jpg"><figcaption class="caption-body"><p><b>TRIBUTE TO ROY</b></p><p>Wright and his Don Mills teammates overcame the loss of their goalie and went the entire season losing just one game.</p> <span class="photo-credit">(DAN HICKLING/OHL IMAGES)</span></figcaption></div><p class="dropcap"><b><span>W</span>HEN IT COMES TO</b> junior hockey, we often have high expectations for the teenagers involved. Whether it&rsquo;s success and failure at the world juniors or the pressures of the NHL draft, it&rsquo;s important to lean back sometimes and remember how young these players are. This became incredibly apparent to me when speaking to members of the Don Mills Flyers, the Toronto-based squad that just won the OHL Cup &ndash; the prestigious tournament that brings together the best Ontario minor midget teams (and a couple American squads) at the end of the year.</p><p>This Don Mills edition was no ordinary team. In March 2018, their starting goaltender, Roy Pejcinovski, was murdered. His mother, Krissy, and sister Vana were killed in the same incident just east of the city in the town of Ajax. Krissy&rsquo;s sometimes boyfriend is currently going through the courts for the triple homicide (another sister, Victoria, was not home at the time).</p><p>Incredibly, the Flyers finished the year with a provincial title while still reeling from the tragedy. Coach Marc Slawson believes that the arena became a place of sanctuary for the kids, who were all about 14 at the time. &ldquo;We all grew as people,&rdquo; said defenseman Brandt Clarke. &ldquo;Maybe it was too early, but it was a good learning lesson for all of us. Not many people go through that.&rdquo;</p><p>It&rsquo;s a statement both brave and heartrending, but it&rsquo;s clear the Flyers would not forget Pejcinovski. This season, the team put forth one of the most dominant performances imaginable, winning more than 70 games, tying a few and losing just once &ndash; in overtime, in the final of the Silver Stick tournament against a similarly excellent Detroit Compuware team. The feat is made all the more impressive by the fact Don Mills plays in the Greater Toronto League (GTHL), the best youth hockey circuit in the world.</p><p>Of course, the OHL Cup final was no walk in the park. The Flyers went down early to the Toronto Red Wings, surrendering three goals in the first period and trailing 4-1 just one minute into the second frame. But the loaded squad, which featured OHL exceptional-status recipient Shane Wright, would not bow out. And it did kinda seem like there was some magic behind them.</p><p>With the score at 4-3, Toronto winger Noah Filice was sprung for a partial breakaway. He unleashed a wicked shot, only to see it clang off the post behind Don Mills goalie Sergei Litvinov, who had replaced starter Anson Thornton after the third Red Wings goal. Don Mills got the next goal and later won the game 6-5 in overtime.</p><p>The fact Litvinov was even playing for Don Mills is incredible. Born in St. Petersburg, Russia, the youngster moved to Yaroslavl, where his father knew members of the KHL Lokomotiv team that perished in the 2011 plane crash. Litvinov&rsquo;s mask features the Lokomotiv logo on the front, while his No. 35 is a tribute to goalie Stefan Liv, who was set to make his first start with the team on that ill-fated road trip.</p><p>Even more beguiling is the fact Litvinov knew Pejcinovski. Three years before his tragic death, Pejcinovski reached out on Instagram to his Russian counterpart because they had the same breed of terrier. When Litvinov wanted to come to Canada to play hockey this season, a family friend sent a two-minute highlight video to Slawson. &ldquo;I took it to a couple of goalie coaches, and he looked very athletic,&rdquo; Slawson said. &ldquo;We were very comfortable with Anson in net if he had to be the No. 1, so we thought, &lsquo;What do we have to lose?&rsquo; We never even met Sergei until August. We call that part of the &lsquo;Roy Effect.&rsquo; Roy is looking down on us, making sure all those little decisions go in our direction.&rdquo;</p><p>In the end, Wright set up left winger Brennan Othmann for the championship-winning goal in what easily could&rsquo;ve been the team&rsquo;s second loss of the year. &ldquo;I won&rsquo;t lie, this is the storybook end to the season,&rdquo; Slawson said. &ldquo;If we didn&rsquo;t get this one, it would have hurt, it would have stung.&rdquo;</p><p>Since the murders, the Don Mills Flyers have kept in touch with Roy&rsquo;s father, Vas, and he visited the team several times a month during the season. They recently had a service marking the one-year anniversary of the tragedy, and it&rsquo;s fair to say they will never forget their lost goaltender. &ldquo;He was a really big key to our team last year,&rdquo; said Othmann, one of Pejcinovski&rsquo;s closest friends on the team. &ldquo;You couldn&rsquo;t get the puck past him, he was an amazing goalie, and we miss him very much. Every game we fought for him.&rdquo;</p><p>Even with all the skill they had, clinching that OHL Cup wasn&rsquo;t easy for Don Mills. But given what the Flyers have gone through, it&rsquo;s amazing they made this season look as easy as they did.<span class="end-marker"> &#9632;</span></p>

buzz_wright_106

THE POWER OF THE ‘ROY EFFECT’

<div class="byline">BY TOM THOMPSON</div><div class="image-hero"><img title="f0070-01" src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0070-0124/477439-1-eng-US/f0070-012.jpg"><figcaption class="caption-body"><span class="photo-credit">(FRANK JANSKY/ICON SPORTSWIRE VIA GETTY IMAGES & CHRISTIAN BONIN)</span></figcaption></div><p class="dropcap"><b><span>W</span>HAT AGAIN TRANSPIRED AT</b> the 2019 World Junior Championship in British Columbia is truly baffling. Martin Necas of the Czech Republic and Eeli Tolvanen of Finland are both quality NHL prospects. Each of them was a first-round pick in the 2017 draft. Both had excellent 2017-18 seasons, highlighted by elite performances at the 2018 WJC. And Tolvanen went on to star at the 2018 Winter Olympics. Both of them started this season in the NHL, Necas with Carolina and Tolvanen with Nashville, before heading to the AHL to continue their development. Their respective countries were delighted when the players were made available for the 2019 WJC. Each player was placed on his team&rsquo;s first line and top power-play unit. Both saw time killing penalties and were used in all important situations late in games. Unfortunately, neither player lived up to expectations. In both cases, the final verdict would be that their play was &ldquo;just OK.&rdquo; Neither came close to matching their performance of a year earlier. Both continued the puzzling tradition of players returning from professional hockey and delivering underwhelming performances at the world juniors. What does this say about Necas and Tolvanen? What happened? And, in light of this chapter in their careers, what does it say about their future as NHL prospects?</p><h2><b>CAREERS</b></h2><p>Until the WJC, there were few bumps on the career paths of either player. Necas was drafted 12th overall in 2017 and continued to play for Brno in the Czech Republic last season. This year he played seven games for the Hurricanes and has since played regularly for Charlotte in the AHL. He has now suited up in three world juniors. In the 2018 tournament, he was a star, recording 11 points in seven games. In this year&rsquo;s edition, he struggled with four points in five games and, on numerous occasions, appeared too slow to execute normal plays in scoring situations. Tolvanen was drafted 30th in 2017 after playing two seasons for Sioux City in the USHL. In 2017-18, he returned to Finland to play for Jokerit in the KHL. This season, he played four games for the Predators and has since been a regular with AHL Milwaukee. Tolvanen has also played in three world juniors. In each of the first two events, he averaged more than a point per game. In this year&rsquo;s gold medal-winning tournament for Finland, he had only four points in seven games with no goals, even though he had countless scoring opportunities. In the 2018 Olympics in South Korea, Tolvanen finished second in overall scoring with nine points in five games. He excelled as a goal-scorer and a playmaker and was arguably Finland&rsquo;s best player. This is a level Necas has yet to reach.&nbsp;<b>EDGE: TOLVANEN</b></p><h2><b>DEFENSIVE PLAY</b></h2><p>This category is only&nbsp;close in one aspect. Both Necas and Tolvanen work hard in defensive situations. Tolvanen&rsquo;s superior strength combined with better body positioning in 1-on-1 confrontations gives him a wide overall edge. Twice against Canada and once against the U.S., Tolvanen saved the day with a strong, perfectly timed stick lift to prevent what looked like sure goals.&nbsp;<b>EDGE: TOLVANEN</b></p><h2><b>SHOT</b></h2><p>Necas is a classic&nbsp;playmaking center whose priority is to find teammates in good scoring position. He has a pass-first mentality. Most of his shots are from close in. There is nothing exceptional about his shooting, either in velocity or quickness of release. In the 2019 WJC, there were occasions where he was not able to respond quickly enough when presented with a scoring opportunity. Tolvanen can make plays as well as Necas, but he is also looking to put himself into good scoring position in the offensive zone. When he was playing the point on Finland&rsquo;s power play, he was eager to blast one-time shots from either side of the ice. His shot is released quickly and with power. But at the WJC, Tolvanen couldn&rsquo;t hit the broad side of a barn. I lost track of the number of times he put himself into perfect scoring position, quickly took a shot but missed the mark. Regardless, Tolvanen is a powerful NHL shooter. Necas is not.&nbsp;<b>EDGE: TOLVANEN</b></p><h2><b>ROLES</b></h2><p>Necas is a tall,&nbsp;lanky, right-handed center who can handle the puck and make plays. Tolvanen is a left-handed winger who can perform effectively on either wing. He has a shorter, thicker body build. The role Necas is looking to fill is more valuable for an NHL team. Centers are your offensive linchpins. Their puckhandling is the key to creating proper puck possession for your team. Right-handed centers are like left-handed pitchers in baseball &ndash; they are prized assets and harder to find.&nbsp;<b>EDGE: NECAS</b></p><h2><b>SKATING</b></h2><p>Necas has relatively short, choppy strides and lacks strength in his acceleration. He is balanced and his feet are quick, but he sometimes has the &ldquo;Bambi&rdquo; look, with wobbly legs when he tries to turn and accelerate at the same time. With added strength and physical maturity, his skating should become adequate. Tolvanen is strong on his skates with quickness, acceleration and good speed. His movements are fluid. He may already be an above-average NHL skater.&nbsp;<b>EDGE: TOLVANEN</b></p><h2><b>CONCLUSION</b></h2><p>The 2019 WJC was just one chapter in the career books of Necas and Tolvanen, but it didn&rsquo;t make for of pleasant reading. For the first time, they were not young players getting credit for whatever they accomplished against older opponents. Now they were the older players returning from higher levels of hockey. The pressure was on them to perform, and the effect of the pressure showed. To their credit, both Necas and Tolvanen continued to compete hard even though they were not enjoying offensive success. Both players have, throughout their careers, demonstrated the potential to become valuable NHL players on contending teams. Necas has average physical attributes but good hockey sense and puck skills. He projects as right-handed playmaker on an offensive line. He has value. Tolvanen is a powerfully built left-handed winger who could play either wing on any type of NHL line. He could complement two good offensive linemates with corner work to get pucks, playmaking and the ability to finish plays with his strong shot. With his strength, skating and competitiveness, Tolvanen could also play a more defensive role. The potential role of Necas is more valuable, but if he does not increase his strength and leg power, he will be an average player in that role. Tolvanen is closer physically to reaching his potential in the NHL. He will, however, never be as valuable as a top-end center. He is a more versatile than Necas, and I would project his chances of success in the NHL as being more likely. In this case, I buck the scouting consensus. I go for the safer choice. Take Eeli Tolvanen over Martin Necas.</p><p><i>Tom Thompson has been an NHL scout/director/assistant GM since 1985.</i><span class="end-marker"> &#9632;</span></p>

f0070-01

EELI TOLVANEN VS. MARTIN NECAS

<div class="byline">BY STAN FISCHLER</div><p class="dropcap"><b><span>T</span>ED LINDSAY WAS</b> eulogized, patronized and idolized as the driving force behind the first hockey players&rsquo; association in the 1960s. But a generation earlier, a group of players almost got a union off the ground, and likely would&rsquo;ve succeeded if not for a more important issue in the way.</p><p>The first genuine hockey-unionizing attempt took place on March 12, 1941, in New York. The hockey-playing organizers included four members of the New York Rangers&rsquo; 1940 Cup-winning team &ndash; defenseman Art Coulter plus forwards Alex Shibicky and the Colville brothers, Neil and Mac. The Colvilles and Shibicky made a trio called the Great Depression-inspired &lsquo;The Bread Line.&rsquo;</p><p>A mystery man was orchestrating the association behind the scenes. He was a fringe but significant former NHLer. George (Gerry) Geran, a native of Holyoke, Mass., was to this original players&rsquo; association what Lindsay was more than a decade later. A Dartmouth product, Geran was the first American player to appear in an NHL game. He made his debut with the Montreal Wanderers in a game against Toronto in 1917.</p><p>Geran retired at 37 in 1933 but stayed involved in the game by monitoring the plight of retired players. Inspired by a group that had assisted baseball players who had fallen on hard times, Geran developed blueprints for a hockey union. He lived near Madison Square Garden and approached the Rangers before reaching out to the other NHL teams in 1941. &ldquo;Geran called it &lsquo;The Association of Professional Hockey Players of America,&rsquo;&rdquo; wrote historian Roger A. Godin, author of <i>The Mysterious Gerry Geran</i>.</p><p>Members of the 1940 Rangers supported Geran. Hall of Fame blueliner Coulter accepted the APHPA presidency. Other union officers included Shibicky as first vice-president, Mac Colville as second VP, Neil Colville as treasurer and Geran as secretary. With annual dues of only $10, many NHLers signed up.</p><p>In a letter to the players, Geran wrote, &ldquo;The press and the public are wholeheartedly in sympathy with its success. Hospitalization throughout Canada and the United States is available. Group insurance is being investigated. League recognition and cooperation will be forthcoming as soon as the leagues realize the numerous advantages to the leagues themselves.&rdquo;</p><p>Unlike today&rsquo;s NHLPA, Geran&rsquo;s group not only was designed for NHLers but players and referees in all pro leagues. The union was registered under the laws of New York State. The media covered the creation of the APHPA at the time. One of America&rsquo;s leading sports columnists, John Kieran of the <i>New York Times</i>, gave it an endorsement in the April 18, 1941, edition. &ldquo;The feeling here,&rdquo; Kieran wrote, &ldquo;is the hockey players, officials and club owners should get together and put it over in style. To me, it doesn&rsquo;t seem that there could be any argument about it.&rdquo;</p><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/rewind_gera_107/477475-1-eng-US/rewind_gera_1072.jpg" title="rewind_gera_107" width="749" height="958"><figcaption class="caption-body"><p><b>WALK THE UNION LINE</b></p><p>Geran had a brief career in the NHL before playing overseas. He later spearheaded the players&rsquo; first attempt at a union.</p> <span class="photo-credit">(BOSTON BRUINS)</span></figcaption></div><p>Geran sent a letter to NHL president Frank Calder on May 3, 1941, requesting a meeting with him and team ownership reps. Geran suggested ownership join a players-governors &ldquo;advisory committee,&rdquo; adding that Lester Patrick of the Rangers, Boston&rsquo;s Art Ross and Chicago&rsquo;s Bill Tobin be part of it. &ldquo;They have been players,&rdquo; Geran said, &ldquo;and are now hockey executives and therefore understand players and their problems.&rdquo;</p><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0072-0126/477468-1-eng-US/f0072-012.jpg" title="f0072-01" width="719" height="680"><figcaption class="caption-body"><p><b>PAPER TRAIL</b></p><p>The goal in the early 1940s was to form an association that covered all pro players &ndash; and referees, too.</p> <span class="photo-credit">(BOSTON BRUINS)</span></figcaption></div><p>However, neither Calder nor pivotal owners were receptive to the idea. Rangers president Colonel John Reed Kilpatrick gave it a thumbs down on the grounds his club took good care of its players. By contrast, New York Americans manager Red Dutton supported Geran along with other players and coaches including Detroit captain Ebbie Goodfellow. &ldquo;The (union) proposal is fundamentally sound,&rdquo; Kieran concluded, &ldquo;and should be worked out for the benefit of all concerned.&rdquo;</p><p>But it was the early 1940s, and there was a larger problem confronting players and owners. The Second World War was blazing in Europe with the Japanese bombing of Pearl Harbor just months away. Players were enlisting in the Canadian and American armed forces while owners worried about whether the NHL could even survive the war employing makeshift lineups.</p><p>It did survive, but Geran&rsquo;s groundbreaking union idea did not, because his four chief officers shed Rangers uniforms for khaki. Coulter enlisted in the U.S. Coast Guard while the Colvilles and Shibicky wound up in the Canadian Army. By the time the war ended in September 1945, the union was a memory.</p><p>If not for the published work by Godin and a collection of letters and stories collected by this author, this early-era foray into unionization would likely be forgotten. So while Lindsay is being rightfully remembered as a fearless trailblazer for the players, it should also be noted that Geran and a handful of players and owners in the 1940s cut an early swath towards the creation of a players&rsquo; association.<span class="end-marker"> &#9632;</span></p>

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REWIND

UNIONIZATION PRE-LINDSAY

<div class="byline">WITH KEN CAMPBELL</div><div class="image-hero"><img title="lastword_ca_113" src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/lastword_ca_113/477568-1-eng-US/lastword_ca_1132.jpg"><figcaption class="caption-body"><p><b>LONG TIME COMING</b></p><p>When Washington finally beat Pittsburgh in the playoffs, it was all the more sweet after years of post-season disappointment.</p> <span class="photo-credit">(GREGORY SHAMUS/GETTY IMAGES)</span></figcaption></div><p class="dropcap"><b><span>G</span>OOGLE THE PHRASE &ldquo;NHL</b>&nbsp;playoff format.&rdquo; Before you can even finish typing, a number of options appear. The fifth one down is &ldquo;NHL playoff format stupid,&rdquo; and if you click on it, you get 261,000 results. The eighth one down is &ldquo;NHL playoff format is bad,&rdquo; and that produces a whopping 765,000 results. So we get it. More than a million basement bloggers think the playoff format is either stupid or bad, or both.</p><p>Forget for a second that it&rsquo;s neither stupid nor bad, and while you&rsquo;re doing that, it might be a good idea to come to grips with the fact it&rsquo;s not going anywhere. Giving a point to a team that loses in overtime or a shootout, now&nbsp;<i>that&rsquo;s</i>&nbsp;stupid. But when it comes to the NHL post-season, the league has had a number of opportunities to make changes, and despite the occasional murmur of discontent by a team that gets screwed, the owners and the league like it just the way it is.</p><p>The good thing about this annual carp-fest is it means the playoffs are just around the corner. And whatever the format, the Cup chase is without a doubt the best post-season tournament in sports. For the past couple years, the largest howls have come from Boston and Toronto, two teams that went down the stretch among the top six clubs in the NHL with a date to meet in the first round. Indeed, when you add Tampa Bay to the equation, it creates a situation where two of the league&rsquo;s top six teams are guaranteed to be eliminated in the first two rounds. But unless you want to go back to the &ldquo;1-16, 2-15, etc.&rdquo; format that the NHL won&rsquo;t even consider because of travel issues and lack of natural rivalries, pretty much every other format has its warts, too.</p><p>For example, those same Leafs fans who are grousing about the current format probably wouldn&rsquo;t have been complaining if it were 1987-88 and the divisional playoff format allowed their team to make the playoffs despite having a .325 winning percentage and finishing one point out of last overall in the league. Sometimes you benefit from these things and sometimes you get hosed.</p><p>When talking about the playoff system, two quotes attributed to Winston Churchill concerning democracy spring to mind. The first is, &ldquo;Indeed, it has been said that democracy is the worst form of government except all those other forms that have been tried from time to time.&rdquo; The other, &ldquo;The best argument against democracy is a five-minute conversation with the average voter.&rdquo; In the case of the latter quote, substitute the word &ldquo;democracy&rdquo; with &ldquo;playoff format&rdquo; and the word &ldquo;voter&rdquo; with &ldquo;hockey fan.&rdquo;</p><p>From this corner, the NHL gets this right. Are there teams that end up out of the playoffs in the first or second round when their regular-season finish otherwise might have seen them advance to at least the conference final? Yes, that&rsquo;s going to happen from time to time. But here&rsquo;s the thing. The NHL&rsquo;s playoff format accomplishes exactly what the NHL wants. It results in divisional rivalries because you generally have to defeat two divisional opponents in order to advance to the conference final. Divisional rivalries are important to the NHL because they drive viewership numbers and produce a healthy disdain for other markets. Nothing builds up a good rivalry more than losing to a team a couple of times in the playoffs. Some of the most enduring memories for fans come out of these rivalries, and by having this format, the league puts itself in a position to constantly deliver these rivalry series to fans.</p><p>And from an entertainment standpoint, the first round of the playoffs is the most compelling. It&rsquo;s when teams are most fresh and their tanks are almost full. Why wouldn&rsquo;t the NHL capitalize on that frenzy by pitting rivals against one another? Would you rather see Winnipeg and Nashville guaranteed to play in the second round of the playoffs when both teams are high energy, or would you rather cross your fingers and hope they meet later in the post-season when one or both might be out of gas?</p><p>Just for fun, we looked at the NHL standings as of March 20. No team had more than 10 games remaining. Based on points percentage, the first-round matchups would&rsquo;ve been Tampa Bay-Columbus, Boston-Toronto, Washington-Carolina and Pittsburgh-Islanders in the East, and Calgary-Arizona, San Jose-Vegas, Winnipeg-Dallas and Nashville-St. Louis in the West.</p><p>Now contrast that with what the series would&rsquo;ve been if the league were playing under the old &ldquo;1-8, 2-7, etc.&rdquo; format: Tampa Bay-Columbus, Boston-Pittsburgh, Washington-Carolina and Toronto-Islanders in the East, and Calgary-Arizona, San Jose-Dallas, Winnipeg-St. Louis and Nashville-Vegas in the West. The variance in points for the lower-seeded team under the current format and the old one was no more than six in any series. So what&rsquo;s all the fuss about?</p><p>To win the Cup, a team has to win four series. Thanks to parity, none of those series will be easy. Part of what made Washington&rsquo;s run to the Cup so special last spring was they finally vanquished their kryptonite, the Penguins, along the way. That victory was years in the making. Some of them were miserable, but it was all the more sweet when the Caps finally conquered their rival. The NHL is the only league that delivers that kind of drama year-in and year-out. And that&rsquo;s why it&rsquo;s not messing with this good thing.<span class="end-marker"> &#9632;</span></p>

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