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NEWS CLIPPINGS • May 4, 2018

Hurricanes trade for Arizona's Martinook, exchange draft picks

By Chip Alexander

May 03, 2018 04:49 PM

Updated May 03, 2018 07:28 PM

The Carolina Hurricanes acquired left wing Jordan Martinook and Arizona’s fourth-round selection in the 2018 NHL Draft in

exchange for center Marcus Kruger and the the Canes' third-round pick in the draft, the team announced Thursday.

Martinook, 25, completed his fourth NHL season in 2017-18 and had six goals and nine assists in 81 games. He was selected by Arizona in the second round of the 2012 NHL Draft. Martinook has t65 points in 247 career NHL games.

Martinook surprised, excited about trade to Hurricanes

By Chip Alexander

[email protected]

May 03, 2018 07:15 PM

Updated 8 hours 31 minutes ago

Raleigh

Jordan Martinook said he was coming back from the bank Thursday in Phoenix when he got a phone call he did not expect.

Not in early May, with the Stanley Cup playoffs in full swing.

Martinook, 25, learned he had been traded to the Carolina Hurricanes in a forward-for-forward hockey deal that also included draft picks and some retained salary by the Hurricanes. The Canes sent Marcus Kruger and a third-round pick in the 2018 NHL Draft to the Arizona Coyotes for Martinook and a fourth-round pick.

“It was very surprising,” Martinook said Thursday. “It’s a weird time to be traded and I was in shock for about the first five minutes. Then it kind of sunk in.

"We have a home here in Phoenix and it will be hard to leave, but looking at the future it’s also exciting. Carolina has a young team, an up-and-coming team. As sad as I am to leave, I’m three times more excited.”

It was the first trade for Martinook, always something of a jolt for a player. Drafted in the second round by the Coyotes in 2012, the left wing made his NHL debut with Arizona in the 2014-15 season and has played the past three full seasons for the Coyotes.

Martinook set career highs in goals (11) and points (25) in 2016-17, then finished this past season with six goals and nine assists in 81 games. Listed at 6-0 and 203 pounds, he was second among Coyotes forwards in hits (128) and shorthanded time on ice (1:50 per game) in 2017-18, averaging 14:01 of ice time per game.

Asked to describe his style of play, Martinook said he was a “hard-working guy who takes pride in penalty killing. That’s been a big part of my game the past there years, working hard on the P.K. I may not be the fastest guy on the ice but I try to be the most hard-working.”

The Canes obtained Kruger from last year in trade with the Vegas Golden Knights. Ron Francis, then the general manager, believed he was bringing in a center who was effective on the penalty kill and strong on faceoffs, a player who had twice won Stanley Cups with the Chicago Blackhawks and helped Sweden win the 2017 World Championship.

But Kruger, who had a $3.08 million salary-cap hit, gave the Canes little production in his 48 games with the Hurricanes and was reassigned in early February to the Charlotte Checkers, the Canes’ AHL affiliate.

Martinook has one year left on a contract with a $1.85 million salary. The Canes said they will retain 10 percent of Kruger’s salary, which is $2.3 million in 2018-19.

Martinook will be joining a Carolina team that does not have a general manager or head coach, but said he was not overly concerned. There usually was some uncertainty with the Coyotes in the offseasons, he said.

“Obviously they’ll probably get something worked out before the (NHL) Draft,” he said of the Canes.

Martinook said he was living in Edmonton in 2006, when the Oilers and Hurricanes played for the Stanley Cup. He said he recalled Canes fans “going crazy” during the Stanley Cup Final games and hopes to be able to recreate that kind of excitement again in Raleigh.

Martinook said he still remembers Game 1 of the final, when Oilers goalie Dwayne Roloson injured a knee and was lost for the series.

“If Rolo doesn’t get hurt …” he said.

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Hurricanes trade Kruger, acquire Martinook

Carolina's roster makeover got an early start with a rare May trade

May 3, 2018 Cory Lavalette Article, NHL, Sports

RALEIGH — Not having a general manager hasn’t kept the Carolina Hurricanes from reshaping their front office — or making trades.

In a rare deal made during the Stanley Cup Playoffs, the Hurricanes traded center Marcus Kruger to Arizona in exchange for forward Jordan Martinook. The teams also swapped draft picks, with the Coyotes getting Carolina’s third-rounder in June’s draft and sending their fourth back to the Hurricanes. Carolina also retained 10 percent of the final year of Kruger’s salary for the 2018-19 season.

“Jordan is a physical player who kills penalties,” Don Waddell, the Hurricanes president and acting general manager, said in a press release. “This gives us some options with our forward group as we head toward the next season.”

Martinook, a native of Brandon, Manitoba, had six goals and nine assists in 81 games with the Coyotes last season, his third full NHL season. It marked a regression from his first two years with the Coyotes, when he registered 24 and 25 points.

Martinook, however, could bring an element to the lineup new Hurricanes owner Tom Dundon said was lacking following end-of-season meetings with the team’s players — he ranked second on the Coyotes in hits (128) while also being the team’s most used penalty-killing forward (1:50 TOI/game).

“Either the players have to be tougher or you’ve got to bring in tougher players,” Dundon said. “I’m easy. I’ll take either one as long we get that same result.”

Martinook, 25, will be in the final year of a two-year contract and will earn $1.8 million. He will be an unrestricted free agent following the 2018-19 season. He was a second-round pick (58th overall) by the Coyotes in the 2012 NHL Draft.

Adding Martinook could mean Joakim Nordstrom will not be back next season. The restricted free agent played mostly on the left wing of Carolina’s fourth line this past season — where Martinook will likely slot in — but struggled to produce points, finishing with two goals and five assists this season after registering 12 points the year before.

Kruger, 27, was assigned to the AHL’s Charlotte Checkers on Feb. 9 after clearing waivers. He had four goals and four assists in 19 games with the Checkers, but missed the team’s first-round three-game sweep of Wilkes-Barre Scranton with an injury. Kruger had one goal and five assists in 48 games with the Hurricanes.

Canes send Kruger to Arizona in exchange for Martinook

Posted 4:04 p.m. yesterday Updated 4:26 p.m. yesterday

By Derek Medlin, WRAL sports director

Raleigh, N.C. — The Carolina Hurricanes are still searching for a general manager and head coach, but the team has a new left winger after a trade with Arizona.

The Hurricanes announced Thursday afternoon that they'll send center Marcus Kruger and a third-round pick in the 2018 NHL Draft to the Arizona Coyotes in exchange for left wing Jordan Martinook and a fourth-round pick in this year's

draft. The Hurricanes will continue paying 10 percent of Kruger's salary in the deal.

The Hurricanes pick second overall in this year's draft, which is June 22 at American Airlines Center in Dallas.

Acting Hurricanes general manager Don Waddell said Martinook is a "physical player who kills penalties."

"This gives us some options with our forward group as we head toward the next season," Waddell said in a statement.

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The 25-year-old Martinook is a four-year NHL veteran who tallied 15 points (six goals, nine assists) in 81 games for the Coyotes in 2017-18.

He ranked second among Arizona forwards in hits with 128 and averaged 14:01 of ice time per game.

Arizona picked Martinook 58th overall in the 2012 NHL Draft.

Five Canes Set for World Championship

Preliminary round consists of seven games for each team, runs May 4-15

by Michael Smith @MSmithCanes / CarolinaHurricanes.com

May 3rd, 2018

Five Carolina Hurricanes players will represent their respective countries in the 2018 IIHF World Championship, which takes place in Denmark from Friday, May 4 through Sunday, May 20.

Derek Ryan and Scott Darling will don the stars and stripes for Team USA, Sebastian Aho and Teuvo Teravainen are teaming up for the Finns and top prospect Martin Necas will compete with the Czech national team.

Derek Ryan and Scott Darling: United States

Ryan is making his debut in the World Championship, having made one other appearance in international play with Team USA. The 2017-18 season marked Ryan's third in the NHL and was punctuated by career highs across the board in goals (15), assists (23) and points (38).

Darling is not only making his World Championship debut but also his first appearance in international play for Team USA. The Newport News, Virginia, native posted a 13-21-7 record, a 3.18 goals-against average and a .888 save percentage in his first season with the Hurricanes in 2017-18.

Sebastian Aho and Teuvo Teravainen: Finland

Aho followed up an impressive rookie season with an even more stellar sophomore campaign in 2017-18. The 20-year-old forward set career highs in goals (29), assists (36) and points (65), and ranked first on the team in goals, points and power-play goals (8). This will mark the third consecutive appearance in the World Championship for Aho, who was named one of Finland's alternate captains for the tournament. In the 2017 tournament, Aho led the Finns and ranked in the top 10 of all tournament skaters with 11 points in 10 games. Aho's international resume also includes appearances in the 2015 and 2016 World Junior Championships and the 2016 World Cup of Hockey.

Teravainen is making his debut in the World Championship, but he's no stranger to international play, having competed with the Finnish national team in numerous competitions,

including the 2013 and 2014 World Junior Championships and the 2016 World Cup of Hockey. Like Aho, Teravainen had a banner season with the Hurricanes in 2017-18. The 23-year-old forward established career highs in goals (23), assists (41) and points (64), ranking first on the team in assists and second on the team in goals. He also paced team forwards with a plus-8 rating.

Martin Necas: Czech Republic

Fresh off capturing a championship with HC Kometa Brno in the Czech Extraliga, Necas joins the Czech national team for his first appearance in the World Championship. Necas made his NHL debut with the Hurricanes on Oct. 17 in Edmonton before heading back to the Czech Republic, where he totaled nine goals and eight assists (17 points) in 24 regular-season games with Brno. He then ranked third on the team in playoff goals (4) and points (9), as Brno won its second consecutive league title. Necas' previous international experience includes the 2017 and 2018 World Junior Championships, in the latter of which he ranked first among tournament skaters in assists (8) and tied for first in points (11) in seven games.

Preliminary Round Schedule

The 16 tournament teams are split into two groups for the preliminary round, which consists of seven games for each team played within their respective groups. Group A features the Czech Republic, while Team USA and Team Finland are among the squads in Group B. The top four teams in each group will advance beyond round-robin play to the quarterfinals, slated for May 17. The semifinals on May 19 will then delineate the medal game match-ups for May 20.

NHL Network is the exclusive U.S. rightsholder for the 2018 IIHF World Championship and will televise live all Team USA games in the tournament. Of the 64 total games in the tournament, NHL Network will broadcast 40 games (34 live), including the semifinals and bronze and gold medal games. NHL Network will set the table for the tournament with "NHL Tonight: 2018 IIHF Ice Hockey World Championship Preview Show" on Thursday, May 3 at 8 p.m. ET.

A Canes-centric preliminary round schedule, which will be regularly updated with game results, can be found below. Click here for more information on the 2018 IIHF World Championship.

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2018 IIHF World Championship Preliminary Round

DATE MATCH-UP RESULT/TIME TV

May 4 USA vs. Canada 10:15 a.m. NHL Network

May 5 Finland vs. Korea 10:15 a.m.

May 5 Czech Republic vs. Slovakia

2:15 p.m.

May 5 Denmark vs. USA 2:15 p.m. NHL Network

May 6 Sweden vs. Czech Republic

10:15 a.m. NHL Network

May 6 Latvia vs. Finland 2:15 p.m.

May 7 USA vs. Germany 10:15 a.m. NHL Network

May 8 Czech Republic vs. Switzerland

2:15 p.m. NHL Network

May 8 Finland vs. Norway 2:15 p.m.

May 9 Finland vs. Denmark 2:15 p.m. NHL Network

DATE MATCH-UP RESULT/TIME TV

May 10

USA vs. Latvia 10:15 a.m. NHL Network

May 10

Czech Republic vs. Russia

2:15 p.m.

May 11

Belarus vs. Czech Republic

2:15 p.m.

May 11

USA vs. Korea 2:15 p.m. NHL Network

May 12

Canada vs. Finland 2:15 p.m. NHL Network

May 13

France vs. Czech Republic

10:15 a.m.

May 13

Norway vs. USA 10:15 a.m. NHL Network

May 13

Germany vs. Finland 2:15 p.m.

May 14

Czech Republic vs. Austria

2:15 p.m.

May 15

Finland vs. USA 6:15 a.m. NHL Network

Martinook Brings Strong Work Ethic, Physical Edge to Canes

Canes address needs with early-offseason trade

by Michael Smith @MSmithCanes / CarolinaHurricanes.com

May 3rd, 2018

It's not often you see a trade between two teams while the Stanley Cup Playoffs are ongoing.

That's why, when Jordan Martinook heard that he had been dealt to the Carolina Hurricanes on Thursday afternoon, he was caught a little off guard.

"It kind of came out of nowhere," he said in a Thursday evening phone conversation. "As it's sunk in the last couple of hours, I'm really excited for a fresh start and a new opportunity."

The Hurricanes acquired Martinook and a fourth-round pick in the 2018 NHL Draft from the Arizona Coyotes in exchange for Marcus Kruger (with Carolina retaining 10 percent of his salary) and a third-round pick in this summer's draft. The move adds depth and grit to the Hurricanes' forward group.

"I'm a work ethic-type guy. I come to work every day and try to push the pace in practice. I bring everything I can in the game," he said. "I want to come in and push people as much as I can."

Martinook tallied 11 goals and added 14 assists (25 points) in a career season in 2016-17. The 25-year-old's offensive production dipped in 2017-18 - six goals and nine assists in 81 games - but his game isn't necessarily about that.

"I'm not going to be the flashiest player. … I'm not going to be dipsy-doodling. I'm going to be hard-nosed in the corners trying to win every battle and lead by example that way," he said. "If I'm getting out-worked, I'm having a bad game."

A 6-foot, 204-pound winger, Martinook thrives getting in on the forecheck and retrieving pucks in the corners. He's a reliable penalty killer and ranked second amongst team forwards in 2017-18 with an average of 1:50 of shorthanded time-on-ice per game. And, he recorded his first career NHL fight on March 10, 2018, when Nathan MacKinnon challenged Martinook after he laid out Mikko Rantanen with a heavy and clean open-ice check.

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"That was a good one," he said. "I feel like I'm a bigger body. Getting in on the forecheck is probably one of my biggest assets. Getting in, getting physical in the corners and trying to get pucks back, that's kind of been my role in the three years I've been playing. That's definitely something I pride myself on."

Martinook has three NHL seasons under his belt, only having faced his new squad six times in that stretch. He was impressed with what he saw, especially in the Canes' 6-5 victory over the Coyotes in Raleigh.

"I couldn't believe they weren't a playoff team with how fast they played," he said.

Though he's joining a new team for the first time in his NHL career - Martinook has been a member of the Coyotes organization since being drafted by them in the second round of 2012 - he's not stepping into a room full of entirely unfamiliar faces. He was teammates with Brock McGinn's brother, Jamie, in the 2016-17 season, and the two became "very good friends."

"Just through guys who I've played with, they've said nothing but good things about Staal. I know other guys who have played with Justin Williams and say he's an awesome guy. From a player's standpoint, I've heard nothing but good things," he said. "You look at Aho, Teravainen … the core up front, and Faulk and Hanifin on the back-end, it's definitely a very good core. I'm looking forward trying to help in any way I can."

How exactly Martinook fits in with the Hurricanes will be sorted out by a yet-to-be-named head coach come training camp in September, but his acquisition is an immediate upgrade to the team's depth and physicality.

"Wherever they want to play me, that's what I'll do," he said. "I'll do whatever it takes to help the team win and get back to the playoffs."

Will Dudley Do Right With the Hurricanes?

By Mark Shiver May 3rd, 2018

“One thing I’ve realized quickly is that if Don is speaking, he is speaking for Tom. They communicate. When I talk to Don, I know he’s already talked to Tom about whatever it is. If I talk to Tom he’s already talked to Don, so I know they communicated before they ever talked to me.”

Meet Rick Dudley

Those were the words of Rick Dudley, the new senior vice president of hockey operations for the Carolina Hurricanes, spoken during a conference call with the media Tuesday afternoon. He has been reunited with his friend of 30+ years, Don Waddell, president of the Hurricanes’ parent company Gale Force Sports and Entertainment. Waddell is also working as the team’s interim general manager. Dudley was describing the relationship that exists between Tom Dundon, owner, CEO and Governor of the Hurricanes and Waddell.

In the Hurricanes’ press release announcing Dudley’s hiring, Dundon had this to say about the hiring: “Rick brings a wealth of knowledge and experience to our management group. He has been a part of building championship teams on every level of professional hockey, and will play an important role in helping us build a winner in Raleigh.”

To illustrate Dundon’s point, the release from the team also noted that “Dudley, 69, has more than 45 years of experience in professional hockey, including 25 years as a senior executive in the National Hockey League. Prior to joining the Hurricanes, the Toronto native served as senior vice president of hockey operations for the Montreal

Canadiens. He’s also held senior executive roles with the Toronto Maple Leafs, Atlanta Thrashers, Chicago Blackhawks, Florida Panthers, Tampa Bay Lightning and Ottawa Senators.”

Will Dudley Do Right?

Dudley fielded a variety of questions during his conference call with the media Tuesday afternoon. A fair number of questions were from Canadian media inquiring about his relationship with the Canadiens and how that factored into his departure. Joey Allen of NBC Sports wrote on Tuesday, “Last month, owner Geoff Molson and Bergevin promised that there would be changes coming during this offseason, so no one was really safe.” Whether Dudley pulled a Peters and got out before he was asked to leave is anybody’s guess.

Dudley recounted thinking of the Hurricanes as the “team I work for” while watching last Saturday night’s draft lottery, Dudley said the deal for him to come to the Hurricanes “just happened in the last few days.” He also said he has talked with Dundon several times and feels comfortable with the organization.

However, Dudley said he does not yet know what his specific duties will be for the team. Dudley said,

I haven’t sat with Don and gone over what he needs from me. I expect he’ll make me work hard and there will be lots of responsibilities. I’m going to be one of the people that oversee the hockey operations department. I’m one of I don’t know how many at this point in time.

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Dudley said that he likes what he sees on the Hurricanes’ roster, which is full of young players that are very talented. “There’s a lot of work that needs to be done to get to the next level, but there are a lot of pieces to work with.”

Getting those young, talented players to finish games has been an issue over the past season in particular. Dudley said he did not know if not finishing was due to physical conditioning or nerves in the case of the Hurricanes. Dudley said:

I didn’t look at the Carolina Hurricanes and think they were not a very well-conditioned team. I don’t know why they didn’t finish games. There are a number of reasons that it happens. One is nerves and one is conditioning.

Dudley said that there is a group of people in Carolina that can be very successful in the league and that he hopes to be a part of that success.

Dudley “Thrashed”

One of the least notable things about Dudley’s reunion with Waddell has been making the rounds on social media:

It may be too early to panic based on negative tweets, but it would be wise for Hurricanes fans to hope that they are not

subject to a repeat performance of their time with the Thrashers, now the Winnipeg Jets. Waddell was the general manager from 1999 to 2010, and Dudley from 2010 to 2011. Spencer Perry wrote in the Bleacher Report, on May 23, 2011, that poor drafting was one reason that the Thrashers’ fans were not to blame for the demise of the franchise. Perry wrote:

The finger here is pointed at GM Don Waddell and his scouting staff. The Thrashers missed out on some amazing talent that came through the NHL Draft in the 2000s, and now management is left to stare at the mess of a roster they’ve compiled over the past eleven seasons.

The Hurricanes have made some very good draft picks in the past four years. Hurricanes fans hope that will not change, especially with the number two overall pick in the team’s possession. Waddell is acting general manager at the moment, and there are no indications (yet) that there will be a GM hired before the NHL Draft rolls around on June 22. In that regard, it might be a good thing to have a veteran hockey guy like Dudley, whom Waddell has had a long-term relationship with, coming alongside to help. With a lifetime of hockey experience under his belt, Dudley is very likely to do right with the Hurricanes.

Hurricanes Trade Marcus Kruger to Coyotes for Jordan Martinook

Kruger, who started the year as Carolina’s fourth-line center, has been dealt to the Coyotes.

By Brett Finger@brettfinger May 3, 2018, 4:21pm EDT

The Carolina Hurricanes have traded fourth-line center turned AHL playoff scratch Marcus Kruger to the Arizona Coyotes in exchange for forward Jordan Martinook. The clubs also swapped mid-round draft picks in the deal, as the Canes will send a 2018 third-round pick to the desert in exchange for a 2018 fourth-round pick.

As a part of the deal, Carolina will retain 10% of Kruger’s salary in the 2018-19 season.

The Canes traded a fifth-round pick in the 2018 NHL Draft to the Vegas Golden Knights in exchange for Kruger last summer.

Kruger played in 48 games for the Hurricanes this past season, netting just one goal and adding five assists for a total of six points. He centered the fourth line and saw second-unit penalty kill time.

Martinook, 25, saw his point total take a dive this past season, only amassing 15 points in 81 games, but he tallied 49 points over two seasons in 2015-16 and 2016-17 with the ‘Yotes while also driving play well. He should fit in well in the bottom-six for the team next season.

Canes interim general manager Don Waddell released the following statement about Martinook:

“Jordan is a physical player who kills penalties,” said Don Waddell, president and acting general manager of the Hurricanes. ”This gives us some options with our forward group as we head toward the next season.”

The official news release from the Hurricanes is as follows:

RALEIGH, NC - The Carolina Hurricanes today announced that the team has acquired left wing Jordan Martinook and Arizona’s fourth-round selection in the 2018 NHL Draft in exchange for center Marcus Kruger and Carolina’s third-round pick in the 2018 Draft. The Hurricanes also retain 10 percent of Kruger’s salary in the deal.

”Jordan is a physical player who kills penalties,” said Don Waddell, president and acting general manager of the Hurricanes. ”This gives us some options with our forward group as we head toward the next season.”

Martinook, 25, completed his fourth NHL season in 2017-18, totaling six goals and nine assists (15 points) in 81 games played. The Brandon, MB, native ranked second among Coyotes forwards in hits (128) and shorthanded time on ice (1:50 per game), averaging 14:01 of ice time per games. Originally selected by Arizona in the second round, 58th overall, at the 2012 NHL Draft, Martinook established career

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highs in goals (11) and points (25) in 2017-18, and has totaled 65 points (26g, 39a) in 247 career NHL games.

Coyotes acquire Kruger in deal with Hurricanes for Martinook

RALEIGH, N.C. (AP) — The Carolina Hurricanes have acquired left wing Jordan Martinook from the Arizona Coyotes in exchange for center Marcus Kruger.

Under terms of the deal announced Thursday, the teams also swapped later-round draft picks and the Hurricanes will retain 10 percent of Kruger’s salary, or about $300,000 of the roughly $3 million Kruger is set to make in 2018-19.

The 25-year-old Martinook had six goals and nine assists in 81 games during his fourth NHL season.

Kruger had one goal and five assists in his only season with the Hurricanes, who acquired him last summer from Vegas in exchange for a draft pick.

Hurricanes trade Kruger to Coyotes for Martinook

Staff Report

16 hrs ago

The Carolina Hurricanes have traded forward Marcus Kruger and 2018 third-round draft pick to the Arizona Coyotes for forward Jordan Martinook and a fourth-round pick, the team announced Thursday.

Kruger scored one goal and six points in 48 games for the Canes last season before being assigned to the Charlotte

Checkers. Martinook posted six goals and 15 points in 81 games for Arizona.

“Jordan is a physical player who kills penalties,” Hurricanes interim general manager Don Waddell said in the team’s official release. “This gives us some options with our forward group as we head toward the next season.”

The Hurricanes will retain 10 percent of Kruger’s salary for the 2018-19 season.

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Checkers And Phantoms Bring Offensive Firepower To Second-Round Matchup

Written by Nicholas Niedzielski

Published: May 03, 2018

No team in the AHL could match the Checkers’ offensive output this season. Their next playoff opponent, however, came close. The Lehigh Valley Phantoms averaged 3.42 goals per game during the regular season, just a shade under Charlotte’s league-leading 3.45 mark, setting up a clash of the two most prolific attacks in the AHL. “Lehigh has a lot of high-end skill,” said Roland McKeown. “They’re an offensive threat. We led the league in goals but they’re right up there with us so it’s going to be a fun series.” The Checkers’ first-round opponent – the Wilkes-Barre/Scranton Penguins – had no shortage of offensive firepower, but even so they pale in comparison to what the Phantoms can bring. “They’re pretty comparable in terms of being older teams with more experience,” said head coach Mike Vellucci. “I think Lehigh has more offense than Wilkes-Barre had, we were one and two in scoring in the league. They’re way more explosive.” The Atlantic Division rivals went toe-to-toe eight times during the regular season, and while the two sides split the series down the middle, it gives the Checkers plenty of tape and a strong sense of how the Phantoms play heading into Round Two. “We’ve seen them a lot so we’re familiar with them,” said Vellucci. “There’s not going to be too many surprises. We have to be on the right side of the puck and above them all over the ice. The key is they like to blow the zone and they want to stretch it out as much as possible. So we have to be aware of who’s behind us and make sure we stay above them.” “They play really quick,” said Andrew Miller. “They have some good scorers and some offensive defensemen. They play fast and transition the puck well. They’re a tough team to play against.” The Phantoms’ offense was buoyed during the regular season by a group of high-end scorers, led most notably by this year’s AHL MVP Phil Varone. The veteran forward combined with Greg Carey – one of just six 30-goal scorers leaguewide – and second-round pick Nicolas Aube-Kubel to

give Lehigh Valley a strong offensive punch up top that could rival Charlotte’s lethal top line. “As defensemen we have to make sure that we’re shutting their top lines down and that’s what this series will come down to,” said McKeown. “The top lines are going to be huge in this series. I’m confident in ours and it’s our defensemen’s job to shut theirs down.” It’s not just the Phantoms’ forwards who are dangerous scoring options. Two-time AHL Defenseman of the Year T.J. Brennan is renowned for his scoring prowess from the blue line and has become a focal point for the Checkers’ game plan. “He’s probably going to have the puck quite a bit so you have to keep an eye on him,” said Vellucci. “He’s always up the ice, he’s very smart, he’s good on faceoff plays in the zone. We have to take our chances to hit him when we can. If he’s got the puck we’ve got to finish our hits and wear him down so it makes it harder as the series goes on.” “He runs their power play and he’s always a threat to shoot from the top,” said McKeown. “On the PK you’re always thinking of that but you have to be aware of the flanks too. Brennan’s been in this league for a long time and he has a lot of experience so we have to be aware of him jumping in the rush.” While slowing down the Phantoms’ offensive attack will be a key task for the Checkers, they have plenty of firepower to throw back at their opponent, as evidenced in their first-round sweep of the Penguins. Charlotte finished the first round as the second-best offense in the Calder Cup playoffs, averaging nearly five goals a game. While that’s hardly a surprise given the Checkers’ scoring success in the regular season, the coaching staff harped on the increased difficulty and stylistic difference of scoring in the postseason. After three games it seems like the team listened. “We’ve talked about it all year, it just seems like we paid a little more attention to it in the playoffs,” said Vellucci. “Those are the kind of goals that are going to win games. The overtime winner was a deflection through a screen, then the winner the next night was on a screen from the point. You’ve got to get in front of him and you have to make it hard. You’re not always going to score the pretty goals, especially in the playoffs. If you watch the NHL playoffs right now, it’s all net-front plays and deflections and rebounds.”

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A commitment to that style will continue to be paramount to the Checkers’ success as the playoffs roll on. “Playoff hockey is tough and stingy,” said Miller. “You don’t get a lot of odd-man rushes so you have to bring pucks to the net often and make sure you get traffic and get on those rebounds.” Facing off against the number one seed Phantoms, the Checkers will start these offensively charged division finals on the road. It’s a reversal from their last series where they were able to jump ahead early thanks to Games 1 and 2 being at home, but that isn’t fazing Charlotte. “It’s a challenge,” said Vellucci. “They’re going to have a big crowd and they’re going to be into it. But we’ve been pretty good on the road this year and we’re playing for a lot so it’s

not like we’re not going to be up for it. We’re going to be ready to go. We know that we’re going to have to win one in their building.” “I think the key is just playing hard and playing your game,” said Miller. “Home ice advantage is always nice but it doesn’t mean you can’t play well and match their energy. It’s the second round of the playoffs so we should come out flying.” With a week of rest between the first two rounds, the Checkers are heading back to Pennsylvania on a mission. “We’ve got to go into that building prepared to win,” said McKeown. “That’s our mindset going into it.”

Hurricanes Trade Marcus Kruger To Coyotes

Written by Nicholas Niedzielski

Published: May 03, 2018

The Hurricanes today traded Marcus Kruger and a third-round pick in this year’s draft to the Arizona Coyotes in exchange for left wing Jordan Martinook and a fourth-round pick. Kruger spent the latter part of this season in the AHL, logging eight points (4g, 4a) in 19 games with the Checkers. The

veteran forward missed the final game of the regular season and was ruled out of the playoffs due to injury, however. The 25-year-old Martinook has spent the last three full seasons with the Coyotes, with his most recent AHL experience coming in 2014-15. In three seasons with the Portland Pirates, the Manitoba native recorded 92 points (38g, 54a) in 182 AHL games. Martinook is not eligible to join the Checkers in the Calder Cup playoffs.

Kruger traded to Coyotes by Hurricanes for Martinook

Arizona, Carolina also exchange 2018 draft picks

NHL.com @NHL

May 3rd, 2018

Marcus Kruger was traded to the Arizona Coyotes by the Carolina Hurricanes on Thursday, along with a third-round pick in the 2018 NHL Draft, for Jordan Martinook and a fourth-round pick in 2018.

"It's nothing I really expected, but ... I was really excited when I found out I was going to Arizona," Kruger said. "I started to think about guys I had played with in the past and a team with a really bright future."

Kruger, a 27-year-old forward, had six points (one goal, five assists) in 48 games for the Hurricanes this season. Carolina acquired him in a trade with the Vegas Golden Knights on July 4, two days after he was traded to Vegas by the Chicago Blackhawks.

"I tried to go in there with a good mindset and tried to earn the respect and a role there," Kruger said. "It just wasn't a good fit. I could have done a lot of stuff different, playing a lot better, but that's how it is, and I'm going to work hard this offseason and I'm really excited to get a chance here to play. I think this is a really good situation."

Kruger played seven seasons with the Blackhawks, who selected him in the fifth round (No. 149) of the 2009 NHL Draft, and was a member of Chicago's Stanley Cup-winning

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teams in 2013 and 2015. He has 111 points (34 goals, 77 assists) in 446 NHL games.

"Marcus is a player that we've looked at in the past," Arizona general manager John Chayka said. "We've got some young wingers. We think that having stability up the middle is going to be very important for our group. He's a guy that does provide stability. He's known as a high-character guy, both hard-working on the ice but also hard-working off the ice and very detailed with his regimen. He does a lot of things that we want to bring to our locker room for our young players to learn from. He's a guy that has made a living and won Cups being that stabilizer up the middle, being able to play up against some tough competition."

Kruger had abdominal surgery two weeks ago with a recovery time of six weeks, Chayka said.

"We feel that impacted his play," Chayka said. "We're not making this trade believing that we're acquiring the Marcus Kruger of the Carolina Hurricanes. For whatever reason, it wasn't a fit; it didn't work out for him there. He never got the traction in his role that allowed him to have success. … We think [the surgery] will get the jump back in his game that makes him an effective player."

Kruger said, "I'm still pretty fresh out of surgery but I feel good. We've got a long way to go until training camp, so that shouldn't be bugging me more."

Martinook, a 25-year-old forward, had 15 points (six goals, nine assists) in 81 games with the Coyotes this season. He has 65 points (26 goals, 39 assists) in 247 NHL games during four seasons with Arizona, which selected him in the second round (No. 58) of the 2012 NHL Draft.

"I didn't even know a trade could happen this time of year," Martinook said. "When I got that call, it was very shocking, but I've had an hour or two hours to let it sink in. Carolina is kind of a similar situation to Arizona with a lot of young talent up and coming, so I'm excited to join that and put my stamp on it."

Martinook, who was second to Brad Richardson in shorthanded ice time per game among Coyotes forwards (2:05-1:50), played wearing a cast for a torn ligament in his left thumb.

"I didn't have as good an offensive year as I would have wanted," he said. "I was dealing with a pretty significant injury the second half of the season and that hampered my game a little. ... It was definitely harder to create some offense. I could have got surgery but I chose to play and that was my decision. They said it's healed enough that they're confident it should be good for training camp. Coming in healthy, hopefully I'll have a good start."

TODAY’S LINKS

http://www.newsobserver.com/sports/article210398964.html

http://www.newsobserver.com/sports/nhl/carolina-hurricanes/article210419149.html

http://nsjonline.com/article/2018/05/hurricanes-trade-kruger-acquire-martinook/

https://www.wralsportsfan.com/canes-send-kruger-to-arizona-in-exchange-for-martinook/17528984/ https://www.nhl.com/hurricanes/news/five-canes-set-for-2018-iihf-world-championship/c-298425062

https://www.nhl.com/hurricanes/news/martinook-brings-strong-work-ethic-physical-edge-to-canes/c-298438022

https://thehockeywriters.com/rick-dudley-carolina-hurricanes/

https://www.canescountry.com/2018/5/3/17316614/news-carolina-hurricanes-trade-marcus-kruger-to-arizona-coyotes-for-jordan-martinook-nhl-

rumors

https://apnews.com/208272268bfd4b75ad8c3c82713b4352/Coyotes-acquire-Kruger-in-deal-with-Hurricanes-for-Martinook

http://www.technicianonline.com/sports/article_f2af4298-4f0d-11e8-a78b-9f4b4f14cf70.html http://gocheckers.com/articles/features/checkers-and-phantoms-bring-offensive-firepower-to-second-round-matchup

http://gocheckers.com/articles/transactions/hurricanes-trade-marcus-kruger-to-coyotes

https://www.nhl.com/news/arizona-trades-marcus-kruger-to-carolina-for-jordan-martinook/c-298431282

CAROLINA HURRICANES


1094863 Carolina Hurricanes

Martinook surprised, excited about trade to Hurricanes

BY CHIP ALEXANDER

Jordan Martinook said he was coming back from the bank Thursday in Phoenix when he got a phone call he did not expect.

Not in early May, with the Stanley Cup playoffs in full swing.

Martinook, 25, learned he had been traded to the Carolina Hurricanes in a forward-for-forward hockey deal that also included draft picks and some retained salary by the Hurricanes. The Canes sent Marcus Kruger

and a third-round pick in the 2018 NHL Draft to the Arizona Coyotes for Martinook and a fourth-round pick.

“It was very surprising,” Martinook said Thursday. “It’s a weird time to be traded and I was in shock for about the first five minutes. Then it kind of

sunk in.

"We have a home here in Phoenix and it will be hard to leave, but looking at the future it’s also exciting. Carolina has a young team, an up-and-coming team. As sad as I am to leave, I’m three times more excited.”

It was the first trade for Martinook, always something of a jolt for a player. Drafted in the second round by the Coyotes in 2012, the left wing made his NHL debut with Arizona in the 2014-15 season and has played the past three full seasons for the Coyotes.

Martinook set career highs in goals (11) and points (25) in 2016-17, then finished this past season with six goals and nine assists in 81 games. Listed at 6-0 and 2034 pounds, he was second among Coyotes forwards in hits (128) and shorthanded time on ice (1:50 per game) in 2017-18, averaging 14:01 of ice time per game.

Asked to describe his style of play, Martinook said he was a “hard-

working guy who takes pride in penalty killing. That’s been a big part of my game the past there years, working hard on the P.K. I may not be the

fastest guy on the ice but I try to be the most hard-working.”

The Canes obtained Kruger from last year in trade with the Vegas

Golden Knights. Ron Francis, then the general manager, believed he was bringing in a center who was effective on the penalty kill and strong

on faceoffs, a player who had twice won Stanley Cups with the Chicago Blackhawks and helped Sweden win the 2017 World Championship.

But Kruger, who had a $3.08 million salary-cap hit, gave the Canes little production in his 48 games with the Hurricanes and was reassigned in early February to the Charlotte Checkers, the Canes’ AHL affiliate.

Martinook has one year left on a contract with a $1.85 million salary. The Canes said they will retain 10 percent of Kruger’s salary, which is $2.3 million in 2018-19.

Martinook will be joining a Carolina team that does not have a general manager or head coach, but said he was not overly concerned. There

usually was some uncertainty with the Coyotes in the offseasons, he said.

“Obviously they’ll probably get something worked out before the (NHL) Draft,” he said of the Canes.

Martinook said he was living in Edmonton in 2006, when the Oilers and Hurricanes played for the Stanley Cup. He said he recalled Canes fans “going crazy” during the Stanley Cup Final games and hopes to be able to recreate that kind of excitement again in Raleigh.

Martinook said he still remembers Game 1 of the final, when Oilers goalie Dwayne Roloson injured a knee and was lost for the series.

“If Rolo doesn’t get hurt …” he said.

News Observer LOADED: 05.04.2018

1094864 Carolina Hurricanes

Hurricanes trade for Arizona's Martinook, exchange draft picks

BY CHIP ALEXANDER

The Carolina Hurricanes acquired left wing Jordan Martinook and Arizona’s fourth-round selection in the 2018 NHL Draft in exchange for center Marcus Kruger and the the Canes' third-round pick in the draft, the team announced Thursday.

Martinook, 25, completed his fourth NHL season in 2017-18 and had six goals and nine assists in 81 games. He was selected by Arizona in the

second round of the 2012 NHL Draft. Martinook has t65 points in 247 career NHL games.

News Observer LOADED: 05.04.2018

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The Athletic / Penguins dig deep, display defensive gem in Game 4

victory

By Josh Yohe

2h ago 3

The Penguins have spent much of this season winning games via their incomparable talent and ability to create offense. They’ve won because

of star power and style.

With goals suddenly hard to come by in the second round of the Stanley Cup playoffs, the Penguins located their championship substance. A defensive gem — along with some more Jake Guentzel magic — propelled the Penguins to a 3-1 victory in Game 4 against the Capitals at PPG Paints Arena Thursday.

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Game 5 will be played Saturday night in Washington while the series will return to Pittsburgh for Game 6 on Monday.

The Penguins held the Capitals to 21 shots and held Alex Ovechkin to zero shots. Ovechkin, in fact, only managed two shot attempts all game.

While protecting a 2-1 lead, the Penguins allowed only three shots during the third period.

Evgeni Malkin, who scored the game-winning goal in the second period, said the defensive effort was responsible for the victory.

“The third period, we understand, it’s a huge game for us,” Malkin said.

“We can’t lose. It (would be) 3-1 (the series). It’s so hard. The third period, I think we played smart. We had a couple of chances, 2-on-1. But defensively, we focused on the (defensive) zone. We tried to block the

shots. (Hornqvist and Guentzel), they blocked huge shots. We played like Game 7 tonight for sure. Unbelievable, like everyone.”

The Capitals had the puck almost exclusively in the third period, especially during the first five minutes of the period. Yet, the Penguins

defended to near perfection in their own territory, keeping Washington on the perimeter with regularity. On the rare occasion the Capitals found

themselves with a reasonable look in the third period, their shot was blocked.

Malkin correctly recalled that Hornqvist and Guentzel each recorded a painful but crucial blocked shot in the third period.

“Our forwards did a great job of blocking shots tonight, especially in the middle of the ice,” Brian Dumoulin said. “We tried to clog the middle as much as we could. They’re so dangerous off the rush. Our forwards did a great job of backtracking and picking up sticks and bodies. That led to us having a good third period.”

Capitals goaltender Braden Holtby went as far as saying the Penguins

played a variation of the trap, which is very much against the franchise’s philosophy. There’s no question, though, that the Penguins executed a

more conservative game plan after getting burned by a number of odd-man rushes in Game 3.

“That’s just the way they play in this rink I think,” Holtby said. “They try and frustrate you with that. Flip pucks and everything. I think we’ve done

a better job of learning how to play against that. You can see the games are closer and closer in this rink. Through the years, a lot of teams have trouble with that style because it is frustrating at times when it seems like there is no flow.”

Everything about this game had a different feel than the first three contests of the series. The Penguins were more careful with the puck and more selective regarding when their defenseman pinched.

It worked. The Penguins created some offense from their good defensive work, something Mike Sullivan always wants, and doesn’t always receive, from this group.

“I think it was more playing well defensively, waiting for (their) mistakes,” said Kris Letang, who was excellent all game. “When you’re down by a

goal, you’re trying stuff. We got a couple of two on ones, some good chances.”

Speaking of defense, the story of the night was how the Penguins silenced Ovechkin. He’s been dominant in these playoffs and had scored

in each of the first three games against the Penguins.

Ovechkin didn’t get a whiff of a goal on Thursday. Or a shot.

“Every time you can take away Ovi’s time and space, it’s important to do that,” Dumoulin said. “We did a good job. I didn’t know he didn’t have a shot but you just try to play him as tight as you can.”

Barry Trotz didn’t seem terribly concerned by the Penguins’ defensive game plan against Ovechkin.

“I don’t know if they did anything differently (defending),” he said. “Trust me, (Ovechkin) will get his shots.”

He didn’t on Thursday.

A willingness to block shots was all the talk in the Penguins’ locker room and was a big piece of the defensive puzzle against the Capitals and specifically Ovechkin.

“That was a huge difference in the game I think, a lot of blocked shots,” Matt Murray said. “A couple come to mind. (Tom Kuhnhackl) had a real good one in the second. Just sacrificing their bodies and blocking shots, that’s huge.”

While the Penguins were excellent defending in their own territory all night, they also opted to dump pucks deep on a regular basis instead of

attempting dangerous passes.

“We knew we had to tighten up,” Dumoulin said. “We were giving up too

many odd-man rushes, especially two on ones. We were better about that and ‘Murr’ was there to made the saves when he had to.”

The Penguins were essentially a pitcher without his best stuff. Offensively speaking, the Penguins are in a funk right now. They only

have 10 goals through four games in this series and, for them, that’s quite a shortage.

But their defense, which has been lacking all season, arrived in the nick of time.

“We went through a stretch of that third period where it was close to 10 minutes, I think, we didn’t have a whistle,” Sullivan said. “With the pace of the game, the physicality of the game, we tried to keep all four lines in it. We rolled four lines. To a man, I thought we defended hard. We made pretty good decisions with the puck. We stayed above the attack. When we had opportunities, the opportunities we did get were off of our own defense. It was a solid third period. It’s important in a tight game like that. There wasn’t a lot of ice at either end of the rink.”

Ten postgame observations

• I’ll get to Guentzel in a moment because what he’s doing is historic. But

first, let’s appreciate how Crosby played. His game is absolutely in full flight. First, the numbers: Crosby has 19 points in 10 games this

postseason and is eighth in NHL history, now averaging 1.16 points per playoff game in his career. Speaking of numbers, the Penguins have

scored 10 goals in this series, and Crosby has been on the ice for all 10. Perhaps that doesn’t speak well of the Penguins’ scoring depth, but it does speak highly of Crosby’s brilliance. He’s doing little things right now that everyone probably takes for granted. On two occasions, he snagged the puck out of midair, immediately placed the puck on his blade and ignited a rush. It might seem like a small thing, but it’s an undeniable illustration of his ability to do everything a little better than everyone else. He made a couple of passes in this game, including one to Guentzel in the third period, that were simply sublime. He drew a penalty in the first period. His defensive work was flawless in this game. What else can be

said about him? He’s the best player in the world and he’s playing like it. Guentzel might have more goals and points, and Ovechkin has been

absolutely marvelous, but there isn’t a better player in this series and there hasn’t been a better player in these playoffs. For his standards, he had a pretty ordinary regular season. There is nothing ordinary about what he’s doing right now.

• But yeah, Guentzel. I guess we need to talk about him. So, here’s a statistic that might get your attention. This is a list of the NHL’s all-time goals per game leaders in Stanley Cup playoff history:

So, how’s that for good company? Guentzel has played in 35 postseason games and has scored 23 goals. As Sullivan noted following the game, Guentzel almost always does his best offensive work while standing near the cage. He’s one of the Penguins smallest players — as professional

athletes go, he’s as frail as it gets — yet he’s willing to take a beating and score in the trenches. This is always one of Crosby’s greatest strengths,

which perhaps indicates why they play so well together. Guentzel surely won’t maintain this kind of production as 10 goals in 10 playoff games is absurd. His game, however, clearly thrives in the playoff climate. What he is doing is a pretty spectacular thing and, while his game didn’t click in

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the regular season, he has completely found himself while Crosby has his left wing for the present and future.

• Dumoulin is some kind of a defenseman. He’s never played better and he’s a better shot away from being an all-star caliber player. As The Athletic’s Jesse Marshall noted following the game, Dumoulin’s work against the Capitals in Game 4 was especially noteworthy. He saw 17:52 at even strength and while he was on the ice in said situations, the Penguins generated 23 shot attempts and only absorbed nine shot attempts. Also, while he was on the ice in even-strength situations, the Penguins produced 12 quality scoring chances and only permitted two.

This is a player who is continuing to improve and I can’t imagine where the Penguins would be without him. He was nearly flawless against the

Capitals in Games 3 and 4, which I also think says something about his character and competitiveness. Dumoulin is as laid back as they come,

but surely he was angered by Tom Wilson’s unpenalized hit in Game 2. He’s managed to harness his emotion yet has played with a particular fire

the past two games. Dumoulin is simply a superior defender at the moment.

• A number of reporters, including ESPN’s Greg Wyshynski, overheard Nick Backstrom screaming something derogatory about the NHL while storming into the Washington locker room. Capitals officials are claiming that Backstrom didn’t say anything about the league. The drama in this series is great, isn’t it? Now, let’s not look too much into Backstrom having an outburst about the league, as I can only imagine what all players say in the moments after a loss. I’m sure it’s infuriating any time you lose a playoff game. I get it. The Capitals, though, are historically so fragile in the postseason, one wonders if this was a view of their psyche

following this loss. And if it was, that could spell serious trouble for the Capitals. They didn’t play very well in Game 4. They generated only 21 shots. Sure, Wilson was out of the lineup, but he isn’t Gordie Howe. Sure, there were a couple of calls that didn’t go the Capitals way in Game 4, but nothing egregious.

• I wanted to single out Jamie Oleksiak. He was excellent in this game. Oleksiak has perhaps been a little less effective during the past month or so, though I wouldn’t say he’s played poorly. He threw out a team-high

six hits and was a menacing presence throughout the evening. Whenever the puck went into Oleksiak’s corner, he made sure the

Capitals weren’t coming away with it. His angles were superb all evening. This was a very strong performance from both Oleksiak and Chad

Ruhwedel, as the third pairing gave the Penguins excellent minutes. Oleksiak has played with a nasty edge during the past two games and

he’s controlled his emotions well. Just a real fine performance.

• Something is very clearly wrong with Phil Kessel. It’s been evident for a

while now, but this performance was especially gruesome. He was charged with three turnovers, and that’s a kind number compared to how many times he fumbled the puck to the Capitals. He managed only one shot on goal and has six shots in his last six games. That’s just not Kessel. I don’t know what the injury is but there’s no question that he’s dealing with something that is affecting him. This isn’t really the time of year where a player can sit out. Of note, Kessel continues to practice on a somewhat regular basis, so whatever the injury is apparently isn’t being made worse by practice. But I have no doubt that something is wrong with him. This isn’t the dominant Kessel from the past two postseasons. Not even close.

• Derick Brassard played only 10:50 while Riley Sheahan played 16:26. Sheahan play 3:11 more even strength time than Brassard. This continues to be a very interesting development. Neither player is producing much offensively, but Sheahan has been the more impressive of the two in numerous ways, especially in the defensive zone. Moving forward, I still believe the Penguins are going to require some offense out

of Brassard. Clearly, though, Sullivan isn’t delighted with his performance. The Penguins paid a big price for him and they aren’t

receiving enough at the moment.

• This was the most sensible performance of the postseason from the

Penguins. They permitted a couple of odd-man rushes early in the contest but, for the most part, exhibited a prudence that hasn’t always

been evident. In fact, it’s rarely been evident. The Penguins essentially sat back, put defense first, went conservative and made the most of their offensive chances. It’s not how they normally played but it makes sense. They are so gifted offensively and their power play is so good, they’re almost always going to score some goals, even if they are playing a stay-at-home style. They don’t like this brand of hockey. It’s not in their DNA. But it might be necessary for them to win this series and they did it quite well on this night.

• Malkin looked a little off in the first period but grew stronger as the game elapsed. Give him credit for that effort on the game-winning goal.

After hitting the post like he did, a number of players would have froze or given up on the play. One of the attributes that makes Malkin so special

is his hyper-competitiveness. Yes, it sometimes results in him taking bad penalties or committing turnovers. But it was of great service on the

power play goal, when his lunging shot just did cross the goal line. Malkin isn’t operating at 100 percent effectiveness, but he was a force at times.

If that’s a sign of things to come, the Capitals should be concerned.

• Carl Hagelin was a welcome addition into the lineup. His speed was a

factor all game, which is no surprise. Hagelin always plays well against the Capitals and was a presence throughout the evening. He recorded two shots on goal, was sound defensively and immediately looked comfortable with Malkin, who has become his regular center. Hagelin, face shield and all, threw a body check during his first shift of the game. It’s the playoffs, so sacrifices must be made. Hagelin, obviously playing hurt, was a willing combatant and even blocked two shots. The Penguins showed a lot of substance in Game 4, and Hagelin was a significant contributor.

The Athletic LOADED: 05.04.2018

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The Athletic / Surgery reveals extent of Zach Werenski’s shoulder injury

By Aaron Portzline 8h ago 6

Blue Jackets defenseman Zach Werenski had multiple MRIs on his injured left shoulder since injuring it early in the season. He’d been seen by at least two specialists since the Jackets’ season ended late last month in the first round of the playoffs.

But it wasn’t until he had surgery Thursday that the full extent of the injury was revealed.

“(Werenski) was playing through an injury, we knew that,” Blue Jackets

GM Jarmo Kekalainen told The Athletic on Thursday. “There’s no question it was bothering him a lot.

“And the evidence was there, yeah, when they opened him up that this guy would have been in some pain.”

Neither Kekalainen nor Werenski’s agent, Pat Brisson, would describe what was discovered in surgery, which was performed by Dr. Larry Watson, one of the club’s doctors.

The Blue Jackets announced after Werenski’s morning procedure that his recovery will take five to six months, meaning it’s unclear whether he’ll be 100 percent by the start of next season.

There are at least two other Blue Jackets players, Kekalainen said, who could be facing surgeries in the coming weeks. He declined to name

them.

“Right now they’re resting and seeing and examining and hoping we

don’t have to take that course of action,” Kekalainen said.

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Many NHL defensemen would love to have a season like Werenski had in 2017-18. He had a career-high 16 goals, totaled 37 points, 16 penalty minutes and a plus-8 rating.

Perhaps most impressive, Werenski played 77 games — often against the other teams’ top lines — even though he clearly was limited in certain areas of his game. He wore a brace on the shoulder under his pads.

Defensively, the limited strength cost him in puck battles along the wall, and the discomfort caused him to curl away from some puck battles in which he normally would have engaged.

Offensively, the injury seemed to take the starch out of his shot,

especially the quick-snap wrister and slap shots he’d spent the previous summer trying to improve. In the 65 games after the injury, he still

managed 34 slap shots and 32 snap shots, but only three found the back of the net.

“I’d like to think every night I go out there I’m 100 percent,” Werenski said late last month. “The truth is I wasn’t. I had to accept that as a hockey

player and a competitor.”

The discomfort became bad enough in late December that Werenski sat

out four games to rest.

But Kekalainen said Werenski and the club were assured he wasn’t making the injury worse by continuing to play.

“We’re never going to risk the long-term health of an athlete to keep them in the lineup,” Kekalainen said. “It’s the doctors who make those calls. We take that very seriously.”

Notebook

• The Blue Jackets will have 11 players in the IIHF World Championships, beginning Friday in Denmark: Cam Atkinson and Sonny Milano (USA), Pierre-Luc Dubois and Ryan Murray (Canada), Elvis

Merzlikins and Matiss Kivlenieks (Latvia), Markus Nutivaara (Finland), Dean Kukan (Switzerland), Vladislav Gavrikov (Russia), Alexandre

Texier (France) and, representing the home country, Oliver Bjorkstrand (Denmark). Blue Jackets assistant GM Bill Zito is serving as the USA’s

general manager.


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The Athletic / How do you ask for someone’s brain? One concussion

researcher provides an inside look

By Katie Strang May 3, 2018 9

It is not your typical ice-breaker, nor is it your standard dinner-party topic of conversation.

Hell, it may completely dismantle any sense of decorum in social situations. And yet, Chris Nowinski, co-founder and CEO of the Concussion Legacy Foundation, asks the question anyway:

“Can I have your brain?”

OK, so in all likelihood, the request probably comes out with a bit more

finesse and fine-tuning from the Harvard-educated former college football player who went on to become a professional wrestler with WWE.

A professional wrestler must always have a gimmick, and Nowinski feels pretty comfortable with his — he wants to advance research into and understanding of concussions and Chronic Traumatic Encephalopathy

(CTE), and he has no issues getting straight to the point. CTE is a degenerative brain disease associated with those who have experienced repetitive brain trauma. The CLF’s aim is to not only diagnose CTE, but also to identify certain risk factors and to provide targets for treatment.

That’s why when he approached former NHL All-Star Eric Daze at a fundraiser in Chicago last week, he wasted little time making the ask.

“He went straight for it,” Daze said of Nowinski asking the former Chicago Blackhawks forward if he’d pledge his brain to the Foundation. “I never thought about it. I said, ‘Yeah, for sure. No problem.’”

Daze was already aware of Nowinski’s work through the HBO Real

Sports 2007 special that highlighted the foundation’s initiatives. The 42-year-old, who still resides in Chicago, is already an organ donor, so the

thought of parting ways with his brain posthumously wasn’t something that made him too squeamish.

As a youth hockey coach who now leads his 10-year-old son’s squirts team, Daze has become aware of the evolving research into concussions

and has become passionate about advancing education and exercising the utmost caution when it comes to the children he coaches.

Plus, he thought of the donation as a unique opportunity for him to contribute a different type of case study. Daze’s career was cut short by back injuries, but he wasn’t the prototypical tough guy or pugilist from whom more evidence and research has frequently been sought. He had two concussions — one during the All-Star Game in 2002 following a hit from Sergei Gonchar; the other while he was playing junior hockey. Both times, he remembers being dizzy and not quite right, but he is not struggling with lingering effects like others in his era.

“It took 30 seconds before I said ‘sure.’ I had no problem giving my brain to research,” Daze said. “I’m probably one of the atypical [players to

donate]. I never really fought, and I had a couple of concussions, one serious, one in junior. I thought it was kind of a new perspective.”

Nowinski understands that this part of the job — asking for people’s brains — probably seems odd, or quirky or harrowing. In reality, it often

encompasses all three. When Nowinski first began his work, motivated in large part by his own career-ending battle with post-concussion

symptoms, he cajoled those with whom he was closest, assuaging them with his passion for the cause. Now, as Nowinski’s mission has gained more momentum and recognition, his job is slightly easier. Often times people now contact him about making the pledge, rather than the other way around.

“It’s a lot of fun because people give me faith in humanity,” Nowinski told The Athletic in a phone conversation this week.

He’s constantly heartened by a complete stranger’s willingness to help others and to advance the research in what is becoming a hot-button issue facing so many professional sporting leagues.

That’s not to say it has always been easy. In the early iterations of the Foundation, which began in partnership with neurosurgeon Dr. Robert

Cantu in 2007 and was previously named the Sports Legacy Institute, Nowinski was often the one tasked with calling grieving families of

deceased former players. Those were the most difficult calls, but often the ones that gave him the sort of affirmation that this work was so

important.Those conversations imprinted on him the lasting effects of concussions, not just on one’s physical health, but on their overall well-being, and that of their families and loved ones as well.

These were the sort of calls Nowinski, who also has a Ph.D. in Behavioral Neuroscience, made to the families of former pro football players Justin Strzelczyk, Andre Watters and former pro wrestler Chris Benoit.

“I tried to put myself in the family’s shoes,” Nowinski said. “It’s terrible, but a lot of people want something good to come out of tragedy and feels it’s good to give back to science. And families want to know if there is an explanation as to why their loved one changed.”

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Len Boogaard was faced with this decision following the death of his son Derek in May 2011. Len had read Bob Probert’s biography the year prior and had noticed similarities between Probert and his son, both considered among the most fearsome enforcers in their respective primes. When Len read that Derek had told the media upon learning of Probert’s death in March 2011 — “live by the sword, die by the sword” — he began to worry Derek was in fact suffering from CTE. When Derek died two months later, from an accidental overdose of alcohol and prescription painkillers, Len reached out to Derek’s agents, Ron Salcer and Tobin Wright and broached the idea of donating his brain. Seven

months later, it was revealed that Boogaard, who racked up 589 penalty minutes in six NHL seasons, had the advanced stages of CTE at the time

of his death.

“I immediately without hesitation agreed to it and the family concurred,”

Len told The Athletic in an email Thursday evening.

On average, the Foundation has received approximately 50 brain

donations per year, though 108 were donated in 2017 and the Foundation is already on track to hit the 200-mark in 2018, Nowinski

said. In total, the organization has received more than 3,350. Most notably in recent news, race car driver Dale Earnhardt Jr., Olympic gold medal-winning Canadian hockey player Hayley Wickenheiser and Hockey Hall of Fame player Angela Ruggiero of the U.S. have all pledged their brains to research to the CLF.

Because of the abundance of support the Foundation has received, Nowinski can now focus the majority of his efforts on procuring pledges from people who are still alive and healthy. Nowinski said he tries to avoid asking for pledges from those who are struggling; he said he never wants anyone to feel he or she is more valuable to him as a scientific specimen than as a living, breathing human being.

That’s not to say all athletes are tripping over themselves to donate. Nowinski said it’s an unpalatable choice to some, and he understands.

“Some people are uncomfortable with people poking around in there after

they pass away,” Nowinski said.

Others choose to donate elsewhere. For instance, former NHLer Daniel

Carcillo, who is among the most vocal in advocating for awareness about traumatic brain injuries and treatment, told The Athletic he was asked by the Foundation and declined. On Wednesday, Carcillo announced via his official Twitter account he was donating his brain to The Carrick Institute, where he has received treatment on multiple occasions in the past.

And there are those who find the links between concussions and CTE dubious. Perhaps most notable is NHL commissioner Gary Bettman, who went on New York radio station WFAN last month and characterized a 2012 conversation he had with Nowinski and Dr. Ann McKee, Director of

Boston University’s CTE Center. Bettman claimed that he was informed by them that there were no scientific findings to link CTE and hockey.

Bettman was emphatically rebuked by the CLF, which issued a statement on behalf of Nowinski and McKee three days later, characterizing Bettman’s statements as “misleading” and instead stating that “the evidence clearly supports that CTE is associated with ice hockey play,” citing multiple examples of CTE in both former NHLers and amateur players that provided evidence “that normal ice hockey head impact exposure can be associated with CTE.

“I really struggle with the denial from the NHL,” Nowinski said. “I was very

surprised we had to go on record two weeks ago to correct Gary Bettman for publicly misstating a conversation we had to make it more favorable

to the NHL. I’m used to certain tricks, but that, that was just unacceptable.

“I’m used to people sort of trying to have a PR battle. But that one — it was just too far.”

The NHL is currently involved in a massive concussion lawsuit filed against the league by approximately 150 former NHL players who claim that the NHL failed to protect and warn players of the long-term risks of head injuries. Bettman has repeatedly refused to acknowledge a link

between concussions and CTE, even though a high-ranking executive with the NFL, which settled its own lawsuit with former players back in 2013, acknowledged as much before a Congressional roundtable discussion in 2016.

Currently, the plaintiffs in the concussion lawsuit are seeking certification to move forward as a class action suit. The judge hearing the case has yet to make a ruling. Cantu, Nowinski’s partner at the CLF, has been hired by the plaintiffs’ lawyers as an expert witness in the case; the NHL has filed a motion for Cantu’s testimony to be excluded.

Nowinski said he has not monitored the lawsuit beyond what he reads in

the news, but he knows on an anecdotal level that he is receiving more and more interest from former NHL players about donating their brains as

these questions are brought into the forefront of a very public battle.

On Thursday afternoon, it was revealed that former NHL player Jeff

Parker, who played college hockey at Michigan State University and went on to play for the Buffalo Sabres and Hartford Whalers, was diagnosed

after his death with CTE. Parker is the seventh former NHL player to be diagnosed with CTE, joining Reggie Fleming, Rick Martin, Bob Probert,

Derek Boogaard, Larry Zeidel and Steve Montador.

“There is certainly a problem in the NHL,” Nowinski said. “And it’s hard to know how deep the problem goes.”


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The Athletic / The Professor of Passing: Nicklas Backstrom is still a

sublime distributor — and still underappreciated

By Corey Masisak May 3, 2018 7

The Washington Capitals were trying to kill off a penalty Sunday, when it looked like Nicklas Backstrom was going to squeeze free for a quick shorthanded breakaway. The puck came to him right at the offensive blueline and there was no one between him and Pittsburgh Penguins

goaltender Matt Murray.

There were two Penguins defenders converging on him from both sides

and teammate Alex Chiasson was lurking behind him. Backstrom sensed the Penguins were closing on him, and he made a pass that few players

in the NHL would think of attempting, let alone actually try to pull off.

“I saw that guy to the right. He was trying to sweep the puck. I saw

[Chiasson] behind there, and obviously I saw the guy on the left, too. I don’t know. It just happened,” Backstrom said. “It’s hard to explain. It’s

instinct. I kind of knew I wasn’t going to beat him, so I just dropped it.”

As the Capitals prepare for Game 4 of this second-round series with the Penguins, they have a 2-1 lead in part because of another great pass from Backstrom, one that set up the game-winning goal Tuesday night in Game 3 with 67 seconds remaining in regulation.

Backstrom has been one of the best passers in the NHL since he joined the Capitals in 2007-08. He and Alex Ovechkin have grown up together in Washington and been one of the most potent duos in the league for a decade.

The smooth-skating, smooth-passing Swede might still be

underappreciated in some hockey circles, but that’s never been a problem in the Washington dressing room.

“I feel like Nick Backstrom is like a hockey schoolbook,” Capitals rookie forward Jakub Vrana said. “He’s like a teacher out there. He goes out

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there and can defend, he can play offense. He reads the game so good. Just to see him play from the bench, what stuff he’s doing, it’s nice to be part of it. Just to see how he plays. Especially when you play with him, the game he’s playing is very smart.”

The Capitals had to make some significant roster alterations after last season, saying goodbye to forwards Marcus Johansson, Justin Williams and Daniel Winnik, and defensemen Karl Alzner, Nate Schmidt and Kevin Shattenkirk. Coach Barry Trotz has had to reconfigure his lineup, and it has led to some new players spending time playing with Backstrom.

He’s spent less time playing with Ovechkin at even strength this season than any year in their careers together — save for the brief Adam Oates

era. What’s it like playing with one of the smartest and most creative passers in the league?

“Every time he has the puck, whether it is in the O-zone or the neutral zone or the D-zone, you’d better make sure you’re ready because it

could be coming,” Capitals rookie Chandler Stephenson said. “It doesn’t matter if there is one guy or three guys on him, it’s still probably coming.

“Just watching him in practice or in games is so much fun. It’s like a video game. The things that he can do, I didn’t think that some of them were possible.”

When Backstrom had the puck in Game 2, it might have seemed like no one else in the building knew he was going to pass to Chiasson. That’s not entirely true. One person had an inkling something special might be afoot: Chiasson.

His shot did not go in, so the Capitals did not score a highlight-reel goal for the ages. But Chiasson handled the pass and got a good shot off, in part because he was ready.

“How the play developed, the way he was skating forward, right when he got the puck he kind of took a look back,” Chiasson said. “If there is one

guy who can make that play, it would be him. To be honest, not that I was expecting him to pass it to me, but I was ready for it.”

Backstrom and Chiasson have spent a total of 26:51 together at even strength this season, Chiasson’s first with the Capitals. He’s learned,

both from his time with Washington and his previous employer, the Ottawa Senators, about how to play with guys who have the uber-elite passing gene.

“Throughout the year, you see different tendencies from teammates,” Chiasson said. “You get to see him on the power play and making plays. Just for me, sometimes with [T.J. Oshie], he’s been taking some of the morning skates off, and I’ve had the chance to go on that unit and practice with them. He’s [Backstrom] one of those guys, with that spot, you’ve just always got to be ready. His backhand and his forehand are just as good. He’s really deceptive in how he puts the puck and the angle

he puts it at. In my opinion, one of the best passers I’ve seen or played with.

“When I played in Ottawa, I played with [Erik] Karlsson, and he was the type of guy where if you weren’t ready for a puck, he’d get you. I think I

learned in those years that there are guys who, if they’re not looking at you, it doesn’t mean he won’t give it to you. [Backstrom] is the same type

of guy. I played against him for the past 4-5 years, and he’s one of the hardest guys to defend on the power play because he’s so deceptive.”

Stephenson remembers his first “oh, wow” moment when playing with Backstrom. It was earlier this season in a game against the Penguins. The Capitals were on the power play, and Backstrom was below the goal line.

Stephenson found a soft spot in the middle of the defense, but he wasn’t expecting the puck to end up on his stick. It did, and he snapped it in the net for his second career NHL goal.

Ovechkin has spent about half of this season on a line with Evgeny Kuznetsov and has been with him throughout the playoffs. In previous years, it became a running theme that Ovechkin and Backstrom would

play together for most of the regular season but would always end up on different lines when the coach wanted to shake it up in search of more offense.

They ended up back together for a brief moment near the end of the Game 4, and there was still magic in that pairing. Backstrom collected the puck after Penguins defenseman Olli Maatta tried to flick it into the middle of the Washington defensive zone.

Backstrom and Ovechkin took off on a 2-on-1, and the result was one of the biggest goals of the three-time Hart Trophy winner’s career.

After the game, Backstrom joked that because he had joined what was a

very long shift for the other nine skaters on the ice in progress, it helped make him look fast for a change. It was still a perfect example of

Backstrom’s ability to slow the game down with his incredible patience.

When Trotz arrived in Washington, he spent the first season stumping for

Backstrom as a Selke Trophy candidate. He repeatedly talked about how impressed he was with the center’s two-way play and praised him as one

of the top defensive forwards in the league.

“I got on a soapbox,” Trotz joked.

Backstrom has finished in the top 12 four times, but never higher than seventh in the Selke voting. He finished second in the Calder Trophy voting in 2008, ahead of 2006 draft classmate Jonathan Toews but behind Patrick Kane.

He’s been inside the top 10 of the Hart Trophy voting twice, but never higher than ninth. All of that despite being fifth in points in the NHL since he joined the Capitals — 799 of them in 815 games.

Backstrom is even higher among the assist leaders in that span. (Data courtesy of Hockey-Reference.com)

NHL award voters have largely ignored Backstrom, but his peers have

not. More than 500 NHL players took part in an NHLPA survey this season, and Backstrom was most frequently named the league’s most

underrated player.

Backstrom is 30 years old. He’s been incredibly durable, missing a total

of 53 games in 11 years, with 40 coming because of one concussion in 2011-12.

Players that are considered underrated eventually are not. Usually. It’s different for Backstrom, though.

“That’s a mystery to me,” Trotz said. “I think players who are in the fold that play against Nick have a really good appreciation for what he does, and they understand how good he is. He does it in such a quiet, unassuming manner, and so efficient, that he goes under the radar when you think of other players who get a lot of that attention and are great players.

“I think he’s one of those guys who quietly does his thing and doesn’t try to draw attention to himself and goes about his business. That’s what

Nick Backstrom is. Quiet, unassuming, very effective, highly competitive and highly skilled and a high hockey IQ. And that’s what makes him

effective.”


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The Athletic / Behind new Lightning dad Yanni Gourde’s ‘unreal’ 36-

hours

By Joe Smith May 3, 2018 11

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BOSTON — Emma Kate Gourde took her first breath at 4:42 p.m., Tuesday in a Tampa hospital.

Lightning forward Yanni Gourde was there in the delivery room, donning sky blue scrubs, to welcome his baby daughter into the world. Gourde, 26, cradled the top of Emma’s head with his left hand, using his right hand to comfort his wife, Marie. Gourde couldn’t stop smiling as they posed for their announcement photo.

“An amazing experience,” Gourde said. “Unreal.”

Gourde made sure his bride and baby were healthy and happy, before Marie turned to him.

“OK, get going now,” Marie said, recalled Gourde. “I know you have a big game to catch.”

The “big game” was Wednesday’s Game 3 of the Eastern Conference semifinal against the Bruins at TD Garden. Gourde snuck in a couple hours sleep at the hospital and a bit more on his two-hour JetBlue flight Wednesday morning.

He arrived around noon, greeting the team for its pregame meal. Teammates mobbed and hugged him like he had scored a game-winning goal. Gourde didn’t score on Wednesday night, but he had a key assist in the Lightning’s 4-1 win, helping them take a 2-1 lead in the best-of-seven series.

“Pretty remarkable,” coach Jon Cooper said.

How Gourde got here was fitting considering his bumpy, winding path to the NHL. The undrafted and undersized winger got demoted to the ECHL

five years ago, playing at the Cow Palace in San Francisco. Gourde criss-crossed the continent, with moves to Victoriaville, Worcester, Kalamazoo and Syracuse. The only constant? Marie, whom he started

dating in 2009.

“She’s been with me all along,” Gourde said. “I’ll forever be grateful. I wouldn’t be able to do it without her. She’s been amazing to me. She allows me to live my dream. At the same time, she put aside her dreams,

doing that for us and for our family.”

Our family.

The couple met in Quebec, where Gourde was playing juniors in

Victoriaville.

Though the playmaking forward racked up plenty of points — 87 in 68

games his final season there — Gourde didn’t get a sniff from NHL teams. He floundered in his first pro season (2012-13) with the Sharks’

AHL Worcester, before getting sent to the San Francisco Bulls (ECHL). They played in the Cow Palace, where players had to take 25 steps up to the ice from the dressing room. Gourde has recalled bringing a chair to rest in between.

“I was like, ‘Oh my God,’ he said. “It was an experience I kind of grew on and made me the player I am today.”

Gourde, light years away from the NHL, considered going to college and studying civil engineering. But Worcester coach Roy Sommer, who remembered Gourde from his junior days, brought him back to the AHL on a 25-game tryout. Sommer got the Energizer Bunny-like Gourde to slow down and play under control. Gourde exploded for 24 points (20

assists) in 25 games, with Sommer admiring the kid’s “stick-to-it-iveness.”

“Those guys do it the hard way,” Sommer said. “By the time you get them, they don’t want to go back.”

When Gourde didn’t show up after his 25th game, Sommer knew something was wrong. Lightning area scout Jamie Pushor had been pushing assistant GM Julien BriseBois to sign Gourde. And on March 9, 2014, the Lightning signed Gourde to an AHL contract.

In a way, Gourde was a perfect fit for the open-minded organization. Undrafted and undersized? Join the club. So was Tyler Johnson. Anthony Cirelli, who scored a goal Wednesday and is playing a key as a first-year pro, was passed over in two OHL Drafts. Ondrej Palat was a seventh rounder. Brayden Point, who might be the team’s best player most nights, is 170 pounds soaking wet.

All Gourde needed was a chance. He’s always said, every time he’s on the ice, he’s like, “I want to be here tomorrow.”

It took nearly two full pro seasons in Syracuse before Gourde finally got his first NHL shot.

On one mid-December morning in 2015, he was in bed in his Syracuse apartment when BriseBois called. The Lightning were without five injured

forwards, and Gourde would make his NHL debut in Toronto. Gourde smiled, not needing any words to break the news to Marie.

“I made her a sign, ‘I’m moving up,’” Gourde remembered. “A dream come true.”

That ended up being just a two-game cup of coffee in the NHL. Gourde’s ascension was really sparked late last season, when he tallied six goals

in 20 games at the end of the Lightning’s season. They were some big-time goals, too, including one winner against Chicago.

Gourde believed he belonged. And the Lightning signed him to a two-year, $2 million deal. Finally, Gourde and Marie had security.

Yet the couple stayed in a downtown Tampa hotel during September’s training camp. Gourde said he didn’t want to “sit” on his contract.

“I wanted to earn it,” he said.

Earn it, Gourde did, with a spectacular rookie season.

Gourde won’t win the Calder Trophy, but he put himself in the top-5

conversation by scoring a Lightning rookie record 25 goals (passing Johnson). For the 5-foot-9, 173-pound forward, Gourde scored most of his goals where the big boys rule. Eighteen of Gourde’s 25 goals came within 15 feet.

“That’s where goals are scored,” Gourde often says.

Cooper has called Gourde a “waterbug.” He’s relentless, he’s scrappy. He’s smart and responsible. Assistant Todd Richards said, if you’re kids want to be a hockey player, show them a video of Yanni Gourde.

Just be full-warned not every shift is rated PG.

After Gourde’s early-January fight against then-Red Wing Tomas Tatar,

Marie tweeted: “Well, now that explains the crazy baby kicks. Our baby gets her feistiness from her daddy.”

Gourde was named after the infamous Greek singer, Yanni, his parents having seen the unique name scrolling during the credits of a movie.

Gourde and Marie have long been set on Emma as a girl’s name for their first child.

Gourde said Marie went through a lengthy labor, but it was worth the wait. “It ended up perfect,” he said. The whirlwind 36-hours went relatively smooth, from the direct flight to the on-time arrival for lunch. He even got his (much-needed) pregame nap at the hotel. Adrenaline got him the rest of the way, a workmanlike 12 minutes of ice time. A few teammates and trainers called him “Daddy” as Gourde strolled to the postgame news conference. Tired?

“I got a few hours last night at the hospital, a few on the plane and a few pregame,” Gourde said. “But I’ll definitely be sleeping tonight.”


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Sportsnet.ca / Predators use structure, savvy to clog up Jets in Game 4

Mark Spector | @sportsnetspec May 4, 2018, 2:04 AM

WINNIPEG — This was a place the Winnipeg Jets had never been before, and at the same time a milepost they were preordained to reach

one day.

You can’t get to Flin Flon from here without passing through The Pas,

and you can’t get past Round 2 without solving the kind of game plan Nashville threw at Winnipeg in Game 4 Thursday night.

A Game 4 on which a series always turns, against an experienced, desperate opponent that knew it could not afford to lose. So it took the game plan and did a 180, taking run-and-gun and turning it into clog-and-dump.

Suddenly, the hockey was not so much fun to play, and the crowd grew quiet. The battles ramped up — along the boards, in the middle of the ice, for time and space — and now the young Jets weren’t cruising around at warp speed anymore.

Livestream every single game of the 2018 Stanley Cup Playoffs—blackout free—plus the Toronto Blue Jays, key Raptors & NBA Playoffs

matchups and the 100th Mastercard Memorial Cup, all in one subscription.

This was your bright-eyed 16-year-old taking the driver’s licence test for the first time, then sheepishly booking another appointment for two days

from now, because it was harder than they thought.

“They came with a game plan and they executed it,” veteran Jet Matt

Hendricks said of the Nashville Predators, 2-1 winners here in Game 4. “They really did a good job clogging up the neutral zone; we had a hard time playing our speed, fast game through the neutral zone. They took it away.

“When you don’t have that fluent play, that quick, rush attack that we find success with, the game gets a lot harder for us. Their goaltender played well, they defended well. … That’s just the way it goes in the playoffs.”

As much as we love the rise in scoring this spring, the National Hockey

League will always finds this place. Even in this glorious series, where a 3-0 lead in Game 3 was not safe and the shot attempts in Game 2

crested 185 between the two clubs. Eventually we get to a 2-1 hockey game where kids like Kyle Connor and Nikolaj Ehlers look lost, and vets

like Mattias Ekholm and Viktor Arvidsson are suddenly found.

A game where every level rises: The will required to win a board battle;

the smarts needed to make effective plays in ever-decreasing space; the need for support, because one’s time with the puck shrunk, and the

ability to find a teammate’s tape from a distance becomes nearly impossible.

“They were really committed to clogging things up and playing a greasy road game. That’s good on them,” said Jets captain Blake Wheeler, who doesn’t agree that his club saw something it had not seen before. “Game 3 in Minnesota, they brought it pretty hard. Game 2 in Nashville, they brought it pretty hard.

“As a whole we were just OK. They were OK. We got behind a goal and just couldn’t turn the switch tonight.”

You be the judge. If you’re reading this, you likely watched the game last

night.

In a game where the style of hockey changed completely from what we

had seen in Games 1-3, do we blame the Jets for simply having an off night? Or do we credit the Predators, in a game they simply could not

afford to lose, with making the Jets look as discombobulated as they were?

“I think the biggest thing is,” said P.K. Subban, who now has goals in three straight games, “we had full commitment through our lineup to play defence. In our zone when bounces didn’t go our way, we worked the puck out of the zone. We got in the neutral zone, we got pucks deep, we forechecked when we needed to and we paid attention to the details.

“I think last game, the details are kind of what cost us. This game, we paid attention to all of them for a full 60 (minutes).”

Whoever is to blame, the Jets lost an inordinate percentage of puck

battles in Game 4 — far too many to win a playoff game. Their defencemen chose to lug the puck rather than move it — perhaps

because the forwards were in that high-traffic neutral zone and couldn’t be found with a pass.

The puck support that needed to be better was in fact worse, which left the Jets puck carrier on an island, leading to turnovers and prayer

passes that were easily picked off.

The final score read 2-1. It lies.

We’ll end with Nashville coach Peter Laviolette, who lauded how the two teams played the same high-octane style, but quickly changed his game plan when he realized that symmetry didn’t work for his club.

The old coach gets the game puck in Game 4. That, and about US$8, will get him another one in Nashville Saturday night.

“I guess if you’ve been in enough series and if you coach enough playoff games,” Laviolette said, “you know that there’s nothing safe, there’s nothing given. A 1-0 lead means nothing. A 3-1 lead means nothing. Two-two doesn’t mean anything. You’ve got to live every day and play every game like it could be the swing game.

“And so we go back home, it’s a best-of-three now, and our guys will be ready to play. So will Winnipeg.”

We’re going seven, folks. As if there was ever any doubt.

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Sportsnet.ca / P.K. Subban more than just a showman; he's a playoff

producer

Luke Fox | @lukefoxjukebox May 4, 2018, 2:34 AM

WINNIPEG – As the crush of reporters crowds P.K. Subban’s stall like a screen even Pekka Rinne would have trouble spotting a puck through, a bilingual reporter asks the Norris Trophy finalist if he can have a seat beside him on the bench.

“Sure,” smiles Subban as he kicks off his skates. “You’re a good-enough-

smelling guy.”

Pointing to the defenceman’s blades, the reporter attempts some small

talk: “What size are those?”

“Nine-and-three-quarters,” Subban replies. He waits a beat for comic

effect, then shoots his questioner a playful side-eye: “Why? What are you trying to say?”

Just for laughs.

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P.K. Subban may be a winking charmer, a flashbulb magnet, Exhibit A in your think-piece for “We need more personality in hockey!”

But, oh boy, did the showman show up in Thursday’s crucial 2-1 Game 4 victory on enemy ice.

Which is more than we can say for a host of other star players in a Winnipeg-Nashville series which is all knotted at two and has that we’re-going-seven odour to it.

Kyle Turris has been a ghost. Young Kyle Connor and Nikolaj Ehlers look overwhelmed by the moment. Kevin Fiala just got scratched for Scott Hartnell.

All Subban did was blast the game-winning goal — his third consecutive game with a goal, each punctuated by the type of celebration they make

posters out of — while firing a game-high four shots on net, throwing a team-high three hits (including an absolute crusher on Brandon Tanev),

and leading the vaunted Predators D core in 5-on-5 Corsi percentage at 60.5.

Nashville just snapped Winnipeg’s home winning streak at 13. Fun fact: the last team to beat Winnipeg at home was Nashville, too, back on Feb.

27.

If Subban deserves a portion of the blame for committing a high-sticking penalty that resulted in Blake Wheeler’s power-play winner late in Game 3, or for taking another late minor that resulted in Patrik Laine ending his goal drought and busting Rinne’s shutout bid late in Game 4, he also has earned praise for being engaged and engaging all series.

“You’re right. We’re constantly talking about the penalties, it seems like. We can do without the one at the end. And he knows that,” coach Peter Laviolette conceded.

“Short of that, he had a monster game tonight. He was a beast out there.”

If Disney has taught us anything, it’s that angry mobs pick on the beast.

So, for the second night in a row, the 15,000 all dressed in white lustily booed or chanted “Sub-ban Sucks!” every time No. 76 had the puck on his blade.

It’s a faulty strategy. Subban’s 58 playoff points are third-most among all D-men since his rookie season (2009-10). He already has five points this series, thanks in large part to that heavy point shot.

“He’s got a bomb, and he lets it go with time and space,” says Hartnell. “He’s really accurate with it, too.”

Subban feeds off your hate, Winnipeg.

And then regurgitates it in the form of slapshots Connor Hellebuyck can’t

handle (or can’t see because gamer Viktor Arvidsson is bravely jumping up and down in front of his crease).

“What boos?” says Subban, who has given away more money to charity than most of us will ever make. “You know what? I’ll take it as a

compliment and continue to play.”

Subban began this series by sprinkling some of the bold statements we crave from our rivalries.

After Game 1’s loss: “That’s probably the best I’ve felt after being minus-3 in a game.”

On the refereeing in Game 3’s loss: “I’m not going to comment on the officiating, but I’m standing at the faceoff, I get a shot in the back of the head five times or a shot in the shoulder and I’ve just got my stick on the ice. You know, I wonder if I do that, what happens? If I give [Mark] Scheifele a couple shots like that, I don’t know.”

Nothing approaching Listerine levels, but in what’s now a best-of-three, the results are fast becoming more important the hype.

“I don’t care who gets or how we get it,” Subban said of his game-winner. “We just have to get it. I wish the first one was the game-winner. I have to find ways to stay out of the box.

“These past two games, whether they’re penalties or not, I’ve got to stay out of the box. It’s going to cost us big time.”

So, after this monster game, where Subban cost the Jets big time, he turned the spotlight elsewhere.

To Hartnell, who brought a physical edge previously absent from the Turris line: “After I don’t play my best or have a tough game, he always comes to me and tells me I have to be better and gotta lead by example.

“I respect him so much as a player but as a person as well.”

To Laviolette, who shrewdly scattered land mines through the neutral zone, adjusting to the Jets’ speed game: “I love playing for Lavy. If you can believe it, he’s got more energy than me. I love that. It’s just fun to play for a guy like that. He motivates you every day. It seems we have a foundation of what we need to win, but he always finds that extra edge

and making really good coaching decisions.”

Now, in this heart-pumping chess match, it’s Paul Maurice’s move. The Jets must find a way to cool down Subban.

“And now,” Subban said, “we got home ice back.”


1094992 Websites

Sportsnet.ca / P.K. Subban more than just a showman; he's a playoff producer

Luke Fox | @lukefoxjukebox May 4, 2018, 2:34 AM

WINNIPEG – As the crush of reporters crowds P.K. Subban’s stall like a screen even Pekka Rinne would have trouble spotting a puck through, a

bilingual reporter asks the Norris Trophy finalist if he can have a seat beside him on the bench.

“Sure,” smiles Subban as he kicks off his skates. “You’re a good-enough-smelling guy.”

Pointing to the defenceman’s blades, the reporter attempts some small talk: “What size are those?”

“Nine-and-three-quarters,” Subban replies. He waits a beat for comic effect, then shoots his questioner a playful side-eye: “Why? What are you trying to say?”

Just for laughs.

P.K. Subban may be a winking charmer, a flashbulb magnet, Exhibit A in your think-piece for “We need more personality in hockey!”

But, oh boy, did the showman show up in Thursday’s crucial 2-1 Game 4 victory on enemy ice.

Which is more than we can say for a host of other star players in a Winnipeg-Nashville series which is all knotted at two and has that we’re-

going-seven odour to it.

Kyle Turris has been a ghost. Young Kyle Connor and Nikolaj Ehlers look

overwhelmed by the moment. Kevin Fiala just got scratched for Scott Hartnell.

CAROLINA HURRICANES


All Subban did was blast the game-winning goal — his third consecutive game with a goal, each punctuated by the type of celebration they make posters out of — while firing a game-high four shots on net, throwing a team-high three hits (including an absolute crusher on Brandon Tanev), and leading the vaunted Predators D core in 5-on-5 Corsi percentage at 60.5.

Nashville just snapped Winnipeg’s home winning streak at 13. Fun fact: the last team to beat Winnipeg at home was Nashville, too, back on Feb. 27.

If Subban deserves a portion of the blame for committing a high-sticking

penalty that resulted in Blake Wheeler’s power-play winner late in Game 3, or for taking another late minor that resulted in Patrik Laine ending his

goal drought and busting Rinne’s shutout bid late in Game 4, he also has earned praise for being engaged and engaging all series.

“You’re right. We’re constantly talking about the penalties, it seems like. We can do without the one at the end. And he knows that,” coach Peter

Laviolette conceded.

“Short of that, he had a monster game tonight. He was a beast out there.”

If Disney has taught us anything, it’s that angry mobs pick on the beast.

So, for the second night in a row, the 15,000 all dressed in white lustily booed or chanted “Sub-ban Sucks!” every time No. 76 had the puck on his blade.

It’s a faulty strategy. Subban’s 58 playoff points are third-most among all D-men since his rookie season (2009-10). He already has five points this series, thanks in large part to that heavy point shot.

“He’s got a bomb, and he lets it go with time and space,” says Hartnell. “He’s really accurate with it, too.”

Subban feeds off your hate, Winnipeg.

And then regurgitates it in the form of slapshots Connor Hellebuyck can’t handle (or can’t see because gamer Viktor Arvidsson is bravely jumping up and down in front of his crease).

“What boos?” says Subban, who has given away more money to charity than most of us will ever make. “You know what? I’ll take it as a compliment and continue to play.”

Subban began this series by sprinkling some of the bold statements we

crave from our rivalries.

After Game 1’s loss: “That’s probably the best I’ve felt after being minus-

3 in a game.”

On the refereeing in Game 3’s loss: “I’m not going to comment on the

officiating, but I’m standing at the faceoff, I get a shot in the back of the head five times or a shot in the shoulder and I’ve just got my stick on the

ice. You know, I wonder if I do that, what happens? If I give [Mark] Scheifele a couple shots like that, I don’t know.”

Nothing approaching Listerine levels, but in what’s now a best-of-three, the results are fast becoming more important the hype.

“I don’t care who gets or how we get it,” Subban said of his game-winner. “We just have to get it. I wish the first one was the game-winner. I have to find ways to stay out of the box.

“These past two games, whether they’re penalties or not, I’ve got to stay out of the box. It’s going to cost us big time.”

So, after this monster game, where Subban cost the Jets big time, he turned the spotlight elsewhere.

To Hartnell, who brought a physical edge previously absent from the

Turris line: “After I don’t play my best or have a tough game, he always comes to me and tells me I have to be better and gotta lead by example.

“I respect him so much as a player but as a person as well.”

To Laviolette, who shrewdly scattered land mines through the neutral zone, adjusting to the Jets’ speed game: “I love playing for Lavy. If you can believe it, he’s got more energy than me. I love that. It’s just fun to play for a guy like that. He motivates you every day. It seems we have a foundation of what we need to win, but he always finds that extra edge and making really good coaching decisions.”

Now, in this heart-pumping chess match, it’s Paul Maurice’s move. The Jets must find a way to cool down Subban.

“And now,” Subban said, “we got home ice back.”


1094993 Websites

Sportsnet.ca / Penguins battle through gritty Game 4 to pull level with Capitals

Kristina Rutherford | @KrRutherford May 4, 2018, 12:27 AM

PITTSBURGH — Evgeni Malkin smiles and calls it “garbage.” He says it “was not a pretty goal.” He shakes his head, just thinking about that

game winner, sitting here in his stall with a Penguins ball cap covering his sweaty, dark hair.

And, well, you can’t blame the two-time Art Ross Trophy champ if his standards are a tad high.

Malkin also has a point, because his fourth goal of these playoffs—the one that led to the win that knotted the Penguins’ second-round series

against Washington at two games apiece on Thursday night, in front of a boisterous crowd dressed in yellow ‘Let’s go Pens!’ t-shirts—was absolutely huge, but it wasn’t your usual Malkin finish.

The 31-year-old wired his initial shot off the post, then threw himself into the net and used seemingly all his body parts to get that puck across the line. Somehow, at some point, it did go in, though Malkin doesn’t know how or when.

Garbage, sure, “but it’s good,” Malkin admits, smiling. “It’s 2-2 and we’re

going to Washington.”

Yes, with a 3-1 win on Thursday at PPG Paints Arena, the two-time

defending Stanley Cup champions have tied this thing up and earned themselves a best-of-three against the Capitals to decide this Eastern

Conference semi-final. It’s a whole new ball game.

It was a gritty win, too. Jake Guentzel nearly ate a goal post after potting

his first of two on the night, Matt Murray was exceptional between the pipes, and Kris Letang traded punches with T.J. Oshie—who laid a big hit

on him earlier—at the end of the game.

Alex Ovechkin? He didn’t manage a single shot, a day after his usual linemate Tom Wilson got a three-game suspension for a high hit the league deemed directed at a head. Crosby didn’t get a shot either, though the captain did register a pair of assists.

And who got the Penguins on the board? Well, who else: The leading scorer in the playoffs. Guentzel, the 23-year-old from Omaha, Neb., with the wispy blonde playoff whisker beard, who also potted the empty-netter.

It brings his playoffs scoring streak to eight games, and his points total to

21, including 10 goals.

After this game, Guentzel, wearing a Penguins grey hooded sweatshirt,

sits at a podium for interviews—the kid warrants that much attention,

CAROLINA HURRICANES


after all, that a scrum in the dressing room would’ve been out of hand. He shakes his head when asked whether he’s been on a streak like this one, ever.

“I don’t think so,” Guentzel says. “I mean, just kind of feel like the bounces are going in right now, you’re just getting lucky on some plays in front of the net. Puck’s finding me. You just got to try and be around it and hopefully they keep coming.”

They really do keep coming. Guentzel is the first player to register 20 points or more in 10 playoff games since Mark Messier (in nine) in 1988, per Sportsnet’s stats department.

And Guentzel’s first of the evening, mid-way through the second after a scoreless first, is right in line with how the playoffs are going for him:

Dominik Simon’s shot hit a Capitals shin pad and the puck landed right on Guentzel’s stick, right on the doorstep. He put it through Braden

Holtby’s legs and then had a delayed celebration on account of having to pick himself up from the side of the net following a healthy cross check

delivered by defenceman Dmitry Orlov.

Guentzel didn’t seem too bothered. He stood up and raised his arms,

said “Good goal,” and grinned while his teammates hugged him

A little over three minutes later, the Capitals tied things up when Oshie wired a one-timer from the slot, glove side—the only shot to beat Murray, who was exceptional following a game he called “shaky” two nights earlier.

But Malkin got that lead back near the end of the second, striking on the power play with a goal that was celebrated about three times—first on the initial reaction from his shot that rung off the post (it looked like it went in), then on the review deeming it was good, and on a second review from Washington (a question of interference from Patric

Hornqvist) that came back with the same result.

The play began when Phil Kessel fired one through traffic, before

Hornqvist kicked out the rebound to Malkin in front.

“It’s not me,” Malkin says, who caused that game winner. “It’s [Hornqvist].

He’s unbelievable. He stayed in front. He takes the rebound and gives it to me right away. It’s unbelievable. I see right away the right side and try

to shoot quick like how I can, and get the puck to go in.”

When it didn’t on that first shot, Malkin made it on his second or third or fourth, amidst a pile of players.

“When I’m standing on the ice, I think it’s no goal,” Malkin says. “I not see puck across the line. I was so mad, because it was a good chance to score.”

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Crosby assured him it was in, but only when the play was reviewed and the referee pointed to centre ice, at which point this crowd exploded,

waving yellow towels furiously, did Malkin believe it.

After that final review, Capitals goalie Holtby shook his head, while the

crowd chimed in with their ‘Holt-by!’ chants.

“Hornqvist was whacking my pad, not even close to the puck,” Holtby

says. “Not really sure why that’s allowed, then drives himself right into my hip, so I can’t push up and defend the far side of the net. It’s frustrating

because you don’t really know what the call is. You don’t know what’s allowed or not, but you just fight through it. It’s a play where if we want to

be successful, we need to fight through that and make up for it with good things. We just came up a little short tonight.”

Holtby had left his net when Guentzel potted his second goal of the night, sending this crowd into another ‘Let’s go Pens!’ tizzy. Guentzel’s 21 points tie his total from the playoffs last year, now just 10 games in.

The kid has played in 35 playoff games, and in five of them, he’s scored two or more goals.

“Yeah,” Guentzel says, shortly before he exits the podium. “It’s definitely a good feeling.”

No kidding, Jake.


1094994 Websites

Sportsnet.ca / Bruins searching for answers to match Lightning's

dominant depth

Chris Johnston | @reporterchris May 3, 2018, 5:23 PM

BOSTON – Bruce Cassidy is the kind of coach who stands in front of reporters before a Game 7 and reads off his lines player by player. You see, accountability and honesty aren’t just buzzwords in the Hub of Hockey.

The Boston Bruins live it every day.

So it was that the Bs arrived to work Wednesday following another unsettling loss to the Tampa Bay Lightning and didn’t mask their concern at the state of this second-round series. They’re only down 2-1 heading into Thursday’s Game 4 at TD Garden, but they haven’t looked anything like the group that dominated Toronto for large stretches of the first

round.

These are desperate times. Cassidy acknowledged that he may resort to hard matching forward lines after being reluctant to do so during the regular season.

“We try to worry about ourselves first and we have all year,” he said. “That’s why we don’t hard match, generally. We tried to build confidence into the group and trust, and now we’re at the point where it’s getting tested tomorrow. Like our guys got to be able to come through with whoever their matchup is because you’re getting to the point now where you need to win.”

Only the supernova trio of Brad Marchand, Patrice Bergeron and David Pastrnak has managed to play with the puck for a meaningful amount of

time in this series. It’s what they do. Beneath them, the Bruins are all in the red when it comes to shot attempts as they’re ceding the battle to

Tampa’s second-, third- and fourth-liners.

This is how one-sided it’s been:

It’s made for a surprising start to a series pitting the Eastern Conference’s top two teams. The gap between the Lightning and Bruins

was just one point over the 82-game season, but it’s looked significantly wider than that with the chips down.

This best-of-seven could be over in a hurry if the Bruins don’t find another level of execution in Game 4. They’ve managed to keep Nikita Kucherov and Steven Stamkos off the board – save for an empty-netter by Stamkos – but have seen their secondary stars get bested by the likes of Brayden Point, Ondrej Palat, Tyler Johnson, Yanni Gourde and rookie Anthony Cirelli.

“We were a good defensive team all year and it wasn’t just Bergy’s line, to be honest with you,” said Cassidy. “Riley Nash did a great job, [Sean] Kuraly’s done a good job, [David Krejci] and [Jake] DeBrusk are plus players. The onus becomes on them now to get their matchup.

Obviously, we have to now look at it – if they can’t get the job done do we hard match to then get the best possible advantage?

CAROLINA HURRICANES


“Now that involves changing the flow of your game … but that’s something that we definitely have to evaluate. How that’s going to work out for us.”

Cassidy was also expecting to “tinker” with his lineup. Inserting rookie Ryan Donato for just the second time this post-season seems like a good possibility given the need for more offensive punch beyond the big boys.

The coach found himself running a more instructional practice than usual on Wednesday – trying to refresh some fundamentals and highlight ways to get the attack started against an aggressive Tampa forecheck which often sees two forwards barrelling in at full speed.

“Pretty much every aspect of the game we just need to be better,” said Bruins captain Zdeno Chara.

“It all starts on the breakout,” added Krejci. “It’s just up to you to make the right decision. They threw something different at us than Toronto, but we

expected it. We know we’ve just got to be a little bit better. Make the first pass usually the smart pass, the right pass. That’s what we’ve got to do.”



They’re also hoping to start playing with the puck more by regaining their usual edge in the faceoff circle. Tampa is 90-76 through three games. Part of the trouble is the frequency with which linesmen are kicking centres out of the dot for violations – with Bergeron, Boston’s best faceoff man, getting taken out regularly in these playoffs.

He’s struggled to adjust to a tighter standard than was enforced during the regular season.

“At this point now, I’ve got to be better and I have to bare down and I

have to adjust,” said Bergeron. “No, I don’t necessarily know what’s going on. But that being said, [Game 3] was better that way as far as me

getting kicked out. I’m trying to talk to them and respect what they’re asking me [to do].

“After that it’s about me doing the job and winning the faceoffs.”

To spend time around the Bruins is to gain respect for them. They own

their stuff. No excuses or unnecessary subterfuge.

They dominated the NHL from Nov. 1 onwards and are suddenly getting dominated by the Lightning. It’s brought about some self-reflection and an internal search for answers.

“Give them credit. They’re forechecking well, they’re reloading well,” said Cassidy. “They outworked us [on Tuesday] night. There’s no doubt about it. You see it in the video and we have to match that [Thursday] and get better clearly in that area, for starters.”

Ideally they’d have a couple days to work through their issues, but this is the playoffs. There isn’t much time to get it right.


1094995 Websites

Sportsnet.ca / Jets-Predators Notebook: P.K. Subban doesn’t hear your boos

Luke Fox and Mark Spector

WINNIPEG — Ahead of Thursday’s pivotal Game 4 of the Winnipeg Jets and Nashville Predators series, which is rapidly shaping up as a goalapalooza insta-classic, both sides have decided to make some lineup changes.

“This is kind of the turning point in the series,” says sniper Patrik Laine. “It’s either 3-1 or 2-2. It makes a huge difference.”

Here are a few quick notes ahead of Game 4, set to be waged in Whiteout conditions.

Armia draws into Jets lineup

As injured players get healthy in Winnipeg, Maurice’s challenge becomes whether to alter a winning lineup. It seems that Joel Armia will replace Jack Roslovic as the right winger on Line 4 tonight, and we would guess

that Mathieu Perreault will soon return to centre that line, at Matt Hendricks’s expense.

Some coaches wouldn’t mess with a winning hand, so we asked Maurice about his protocol for shuffling the lineup.

“Fewest changes possible,” he began. “When you have an injury during the year, you don’t want to have to change four lines to fix one hole. After that, you want to make sure you have enough healthy bodies that you’re sure of in the lineup on any given night. [I’m] not afraid to change the lineup after wins, or feel it necessary to change the lineup after a loss to change the room. I don’t feel, with this group, that has an impact.”

Armia is happy to be back after getting hurt in Round 1.

“It’s been tough to watch the games,” the Finnish winger said. “You get so nervous watching the games because you can’t do anything. I like what the team has been doing, playing great hockey, so it’s good.”

Hartnell up

It looks like the hardworking Scott Hartnell will draw into Nashville’s lineup, after being a healthy scratch for all but one game this spring. He could replace Kevin Fiala on a line with the ineffective Kyle Turris and Craig Smith.

That unit needs to provide some secondary scoring for Nashville, with Turris still searching for his first goal of these playoffs. Fiala, who may be injured, though that isn’t clear, scored in the first two games of this series, including the double-overtime winner in Game 2.

“I’m not looking to start anything, but I’m most effective when I’m playing a physical brand of hockey, especially in front of the net,” Hartnell says.

“This is my second game in a month. This series has been so fast that I need to do everything I can to make sure I don’t get caught out there with

the difference in speed.”

On defence, Alexei Emelin looks to be coming out, with Yannick Weber

entering the fray. Weber hasn’t played since March 24, so stepping into a series this speedy won’t be easy.

Subban honoured, loathed

Predators defenceman P.K. Subban proudly discussed his King Clancy Memorial Trophy nomination, an honour he shares with the Sedin twins and Jason Zucker for his generosity off the ice.

Yet despite his humanitarianism, Subban is being lustily booed and jeered every time he touches the puck at Bell MTS Place.

We asked how he feels about that.

“What boos?” he said, feigning ignorance. “You know what? I’ll take it as a compliment and continue to play. My focus is just on our team. It becomes a distraction if we pay too much attention to that.

“When you’re asked to play a lot of minutes in different situations, you really have no time or energy to focus on anything else but the game. It’s

a good team, there’s some good players. You lose your focus for a second, it can cost you.”

CAROLINA HURRICANES


Subban already has four points in this series but took an ill-advised penalty in the critical third period of Game 3 and is a minus-4 in the three games.

Scary which Jets are not scoring

Youngsters Kyle Connor and Nikolaj Ehlers combined for 60 goals in the regular season, but neither has found the back of the net through eight playoff games.

It speaks to Winnipeg’s great depth that the Jets top all Western Conference playoff teams with 3.88 goals per game.

“I’m getting chances,” Connor, 21, said. “I’d be a little worried if I’m not. Just keep shooting. Goal scorers will tell you to never stop shooting.

“As long as you’re working hard, you’ll get rewarded.”

Maurice flipped the top-six left wingers midway through Game 3’s victory but insists that individual goal slumps had nothing to do with his tactic.

“It’s line work now,” Maurice explained. “About 16 years ago we’re heading in to play Detroit in the final, and [Carolina’s] Sami Kapanen wasn’t scoring. So you’ve got to get Sami Kapanen scoring, and the answer was, ‘Why?’

“If you’re fortunate enough to move on to the next round, somebody’s got

to carry the ball. And it’s never the same guy. Mark [Sheifele] is scoring right now, which means whoever is playing with him is right. [Paul]

Stastny is scoring, so whoever is playing with him is right.

“I don’t need them scoring. I need them playing well. I need the line

playing well.”

Laine gets sneaky in attempt to get on the board

It’s been 20 days since Patrik Laine has scored a goal.

Despite firing 15 combined shots over Games 2 and 3, the shooter has

yet to solve countryman Pekka Rinne.

In a creative attempt to do so, Laine faked a dump-in and blasted one from centre ice Tuesday. Anticipating a hard rim around the boards, Laine nearly caught the Vezina finalist out of position with his trickery.

“I was just trying to fake that I’m shooting it to the rim and kind of at the last second turned and shot it at the net. And I know he’s an active goalie and he’s always trying to stop the rim, so that’s a good way to try to score once in a while,” Laine said.

“That was my first try, a very good first try. I don’t know why I did that. I just figured I had to try it. It would have been a nice goal. Maybe next

time.”

Maurice has full confidence in his 44-goal man. If Laine catches fire,

Nashville is in trouble.

“I’ve told that story that in training camp he [was] hitting posts and

missing the net and he’s talking to himself in Finnish. And I thought I’d correct him on it,” Maurice recalled. “Then he scored about nine straight

the next practice, so I never said a word to him about it. He’s getting his shots. They’ll go for him at some point.”

Hellebuyck knew Arvidsson would go glove

Connor Hellebuyck had a bad game Tuesday but came up huge when it mattered.

With the score knotted at four, speedy Viktor Arvidsson was gifted a long, pure breakaway.

“I thought, ‘If I’m going to make an impact on this game, it’s definitely this moment.’ He’s coming down, and I just wanted to look calm, as usual. And I got a good bead on it, and he put it right where I thought he was

going to,” Hellebuyck said.

Rinne can be better

Pekka Rinne has allowed an average of four goals per night, and his .890 save percentage isn’t painting a pretty picture.

“They’ve had some good looks, but obviously there’s room for improvement,” Rinne said. “When you’re giving up four or five goals a game, there’s always a few you want to have back.”

Hellebuyck empathizes with his foil, as both goalies have been thrust into a track meet.

“I really hope the media’s not all over him,” Hellebuyck said. “That’s just the way we play each other. It’s happened all season long, and it’s continuing on in the playoffs. There’s a lot of offence. And it’s not like the

defence isn’t playing well. The defence is playing phenomenal, especially the guys in front of me. They’re playing just unbelievable. There’s just

that much offence going around.”

Can Scott Oake elevate his pre-game to new heights?

Unofficial mayor of Winnipeg Scott Oake made the social-media rounds Tuesday when he stood atop a makeshift pedestal and floated godlike

above the mob of Whiteout partiers filling the downtown streets.

Oake says he is now left with the unenviable task of trying to top his Game 3 performance.


1094996 Websites

Sportsnet.ca / Why Patrik Laine hasn't been scoring in bunches these

playoffs...yet

Andrew Berkshire May 3, 2018, 3:23 PM

The Winnipeg Jets hold a 2-1 lead in their second round series against the Nashville Predators and to be honest, they appear to be the favourites to come out of the Western Conference, combining lethal offensive ability with strong defence and the capability to physically grind teams into submission.

With the way things have gone, you would think everything would be

looking positive on Winnipeg’s road to the Stanley Cup, but I’ve noticed there has been some negativity about the way Patrik Laine has played.

Despite having seven points in eight playoff games, the expectation for Laine is to score goals, which he’s only done twice this post-season and

they came in the first two games. Crazy things happen in small samples and he’s only two goals off his usual pace of one every two games or so.

His 6.3 shooting percentage in the playoffs is about one-third of his career average of 18 per cent through 155 regular season games.

That would lead you to believe Laine has seen some unfortunate bounces or near misses that would normally go in for him, but we need to dig deeper, and we can compare his offence-creating plays from the playoffs so far to his work in the regular season.

For those who don’t watch the Winnipeg Jets regularly (What are you doing? Why not?), it’s important to know what kind of player Laine is before breaking down his offensive numbers.

Laine is one of the very few players in this sport who can score from a distance with regularity at 5-on-5. His shot is among the best in the NHL, if not the best, and he likes to keep to the high slot or just outside the

high slot in order to get a bit lost in coverage, give himself a bit more room to shoot, and more time with the puck when he wants to change his

angle.

CAROLINA HURRICANES


In that way, he’s a little similar to players like Alex Ovechkin and Steven Stamkos, but he shoots from further out.

Because Laine is primarily a sniper and not a player who jumps on rebounds or tries to deflect pucks, he doesn’t get to the high danger area very often, so his low numbers in that area of the ice are not as big of a deal as they would be for almost any other player. However, like any player, Laine’s expected shooting percentage rises when he gets into better shooting range, especially in the high slot compared to the perimeter.

With that in mind, it’s important to note that Laine has increased his shot

production significantly at 5-on-5 in the playoffs, but all of it has been on the perimeter, meaning his shots are of lower quality.

When it comes to playmaking, Laine has created more scoring chances for his teammates in the playoffs than he did in the regular season, but

as you see in the table above, he hasn’t completed a single pass to the slot. That means most of the scoring chances he’s creating are also of

slightly lower quality than usual, or the result of rebounds generated by his shots from the perimeter.

Livestream every single game of the 2018 Stanley Cup Playoffs—blackout free—plus the Toronto Blue Jays, key Raptors & NBA Playoffs matchups and the 100th Mastercard Memorial Cup, all in one subscription.

What might be most interesting regarding Laine, though, is that despite receiving an almost identical number of passes in the offensive zone at 5-on-5 as he did in the regular season, the passes he receives in the slot have dropped by 66.5 per cent, which could mean he isn’t getting into shooting position as effectively. Or, more likely, teams are extremely focused at cutting off passes to him when he’s in a dangerous shooting

position.

There are a couple ways to look at Laine’s lack of effectiveness at 5-on-5

in these playoffs. The first is that if the Jets are going to win a Stanley Cup, they will likely need a lot more from Laine at some point. That’s

certainly true, but I prefer the more positive outlook.

The Jets are as close to the Stanley Cup as any other team right now,

and they’ve done it without getting the best out of Laine. We know from watching him for two seasons now that Laine is too clever of a player to be shut down for long stretches, so he’s going to find a way to break through eventually, and the Jets are already playing like a dominant team without his best game.

When Laine does figure out a way to break through the defence other teams are throwing at him, the Jets are going to be even more dangerous than they already are, and that should terrify every remaining team.


1094997 Websites

Sportsnet.ca / Brian Burke on Kessel trade, trying to get Tavares, and more

Sportsnet Staff | @Sportsnet May 3, 2018, 1:27 PM

Long-time NHL general manager and executive Brian Burke has joined Sportsnet’s crew of on-air analysts for at least the next two rounds of the

Stanley Cup Playoffs.

His broadcasting career likely won’t end there, either. Burke says it’s time

for him to make a career change so he can be closer to his family.

“I’m trying to make a career switch here,” Burke told Jeff Marek and Elliotte Friedman on the 31 Thoughts Podcast. “I’m sick of the commute. My daughters are going to be here no matter what — they’re 14 and 12 so it’s not like they’re one year away from graduation. I want to spend more time with them so yes my plan is to make a career shift to go to the dark side.”

But while it’s most likely this is a role he’ll stay in for the foreseeable future, he didn’t completely close the door on the NHL.

“There are a couple owners I really like in this league. Most of them not. Most of them I’m indifferent about or don’t like. There are a couple

situations I would have to think hard about given the people involved. But they’d involve commuting too much and so I’d think the answer is no.

“I wouldn’t rule out anything. I taught law school for 10 years, a lot of people don’t know that. When I worked for the Canucks I taught at UBC

law school and I really enjoyed that. I might do some of that.”

Burke adds another set of experienced eyes to the Sportsnet team as

someone who served as GM for four different teams and worked in the league head offices, including the most thankless job as the league’s

chief disciplinarian. The 62-year-old started as a player agent in the 1980s before joining the Canucks front office and then getting his first GM job with the Hartford Whalers in 1992. He most recently stepped away from his role as president of hockey operations for the Calgary Flames. Burke played in the NCAA and in the AHL and can speak as a veteran on a wide array of topics.

Here are some highlights from his interview on the 31 Thoughts Podcast this week, which touched on topics from how a supplemental discipline hearing unfolds, to his biggest regret, first big trade, and more. You can listen to the full audio here:

Sportsnet's newest podcast is a weekly deep dive into the biggest hockey news in the world. New episodes every Thursday.

“There will be people who watched last night’s game (Tom Wilson hit) and say it should be 10 games. I saw a commentator on TV say ‘well if

they gave 10 for all of these they’d stop.’ We don’t want to do that. We want these things to stop, but if you’re too hard then the hitting

disappears. If you said anything like we’re going to give 10 games for this, well then you’re going to stop having bodychecking. None of us want that.

“The hitting will disappear where a player is not sure and he says ‘well maybe I’ll do this or whatever. When you take out even 10 per cent of the hitting you might as well have taken out 30 per cent of the hitting.

“My point is someone will say it’s worth 10, someone will say it’s worth two, Capitals fans will say it’s worth nothing.”

“There is a weighing system on playoff games. So the notion that one regular season game is the same as a playoff game: no it’s not, never

has been. I won’t tell you what the weighing system is because I don’t know what it is, but certainly two for one in the first round. So if it’s a four-

gamer in the first round it’s not going to be more than two, it’s a minimum of two and it went up.”

Burke was in charge of supplemental discipline for the league in the mid-1990s. In 1996, he suspended Colorado’s Claude Lemieux for two

Stanley Cup final games after he brutally checked Detroit’s Kris Draper into the boards from behind during Game 6 of the conference final.

“I think in the final our unofficial rule might have been four or five to one. So Lemieux might have got 20 games for that; he got four instead and missed games in the final.”

In July of 2007 Burke was GM of the Anaheim Ducks and Dustin Penner was an RFA. Edmonton Oilers GM Kevin Lowe swooped in and signed Penner to an offer sheet worth $21.25 million over five years, which infuriated Burke. The Ducks didn’t match the contract, which resulted in Penner heading to Edmonton and Anaheim receiving the Oilers’ first-, second- and third-round picks in 2008. The episode led to threats of a

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barn fight between the two GMs. Burke explained he regretted going after Lowe the way he did, though the two have patched things up since.

“I like Kevin Lowe and I respect Kevin Lowe. But what he did was just so stupid to me and I fried him and then he challenged me to a fight on the air. He said ‘Brian Burke, anytime anywhere’ and I’m like OK. First off, Kevin Lowe’s not afraid of me, Kevin Lowe’s not afraid of anyone…that’s the type of people we are. And I’m not afraid of Kevin Lowe. But I thought it was a cowardly way to ask for a fight.

“So we went through the whole barn thing. People get confused by this: I never called Kevin Lowe and said ‘I’ll rent a barn let’s fight.’ I called Slats

(Glen Sather) and I said ‘Slats your former protege challenged me to a fight last night on the radio, that’s not how you challenge someone to a

fight, here’s how you challenge someone to a fight: I want you to call him and tell him August 2-3 I’ll be at Lake Placid at the under-18 tournament

that USA Hockey runs. I’m staying at the Holiday Inn, I’ll rent a barn, I’ll kick his ass, I’ll drive him to the hospital and we’ll both go home.’

“So I never made the challenge to Kevin, but someone called the league and Bettman called me and said ‘I hear rumours you’re trying to stage

this fight, I’ll suspend you both for longer than your contracts.’ So that was the end of the fight.

“(Brian’s son) Brendan heard me ripping Kevin to someone on the phone and he said ‘who are you talking about?’ and I said ‘Kevin Lowe.’ He said: ‘Didn’t he used to be your friend?’ and I said yes. And he said ‘Well I don’t approve, why do you carry on these grudges?’ I said ‘Brendan we’re Irish I expect you to carry on these grudges, not just me.’ So after Brendan’s accident I called Steve Tambellini and I said ‘You tell Kevin we’ve got a fence to mend’ and we’ve done that.”

Burke served as GM of the Hartford Whalers for one season in 1992-93

and the first player he acquired was Nick Kypreos. Burke said the team’s coach at the time, Paul Holmgren, singled out Kypreos as someone the

GM needed to acquire if the team was to play the way he wanted, so it wasn’t an especially difficult move to make.

But on August 28, 1992 Burke made his first big splash in the trade market. He sent Bobby Holik and a second-round pick to New Jersey for

Sean Burke and Eric Weinrich and discussed the thoughts that went through his head as the deal unfolded.

“Sean was our MVP that year and Eric Weinrich was our second-best defenceman, so it was a really good trade for us. You gotta remember I went into Hartford on the heels of the worst trade maybe in the history of the NHL, certainly in the history of the Hartford Whalers, which was John Cullen and Zarley Zalapski for Ulf Samuelsson and Ronny Francis (in March 1991).

“Lou Lamoriello was the general manager in New Jersey who made the deal. I was late for my first GM meeting because I had to talk to Sean Burke first…he didn’t finish the playoffs as the starter in the IHL that year in San Diego. Rick Knickle was the starter, Sean backed up.

“So I was late for my first GM meeting and I remember Phil Esposito just gave it to me: ‘Way to pay attention to the job rookie.’ And I couldn’t tell anyone what I was doing. It was really embarrassing.

“I went to call Lou and started to dial the phone and put it down. And I

picked it up and started to dial again and put it down. And finally, I said the third time, you gotta have some jam here, make the deal. Three tries.”

“I was saying the rosary that I hadn’t screwed up because that was my first big deal.”

“When I became a GM it was Lou Nanne, Bill Torrey, Cliff Fletcher and it was a pirate mentality. The ideal trade was one where you skinned the other guy. But I think my generation and the guys after me it’s more let’s try to make this work both ways. If it doesn’t, too bad.

“There’s still guys — Bob Murray’s like that in Anaheim, he’s a pirate. He revels in being a pirate.”

“I don’t want to go back to three-hour games and multiple fights every night, I just think the amount of fighting we have right now to keep players accountable is maybe a little bit lower than it should be. But certainly the trend to take it out or get to the point where now you go to four games and see one fight, I’m not in favour of that.”

In 2009, Burke said publicly that he was going to do whatever it took to get Tavares to the Maple Leafs ahead of the draft. Tavares ended up going No. 1 overall to the Islanders, but Burke explained how he tried to negotiate a trade for the pick.

“The Islanders had the first pick and I called (GM Garth Snow) and I

asked what he was going to do. Everyone thinks John Tavares was the consensus No. 1 pick, when in fact his skating was very average in

junior. There were a lot of teams that had him two or three. I just felt the vision and the compete and everything, I felt he was going to be the best

player from that draft and I was right. Just like I told Morgan Rielly we had him rated No. 1 (in 2012) and he’s so far been the best player, in the

group of five anyway — you could argue guys behind him.”

Burke said in his initial call to Snow the Isles GM shot down a trade

outright. Burke suggested that if he offered 10 first-round picks that Snow would have to take it — but didn’t make that offer. He said the same thing about offering five and three first-round picks for Tavares to make the point that there were deals Snow would accept for the pick.

“When I said publicly we are going to try to move up and get the first pick and someone asked who you’d take and I said John Tavares, Snowy said ‘well now you’ve boxed me in, don’t call me again.’ So he wouldn’t take may call right up to the draft.

The Leafs ended up with Nazem Kadri seventh overall.

Burke’s most famous and controversial trade as GM of the Toronto

Maple Leafs was acquiring Phil Kessel from Boston for two first-round picks and second-rounder.

“If you want to talk about mistakes, we should have lottery protected the pick on Phil. We actually talked about it and we thought there was no

way we’d pick top five. We felt he’d add to our team, we’re improving. We actually talked about it. We were terrified more of it being for Taylor Hall

than Tyler Seguin… Taylor Hall petrified us. We were comfortable enough our team wouldn’t finish bottom five we’re going to do this deal.”

“Back then lottery protection wasn’t really in vogue. I think we talked about it briefly and they said ‘no you make the deal or walk.’ Now lottery protection is standard.”

Largely because of the Kessel trade, Burke is often criticized for rushing what should have been a long-term rebuild through the draft, along the lines of what the current management group has done.

“The problem was when I went through the interview process here in Toronto I told Larry Tanenbaum and the Teachers’ Pension Board you’re

looking at a five-year rebuild. I’m not going to say that publicly because I hate guys that do that. I hate guys that stand up on the first day and say

it’s going to take five years — well you’re just buying five years of failure.

“Problem was the number of no-trade and no-move clauses and the one-

way contracts with big money and term. So to just shovel out the stable and get rid of all those guys it took more than two years. And we made

the Kessel deal that backfired us a bit with the pick, but I’d do that deal again. Phil was excellent here and I’m so glad he’s vindicated his time

here with two rings in Pittsburgh.”

Burke and his son Patrick have been heavily involved in the You Can Play project and are outspoken supporters of the LGBTQ community. Burke was asked why an NHL player hasn’t yet come out, and he believes it goes deeper than the culture of the game.

“I think the real reason is, I get this all the time because I do a lot of speaking on behalf of the LGBTQ community. They say it’s too bad no one’s been comfortable enough to come out and I don’t think it’s a comfort zone based on the fans or our players. I think our players would readily accept a gay athlete.

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“The issue is the reason gay men don’t come out, it’s most often there’s one close family member that they’re terrified of the reaction, whether it’s a mom, dad, or close uncle or aunt and they’re worried they’ll be excluded. Like Covenant House, which houses homeless youth, is 40 per cent LGBTQ. These are kids who their parents threw out when they said they were gay.

“Imagine in 2018 we still deal with ignorance and bias like that. So that’s what stops most people. I’ve had guys come out to me that I barely knew and they said they had to tell someone. That just won’t help you, I’m not part of your life. You’ve gotta come out to someone who you can confide

in and grow that circle. So you come out to one person, then it’s two then you gradually grow that circle, then you’re openly gay.”


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Sportsnet.ca / Down Goes Brown: Canadian teams that should have, but didn't make Cup Final

Sean McIndoe | @DownGoesBrown May 3, 2018, 12:48 PM

We’re down to one Canadian team left in the NHL playoffs, which means

hockey fans across the country have come together behind a common cause: Telling people who think we should all unite behind the last

Canadian team to knock it off.

That’s just how this time of year goes. Every Canadian fan knows that

the country hasn’t won a Stanley Cup since 1993. And all of us want our team to be the one to break the streak. Get behind some other team, just for the sake of national pride? For most of us, that’s just not how it works.

So while the Jets are this season’s best bandwagon team, many Canadian fans still won’t get on board. And if you’re in the group that’s rooting for Winnipeg to fail, there’s good news — for the last quarter-century, the best Canadian teams have always found a way to blow it.

And that’s not even the teams that lost in the Final. We’ve had five of

those since 1993, four of which came within one win of ending the drought. We all remember those teams. But plenty of other Canadian

contenders haven’t even made it that far.

So today, as excitement builds in Winnipeg for a run to the Stanley Cup

Final, let’s remember the other teams that once felt the same way, only to see it all fall apart.

We’ll look back on one season from each of Canada’s other teams that should have resulted in a trip to the Final, or even in the Stanley Cup

finally coming home — but somehow didn’t.

The team: 2011–12 Vancouver Canucks

Their record: 51-22-9 and a league-leading 111 points; this was the Canucks’ second straight Presidents’ Trophy.

Leading scorers: Henrik Sedin (81 points), Daniel Sedin (67 points), Alex Burrows (52 points)

Starting goaltender: Roberto Luongo (2.41 GAA, 919 save percentage)… well, mostly. We’ll get to that.

Why they should have made it: By 2012, there really wasn’t much debate that the Canucks were the best team in the league. Coming off of the

previous year’s heart-breaking loss in the Stanley Cup final, they opened the season with an underwhelming October before rolling over the league

for the rest of the year. After two straight Presidents’ Trophies and four

consecutive years of 100+ points, the Canucks went into the playoffs as the favourites to once against represent the West in the Stanley Cup final.

What went wrong: The Kings showed up. Despite only being the West’s eight-seed, the Kings were the season’s analytics darlings and felt like a tough draw in the opening round. They were more than that, sweeping the first two games in Vancouver by identical 4–2 scores. That was enough for head coach Alain Vigneault to hand the starting duties over to Cory Schneider for the remainder of the series. The backup played well, but the Kings finished off Vancouver in five games.

While the swap felt like a gutsy move at the time and Luongo bent over backwards to downplay any controversy, in hindsight this series was the

beginning of the end for the Canucks as legitimate Stanley Cup contenders. The next few years featured the protracted

Luongo/Schneider drama, the firing of Vigneault (and John Tortorella and Willie Desjardins), and a steady lurch towards last place.

What the Jets can learn: Never assume tomorrow. Even in the aftermath of the loss to the Kings, the Canucks felt like a team well-positioned for at

least a few more years of contending. Instead, they’ve won just two playoff games in the six years since, and the Sedin-era team will go into the history books as one of the best to never win a Cup.

The team: 2002–03 Ottawa Senators

Their record: 52-21-8-1 (yes, this was in the four-column standings days). That was good for 113 points and the franchise’s only Presidents’ Trophy win.

Leading scorers: Marian Hossa (80 points) and Daniel Alfredsson (78 points). The team also featured the second-half debut of 19-year-old Jason Spezza, as well as a blue line featuring both Wade Redden and

Zdeno Chara. They were strong everywhere.

Starting goaltender: Patrick Lalime (2.16 GAA, .911 save percentage).

OK, almost everywhere.

Why they should have made it: This was the peak of the Jacques Martin

era, one that saw the Senators master the art of playing a suffocatingly effective style. They were deep and disciplined, and despite how you

may remember it, they were also one of the league’s highest-scoring teams.

And on top of all that, this was the year that the Senators didn’t have to worry about running into the Maple Leafs in the playoffs. The Battle of Ontario had been one-sided over the years, and maybe that got into the Senators’ heads a little bit. But with the Leafs making an early exit, Ottawa finally had a clear path through the East that didn’t involve slaying any dragons. They knocked off the Islanders in five and the Flyers in six before meeting the Devils in the conference final, knowing that the winner would be big favourites over the upstart Mighty Ducks in the final.

What went wrong: One blown coverage that probably cost them the Stanley Cup.

That’s over-simplifying things, of course — it’s never just one play. But after falling behind 3–1 against New Jersey, the Senators stayed alive

with a Game 5 win followed by some overtime heroics from Chris Phillips in Game 6 to force a deciding game back in Ottawa. That turned out to

be a tense battle that seemed headed towards another sudden-death showdown. And then it all fell apart.

The Devils closed out the game, then went on to beat the Mighty Ducks in the final.

Unlike the Canucks, the Senators remained contenders for years to come, and finally got to play for a Stanley Cup in 2007. But in hindsight, there’s a good case to be made that 2003 was actually the closest they ever came to winning it all.

What the Jets can learn: On a 2-on-2, maybe don’t both take the same guy.

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Sportsnet's newest podcast is a weekly deep dive into the biggest hockey news in the world. New episodes every Thursday.

The team: 2005–06 Calgary Flames

(I know, but honestly, aside from the 2004 trip to the final there really isn’t much to choose from for Calgary.)

Their record: 46-25-11 for 103 points and first place in the Northwest Division

Leading scorers: Jarome Iginla (67 points) and, uh, Daymond Langkow (59 points). Look, scoring depth wasn’t a strong point — they finished

28th in the league in goals. In fact, their third-leading scorer was a rookie defenceman, Dion Phaneuf.

Starting goaltender: Miikka Kiprusoff (2.07 GAA, .923 save percentage), with the best season of his career. He took home the Vezina and first all-star team honours, and was a finalist for the Hart Trophy.

Why they should have made it: They were building off of a trip to the Cup final the previous season, albeit with a momentum-sapping lockout in between. Still, on paper this team was better than the 2004 version; Langkow was a nice addition and at the time Phaneuf seemed like the second coming of Scott Stevens. And most importantly, they had the best goaltender in the league. Goaltending wins in the playoffs, right?

What went wrong: It turns out that goaltending is voodoo. The Flames ran into a good Mighty Ducks team in the opening round, and the presence of Jean-Sebastien Giguere figured to negate some of Calgary’s advantage in net. But Giguere struggled, and the Flames held a 3–2 series lead through five. But then the Ducks switched starters, and with two games to finish things off the Flames could muster just a single goal against the clutch goaltending of — don’t laugh — Ilya Bryzgalov, who outdueled Kiprusoff to knock off the Flames in seven.

What the Jets can learn: You might want to make sure that you notice if the other team switches goalies.



The team: 2016–17 Edmonton Oilers

Their record: 47-26-9, good for 103 points and second in the Pacific Division

Leading scorers: Leon Draisaitl (77 points), Jordan Eberle (51 points) and Milan Lucic (50 points). Oh, and I guess that Hart- and Art Ross–winning Connor McDavid kid was pretty good, too.

Starting goaltender: Cam Talbot (2.39 GAA and .919 save percentage), who played a league-leading 73 games

Why they should have made it: Well, “should have” might be a little

strong — it’s not like last year’s Oilers were the Western favourites. But like the Flames, we’re a little limited in our options when it comes to Edmonton, so we’ll go with a team that had 103 points, strong

goaltending, and the best player in the world up front.

What went wrong: After making the playoffs for the first time in a decade and beating the Sharks in six in the opening round, the Oilers stole a pair of games in Anaheim to shoot out to a 2–0 series lead over the Ducks.

But then came three straight losses, two of which came in sudden death.

The series turning point came with the series tied in Game 5; with Edmonton seconds away from winning the game and retaking the series lead, the Ducks scored a controversial goal and went on to win in overtime.

Despite a strong showing to extend the series in Game 6, the Oilers fell just short in the seventh game. Ah well, they could build on this next year, right?

What the Jets can learn: Plan for the future, but don’t count on it working out the way you expect – nothing is guaranteed in this league. We all assume this is the first of many deep runs for the Jets. We thought that about Edmonton, too.

(Bonus lesson: Never assume the league will call interference just because somebody yanks your goalie’s pads or, I don’t know, slashes them in the face.)

Ryan Dixon and Rory Boylen go deep on pucks with a mix of facts and fun, leaning on a varied group of hockey voices to give their take on the country’s most beloved game.

The team: 2014–15 Montreal Canadiens

Their record: 50-22-10 for 110 points, their highest total since the 1980s

Leading scorers: Max Pacioretty (67 points), Tomas Plekanec (60 points) and P.K. Subban (60 points)

Starting goaltender: Carey Price (1.96 GAA, .933 save percentage), in the season that saw him win basically every award a goalie can win, including MVP

Why they should have made it: Because they had the best goaltender in the world. The rest of the team wasn’t all that strong, and they ranked in the bottom half of the league in goals scored. But Price stood on his head all year long, and you figured he’d be a tough beat for any team they ran into during the playoffs.

What went wrong: They drew a tricky first-round matchup with the Senators (who’d just had that crazy Andrew Hammond run to slip into the post-season) and won that one in six. But then they collapsed against the Lightning in the second round, losing the first three games of the series and ultimately being eliminated in six. The key moment came in the opening game, a double-overtime thriller that the Lightning won on Nikita

Kucherov‘s goal.

Or did they? On further review, the play sure looked offside:

There was still time for the Canadiens to recover, but Tyler Johnson’s buzzer beater in Game 3 essentially spelled the end.

What the Jets can learn: Remember to thank Kucherov and the Canadiens for giving us the offside coach’s challenge if and when you inevitably get screwed over by one. (Then again, when it comes to terrible replay reviews, you guys still kind of owe us one.)

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The team: 2003–04 Toronto Maple Leafs

Their record: 45-24-10 for 103 points, which established a franchise

record that stood until this season

Leading scorers: Mats Sundin (75 points), Bryan McCabe (53 points) and

Joe Nieuwendyk (50 points). But this team may be best remembered for their deadline pickups, Brian Leetch and Ron Francis.

Starting goaltender: A 38-year-old Ed Belfour (2.13 GAA, .918 save percentage), in what turn out to be his last strong season

Why they should have made it: We could take our pick from a few Maple Leafs teams from the Pat Quinn era, including the 1999 and 2002 teams that went to the conference final. But there’s a strong argument that this team was the best of them all. The roster featured five future Hall of Famers (and maybe a sixth if Alexander Mogilny ever gets in), plus Gary Roberts and Owen Nolan. But it was a very old core, and with the 2004–

05 lockout looming, there was a strong sense that this was going to be the group’s last chance.

What went wrong: Even with all the big names, the Leafs couldn’t rise above a logjam at the top of the Eastern Conference – six teams finished

with between 100 and 106 points, so the road to the final was going to be

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tough. The Leafs earned their usual win over the Senators, thanks to the immortal Patrick Lalime meltdown in Game 7. But they drew a tough matchup with the Flyers in the second round, lost the first two games in Philadelphia, and saw their season end in six games thanks to Jeremy Roenick.

That moment still stands as the most recent appearance by the Maple Leafs in the second round. The lockout spelled the end of several of the key veterans, and from there it was on to John Ferguson Jr., the Muskoka Five, Brian Burke and beyond.

What the Jets can learn: Veterans are nice, but make sure you have at

least a few good young players to help with the future. [Checks Jets roster.] Cool, looks like you already knew that.

Dimitri Filipovic provides entertaining and thoughtful dialogue about the game of hockey with an analytical edge. Not as nerdy as it sounds.

The team: 1994–95 Quebec Nordiques

(What, you didn’t think we’d forget them, did you?)

Their record: 30-13-5 in a lockout-shortened 48-game season. That was good for 65 points and the top seed in the Eastern Conference.

Leading scorers: Joe Sakic (62 points), Peter Forsberg (50 points) and Owen Nolan (49 points)

Starting goaltender: Stephane Fiset (2.78 GAA, .910 save percentage).

Goaltending was definitely the weak spot, with Jocelyn Thibault and Garth Snow providing backup. They probably would have won it all with a first-ballot Hall of Famer back there, but in fairness, it’s not like those guys ever get traded.

Why they should have made it: The short answer is that they were good enough to win the Stanley Cup, as we’d see a year later. After years of misery both on and off the ice, this was the season that everything

clicked in Quebec. The big payoff for the Eric Lindros trade finally arrived, as Forsberg was an instant star and won Rookie of the Year honours.

Sakic had his first top-five scoring season, Nolan gave them three point-a-game players, and this was also the year that they had Wendel Clark.

They started 12-1-0, led the NHL in goals scored, and went into the playoffs as the clear favourites in the East.

What went wrong: Freaking Alexei Kovalev.

Despite being the top seed, the Nordiques had the bad luck to run into the defending-champion Rangers in round one. They won the opener but dropped the next two, setting up a crucial game four in New York. Sakic scored to make it 3–0 with seconds left in the first, only to have it wiped out by a delayed whistle as Kovalev rolled around on the ice after a slash.

The goal didn’t count, Kovalev made a miraculous recovery, and the Rangers came back to win in overtime to take a 3–1 series lead. The Nordiques tried to protest the game; the league took the exceptionally

unusual steps of admitting the call was blown and fining referee Andy Van Hellemond, but the final score stood.

The Rangers finished the series in six, sending the Nordiques home in the first round. Weeks later, the team was sold to new ownership and

was on the way to Colorado.

What the Jets can learn: Appreciate what you have now, because you

never know when your team is going to pick up and head south. Wait, you already knew that one, too.


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Sportsnet.ca / T.J. Oshie disagrees with Tom Wilson suspension: 'It’s very extreme'

Sportsnet Staff | @Sportsnet May 3, 2018, 4:19 PM

The latest controversial hit to make the rounds of debate and discussion in the NHL was Tom Wilson‘s big hit on Pittsburgh’s Zach Aston-Reese.

The check broke Aston-Reese’s jaw and was the second borderline hit for Wilson in as many games — he avoided suspension for a hit on Brian

Dumoulin in Game 2.

That Wilson is a repeat offender played a factor in the league’s decision. He had been suspended two pre-season games in September, and then was forced out of the first four regular season games for another bad hit shortly after returning. But teammate T.J. Oshie had some strong words against Wilson’s most recent suspension, a three-gamer that will force him out of Games 4, 5 and 6, if necessary.

“I think it’s pretty extreme,” Oshie told reporters on Thursday. “I think it’s very extreme actually.”

The league decided to suspend Wilson because it ruled that Aston-Reese’s head was the principal point of contact, that the contact was avoidable and because it led to injury. The league cited that Wilson had broken rule 48.1 for an illegal check to the head.

Oshie completely disagreed.

“It’s two guys who see each other,” Oshie said. “They both go to hit each other. Usually one guy loses that battle. I’ve been on both ends of it.

“It’s a north-south hit. Tom goes straight through his body.”

Oshie was drawing from his own on-ice experiences to argue against this

particular check warranting any suspension, let alone three playoff games. Wilson was not penalized during the game for this check, and Oshie said this isn’t an unusual occurrence when a bigger player checks a smaller one.

“There’s been a million times where I’ve gotten hit, I go to the ref and say I’ve gotten hit in the head,” Oshie said. “The ref just says, ‘He’s bigger than you.’ That’s the way it goes.”

Oshie even went a step further and lamented the loss of physicality in the

game. While he agrees that hits to the head need to be eradicated, he said the focus on the hitter has taken all responsibility away from the

player being hit. Oshie argued the latter has to take responsibility as well, if they’re going to put themselves in a bad position on the ice.

“We have too many guys in the league now who think they can go out and do whatever they want,” Oshie said. “If anyone touches them, it’s

going to be a penalty or suspension. I think there has to be more emphasis on guys aware of their surroundings.

“I 100 per cent agree with the hits to the head that are unnecessary, that are directly targeted, and you can tell they’re targeted. I’m completely against taking away physicality in the game. Everyone talks about the game getting faster, stronger. Well, the hits are going to get faster and stronger.”


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TSN.CA / Statistically Speaking: This Guentzel stuff is getting ridiculous

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Scott Cullen

Jake Guentzel continues his ridiculous postseason run; Rinne is sharp for Nashville and more in Scott Cullen’s Statistically Speaking.

HEROES

Jake Guentzel – The Penguins winger scored two more goals, on eight shot attempts (7 SOG), in a 3-1 Game Four win against Washington. He

has a playoff-leading 10 goals and 21 points in 10 games. In his career, he has an astonishing 23 goals in 35 playoff games. That’s 0.66 goals

per game, far and away the best among active players (minimum 25 games).

Pekka Rinne – Nashville’s netminder stopped 32 of 33 shots in a 2-1 Game Four victory at Winnipeg. He had a .890 save percentage in the first three games of the series before delivering that big performance in Game Four.

ZEROES

Devante Smith-Pelly – Filling in for a suspended Tom Wilson on the Capitals’ top line, Smith-Pelly was overmatched (6 for, 21 against, 22.2 CF%, 1-11 scoring chances) in a 3-1 Game Four loss at Pittsburgh.

Derick Brassard – The Penguins centre managed zero shot attempts in 10:49 of ice time and, along with winger Phil Kessel, had team-worst

possession stats (4 for, 11 against, 26.7 CF%) in a 3-1 Game Four win over Washington.

STANLEY CUP HALF FULL/HALF EMPTY

P.K. Subban – The Predators blueliner scored another goal, and has five

points (3 G, 2 A) in the past three games, but he also took a penalty late in the third period, allowing the Jets to cut the deficit in half with a little

over a minute remaining.

VITAL SIGNS

Kevin Fiala – The Predators made the curious choice to make Fiala a healthy scratch in Game Four, even though he scored goals in two of the first three games of the series and had the best possession stats of any Nashville regular in the postseason. Scott Hartnell took Fiala’s spot in the lineup.

Matt Hendricks – Lest you think that Peter Laviolette is the only one

making questionable lineup decisions in this series, the Jets selected Hendricks ahead of rookie Jack Roslovic for Game Four.

Joel Armia – Returned to the Jets lineup after missing nearly two weeks of action.

TSN.CA LOADED: 05.04.2018

1095001 Websites

TSN.CA / Statistically Speaking: Jones gets Sharks back to even

Scott Cullen

Jones shuts down the Golden Knights, Palat paces the Lightning and more in Scott Cullen’s Statistically Speaking.

HEROES

Martin Jones – San Jose’s netminder recorded a 34-save shutout in a 4-

0 Game Four win against Vegas and has a .934 save percentage in eight

playoff games. He also has a .927 save percentage in 40 career playoff games.

Ondrej Palat – The Lightning left winger scored two goals in a 4-1 Game Three win at Boston, giving him eight points (4 G, 4 A) in eight playoff games.

ZEROES

Alex Tuch – Vegas’ rookie right winger had a tough night (12 for, 18 against, 40.0 CF%, 3-8 scoring chances) and was on the ice for two goals against in a 4-0 Game Four loss at San Jose.

Kevan Miller – Boston’s stay-at-home blueliner was on the wrong side of the puck (17 for, 22 against, 43.6 CF%, 7-9 scoring chances) and on the ice for two goals against in a 4-1 loss to Tampa Bay.

STANLEY CUP HALF FULL/HALF EMPTY

James Neal – The Golden Knights winger recorded a game-high 12 shot attempts (7 SOG), but couldn’t find the scoresheet and was on the ice for two goals against in a 4-0 Game Four loss at San Jose.

VITAL SIGNS

David Backes – He missed some time while serving a fighting major, but the Bruins winger played just 6:09 in Game Three against Tampa Bay.

He was on the ice for two goals against in that time, which may have contributed to his game-low ice time.

SHORT SHIFTS

Lightning D Victor Hedman added a couple of assists in a 4-1 Game

Three win at Boston. He has four assists in the past three games after he had zero points in the first five games of the postseason…Sharks C

Logan Couture and D Brenden Dillon both earned a pair of assists in a 4-0 Game Four win vs. Vegas. Couture has nine points (4 G, 5 A) in eight

games and Dillon has four assists in eight playoff games…Lightning G Andrei Vasilevskiy turned away 28 of 29 shots in a 4-1 Game Three win at Boston, giving him a .925 save percentage in eight playoff starts.


1095002 Websites

TSN.CA / Jets’ missed opportunity has Preds in driver’s seat for first time

Frank Seravalli

WINNIPEG — There was not one second, captain Blake Wheeler was saying, that the Jets felt like they would “breeze through” this second-round series with the Nashville Predators.

They just expected to have a little more to show for the first four rounds of this Western Conference heavyweight slugfest.

The Winnipeg Jets had the chance to put last year’s champ on the ropes.

They could barely muster a punch, held without a shot for the first 12

minutes in a third period on a night that they could earn 3-1 series edge.

The wily Predators wiggled away in Game 4. Now, Nashville is somehow

dancing on the canvas in a series they’ve mostly spent chasing after they stifled the Jets with the type of 2-1 victory that some deemed impossible

for this matchup.

“We go back home, it’s a best of three now,” Predators coach Peter

Laviolette said, “and our guys will be ready to play.”

CAROLINA HURRICANES


For the Jets, it was their first loss on home ice since Feb. 27 against these same Predators, snapping a 13-game winning streak including the playoffs.

They narrowly avoided being shutout in their barn for the first time all season when Patrik Laine scored his first goal of the series in the final minute.

The dramatic pivot in series outlooks for each side was almost as jarring as the stylistic difference in the lowest scoring game of the nine in this season series so far.

“We just got chasing a game against a team that was desperate and

needed a win,” Wheeler said.

In a matchup in which both Laviolette and Paul Maurice promised to

dictate and impose their team’s own identity on the opponent, Laviolette and the Predators blinked first. Maybe Laviolette saw it as his team’s

best chance to win, which may be perceived as a sign of weakness or conversely the ultimate tip of the cap to the Jets, but it proved to be

exactly what they needed.

Nashville significantly dialed back their aggressive game plan to limit

Winnipeg’s time and space to slow the Jets’ speed and advantage in high-end skill at forward.

Jets forward Bryan Little likened Game 4 to pinball.

“They played a really simple, good defensive game,” Little said. “Everything they touched … they were working that high flipper pretty good and then we were just skating into a wall again. We’ve got to find a way to beat that.”

They will also need to find a way to beat that at least once in Smashville now. Game 5 is Saturday night in the Music City.

“They had five guys behind the red line and we were a little stubborn,”

Wheeler explained. “We didn’t want to make them turn around and bring the puck out … It’s just what the night called for. It was tough. They really

got the bounce in the first and they were really committed to play and clogging things up.

“They were willing to sit five guys back and we weren’t willing, for the most part, to do the things we needed to do to break that.

It was a near flawless tactical turn for Laviolette. He subbed in veteran Scott Hartnell for Game 2 double overtime hero Kevin Fiala, a move which raised some eyebrows. But Hartnell put an exclamation point on the Preds’ more physical approach. They weren’t pushed around like they were by the Jets in the first three games.

Nashville benefitted from a goal from their fourth line, plus P.K. Subban’s third consecutive game with a power play strike.

“We’re heading back home to play in front of our fans. We’ll take that,” Subban said. "We know they’re going to be better as the series goes on. In this position, I think this is where both teams expected to be.”

This one may come down to the scorecards after all, just as we all suspected - Wheeler included. It’s just that the Jets went from on the

attack to vulnerable and punching uphill in short order. The Stanley Cup playoffs come at you fast.

“This was a big game and we knew they were going to give us their best,” Little said. “They played a really good defensive game and gave us

some trouble tonight. It’s back to the drawing board in Nashville.”


1095003 Websites

TSN.CA / Tanev emerging as unlikely playoff hero for Jets

Frank Seravalli

WINNIPEG — Adam Lowry chuckled when asked a question about

linemate Brandon Tanev, responding, “You mean, ‘The Grocer?’”

That is one nickname Tanev has earned, but not because of his meat-

and-potatoes game.

While the rest of the Winnipeg Jets were grinding their way toward the

NHL as teenagers – some even starring in the show then – Tanev was just a normal high school student in Toronto working as a grocery store clerk.

Tanev took nearly four full years off from hockey from age 15 to 19.

“I was just too small,” Tanev said. “I hadn’t grown and I just decided to step away from hockey.”

Tanev was 4-foot-11 in Grade 9. He stocked shelves, played soccer and ran cross country at East York Collegiate and hung out with his friends, the type of existence almost none of his teammates can comprehend.

“It’s unreal,” Lowry said. “It’s the path less travelled.”

He isn’t quite Kurt Warner, who went from checkout bagger to Super Bowl MVP, but Tanev has become one of the Jets’ unheralded heroes in

their charge for the Stanley Cup. His empty-net goal in Game 3 was his fourth in as many playoff games.

Tanev, now 26, is second in goals among Jets forwards against the Nashville Predators in this second-round series – more than Patrik Laine,

Kyle Connor, Paul Stastny and Blake Wheeler.

There is something about the Stanley Cup playoffs that turns

unsuspecting role players into stars – at least for a few weeks every spring.

Tanev entered the playoffs with 10 career goals in 115 regular-season games. He has four Stanley Cup playoff goals now.

“The game doesn’t necessarily get better, because the teams kind of get worn down as it goes … It gets harder, so a simpler game usually excels,” Jets coach Paul Maurice explained. “[Tanev] has played that and he’s had to play that his entire life to get into the NHL. It’s what he’s been

doing for the last eight months, training for playoff hockey.

“That’s why I think role players have a bit of an advantage. It isn’t a

change for them.”

Tanev’s road to the NHL began at age 19, when he finally sprouted to 6-

foot and jumped from shinny hockey with buddies right to Junior A with the storied Markham Waxers of the Ontario Junior Hockey League in

2010.

He then played one season in the British Columbia Hockey League with

the Surrey Eagles before earning a four-year scholarship to Providence College in Hockey East.

“When the opportunity to grow came back, the love of the game never left,” Tanev said. “You always love playing the game, especially living in Toronto, such a hockey crazy town. Once I was back out there, it just felt right.”

His older brother, Christopher, paved the way. Amazingly enough, Christopher also took two years off from hockey – from age 15 to 17 – before joining the same Ontario junior league and working his way to an NHL career that is now eight seasons deep with the Vancouver Canucks.

The Tanevs are important reminders for hockey parents everywhere that there is no one path.

CAROLINA HURRICANES


“Once he did that it kind of opened my mind up that this was still a possibility,” Tanev said. “You don’t think that would work. If you stick with it, everything works out for a reason.”

Perhaps Tanev’s playoff success shouldn’t come as so much of a shock considering his knack for the big moment. He scored the game-winning goal to deliver Providence its first-ever NCAA national championship in 2015, a program with a rich history that includes Lou Lamoriello, Brian Burke and current Predators radio broadcaster Hal Gill.

Current Bruins assistant GM John Ferguson Jr., another Providence alum, courted the undrafted free agent Tanev almost weekly during his

senior season to sign with Boston.

A contract never materialized with the Bruins. The Winnipeg Jets stepped

up with a deal, meaning he would start his pro career in the same city his brother did with the AHL’s Manitoba Moose.

“Winnipeg was definitely the right fit, understanding their process for me,” Tanev said. “It felt like a small family. The right fit for me.”

Tanev has carved out a role with the Jets – a team with an embarrassment of riches in skill at forward – because of his speed. The

NHL changed while he was in college, placing such an emphasis on quickness that it opened up a door that might not have been there earlier.

“He’s a grinder in a lot of ways, in a small-man way,” Maurice said. “He grinds with speed.”

Tanev is so fast that Lowry said sometimes his linemates have to tell him to calm down.

“He’s so on the puck sometimes that we’re like ‘Hey, it’s okay, let us in there for some fun, too,’” Lowry said. “His style of play is unique. He creates so many chances because he’s on the puck and he’s so hard and tenacious. He’s a real asset for us.”


1095004 Websites

TSN.CA / Capitals have impressed against Penguins’ potent power play

Travis Yost

In my preview of the Pittsburgh Penguins – Washington Capitals second-round series, I noted what I figured could end up being an important

storyline:

“The way I see it, Washington has two ways through this series. The first is obvious: Holtby needs to outplay Murray and probably by a considerable margin. Second, Washington needs to have a decisive

special teams advantage. The Capitals did own the best opening round power play (33 per cent; 13.0 goals per 60 minutes), which is a strong carryover from the regular season. But Pittsburgh also owned the league’s best power play during the regular season (26.2 per cent; 9.8 goals per 60 minutes.)”

So far, so good.

Every second-round series has been compelling for a multitude of reasons, but I think Washington’s early series lead has been the most surprising. Washington obviously is a talented team, but no group has had much of an answer for the Pittsburgh buzz saw this season,

especially during the second half of the year. Add that to the torturous history between these two sides and you had the recipe for what seemed

like a probable Pittsburgh victory.

But Washington has so far checked the two critical boxes referenced above. There’s no doubt that Braden Holtby has out-played Matt Murray through the first few games – he’s stopped 91.3 per cent of shots, whereas Murray has stopped just 89.7 per cent. I don’t think it’s surprising that Holtby’s been better, but the spread between the two is sizable. It’s the type of spread you need to win a series like this.

The second box is more interesting to me though, and that’s how Washington has bottled up Pittsburgh’s power play. The Penguins were the league’s best with the man advantage during the regular season by a ridiculous margin. They generated more than nine goals per 60 minutes

during the regular season – best in the NHL and 30 per cent better than a league average power-play unit. The unit keying most of that success is

loaded with weapons. Sidney Crosby, Evgeni Malkin, Phil Kessel, and Patric Hornqvist make up the four-forward group, with Kris Letang or

Justin Schultz walking the blueline.

In the opening three games, Pittsburgh has just one power-play goal in

nine opportunities (11 per cent), that one coming via Hornqvist in Game 3. In small samples like this any unit – even an elite unit like Pittsburgh’s

– can appear temporarily cold. But Pittsburgh’s unit has definitely slowed a bit, even if you put the lack of goal-scoring aside.

NST does a great job of tracking scoring chances – effectively all shot attempts generated from the dangerous scoring areas on the ice. Marry that up against the slowing goal production, and you have what seems to be an obvious correlation:

Pittsburgh hasn’t changed much in deployment through the first three games – the only notable callout would be the provisioning of more minutes to winger Jake Guentzel with Malkin sidelined for pieces of the series. Losing a superstar is always going to hurt team production, but

Malkin’s absence could take that to the next level. After all, Malkin’s 38 power-play points this season were third highest in the NHL, trailing only teammate Phil Kessel and Winnipeg winger Blake Wheeler. Malkin has still managed to generate the most power-play shot attempts for Pittsburgh in the series despite missing significant time.

On the Washington side, there hasn’t been anything out of the ordinary about the deployment from coach Barry Trotz. Legacy penalty killers Matt

Niskanen, Brooks Orpik, Jay Beagle and John Carlson are soaking up most of the minutes so far just as they did during the regular season. But

give Washington credit for not putting themselves in a disadvantageous position. The Capitals have had to kill nine penalties in three games, or

three per game. The Flyers one round ago against the Penguins were short-handed 25 times in six games, or more than four per game.

Ultimately, I think Pittsburgh’s body of work on the power play will win out at some point – they are too productive and still have the personnel in

place to wreak havoc on any team, particularly so with Malkin back in the fold. But the reality is the Penguins are three games into a seven-game series and in a 2-1 hole. And Washington has done an admirable job of being disciplined – both in terms of taking penalties and being able to kill them off.

Sometimes small sample sizes win out. If Washington can hold on for just a couple of more games, they could pull off this upset.


1095005 Websites

TSN.CA / Off-Season Game Plan: Carolina Hurricanes

Scott Cullen

CAROLINA HURRICANES


The Carolina Hurricanes have missed the playoffs for nine consecutive seasons, and don’t have a head coach or general manager, which certainly makes matters look unsettled as the offseason approaches.

Off-Season Game Plan takes a look at a Hurricanes team under new ownership that has potential, but who knows if they are going to make the right decisions to push them over the top?

New owner Tom Dundon has fired GM Ron Francis and allowed head coach Bill Peters to seek out greener pastures in Calgary. That’s not that unusual; new ownership often likes to have its own group running the show.

However, after a series of names were reported as possible candidates for the vacant general manager role, none actually landed the position,

and club president Don Waddell hired long-time hockey exec Rick Dudley to be the Senior VP of Hockey Operations and Paul Krepelka to

be the VP of Hockey Operations. As it stands now, these are the decision-makers for the organization.

They still don’t have a head coach, but that’s not necessarily a problem. AHL coach Mike Vellucci could very well move up to the big job, or there

are many qualified coaches available otherwise.

It’s a little difficult to forecast a team’s plans without having a great idea about who is calling the shots, but it wouldn’t be a surprise if the Hurricanes were active this summer. From the sounds of it, Sebastian Aho may be the only untouchable on the roster, so that does leave open the possibility that the Hurricanes could make some big deals this summer.

Could that mean moving out players like Jeff Skinner and Justin Faulk, players who have been cornerstone pieces on teams that haven’t been able to reach the playoffs? It seems possible though, at this point, almost

anything seems possible.

The one note of caution I’ll throw towards the Hurricanes is that they

shouldn’t overreact to a bad goaltending season in 2017-2018. By all means, address the position and make it better, but the Hurricanes had

the best shot differentials in the league and backing that with merely competent goaltending would make for a competitive club.

The Hurricanes are headed in a new direction, but if that direction doesn’t include paying for a more competitive product on the ice, they will still be fighting an uphill battle.

HOCKEY OPS/COACH

Don Waddell-Rick Dudley/Vacant

HEROES

Sebastian Aho – The 20-year-old had a brilliant second season, leading the Hurricanes with 29 goals and 65 points, all while controlling better than 55% of the shot attempts during 5-on-5 play.

Teuvo Teravainen – Riding shotgun with Aho, Teravainen finished with a

career-high 64 points.

Justin Williams – The 36-year-old winger continued to provide steady all-

around play, finishing with 51 points and 55.6 CF%.

ZEROES

Scott Darling – The Hurricanes addressed their need for a goaltender by signing the guy who had a .923 save percentage in 75 games over three seasons as a backup in Chicago. He flopped miserably in his first season with Carolina, finishing with a .888 save percentage in a career-high 43 games.

Victor Rask – The 25-year-old centre had produced 93 points in the previous two seasons, earning a long-term contract extension, then responded with a career-low 31 points while his relative possession numbers went in the tank.

Marcus Kruger – Acquired from Vegas, the former Blackhawks checking centre (and two-time Stanley Cup champ) was never a big scorer, but he couldn’t earn the trust of the coaching staff and played a career-low 10:50 per game before ultimately getting waived.

Sebastian Aho 78 29 36 65 54.9 0.5 100.6 55.0 16:53 $925K

Teuvo Teravainen 82 23 41 64 56.4 2.6 100.9 59.1 16:53 $2.86M

Justin Williams 82 16 35 51 55.6 1.6 98.2 56.1 16:35 $4.5M

Jeff Skinner 82 24 25 49 55.2 1.0 95.5 64.0 16:42 $5.725M

Jordan Staal 79 19 27 46 54.2 -0.5 98.9 47.8 19:15 $6.0M

Victor Rask 71 14 17 31 51.2 -4.4 100.1 62.1 15:23 $4.0M

Brock McGinn 80 16 14 30 54.4 -0.3 96.8 57.6 14:30 $888K

Marcus Kruger 48 1 5 6 54.4

1.0 95.8 45.4 10:50 $3.083M

Elias Lindholm 81 16 28 44 56.5

1.8 98.0 60.4 17:54 $2.7M RFA

Derek Ryan 80 15 23 38 57.0

3.3 95.8 60.5 15:36 $1.425M UFA

Phil Di Giuseppe 49 5 8 13 54.8

-0.6 98.2 52.3 10:30 $725K RFA

Lee Stempniak 37 3 6 9 54.2

-1.8 95.3 58.9 12:28 $2.5M UFA

Joakim Nordstrom 75 2 5 7 51.8 -3.4 96.0 52.1 10:34 $1.275M RFA

While the Hurricanes could use more skilled forwards, they do have a pair of young Finns leading the attack. Sebastian Aho is a 20-year-old who didn’t score a goal in his first 15 games last season and still ended up with 29 in his sophomore campaign. He’s the foundation around which this forward group is built.

Playing with Aho, Teuvo Teravainen busted out for a career-best season. The 23-year-old is a skilled playmaker who complements Aho well and is

still very modestly priced (a $2.86-million cap hit through next season).

Tried and true, 36-year-old Justin Williams finished with more than 40

points for the seventh consecutive full season. He’s still very effective along the boards and, after dealing with some big injuries early in his

career, he’s proven to be extremely durable, missing a total of three games in the past seven seasons.

Will Jeff Skinner be part of the long-term plan in Carolina?

After scoring 37 goals the year before, Jeff Skinner fell to 25 last season, but the 25-year-old is a six-time 20-goal scorer and elite shot generator, who has put up more than three shots on goal per game for seven straight seasons.

At the same time, he’s entering the final year of his current contract and that could prompt the Hurricanes to see what he might fetch on the trade market. For teams seeking an offensive upgrade, without the long-term commitment that goes with free agents, Skinner could be an attractive option.

Veteran centre Jordan Staal is one of the premier checking centres in the league, though he didn’t dominate in relative possession terms last

season like he did for the previous four. Staal’s presence, and ability to

CAROLINA HURRICANES


handle the toughest matchups, should help free up others in the Carolina lineup for better opportunities.

Victor Rask was a on a nice upward career trajectory heading into last season, but clearly took a step back, with his offensive production and possession stats sliding, and he ended up playing a career-low 15:23 per game. Perhaps a fresh start, with a new coach, can help Rask recapture his previous form.

A hard-driving winger with a nose for the net, Brock McGinn has made steady progress since turning pro. On a team that tilts towards finesse, McGinn’s physical play is noteworthy.

After flaming out last season, it’s possible that Marcus Kruger will have the final year of his contract bought out. Of course, a new coach might

also be willing to give Kruger another shot to hold down the fourth-line centre spot.

Elias Lindholm is a reliable two-way player who has some skill, but has yet to surpass the 45-point threshold. He can play centre and wing, but

without an offensive explosion he may be a better fit in the middle six.

A reliable energy winger, Phil Di Giuseppe has 13 goals in 126 career

games, but he bangs in the corners and has held his own in terms of shot and goal differentials.

Checking winger Joakim Nordstrom had a forgettable 2017-2018 season. Might it be forgettable enough for the Hurricanes not to bother with a qualifying offer for the pending restricted free agent?

While the Hurricanes clearly didn’t have enough skill in their forward group last season, that may be about to change. With the second pick in the draft, they should land Andrei Svechnikov, a 6-foot-2 winger who scored 40 goals in 44 regular-season games with Barrie of the Ontario Hockey League.

The 12th pick in the 2017 Draft, centre Martin Necas had a tremendous season in the Czech Republic and at the World Junior Championship. He

needs to get stronger, but could be an impact player when he’s ready for the NHL grind.

After tallying 33 goals in 63 AHL games, Valentin Zykov got a late-season look with the Hurricanes and he put up seven points (3 G, 4 A) in

10 games. He’s probably ready for a legitimate shot to stick in the league.

Carolina has a deep prospect pool, particularly as it pertains to forwards, so it may be time to give some of those younger players a legitimate opportunity to step up to the next level.

Justin Faulk 76 8 23 31 55.4 1.3 96.8 57.8 22:16 $4.833M

Jaccob Slavin 82 8 22 30 55.1 1.0 97.0 47.5 22:35 $5.3M

Brett Pesce 65 3 16 19 54.2

0.0 97.3 49.3 20:54 $4.025M

Haydn Fleury 67 0 8 8 51.5

-4.5 99.5 61.0 16:48 $863K

Noah Hanifin 79 10 22 32 56.2 2.5 96.9 62.8 18:52 $925K RFA

Trevor van Riemsdyk 79 3 13 16 55.3 0.9 99.4 62.2 17:03 $825K RFA

Klas Dahlbeck 33 1 4 5 49.7

-7.3 98.4 56.9 16:22 $850K RFA

The Hurricanes’ co-captain, Justin Faulk is a quality puck-mover on the

back end, but didn’t have a good year in 2017-2018. He played a career-low 22:16 per game and his 31 points was his lowest in a full season

since his rookie year of 2011-2012.

Given team needs throughout the league, though, Faulk would surely bring real value on the trade market. If Carolina feels comfortable with someone else quarterbacking the power play, it may be worth listening to offers.

Jaccob Slavin is a very important part on the Hurricanes blueline.

Although he may not have been quite as good as he was the season before, Jaccob Slavin was still effective in a shutdown role. He’s not a secret any more, but Slavin gets the job done.

Slavin’s frequent partner, Brett Pesce, missed some time with an injury, but was similarly effective in terms of shot suppression. Where the

tandem got burned was in save percentage, which was not uncommon on the team with the worst save percentage in the league.

The seventh pick in the 2014 Draft, Haydn Fleury got his chance to play last season and the 21-year-old struggled. He will need further

development if he’s going to hold down a regular job on the Carolina blueline.

There has been steady progress in the career of 21-year-old Noah Hanifin, and he took a step forward last season, posting strong

possession stats as well as a career-high 32 points. It’s time to unleash Hanifin and increase his ice time – he was still under 19 minutes per game last season.

Acquired from Chicago, via Vegas, Trevor van Riemsdyk was a fine addition to the Hurricanes blueline. He played a little less than he had in the previous two seasons with the Blackhawks, but was reasonably effective in his role.

Klas Dahlbeck has been on the fringe of Carolina’s lineup for a couple of seasons, playing a total of 76 games in the last two years. The Hurricanes get consistently worse results with Dahlbeck on the ice, which

makes it hard for him to emerge as anything but a seventh or eighth defenceman.

Carolina also has another top defence prospect coming, as Jake Bean, the 13th pick in 2016, is ready to embark on his pro career. He may need

some time in the American Hockey League, but it may not be too long before he’s ready to take a regular turn on the Carolina blueline.

Scott Darling 43 13 21 7 .888 .898 $4.15M

Cam Ward 43 23 14 4 .906 .914 $3.3M UFA

The Hurricanes made a big move to address their goaltending problems by signing free agent netminder Scott Darling. He had been excellent, posting a .923 save percentage in three seasons as a backup in Chicago, and it wasn’t an unreasonable move to make at the time. Unfortunately, Darling fell flat in the starter’s role and goaltending remained a major problem for Carolina.

He’s still signed for three more years, so it would seem unlikely that the Hurricanes would buy Darling out already, but they will need to seek out

other viable alternatives in the event that Darling doesn’t bounce back next season.

The free agent market isn’t great. Jaroslav Halak and Jonathan Bernier are unrestricted while Robin Lehner and Petr Mrazek are set to be

restricted free agents, but might not receive qualifying offers, which would leave them to the open market. Some trade possibilities would

include Michal Neuvirth, Garret Sparks, Philipp Grubauer and Aaron Dell. Somewhere, in that list, the Hurricanes ought to find one serviceable goalie, and hope that Darling can return to his previous form.

Martin Necas C 24 9 8 17 0 HC Kometa Brno (Czech)

Jake Bean D 57 12 36 48 -7 Tri-City (WHL)

CAROLINA HURRICANES


Valentin Zykov RW 63 33 21 54 -13 Charlotte (AHL)

Warren Foegele LW 73 28 18 46 +22 Charlotte (AHL)

Janne Kuokkanen RW 60 11 29 40 +17 Charlotte (AHL)

Aleksi Saarela LW 69 25 18 43 +4 Charlotte (AHL)

Julien Gauthier RW 65 16 9 25

0 Charlotte (AHL)

Nicolas Roy C 70 11 27 38 +3 Charlotte (AHL)

Roland McKeown D 65 7 16 23 +34 Charlotte (AHL)

Eetu Luostarinen C 55 6 14 20 -7 KalPa (SML)

Stelio Mattheos RW 68 43 47 90 +7 Brandon (WHL)

Lucas Wallmark C 45 17 38 55

+15 Charlotte (AHL)

Morgan Geekie C 68 30 54 84

0 Tri-City (WHL)

Jeremy Helvig G 56

.916 Kingston (OHL)

Matt Filipe LW 31 5 8 13

+10 Northeastern (HE)

DRAFT

2nd – Andrei Svechnikov, Filip Zadina

FREE AGENCY

The Hurricanes have approximately $48.6M committed to the 2018-2019 salary cap for 12 players.

NEEDS

One top line player, a third-pair defenceman, starting goaltender

WHAT I SAID THE HURRICANES NEEDED LAST YEAR

Two top-nine forwards, depth forwards, one top-four defenceman, another defenceman

THEY ADDED

Justin Williams, Josh Jooris, Trevor van Riemsdyk, Haydn Fleury

TRADE MARKET

Jeff Skinner, Elias Lindholm, Victor Rask, Justin Faulk, Haydn Fleury, Scott Darling

Teuvo Teravainen Elias Lindholm Sebastian Aho

Brock McGinn Jordan Staal Justin Williams

Valentin Zykov Martin Necas Andrei Svechnikov*

Phil Di Giuseppe Victor Rask Jesse Puljujarvi*

Warren Foegele Lucas Wallmark Janne Kuokkanen

Aleksi Saarela Nicolas Roy Julien Gauthier

Brett Pesce Jaccob Slavin Scott Darling

Noah Hanifin Trevor van Riemsdyk Michal Neuvirth*

Haydn Fleury Paul LaDue* Alex Nedeljkovic

Klas Dahlbeck Roland McKeown

Jake Bean Trevor Carrick


1095006 Websites

USA TODAY / Unlike Game 2, Penguins beneficiary of goal review in

Game 4 win vs. Capitals

Kevin Allen, USA TODAY Sports Published 9:17 p.m. ET May 3, 2018 | Updated 12:53 a.m. ET May 4, 2018

The Pittsburgh Penguins lose some, and win some when it comes to goal reviews in these NHL playoffs.

In Game 2 of the Eastern Conference semifinal game against the Washington Capitals, the Penguins believed Patric Hornqvist jammed a

puck into the net. But the referees never saw the puck cross the line, and four cameras used on video review could not verify the goal either.

According the review rules, no proof, no reason to overturn the ruling on the ice. No goal for the Penguins.

On Thursday night, the Penguins were in a similar position when Evgeni Malkin appeared to jab the puck over the line during a goalmouth scramble. Was it in?

This time overhead cameras captured the puck over the line to confirm the goal. But the matter still wasn’t settled, as Washington Capitals coach Barry Trotz challenged on the basis of goaltender interference.

The replay was looked at again, but interference wasn't detected. Good goal, giving the Penguins a lead 2-1 with 2:29 left in the second period.

Malkin's goal ended up standing as the game-winner as the Penguins added an empty-netter to win 3-1 and even the series up at 2-2.

“It’s a good goal, we’re happy,” Malkin said. “Sometimes it’s a bad call against us. Sometimes it’s a good call. But we’re looking at the next

game. We understand it’s not over.”

USA TODAY LOADED: 05.04.2018

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