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Alex Ovechkin

Snapshots: Three Stars, Rinne, Dumba

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The NHL released their Three Stars of the Week earlier today, and to absolutely no one’s surprise Alex Ovechkin received the top honors. Ovechkin recorded back-to-back hat tricks last week and seven goals total in his three games, giving him 29 on the season. That puts him on a pace for a career-high, something unthinkable for the 33-year old winger. Ovechkin now has 636 career tallies, and should challenge some of the all-time leaders in the category before he’s finished.

While Ovechkin is racking up his usual accolades, two young centers are trying to carve out their own legacies in the NHL. Mark Scheifele and Jack Eichel were second and third stars respectively, after outstanding weeks. Scheifele especially was a dominant offensive presence, recording 11 points in just four games for the Winnipeg Jets including two overtime winners.

  • Pekka Rinne was expecting retirement after the 2018-19 season. That’s what the goaltender told Alex Prewitt in his latest profile for Sports Illustrated. The Nashville Predators goaltender believed that he would sail off into the sunset after his current seven-year $49MM deal expired at the end of this year, but that all changed when he inked a new two-year extension in November. Rinne is still playing at an incredible level, and going into tonight led the league with a .929 save percentage and 1.96 goals against average. That puts him in prime position to challenge for the Vezina Trophy once again, an award he took home last season after previously finishing as a finalist three times.
  • Mathew Dumba is off to an exceptional start for the Minnesota Wild, with 12 goals and 22 points in just 32 games. The right-handed defenseman also doesn’t shy away from the physical side of the game, as seen this weekend when he took on Matthew Tkachuk of the Calgary Flames in a round of fisticuffs. Unfortunately, Dumba will now be out for at least a week with an upper-body injury. Head coach Bruce Boudreau wouldn’t give much more information on the subject, but did note that it’s not necessarily the worst timing for the team given the holiday break that they’ll enjoy next week.

Minor Transactions: 12/16/18

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Alex Ovechkin scored again for the Washington Capitals last night, his seventh goal in his last three games and likely a spot on the Three Stars list this week. The superstar forward now has 29 goals in 32 games this season and is setting new career highs of one sort or another nearly every night. Now 33, Ovechkin sits 15th all-time in NHL goals and could very well pass Dave Andreychuk in the next few games. While we wait to see his next trick, stick right here to follow all the minor moves around the league.

  • The New York Rangers recalled Boo Nieves last night in preparation of their afternoon tilt with the Vegas Golden Knights today. Nieves has seven points in 12 games for the Hartford Wolf Pack, but has yet to make his NHL debut this season. The 24-year old has just 29 games under his belt at this level and is still looking for a real opportunity to show what made him a second-round pick in 2012.
  • After the team’s 4-3 overtime loss to Vegas Sunday, the Rangers made more moves as they announced they have recalled goaltender Alexandar Georgiev from the Hartford Wolf Pack, while assigning Matt Beleskey and Dustin Tokarski to the AHL team. Georgiev has split time between the Rangers and Hartford, but the 22-year-old has struggled in both places so far this year. Beleskey has appeared in four games this month and has a goal, while Tokarski has yet to make an appearance for the Rangers this season.
  • The Ottawa Senators announced they have assigned defenseman Erik Burgdoerfer and Stefan Elliott to the Belleville Senators of the AHL. That likely suggests that Ottawa is close to getting back Mark Borowiecki and/or Dylan DeMelo back from injury. Burgdoerfer appeared in three games on this callup, while Elliott appeared in two games and had an assist.
  • After the team’s 3-0 victory over Arizona today, the Carolina Hurricanes have assigned three players to the AHL as the team announced that goaltender Scott Darling and forwards Clark Bishop and Janne Kuokkanen have been returned to the Charlotte Checkers. With Carolina not playing again until Thursday, the team may just be giving playing time to all three, although the team might also have the hope that Micheal Ferland, Jordan Staal and Curtis McElhinney might all be healthy enough to play then.
  • The Minnesota Wild have returned winger Luke Kunin to Iowa of the AHL, per the AHL’s Transactions Page.  He played in three games with Minnesota after being recalled earlier in the week, averaging just shy of 13 minutes per night of playing time.  However, with both Mikko Koivu and Jason Zucker expected to return on Tuesday, there’s no longer a spot in the lineup for Kunin.  He’ll return to Iowa where he sits fifth in scoring with 15 points in 21 games.

Poll: Can David Pastrnak Reach Sixty Goals This Season?

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Entering this season, Boston Bruins forward David Pastrnak had already established himself as a star in the NHL. A steal of a draft pick at 25th overall in 2014, Pastrnak stepped right into the Bruins’ lineup that season and never looked back. In 2016-17, he truly broke out with 70 points in 75 games and followed that up with an 80-point campaign last year. Pastrnak scored 34 and 35 goals respectively in those two seasons and seemed destined to improve on that mark as his game continued to mature.

However, no one saw this start coming. Even with all of his early career accomplishments, Pastrnak has never led the Bruins in scoring and was considered by most to be the third-best player on his own line (albeit the NHL’s best line). There were expectations that he could continue to develop and that the goals may come more easily, but Pastrnak’s current clip is relatively unheard of in today’s NHL. Through 20 games, Pastrnak has recorded 17 goals and leads the league my a considerable margin. Tied for second are Brayden Point of the Tampa Bay Lightning and Jeff Skinner of the Buffalo Sabres, who each have just 14 goals and both skated in their 21st game tonight.

While Pastrnak has made a pretty strong case for himself as the Rocket Richard favorite a quarter of the way through the season, is he on his way to a historic season. If Pastrnak keeps up his current goal scoring rate through all 82 games – and he has played in all but seven of 182 regular season and postseason games over the past two years – he would net 70 goals this season. Even assuming he doesn’t play every game or his otherworldly clip falls off, 60 goals is still reasonable for Pastrnak this season. Only twenty different players have ever scored 60+ goals in an NHL season, some multiple times, but it has become increasingly infrequent over time. Since the turn of the century, only two players have reached the mark. Alex Ovechkin scored 65 goals in 2007-08 and Steven Stamkos just narrowly reached 60 goals in 2011-12. The only other player to get remotely close since 2000 was Hall of Famer Pavel Bure with 59 in 2000-01. The days of 60-goal scorers seemed to have passed, but Pastrnak has an actual shot this year.

Other than a possible injury or cold streak, working against Pastrnak could actually be his all-world line mates. Patrice Bergeron, currently sidelined with an upper-body injury, is 33 years old and has had his fair share of injury concerns over the past couple of years. With Bergeron out of the lineup on Saturday night, head coach Bruce Cassidy re-shuffled the lines, separating Pastrnak and Brad Marchand by mixing them in with a middle-six group that, while talented, has been inconsistent and relatively ineffective this year. Bergeron’s availability could dictate Pastrnak’s scoring capacity this season. The same goes for Marchand, who has been well-behaved by his standards thus far, but could be suspended for a substantial amount of time given his history if he was to slip up. Pastrnak independently is an excellent player who does not necessarily need to exclusively play with elite players to be productive. However, to keep up a pace of close to a goal per game, Pastrnak will need the help of Bergeron and Marchand as often as possible.

What do you think? Are we seeing history in the making or just a hot start? Can Pastrnak really crack 60 goals?

Atlantic Notes: Weber, Athanasiou, Pysyk, Kovar

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The Montreal Canadiens have had a nice start to the season with an 8-5-3 record to start the season. However, more good news could be on the way as there was a Shea Weber sighting today as the veteran defenseman took the ice this morning along with David Schlemko, Brendan Gallagher, Noah Juulsen and Carey Price, according to TVA’s Renaud Lavoie.

The team captain was originally scheduled to return sometime in December, so it still may be a while before he fully returns, but this is a step in the right direction for the veteran. Weber could add another key element to a young team that seems to have found some offense from a number of young names and gotten some solid goaltending from Price. Adding Weber to their blueline could only make the team stronger as they start hitting the middle of their season schedule.

  • The Detroit Red Wings like what they see from winger Andreas Athanasiou so far this year. What the 24-year-old has always lacked was competive consistency, which they are finally starting to see everyday, according to MLive’s Ansar Khan. Athanasiou has always had the speed that many people felt he could put up big numbers if he figured things out. However, the best the Red Wings have gotten out of him has been 18 goals, two years ago. Through 13 games so far this season, he already has six goals and nine points and doesn’t show any signs of slowing down. “I know those chances are going to come, so it’s just playing hard when I get out there and capitalizing on those chances,” Athanasiou said.
  • George Richards of The Athletic (subscription required) writes that Florida Panthers defenseman Mark Pysyk remains a healthy scratch for the seventh straight time despite being medically cleared to play again on Thursday, but can’t seem to work his way back into Florida’s lineup. He was knocked out of the lineup after taking a hit from Washington’s Alex Ovechkin on Oct. 19. The hope is he will be in the lineup on Sunday.
  • Jan Kovar was brought overseas with the intention of plugging him in the New York Islanders’ lineup. Two months later has the 28-year-old Kovar playing on a PTO with the Providence Bruins of the AHL, but faring quite well with five goals and nine points in eight games. Could a promotion be in order? “Smart player,” said Boston Bruins general manager Don Sweeney (via Providence Journal’s Mark Divver). “I really like the skills, top of the circles down in the offensive zone. What probably surprises me a little bit, coming from (the KHL), is how gritty he is, as far as playing in high traffic, possession.”
  • The Tampa Bay Lightning announced that defenseman Anton Stralman and forward Adam Erne were out tonight and are listed as day-to-day, both with upper-body injuries. With the return of defenseman Victor Hedman, it looked as if the team’s defense was almost healthy. Instead, the team will be without Stralman for the time being, who was the one to fill many of Hedman’s minutes. Slater Koekkoek remains in the lineup.

 

Agent Mike Liut Set To Bury The “Bridge Deal” This Off-Season

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For some time now, the landscape of NHL contracts has been changing, trending away from short and relatively inexpensive contracts for young restricted free agents. These “bridge deals” had long been used by teams to keep promising young talent on a reasonable price tag after their entry-level contract expired. While teams have been complicit in the movement away from bridge deals, players have simply begun to produce at a much higher level far sooner than in the past and, in turn, agents have demanded more term and salary than they ever had the leverage to command previously. The bridge deal is not yet extinct, but players and their representatives are having a much easier time landing expensive, long-term deals as early as possible in recent years.

While the beginning of the end for affordable youth can be traced back to superstars like Sidney Crosby and Alex Ovechkin – whose cap hits now look like bargains some years later – it is within the last few years that young players of a lesser caliber than the all-world exception have been able to land similar pacts. The architect of multiple recent deals of great length and value has been Mike Liut of Octagon Sports. A former NHLer himself, Liut is the director of Octagon’s hockey division. Forbes reports that Liut manages 22 clients and over $325MM in player salary. His efforts to eliminate the bridge deal have played no small part in that impressive total. Liut negotiated the eight-year, $60MM contract signed by the St. Louis Blues’ Vladimir Tarasenko back in 2015, when Tarasenko had less than 200 NHL games to his credit. He then put together the eight-year, $49MM contract of the Winnipeg Jets’ Mark Scheifele in 2016, before he became the point-per-game player he is today. However, the crown jewel of Liut’s collection has to be the massive eight-year, $68MM contract belonging to the Edmonton Oilers’ Leon Draisaitl. Signed last year, Draisaitl’s deal carries an $8.5MM cap hit that is among the top fifteen players in the league. Yet, Liut somehow landed Draisaitl that deal after just two and half seasons, only one of which was truly impressive.

Now, Liut has a chance at a repeat performance of the Draisaitl deal not once, not twice, not even thrice, but with four different prominent players this off-season. Liut counts Patrik Laine, Mikko Rantanen, Brock Boeser, and Jake Guentzel among his clients and each of those four is set to have their entry-level contract expire this off-season. Winnipeg’s Laine has finished in the top ten in goal scoring in each of his first two seasons and was second only to Ovechkin for the league lead last year. Colorado’s Rantanen recorded 84 points in 81 games last year and currently shares the NHL lead in points and assists. Vancouver’s Boeser finished second in Calder Trophy voting last year and led the Canucks in scoring. Pittsburgh’s Guentzel is a Stanley Cup champion and a proven clutch scorer. Liut has shown an ability to bypass the bridge deal before and has an excellent chance at landing each of these players an expensive long-term deal. Other restricted free agents like Auston Matthews, Mitch Marner, and Sebastian Aho are also certain to land similar deals. As such, in an off-season with an abnormal amount of high-profile RFA’s, each one could end up with an expensive, long-term extension. The effect, as Liut hopes, that the bridge deal dies as a result.

Poll: Early Hart Trophy Favorite?

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It may be the slowest stretch of the off-season, but the odds-makers at Bovada are staying busy. As Sports Illustrated’s Michael Blinn writes, the first odds for the NHL’s MVP Award, the Hart Trophy, for the 2018-19 season are out. Very few could have predicted that the New Jersey Devils’ Taylor Hall would have taken home the title this past season at this point last year. Is next year’s winner even on the board? Or will it be one of the heavy favorites?

To no surprise, Edmonton Oilers phenom Connor McDavid has the best odds to win the Hart for the second time in three years after being crowned in 2017. McDavid has 10/3 odds to win the award and those are actually pretty fair odds. Even last season, when McDavid was not even a finalist for the Hart, he nevertheless was the league’s leading scorer with 108 points, six more than the next-best player. It was the second season in a row that McDavid won the scoring title and that trend seems unlikely to change if he remains healthy. However, there are some who will say that McDavid’s Hart chances are tied to the success of the Oilers. The argument this past season was that he could not truly be the most valuable player in the league when his contributions still left Edmonton far from a playoff spot. With a roster that has been largely unimproved this off-season, another regular season disappointment for the Oilers could make it hard for McDavid to get back on top.

Next up is two-time Hart winner Sidney Crosby at 13/5. The face of the Pittsburgh Penguins dynasty has long been considered the best player on the planet. Yet, one would think that Crosby might actually have more than two MVP titles. Crosby has scored between 84 and 120 points in every healthy season of his career, but his impressive supporting cast detracts from the impact of those unbelievable numbers. Especially last season, when Crosby was narrowly outscored by both Evgeni Malkin and Phil Kessel, it would have been close to impossible for him to win the Hart. Malkin (18/1 odds) and Kessel (75/1 odds) are still Penguins and barring injuries to one or both, Crosby would have to take his game to an even higher level to get back into Hart consideration.

Maple Leafs centers John Tavares and Auston Matthews both have 10/1 odds to win the Hart, as the odds-makers clearly expect there to be plenty of offense to go around in Toronto next season. Injuries held Matthews to 63 points last season, outside the top 50 in scoring, while a healthy Tavares only managed to tie for sixteenth with 84 points for the New York Islanders. Both players will greatly need to improve their production to be Hart – and it is certainly possible now that they are playing together – yet an improvement by both could land them in Crosby/Malkin territory where they cancel each other out in the Hart race.

Reigning Stanley Cup, Conn Smythe, and Maurice Richard winner Alex Ovechkin also has 10/1 odds to take home the Hart. Ovechkin has done it three times before, more than any other active player in the league. However, Ovechkin’s 49 goals last year only came with 38 assists, as his 87 points kept him outside the top ten in scoring. At 33 years old this season, the Washington Capitals captain will have to fight both the aging process and a potential Cup hangover to improve his production if he wants a fourth Hart. Ovechkin’s 10/1 odds seem like a stretch.

At 15/1 are both the 2018 winner Hall and finalist Nathan MacKinnon, as well as Nikita Kucherov and Mark Scheifele. This is where the value lies in these early odds. The former duo greatly benefited from both excellent seasons – 97 points for MacKinnon and 93 points for Hall – but also being far and away the best players on the New Jersey Devils and Colorado Avalanche respectively. Both should again lead the way for their clubs and if they match their previous output and again sneak into the postseason, it would be no surprise to see them both back in consideration next year. As for Kucherov, he was the favorite to win the Hart for a long stretch last season as he led the league in scoring. Although his production tailed off as the season closed out, the dynamic Tampa Bay Lightning winger still managed to finish third with 100 points. Tampa will be top contenders again and promise to light up the score board with Kucherov leading the way. Perhaps this time he can seal the deal on the Hart. Scheifele is a dark horse candidate who could be the breakout star of the coming season like Hall and MacKinnon last year. The Winnipeg Jets franchise center played in only 60 games last year, but scored 60 points and continues to show flashes of brilliance. He could be a savvy pick to take home the hardware.

Among the rest of the field are some very interesting options. Los Angeles Kings star Anze Kopitar, a Hart finalist last season, has 18/1 odds and new weapon to play with in Ilya Kovalchuk (50/1 odds). Philadelphia Flyers captain Claude Giroux has 25/1 odds despite finishing second only to McDavid at the top of the scoring charts last season with 102 points. Boston Bruins winger Brad Marchand, also 25/1 odds, was arguably the most dangerous scorer in the league last season when on the ice, finishing 13th overall in scoring with 85 points in just 68 games – the only player in the top 50 to play in less than 70 games. Bargain odds belong to Artemi Panarin at 50/1. The Columbus Blue Jackets dynamo gets better each year since coming over to the NHL and could toy with 100 points in his second year with the team. That would make for an interesting off-season, as Panarin is slated for free agency next summer.

What do you think? Does Bovada have the right names at the top? Or will the Hart winner be another unpredictable upset like Hall?

Salary Cap Deep Dive: Washington Capitals

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Navigating the Salary Cap is probably one of the more important tasks for any general manager to have. Teams that can avert total cap chaos by walking the tightrope of inking players to deals that match their value (or compensate for future value without breaking the bank) remain successful. Those that don’t see struggles and front office changes.

PHR will look at every NHL team and give a thorough look at their cap situation heading into the 2018-19 season. This will focus more on those players who are integral parts of the roster versus those who may find themselves shuttling between the AHL and NHL. All cap figures are courtesy of CapFriendly.

Washington Capitals

Current Cap Hit: $78,400,961 (under the $79.5MM Upper Limit)

Entry-Level Contracts

F Jakub Vrana (One year remaining, $863K)

With the team trying to make a Stanley Cup run over the past few years and finally capturing one, youth is in rare supply in Washington as the team has made it clear that it prefers to play its veterans rather than risk mistakes from youngsters. The only player who is still on an entry-level deal is Vrana, who has had a turbulent career so far with the Capitals. After spending a couple of years in the AHL, he finally got a full season with Washington this year, but the former first-round pick was never able to secure a full-time role in the team’s top six as he bounced around on different lines all season. He finished the year with 13 goals and 27 points, but put up another three goals and eight points in the playoffs. He has a chance to take on a full-time role on the team’s second line this season and hopes for a breakout season.

Potential Bonuses

Vrana: $600K

Total: $600K

One Year Remaining, Non Entry-Level

F Andre Burakovsky ($3MM, RFA)
F Brett Connolly ($1.5MM, UFA)
D Brooks Orpik ($1MM, UFA)
F Devante Smith-Pelly ($1MM, UFA)
D Christian Djoos ($650K, RFA)
F Nic Dowd ($650K, UFA)
F Chandler Stephenson ($650K, RFA)
F Nathan Walker ($650K, RFA)
G Pheonix Copley ($650K, UFA)

The Capitals have only a few significant free agents for next season as many of their deals are league-minimum contracts, which is necessary considering the amount of money the team has expended in keeping their roster together. Perhaps the biggest name on their free agent list will be Burakovsky, who many thought might have a breakout season with a bigger role last year. However, Burakovsky’s numbers decreased as his season was plagued with injuries. His 12 goals and 25 points in 56 games was the worst since his rookie season. However, he did post six points in 13 playoff games. If he can stay healthy, the 23-year-old could provide the team with more offense.

Due to the Stanley Cup win, the team was able to find a way to bring back several key role players on cheaper deals. The team assumed they would lose Smith-Pelly to free agency, but the 26-year-old opted to return for another playoff run, while long-time Capital Orpik was traded away, waived and opted to return for another year.

Two Years Remaining

F Nicklas Backstrom ($6.7MM, UFA)
G Braden Holtby ($6.1MM, UFA)
D Madison Bowey ($1MM, RFA)
F Travis Boyd ($800K, RFA)

The team does have to worry about Backstrom in two years. The team’s No. 2 center is still posting excellent numbers as he tallied 21 goals and 70 points last season, the fifth straight season he’s reached at least 70 points. However, the team will have a tough decision to eventually make as the veteran will be 32 when he gets awarded a new contract, which can get into a dangerous area when players hit their early 30’s.

Holtby will be another interesting case. After temporarily losing his starting job to Philipp Grubauer for a few weeks near the end of the season due to poor play (2.99 GAA, .907 save percentage), Holtby snapped out of it and posted dominant numbers throughout the playoffs (2.16 GAA, .922 save percentage) showing he still has what it takes to be a top-of-the-line goaltender. While the 28-year-old should still be in his prime in two years, the team also has top goaltending prospect Ilya Samsonov arriving in North America this season. He’ll likely start the season in the AHL, but he will likely be ready to take the reigns once Holtby’s deal expires.

Three Or More Years

F Alex Ovechkin ($9.54MM through 2020-21)
D John Carlson ($8MM through 2025-26)
F Evgeny Kuznetsov ($7.8MM through 2024-25)
F T.J. Oshie ($5.75MM through 2024-25)
D Matt Niskanen ($5.75MM through 2020-21)
F Tom Wilson ($5.17MM through 2023-24)
D Dmitry Orlov ($5.1MM through 2022-23)
F Lars Eller ($3.5MM through 2022-23)
D Michal Kempny ($2.5MM through 2021-22)

The team decided more than a year ago that they were going for it, which worked out perfectly last season. The team has done a fantastic job locking up its core, although many of the pricetags are quite generous, which could come to hurt them. However, now that the team has won the Stanley Cup, the team is going all out to win another as the team has locked up all of their critical free agents this year, signing Carlson as a long-term answer as their top defender as well as locking in Wilson. That gives them a solid core for the next many years. That should give them two or three years to attempt to capture another title. However, eventually this team will be weighed down by these contracts, much like the Chicago Blackhawks, but Washington is focused on the future.

The team may be forced into handing out another long-term extension to Ovechkin in three years, depending on how the 32-year-old fares in three years, but the deal would unlikely be more than he is already being paid.

Buyouts

None

Still To Sign

None

Best Value: Holtby
Worst Value: Wilson

Looking Ahead

The Capitals are quite used to dealing with little to no cap space and will have to do that again for a number of years to come. However, the team has managed to keep not just the core of their team together, but have also managed to bring back multiple role players at bargain prices to keep this team at a Stanley Cup level. With new deals to players like Carlson and Wilson, should challenge for a few more years, but age and those long-term deals will eventually hold the franchise after that. However, the team has already proven that their tactics are worth it after winning it all last season.

Photos courtesy of USA Today Sports Images.

Alex Ovechkin Awarded Conn Smythe Trophy

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The Conn Smythe Trophy, awarded to the MVP of the postseason, could have gone to several players on the Washington Capitals based on performance alone. Yet it really could not have gone to anyone but captain Alex Ovechkin. Yes, he led the postseason in goals and set a franchise record in playoff goals as well, but really this is indicative of the role that Ovechkin played as the locker room leader for the Capitals and the best player in franchise history.

En route to the team’s first ever Stanley Cup championship, Ovechkin scored 15 goals and totaled 26 points, the second most on the team to Evgeny Kuznetsov. He logged major ice time, played a physical game, and overloaded opposing goaltenders with shots. Ovechkin did everything right, on and off the ice, to finally get the Caps over the hump and to the Cup.

This Conn Smythe is also very much a career achievement award. Ovechkin is a career-Capital, the first overall pick in 2004 and the long-time captain. He is not only the face of the franchise, but one of the best players in the NHL since the turn of the century. He is a surefire Hall of Famer eventually, but undoubtedly has already earned the title of the best player in Washington history. Ovechkin is the franchise leader in goals and points, single season and career, and games played. He is a three-time Hart Trophy winner, a seven-time Maurice Richard Trophy winner, an Art Ross Trophy winner, Calder Trophy winner, and seven-time All-Star; but he now has the ultimate prize, a Stanley Cup, and that is what he needed to go down as one of the best. A well-deserved Conn Smythe win for Ovechkin.

Washington Capitals Win 2018 Stanley Cup Championship

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For the first time in 44 years, the Washington Capitals are Stanley Cup champions. The 1974 expansion team won the first title in franchise history with a 4-3 victory over the Vegas Golden Knights in Game Five. The long-suffering fan base that has seen more President’s Trophies than Conference Championships in the team’s history can finally breathe a sigh of relief and celebrate their team getting over the hump. The Stanley Cup belongs to the Capitals in 2018.

Leading the charge for Washington in the postseason and in the deciding game was of course Alex Ovechkin. The franchise leader in scoring fittingly led the team in playoff goal scoring and set the franchise record for goals in a playoff by notching his 15th en route to a win the first title in franchise history. Evgeny Kuznetsov led the team with 32 points in the postseason, adding an assist in Game Five and leading all forwards in ice time. Lars Eller potted the game-winning goal mid-way through the third period to cap off an excellent postseason in which he took his game to the next level and was a clutch presence for the Capitals. Of course, none of this would have been possible without the play of goaltender Braden Holtby, who won back the starter’s job early in the postseason after a tough regular season and went on to make brilliant save after brilliant save these past month, especially in the Final. Not to be forgotten are key contributors like long-time Capitals Nicklas Backstrom, John Carlson and Jay Beagle, T.J. Oshie, Matt Niskanen, and Brooks Orpik among others. Head coach Barry Trotz should also be commended for his excellent work and on a career that, like his superstar forward, has always lacked one thing: a title. Not anymore, as Trotz and the Caps are champs.

However, this win is also about the players that came before this team who have long waited for a title to come to Washington. Peter Bondra, Mike Gartner, Dale Hunter, Olaf Kolzig and others can all enjoy what this team has accomplished and what the last four decades have led to.

The achievements of George McPhee, Gerard Gallant, and Vegas Golden Knights, an expansion team in their inaugural season, cannot possibly be overstated. Yet, this franchise has a bright future and is unlikely to have a long wait for their own title. Washington fans had waited long enough. After 44 years, the Washington Capitals are champs and D.C. is a title town once again after 26 years.

 

Perron, Carrier Draw In For Vegas In Game Five

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If the amount of Washington fans able buy Game Five tickets off of Vegas fans or the look on Alex Ovechkin’s face is any indication, this Stanley Cup final series is already over. However, the Golden Knights are not going to give up that easy. Underestimated since their inception, the team knows how to fight through adversity and tonight is no different.

To shake things up in an effort to extend the series, head coach Gerard Gallant has made some surprise changes to his lineup. Per beat writer Steve Carp, drawing back in after being a scratch in the last game is veteran winger David Perron. He will be joined by energetic checker William Carrier, who has missed the past ten games due to injury. Yet Tomas Tatar will remain in the lineup for the Knights after filling in for Perron in Game Four. Instead, bottom six contributors Ryan Carpenter and Ryan Reaves will take a seat for what may be the team’s final game of their inaugural season. Here is the projected lineup.

While Perron’s production has slowed in the postseason – no goals and eight assists in fourteen games – he in undeniably an offensive upgrade to Carpenter or Reaves. The 30-year-old winger has 444 points in 722 NHL games, including a career-high 66 points with Vegas this year. If the Knights plan to outscore the Capitals tonight, they will need both Perron and Tatar on the ice. While Carrier may be cold, he is also a pesky defensive presence and a vicious, but clean checker. Carrier brings a different element to the bottom six that Vegas has been lacking and could help to slow down the torrid Caps attack.

Will these moves make a difference? Tune in to a possibly deciding Game Five to find out.

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