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 linchao
Lieutenant Junior Grade
Joined: Aug 25, 2018
Member#: 8560
Posts: 68
Location: http://www.chicagobearsteamonline.com
    
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 Posted:
Sun Sep 02, 2018 8:20 pm Post subject: Mohamed Bamba Jersey |
 
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Alex Ovechkin is thrilled Tarell Basham Jersey , though hardly satisfied.
The Washington Capitals star is headed to the Stanley Cup Final for the first time in his 13-year career, eager to put more distance between the Eastern Conference champions and a lingering perception of Ovechkin and the Caps as playoff underachievers.
”Finally we get what we want, be in the Stanley Cup Final,” the 32-year-old Russian star said. ”There’s still a lot of hockey to play.”
Ovechkin scored just over a minute into Washington’s 4-0 victory over the Tampa Bay Lightning in Game 7 of the Eastern Conference final Wednesday night.
Braden Holtby stopped 29 shots to notch his second straight shutout. Andre Burakovsky scored two goals, and Nicklas Backstrom added an empty-netter to help the Capitals close it out.
Now, they’ve got to do it again against the expansion Vegas Golden Knights, who are Western Conference champions in their inaugural season.
”I feel very happy, but we’re not finished yet,” Ovechkin said. ”We’ve been waiting for this moment a long time.”
The Golden Knights breezed through the Western Conference, scoring 43 goals and allowing 27 while going 12-3 to eliminate the Los Angeles Kings, San Jose Sharks and Winnipeg Jets during an improbable run to the Stanley Cup Final.
Vegas went 2-0 against the Capitals in the regular season, winning 3-0 at home on Dec. 23 and 4-3 at Washington on Feb. 4.
”It’s a great story. They’re a good hockey team, they have a lot of good players, players from other teams – I know a lot of people say we didn’t want those players Shane Lechler Jersey , but we all did,” Capitals coach Barry Trotz said.
”The rules were the rules. They did a great job, they’ve been galvanized as a group. There’s nothing tighter than that first-year group because there’s no pre-conceived notion. Leadership’s not in place, nobody knows where to live, all those things are galvanizing.”
The Golden Knights’ top scorer during the playoffs has been former Lightning forward Jonathan Marchessault with 18 points (eight goals, 10 assists). Alex Tuch is second among league rookies with nine points (six goals, three assists).
Goalie Marc-Andre Fleury, who’s in the Stanley Cup Final for the third straight season and fifth time overall, has been a huge part of the team’s success, too, with a 1.68 goals-against-average and .947 save percentage.
Fleury and teammate James Neal return to the Cup Final after facing each other in the championship round last year – Fleury with the Pittsburgh Penguins, Neal with the Nashville Predators.
”They’re deep. They’re probably the most veteran team still playing in the playoffs. But they’ve done a fabulous job,” Trotz said. ”They’re a fabulous story. … It’s a great story, not only for our game Jack Youngblood Jersey , but for everybody.”
To reach the Cup Final for the first time since 1998, the Caps beat Tampa Bay three times on the road to run their record to 8-2 away from home this postseason.
The Lightning, the NHL’s highest-scoring team during the regular season, didn’t have a goal over the final 159 minutes, 27 seconds of the series.
Ryan Callahan had Tampa Bay’s last goal at 33 seconds of the second period in Game 5.
”It’s fun. I’m more happy for that group than I am personally,” Trotz said. ”They did it together. Everybody has been in all year. We kept growing on and off the ice.”
And shoving aside a decade of playoff frustration.
”The playoffs are fun,” Trotz added. ”They got to the next level and realized they’re not going to be defined by anything they’ve done or not done in the past.”
—
AP Hockey Writer Stephen Whyno contributed to this story.
—
Winnipeg coach Paul Maurice wants the Jets to focus on fun, not the magnitude of Sunday’s game against the Vegas Golden Knights.
The expansion Golden Knights are up 3-1 in the best-of-seven Western Conference final and could eliminate the Jets and reach the Stanley Cup Final with a victory.
”These are the best games, always are, when everything is on the line,” Maurice said Saturday. ”Everybody will be at their most excited. You have to find a way, and it shouldn’t be very difficult, to love every minute of it. … This has to be your finest hour. Before the puck drops, I’m not talking about the play Deshaun Watson Jersey , be able to get your mind that this is the most fun game of the year now.”
The Jets have accomplished more in the playoffs than the Atlanta Thrashers franchise did before relocating to Manitoba in 2011. They’ve also surpassed the achievements of the original NHL Jets franchise that moved to Arizona in 1996.
As the current Winnipeg team eliminated the Minnesota Wild in the first round in five games and then bounced the Predators in a Game 7 in Nashville, fans from across the country have cheered on the only Canadian team left in the championship run.
Jets defenseman Ben Chiarot and his teammates have seen the adoration, particularly in Winnipeg with their white-clad crowd inside Bell MTS Place and thousands more outside at ”whiteout” street parties around the rink.
Now, though, isn’t the time to let the hopes of hockey fans weigh them down, he said.
”I don’t think you can think about that, how many people we have watching us,” Chiarot said.
”It’s a little daunting when you think of a whole province, or even the whole country, watching us play. So you just focus on what you do and the guys in the room and that’s all we focus on.”
Winnipeg won the first game against the Golden Knights at home.
The Jets had an NHL-best home record of 32-7-2 in the regular season and finished with nine straight victories at home. They added four more in the playoffs, but have lost three of their last four games at home.
In the last two losses to Vegas, the Jets gave up the first goal. When they did tie it up in both matches, the Golden Knights responded with goals in under a minute to regain their lead.
”It’s going to be really important, not only just to score the first Pernell McPhee Jersey , but just to have a good start,” Jets forward Andrew Copp said. ”We felt like we actually started OK last game, just kind of got in penalty trouble early. That can determine how it looks like you start.”
If the Jets can pull out a victory Sunday, Game 6 is Tuesday night in Las Vegas. A Game 7 would be Thursday night in Winnipeg.
Maurice wants his players to approach the do-or-die game like their Game 7 victory in Nashville.
”I want them to take their experience from Game 6 and 7 and create the environment they created there where they came out with an excitement and smile on their face,” he said. ”Going into Game 7, there’s as much pressure in that game as there was here, right? It’s the exact same game. This one is at home. We’ll need that crowd. They’ve been great for us.
”Both teams, all four teams now (left in the playoffs), there’s not quite as much in the tank as there was before. You’re looking to draw on that and go out with an excited smile.”
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