It's never a bad day when you leapfrog Jaromir Jagr.
A late third-period goal by Pittsburgh Penguins center Evgeni Malkin marked the 148th playoff point of his career, putting him one ahead of the former Penguins captain.
Malkin now trails teammate Sidney Crosby and the legendary Mario Lemieux for the top two spots.
Here's a glance at the Penguins' top five all-time playoff producers:
Chicago Blackhawks general manager Stan Bowman is debunking the notion that the recent firing of assistant coach Mike Kitchen was intended as a warning for bench boss Joel Quenneville following an early playoff exit.
"People think that's the case, even though there's no validity to it," Bowman told Brian Hedger of the Sun-Times from the World Championship in Germany. "I learned a long time ago that you can't control what other people are going to think or say. We know what the truth is, and none of that is accurate. But that's OK. That's the way it goes."
A new assistant has yet to be named, but Quenneville will play an active role in the hiring process.
"We're not delaying it by any means, but you want to make sure you get the right person," Bowman said. "Joel's going to play a big role in that because he's going to be working with that person day to day."
Quenneville was reportedly upset about Kitchen's firing. The pair had coached together in Chicago since 2010, winning Stanley Cups in 2013 and 2015.
Prior to that, Quenneville and Kitchen worked together from 1998-2003 with the St. Louis Blues.
Quenneville was hired by Chicago in 2008 and is the NHL's longest-tenured head coach.
We know hockey players are tough, but just how banged up are the Ottawa Senators after four weeks of playoff battle?
"I've got seven guys who would never play in the regular season right now, ever. They'd be on the sidelines. They are pressing us to play," Senators owner Eugene Melnyk told Prime Time Sports. "One of the boys, he had a cut into the right side just under his rib, and it was as gross as you could ever see - and he's playing, every shift."
Of course, the biggest injury involves captain Erik Karlsson, who was unusually honest after his ailment, announcing prior to Round 2 he has been playing with two hairline fractures in his left foot.
But most impressive has been Karlsson's knack to keep up his high level of play, despite the injury. The offensive blue-liner leads the Senators with 13 points in 12 games.
"When you talk about Karlsson, he's just beyond the best. Many times, I've tried to compare him but there is no comparison on him," Melnyk said. "Every time you think (Karlsson) is in the windshield, he turns out to be a fly somewhere else. He is so good. You're seeing what you're getting. Imagine him healthy."
Karlsson has delivered for the Senators, notching two game-winners in the postseason, including the tally that sealed their second-round series against the New York Rangers.
"I went down to the dressing room after we won," Melnyk continued. "You look at the guy and he could hardly walk, almost carried into the shower when he took his skates off ... How he loses that or controls that pain, I have no idea."
After knocking off the Boston Bruins and the Rangers, the Senators will face their most difficult task this spring in lining up against the defending champion Penguins. A series win would mark Ottawa's first trip to the Stanley Cup Final since 2007.
The Ottawa Senators forward scored his eighth goal of the postseason off a beautiful no-look pass from Bobby Ryan to open the scoring in Game 1 of the Eastern Conference Final versus the Pittsburgh Penguins.
Pageau, by the way, scored 12 goals in 82 games during the regular season.
There's a lot of room out there in three-on-three overtime. Especially on international ice at the World Hockey Championship.
Swiss forward Fabrice Herzog - a fifth-round draft pick of the Toronto Maple Leafs in 2013 - made the most of all that real estate Saturday, dancing around Canadian defenseman Chris Lee before unleashing a filthy backhand - one that Mats Sundin would have been proud of - upstairs past Calvin Pickard.
What a goal. And what a 3-2 comeback win for Switzerland.
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Here are the fantasy ramifications of free-agent G Ben Bishop signing with the Dallas Stars:
Ben Bishop contract details: $7 M, $6.5 M, $5.5 M, $3.5 M, $3.5 M, $3.5 M; and NMC throughout, modified NTC last 3 years
With Bishop under contract, the Stars have $15.3 million locked up in three goaltenders for the 2017-18 season. Kari Lehtonen ($5.9 million) and Antti Niemi ($4.5 million) remain under contract for the next year. One or both are expected to be traded or bought out, as 30-year-old Ben Bishop is in charge of the team's crease for the foreseeable future.
Addressing the status quo
Bishop won't need to do much to improve on the goaltending the Stars have received over the past few seasons. Here's how Niemi and Lehtonen have stacked up since forming as a duo for the start of the 2015-16 season:
NAME
SV%
GAA
RECORD
SO
Niemi
.900
2.92
37-25-11
3
Lehtonen
.904
2.82
47-35-9
5
Lehtonen started 102 games to Niemi's 85 in the two years.
Prior to the 2016-17 season, Bishop had made at least 60 starts in three consecutive seasons with the Tampa Bay Lightning. Here's a look at the cumulative numbers from those years and his injury-ravaged 2016-17 season split between the Lightning and Los Angeles Kings:
YR
GP
SV%
GAA
RECORD
SO
2013-16
186
.922
2.20
112-48-16
15
2016-17
39
.910
2.54
18-15-5
1
While Bishop was still enjoying a modicum of success with the Lightning this past season, his upcoming free agency, age, diminishing performance and the emergence of G Andrei Vasilevskiy rendered him expendable. He served mostly as a backup to G Jonathan Quick in LA, and he lost all fantasy relevance with the trade.
Everything went wrong for the Stars in 2016-17, as they finished the year with just 79 points, a year after winning the Western Conference with 109 points in the regular season. Fantasy owners are rightfully attracted to starting goaltenders from good teams, but Bishop may not be much more alluring than his predecessors.
(Photo courtesy Action Images)
Too little too late
While the recent samples have strongly favored Bishop over both Niemi and Lehtonen, a little deeper look at the past two seasons for each goaltender shows much less separation (chart shows low-, medium- and high-difficulty save percentages at 5v5):
NAME
LD%
MD%
HD%
Lehtonen
97.07
92.85
81.19
Bishop
98.46
91.10
82.25
Niemi
97.68
91.68
80.25
Lehtonen led the way with 102 games played, Bishop played 100 and Niemi played 85. Lehtonen faced 2,119 total shots, Bishop 2,090 and Niemi 1,639.
Lehtonen allowed significantly more rebound shots than Bishop, despite the two playing a similar amount of games and seeing a similar amount of original shots. The closer average shot distance faced by Lehtonen is a factor of team defense and will be something working against Bishop in his first year with the Stars.
At age 30, Bishop is clearly on the decline, with his 6-foot-7 frame likely to face quicker deterioration as a goalie.
Dallas' offense should be capable of leading Bishop to roughly 40 wins if he again sees 60 starts, and he should be able to make his routine 4-5 shutouts. His own decline and the weaker team defense in front of him will lead to a save percentage and goals against average well below his career norms.
Owners should temper expectations for Bishop. He belongs at the back end of the No. 1 fantasy goalies,
The Anaheim Ducks haven't converted with the man advantage in a very long time, and that has to be concerning for a club that at least temporarily relinquished home-ice advantage with a Game 1 loss to the Nashville Predators in the Western Conference Final on Friday night.
The Ducks have gone six full games without scoring on the power play, and haven't tallied one in that situation since Jakob Silfverberg's goal in a Game 2 loss to the Edmonton Oilers in the second round back on April 28.
Anaheim has gone 21 consecutive power-play chances without scoring, and the Ducks are five-for-40 in these playoffs. That works out to a league-worst 12.5 percent success rate among teams still in the postseason.
There were four failed opportunities Friday night, and this about sums up how they went.
The Ducks have survived and advanced to this point in spite of their paltry power play, which ranked 17th in the regular season, but it won't be easy to fix against the Predators, who boast the best penalty kill rate (89.3 percent) among teams still alive in the playoffs.
Anaheim's penalty kill isn't helping, either. The Ducks were fortunate to sweep the Calgary Flames in the first round despite allowing six goals on 16 opposing power-play chances, and Anaheim's 72.3 percent kill rate in the postseason is the worst among the four remaining clubs.
They've made it this far with weak special teams play, but they'll need to figure out a way to both score with the man advantage and stop allowing opponents to do so if they hope to get past Nashville and move on to the Stanley Cup Final.
Nobody is giving the Ottawa Senators a chance in this series. In fact, not one member of theScore's NHL team was brave enough to choose the Sens to advance. Can you really blame us? The Pittsburgh Penguins are the defending champs and just defeated the Presidents' Trophy winners.
But then again, these unpredictable NHL playoffs have been full of Cinderella stories. The Sens are indeed capable of pulling off an upset, though three things in particular will need to come to fruition for it to be possible.
Erik Karlsson needs to be the series' best player
What Erik Karlsson has done this postseason is simply incredible. He has carried his team to the conference finals, tallying 13 points - almost all of them of the highlight-reel variety and in clutch situations - in 12 games, while logging nearly 30 minutes a night, all while dealing with two hairline fractures in his left heel.
The Penguins have three game-breakers: Sidney Crosby, Evgeni Malkin, and Phil Kessel. Ottawa, on the other hand, has just one in Karlsson - and he's basically playing on one leg.
In order for Ottawa's magical run to proceed, Karlsson needs to keep playing at an otherworldly level. He has to be the best player in the series. He needs to make that one mind-blowing pass, or score that one crazy goal that is the difference in a win or a loss. It's a tough task considering the competition, but I don't think anyone can question whether he's up to the challenge.
Craig Anderson needs to outplay Marc-Andre Fleury
(Photo courtesy: Action Images)
Craig Anderson has been good thus far in the playoffs, posting a .914 save percentage and a 2.49 goals-against average. He needs to be great if the Sens are going to pull of an upset.
Not only does he need to be at his best, but he needs to outplay Marc-Andre Fleury, who is playing the best hockey of his career since Pittsburgh's run to the finals in 2008.
Ottawa doesn't have the offensive firepower to win this series if it turns into river hockey. They need to win ugly. They need to play structured and they need to keep the score down. Obviously this is easier said than done, but it's going to require Anderson to be at his very best, or at the very least, better than Fleury.
Ottawa needs to play aggressively, yet disciplined
(Photo courtesy: Getty Images)
The Senators have to play chippy. They need to finish every check. They need to get in Crosby's and Malkin's faces and under their skin. Luckily, they have the cast capable of playing this role.
Everyone knows the type of super pest that Alex Burrows is. But Zack Smith and Tommy Wingels are also able and willing to drive opponents crazy. Don't forget about the nastiness that Marc Methot and Dion Phaneuf play with on the back end, either.
The Sens need to play this aggravating style and make the Penguins uncomfortable on the ice, all while remaining disciplined, something they haven't done a great job of so far in the postseason.
Only the Ducks and Oilers have been shorthanded more times than the Sens. If Ottawa gives Pittsburgh's lethal power play enough chances in this series, it will lose. Staying out of the box is incredibly crucial to the team's success.
Thomas Greiss issued an apology Friday night for approving of controversial Instagram posts during the U.S. presidential campaign, including one that compared Hillary Clinton to Adolf Hitler.
“I apologize for interacting with several posts that appeared in my timeline, which were wrong to engage with,” the New York Islanders goaltender said in a statement through the team, according to Newsday's Arthur Staple.
“‘Liking’ these posts was a mistake, and I sincerely apologize again."
The German goaltender, who's representing his home country at the ongoing World Championship, was criticized by the German hockey federation for his actions, prompting his apology as well as a separate one from his NHL club.
“The New York Islanders do not condone the actions of Thomas Greiss on social media and are addressing the situation internally,” the team wrote in a statement to Newsday. “And Thomas regrets his actions and recognizes that he made a mistake.”
Greiss was the Islanders' starting netminder for most of this season, appearing in a career-high 51 games at the NHL level after signing a three-year extension in January.
James Neal was the hero for the Nashville Predators in Game 1 of the Western Conference Final against the Anaheim Ducks on Friday night, but Mattias Ekholm deserves credit for a tremendous sequence that led to the winner in overtime.
Ekholm played like a man possessed before Neal's goal, embarrassing Corey Perry, driving to the net, recovering the puck, and setting up the decisive marker.
Let's take a closer look at exactly how he did it.
We begin with Ekholm (No. 14 in white) controlling the puck along the boards after taking a pass from Neal.
Ekholm sees Perry closing in on him.
Bye, Felicia.
After burning Perry, Ekholm sets his sights on goal, despite not exactly having a clear path.
He cuts toward the goal as a pair of Ducks (Nate Thompson and Cam Fowler) stand ready to meet him, with Perry trailing Ekholm in hot pursuit.
Ekholm somehow makes it to the front of the net untouched, as the trio of Ducks look on.
He gets a shot off, but it's denied by goaltender John Gibson and the slew of bodies in front of him.
A mad scramble ensues and the puck trickles into the corner, but Ekholm stays with it and regains possession.
Ekholm feeds P.K. Subban, who appears ready to tee up a howitzer.
But it's a fake, and Subban instead dishes off to Neal.
Neal makes no mistake, firing a shot in off Perry's melon to end it.
Ekholm assisted on two of Nashville's goals Friday night, while only Fowler and teammate Roman Josi logged more ice time than Ekholm's 31:05.
Subban's pass and Neal's shot got plenty of attention, and deservedly so, but they wouldn't have been possible without Ekholm's series of impressive plays in the moments leading up to the winner.
