Crosby missed the opening six games of the regular season due to a concussion. In eight playoff games to date, he'd recorded four goals, seven assists, and 21 shots.
Game 4 is set for Wednesday in Pittsburgh with the Penguins holding a 2-1 series lead.
We're convening an emergency session of "On the Fly" after the cross-check seen across the hockey world Monday in Pittsburgh, where Sidney Crosby was forced from Game 3 after taking Matt Niskanen's stick to his head. Our takes on whether it was clean or dirty, and whether there was intent to injure, are below.
Josh Wegman: There was zero intent to injure on Alex Ovechkin or Matt Niskanen's part. Crosby had an excellent scoring chance, so Ovechkin intended to give him a whack on the hands to prevent it. He was willing to take a two-minute slashing penalty to do so. It's part of hockey. I've been slashed harder in men's league. It's just unfortunate that Crosby turned his body into Ovechkin to shield the puck as he was about to be slashed.
As for Niskanen, he was simply protecting himself. Crosby came flying into him, and it's the natural human reaction to raise your hands and shield yourself. Anyone who's played hockey knows this. In fact, Niskanen barely even raised his hands. Crosby was already falling down when he crashed into Niskanen's stick. If he was really trying to injure him, it would have been a much more deliberate cross-check in which his stick was cocked back and then shoved forward.
It's a shame the league's best player was hurt (let's hope it's not serious), but the NHL got it right by not dishing out a suspension to Ovechkin or Niskanen.
(Photo courtesy: Getty Images)
Navin Vaswani: The only premeditated act on the play was Ovechkin's two-handed slash to Crosby's right arm. In fact, Crosby was slashed so significantly that Ovechkin's stick bounced off 87's arm, off Ovechkin's shoulder pad, and then whacked Crosby on the back of his helmet. No penalty, of course, #BecauseItsTheCup.
Ray Ferraro knows what's up:
1) Crosby play last night. Why isn't Ovi slash even considered for a penalty? Because standard for playoffs is diff than season and a joke
More than Niskanen cross-checking Crosby, Crosby collided with - most unfortunately - Niskanen's stick. The defender saw a player about to collide with him, and his natural instinct was to get his hands up and protect himself. He happened to be holding a hockey stick at the time.
The game's way too fast for Niskanen to have thought, "Hey, here comes Crosby with a low center of gravity. He's going to skate right into me. If I get my stick up and cross-check him in the head, it won't look like it was on purpose, and Crosby will be done for the game, and maybe the series. Everybody wins!"
Come on. You can't actually believe that.
I get Penguins' fans' anger and concern. It's natural. Of course the Capitals are targeting Crosby - every team targets Crosby. But it's absurd to say they intentionally took out the best player in the world, who has a history of head injuries, with a deliberate headshot.
If you want to be mad, be mad about the slash, and the fact the game is policed entirely differently in the postseason.
(Photo courtesy: Action Images)
Ian McLaren: Hockey is better when Crosby is playing it.
We can debate and argue until we're blue in the face as to whether Niskanen intended to injure the Penguins captain with a cross-check to the head early in Game 3, or whether Ovechkin purposefully initiated the ugly incident with the ugly two-handed slash to Crosby that preceded it. The NHL's powers that be ultimately have the final say, and have ruled Niskanen's major penalty and game misconduct as sufficient punishment, while Ovechkin's stick work will go unchecked outside of the court of public opinion.
From a discipline point of view, then, the incident is in the past.
What's yet to be determined is whether Crosby - who remains the game's best player - will be able to suit up for Game 4 and beyond, and if the ugliness that erupted in Game 3 will spill over and sully what should be the most competitive series of the postseason.
If so, hockey loses, even while one of these teams prevails.
Craig Hagerman: The fact Crosby went down with an injury is certainly a huge blow to not only the Penguins, but the sport. However, claiming Niskanen and Ovechkin purposefully targeted Crosby is ridiculous.
Lost in most of the discussion regarding the play is how fast everything happened. It's hard to plan to injure someone like that in a half-second, but very easy to argue the contrary while looking at slow-motion replays. Niskanen was certainly attempting to be physical on Crosby - that's his job - but when Crosby was knocked off the puck by Ovechkin, he came into Niskanen in an unfortunate position, and we all know what happened next.
As for the Ovechkin slash, that was a backchecking player trying to stop the most dangerous goal-scorer from doing his job. Once again lost in discussion of the Ovechkin slash is the way Crosby pivots his body at the last moment. You can see Ovechkin's stick go for Crosby's stick and then ride up when Crosby pivots - that's when Ovechkin knows he's not going to get Crosby's stick, but, again, it all happens in a split second.
It's an unfortunate play, but there's little merit in suggesting there was intent to injure
Zaitsev is coming off his first season in the league after signing in the offseason as a free agent following seven seasons in the KHL.
The 25-year-old played in all 82 games during the regular season, finishing third in rookie points by a defenseman and second among Maple Leafs blue-liners with 36.
Nikita Zaitsev's extension includes a limited no-trade clause.
In addition to Zaitsev, the Maple Leafs also announced the signing of forward Ben Smith to a one-year, $650,000 deal. Smith managed just two goals and two assists in 36 games with the Maple Leafs, but with 40 games played split between the Maple Leafs and Colorado Avalanche he is now eligible for the expansion draft.
Erik Karlsson is apparently fine to abide by the Allen Iverson workout routine.
Ottawa's captain was missing from practice Monday, but returned Tuesday, and while his presence is undoubtedly a welcome site, it appears head coach Guy Boucher is indifferent.
"To be honest, I don't think he needs to practice. And I've never said that about a player in my life," Boucher said, according to Sportsnet's Chris Johnston.
Indeed, with a Norris Trophy nomination, the third-most points among defenseman in the regular season, and a share of the lead for points at his position in the postseason, maybe Karlsson's practiced enough.
With a majority of the focus on Matt Niskanen's cross-check to the head of Sidney Crosby early in Game 3, Hall of Fame defenseman Paul Coffey wants to talk about what happened immediately before the incident.
"The thing everybody’s overlooking - and we’ll never, never know because Sid got hit twice - is the two-hander he took to the back of the neck and the head by Ovechkin," Coffey, a former Penguin, said Tuesday on 590 The Fan, per Luke Fox of Sportsnet.
"When Crosby was falling down, that could’ve been the initial blow that hurt him. Nobody knows, and nobody’s talking about that. That was a brutal two-hander by Ovechkin to Crosby when he was going to the net."
The question, in Coffey's mind, is whether Crosby's injury was suffered on the slash, the cross-check, or both. Niskanen won't face a hearing for his actions, but the NHL's attention should be on Ovechkin's stick work, Coffey argues.
"I've got nothing against Ovechkin. I think he's a great player. (But) I honestly think that's what the league should be looking at," he said. "We don't know if he was out of it when he was falling down. We'll never know. Sid's the only guy that knows that."
Niskanen received a five-minute major for cross-checking and a game misconduct, while Ovechkin went unpenalized.
Do you ever wonder what it would be like to be commissioner of the National Hockey League for a day? What would you keep? What would you change?
The on-ice product is absolutely awesome right now. I applaud the NHL for making the game great again, as rule changes over the last few years have put the focus on skill and talent.
So, what would I change? My beef is with the playoff format.
The NHL playoff setup, to me, is confusing at best. A team can have a great regular season, and still find itself with a daunting early-round matchup.
In the Eastern Conference, the Washington Capitals (118 regular-season points and the Presidents' trophy) having to play the Pittsburgh Penguins (111 points) in the second round of the playoffs, while the Ottawa Senators (98 points) face the New York Rangers (102 points) makes no sense to me. Then you have the Columbus Blue Jackets (108 points) truly getting the shaft, facing the defending Stanley Cup champion in the first round.
How does this even begin to make sense? What’s the point of the regular season?
Washington scratched and clawed and beat itself up during an 82-game schedule to finish as the best regular-season team in the NHL. The reward? A second-round matchup against the reigning champ and the second-best team in the league.
Meanwhile, two teams with fewer points than either Washington or Pittsburgh are playing each other for the same payoff: a trip to the conference final.
So basically, Washington and Pittsburgh are being punished for playing in the more difficult Metropolitan Division, while Ottawa is being rewarded for competing in the less-competitive Atlantic.
If that's the case, why try so hard during the regular season? As a team, you might as well focus instead on staying healthy and just getting into the playoffs. Let the other teams beat the crap out of each other beforehand, because it doesn’t matter as long as you get in.
My solution?
I say rewarded your division winners as is, and scrap the wild card. Then, reseed after the first round.
With my method, the first round would have looked like this:
Washington (118 points, division winner) vs. Toronto (95)
It’s a simple change and rewards teams for better regular seasons. Columbus doing what it did, and then being punished by having to play Pittsburgh in the first round isn’t right.
Some might not like this, but hey, that’s the benefit of having a better regular season. If you don’t like it, then don’t complain to me about how the regular season means nothing.
Actually, maybe playing commissioner isn’t as fun as I thought. I can hear the booing and name-calling now.
So, Mr. Bettman, you can have your job. It will never matter who the head of the National Hockey league is - you’re definitely going to get booed.
The Chicago Blackhawks have dipped into the European free-agent pool, signing Czech forward David Kampf to a two-year deal, the club announced Tuesday.
Kampf, 22, enjoyed a breakout season in the Czech Extraliga (the top league in the country), scoring 15 goals and adding 16 assists in 52 games with Chomutov Pirati. He also contributed 10 points in 15 postseason games.
Kampf is listed at 6-foot-2, 192 pounds, shoots left, and plays right wing.
The Blackhawks have had success plucking undrafted European free agents, such as Artemi Panarin, but don't expect the same kind of immediate impact.
Kampf will likely begin 2017-18 in the AHL, but with a strong showing in Rockford, he could easily earn his way onto the big club - potentially into a top-six role, where the Blackhawks have some holes.
The second round of the NHL playoffs is nearly one week old, and through 11 games the New York Rangers are the only club without a win.
It's a sign that things are tight in the second round and every team has gotten strong contributions from somewhere. However, it's not always the big goal or even the strong performances that impact a series most.
Here are five players making their marks on the second round:
Braden Holtby
Holtby's rollercoaster three games against the Pittsburgh Penguins have made this Eastern Conference matchup a compelling one.
Holtby had a forgettable Game 1, giving up three goals on 21 shots - including two to Sidney Crosby in less than a minute - and followed that up with an even worse Game 2 that saw him replaced to start the third period.
However, he rebounded in a big way Monday, going nearly perfect until a late Penguins surge. In the end, he helped the Capitals earn an overtime win and get back into the series.
Jean-Gabriel Pageau
Even if Pageau doesn't do another thing the rest of the postseason, he can still be credited with a game for the ages.
The Ottawa Senators forward scored four goals Saturday, including the double-overtime winner in a wild 6-5 comeback. Pageau scored two goals in the final 3:19 to send the game to overtime where he finished it off just over 23 minutes later.
A Rangers win would've halved the series and given New York home-ice advantage, but now the pressure is on the Metropolitan club to respond at Madison Square Garden. All thanks to a kid they call the "Honey badger."
Jakob Silfverberg
Silfverberg might be public enemy No. 1 in Edmonton.
The Anaheim Ducks forward has scored in each of the first three games and was monumental in the Ducks' 6-3 win Sunday.
Silfverberg posted two goals and an assist to give him six tallies and eight points in seven playoff games. He's gaining a knack for elevating his play in the postseason and the Ducks are all the better for it.
The Ducks are still in a 2-1 hole, but things could quickly even up if Silfverberg keeps doing his thing.
Ryan Ellis
As everyone predicted, the Nashville Predators are cruising along in the second round thanks to their leading scorer, Ellis.
Wait, what?
Yes, the Predators defender paces the club with eight points in seven games and has not gone pointless since Game 1 of Round 1. He's posted two goals and four points in the first three games against the St. Louis Blues and helped his team jump out to a 2-1 series lead.
The Predators are getting incredible contributions from their defense this postseason and Ellis is leading the pack.
Sidney Crosby
Crosby was riding a six-game point streak before being knocked out of Monday's contest by Matt Niskanen just 2:11 in.
He netted two goals in 52 seconds in Game 1 to help the Penguins cruise to a 3-2 victory and followed that up with two helpers in Game 2.
However, his biggest impact was likely felt in his absence in Game 3, as the Penguins chased the game for nearly 52 minutes before an epic comeback. In the end, though, the Capitals prevailed, but we could be talking about a 3-0 series deficit had Crosby been given the opportunity to extend his point streak.
The NHL has so much talent in the game today, making it difficult to select just three finalists for the Hart Memorial Trophy, awarded to the "player judged most valuable to his team."
Burns' season was absolutely insane when you really think about.
He led the league in shots on goal with 320, becoming the first defenseman to do so since Ray Bourque in the lockout-shortened season of 1994-95.
He also finished first among NHL defenseman with 76 points - which led the Sharks - and his 29 goals tied Joe Pavelski for the club lead. He was invaluable to his team.
Burns did lead the league in giveaways, but that's what comes with playing such a high-risk game. He still finished plus-19 with an expected plus/minus of plus-9.6.
Burns also finished with a league-best 15.3 point shares. To put that into perspective, here are the top 10 point share leaders, per Hockey Reference:
Rank
Player
PS
1.
Brent Burns
15.3
2.
Sergei Bobrovsky
14.9
3.
Cam Talbot
14.0
4.
Frederik Andersen
13.1
5.
Devan Dubnyk
13.1
6.
Erik Karlsson
12.9
7.
Robin Lehner
12.9
8.
Connor McDavid
12.8
9.
Carey Price
12.6
10.
Brad Marchand
12.6
Perhaps most important, though, is that Burns carried a Sharks team amid Joe Thornton's dramatic decline and a less drastic one from Pavelski.
The Sharks finished 19th in goals after ranking fourth a year ago, but Burns still managed to increase his own point total. And the club finished with more points in the standings this year than the one that went to the Cup Final last spring, largely because Burns put it on his back.
Erik Karlsson, D, Senators
Karlsson's point total fell from a team-high 82 last season to a still-team-high 71 this year, but his offensive decline was for the betterment of the Senators.
Guy Boucher was hired as the club's head coach this past offseason, and he implements a very defensive style of play by trapping up the neutral zone in the 1-3-1 setup.
Karlsson bought in immediately.
His ice time dipped over two minutes per game in order to conserve some energy for later in the year (he still averaged 26:50), but he improved his defensive play.
Karlsson finished with a plus-10 rating and an expected plus/minus of plus-7.0. He set a career high with 5.7 defensive point shares and finished second in the entire league with 201 blocked shots.
Karlsson also carried the Senators to the postseason, as Ottawa finished second in the Atlantic Division despite playing without its starting goaltender for almost half the campaign.
Nikita Kucherov, RW, Lightning
There are two main reasons why Kucherov wasn't a Hart Trophy finalist:
1) He's a winger. 2) His team missed the playoffs.
He finished tied for second in the NHL with 40 goals and tied for fifth in points with 85. The career year took place despite the Lightning missing Steven Stamkos for practically the entire season, while two players they were counting on to pick up the slack - Tyler Johnson and Ondrej Palat - had down seasons.
Furthermore, Tampa traded its starting goaltender, Ben Bishop, and its primary penalty-killing and shutdown center, Brian Boyle, at the deadline in exchange for draft picks, but Kucherov still got the Lightning - who had been largely written off - within one point of the final wild-card spot in the Eastern Conference with 19 goals and 36 points over the final 23 games.
He finished the season fourth in offensive point shares and third in goals created per game.
