With the offseason underway for a number of teams, with the remainder to join them in a few weeks, we're looking at what's in store for each club in the coming months.

2016-17 Grade: F

The Vancouver Canucks finished the year with the second-worst record in the league, and if not for a few stellar individual performances from Bo Horvat and the remarkable ineptitude of the Colorado Avalanche, they could have easily finished dead last.

To say that the Canucks hit some rough stretches last season would be the understatement of the NHL year.

Vancouver managed losing streaks of at least three games a mind-boggling seven times, including eight- and nine-game tailspins.

Daniel Sedin registered his lowest point total in four years, the blue line struggled mightily, and in net? Well, let's just say somewhere Roberto Luongo is smiling.

Despite already owning a handful of exciting young prospects - such as Olli Juolevi, Nikolay Goldobin, and Jake Virtanen - Vancouver still badly needs an injection of talent before it can start calling itself a playoff contender once again.

The above letter grade also corresponds fittingly with the category the Canucks should file their 2016-17 season under: F, for "Forget it ever happened."

Free Agents

Despite the majority of the Canucks' "core" returning next season, general manager Jim Benning still has a busy summer ahead of him with names like Erik Gudbranson, Ryan Miller, and Horvat on his restricted and unrestricted free-agent lists.

Benning has previously made his opinion known that he believes Miller is the No.1 in Van City, and as recently as April, voiced his desire to have the veteran return next season.

2017 Draft Picks

The Canucks have six picks in the upcoming draft, including a fourth-rounder from the San Jose Sharks that was sent Vancouver's way in the Jannik Hansen trade.

Summer Priorities

Ink Bo Horvat long term

Horvat was by far Vancouver's best player last season, and let's be honest, after him, what do the Canucks have up front to rely on moving forward?

I'll wait.

Strike gold at No. 5

If Vancouver didn't have bad luck they wouldn't have any at all.

However, Cale Makar or Owen Tippet are two names that should still be available at No. 5, and both offer skill sets that would slot in nicely on the Canucks' roster.

It will be interesting to see how the club rebounds from falling in the draft lottery for a second straight season.

Stop the bleeding in net

The goalie situation in Vancouver has been unsettled since the Luongo-Eddie Lack fiasco that plagued the club during the 2013-14 campaign, and last season was no different.

Miller and Jacob Markstrom were each given an opportunity to claim the cage for themselves, but both netminders struggled to find consistency and the team as a whole suffered because of it.

If the Canucks want to even start dreaming of the postseason, they will have to find an answer in the blue paint, and fast.

2017-18 Outlook

Despite Vancouver's crop of exciting young talent - both NHL-ready and otherwise - the next few seasons will be painful for Canucks fans.

The team was dealt another raw hand in the draft lottery and will be forced to select outside of the top three once again, further slowing the rebuild of a club in need of help up and down the lineup.

In short, a lot of things need to go right in the next few months for Vancouver to have a successful 2017-18 season.

If the Canucks can manage to draft well with their top pick, make smart moves in free agency, and get some form of consistent goaltending, then they may be able to treat their fans to playoff puck for the first time since 2015.

Don't hold your breath, Vancouver.

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Oilers defenseman Eric Gryba is taking his club's second-round series with the Anaheim Ducks personally. Extremely personally.

Ahead of Edmonton's Game 7 versus the Ducks on Wednesday night, Gryba cooked himself up an actual duck for dinner Monday.

What the duck?

Gryba, a noted outdoor enthusiast, often fishes, hunts, and cooks. He even has his own hashtag - #grillingwithgryba. This type of dinner menu shouldn't come as a surprise for those who follow him on social media.

The only thing that would have made this more ironic was if Gryba deep fried the duck in oil, rather than barbecuing it with a beer can shoved into its nether regions.

Game 6 was Gryba's first appearance of the series, logging 13:28 with six hits. The hulking D-man should get another chance to feast come Game 7.

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The Washington Capitals and the Pittsburgh Penguins will square off in a winner-take-all Game 7 on Wednesday night in the U.S. Capital. The Caps are surely ecstatic that they have Mr. Game 7 himself, Justin Williams, on their side.

Williams is undefeated in seven Game 7s throughout his 16-year career, tallying an amazing seven goals and seven assists in those contests, per Stephen Whyno of The Associated Press.

The veteran winger has been quiet thus far in the series, recording no goals, three assists, a minus-1 rating, and only 10 shots. Clearly, he is just saving all of his bullets for this do-or-die contest.

Williams, of course, is a three-time Stanley Cup champion, winning with the Carolina Hurricanes in 2006, and the Los Angeles Kings in both 2012 and 2014. He is one of just two Capitals with a Stanley Cup ring (Brooks Orpik being the other) and therefore brings a rare kind of pedigree to a locker room where the majority of players have never played beyond the second round.

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Barry Trotz is a man of few words and even fewer compliments.

So when the reigning Jack Adams Award winner pays tribute to his team, people tend to take notice.

Such was the case following Monday's 5-2 Game 6 victory over the Pittsburgh Penguins. With his Washington Capitals backed into a win-or-go-home scenario, Trotz said his team's veterans stepped up in the clutch.

"That’s good on our leaders, that’s good on our group," Trotz said during his postgame presser. "I thought we’ve had a calmness since probably Game 3.

" ... We're having fun now."

Yeah, winning is usually a lot more fun than losing, but Trotz's assessment is accurate. Washington's go-to guys stepped up when it mattered most.

T.J. Oshie scored his fourth of the playoffs, Nicklas Backstrom netted his sixth, and despite allowing two garbage-time goals, Braden Holtby was solid, saving 16 of 18 shots.

Trotz recognizes that his core group of players are a big reason for the club's turnaround since Game 5.

"It starts with our leadership. Our leadership has (sort of) grabbed hold the last few games and it starts there."

The Capitals will need another strong performance from that same group of leaders Wednesday night in Game 7.

Puck drop is set for 7:30 p.m. ET from Verizon Center.

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Barry Trotz is a man of few words and even fewer compliments.

So when the reigning Jack Adams Award winner pays tribute to his team, people tend to take notice.

Such was the case following Monday's 5-2 Game 6 victory over the Pittsburgh Penguins. With his Washington Capitals backed into a win-or-go-home scenario, Trotz said his team's veterans stepped up in the clutch.

"That’s good on our leaders, that’s good on our group," Trotz said during his postgame presser. "I thought we’ve had a calmness since probably Game 3.

" ... We're having fun now."

Yeah, winning is usually a lot more fun than losing, but Trotz's assessment is accurate. Washington's go-to guys stepped up when it mattered most.

T.J. Oshie scored his fourth of the playoffs, Nicklas Backstrom netted his sixth, and despite allowing two garbage-time goals, Braden Holtby was solid, saving 16 of 18 shots.

Trotz recognizes that his core group of players are a big reason for the club's turnaround since Game 5.

"It starts with our leadership. Our leadership has (sort of) grabbed hold the last few games and it starts there."

The Capitals will need another strong performance from that same group of leaders Wednesday night in Game 7.

Puck drop is set for 7:30 p.m. ET from Verizon Center.

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Dial T.J. Oshie for goals.

The Capitals winger was there again when needed Monday, picking up a goal and an assist in Washington's 5-2 victory over the Pittsburgh Penguins.

It was a must-win game for the Capitals, who entered the contest down 3-2 in their second-round series.

Oshie opened the scoring for Washington, getting on the board at the 12:41 mark of the first period when he fired home a shot from the slot past Penguins netminder Marc-Andre Fleury.

It marked the 30-year-old's third multi-point game this postseason, with the other two contests coming in Round 1 against the Toronto Maple Leafs. In Game 4 against Toronto, Oshie netted twice, including the game-opener before later sealing the contest with the winning tally in the final frame.

A pending free agent, Oshie is coming off a career-best 33-goal campaign. That performance has now carried over to the postseason, where he has reached a career-high 12 points.

As for the Capitals, the Presidents' Trophy winners have rallied for two straight wins after the Penguins carried a 3-1 series lead into Game 5. It appeared the series would be a repeat of a year ago, when the Penguins knocked out the Capitals through six games in the second round.

But things are seemingly different this spring, with Oshie attributing the team's change in perspective as the biggest difference this time around.

"Instead of feeling pressure, we relaxed," Oshie told Carol Maloney of NBC4 Sports.

The Capitals will try for three straight victories and the series win Wednesday on home ice.

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No alarms appear to have been set off after Sidney Crosby took a hard, headfirst crash into the boards only a week after suffering a concussion.

The incident took place late in the opening period of Game 6, with little reaction from the Pittsburgh Penguins during the intermission, according to head coach Mike Sullivan.

Poll: Should Crosby have been pulled from Game 6 after headfirst crash?

According to Elliotte Friedman of Sportsnet, Crosby said the wind got knocked out of him and he was checked out, describing it as "pretty standard stuff."

Crosby saw 19:57 of ice time in the 5-2 loss, recording a record-breaking assist and one shot on goal.

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PITTSBURGH - Andre Burakovsky scored twice, Nicklas Backstrom got his sixth of the playoffs and the Washington Capitals beat the Pittsburgh Penguins 5-2 on Monday night to force a Game 7 in their taut Eastern Conference semifinal.

John Carlson and T.J. Oshie also scored for the Capitals. Braden Holtby stopped 16 to send the series back to Washington for the deciding game on Wednesday night.

Jake Guentzel picked up his playoff-leading ninth goal and Evgeni Malkin added another 52 seconds later late in the third period to make the score look cosmetically better, but the Penguins were never in it. The Capitals controlled play throughout. Marc-Andre Fleury finished with 21 saves and received little help in front him.

This is the fourth time the Penguins and Capitals will meet in a Game 7. Pittsburgh has won each of the three previous deciding games, the last in 2009 in Washington on its way to the Stanley Cup.

The Capitals appeared on the verge of another unceremonious exit at the hands of the Penguins going into the third period of Game 5. The Presidents' Trophy winners responded with a three-goal barrage over the final 20 minutes that extended their season.

The momentum carried over two days later and 250 miles northwest. Washington systematically dismantled the defending Stanley Cup champions, who looked listless as they struggled to generate any kind of sustained pressure.

Pittsburgh coach Mike Sullivan tinkered with his lines after Game 5, reuniting the "HBK" line (Carl Hagelin, Nick Bonino and Phil Kessel) that played an instrumental part in the team's Cup run last spring. Sullivan also moved rookie Guentzel alongside Malkin and put Conor Sheary with Crosby.

Crosby was a nonfactor for a second straight game after sitting out Game 4 with a concussion. He took a nasty spill in the first period when he was slammed into the end boards head-first while he tangled with Carlson. He remained in the game but found little room to work.

Then again, neither did any of his teammates as Washington dominated on both ends of the ice. Pittsburgh's first shot in the opening 17 minutes was a 136-foot flip by Brian Dumoulin that made its way to Holtby. By then the Capitals already had a 1-0 lead on Oshie's shot from the right circle on the power play.

It wasn't unlike most of the first four games of the series, when Washington would control play for long stretches only to have Pittsburgh expertly counterpunch on its way to a 3-1 series lead.

This time, there would be no response by the Penguins. Pittsburgh had trouble executing even the simplest of plays. Defenseman Ron Hainsey went to boards to retrieve a loose puck in the Penguins end only to get checked by Burakovsky, who skated away with the puck and stuffed a shot past Fleury 6:36 into the second.

Holding two-goal leads in the postseason has been a tenuous proposition at best, with 13 times teams letting them away so far in the postseason.

Yet instead of simply trying to protect its advantage, Washington kept pressing. Backstrom flipped a wrist shot by Fleury 16 seconds into the third to make it 3-0 and when Carlson fired on past Fleury 11:17 into the third, the arena began emptying out, perhaps for the last time this season.

Game notes
Penguins D Trevor Daley did not play after getting hit by Washington's Tom Wilson in Game 5. Chad Ruhwedel filled in. ... Washington went 2 for 4 on the power play. The Penguins were 0 for 3.

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