The Washington Capitals got the pageantry of winning the Stanley Cup — the banner-raising
http://www.floridapanthersteamshops.com/authentic-james-reimer-jersey , one last celebration with their fans — out of their system Wednesday when they opened the 2018-19 season, although a 7-0 win over the visiting Boston Bruins might have seemed like another chapter to the same party.“That’s a huge day for us,” Evgeny Kuznetzov, who had two goals, told NBCSN. “Our fans waited a long time to have a night like that.”Now comes perhaps a dose of reality. The Capitals play on the road on the second of back-to-back nights against a longtime rival that didn’t have to play Wednesday and is champing at the bit to greet them.Article continues below ...“The games are already pretty tense, and this game is going to be no different. It’s going to be a fun one to play in,” Pittsburgh Penguins defenseman Brian Dumoulin said after his team practiced Wednesday at PPG Paints Arena, site of the showdown with the Capitals Thursday night. “Even though it’s just a regular-season game, I think the stakes are high.”Dumoulin seems probable to play after recovering from an upper-body injury late in the preseason.The Penguins and Capitals have been division rivals for decades. Pittsburgh had made a habit of beating Washington in the playoffs en route to winning the Cup. Washington flipped the script in the second round last spring and ousted the two-time defending Cup champions along the way to their first title.That left the Capitals thirsty for more.“As soon as you win the Cup, you don’t want to lose that feeling,” Washington captain Alex Ovechkin told the Washington Post. “You want to win more than one. As soon as you taste it, it’s kind of like a really good restaurant. You go there once, and you want to come back more than once because it’s great.”The Capitals will be without winger Tom Wilson, who was issued a 20-game suspension by the NHL Wednesday for a hit he delivered in a preseason game.Wilson was suspended three games during the playoff series with Pittsburgh last spring for delivering a hit that left Zach Aston-Reese with a broken jaw and a concussion.Pittsburgh captain Sidney Crosby was critical of Wilson before the length of the latest suspension was known.“He still chooses to make those hits,” Crosby said. “I’m sure the league’s well aware of that. It’s not the first time we’re talking about a hit that he made. … For whatever reason, he still decides to do that.“I just don’t know how many opportunities you need, you know? So, obviously, the point hasn’t been made yet.”Perhaps anticipating Wilson’s absence
http://www.hurricanesshoponline.com/authentic-jeff-skinner-jersey , the Capitals Tuesday claimed winger Dmitrij Jaskin off waivers from St. Louis, and he could make his Washington debut against the Penguins. Defenseman Michal Kempny is out because of a concussion.The Wilson suspension aside, both teams returned for the 2018-19 season largely intact, although Pittsburgh has touted the fact that its players got a longer offseason to rest and recover after two short summers following Cup wins.“I think everyone’s really, really excited,” Dumoulin said of the opening of the season. “You feel the energy throughout the team. I think everyone’s excited to start playing for something again and come together as a team — especially after last year, ending it on a sour note.”While Pittsburgh goaltender Matt Murray will be fresh, Washington coach Todd Reirden had not decided whether to go with his No. 1 goalie, Braden Holtby, a second night in a row against the Penguins after he picked up his 33rd career shutout Wednesday.“I definitely have spent some time on this one, probably as soon as the schedule came out,” Reirden said of the decision. LAS VEGAS (AP) The Vegas Golden Knights were a 500-to-1 long shot to win the Stanley Cup before the NHL season began in October. Their surprisingly successful inaugural season is still rolling along, and they’re one win from a berth to the Stanley Cup final.Reilly Smith scored on a breakaway late in the third period to lead Vegas to a 3-2 victory over the Winnipeg Jets in Game 4 of the Western Conference final Friday night.Vegas can clinch the conference title and advance to the Stanley Cup final when the series resumes Sunday in Winnipeg.”The last one is always the toughest to get,” Golden Knights goalie Marc-Andre Fleury said.William Karlsson and Tomas Nosek also scored for Vegas, and Fleury, ninth all-time in postseason wins, turned in another spectacular performance by making 36 saves to earn his 73rd career playoff victory. The 14-year veteran goalie, left exposed by the Pittsburgh Penguins for Vegas to select him in the expansion draft, continues to have a career-best postseason as he aims for a third straight Stanley Cup title.”I think we’ve got to keep the same mindset
http://www.hurricanesshoponline.com/authentic-justin-williams-jersey ,” said Fleury, who has a 1.72 goals against average and .945 save percentage in the playoffs. ”Just take it one game at time and not think too far ahead and be ready to play that next game, because they’re going to be coming hard.”It’s something the Jets have already been doing, even in their three losses in the series.Asked how his team has been able to survive Winnipeg’s tenacious attack, Smith replied: ”He’s sitting right next to me,” referring to Fleury at the postgame news conference.But with the game tied at 2, it was Smith who made the big play after racing down the left side of the rink and beating Winnipeg’s Connor Hellebuyck above his blocker to put the Golden Knights ahead with 6:58 left.Hellebuyck made 27 saves, but lost for the third consecutive game despite telling reporters after Game 3 that he liked his game better than Fleury’s. Patrik Laine and Tyler Myers scored for Winnipeg, which is on the brink of elimination.”I know we can win a game, we’re a good enough team,” Winnipeg coach Paul Maurice said. ”We’ve battled. We’ve gone into some pretty heavy environments and won a game that we needed to win. So it’s just one game.”The Jets took over where they left off in the third period of Game 3 by outskating the Golden Knights in the first period of Game 4, but Karlsson’s power-play goal was the difference. Off the draw, Smith found Jonathan Marchessault, who fed Karlsson for the one-timer that gave Vegas a 1-0 lead.In a case of deja vu from Game 3, when Vegas responded 12 seconds after giving up a 1-0 lead, Winnipeg and the Golden Knights traded goals 43 seconds apart midway through the second period.First, it was Laine’s one-timer on the power play that even Fleury wasn’t catching up to and it tied the game at the 9:29 mark. Then, it was Hellebuyck failing to secure a shot by Pierre-Edouard Bellemare, who raced to the puck and fed Nosek
Minnesota Wild Hoodies Womens , who punched in his first career playoff goal to put Vegas up 2-1.”It’s a good way to be, when they get one, the next guy’s up and ready to go,” said Golden Knights forward James Neal, who is looking to make it to the Stanley Cup final for a second consecutive year after getting there with Nashville last season. ”It’s always hard when you get one and the other team scores right away, it kind of takes the wind right back out of you. For us being at home, it just energizes the building. As soon as it sucks the wind out, boom, huge goal, and we’re back.”That was a great goal by Nose.”The Jets outshot the Golden Knights 12-2 by the midway point of the third period – including Myers’ tying goal – keeping Fleury busy. But the three-time Cup champion was finished allowing anything in his net.”We win that game nine times out of 10 – tonight was that one,” Winnipeg’s Blake Wheeler said. ”Their goalie made some extraordinary saves, he’s a good player. You’ve got to sometimes take your hat off to a good player.”NOTES: The Golden Knights and Jets joined a record 18,697 in attendance in a moment of silence for those affected by the shootings at Santa Fe High School in Texas on Friday. … Jets forward Mark Scheifele, who registered his 10th and 11th road goals in Game 3 to set a single-year NHL postseason record, had his six-game goal streak as a visitor end.UP NEXTGame 5 is at Winnipeg on Sunday.—
von yudan18 » Di Dez 25, 2018 3:20 am