Columbus Blue Jackets News Clips August 14, 2020

Columbus Blue Jackets PAGE 02: Columbus Dispatch: Blue Jackets 3, Lightning 1, Game 2: Five Takeaways PAGE 06: Columbus Dispatch: Columbus Blue Jackets’ Pierre-Luc Dubois elevating his game in postseason PAGE 08: Columbus Dispatch: Michael Arace | Columbus Blue Jackets again show unmatched resolve in Game 2 win PAGE 10: Columbus Dispatch: Jackets’ home ice in Toronto? Not exactly, but ads on boards offer local flavor PAGE 11: The Athletic: ‘F—, that’s a great move’: Inside Alexander Wennberg’s incredible Game 2

Cleveland Monsters/Prospects

NHL/Websites PAGE 14: New York Times: Recreating Home Ice, Far From Home PAGE 16: The Athletic: Duhatschek Notebook: Sorry, but there’s no reason to tweak the overtime format PAGD 22: The Athletic: The Zoomies: ‘It doesn’t really feel like playoff hockey out there with no fans’ PAGE 26: The Athletic: Bubble backups: What it’s like to be an emergency goalie right now PAGE 31: The Athletic: The hockey expert group text: A GM and four coaches watch an NHL game together PAGE 41: Sportsnet.ca: Blue Jackets, Hurricanes both underdogs on Saturday NHL odds PAGE 42: Sportsnet.ca: Five young breakout candidates of the Stanley Cup Playoffs...so far PAGE 44: TSN.ca: Bruce Cassidy anticipates Tuukka Rask will start Game 3 and raise his game

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Columbus Dispatch / Blue Jackets 3, Lightning 1, Game 2: Five Takeaways By Brian Hedger – August 15, 2020

They have gotten used to weathering postseason storms, which is probably a good thing for the Blue Jackets in a heated rematch against the Tampa Bay Lightning. After shrugging off a host of doubters to prevail in a winner-take-all Game 5 of the playoff qualifying series against the – which followed a late meltdown in Game 4 that ripped a series- clinching victory out of their grasp – the Jackets pulled another surprise Thursday. Playing just two days after going five overtimes in a 3-2 loss in a series-opener Tuesday, a game that lasted 150:27 and took six hours, 13 minutes to complete, the Jackets earned a split of the first two games with a workmanlike 3-1 victory at Scotiabank Arena. Another storm weathered, thanks to another great day for Joonas Korpisalo, a long stretch of sound defensive play – otherwise known as "Blue Jackets Hockey – and timely goals by , Oliver Bjorkstrand and Alexander Wennberg. How do they keep doing this every time an opponent slugs them right in the gut? "That’s what we do," said coach John Tortorella, who is getting progressively more aggrieved the more he’s asked about his team’s resilience. "It’s what we do. It’s what pros are supposed to do. I don’t think it’s anything special. I think it’s the proper way about going about your business. We’ve had a lot of opportunities, with the ups and downs, especially in the past couple of weeks, to work at that … so, we just get ready for Game 3." Just that simple. Here are five takeaways from another impressive playoff rebound: Korpisalo shines again It’s been about nine months, so it’s OK if you don’t remember just how great Korpisalo played in the weeks leading up to the torn meniscus in his right knee that happened Dec. 29 and halted his season for a couple months. Here’s a brief refresher: Korpisalo was fantastic for the Blue Jackets during that stretch. After overcoming some early struggles, along with overcoming a couple of epic goalie rage incidents involving crossbars and goalie sticks, the soft-spoken Finnish netminder gave Blue Jackets fans cause to ask a pertinent rhetorical question. Bob who? Well, guess appears to be right back in pre-injury form between the pipes at a time when Elvis Merzlikins is "unfit to play" and the net is all his? It’s "Korpi," who might be living rent free inside the Lightning players’ minds if his excellence extends through the remainder of the series. Korpisalo made 36 saves in Game 2, allowing just one goal, and now has stopped 121 of 125 shots combined in the series.

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That was just two days after setting a modern-day NHL record with 85 saves Tuesday in Game 1, a 3-2 loss in a five-overtime thriller. Korpisalo now has a blistering .968 save percentage in the first two games, which threw the workload of almost four games at him because of the OT periods. He doesn’t look any worse off for it, either, after starting six of the Blue Jackets’ first seven games this postseason. "We all know what he’s capable of," center Pierre-Luc Dubois said. "We all know in the dressing room he’s one of the best goalies in the NHL and he’s feeling really good right now. Since Game 1 (against the Toronto Maple Leafs), he’s been amazing for us." Dubois surging After the Blue Jackets lost 3-0 to the Maple Leafs in Game 2 of the playoff qualifying round, Dubois had more televised shouting matches with Tortorella (one) than points. Since his exchange with the Jackets’ head coach, the 22-year old center has merely notched the first postseason hat trick in franchise history, posted points in four of the past five games and is averaging more than a point a game. He has eight points in seven games on four goals and four assists, and there are no signs of the third overall pick in the 2016 NHL draft slowing down. If anything, he’s ready to put the hammer down with his foot squarely on the gas pedal. This postseason is his third straight to cap his third full NHL season, so Dubois doesn’t even know yet what it feels like to not make the playoffs – nor does he want to experience it. "It’s my third time in the postseason and you learn every time," said Dubois, who set up the Jackets’ first two goals (Ryan Murray, Oliver Bjorkstrand) and won 11 of 16 face-offs (69 percent). Wennberg’s beauty The past three seasons have made it easy to forget Wennberg’s skill level. His struggles offensively have overshadowed his high-caliber hands and feet, not to mention solid defensive talents. The goal he scored in the third period Thursday was a stark reminder. If Wennberg could tap into those kinds of skills more often, he could become quite an X-factor against the Lightning. For now, the Blue Jackets will be happy with his defensive chops and watching replays of his circus shot to give them a 2-1 lead with 8:33 left to play. After getting the puck from Liam Foudy, Wennberg carried it up the right wing into the Lightning zone and set up defenseman Kevin Shattenkirk for a tricky move. As Shattenkirk slid over, the Jackets’ center quickly sent a pass to himself, dragging the puck behind his legs and kicking it in front of him with his right. Re-collecting it in front of the net, Wennberg beat Vasilevskiy over the blocker for his second goal of the postseason. "I’ve tried it before," he said during a postgame video conference. "Obviously, it worked out really good this time. I think it’s just with the perfect timing of (Shattenkirk approaching) me, but it’s not often it works that great. I’m just happy it did this time." Sitting right to Wennberg, Dubois felt compelled to add a kicker: "We’ve seen it in practice a lot."

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Bjorkstrand heating up We’ve seen this before from Bjorkstrand and it usually means he’s about to score a bunch of goals. After going through the entire five-game series against the Maple Leafs without a single point, the Jackets’ leading goal-scorer has suddenly scored goals the first two games of this series. His first was a laser from the right-wing boards with 48 seconds left in the second period Tuesday, putting Columbus up 2-1 starting the third, and he scored again in Game 2 – capping a power-play in the first period by wiring a one-timer past Vasilevskiy to the far side. That one also gave the Blue Jackets a 2-1 lead, but this time they made it stand up as the deciding goal. Bjorkstrand has quietly developed into a quite a goal-scorer the past two seasons and his hot streaks have tended to be scorchers. Last season, after posting just six goals and seven assists in the first 41 games, he finished with a flurry in the final 36 games – scoring 17 goals and six assists and adding two more in the playoffs, including the sweep-clinching goal in Game 4 against the Lightning. This year, despite rib and ankle injuries that cost him 21 games, he was even better – scoring 14 goals in his final 17 games and stringing together a four-game goal streak that featured three straight two-goal games. That’s the kind of streak that could go a long way toward winning a playoff series. "I’ve just been trying to build it up in the first series (to) now, so it’s nice to get a few goals," Bjorkstrand said. "I just need to keep going and not slow down." Cannon Fodder – Cam Atkinson was deemed "unfit to play" and was an unhealthy scratch in Game 2, replaced by Devin Shore. It was Shore’s first postseason appearance with Columbus, which acquired him Feb. 24 from the Anaheim Ducks in exchange for Sonny Milano at the trade deadline. – Shore played just 5:52 on nine shifts while centering a fourth line that included rookie wingers Eric Robinson (6:11) and Emil Bemstrom (6:56). The trio was used sparingly after Tampa Bay’s Nikita Kucherov scored the game’s first goal on their second shift of the game. Tortorella used them most in the second period, but kept them seated for most of the third. – Bemstrom hadn’t played since Game 3 against the Maple Leafs last week, sitting out as a healthy scratch until drawing back into the lineup in veteran Nathan Gerbe’s spot on the fourth line. – After logging an NHL record 65:06 in the five-overtime leg-burner in Game 1, Seth Jones logged a game-high 28:31 on 35 shifts. He was assessed three giveaways on the scoresheet and took a penalty in the first period, but finished with two shots on goal, attempted four shots and blocked two, including a big one with time running down in the third period. "He was still flying out there," Murray said. "His legs were good." – The Blue Jackets added goalie Veini Vehvilainen to their roster in response to Elvis Merzlikins being unavailable for an undisclosed period of time. Merzlikins was injured at some point, either during Game 4 against Toronto or afterward, and his "unfit to play" status left them with just two goalies in the NHL’s Toronto quarantine "bubble."

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Vehvilainen arrived Saturday and began a mandatory four-day quarantine period as mandated in the NHL’s Phase 4 protocols, which also state that rosters are limited to no more than 28 skaters and 31 players. A league representative said there is an exception to add goalies during injury situations and the Blue Jackets are the second team to use it – joining the Arizona Coyotes. They now have 32 players in the team’s traveling party, which still includes injured forward Josh Anderson (shoulder).

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Columbus Dispatch / Columbus Blue Jackets’ Pierre-Luc Dubois elevating his game in postseason By Brian Hedger - August 15, 2020

The coach isn’t giving an inch. Pierre-Luc Dubois is elevating his play to a higher level, leading the Blue Jackets offensively in this postseason, but don’t consider coach John Tortorella all that impressed at least, not publicly. Tortorella, who has set his bar of expectation for Dubois to an elite level, isn’t ready to fawn over the 22- year-old’s four goals, four assists and eight points in the past five games. That includes consecutive multi-point efforts to help the Jackets split the first two games of a first-round playoff rematch against the Tampa Bay Lightning. Is the coach now getting what he wants from his top center? “At times,” Tortorella said Friday, a day after Dubois’ assists led to the Jackets first two goals in a 3-1 victory that evened the series. “He still needs to be more consistent.” In fairness to Tortorella, he is buried deep in a playoff mindset. He is in a bunker within his own mind, living in a “bubble” in a city where he voluntarily swatted a hornets nest of angst-ridden hockey “pundits” earlier this week in a full-throated defense of Toronto Maple Leafs coach Sheldon Keefe, whom he’d just defeated. In such an environment, a coach most often described as “fiery” and “cantankerous” isn’t likely to issue lengthy dissertations on anybody, let alone a young center who possesses high levels of talent and push- back. So, no inch was given. Not one. The expectations remain high, and Dubois is keenly aware of them. His words haven’t exactly said as much, but his actions have the past five games. Since a televised spat with Tortorella in Game 2 against Toronto went viral online, Dubois’ game has taken off. Is there a connection? Only Dubois knows that, and he’s been a little busy the past week learning to play with a cape tied around his neck. Yes, he can be that good for the Blue Jackets, and they need him to be after the departures of Artemi Panarin and Matt Duchene last summer as free agents. “He’s an unreal player,” said forward Gustav Nyquist, a free-agent addition last summer who has learned a lot more about Dubois. “I think he just probably doesn’t get the ... enough written about him. He’s a horse out there.” Others might use “tank” as an apt description. Dubois stands 6 feet 3, and his listed weight is still, officially, 218 pounds. Talk to anybody who has seen him in person, however, and you might get some raised eyebrows if you showed them the latter number. Dubois was all of 218 as a rookie in 2017-18, and he has only added to his well-muscled physique in the two years since.

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The trick for the Jackets is getting him to utilize it more often, especially during the playoffs against talent-laden teams such as the Maple Leafs and Lightning. Consider the past five games, not to mention some of Dubois’ exploits in the past two years, a snapshot of what he could become. It’s not a fantasy to envision the Blue Jackets having a Ryan Getzlaf or Anze Kopitar type of leader up front someday. Perhaps someday soon. “He’s definitely elevated his game,” said defenseman Zach Werenski, who at 23 is going through a similar process. “When he gets his feet moving and wants to take pucks to the net ... not many guys can stop him. And I think over the last three years you can kind of see where he’s grown in that area.” The goal now is to keep it up. Consistency, as the coach has made clear, is the hallmark of great players. “He can dominate games,” Nyquist said of Dubois. “He’s so strong on the puck, and he’s a force out there for us. He’s been great here, so far, and we need him to be great going forward.”

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Columbus Dispatch / Michael Arace | Columbus Blue Jackets again show unmatched resolve in Game 2 win By Michael Arace - August 15, 2020

As the Blue Jackets went about the hard work of eliminating the Toronto Maple Leafs from playoff contention, they were portrayed as barbarians from a far-flung fiefdom. The Canadian ministers of hockey culture were loath to see the beautiful, beautiful Leafs checked into submission. It gave Torontonians the vapors. The Jackets had about 40 hours of rest before they opened their best-of-seven series against the Tampa Bay Lightning on Tuesday. Game 1 began at 3 p.m. and lasted for six hours. The Lightning prevailed in an all-time epic when Brayden Point scored midway through the fifth overtime. Surely, the reckoning for the Jackets was at hand. Joonas Korpisalo set a record with 85 saves. Defenseman Seth Jones set a record by playing 65 minutes. The Jackets blocked 62 shots. Those numbers are mind-boggling. By the time Game 1 was over, the Jackets had played the equivalent of almost six games in six days, and eight in 10. Those numbers are unsustainable. The Jackets had 40 hours to rest up for Game 2 Thursday. No way they could recover, right? Their series against Toronto went the five-game route, with two overtime games. They’d lost a five-OT epic against the Lightning. Mentally and physically, they had to be beyond exhaustion, to the point of submission. Yet the Jackets handled the mighty Lightning and won 3-1 Thursday afternoon. Against all odds, they tied the series at one game apiece. Jackets fans have come to understand that their team is a resilient group, but this victory put them in another realm. It should not have been possible, not for mere mortals, or even barbarians. The Lightning had to be thinking, “What do we have to do to beat these guys?” The Lightning last year had one of greatest regular seasons in NHL history before getting swept, ignominiously, out of the first round by the Jackets. It was a reckoning for the star-studded Lightning. It compelled them to pad their defensive corps and round out their forward lines with size and toughness. They shipped out top prospects and first-round draft picks to make these fortifications. To the old Lightning and the new, coach Jon Cooper preached of the glory of discipline and puck protection. It was a franchise-wide response to being out-coached, out-checked and out-moxied by the lowly Jackets. The Jackets, too, overturned their roster out of necessity. They lost All-Star talents Artemi Panarin, Matt Duchene and Sergei Bobrovsky, along with Ryan Dzingel, to free agency, added just one veteran (Gus Nyquist) and retooled with the beardless. They went on to lead the league with 419 man-games lost to injury.

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They had no business being above the playoff line after 70 games, but there they were. Maybe they were telling all of us that they believed in themselves yet. After five months of dark isolation, they went into the Toronto bubble and showed their mettle yet again by rebounding from a horrific Game 4 collapse and beating the Leafs, almost handily, in Game 5. Still, Game 1 against the Lightning seemed like the beginning of the end for the Jackets. Not because they lost a five-overtime marathon although that should have been enough, history tells us but because the Lightning remained as disciplined, defensively sound and mentally tough as the Jackets, for 151 fraught minutes. The Jackets (minus-7 goal differential during the regular season) and the Lightning (plus-50) have very different margins for error. Thus, Game 1 had the reek of doom for the Jackets. They had to be exhausted. As for the Lightning, they had to be thinking that they had found their redemption. And then came Game 2, another affirmation of the Jackets’ determination and their dedication to one another. What do the Lightning have to do to beat these guys? That is the question, isn’t it? The Jackets have been described as “bilge” in Toronto. Yet this is a team with Zach Werenski and Jones, with Elvis Merzlikins (wherever he is) and Joonas Korpisalo, with Pierre-Luc Dubois and Alexandre Texier and Liam Foudy. They may not be a paragon of aesthetics, but they are not without talent and they are extraordinarily well-coached. More, they are a testament to a willpower that can only be summoned in collective. It’s almost mystical. The mighty Lightning is supposed to win this series. It may yet. First, though, Tampa Bay must believe it can beat a Jackets team that has once vexed them and appears like a ghost other-worldly, haunting and clearly undead. And always above the puck.

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Columbus Dispatch / Jackets’ home ice in Toronto? Not exactly, but ads on boards offer local flavor By Samantha Raudins - August 15, 2020

To replicate the home ice of NHL playoff teams and help teams recoup some revenue lost to the shortened regular season, the TV broadcaster and teams including the Blue Jackets are superimposing advertising from their local market on the boards and behind the net in arenas in Toronto. As Columbus Blue Jackets fans have watched NHL playoff hockey from their couches instead of the stands, they might have noticed that Scotiabank Arena in Toronto has looked a bit like home ice away from home, thanks in part to some familiar logos. Although the technology to superimpose advertisements on the boards and behind the net has been around for some time, the Blue Jackets opted to use the technology just this year, said Randy Stephens, senior vice president and general manager of Fox Sports Ohio. Stephens said virtual signage is being used in two spaces behind the nets and two newly added spaces inside the blue lines opposite the cameras for four total positions, which are rotated throughout the periods. Cameron Scholvin, senior vice president and chief operating officer for the Blue Jackets, said in a statement that virtual ads have been implemented for each team’s regional broadcasts as part of the NHL’s Return to Play plan for the qualifying round and first round of the Stanley Cup playoffs only regional broadcasts are not offered from the second round on. The ads help to recoup advertising lost when the regular season was paused because of the coronavirus pandemic. The ads help to increase exposure during the “most exciting time of hockey season,” Scholvin said. The network and the team share in the production costs and in the revenue the ads produce. “These ads provide Blue Jackets partners the opportunity to support the team and strengthen their connections to the Blue Jackets and The 5th Line,” he said. Teams can choose their superimposed ads from those currently hanging in their home arena and can choose additional spaces based on their business plan, Stephens said. Virtual advertising provides a “clean slate,” since ad space has been lost in home arenas because of canceled games, he said. Ads for central Ohio businesses such as Scotts Miracle-Gro have been shown during games in which the Blue Jackets are the “home” team, and with the addition of effects like the traditional cannon fire when the team scores, viewers can almost imagine the game is being played at Nationwide Arena. Stephen said he gives kudos to the for trying to keep home team elements alive. “I think anything that adds to the normalcy of anything these days is a positive,” Stephens said.

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The Athletic / ‘F—, that’s a great move’: Inside Alexander Wennberg’s incredible Game 2 goal By Aaron Portzline – August 15, 2020

COLUMBUS, Ohio — On a day off in the NHL’s bubble in Toronto, Blue Jackets center Alexander Wennberg was planning to gather with a few teammates for a ping-pong tournament in a ballroom of the Fairmont Royal York hotel. “I’ve heard (Gustav) Nyquist was bragging about his game, but I haven’t played him yet,” Wennberg said in a phone interview with The Athletic on Friday. “I’d do all right at the ping-pong table, I would think.” After Thursday’s 3-1 win over Tampa Bay, nobody should question Wennberg’s hand-eye coordination, much less his footwork or agility. Wennberg blew past Lightning defenseman Kevin Shattenkirk with a ridiculous between-the-legs move, scoring at 11:27 of the third period to give the Blue Jackets a two-goal cushion down the stretch in Game 2. Game 3 is Saturday at 7:30 p.m. — the series is tied 1-1 — but the league will be talking about Wennberg’s goal long after this series is completed. “It was a huge goal for our team,” Blue Jackets defenseman Zach Werenski said. “Just the skill he showed on that goal … we see it all the time in practice, but that’s a move that’s hard to pull off in a game. “For him to execute it perfectly and then to score was awesome. That’s a big goal for him and a big goal for our group. Hopefully, we can see more of that moving forward.” Wennberg said he watched the goal “a couple of times” after the game, but it was impossible to avoid on sports networks in Canada and the U.S. “It’s one of those goals that just worked out perfectly,” Wennberg said. “So it’s a great feeling to look back on it. It’s fun. Family and friends had recognized it and seen it, so it’s kind of fun to get some confidence from people.” Columbus was in the middle of a line change, and Boone Jenner was the first forward off the ice from the previous shift, sending Wennberg up and over the boards. Nick Foligno and Tampa Bay defenseman Mikhail Sergachev both lunged for the puck in the neutral zone, and it kicked to rookie Liam Foudy. Foudy gathered the puck and fired a tape-to-tape pass to Wennberg on the far side of the rink, giving Foudy and Foligno clearance to change. Riley Nash and Gustav Nyquist hopped over the boards to join Wennberg, but he was doing the heavy lifting. “I’m the fresh guy on the ice, and when I got it from Foudy, I actually thought it was a two-on-one with Fliggy (Foligno) driving on the left side,” Wennberg said. “But then he kind of bails out and he changes.” Wennberg carried the puck into the zone with Shattenkirk back for the Lightning, driving from center ice to the right circle to confront Wennberg and the puck. Sergachev and Ondrej Palat were trailing the play for the Lightning.

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Now, Wennberg isn’t regarded as the most offensively aggressive player on the roster. The back-and- forth with coach John Tortorella regarding Wennberg’s reluctance to shoot the puck has become legendary — and the source of jokes. The old yarn: Why doesn’t Wennberg ever get a turn in the shootout? They’re afraid he’ll try to pass the puck. A few years ago, Tortorella blew practice to a stop, gathered three pucks and placed them in front of Wennberg on the ice, demanding that he shoot them. So, when you marvel at Wennberg’s goal on Thursday, start first with the fact that he didn’t just chip the puck in deep and forecheck, or that he didn’t play it back to the Blue Jackets defensemen, another tendency of his. Wennberg noticed that Shattenkirk is a right-shot defenseman as he crossed into the Lightning zone, and that put him in attack mode. The goal probably doesn’t happen with a left-shot defenseman engaged. “I tried to think shot first, but then I notice that Shattenkirk is a righty, so that’s the side his stick is gonna be on,” Wennberg said. “When a righty poke-checks like that, you can take advantage of it. I saw that, and it was kind of instinct. I thought I’d give it a try.” Wennberg pulled the puck behind him as Shattenkirk leaned forward to poke check, then he tapped the puck forward between his legs (wait, what?) and used his right skate blade to kick it back to his stick blade in front of him. He never broke stride. “The way it panned out, I got a good kick with my right skate, the perfect placement,” Wennberg said. “I wouldn’t say it was lucky, but the way it all worked out … a lot of things had to happen just right.” Wennberg tucked his shoulder to seal off Shattenkirk, then shoveled the puck as he closed in on Lightning goaltender Andrei Vasilevskiy. The puck sailed under Vasilevkiy’s blocker and inside the far post as Wennberg came crashing into his lap. Blue Jackets forward Alexander Wennberg sneaks the puck past Lightning goalie Andrei Vasilevskiy. (Dan Hamilton / USA Today) The only possible judge’s deduction was for Wennberg’s celebration. He even admitted as much. “I didn’t know I scored,” Wennberg said. “I went in head-first, so I didn’t know if he saved it with his blocker and sent it wide or not. My first reaction was to get up and then I saw (Riley Nash) coming at me with a big smile. “That’s why the celly was just a big hug and that’s it. I knew I got a shot off, but I was like, ‘Where’d the puck go?'” Wennberg was mobbed as he returned to the bench, especially by Foligno, the captain. “The best part about it is it gave us a 3-1 lead,” Wennberg said. “It’s huge in the game. The move was great, so everybody was like, ‘Oh my … f—, that’s a great move!’ But, as a team, that was a big goal at a big point in time for us. That’s better than any highlight.”

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As Foligno jumped off the ice and turned to watch the play, he said he had an inkling Wennberg might try something special. “I knew he was looking a lot more confident with the puck in that game and he was playing like he can play,” Foligno said via text message. “So once I saw him skate it down the wing, I thought he might pull that move. “That’s big for him, and more importantly for us. It’s a huge goal in the game.”

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New York Times / Recreating Home Ice, Far From Home By Carol Schram – August 15, 2020

EDMONTON — In any other year, they would be waging battle in the Fortress, the nickname for T- Mobile Arena, where the Vegas Golden Knights notoriously defend home ice to the tune of a 75-33-11 record over three seasons, fifth-best in the N.H.L. The Fortress has become one of the loudest arenas in the league, with a boisterous fan base and a raucously loud soundtrack played by staff members on game days. This postseason, the team is replicating past success, having won the Western Conference’s top seed in the round-robin tournament and run out to a 2-0 series lead in the best-of-seven first round matchup against the . But the neutral ice of Rogers Place in Edmonton, the West’s postseason hub, lacks the din that has helped propel the Golden Knights in the past. Players’ cheers and chirps stand out more than usual, echoing around the spectator-less arena. “We’ve got a lot of vocal guys,” Vegas forward Alex Tuch said last Saturday. He noted that forward Jonathan Marchessault and wing Ryan Reaves had been the team’s most chattery members in a round- robin game against the Colorado Avalanche, “whether it’s toward our bench, trying to pump us up, or getting under the other teams’ skin.” The warm-up music was pumping at close to full volume as the Golden Knights opened their first-round series against the Chicago Blackhawks on Tuesday. The Vegas bench got loud during the national anthems, echoing a fan tradition by shouting “Knights” during the singing of “The Star-Spangled Banner,” (“gave proof through the …”) before easily defeating the Blackhawks, 4-1. The Golden Knights’ team identity has been shaped by its brashness. Initially, opponents were thought to have succumbed to the “Vegas Flu,” having had a little too much fun on their visits to Sin City. But it quickly became clear that the Fortress itself was an intimidating place to visit. The N.H.L.’s game presentation department is handling the production duties in both hub cities, Edmonton and Toronto, though teams have supplied personalized content for use during games. In addition to satisfying sponsor requirements with venue-specific rink-board advertising, the goal has been to give each game a distinct feel, both in the arena and for fans watching on TV at home. “Even though we’re doing these games in front of no fans, I really wanted the fans of a particular team to be watching the broadcast, and hear a sound effect we play or a particular power-play song that the team uses,” said John Bochiaro, the N.H.L.’s senior director for game presentation. “Obviously, their goal songs and goal horns. To me, that was super important, to make sure we have those elements.” Early on, that meant seeing the country music star Tim McGraw sing his song “I Like It, I Love It” while waving a catfish on the Jumbotron whenever the now-eliminated scored a goal during the preliminary round. Organist Jeremy Boyer ends each period of the St. Louis Blues home games with a video rendition of his signature “When the Blues Go Marching In.”

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The Chicago Blackhawks have kicked off their home games with tenor Jim Cornelison’s operatic rendition of theUnited States national anthem, which is normally accompanied by fans’ deafening applause during games at the United Center, also known as the Madhouse on Madison. ImageOn the neutral ice of Rogers Place in Edmonton, Alberta, Golden Knights players’ cheers and chirps stand out more than usual, echoing around the spectator-less arena. “We notice the little details but there’s definitely no comparison,” Blackhawks captain Jonathan Toews said last Wednesday when asked about playing in bubble instead of back home in Chicago. “I’d say last change is definitely a good thing to have, but other than that, I think it’s a pretty even playing field for both teams.” “I don’t know what really home-ice advantage is, here,” Blues coach Craig Berube said after his team was 0-2-1 in their round-robin games and slipped from first to fourth seed in the West. “Sure, it’s a line change, you get last change. But it really doesn’t feel like home-ice advantage for anybody.” The Blues’ run to the Stanley Cup in 2019 was fueled by tremendous support from fans and community. “Fans are a big part of everything we do,” Blues winger Robert Thomas said. “They really pushed us and gave us a great atmosphere last year. It’s nice, every once in a while you see a couple of familiar faces on the screen that make you just feel a little bit at home.” The actor and Blues fan Jon Hamm hasn’t made an appearance yet on the video screens. But the game presentation team promises it has more surprises in store as the tournament moves into later rounds. To help create more high-energy moments on the TV broadcasts, the songs teams use to celebrate goal and begin power plays are used in every game. Artificial crowd noise, originally intended to be heard only by television viewers, is now being pumped in as well. But the virtual fans don’t favor one team over the other. There is no booing, and the noise levels ratchet up for big plays and scoring chances at both ends of the ice. With eight teams already eliminated during qualifying-round play, the league’s schedule for the first round is down to a somewhat manageable average of two games a day in each hub city, with the potential of overtime lurking for every contest. “I equate this to, and I’ve done quite a few of them in my career, a Grand Slam tennis tournament,” said the N.H.L.’s chief content officer, Steve Mayer, who has overseen the hub city project and produced all four Grand Slams in his 20 years working at IMG Productions. “On the first week, oh my goodness, you’ve got 10 courts going. You’ve got matches on every court all day long, all night long. Then, one by one, players get eliminated. Then it gets really easy, by comparison. “This is going to be the same. I mean, we’re intense right now. We know that we’re going to get very little sleep, but we know that eventually, it’s going to get a lot easier.”

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The Athletic / Duhatschek Notebook: Sorry, but there’s no reason to tweak the overtime format By Eric Duhatschek – August 15, 2020

Just when you thought you’d seen it all, along comes a five-overtime game in the very first official match of the NHL’s 2020 postseason; then a game postponed for reasons other than inclement weather; and a ton of new entries into the record book, thanks to that epic Tampa Bay Lightning-Columbus Blue Jackets game this past Tuesday. Well, we’ve always said the first round is the best round and this year, the NHL gifted us two. The play-in round was chock full of upsets and intrigue and now that we’re underway in the regular, official postseason, it doesn’t look as if the drama is about to let up. The only thing that — unfailingly — puzzles me is why, after such a memorable start, was there such a hue and cry on social media over the length of that first game. All the subsequent calls to tweak the overtime format in favour of a shootout to decide games that go on and on. Sorry, but of all the misguided suggestions I’ve heard over the years, that one leads the pack. For starters, these marathon games only ever happen occasionally. If you were listening to announcer Gord Miller’s call of the game, near the end of the fourth overtime period, he was providing updates, almost minute-by-minute, of where the game unfolding in front of us ranked in the historical record. It finished as No. 4 of all time. Two of those games occurred in the 1930s. Considering the NHL has officially been in business for 103 years, to have a game reach these unfathomable distances every quarter of a century or so, shouldn’t be viewed as a negative – or a reason to tamper with the status quo. Even the exhausted players, after the fact, said as much – as tired as they may have been, they were also aware something special was happening; and they were making history. You had to think, if Keith Primeau was watching somewhere, or Petr Sykora, or any of the other players who’ve ended epic overtime games, they probably got a flush of satisfaction from seeing their previous work highlighted. Serendipitously, “Hockey Night in Canada” had on its panel, goaltender Kelly Hrudey, who – up until Tuesday afternoon/evening – held the NHL playoff record for saves by a netminder, broken in that game by the Blue Jackets’ Joonas Korpisalo. Maybe someday, long after his career ends, Korpisalo will be on television in Finland, covering another epic game, and he’ll get to provide commentary from the sidelines on what that was like. Watching along, I thought only two things: One: Please let the game be decided by a clean goal, so no matter which side of the result you were on, a team could take comfort in knowing it was decided fair and square. Two: Endurance is part of being an elite athlete – and seeing the collective endurance of two teams tested was a fascinating exercise. Developing endurance is different than just pure skill or talent alone. Clearly, there’s a physical component to endurance, but it also tests a player mentally and

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psychologically. Anyone who’s ever been asked to push past what they thought their athletic limits were and then discovered another gear or level was probably nodding in appreciation as Seth Jones racked up a record 65:06 in ice time and Victor Hedman, whose presence in the Tampa line-up wasn’t even a sure thing going into the game, logged 57:38. There were a dozen other impressive feats of endurance, up and down both line-ups – and then they capped it off with a pretty good effort in Game 2, won by Columbus to square what looks like another riveting series. But really, that’s what athletic contests, at their very heart, are — tests of a team’s collective will and of a person’s individual limits. If the alternative to endless overtimes is to decide a game in a shootout, please count me out. I just remember how unsatisfying the ending was in 1998, during the NHL’s first foray into Olympic participation, when an epic semifinal contest between Canada and the Czech Republic was decided in a shootout. The Czechs took an early lead and nursed it into the third period before Trevor Linden tied it. By rule, the teams played a single overtime period – Canada mostly pressing to the attack, the Czechs playing rope-a-dope, hoping to get to a shootout, which they did. Each team rolled out five shooters. Only one goal was scored – for the Czechs, by Robert Reichel, a shot that clipped the post behind goalie Patrick Roy and went in. Dominik Hasek was perfect for the Czechs. Wayne Gretzky watched five others take the shots, while he was stapled to the bench. And while the victory propelled the Czechs onto a memorable gold-medal victory, the fact that a skills competition decided such a critically important game just seemed wrong. Whenever people tell me the NHL needs to go to shootouts for the playoffs, I remember that game in Nagano – and all the great moments that have occurred in NHL overtime over the years and think – what a genuinely bad idea that is. Calls for change In a week where the eight losing teams in the play-in rounds were doing postmortems; and people were second-guessing both the draft lottery and overtime format; it seems as if change – or at least, the call for change – was the overriding theme. That’s understandable, on one level, given the number of upsets in the play-in round, and what that might mean for teams such as the Pittsburgh Penguins that are trying to squeeze a little more championship juice out of a brilliant, but now aging core – or the Edmonton Oilers, who took undeniable regular-season strides, but fell flat on their faces in the postseason against the battle-tested Chicago Blackhawks. The Nashville Predators are also pondering the future after they seem to be progressively slipping further and further away from genuine Stanley Cup contention. My official position on performing roster surgery on the basis of a small playoff sample never really varies: To make radical organizational changes based on a handful of games, after a four-and-a-half month pause, isn’t how rational teams operate. They need to sift carefully through the ashes, calmly assess what went wrong, and then make the necessary moves to address what they then deem needs altered. Essentially, what you have to do is weigh everything you saw before the NHL ground to a halt and then filter it through what you saw in an abbreviated postseason. If that ultimately confirms suspicions you already had about your team’s make-up, well, then yes, it may be time to rethink your roster or your staffing.

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This week, we saw a parade of GMs take to Zoom to dissect what went wrong and what’s happening next. Not surprisingly, you saw a variety of responses: From Penguins general manager Jim Rutherford, who wondered why, for two playoffs in a row, his team couldn’t up the urgency when called upon; and then promptly dismissed three assistant coaches. Leafs GM Kyle Dubas was busily trying to defend his core players and the structure of his team. Presumably, Dubas hopes that at some point as the Leafs get older and wiser, they’ll get a match-up that works in their favour, rather than bump into the tenacious opponents they’ve faced in the past handful of years. The most measured response probably came from Oilers general manager Ken Holland who made a number of salient, if unsexy, points. One: That there’s a fine line between winning and losing, and this time around his team, couldn’t get on the right side of that line. Two: That four games is too a small window in which to evaluate performance, especially if the 70 games of the regular season led you to believe you were on the right track on multiple fronts. Three (which applies to hockey played before, during and after a global pandemic): “You’re always looking to upgrade, but the reality is, it’s not easy.” Four (and this point will govern any and all activity moving forward in the offseason): That when GMs held their annual March meeting this spring, they emerged with a tentative spending plan based on projections that the salary cap would rise, anywhere from a couple of million dollars a year to maybe even $5 or $6 million. When the world turned upside down, the way teams framed their futures also changed. It means any planning or strategy they formulated in March needs to be re-evaluated going into next year when a lot of teams, not just Edmonton, will be looking for cheaper support players. In short, teams may well be looking to wheel and deal. The problem is, to engineer any sort of trade, major or minor, you also need a willing partner. Where do you find them, if the vast majority of clubs are entering the offseason with the same game plan, trying to dump money and load up on the aforementioned cheap, but effective support players? Even if you’re a team with salary-cap space today and can listen to overtures, why would you surrender that flexibility willingly – unless you were really made an offer you couldn’t refuse? A year ago, the cost of moving Patrick Marleau’s contract to Toronto was a first-round pick that ended up 13th overall in the draft. Could the asking price for a similar deal be even higher this year? Yes, it could. As a result, GMs may need to get ultra-creative to get a deal done. If, for example, Pittsburgh is prepared to trade one of its young goalies – Matt Murray or Tristan Jarry – perhaps the price of doing business might not be a future draft choice, but to ask the acquiring team to absorb one of the contracts they are trying to shed. Beyond the salary cap, the other issue going forward is how will teams set their budgets for the 2020-21 season, knowing that revenues will almost certainly be a fraction of what they were a year ago.

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Even before COVID-19, there were always a handful of NHL teams, unwilling to spend to the cap, because of the limitations of their market, or the size of their owner’s wallet. Well, many of those wallets have shrunk in the last little while, making the financial landscape even more precarious in the short and perhaps medium term. In a normal year, GMs usually have far more clarity going into the offseason – about budgets, about revenue, and about what constitutes fair value in a contract negotiation. None of that is true today. About the only safe prediction you can make is that no matter how the rest of playoffs unfold, or who winds up in the winner’s circle, the NHL will look radically different in December than it does now. The general managers promise it will be so. It remains to be seen how they pull it off. Draft schmaft Hard to believe it was only Monday when the won the second phase of the draft lottery and earned the right to select Alexis Lafrenière. The Rangers’ lottery win set off a vigorous debate about what is fair when it comes to dispersing next-generation talent to the playoff also-rans. Conspiracy theories inevitably followed, which were easy to debunk. But one serious question did emerge, namely: Is it time to eliminate the draft lottery altogether and go back to the system that was in place before, where the last-place team earned the top pick and the race to the bottom of the standings was sometimes more compelling than the race to the top at the end of a season? That was especially true if there were a prize such as Mario Lemieux awaiting the basement winner. Before the draft lottery, there was certainty to the draft order, and thus, it created an incentive for teams to “tank” their seasons once it became clear they were no longer in the playoff running. Some years, the losing looked awfully deliberate. Since the integrity of the competition is the one thing the NHL cannot afford to be called into question, it prompted the introduction of the draft lottery in 1995. For the first 18 years, the format was fixed – and the winning lottery team couldn’t move up more than four places in the draft order. During that span, the worst team in the league ultimately won the lottery two-thirds of the time. Since 2012, the lottery format has been tweaked twice, making it increasingly unlikely that the team with the worst overall record (and the greatest need) would get the first overall pick. It’s worth asking: What’s the better outcome? To have a lottery that disincentivizes a team from tanking, but may penalize a team that could use the most help? Or the old system, where the neediest teams also received the sort of player that could provide the greatest hope for a turnaround? It’s especially pertinent this year, given how the were, far and away, the worst team in the league and could really have used a player of Lafreniere’s pedigree to help them move back up the ladder.

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Now, some might argue that at No. 4, they might still get an impact player – because the last time a similar set of circumstances occurred, at the 2017 draft, that’s what did happen. Similar to Detroit this year, Colorado was by far the worst team in the league in 2017; fell from No. 1 to No. 4 in the draft order and had to settle for what seemed like a consolation prize at the time (Cale Makar) instead of one of the consensus top two picks (Nico Hischier or Nolan Patrick). Ultimately that worked out far differently (and better for the Avalanche) than any of the experts anticipated. So, it’s a complex issue and not exactly one that can easily be settled with Twitter’s 280-character limit. But if you focus on the secondary discussion that emerged – of what’s genuinely good for the league – I can’t help thinking that Lafreniere, in Detroit, helping a once-proud franchise get back on its feet, would have been far better for the league than even seeing Lafreniere land in New York, where the NHL is headquartered – and he could make a genuine off-ice splash. The Rangers already have two high-end forwards, including one that plays left-wing, in Artemi Panarin, plus they also won the No. 2 pick in the lottery a year ago and took Kaapo Kakko. Maybe Jamie Drysdale at No. 4 becomes Detroit’s Cale Makar and a couple of years down the road, we’ll look back and say, all’s well in the draft lottery world. But as of today, it sure looks as if the lottery process needs to be tweaked again. Obviously, 2020 was a unique, one-off — introduced to complement the playoff system put in place for a 24-team postseason. But that doesn’t change this reality. The system currently in place makes it harder for a team that really needs the help to dig itself out of a hole. It’s a hole that Detroit dug because of 25 years of doing the right thing and trying to compete every year. Getting the chance to draft Lafrenière would have been a far fairer outcome than what ultimately occurred. And finally… As expected, the Hockey Hall of Fame postponed the 2020 induction ceremonies, originally scheduled for Nov. 16, because of coronavirus concerns. Usually, as part of the weekend ceremonies in Toronto, there is a Hall of Fame game scheduled for Friday night. But this year, the NHL will be in its offseason still in mid-November, so that’s out. Also, one of the more important parts of the experience for the inductees – Jarome Iginla, Marian Hossa, Kevin Lowe, Doug Wilson, Kim St. Pierre and Holland – is to have family and friends in town to celebrate the achievement. That didn’t seem viable at this point. So how they left it was that on Oct. 29, the HHOF’s board of directors will meet to consider what happens next. According to HHOF chair Lanny McDonald, one of two outcomes seems probable: Either elections for the class of 2021 will be waived altogether or the category limits (four male players, two female players, two builders or one builder and one referee/linesmen) will be adjusted downward. If it’s the former, which seems the likeliest of outcomes, it means very interesting discussion of what happens with the Sedin twins (who become eligible for the first time next year) is pushed back a year;

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and then the selection committee could potentially have two worthy classes of top-heavy, first-year eligible players to consider in 2022. Just one more way the hockey world is going to be turned upside down for a long time to come.

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The Athletic / The Zoomies: ‘It doesn’t really feel like playoff hockey out there with no fans’ By Joshua Kloke – August 15, 2020

There is an element of mysteriousness to NHL bubble life. Limited access to players means reporters and fans are left to see what teams post on their own social media channels and what they discuss in the near-daily team press conferences on Zoom. Is this preferable to in-person access? Of course not. But we’re in the middle of a pandemic, and if you spend enough time digging through the press conferences, you can still learn a fair bit about each team’s approach, and some of the unique personalities. We know you don’t have enough time to do that, so we’re taking on that task. We’re watching nearly every Zoom media availability to bring you the most colourful, lighthearted and hopefully the most memorable quotes from the interviews during these Stanley Cup playoffs. Borrowing from the late, great Jason Botchford, we’re bringing them to you in an homage to The Athletties we’re calling The Zoomies. Check back every Friday for the latest edition of The Zoomies, and make sure you’re getting outside and enjoying some sun for our sake. Best way to cut to the chase: When it comes to most discussed topics on Zoom media availabilities throughout these playoffs, the effect of no fans on the games is neck-and-neck with the oddities of life in the bubble. But having no fans took the lead Thursday night. It’s now going to take something special to top this quote from Bruins goalie Tuukka Rask after their 3-2 loss to the Hurricanes. “To be honest with you, it doesn’t really feel like playoff hockey out there with no fans. It’s like playing an exhibition game,” said Rask. HERE ARE TUUKKA RASK’S FULL COMMENTS ON THE ATMOSPHERE UP IN TORONTO: PIC.TWITTER.COM/5QQU4BDA3N — CONOR RYAN (@CONORRYAN_93) AUGUST 14, 2020 You have to appreciate Rask’s honesty and you wonder if other players will soon come forward and echo his comments. Rask was in fine form throughout Thursday’s post-game availability, producing some of the most honest insight I’ve heard as these Zoom calls pile up. “Considering I had four months off, I’m not in prime shape. I’m just trying to have fun and play the game. I’m not stressing too much about the results. It’s August. I haven’t played hockey in forever. I’ll just go out there, have fun and see what happens,” said Rask. I don’t know how much that last line would inspire confidence in me if I’m a Bruins fan. But it’s hard to doubt Rask, who is still one of the better goalies in the game. His Zoom availabilities have now become must-watch for me. Most (or least?) star struck teammate: Is Islanders winger Anthony Beauvillier going to feel stunned when he looks to the other end of the ice and sees “The Big Man,” Alex Ovechkin? Hardly.

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“I’ve been in the league for four years now,” said the 23-year-old after being asked about whether he might get star struck in the Islanders series against the Capitals. Beauvillier, you’ll recall, isn’t one to get phased by stars in any industry. He’s more of the type who appreciates the people he sees doing their job night after night, as he has for the past three seasons with Jordan Eberle. In the kind of deadpan manner that undoubtedly makes him a hit with teammates, Beauvillier shifted the praise to the player sitting beside him. “I have the chance to play with Jordan Eberle now,” he said, nodding to his right, “I still look up to him.” The 29-year-old Eberle was appreciative but still had to come to terms with reality. “Thanks, Beau,” said Eberle, “You’re making me feel old.” Best full circle experience: It was 14 years ago, but Coyotes defenceman Alex Goligoski hasn’t forgotten the one season he spent at the University of Minnesota with eventual Coyotes teammate Phil Kessel. Kessel has become known for his ability to give both teammates and other players around the league their fair share of verbal grief. It’s part of what makes Kessel generally appreciated by his teammates and fans alike. Take this barb he threw at another eventual teammate, Taylor Hall: @PHIL_KESSEL_81_ DROPS SOME FACTS (AND JOKES) IN OUR SPEED ROUND ⏩ �. SEE FOR YOURSELF. #UAHOCKEY #IWILL A POST SHARED BY UNDER ARMOUR CANADA (@UNDERARMOURCA) ON JAN 13, 2018 AT 6:01AM PST And so when Goligoski was asked for his memories of playing with a freshman Kessel in Minnesota, it was fun to not only hear his thoughts but also to perhaps get some insight into when Kessel learned how necessary it is to dish out that aforementioned verbal grief. “He was kind of fun to pick on,” Goligoski recalled. Best way to look on the bright side of things: With afternoon games becoming commonplace in this NHL postseason and teams having to play at unusual times, the change in schedule for routine-based creatures is bound to throw a few NHL players off. Not Capitals forward Ilya Kovalchuk though. He doesn’t seem like the type who is going to be chit- chatting at a breakfast buffet. The 3 p.m. puck drop for Game 1 of their series against the Islanders was welcomed. “It’s good. I actually like afternoon games. No pre-game skate. A little more sleep in the morning,” said Kovalchuk, shrugging. Kovalchuk has four children. So I’m going to bet, based off the way my toddler son starts rattling his crib around sunrise every day, that he isn’t getting a ton of shuteye at home. Kudos to him for enjoying the small victories that bubble life has brought. Healthiest snacking: Minutes after finishing the fourth-longest game in NHL history and setting a new NHL record for most minutes played in an NHL playoff game (65:06), Blue Jackets defenceman Seth Jones sounded more relaxed than, say, some had just sat through a 65-minute Zoom meeting from the comfort of their home.

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“I feel fine,” said Jones, casually, to open his post-game press conference after an epic, five-overtime thriller. Seriously though, how did Jones do it? I can’t make it through 65 minutes of anything without a snack or two, so how did he manage a game that lasted over six hours from puck drop to the final whistle? Let’s just say the modern athlete has come a ways from munching on pizza between periods in overtime epics. “Water, Gatorade, some electrolyte packets, bananas, things like that, power bars. Anything that you can get your hands on that’s not going to completely fill you up but it’s going to give you energy and give you some carbohydrates and potassium and sugar to get you over the hump,” said Jones. One day we’ll hear from someone inside the room who can estimate just how many total power bars were smashed by the team during intermissions. Whatever you think the number might be, you’re probably on the low end, especially considering this nugget Blue Jackets forward Pierre-Luc Dubois shared: “We only had one meal today, probably at 9 a.m.” Quickest way to forget: One of the early surprises in the Flames-Stars series was Flames winger Milan Lucic going 69% from the face-off circle in Game 1. He is 46.4% at the dot all-time, and so when he was asked about whether it had become a secret weapon of his, Lucic smiled and shared a nice recollection about practicing face-offs with one of his former teams, the Bruins. “When I was in Boston, on the (power play), when it was on the strong side, because we had (David Krejci) and (Patrice Bergeron), they used to make me take all the draws on that side. So I did take a bunch of them back in my Boston days,” said Lucic. Since he arrived in the bubble in Edmonton, Lucic said he’s been practicing face-offs again with Flames centres. “It worked out well yesterday but I’m sure I won’t be surprising any of their (centres) tomorrow and they’ll be ready for it,” said Lucic. Count Stars centre Tyler Seguin among those who were taken aback by Lucic’s abilities on face-offs, despite having spent three seasons with Lucic in Boston. Lucic won three of five draws against Seguin. “Honestly, I was surprised with Luc in the draw. I had no clue he was a good face-off man. He doesn’t do anything out of the ordinary, he’s just a strong guy. He just wins it through the dot and wins it clean,” said Seguin. Seguin said as part of his pre-game preparation, he usually studies opposition centres to learn their tendencies when taking face-offs. “I didn’t look at one Lucic draw. So I’ll definitely have to do more homework tonight and tomorrow before the game,” said Seguin. Late in the third period of Game 2, Seguin got his revenge, winning a face-off against Lucic before the Stars evened the series at 1-1 with a 5-4 win. Best single sentence: With Lars Eller’s second child on the way, the Capitals forward left the Toronto bubble and flew to Washington, D.C.. He was there only for a few days before returning to Toronto. He had purposefully missed out on going to the hospital for the birth of his son Alexander to reduce any

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exposure to COVID-19. Upon his return to Toronto, he had to quarantine alone in his room at Toronto’s Hotel X for four days. He’ll now be available for Game 2 on Friday night. “You’re in sort of a no man’s land, not doing anything good,” said Eller of his four-day quarantine. The Capitals sent him some dumbbells and elastic bands to complete an hour of workouts every day, alone in his room. But the days turned long otherwise. “A lot of watching of hockey games and reading, trying to not look at screens the whole day. It’s tough. Obviously a lot of face time with the family back in DC. It was a weird situation,” said Eller. Go on… “The whole thing is weird,” he added. I’ll take “Excellent Ways to Summarize These Playoffs” for $400, Lars. Weirdest inside joke: Blues winger David Perron is starting to get worried. No, not about the Blues chances of repeating as Stanley Cup champs. And no, not about the late puck-drop times for fans in St. Louis, which he was asked if that felt like an affront to the Blues. Instead, Perron is growing concerned about how the long days in the NHL’s bubble are affecting his teammate, defenceman Alex Pietrangelo. “I worry about Petro in the bubble life. No real estate to check on off days,” said Perron as Pietrangelo, to his right, broke out in laughter. This is one of those rare glimpses into an inside joke that doesn’t exactly fall into the typical tropes of teammate chirping: it wasn’t about a haircut, clothing or a fault of a teammate on the ice. It was about a topic that’s about as funny as a visit to the dentist: Real estate, and Pietrangelo’s apparent interest in shopping the market, it would seem. I swear I’m going to try and bring this up with Perron if reporters are ever allowed back into NHL dressing rooms. But for now, you wonder that if players are joking about real estate of all things, the novelty of bubble life is starting to wear off and players might be running out of things to talk about. Best sign of madness still to ensue: The Islanders-Capitals series got real nasty, real quick. Islanders forward Anders Lee laid a hit on Capitals forward Nicklas Backstrom in Game 1 that Capitals head coach Todd Reirden labelled as “predatory” after the game. Backstrom is out for Game 2. “It was a late hit on an unexpected player that was in a spot where he was extremely vulnerable,” said Reirden. Capitals forward had already fought Lee in Game 1. But a day later, sitting alone in a Zoom session, Wilson acknowledged that the Capitals might be using that hit as motivation after losing 4-2. “It’s definitely fuel for the fire,” said Wilson. I’d take the over on total penalty minutes for Game 2.

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The Athletic / Bubble backups: What it’s like to be an emergency goalie right now By Dan Robson, Thomas Drance – August 15, 2020

EDMONTON — In the future, when Michael DiPietro looks back on his journal entries, he knows that the notes he scribbled down in the summer of 2020 will be the most unique. There were Netflix shows to binge: “Family Guy,” “Nashville,” “Modern Family.” There were daily FaceTime calls with his great aunt, who he calls “grandma.” A bunch of yoga. And a whole lot of hockey — more or less, alone. That’s the part that will stick out the most. The oddity within the normality. Like so much of life for so many through the past six months, everything has been kind of the same but entirely different. DiPietro stands fourth in line for the goaltending job. As the team tries to get through the first round of the Stanley Cup playoffs, he is both part of the bubble and beyond it. While the Canucks face the St. Louis Blues in Edmonton, DiPietro is home in his apartment above Rogers Arena in Vancouver. He was included as one of the 31 players on the club’s “traveling party,” but remains in Vancouver where the facility protocols remain under phase 3 — but DiPietro’s testing protocols are phase 4, meaning he gets a test for coronavirus every day. The 21-year-old is one of many NHL backups — currently living on both sides of the bubble — waiting to be called on should their services be required through the most unlikely playoffs in the league’s history. Waiting for something that might never happen, but could require carrying the hopes of a franchise on their shoulders. It’s a unique position that these NHL goalies find themselves in — adding yet another layer to the sport’s most difficult position mentally. “This is going to be one for the resume,” says DiPietro, who keeps a notebook for every season he plays. “Hopefully it’s a once in a lifetime thing.” The need for an emergency backup goalie has been front of mind for many teams this year. In late February, the Carolina Hurricanes were forced to dress David Ayres, a 42-year-old Zamboni driver and emergency goalie for the Toronto Maple Leafs. Ayres picked up the win and was celebrated as a hero, but no team wanted to be caught without a professional goalie in a situation like that again. The emergency goalie issue was one of the main points of discussion at the NHL’s annual general managers meeting in Boca Raton, Fla., right before the league shutdown in early March. It remained a point of concern as teams returned to play in Toronto and Edmonton. Each team was allowed to bring a final roster of 31 players into the bubble. More than half used four of those spots on goalies, with two set aside as “black aces.” Eleven teams only brought one spare goaltender. The Canucks included DiPietro among the 31 players on their “traveling party” roster, but chose to leave him in Vancouver — creating his satellite bubble situation. A rule governed by a memo sent to NHL general managers allows every team to leave an additional goalie at home, an option Vancouver chose to avail themselves of considering the city’s proximity to Edmonton.

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In Vancouver, DiPietro stays sharp by practising every morning with Canucks skills coach Glenn Carnegie, doing drills that goaltending coach Ian Clark left for him to do. As soon as he gets off the ice, at around noon, he gets a COVID-19 test. It’s something he has to do every day, even if he takes a day off practice or if it’s the weekend — because he’s technically part of the bubble. He’s essentially on call until the Canucks’ playoff run is done. If something were to happen to one of the team’s other goalies — Jacob Markstrom, or third-stringer Louis Domingue — DiPietro would make the trip to Edmonton. In the meantime, DiPietro is free to go for a walk following his morning skates and coronavirus test, but there’s not really much more for him to do. He’s watched six seasons of the country music drama “Nashville” in two and a half weeks. “I was happy that I finished it and I was also disgusted with myself,” he says. “I spent too much time watching Netflix.” His family is at home in , in Essex County, where he usually spends his summers. “You miss being home, you miss being with your family and I’m the only guy here,” says DiPietro. “It’s been an experience to say the least. Then hit repeat. That’s my day every day, except that I also watch a lot of hockey and a whole lot of Netflix.” The routine isn’t much different for spare goalies inside the bubble. During the qualifying round, the Edmonton Oilers’ Stuart Skinner served as a target for his Oilers teammates at practices and watched games from the Sportsnet Lounge, the players’ designated area of Rogers Place. As the only extra goalie the Oilers brought, Skinner knew he had to stay game ready. The 21-year-old is supposed to begin his third pro season in the fall with the Bakersfield Condors in the AHL. When he wasn’t helping out with practice or watching from the stands, he spent much of his week in the bubble playing video games, basketball and taking practice swings on the golf simulator. It was a bizarre experience for the Oilers, who had to operate like they were on the road, even though they were playing in their home rink. Skinner is from Edmonton and grew up around the corner from the Terwillegar Community Recreation Centre, where each team has held its practices. So, it was particularly weird for him because his parents, Sue and Sam, couldn’t swing by to check out his on-ice sessions or just say hello. Michael Hutchinson is the Colorado Avalanche’s third man in goal. After practices, the equipment managers get his gear dried off and packed up to take back to Rogers Place for game time, just in case. Hutchinson is used to having to stay ready in the stands. When he played for the Winnipeg Jets, he was the odd man out while Connor Hellebuyck and Ondrej Pavelec dressed. But one time when Pavelec went down injured, Hutchinson received a call in the press box telling him to come down and get ready right away. Hutchinson keeps that memory in mind as he sits in the stands at Rogers Place, watching the Avalanche. He takes a nap on game days and comes ready to play. “It’s highly unlikely that anything happens,” he says. “But you are there — and you’re definitely not stuffing your face with popcorn and pizza and hot dogs during the game, just in case.”

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In his down time, Hutchinson has been hitting the golf simulator, too. He’s also playing a lot of cards with his fellow Avalanche black aces. But mostly, he’s watching as many games as he can. “You hear everything that’s being said on the ice, you hear every little sound,” Hutchinson says. “The view we have, I think it’s beneficial for me to stay into it. You can see where everyone is on the ice.” All of that hockey is giving him a chance to see the game from a different angle with less distraction. Surrounded by empty seats at Rogers Place, it’s easier to focus on the action and watch how the game unfolds from above. “It’s the March Madness of hockey on right now,” he says. Oscar Dansk also came to the Edmonton bubble ready to learn. The Vegas Golden Knights’ emergency goalie has already read “The Alchemist” — and has been flipping through “The Subtle Art of Not Giving A F*ck.” They are two of several books he’s brought along for what he hopes is an extended stay inside the Edmonton bubble. “I haven’t read any books in a long time,” he says. “It was about time and I felt like this would be a good opportunity to.” Dansk is a big Marvel fan, but he spent most of the NHL shutdown living in Las Vegas with fellow Swede William Karlsson, who is really into “Star Wars.” During quarantine, they watched every “Star Wars” movie and show together. Afterwards, Dansk wanted more. He’s brought along a “Star Wars” book called “Ahsoka,” about one of his favourite characters. “She’s a Padawan for Anakin Skywalker,” Dansk says. “You can call me a ‘Star Wars’ nerd now.” While he’s in the bubble, Dansk stays in touch with his family at home in Sweden, whom he hasn’t seen since last September. He became an uncle in April. He usually calls home once a day to check in, but since arriving in the bubble, it’s been closer to every other day because he’s been so busy with early morning practices — and the eight-hour time difference makes it difficult to connect later. On the ice, Dansk — who was playing for the AHL’s Chicago Wolves before the shutdown — is getting in extra practice time to work on his game with Knights goalie coach Mike Rosati. He’s also taking advantage being around other players. “I’m trying to absorb a lot of what some of the other players have to say and just trying to watch all the boys that are playing right now, because obviously, there’s such high talent here,” Dansk says. “To have this time to kind of absorb and think about what you see and what you hear, I’m very fortunate to be in this position.” He doesn’t find it difficult to stay ready to play. He’s had plenty of ice time and is keeping his mind on the game, between “Star Wars” adventures. “I think being ready won’t be an issue,” he says. “The (coaches) are doing a good job with us that aren’t on the main roster.” Kevin Lankinen, one of four goalies the Chicago Blackhawks brought to Edmonton, is also passing the time by catching up on some reading. The 25-year-old is polishing off “Homo Deus: A Brief History of Tomorrow “by Yuval Noah Harari (having already read Harari’s first book “Sapiens: A Brief History of Humankind”).

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“It’s just to get your mind off of hockey sometimes,” he says. “Sometimes, picking up a book, you kind of get deep into that and you just focus on that.” With four goalies in the bubble, Lankinen shares the emergency fill-in role with Collin Delia, his partner with the AHL’s Rockford Ice Hogs. He knows it’s unlikely that he’ll see action in a playoff game — but after spending the shutdown in Helsinki with his family, he returned to Chicago’s training camp in June knowing that it wasn’t an opportunity he could miss. During practices, Lankinen has been running through drills with Blackhawks goalie coach Jimmy Waite and meets with him off-ice to talk about what he needs to do make it at the game’s highest level. Through the qualifying round, Lankinen took in a bunch of games in person, watching other goalies play and studying shooters he hopes to one day face. Being part of the NHL club has also been a positive experience, he says. He’d just finished having breakfast with Chicago starting goalie Corey Crawford, who has been a mentor to him during his time with the Blackhawks. “Just being around the team and getting to know the guys,” he says. “You eat with them, you work out, skate with them and just spend every day of your week with the boys. You feel that you’re part of the team.” Lankinen is also using the time to connect with fellow Finnish players inside the bubble, as well as those playing in Toronto. He spoke with Kaapo Kahkonen, the backup for the Minnesota Wild, right before he left the bubble after the Wild were eliminated by the Canucks. Like Dansk, Lankinen will be far from home for the foreseeable future. Helsinki is a nine-hours time difference from Edmonton. He tries to wake up early to get some time on the phone with his family and girlfriend before breakfast. “Sometimes that’s the hardest part is being in the bubble,” Lankinen says. On the other side of the Canadian Rockies, DiPietro knows it’s incredibly unlikely that his services will be needed in Edmonton. But he’s willing to skate every morning and take daily COVID tests, because he’s missed being part of a team — and he’s missed playing the game. Usually, at this time of year, players are gearing up to return to training camp — not watching the Stanley Cup Playoffs. But everything is different now. There is no normal. So he watches his team from a distance and practices like they might need him in a playoff run tomorrow. It’s all he can do, because no one is really sure what comes next. “We don’t know what comes after this,” DiPietro says. “I’m just trying to stay in the moment.” Although he’s in the bubble, Lankinen is just as unlikely as DiPietro to see the ice in a game for the Blackhawks — but he’s equally determined to make the most of the situation and to be ready, just in case. “Of course, I want to play,” Lankinen says. “But being able to watch the best players in the world in person is great for my growth and my future.”

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As one of three goalies on their teams’ rosters, Hutchinson and Dansk are a fraction closer to playing a meaningful role on-ice in their teams’ push through the playoffs. Both will prepare as if they will, with pre-game naps and skipping the concession stand as they watch their team from the stands. They’ll take a few swings in the golf simulator or slip away for another Padawan adventure — but if they’re called, they’ll be ready. Because there’s nowhere else they’d rather be. “Just being here for me is so surreal,” Dansk says. “Whenever you get to be in the NHL any type of way, I think it’s such a such a cool thing — because I mean, it’s really what you dreamed about.”

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The Athletic / The hockey expert group text: A GM and four coaches watch an NHL game together By Scott Wheeler – August 15, 2020

It was July 30, the last day of the NHL’s exhibition schedule, and I was sitting inside Scotiabank Arena trying to come up with story ideas for the looming playoffs when this one came to me: What if I reached out to some friends and sources from around the hockey world and asked them to join me in a group text for a playoff game? The idea was simple: Find a handful of people who look at the game in different ways (ideally a general manager, a coach, a skills coach, a strength coach and a player), introduce them, and have them talk shop in real time. The execution, I knew, would be a little more complicated. Their schedules would have to align for the same game, they would all need to be candid for it to work, and they would have to understand that I’m going to publish everything they say. Nothing could be off the record. Two weeks later I had five willing participants. They were: Chicago Steel general manager Ryan Hardy. Hardy has built arguably junior hockey’s best program and pulls top talent into the USHL. He was the first person I reached out to. He texted me back immediately. “Ya I’m in – give me a few days though!” read the message and an attached photo of him lying in a hospital bed shortly after shoulder surgery. Skills coach Nick Quinn of Power Edge Pro (PEP). I don’t want to pump their tires too much but PEP is probably hockey’s leading skills consultancy. They work closely with many of the game’s stars, including Connor McDavid, Taylor Hall, John Tavares, Mat Barzal and the Hughes brothers. Quinn’s focus is primarily with their prospects, with clients that include top 2020 draftees Quinton Byfield, Cole Perfetti and Jamie Drysdale, as well as some potential future first overall picks in Shane Wright (2022), Connor Bedard (2023) and Adam Fantilli (2023). Strength and conditioning coach Dante Martella. Martella works alongside renowned strength coach Matt Nichol. He’s the guy who players like Tyler Seguin, Darnell Nurse, Tom Wilson, and Jordan Binnington — among many others — turn to each summer for their training or rehab. He and Nichol work with athletes at the top of virtually every professional sport. He’s also a childhood friend of mine and the leader of the Toronto Trash Pandas, my below-average beer league team. Nick Fohr, associate coach with USA Hockey’s national development program. Fohr has coached the NTDP’s U17 and U18 teams domestically and internationally for a decade now. You name an American NHL star (the Hughes brothers, Brady Tkachuk, Dylan Larkin, Jack Eichel), Fohr has probably coached them. Saint John Sea Dogs assistant coach Stefan Legein. Legein has been an assistant with the Sea Dogs for the last two seasons. Before that, he was a 37th-overall pick of the Columbus Blue Jackets in the 2007 NHL Draft, a gold medalist with Team Canada at the 2008 world juniors, and a professional player for nearly a decade.

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Each of them carved out time to watch Game 1 between and the Montreal Canadiens with me on Wednesday, Aug. 12. Note: The conversation that follows has been lightly edited for spelling, clarity and concision — and to add game-specific details and videos whenever it discussed a play or player. Scott Wheeler: Iʼm at Scotiabank Arena. Warmups are just about to finish below me. Weʼre ready to go. Quinn was saying he knows some of you guys through PEP and Hardy told me that Fohr was an “unreal foosball player” so Iʼm not sure whether classroom introductions are needed here. Letʼs have fun with this. Nick Fohr: Iʼve played a game or two of foosball in my day. Hardy isnʼt half bad either. He is one of the first people I have played where I had to set my beer down and use two hands. Ryan Hardy: Good to virtually meet everybody. I consider myself to be at least an above-average foosball player and Fohr beat me 10-9 once (he was playing with only one hand). The pregame beers may have helped him. Stefan Legein: This is what happens at the NTDP eh… Hardy: Lol used to happen at the NTDP… they donʼt even let me in the rink anymore! Dante Martella: Great idea, Scott! Thanks for including me. Great to meet you all. Coming from an Italian background, foosball is a childhood pre-requisite. Legein: Nothing from Nick Quinn yet! PEP must have signed a deal to run pre-game warm up. Hardy: Ruthless. Thatʼs how I hurt my shoulder actually — tripped over the (PEP) apparatus. So much for reactive countering™. Martella: Clearly you were just demonstrating what NOT to do. Its more realistic that way. A valuable skill. Wheeler: Before the game starts here (and before Quinn has a chance to speak for himself), thoughts on Tampa-Columbus yesterday? Anybody ever been a part of a marathon like that? Hardy: That was wild. I think 3OTs is the longest I was ever involved with. Wheeler: Whatʼs the science from the strength coach on whatʼs happening to Seth Jonesʼ legs after 65 minutes of TOI, Dante? Martella: Man, my first thought this morning was the scoreboard on NHL.com glitched. Then looking into it, I was taken back mentally to that Isner-Mahut matchup at Wimbledon 2010. Legein: Yeah, I am curious about what to do for the players in that situation. I have heard old stories about flat out ordering a bunch of pizzas. Hardy: Ya but they were crushing slices in between chain-smoking darts — Iʼm actually interested in hearing what they should be eating! Martella: From an energy systems perspective, the textbook goes out the window there. Itʼs just will. Itʼs just survival. Itʼs desperation. Itʼs not sets and reps anymore. From a nutrition perspective, you can also probably simplify. The textbook also goes out the window. They need FAST carbohydrates mostly, and lots of salt/sodium.

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As far as specifics of food in a game like that… you can probably look at the glycemic index (GI) as a reference guide. Itʼs almost the opposite advice youʼd normally give for health/performance. Higher GI foods (release glucose faster) like white bread, bagels and sugary foods probably a better bet in a unique situation like that. Salt is critical for blood volume/recovery/energy as well as replenishing electrolyte balance. Nick Quinn: Hey guys! Quinner here. Last one to the party. My old teammate Scotty Laughton has been *fire emoji* for the Flyers so Iʼm already biased. Legein: I’m all Laughton all day. That whole line has been amazing. Quinn: Heʼs a gamer, no question. Wheeler: Whatʼs everyoneʼs completely biased prediction for the series? Iʼve got the Flyers in 6. Martella: Also Flyers in 6. Legein: If (Price) is good, itʼs unpredictable. If heʼs not, Flyers crush them in 5. Hardy: I like the Flyers but Iʼve never made a prediction that turned out to be right and I donʼt need Gritty after me if I jinx them. Quinn: Flyers in 5 (unless Price is out of this world). Hardy: Here’s what people will really want to know: What are the groupʼs thoughts on wardrobe decisions made by coaches so far in these playoffs? Legein: Approve. Why do we need suits? We are up and down the bench talking to guys getting wet and dirty. Lulu dress pants and a team-issued quarter zip. Who’s with me? Quinn: Lol, I like players showing up in suits looking professional but thatʼs just me. Game starts. Quinn: Hayes not able to find the inside space there. Waited too long (easy to say from the tv lol). Legein: Yeah, never understood the guy waiting until he slid. Or the desire to keep driving forward. Hit the brakes and let him slide by. Quinn: For sure. And the D-man is giving inside space, just fire it through. Montreal not known for getting inside, theyʼll have to change that if they have any chance of winning against Philly. Martella: Question for anyone: What do you think was Pittsburgh’s biggest “mistake” and/or what was Montrealʼs strength in that first series? Not the first time weʼve seen a Habs team rely heavily on goaltending/opportunistic scoring. Fohr: My take was the team perspective. The Penguins were hurt all year and never really established a team culture and it showed. Montreal played more like a team. Legein: I think MTL played more structured, which is shocking considering they didnʼt all year. Wheeler: Feels like there are some key pieces on the Habs who needed the first half of the year to figure some things out, too. Surely (Nick) Suzukiʼs a different player now than he was in October and heʼs now a big part of everything they do. Quinn: Seemed like the break hurt the Penguins and Price was outstanding. Bad combo.

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Martella: Good points. Montreal seems to relish that underdog role/energy, but think Flyers too structured/deep to get through. Fohr: Flyers will be a hard out for any team. Legein: I think Flyers have some great leadership, plus itʼs hard to play against a team that always starts with the puck. Martella: And HOUNDS it when they donʼt have it. Every line has an element of relentlessness. Hardy: Itʼs funny, in all of these series (and we do it every year), the difference between winning and losing is so razor thin so whichever team wins it inflates the narrative on both sides. The Lightning absolutely dominated for large stretches of last nightʼs game but if the Blue Jackets gets a bounce then weʼre talking all day about how incredible their buy-in/structure is and how much itʼs deja-vu for TBL all over again. Quinn: The Leafs get the most questions right?! Lol. Martella: Thereʼs your article right there. Copy. Paste. Tweet. Hardy’s analysis is spot on. Wheeler: Iʼd be curious to know what Hardy thinks about Phillyʼs roster construction? They feel heavy. (Sean) Couturier, (James van Riemsdyk), (Jakub) Voracek, (Kevin) Hayes up front are all strong on the puck. (Ivan) Provorov, (Philippe) Myers, (Travis) Sanheim are all big AND mobile. Hardy: Are you asking because of my affinity for undersized soft skill!? I really like Philly — they have everything in their lineup and can play it any way you want to play it. Colorado is similar. Also, … talented and young. We spend all this time talking about goalies needing a long track to mature, but as weʼve seen in recent years with Binnington, Murray, etc., sometimes that youthful naïveté is just what you need. Wheeler: Speaking of Provorov. Fohr: Voracekʼs net front was unreal. Hard to stop what you canʼt see. Quinn: D-man has to let the goalie see that puck. Clear the net front. Fohr: Quinner, it’s hard to clear the front on the PK. Legein: JvR needs to shoot that puck. Guys want to pass way too much. Hardy: Haha, Stef, youʼre going to want to puke if you ever watch the Steel play! Fohr: Yes he will! Legein: We have the same problem. Young skill guys want to skate it into the net! Fohr: Funny, I just did an interview the other day about coaching Matthew Tkachuk and I told the reporter that my biggest memory from my first year with him was that he wanted to stickhandle the puck into the net. Wheeler: “But coach, I could do that in minor hockey.” Legein: I hate the net play Gallagher just tried. Wheeler: The old off-the-back-of-the-net to myself?

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Legein: Yeah, especially from him. So good at getting low and protecting the puck. Why try and bank it off the net to yourself? Hardy: One of the great things, Fohrzy, that you were teaching those guys (and weʼve tried to apply in our program) is that young players have a misconception that “skill” is just good hands (in part because theyʼve gotten away with 1-on-1 play their whole lives) when in reality that “skill” is useless unless itʼs actionable in the context of the game. Legein: Can I more than “heart” and “thumbs up” that? Itʼs not sexy to work on the “skill” of handling a pass to shoot. Fohr: You have to be able to use your skill and talent within the structure of the team or you have no chance to play the game at this level. Martella: Well said. Specificity. Itʼs like watching these kids doing “ladder drills” for “fast feet.” But when you apply that contextually to the reactivity of a game… that “skill” isnʼt ever-present or necessary. Fohr: One of my favorite exercises is to pull a ton of goals of superstars and show the players how simple the plays actually are to get you to the point to use your skill and wow the fans. Hardy: Thatʼs why Fohrzy has developed so many good players — he only gives shitty passes all the time in practice so they have to adapt! Kids off that 1997 NTDP team owe him millions! Legein: Hahaha, thatʼs where the saying “canʼt give a good player a bad pass” came from! Fohr: I could use millions right now! And it took me my entire career to perfect those shitty passes! Martella: Iʼll never forget, we did this reactive agility drill a few years back at one of the BioSteel camps. Connor McDavid was one of the fastest in the straightaway drill, but not THE fastest. As soon as we added a reactive component… he was far and away the fastest guy. Quinn: Traditional training methods of working on isolated skills has zero relativity to the new game. Thatʼs the biggest problem with players. Extending players is the key to success. Being good at one skill doesnʼt work anymore. You have to be able to execute 3-4 skills at once. Most players canʼt. Legein: Lots of robots. Good example from JvR. After he toe drags, he stays in the same lane. Obviously someone else is coming. Pull up and use the space behind the contact. Wheeler: And that something is Shea Weber. Quinn: Perfect example, as I was literally typing about how toe drags donʼt work! Lol. Martella: Itʼs unfortunate because it speaks a bit to the culture of parenting in the sport, as well as the sport at large itself. Weeks are filled with tons of skill sessions and edge work and workouts, etc. More, more, more for the sake of doing more. Rather than looking at a more essentialist approach and working on what matters most for that particular athlete. Wheeler: I know you and (Nichol) make it a habit to book other activities for your NHL group in the summer to get them out of the gym, Dante. Why? Legein: From a player’s point it gets boring to lift weights every day. Martella: We always get asked what the best “hockey exercises” are and the answer isnʼt a specific list of exercises. We try and focus on primarily restoring/maintaining posture, breathing and health in the

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early offseason. And then when we get into the thick of it, itʼs all about improving athleticism. Hockey is a sport that requires robust levels of strength, speed, power, dexterity and agility in a reactive setting with no “out of bounds.” So for us, getting guys out of postures that lend themselves to chronic compensatory patterns as a result of the sport (tight hips, groin issues, shoulder issues, postural issues etc.). Those activities have a cross- training effect that enhances general athleticism, but thereʼs also a tremendous amount of specificity there. Itʼs not drills for the sake of drills. Beach volleyball is on sand so the ground contact time is similar to a skating stride. And if you watch them from the waist down, itʼs reactive, itʼs acceleration/deceleration mechanics, itʼs hips twisting and turning, just like hockey. MMA is great for conditioning, and upper body power endurance. Gymnastics are strength, power, balance. All our goalies have to include squash in training (lots of reactivity in a small space). And as Stef said, it gets them OUT of the gym. If we set up four pylons and said “weʼre doing agility for an hour,” I’d get a chair thrown at my head. But if we say “youʼre going to play a beach volleyball tournament today,” all smiles. Legein: I think in the long grind if you can sneak something in thatʼs harder than they think, itʼs key. Martella: Mentally, you can’t underestimate the importance of keeping things fresh. Itʼs an art to fine tune the balance. So finding ways to address needs in a unique way is definitely something to consider. Hardy: The mental/emotional components are so underrated in the on-and-off ice development of these guys. We obsess over the minutia of things that we can quantify but if we can unlock the potential in their minds and their spirit, the possibilities of what they can do become infinite. Quinn: People equate more ice time or more gym time to more success but itʼs the type of reps you do that make a difference. Most of the top players we train donʼt skate every day. Not even close. A scrum breaks out. Wheeler: Where’s Travis Konecny and who is he chirping? It’s like Where’s Waldo? Clockwork. Quinn: How did I know Laughty was in there somewhere? Legein: Laughty ended up there by accident. “Hey boys, whatʼs going on over here?” Fohr: Suzuki is such a better player then I gave him credit for when he was younger! He really impressed me in the series with PIT. And it wasnʼt his skill. It was his ability to read plays, positioning, etc. He was unreal on the PK too. Quinn: Heʼs been lights out. Legein: I think the break was big for him. Rest, bulk up a bit. Martella: Just had an example of that this week. Had a goalie already rehabbing a knee issue. Then comes in after subluxing shoulder. Asked for anything heʼs doing outside of the gym… Six on-ice sessions. Then the odd game with buddies. Plus all our training. Gassed the ice training. One or two rehab sessions. Some treatment. Focus on sleep. Shoulder pain gone within a week. Less is more. Hardy: That break was invaluable for the young guys. (Kirby) Dach looks like a completely different player. I think itʼs interesting too: For veterans this is a weird playoff, for young guys the adrenaline and excitement has to be off the charts. They donʼt really know how different it is than in a normal year.

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Martella: Taking a holistic approach is huge off the hop. We show this to all our young athletes. Fohr: Need to add girls, agents, etc. to that chart on the outgoing portion. Hardy: What a dish from 49 (Joel Farabee). Legein: Fohr, what do you think about setting it up as opposed to quick transition? Fohr: Situational for me. Want quick transition as a default but need to be able to react the other way if necessary. Legein: Long shift, broken play, etc. Fohr: Yeah. Quinn: Amazing, the Canadiens finally create a scoring chance by gaining the zone on something other than a dump in. Need to see more of that. Legein: Teams are so good at building the wall. Unless you’re McDavid, you have to be able to make those five-foot passes and planned retrievals. (Jean-Gabriel) Pageau did a nice little dump bank back to himself the other day. Similar to that Boston PP break out. Fohr: Yeah, you have to catch them before they get set in their defensive posture or it is hard to get anything going. The Finns are unreal at getting into that posture and making it hard on you. Legein: Itʼs your theory basically, Quinn. Place the puck in a spot I can get to before you but on a bigger scale. Quinn: Thereʼs so many missed opportunities on a shift-by-shift basis. Hardy: Price got that, lol. Legein: Heʼs amazing but Laughton should have should slid it into an empty spot. Never even showed shot once! Great pass and save but thatʼs a goalie drill. Quinn: Nice pass through the seam there. Great save. After the Canadiens tie it, the Flyers answer back. Wheeler: Well, things are happening. Hardy: Scott, the world moves faster in real time and we have a five-second delay to save us from bad words! Quinn: That’s so deflating for the Habs. Martella: That’s a response. Legein: 77 (Brett Kulak) can’t let that guy behind him. Fohr: Seen that before! Wheeler: Ha! I knew that was coming from you, Fohr. Fohr: We have a drill called The Farabee because he is so good at that. Wheeler: What do the loyal subscribers of The Athletic need to know about him, given that you coached him and all?

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Fohr: He is a super driven kid! Came to the rink every day to prove he was the best player in the world. He was definitely not the headliner on the team coming in, but he was the guy leaving. Martella: Love that! Speaking of being driven, great book recommendation for anyone interested: “Grit” by Angela Duckworth. Just finished it. In a sport that often chastises the word “grit” and other similar terms, it was refreshing to have such an analytical yet qualitative breakdown of such an important concept. Hardy: Iʼve got a great Farabee story: 2016 Youth Olympics, we had to submit roster in November for a tournament in February. Of course, being the great talent evaluator that I am, I cut him. That weekend I go to a tournament in Detroit, first game he has a hat trick against Honeybaked with three absolute beauties. After the game I text him to come find me and Iʼm like, “Hey buddy, you, uh, probably have a case that you should have made the team.” Needless to say, didnʼt make the same mistake five months later! Fohr: He is a coach’s dream. Does all the little things right. Plays the game the right way. Drives his teammates to be better. He has all the intangibles that you canʼt measure. And he is just a winner! Not the fastest, or the hardest shot, etc. just loves to win! Hardy: He ended up coming on his official visit (to the NTDP) the day after I got back from Norway. Iʼm touring him around and everybody at work is like “Congrats on the gold medal!” and Iʼm like “Oh man I wish these people would stop talking.” He took it in stride though — great kid. Martella: Thatʼs awesome. Itʼs those kinds of guys that can teach you as much as you (hopefully) taught them. Always great to see someone really put it ALL together. Hardy: Fohrzy — is there one player that when they got to the program youʼre like “this kid is brutal” and then by the end you were so thrilled to have coached him? Fohr: The kid that comes to mind first is Kevin Labanc. He was really behind his group with us but just put his head down and worked and has become a pretty good player for San Jose. Legein: I like his game. Heʼs kind of like (Zach) Hyman a bit? Donʼt see him too often out here. Fohr: It’s not a surprise that he is able to score in the NHL. He lived in our shooting room back then. Legein: Scored in the OHL as well, holy. Wheeler: Labanc and (Andrew) Mangiapane (also a pretty good player in Calgary now AND a late bloomer) feasted in that last year in Barrie. Legein: I skated with Mangiapane the last two summers, heʼs a good player. Works really, really hard. Has a great ability to get shots off in weird spots of his body. Really the common theme here is: Be a hard worker. Martella: Gents, Iʼm going to be phasing out here shortly. Got a few mins still, so any questions you might have for me in particular, fire away. Legein: What should guys be drinking pre, during, and post? Martella: Would say to focus on promoting habits for long term health. So pre-hydration really starts with how you structure your whole day. Ensuring guys are adequately salting their foods, and listening to their bodies when they feel thirsty… donʼt ignore that. Sleep is integral to any form of performance,

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and is THE most effective performance enhancer (7-9 hours a night). No screen time one hour before bed is going to have a way bigger effect on performance and recovery than any stimulant or supplement. For the actual “pre” workout or game drink, ideally, nothing highly stimulating or sugar-filled. If itʼs Game 7 of the playoffs, do whatever you have to do to get yourself going. But habit wise, a sugar-free electrolyte drink works well. Post-workout, replenishing with a high-quality protein is most important, ideally from whole foods, and best of from an animal foods source. If itʼs a late game, a shake probably easier to digest. Wheeler: Big one I have, while watching Paul Byron (5-foot-9, 160 pounds soaking wet) and Travis Sanheim (6-foot-3, 180 pounds soaking wet) fly around is one Iʼve always had re: skating. A lot is made of power in hockey. So how do some of those lighter, lankier players learn to move like that? Is it just natural gifts, or something more? Martella: First thing to understand is that size/shape of the athlete comes down to a number of factors. Some of the smaller/lankier guys might actually have comparable muscular density as other guys that look bigger/heavier. So in theory a guy that is heavier may have proportionately similar muscular distribution to a guy thatʼs leaner, the heavier guy just has more fat. That doesnʼt necessarily have to be like the typical “overweight visible fat,” just more fat than the lean guy. Then there is a huge genetic component of the proportion of fast to slow twitch-muscle fibres. This is trainable to a certain degree, but definitely a genetic ceiling thatʼs more important. And then from a training perspective, thereʼs more nuance. Biomechanically, do they have the requisite ability to access ranges of motion at their ankles and hips in order to even get to a position to generate power? Once there, do they have the agility to generate force from that position? And finally, can they repeat that force production over and over at comparable rates? A lot of the times, cleaning up dysfunction at the ankles/feet extends benefits up the chain where you then see guys skating “faster.” They didnʼt necessarily do more “power training” but they are just now able to get into better positions. Access the full-throttle so to speak. Wheeler: This is why you train the best professional athletes in the world and my back currently aches while sitting in a chair in a hockey arena. The Flyers get a 4-on-3 power play. Legein: Fohr, what are you running here? Calling a time out? Fohr: If you have experienced skilled players like the Flyers have here, I think you run them out and let them do their thing. No timeout needed. These guys should know how to run a 4v3 PP. Although given the circumstances of the restart after four months off, you could make the case to take the time out and give them some pointers. Legein: I think Iʼd call one, just make sure they are all on the same page. If you score you don’t need it later in the game anyway. Fohr: I think it all comes down to your comfortability in the players you have going out there in the situation. Honestly, I donʼt think there is a wrong answer in this situation. For us at the NTDP, we probably take the timeout in Year 1, but Year 2 we probably let them play it out as we have had time to get the players comfortable in the situation.

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Legein: Fair Wheeler: Did 44 (Nate Thompson) just miss a tap in? Legein: 44 taping that in is a skill that clearly he doesnʼt have, lol. What a tough break. The worst is watching that one over and over and over after the game. Timeout with 50 seconds left in the third. Legein: Let me guess, get it to Weber and let him bomb it. Fohr: Seems to work. Legein: Suzuki can really catch and release that puck. Kinda like another kid Montreal has coming up! Fohr: The ability of the NHL players to shoot a rolling puck is unreal. Legein: They just donʼt hesitate. They trust it. Max height blades are helping a bit too! More guys need to spend time getting to know their blade. Game ends. Martella: Fellas, Iʼm out! Great to meet you all. Thanks again, Wheels! Had fun and learned a few things. Wheeler: Well I guess that does it, guys. I know this was a weird ask, so your time and insight is appreciated. Seriously. Legein: Nice chatting with you guys! Fohr: Thanks guys, I had fun! Good luck to you all! Hardy: Letʼs all keep in touch! Scott, thanks for organizing. Fohrzy, say hi to your family Quinn: Thanks guys.

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Sportsnet.ca / Blue Jackets, Hurricanes both underdogs on Saturday NHL odds By Staff Writer – August 15, 2020

The Columbus Blue Jackets refused to roll over in the wake of a 3-2 loss to Tampa Bay in a Game 1 clash that took five overtime periods to decide. The Blue Jackets responded with a 3-1 win in Game 2, and now look to Saturday’s Game 3 matchup with the Lightning as +160 underdogs on the NHL odds at sportsbooks monitored by OddsShark.com. The Blue Jackets overcame an early 1-0 deficit on Thursday, potting three unanswered goals to even this first-round series at a game apiece. However, despite the team’s continued success at frustrating the Tampa Bay offence, Columbus continues to lag as a +225 underdog on the NHL playoff series prices going into Saturday night’s matchup at Scotiabank Arena. The Lightning’s top-ranked offence has failed to get going so far in the postseason. Set as -180 betting favourites on the Game 3 odds, Tampa Bay has managed to score just five total goals over its past three contests. And despite remaining listed as -275 favourites to eventually win this series, the Lightning are under increasing pressure to avoid early elimination from the playoffs at the hands of the Blue Jackets for a second straight year. Earlier on Saturday, the will also be looking to rediscover their offensive touch as they take on the Carolina Hurricanes in Game 3 of that series as slim -125 favourites. The Bruins failed to protect an early 1-0 lead on their way to a 3-2 loss to Carolina on Thursday that left that series knotted at 1-1. Losers in four of their first five contests since play resumed, the Bruins have scored more than two goals in just two of their past nine games. Conversely, the Hurricanes have been steady so far in postseason action. Carolina rebounded from a 4-3 overtime loss in Game 1, and has now won seven of eight overall. However, with just two wins in their last 13 overall meetings with Boston, the Hurricanes lag as +105 underdogs for Saturday’s contest at betting sites. Elsewhere on the Saturday NHL odds, the Colorado Avalanche take on the Arizona Coyotes as -190 favourites in Game 3 of their first-round series, while the late game has the Vegas Golden Knights battling the Chicago Blackhawks as -210 favourites in their Game 3 matchup. The Golden Knights held on for a 4-3 win over Chicago on Thursday to take a 2-0 series lead. Sportsnet.ca LOADED: 08.15.2020

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Sportsnet.ca / Five young breakout candidates of the Stanley Cup Playoffs...so far By Rory Boylen – August 15, 2020

The Stanley Cup Playoffs are usually where the veterans shine, leading the way for their teams in the highest pressure moments. But there are always a few youngsters who go above and beyond what they did in the regular season, and begin building momentum for the next campaign. Last year, Dallas’s Roope Hintz was a good example of this. The then-22-year-old had 22 points in 58 regular-season games before netting five goals and eight points in 13 playoff contests. This season, he more than doubled his goal total from 2018–19. Who are this year’s early candidates for under-25 breakout post-season players? From this week’s Sportsnet NHL newsletter, we draw a few performances deserving of our attention from players who are stepping up even more in the playoffs than they did in the regular season. Liam Foudy, Columbus Blue Jackets OK, so the numbers aren’t quite there yet with one goal and one assist in seven games, but his role and importance to the team is growing quickly. After his first two playoff games, Foudy’s ice time shot up over 15 minutes. In the deciding Game 5 against Toronto, he played the seventh-most minutes among all Blue Jackets forwards and scored the back-breaking 2–0 goal. In Game 2 against Tampa Bay, he picked up the primary assist on Alexander Wennberg‘s insurance marker with pressure at the blue line and a nice outlet pass. No matter how far the Jackets go, the 20-year-old is already one to watch for next season. Anthony Beauvillier, New York Islanders This was the fourth NHL season for the 23-year-old and he set a personal best with 18 goals and 39 points in 68 games. Does he have another level to get to, though? The Islanders don’t score much, leaning on a defensive system to slow their opponents, but Beauvillier has managed to score four times and add two assists, recording at least one point in each of the five games New York has played so far. Nearly all of that production has come at 5-on-5 as well, signalling some level of sustainability. Kirby Dach, Chicago Blackhawks Perhaps it’s not a huge surprise that Dach, the third-overall pick in last year’s draft, is showing us something, but it’s notable because he seems to be having more of an impact than he did in the regular season. Dach, 19, has five points in six playoff games, and has been a key second centre with a 5-on-5 shot share similar to Jonathan Toews, who, by the way, Dach has had more ice time than at even strength and on the power play. Dillon Dube, Calgary Flames Time will tell if Dube is really breaking out as a point producer in the NHL, but at the very least the Flames third liner is emerging as another effective pest in this lineup that loves to play with edge.

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While Matthew Tkachuk is the heart and soul of that identity, Dube has been a key part of it in these playoffs so far. The 22-year-old had a six-goal, 16-point regular season in 45 games, but has four goals already in six playoff contests. They’ve all been key, too: the game-winner in the series clincher against Winnipeg, the first two in a Game 1 win against Dallas, and the first in Game 2 of the Round 1 series. Could he be this year’s John Druce/Fernando Pisani/Chris Kontos? Carter Hart, Philadelphia Flyers We may be cheating a little bit by including Hart here since he arrived a highly touted prospect and has had two pretty consistent regular seasons with save percentages of .917 and .914 (74 games total). But since the Flyers have been looking for a No. 1 for years, it’s nice for fans of the team to see how the 22- year-old has performed in his first playoff appearance. So far, he’s somehow been even better than his career started. Hart has played three games so far against Boston and Tampa Bay in the round robin and Montreal in Round 1 of the playoffs. He hasn’t allowed more than one goal in a game yet, his .966 save percentage is tops in the league among all netminders who’ve played more than once, and he’s only allowed one high- danger goal at 5-on-5 on the 14 shots he’s faced. Now playing against his idol Carey Price, Hart can really announce his arrival on the big stage.

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TSN.CA / Bruce Cassidy anticipates Tuukka Rask will start Game 3 and raise his game By Mark Masters – August 15, 2020

TSN Toronto reporter Mark Masters checks in daily with news and notes on the NHL playoffs. The Blue Jackets, Lightning, Hurricanes and Bruins held Zoom sessions on Friday. Tuukka Rask raised eyebrows after Thursday's Game 2 loss to the Carolina Hurricanes by saying the atmosphere without fans in Scotiabank Arena in the Toronto bubble is "dull" and comparable to an exhibition game. "There's moments that, OK, there's little scrums and whatnot, but then there might be five minutes where it's coast-to-coast hockey and there's no atmosphere," the Boston Bruins goalie observed. "So, it just feels like an exhibition game. But we're trying our best to kind of ramp up, get energized and make it feel like a playoff game." How did those comments go over in the room? "First of all, Tuukka has his right to express his views and opinions," said Boston captain Zdeno Chara. "I don't think he meant anything bad about it. He was just being honest. It does feel a little bit different from other playoff experiences we've had ... We all have to realize it's an adjustment. It's something completely new and none of us have experienced it." The Hurricanes, however, see things a bit differently. "The games themselves have been incredibly intense," said coach Rod Brind'Amour. "I noticed that Game 1 against the Rangers, I was kind of shocked how emotional it was ... Does it feel different? Obviously, because the noise is not there and that's probably what he's referring to." "Everyone's entitled to their own opinion," said Hurricanes goaltender James Reimer, who stopped 33 of 35 shots to out-duel Rask on Thursday. "We're playing with a lot of passion and a lot of emotion right now so it feels like we're in a fight." While the atmosphere observations created waves, Rask's assessment of his own play may be more concerning to the Bruins. "I'm not in prime shape," the 33-year-old admitted. "Trying to get there. I'm just trying to have fun and play the game. I'm not stressing too much about the results and whatnot. It's August and I haven't played hockey in forever. Just go out there, have fun and see what happens." Bruce Cassidy has a quality backup option in Jaroslav Halak, but "anticipates" going back with Rask in Saturday's Game 3. He didn't see any bad goals go in on Thursday, but also expects Rask can take his game to another level. "His game can grow like all of our games," the Bruins coach said. "The goaltending position is probably a tougher one with that long a layoff to get yourself up to speed, not a lot of room for error, so I do understand ... We know he can play better and hopefully we'll be better in front of him and he'll give us the extra save and it will work out in our favour." Rask has a .904 save percentage in four games since arriving in the Toronto bubble.

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--- After missing Thursday's game with an undisclosed injury, David Pastrnak did not skate on Friday. "He could possibly play tomorrow," Cassidy said of the 48-goal winger. "We'll make that evaluation in the morning. Anders Bjork, who had nine goals in 58 regular season games, took Pastrnak's spot alongside Patrice Bergeron and Brad Marchand in Game 2. "He did what he could with his skill-set to help that line," Cassidy said. "No one's going to replace Pasta, but if guys can go in and complement Bergy and March and help them create some offence, then they've done a good thing and I thought Anders did some of that last night. That doesn't mean he'll go back there, but I don't think that was the reason we fell a goal short." Cassidy revealed he is planning on making lineup changes both up front and on defence for Saturday's matinee. --- Seth Jones just missed out on a Norris Trophy nomination in the 2017-18 season finishing fourth in voting. He came in ninth last season. Tampa Bay Lightning coach Jon Cooper thinks league-wide recognition is overdue for the big Columbus Blue Jackets blue liner. "I don't have the answer if he's been up for Norris Trophies, but he should be," Cooper said. "[Victor] Hedman has broken through that door and it’s obviously richly deserved. You're getting to watch in this series some of the premier defenceman to ever play in this game. Just take two of the plays Hedman and Jones made: Game 1 Hedman has to track [Cam] Atkinson down for a game saver and last night Jones has to track [Barclay] Goodrow down to [prevent] a potential game-tying goal. There's no quit in those guys. They have that much energy in the tank after all the hockey that has been played not only for us, but Columbus in the Toronto series. Before logging a record-setting 65 minutes and six seconds in the Game 1 five-overtime marathon, Jones was already leading the league in ice time in the playoffs. Jones has also chipped in a goal and two assists and is plus-2 despite facing the top offensive talent on the Leafs and Lightning. A couple days ago, Jackets coach John Tortorella highlighted Jones' defensive play and, like Cooper, suggested the 25-year-old is underrated. "I think on this stage people are finally starting to see what we've seen for a number of years," Tortorella said. "I don't think he gets enough credit for his willingness and how much he defends. He's just outstanding in the room he takes and his willingness to defend. Some other players are talked about for putting up offensive numbers and having a lot of ice time, but I like to see someone who defends as hard as Seth Jones in this league." Jones told TSN in an interview during the season pause that his personal goal is to one day be named the NHL's top defenceman. "There's still a lot of room for improvement," Jones said of his game. "I like to play in all situations – power play, penalty kill, really whatever the team needs me to do I'll do. Hopefully, I can continue to grow. It's a dream of mine to be up for the Norris and to win the Norris so I'm definitely pushing for that."

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--- Jackets goalie Joonas Korpisalo is in a zone right now having stopped 230 of 239 shots faced in the playoffs (.960 save percentage). He actually seems to be getting better as the workload increases. The Finn has stopped 121 of 125 shots against the Lightning through 210 minutes of play in the series. So, what can the high-octane Tampa attack do to breakthrough? "We're putting up a ton shots right now and he's kicking out rebounds," observed Blake Coleman. "We're just not getting the second chances. They do a good job of packing the house so it’s about being a little more violent with our arrivals to the net and not forcing plays and not getting frustrated. We got to understand it might be a low-scoring series and you might have to win games 2-1." Pat Maroon, another new arrival to Tampa this season, believes Korpisalo is being allowed to see the ice too well. "I don't think our forwards are doing a really good job of getting in his eyes," said Maroon, a Stanley Cup champion with the St. Louis Blues last year. "I think when you get in a goalie's eyes he gets moving and you get those second and third opportunities ... he's been tremendous for them right now so we got to make it more difficult." The coach, however, isn't really looking for any big changes up front. Cooper acknowledged the Lightning took their foot off the gas a bit – an "exhale" – after jumping out to an early lead in Game 2, but he likes what he's seeing overall. "We got to get inside them and I think we've done it," Cooper insisted. "If you look at both games, we've actually blocked potential goals, especially last night. I mean, [Mikhail] Sergachev was shooting one in the net and it hit Goodrow right in the butt and we would never tell Goodrow to not be where he was, so at some point they're going to go." --- Cooper was asked for an update on Lightning captain Steven Stamkos who has yet to play since the season restarted. "He's rehabbing, that's all I can say."

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