Vorstellung des Teams » Carl Soderberg

LAS VEGAS (AP) The Washington Capitals have waited nearly 44 years to raise the Stanley Cup for the first time.Their only remaining obstacles are some desert-dwelling misfits who refuse to wait for anything.The expansion Vegas Golden Knights are just four wins away from an astounding championship when they host Alex Ovechkin’s long-striving Caps on Monday night to open a thoroughly improbable Stanley Cup Final.Even the players from the NHL’s last two teams standing seemed a bit surprised by their achievements when they gathered Sunday in balmy 84-degree Nevada weather.”Who would have thunk it?” asked Vegas defenseman Nate Schmidt Morgan Rielly Jersey , who played the previous four seasons for the Capitals. ”The Stanley Cup Final that was never meant to be, right?”Indeed, a first-time NHL champ will be crowned next month after a Final between two teams that arrived at hockey’s ultimate destination from very different directions. While the Caps finally climbed over the hump in the Eastern Conference, the Golden Knights have been bulldozing every logical obstacle in their path since October.”We’ve been able to do some things in the playoffs, but we never got to that last stage until now,” Washington forward T.J. Oshie said. ”And everybody knows what Vegas did in the first year is very special. We’re both hungry. This is going to be a beast of a series.”The Golden Knights have exceeded every expectation by utilizing a rich expansion draft and multiple clever coaching moves to create a team that dominated the Pacific Division and then rampaged through the Western Conference playoffs. Their story still carries a ring of impossibility, but they’re close to adding a real ring to every hand in the dressing room full of self-described ”Golden Misfits,” as their T-shirts say.The Capitals have repeatedly fallen short of their postseason goals during Ovechkin’s career, including a heartbreaking shutout loss to Marc-Andre Fleury in Game 7 of the second round against Pittsburgh last spring. After falling to Fleury’s champion Penguins in the past two postseasons, the Caps revamped their roster with youth and finally overcame years of playoff disappointment to reach their first Final in two decades. Of course, Fleury is in the way again – in goal for the Golden Knights.Neither team was the favorite to get this far. Neither team is ready to stop now.While Capitals coach Barry Trotz skated his now-customary hot lap before practice at T-Mobile Arena, the Golden Knights had their usual standing room-only crowd for practice at their training complex in suburban Summerlin.Their grip on this sports-hungry town was already strong, and the 24-hour gambling mecca will come to a standstill this week during the Cup games in the arena behind the New York New York hotel-casino and its 150-foot Statue of Liberty, which has been wearing a Golden Knights jersey since April.Speaking of larger-than-life figures in hockey sweaters, this series showcases two major talents who can cement a legacy.Ovechkin is a formidable scorer and competitor Womens Nazem Kadri Jersey , but he has never won an Olympic medal with Russia or a Stanley Cup ring with the Caps. He’s keeping a sense of humor about this momentous trip: With a straight face Sunday, Ovechkin said Russian President Vladimir Putin had called him to wish him luck, before adding: ”I’m just joking.””We want to be here,” Ovechkin said. ”We work so hard all year. I don’t think nobody believes in us, and nobody believes in Vegas, and we’re right now in the Stanley Cup Finals, and we fight for a Cup. Come enjoy this moment.”Fleury already has three Stanley Cup rings, but he has added another incredible act to his career with tenacious play for the Golden Knights, whose inexperienced pros have leaned on him to get through tough nights.”I think it’s weird seeing that team here, being in the Cup the first year,” said Brooks Orpik, the only Washington player with a ring. ”Obviously, I’m not surprised (Fleury) is here. Without him, they weren’t beating us last year. He singlehandedly won a couple of games for (Pittsburgh) when we totally outplayed them.”Here are more things to know about the ice hockey event in the Mojave:COACHING CROWNThe winning coach also will raise the Stanley Cup for the first time in a fitting peak to two careers built on resilience. The 55-year-old Trotz never played in the NHL, but his 19th season as an NHL coach is ending in his first Cup Final. Gerard Gallant was a solid NHL forward for Detroit Nikita Zaitsev Jersey Kids , but the 54-year-old bench boss had never even won a playoff round as an NHL coach before this spring.(TURN)OVER KNIGHTSSeveral Capitals pointed out the importance of minimizing turnovers against the Golden Knights, whose counterattacking acumen and team speed cause problems. ”They’re a very fast team and when you turn pucks over, they’re like a shark smelling blood in the water,” Oshie said. ”They all stop on a dime and want to take it the other way. That’s how they get a lot of their offense.”CAPTAIN CHARGEOvechkin could become the first Russian captain to raise the Stanley Cup. If the Knights win, they don’t have a captain to raise the Cup first. Gallant and GM George McPhee decided to rely on a six-man leadership council instead. ”I think that’s the best decision we ever made,” Gallant said. ”Sure, there’s guys who could have been captain in our group, but it was their first year – and we really didn’t think we’d be grabbing the (Western Conference) trophy the other night in Winnipeg.”SCHMIDT’S REUNIONThe Golden Knights’ matchups against the teams that let them go in the expansion draft have been a consistently entertaining feature of this season. For the grand finale, Schmidt is at center stage against the Caps, who left him unprotected and then tried to reacquire him from Vegas. Schmidt led the Golden Knights in ice time and surpassed his previous career highs with five goals and 31 assists. He is logging nearly 25 minutes per playoff game.THE HOTNESSSummer heat hasn’t quite settled onto Las Vegas yet, but the upcoming week looks like a scorcher. The temperature on the Strip should hit 100 degrees on Wednesday before Game 2.—More Stanley Cup coverage: https://apnews.com/tag/StanleyCupFinals DENVER (AP) Nashville pulled off another comeback victory to remain the NHL’s hottest team.Filip Forsberg scored at 1:07 of overtime and the Predators matched the franchise record with their eighth straight victory, beating the Colorado Avalanche 4-3 on Sunday. They completed a 4-0 trip, winning the last two in overtime.”We’ve proven to ourselves that we can come back,” Forsberg said. ”Getting four out of four wins on the road is ridiculous right now. But at the same time we can’t get too high. We have to keep grinding and winning the games.”Nashville has won nine straight against Colorado, including three this season.But Avalanche coach Jared Bednar said he still liked a lot of what he saw from his players in their latest effort against the Predators.”I liked the way we played http://www.mapleleafsshoponline.com/authentic-patrick-marleau-jersey ,” Bednar said. ”I thought we got a little better as the game went on. It was a pretty good all-around effort from our group. Pretty tight contest. They catch a break at the end and tie it up and end up getting the extra point.”Nashville’s Ryan Ellis tied it with 1:06 left in regulation with goalie Pekka Rinne off for an extra attacker.”It’s 6 on 5 where we talk about getting pucks to the net,” Ellis said. ”I had one shot that got stopped by the goalie and the next shot we had traffic in front of him and it got in.”The Predators carried the momentum into overtime, when Forsberg charged down the ice and put in the winner with a shot from the side that got past goalie Semyon Varlamov.”The confidence level of our team is reaIly hard. It shows our character, knowing there is no giving up,” Rinne said.Nathan MacKinnon helped set up Colorado’s first lead of the game with a cross-ice pass to Mikko Rantanen, whose one-timer from the right circle to beat Rinne with 5:38 left in the third period.Colorado tied it at 2 at 4:38 of the third when Matt Nieto, at the end of a rush, wristed a shot that Rinne managed to deflect. But the puck stayed around the goal and, as Predators winger Kevin Fiala tried to corral the rebound, his stick nudged the puck into the net.Kyle Turris scored on a power play at 8:08 of the second to put the Predators in front. Turris gathered in a pass from Ellis and wristed a shot from the left circle. The puck went off the glove of goalie Semyon Varlamov before going into the net.Nikita Zadarov had just left the penalty box and skated onto the ice after the Avalanche had killed off his high-sticking infraction. Carl Soderberg picked up a loose puck near the blue line, spotted Zadarov alone along the boards and sent a lead pass to him to ignite a breakaway. Zadarov pulled up at the top of the left circle and unleashed a slap shot that beat Rinne at 12:57 of the first to even the score.Nashville broke on top 3:09 into the game when Austin Watson let fly a shot from the slot that glanced off defenseman Anton Lindholm’s jersey before going into the net.NOTES: Avalanche C Colin Wilson missed the game after leaving Friday night against Minnesota with a head injury. … Five of the Predators’ nine wins in a row against the Avalanche have come in Colorado. … Forsberg has 11 goals in 19 games against Colorado. … The Avalanche saw their three-game winning streak come to a halt. … Nashville also won eight in a row from Oct. 5-25, 2005.UP NEXTPredators: Host Dallas on Tuesday night.Avalanche: At Chicago on Tuesday night.