• Ten questions about 2018

    From IIHF News@1:266/404 to All on Wed May 30 06:08:01 2018
    As the 2018 Stanley Cup final continues, many questions still remain unanswered
    with the Vegas Golden Knights holding a 1-0 series lead over the Washington Capitals. Here are ten big ones.

    1) Can Ovechkin become the first Russian captain to hoist the Stanley Cup?

    Alexander Ovechkin isn't the first Russian to captain an NHL team. Alexander Mogilny got that distinction with Buffalo in 1993/94, and others have followed suit, including Alexei Zhamnov (Chicago) and Ilya Kovalchuk (Atlanta). However,
    Ovechkin is now closer than any of them to claiming the ultimate prize with a "C" on his jersey.

    The 32-year-old Muscovite, who ranks second in playoff goals and points (12+11=23), has 607 career goals. Only four NHLers have scored more goals without earning a title: Marcel Dionne (731), Mike Gartner (708), Jarome Iginla
    (625), Dino Cicarelli (608).

    2) Will Backstrom get one step closer to the Triple Gold Club?

    You might not be surprised that Sidney Crosby leads all active NHLers in career
    assists per game (0.816). However, finding Nicklas Backstrom in second place (0.724) might take some people aback. The quietly efficient 29-year-old Swede, who has played 11 NHL seasons, has won two IIHF Ice Hockey World Championships (2006, 2017). Backstrom's best chance to claim Olympic gold ended in frustration in Sochi in 2014 when he was suspended from the final against Canada due to an inadvertent doping violation after he took allergy medication.
    After Canada won 3-0, Backstrom was ultimately allowed to receive his silver medal.

    If the Gavle native and his Washington teammates can rally from a 1-0 series deficit against the Golden Knights and win the Cup, he'll just have to hope that the NHL returns for the Beijing Olympics and that he is still a productive
    player at age 34 in 2022. That's the only way this playmaking centre will crack
    the IIHF's Triple Gold Club. Same for Ovechkin.

    3) Who'll maintain the momentum from their 2017 IIHF Ice Hockey World Championship gold?

    In Cologne last year, Backstrom and Henrik Lundqvist stole the spotlight when Tre Kronor won their first of two consecutive Worlds golds. However, two current Vegas forwards also filled roles on that 2017 team: William Karlsson (1+2=3) and Oscar Lindberg (0+2=2). If Backstrom doesn't win the Cup, it'll be those two riding high on the good vibes that started last year.

    Karlsson, of course, is the Knights' third-leading scorer in the post-season (7+7=14), while Lindberg has mostly been a healthy scratch (0+1=1). Yet, as they both played more than 41 regular-season games, under NHL rules they will both get their names on the Cup if Vegas goes all the way.

    4) Will Eller's Game One flub haunt Washington like Tikkanen's 1998 miss?

    In the dying seconds of Game One, Washington's Lars Eller missed a glorious opportunity to make it 5-5 and send it to overtime when he couldn't convert Tom
    Wilson's cross-ice feed into a wide-open net. It is too early to tell, but if the Capitals lose the final, the Danish winger's error may go down in history like Esa Tikkanen's Game Two flub for Washington against the Detroit Red Wings in the 1998 Stanley Cup final.

    The Caps trailed 1-0 in the series, but led Game Two 4-3 in the third period when Tikkanen deked out Chris Osgood and slid the puck wide past the goalie's left post. Detroit would rally to win 5-4 in overtime, and took the Cup in four
    straight games. The moment remains a touchstone of misery for Capitals fans, who have never celebrated a title.

    5) Will a reckless hit change this series?

    Game One saw Tom Wilson spark controversy with a late blindside hit on leading Vegas scorer Jonathan Marchessault. While the ultra-physical winger did not receive a suspension for the play, he is a marked man after throwing three other hotly debated checks in these playoffs. Wilson blindsided Columbus's Alexander Wennberg in the first round and then laid out Pittsburgh's Brian Dumoulin and Zach Aston-Reese in the second round. The Aston-Reese incident netted Wilson a three-game suspension.

    This is no longer the era in which New Jersey's Scott Stevens was lionized for cranium-crushing blows to the heads of Detroit's Slava Kozlov (the 1995 final) or Anaheim's Paul Kariya (the 2003 final). The NHL has gradually moved closer to the IIHF's standard: "There is no such thing as a clean hit to the head."

    So Wilson and other "on the edge" players might be well-advised to recall the example of Aaron Rome's late hit on Nathan Horton in the 2011 final between Boston and Vancouver. After the Canucks defenceman was suspended for four games
    for his late hit on the Bruins power forward in Game Three, Boston stormed back
    in a series it had trailed 2-0 and won the Cup in Vancouver in Game Seven. The Horton incident completely changed the tone.

    6) Can Sbisa make more Swiss-tory?

    Either Lars Eller will become the first Dane ever to swig champagne from the Stanley Cup - or Luca Sbisa will become just the fourth Swiss player ever to accomplish the feat. The 28-year-old defenceman, who appeared in just 30 regular season games for Vegas this year due to injuries, guaranteed he has a shot by suiting up in the opening game of the final with 16:45 in ice time. It was Sbisa's eighth game of the post-season. Goalie David Aebischer (Colorado, 2001), goalie Martin Gerber (Carolina, 2006), and defenceman Mark Streit (Pittsburgh, 2017) are the three previous Swiss Cup champions. But Sbisa would be the first Swiss Stanley Cup winner who got ice time in the final series as the others had backup roles.

    7) Will Bellemare join Huet on the Cup?

    Goalie Cristobal Huet became the first Frenchman with his name on the Stanley Cup when he backed up Antti Niemi with the 2010 Chicago Blackhawks. Performing on the fourth line of the Golden Knights, Pierre-Edouard Bellemare could become
    the second one. A fixture on the French national team, the 33-year-old was unable to join Les Bleus at the Worlds in Copenhagen this year since Vegas marched to the final.

    8) Is Fleury poised to achieve a unique triple?

    How many goalies have won three consecutive Stanley Cups - but with two different clubs? If you guessed "zero," you'd be correct. Vegas goalie Marc-Andre Fleury could change that.

    The 33-year-old captured back-to-back Cups with Pittsburgh in 2016 and 2017, but was deemed expendable in the expansion draft due to the ascendancy of Matt Murray. Fleury, a two-time World Junior silver medalist and 2010 Olympic gold medalist, has responded with the best playoff numbers of his career so far (a 1.81 GAA and 94.2 save percentage in 16 games).

    9) Will the ice melt in Vegas?

    According to a TSN report, if temperatures hit 37°C (99°F) in Las Vegas on Wednesday, that would set the stage for the hottest Game Two of the Stanley Cup
    final in league history, outstripping the mark of 33°C in Dallas in 1999. Players on both sides talked about the puck bouncing around in Game One at T-Mobile Arena on the Vegas Strip.

    Moreover, if Washington extends the series to Game Five in Vegas on 7 June, it could get as high as 39°C (102°F) according to forecasts. It certainly poses a challenge for the NHL's icemakers to keep the surface smooth in Sin City.

    10) Will the losing finalist be back next year?

    Every team that loses the Stanley Cup final believes it'll be back the following year - bigger, better, smarter, and stronger. In practice, it almost never works out that way. Just ask the last three unsuccessful candidates: Tampa Bay (2015), San Jose (2016), and Nashville (2017).

    The last team that pulled it off was Pittsburgh, which lost to Detroit in six games in 2008 but came back to beat the Wings in seven in 2009. For both Vegas and Washington this year, it just underscores the urgency of seizing the day.

    LUCAS AYKROYD

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