Taylor Hall had just scored two more goals in another big New Jersey Devils victory when his general manager asked him a simple question.”I said Jaycob Megna Jersey Womens , `Taylor, what’d you get tonight?”’ Ray Shero recalled. ”He goes, `We got two points is what we got.’ He had a smile on his face. And I knew he was not going to say two goals. I knew it. We got two points.”That’s what Shero wanted to hear from the player most responsible for New Jersey’s turnaround from lottery afterthought to playoff contender. Hall is without a doubt the Devils’ most valuable player but he is one of about a dozen candidates for the overall NHL honor. The race for the Hart Trophy is one of the most crowded, convoluted and subjective in decades.An MVP case can be made for Hall, Colorado’s Nathan MacKinnon, Los Angeles‘ Anze Kopitar, Washington’s Alex Ovechkin, Philadelphia’s Claude Giroux, Tampa Bay’s Steven Stamkos and Nikita Kucherov, Pittsburgh’s Evgeni Malkin, Boston’s Brad Marchand, Winnipeg’s Blake Wheeler, Nashville’s Pekka Rinne and Edmonton’s Connor McDavid. The award is given to ”the player adjudged to be the most valuable to his team.”Reigning Hart winner McDavid leads the league in points and should take home the player-voted Ted Lindsay Award as most outstanding player Ryan Dzingel Jersey , but the Oilers have long been out of playoff race, hurting his candidacy to some extent and showing how valuable the other contenders are.Shero said matter-of-factly the Devils ”wouldn’t be in the race” without Hall. The same can be said for the Avalanche without MacKinnon, the Capitals without Ovechkin and the Flyers without Giroux.”Offensively, he’s such a big part of how we generate goals,” Ovechkin teammate T.J. Oshie said. ”Whether he’s scoring them or not, when he’s on the ice, he’s a concern for the other team. Where we’d be at? I don’t know. I’m not sure.”Washington won the Metropolitan Division for the third consecutive year thanks in large part to Ovechkin after losing Marcus Johansson, Justin Williams, Daniel Winnik, Nate Schmidt, Karl Alzner and Kevin Shattenkirk from a group that captured the Presidents’ Trophy last season. Ovechkin averages 20 minutes a night, has scored 18.7 percent of the Capitals’ goals and leads the league with 46 while not missing a single game.Kopitar is another ironman who leads all NHL forwards in ice time, is fifth with 91 points and has the Kings on their way back to the playoffs. GM Rob Blake said Kopitar means ”pretty much everything” to Los Angeles Womens Tom Pyatt Jersey , particularly because the two-way star has done it all most of the season without No. 2 center Jeff Carter.”When I look at that MVP race and importance to a team, I think Kopi’s head and shoulders above everybody: to do what he’s had to do without the advantage of having Carter come back on the ice after,” Blake said. ”He had to go with Nick Shore and Adrian Kempe on the ice every shift after. He leads forwards in minutes. His defensive stats and some of the advanced stats show the commitment that he’s had, and it’s from day one.”Two-way play extends to Giroux, who has put Philadelphia on his back at times. Giroux has a career-high 97 points – trailing only McDavid and Kucherov – has won 58.6 percent of faceoffs and run the power play and played the penalty kill for a team that has needed to get wins from four different goaltenders.”When you talk about that type of an award there’s a lot more to it and G does a heck of a lot more for this hockey team than just score points,” coach Dave Hakstol said. ”And believe me it’s hard to score points in this league, so I’m not downplaying that. I’m telling you how important a lot of the other things he provides are to our hockey team.”MacKinnon has provided a spark with 38 goals and 56 assists for the Avalanche, who are still fighting to make the playoffs.”He’s a threat to shoot, threat to take pucks to the net, delay and find people,” coach Jared Bednar said. ”He’s got a little bit more change of speed and change of gears on his attack this year.”Given the success of the Lightning, Bruins, Penguins http://www.senatorsshoponline.com/authentic-zack-smith-jersey , Predators and Jets, it’s hard to discount Kucherov, Stamkos, Marchand, Malkin, Rinne and Wheeler. Even Vegas’ William Karlsson or Columbus’ Artemi Panarin could get some consideration.While Winnipeg GM Kevin Cheveldayoff thinks Wheeler has shown his value beyond his league-tying 67 assists, he knows nothing about the Hart is a slam dunk.”It speaks volumes to the league and to the importance these players have on their team,” Cheveldayoff said.—AP Sports Writer Pat Graham in Denver contributed.— Thomas Vanek learned early in his career how tough it is to win in the playoffs.When Vanek and the Buffalo Sabres beat the Philadelphia Flyers in six games in 2006 to advance, the rookie winger looked across the locker room at 37-year-old Teppo Numminen, who was on the verge of tears. Numminen had never made it out of the first round in his previous 16 NHL seasons and was overjoyed.”It hit me right there and then, `Man this is hard,”’ Vanek said.Vanek is now on the other side. In the playoffs for the seventh time, he is the Columbus Blue Jackets‘ oldest player at 34. Just like Rick Nash in Boston Max Jones Jersey Womens , postseason struggles and inconsistencies have followed Vanek his entire career. Based on his play down the stretch and in Game 1 against Washington, he looks poised for some playoff redemption.”A very consistent scorer throughout his year and has a lot to prove and wants to win the Stanley Cup,” Columbus general manager Jarmo Kekalainen said Friday. ”That’s why he’s excited to be here. He wants to prove people wrong, if they think that he can’t do it in the playoffs. He wants to show that he can, and he had a good start.”Vanek had a goal and an assist to help the Blue Jackets take a 1-0 series lead on the Capitals, and young teammate Artemi Panarin scored the game-winner to finish with three points – two more than he had in Chicago’s first-round sweep at the hands of the Predators a year ago. Kekalainen pointed out Panarin was a point-a-game player for the Blackhawks in the playoffs two years ago, so hold up on the reputation rehab there.The same goes for Capitals center Evgeny Kuznetsov, who has been up and down in the playoffs. The 25-year-old from the same town in Russia as Panarin already has more goals in one game this year than he did in the 2016 playoffs, when Washington lost in the second round.Vanek and Nash know they’re running out of time to win the Cup and make a difference on that journey.Nash, who drew two penalties and played over 17 minutes in his return from injury in the Bruins’ Game 1 blowout of the Maple Leafs, has seen his goal production drop by half from the regular season to the playoffs over the course of his career. The 33-year-old trade-deadline pickup should get plenty of chances to show he can still be a playoff performer.”He’s an important player for us,” Bruins coach Bruce Cassidy said. ”That deal was made for a reason. He’s an elite player … makes us more of a threat (as) a team. He’s just a proven player in this league that can finish, that can win pucks and get to the net.”Getting to the net has never been a problem for Vanek Brian Elliott Jersey , whose power-play goal in Game 1 came from crashing the crease. But he hasn’t always found it easy to score in the playoffs and has struggled with a minus-16 rating in six previous appearances with the Sabres, Canadiens and Wild.Vanek didn’t know how he would fit in with Columbus, though the reviews from coach John Tortorella are positive – and honest. Vanek’s propensity for defensive miscues and mistakes with the puck, and his sometimes frustrating inconsistencies, have given Tortorella and others grey hairs.”I think he really is thriving and is excited about the role he has, that he was and we were in a playoff hunt and now he’s in the playoffs,” Tortorella said. ”I can see why he gives coaches nightmares in some of the things he does. I get that. But I think sometimes you need to ignore some of that and allow him to play and not get in his way. I think he’s been terrific.”Several times leading up to the start of the playoffs and even after his goal, Vanek was asked about making an important contribution in the playoffs. Each time he changed the subject to the need for someone, anyone, on the team to have success.”You can tell how excited everyone is,” Vanek said. ”It doesn’t matter if you score or not.”Scoring or not, making a long run a reality would be Vanek’s real redemption.—
