Rightly or wrongly, a player's career is often defined by their accomplishments in the postseason.

Here are three players who have been walking the walk through three rounds and who can rewrite their legacies in this year's Stanley Cup Final:

P.K. Subban

For whatever reason, the Montreal Canadiens did not think they could win with P.K. Subban, and in less than a year, he's on the verge of doing just that as a member of the Nashville Predators.

Yes, Subban is a member of arguably the best group of defensemen in the league, but he's hardly being carried along the way; rather, he's doing much of the heavy lifting.

Through 16 playoff games, Subban is averaging the second-most ice time among Predators defensemen (25:52, four seconds behind Roman Josi), and is tied with Josi for second in points with 10 (two goals, eight assists), one behind Ryan Ellis.

Subban also ranks first among his mates with a 54.15 Corsi For rating in five-on-five play, and not because he's being deployed in the offensive zone on a regular basis.

Subban has also continued to be criticized even during this playoff run, most notably by NBC's Mike Milbury, who called him a clown for daring to do a little dance during pregame warmups.

Should the Predators prevail in the final, you can bet Subban will be dancing at the parade and through the summer, and rightfully so, as both a Norris Trophy winner and a Stanley Cup champion.

(Advanced stats courtesy: Corsica Hockey)

Evgeni Malkin

Let's be perfectly clear, Malkin is not simply Sidney Crosby's sidekick, and his career achievements are already the envy of most, as evidenced by his packed trophy case.

Yet when the NHL named its 100 Greatest Players back on Jan. 1, the Pittsburgh Penguins center was inexplicably omitted.

It was a gross oversight, and one that looks even sillier as Malkin sits first in playoff scoring through three rounds with seven goals and 17 assists for 24 points, four ahead of Crosby.

A third Cup and a second Conn Smythe Trophy as playoff MVP would most certainly rank Malkin among the very best players of all time, even if he's not appreciated by the very league he's excelled in over the past decade.

Pekka Rinne

Despite being a three-time finalist for the Vezina Trophy as the league's top goalie during the regular season, Rinne has never really been viewed as a truly elite goaltender.

But going back to the 2006 playoffs, the first after the 2004-05 lockout, only one goalie to win at least 12 playoff games in a single postseason has topped Rinne's .941 save percentage.

Rinne will be in tough to improve upon or even maintain that save percentage while earning four more wins over the Penguins, but it should be noted that his best single-round performance came against the Chicago Blackhawks, to whom he allowed only three goals against in a four-game first-round sweep, posting a save percentage of .976.

If he, with help from Nashville's formidable defense corps, can similarly flummox the Penguins and backstop his team to its first ever Cup win, there'll be far less reason, if any, to question his abilities.

Rinne only needs to look at the other bench during the final to be reminded that a young buck like Juuse Saros could supplant him as the starter at some point in the near future, meaning the time to cement his legacy in Nashville is now.

(Photos courtesy: Action Images)

Copyright © 2017 Score Media Ventures Inc. All rights reserved. Certain content reproduced under license.

With a dramatic double-overtime win in Game 7 on Thursday night over the Ottawa Senators, the Pittsburgh Penguins have given themselves a chance to become the first team to repeat as Stanley Cup champions since the Detroit Red Wings won back-to-back Cups in 1997 and 1998.

Related - Watch: Kunitz's goal in double OT sends Penguins to Stanley Cup Final

Of course, just getting to the finals was a task in itself. The Senators didn't make things easy on the Penguins, as their defensive-minded style at times suffocated any offense Pittsburgh could muster.

Still, when it mattered most, the reigning champs were able to get it done. Looking back, it was these three gentlemen that really laid it on the line for the Penguins in Game 7:

Conor Sheary

His stat line might just show a single assist on Chris Kunitz's first goal of the game, but Conor Sheary was a beast.

The 24-year-old finished tied for second on the Penguins with four shots on goal and was a possession machine, leading all skaters with a 67.74 Corsi For percentage at five-on-five.

The game also served as a bounce-back for the young forward - who also played a personal playoff-high 21:44 - as his assist was his first point of the series, and his first point since Game 6 of the second round against the Washington Capitals.

Chris Kunitz

Kunitz picked the perfect time to snap out of a 35-game goalless skid.

Having not scored since mid-February, Kunitz tallied both the opening goal and the eventual game-winner, ripping a shot over the blocking glove of Craig Anderson.

It was easily one of the biggest goals of his career - capping off his first three-point game of the season - even if he insists it might have been a little lucky.

"I was just trying to get it to a soft spot," Kunitz said postgame. "The puck just fluttered off my stick... Sometimes you just get lucky."

Lucky or not, the goal extended the Penguins' postseason and made Kunitz the oldest player in NHL history to score a Game 7 overtime winner. Not too shabby.

Justin Schultz

Welcome back Justin Schultz.

Playing for the first time since Game 2 of the series, Schultz made an immediate impact. While playing the fewest minutes of any Penguins defender (24:16) - likely due to injury concerns - he tallied a goal and an assist on Kunitz's game-winner.

His power-play tally midway through the third period looked like it could stand as the deciding goal in a tight contest. He looked steady in returning to his rightful spot on the power play and helped a once-ailing blue line to further steady things in front of Matt Murray.

With 10 points in 15 games, Schultz leads all Penguins defensemen in scoring and proved his value in helping propel his club to the next round.

(Photos courtesy: Action Images)

Copyright © 2017 Score Media Ventures Inc. All rights reserved. Certain content reproduced under license.

In this week's edition of "On the Fly," we're looking back at moments from this year's Stanley Cup Playoffs that have stayed with us through three rounds. And, heads up, Ottawa's featured prominently, because the Senators had a magical few weeks.

MacArthur's moment

Ian McLaren: Nobody expected Clarke MacArthur to play professional hockey again, much less score an overtime playoff goal to propel the Senators into Round 2.

Prior to those Game 6 heroics, it was in Game 2 of Ottawa's series against the Boston Bruins that MacArthur put himself back on an NHL score sheet, netting an opening-period goal that marked his first tally in almost two years.

MacArthur, of course, had been sidelined for most of the past two seasons after a series of concussions put his career in doubt. That he was able to return for Ottawa's postseason run was one thing, but to hit the back of the net on home ice was a special moment, to be sure.

"One of the most special moments I've lived as a coach," Senators head coach Guy Boucher said after the eventual Game 2 overtime win. "When (MacArthur) raised his arms, the whole city raised its arms."

That sentiment surely wasn't limited to Ottawa.

Anaheim's comeback

Flip Livingstone: The wildest third-period comeback of the playoffs was arguably the most controversial, as well.

The Anaheim Ducks scored three goals - all with an empty net - in the final 3:16 of Game 5 of the second round versus the Edmonton Oilers, sending what was a 3-0 contest to overtime. Corey Perry buried the game-winner 6:57 into the second extra frame to give the Ducks a 3-2 series advantage, but it was Rickard Rakell's game-tying goal that everyone was talking about.

Oilers goalie Cam Talbot was forced to try to make saves with two Anaheim players on top of him when Rakell slid in the equalizer, but an Edmonton coach's challenge did not change the call on the ice - good goal.

Edmonton blew a three-goal, third-period lead and wasted a glorious chance to pull ahead in the series - a fact that would end up haunting them only five days later when Anaheim eliminated the Oilers in Game 7.

The last-minute flurry of goals, in-crease controversy, and double-overtime winner all made the game one of the best of the 2017 postseason.

Sorry, Edmonton.

Pageau's 4

Craig Hagerman: If the Senators were a Cinderella story, then Jean-Gabriel Pageau might just have played the titular role.

The speedy forward was a rare source of offense for the Senators this postseason. Nowhere were his exploits more on display than in Game 2 of the second round, when Pageau put the Sens on his back and lifted them to an incredible double-overtime victory over the New York Rangers.

After tallying his second goal of the playoffs midway through the first period, Pageau waited until the dying minutes of regulation to strike again, notching his second of the game with just over three minutes remaining. He completed his hat trick with 62 seconds left and Craig Anderson on the bench, tipping in a Kyle Turris slap shot to tie the game at 5-5 and send it to extras.

In double OT, just under three minutes in, Pageau came in on a 2-on-1 break and shelved a wicked wrister over the catching glove of Henrik Lundqvist, capping off his four-goal outburst in style and bringing the Canadian Tire Centre to a frenzy.

Four shots, four goals.

Not too bad for a player who scored 12 times in 82 regular-season games.

Kadri's shift

Sean O'Leary: Though it's impossible to quantify, momentum is one of those divine elements in sports that you can just feel. It can start with a scoring chance, a save, or - in Nazem Kadri's case in Game 3 of the first round versus the Washington Capitals - a hit.

Trailing 2-0 in the early stages of the Toronto Maple Leafs' first home playoff game in four years, Kadri set out to provide his team a spark by pasting Brooks Orpik into the corner boards, bringing an anxious home crowd to its feet.

Moments later, as Toronto transitioned to the neutral zone, Kadri took another wild run at Orpik, knocking both players on the seat of their pants. As Kadri wandered to the bench for a change, Auston Matthews took his spot, and promptly bagged his first career playoff goal to make it a game - which Toronto ended up winning in overtime. Sports are fun that way.

It was one of those rare moments, when, as an observer, you could feel the energy of the game transitioning between the teams in a huge sequence. It was exactly what makes playoff hockey so exciting.

You can watch Kadri's thundering hits and Matthews' goal here.

Karlsson's ridiculous pass

Josh Wegman: I'll go as far as saying that Erik Karlsson's pass to Mike Hoffman in the first round was the nicest pass in NHL history.

From his own goal line, Karlsson elegantly saucered the puck past multiple Bruins to have it land perfectly on the blue line just as Hoffman was skating by. Watch it - and be wowed - here.

What made the play even more amazing was that Hoffman finished with the one-handed deke that was good enough to land Peter Forsberg on a stamp when he first completed the move in the 1994 Olympics. The fact that Ottawa won the game by a goal cements it as one of the most spectacular plays in NHL postseason history.

(Photos courtesy: Action Images)

Copyright © 2017 Score Media Ventures Inc. All rights reserved. Certain content reproduced under license.

Before the puck drops on the 2017 Stanley Cup Final, the Pittsburgh Penguins can thank their opponents for helping them gain a clear advantage in playoff wins in recent years.

The Nashville Predators swept the Chicago Blackhawks en route to their Western Conference championship, allowing the Penguins to build quite a gap between them and the next most successful team since the NHL adopted a salary cap coming out of the 2004-05 lockout.

This run, centered around Sidney Crosby and Evgeni Malkin, has also eclipsed the success achieved during the reign of Mario Lemieux and Jaromir Jagr.

The Blackhawks do have three Cup wins in that time as compared to only a pair for Pittsburgh, but this will mark the Penguins' fourth appearance in the Final dating back to 2008.

The Penguins, however, can become the first team to post back-to-back Cup wins in the salary cap era, but either way, they've definitely already achieved dynasty status.

Copyright © 2017 Score Media Ventures Inc. All rights reserved. Certain content reproduced under license.

The Pittsburgh Penguins are about to take on a defense corps the likes of which they haven't met through the first three rounds of the playoffs.

In fact, the Penguins' toughest test was last round when they faced Ottawa Senators captain Erik Karlsson, but as Chris Kunitz suggests, the Predators are a different beast.

Kunitz is likely referring to the Predators incredibly strong top four, which includes Roman Josi, P.K. Subban, Ryan Ellis, and Mattias Ekholm, a quartet that has combined for 11 goals and 41 points in 16 games.

All four of the men above sit in the top eight among points by defensemen this postseason.

The Penguins will certainly have their hands full, but luckily they aren't actually facing a team of four Karlssons. That would be downright terrifying.

Copyright © 2017 Score Media Ventures Inc. All rights reserved. Certain content reproduced under license.

Despite a crushing loss Thursday in double overtime to the Pittsburgh Penguins, Ottawa Senators fans remain proud of their club's accomplishments.

Many fans proved just how appreciative they were of the club's effort by welcoming them back from Pittsburgh with thunderous applause at the Ottawa Airport.

Players and head coach Guy Boucher were extremely appreciative as they made sure to give several handshakes and high fives on their way out.

Copyright © 2017 Score Media Ventures Inc. All rights reserved. Certain content reproduced under license.

With the offseason underway for a number of teams and the remainder to join them in a few weeks, we're looking at what's in store for each club in the coming months.

2016-17 Grade: B

The San Jose Sharks fell in the first round of the playoffs, unable to build on last year's trip to the Stanley Cup Final, as the injury-riddled squad was eliminated by the Edmonton Oilers in six games.

Free Agents

Two players stand out among the handful of skaters due new contracts come July 1: Joe Thornton and Patrick Marleau.

Both former Sharks captains, the aging scorers are still seen as important pieces of San Jose's core. However, the challenge with any new deal will be term, as contracts signed after age 35 can have long-term salary cap implications.

2017 Draft Picks

The Sharks have seven picks in the coming draft. After the first round, San Jose won't pick again until Round 5, having traded its second-, third-, and fourth-rounders. Those selections acquired Roman Polak, Nick Spaling, and Jannik Hansen, plus a compensatory pick was sent to New Jersey for coach Peter DeBoer.

Summer Priorities

1. Bring back Thornton, move on from Marleau

Thornton's production fell to 50 points this season, down from 82 the previous year. While he's no longer the face of the franchise - that title belongs to defenseman Brent Burns - there is still value in size up the middle, and the Sharks have that in spades in Thornton.

Related: Burns, Crosby, McDavid named Ted Lindsay Award finalists

As for Marleau, he's been a loyal soldier for the franchise that drafted him second overall in 1997, but looming cap concerns could force the longest-standing Shark to test the free-agent waters this summer.

2. Rest and relaxation to prepare for another Cup run

It's difficult to make repeat trips to the Stanley Cup Finals, let alone win it all. The Sharks whiffed in the playoffs this year, but an extended offseason could pay big dividends for a squad which played 106 games last year and followed it up with another 88 contests this campaign.

An extended summer will also aid the ailing Sharks in recovering from an injury-riddled postseason, in which all of Thornton, Marleau, Tomas Hertl, and Logan Couture played banged up.

3. Inject new blood to the forward ranks

Look for San Jose to add some youth next season, headlined by 2015 top pick Timo Meier. The 20-year-old split this season between the Sharks and the minors, where he finished with 23 points in 33 games with the AHL's Barracudas. He's ready for full-time NHL duty next season.

Sharks fans will also be reminded of Hertl, who was limited to 49 games this season due to a knee injury. The 23-year-old was one of the team's most exciting players a year ago, when he finished with 46 points in 81 games.

2017-18 Outlook

The Sharks' Stanley Cup window hasn't fully closed, but the team's shot at winning it all is becoming increasingly slim as its core ages.

The pieces are there - Pavelski, Couture, Burns, and goaltender Martin Jones - for the Sharks to continue to contend, but the team needs to add more flair to its lineup to keep up with the best of the West. San Jose's 221 goals this season ranked a pedestrian 19th.

Last year's big-ticket free agent, Mikkel Boedker, failed to deliver on offense, as he chipped in just 10 goals. The Sharks need more from him, while they will also look to their young talent in Meier and Hertl to take the next step. The Sharks' core can contribute, but more is needed across the board in order for San Jose to keep its place in the contender's circle.

Offseason Outlook Series

COL | VAN | NJD | ARI | BUF
DET | DAL | FLA | LAK | CAR
WPG | PHI | TBL | NYI | WSH
TOR | CGY | BOS | SJS | STL
NYR | EDM | MTL | ANA | MIN
CBJ | CHI | OTT | PIT | NAS
LGK

(Photos courtesy: Action Images)

Copyright © 2017 Score Media Ventures Inc. All rights reserved. Certain content reproduced under license.