The Nashville Predators (6-1) and Pittsburgh Penguins (6-2) have been arguably the two most dominant teams this postseason. A major reason for that success has been their ability to generate quality shots on goal, despite ranking lower in terms of overall shot count.

Among the 16 teams that qualified for the postseason, Pittsburgh ranks 11th in shots per game, while Nashville ranks 12th. Five of the top six were eliminated in the first round, providing further evidence that quality is more important than quantity.

And interestingly enough, the Predators and Penguins have generated their quality shots in very similar manners.

Avg.DISTF

According to Corsica Hockey, Avg.DISTF is a team's average distance of unblocked shots. Obviously, the team taking shots closer to the net has a greater chance of scoring goals.

As you can see, Pittsburgh and Nashville rank first and second, respectively, when it comes to the closest Avg.DISTF thus far in the postseason. Only teams that are still active are included in the chart.

Stat junkies often get caught up in the amount of shots a team has taken, while the actual quality of those shots flies under the radar.

Thru%

Thru% is the percentage of a team's shot attempts that actually make it on goal. A stat such as Corsi, for example, is helpful, but it gives a team credit if it attempts a shot, even if it gets blocked or misses the net completely.

Both Pittsburgh and Nashville have done an outstanding job of getting pucks through to the net so far in the postseason.

Nashville has been especially impressive when you consider that much of their shot generation comes from Roman Josi, P.K. Subban, and Ryan Ellis - all defensemen. The three-blue liners rank second, fourth, and sixth on the team in shots on goal during the playoffs, respectively.

One-timers

Part of why Nashville and Pittsburgh are able to get shots through with success is that they may be the two best teams at executing the one-timer. A one-timer not only gives defenders minimal time to get in the shooting lane to block the shot, but also gives goaltenders less time to find the puck and react.

Unfortunately, the statistical evidence for one-timers is bare, but anyone who has watched either team play this postseason with regularity would likely agree.

The Penguins have the skill up front to take one-timers off the rush. They lead the postseason with 75 snapshots, according to NHL.com. The next most? Washington with 56.

Furthermore, both of Pittsburgh's goals in the waning minutes of Game 3 came off one-timers from Evgeni Malkin and Justin Schultz. Those goals came on a six-on-five man advantage with the goalie pulled - not off the rush - but nonetheless, the one-timers still count.

The Predators, as mentioned, like to take shots from the point with their defensemen. As a team, they lead the playoffs in slapshots per game with 5.57.

If you've tuned into many Predators games this postseason, you'll routinely find Josi, Subban, or Ellis blasting one-timers from their off-hand side - at even strength and on the power play.

If both the Predators and Penguins continue to find ways to get quality shots through to the net, it wouldn't be surprising at all if they meet in the Stanley Cup Final.

(Photos courtesy: Action Images)

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The Pittsburgh Penguins will be without Sidney Crosby for Game 4 against the Washington Capitals as a result of a concussion suffered by the superstar center in the previous contest.

While there's no timetable for his return, his absence from the Penguins' lineup and from the game as a whole can't be understated, with nary a silver lining to be found.

Related: Crosby diagnosed with concussion, won't play Game 4

Perhaps the only positives here for the Penguins are that they maintain a 2-1 series lead over the Capitals, and the steady presence of another superstar center in Evgeni Malkin, who's been quite brilliant when Crosby has been forced out of the lineup in the past.

According to Craig Custance of ESPN, Malkin has played 118 games without Crosby, registering 66 goals and 88 assists for a total of 154 points. That works out to a point per game average of 1.31, which is higher than his overall career regular-season mark of 1.18.

In these playoffs, Malkin leads all players with 15 points through eight games (four goals, 11 assists), including a strike and a helper within the final two minutes of Game 3 to send it to overtime, where Washington eventually came out on top.

Malkin will need to continue at that clip for however long Crosby is out in order for the Penguins to defend their Stanley Cup title, and history suggests that should not be a problem.

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It was a very costly Game 3 defeat for the Pittsburgh Penguins.

In addition to losing Sidney Crosby to a concussion, head coach Mike Sullivan announced that forward Conor Sheary was also concussed Monday night after a collision with teammate Patric Hornqvist.

Sheary skated Monday on his own, but it appears he'll be watching Game 4 with Crosby. The 24-year-old has two assists in eight playoff games.

The Penguins lead the best-of-seven series over the Washington Capitals 2-1, with Game 4 set for Wednesday night.

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Sidney Crosby has been diagnosed with a concussion following a hit to the head delivered by Washington Capitals defenseman Matt Niskanen in Game 3, Pittsburgh Penguins head coach Mike Sullivan announced Tuesday.

Crosby will miss Game 4 and will be evaluated from there, Sullivan added.

"(Crosby is) very upbeat and positive," Sullivan said. "We're very optimistic and hopeful we'll have him back in a timely fashion."

Niskanen will not face any further discipline after being assessed a major penalty and a game misconduct at the time of the incident.

Crosby missed the opening six games of the regular season due to a concussion. In eight playoff games to date, he'd recorded four goals, seven assists, and 21 shots.

Game 4 is set for Wednesday in Pittsburgh with the Penguins holding a 2-1 series lead.

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We're convening an emergency session of "On the Fly" after the cross-check seen across the hockey world Monday in Pittsburgh, where Sidney Crosby was forced from Game 3 after taking Matt Niskanen's stick to his head. Our takes on whether it was clean or dirty, and whether there was intent to injure, are below.

Josh Wegman: There was zero intent to injure on Alex Ovechkin or Matt Niskanen's part. Crosby had an excellent scoring chance, so Ovechkin intended to give him a whack on the hands to prevent it. He was willing to take a two-minute slashing penalty to do so. It's part of hockey. I've been slashed harder in men's league. It's just unfortunate that Crosby turned his body into Ovechkin to shield the puck as he was about to be slashed.

As for Niskanen, he was simply protecting himself. Crosby came flying into him, and it's the natural human reaction to raise your hands and shield yourself. Anyone who's played hockey knows this. In fact, Niskanen barely even raised his hands. Crosby was already falling down when he crashed into Niskanen's stick. If he was really trying to injure him, it would have been a much more deliberate cross-check in which his stick was cocked back and then shoved forward.

It's a shame the league's best player was hurt (let's hope it's not serious), but the NHL got it right by not dishing out a suspension to Ovechkin or Niskanen.

(Photo courtesy: Getty Images)

Navin Vaswani: The only premeditated act on the play was Ovechkin's two-handed slash to Crosby's right arm. In fact, Crosby was slashed so significantly that Ovechkin's stick bounced off 87's arm, off Ovechkin's shoulder pad, and then whacked Crosby on the back of his helmet. No penalty, of course, #BecauseItsTheCup.

Ray Ferraro knows what's up:

More than Niskanen cross-checking Crosby, Crosby collided with - most unfortunately - Niskanen's stick. The defender saw a player about to collide with him, and his natural instinct was to get his hands up and protect himself. He happened to be holding a hockey stick at the time.

The game's way too fast for Niskanen to have thought, "Hey, here comes Crosby with a low center of gravity. He's going to skate right into me. If I get my stick up and cross-check him in the head, it won't look like it was on purpose, and Crosby will be done for the game, and maybe the series. Everybody wins!"

Come on. You can't actually believe that.

I get Penguins' fans' anger and concern. It's natural. Of course the Capitals are targeting Crosby - every team targets Crosby. But it's absurd to say they intentionally took out the best player in the world, who has a history of head injuries, with a deliberate headshot.

If you want to be mad, be mad about the slash, and the fact the game is policed entirely differently in the postseason.

(Photo courtesy: Action Images)

Ian McLaren: Hockey is better when Crosby is playing it.

We can debate and argue until we're blue in the face as to whether Niskanen intended to injure the Penguins captain with a cross-check to the head early in Game 3, or whether Ovechkin purposefully initiated the ugly incident with the ugly two-handed slash to Crosby that preceded it. The NHL's powers that be ultimately have the final say, and have ruled Niskanen's major penalty and game misconduct as sufficient punishment, while Ovechkin's stick work will go unchecked outside of the court of public opinion.

From a discipline point of view, then, the incident is in the past.

What's yet to be determined is whether Crosby - who remains the game's best player - will be able to suit up for Game 4 and beyond, and if the ugliness that erupted in Game 3 will spill over and sully what should be the most competitive series of the postseason.

If so, hockey loses, even while one of these teams prevails.

Craig Hagerman: The fact Crosby went down with an injury is certainly a huge blow to not only the Penguins, but the sport. However, claiming Niskanen and Ovechkin purposefully targeted Crosby is ridiculous.

Lost in most of the discussion regarding the play is how fast everything happened. It's hard to plan to injure someone like that in a half-second, but very easy to argue the contrary while looking at slow-motion replays. Niskanen was certainly attempting to be physical on Crosby - that's his job - but when Crosby was knocked off the puck by Ovechkin, he came into Niskanen in an unfortunate position, and we all know what happened next.

As for the Ovechkin slash, that was a backchecking player trying to stop the most dangerous goal-scorer from doing his job. Once again lost in discussion of the Ovechkin slash is the way Crosby pivots his body at the last moment. You can see Ovechkin's stick go for Crosby's stick and then ride up when Crosby pivots - that's when Ovechkin knows he's not going to get Crosby's stick, but, again, it all happens in a split second.

It's an unfortunate play, but there's little merit in suggesting there was intent to injure

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The Toronto Maple Leafs signed defenseman Nikita Zaitsev to a seven-year, $31.5-million contract extension on Tuesday, the team announced.

Zaitsev is coming off his first season in the league after signing in the offseason as a free agent following seven seasons in the KHL.

The 25-year-old played in all 82 games during the regular season, finishing third in rookie points by a defenseman and second among Maple Leafs blue-liners with 36.

In addition to Zaitsev, the Maple Leafs also announced the signing of forward Ben Smith to a one-year, $650,000 deal. Smith managed just two goals and two assists in 36 games with the Maple Leafs, but with 40 games played split between the Maple Leafs and Colorado Avalanche he is now eligible for the expansion draft.

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Erik Karlsson is apparently fine to abide by the Allen Iverson workout routine.

Ottawa's captain was missing from practice Monday, but returned Tuesday, and while his presence is undoubtedly a welcome site, it appears head coach Guy Boucher is indifferent.

"To be honest, I don't think he needs to practice. And I've never said that about a player in my life," Boucher said, according to Sportsnet's Chris Johnston.

Indeed, with a Norris Trophy nomination, the third-most points among defenseman in the regular season, and a share of the lead for points at his position in the postseason, maybe Karlsson's practiced enough.

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With a majority of the focus on Matt Niskanen's cross-check to the head of Sidney Crosby early in Game 3, Hall of Fame defenseman Paul Coffey wants to talk about what happened immediately before the incident.

Namely, Alex Ovechkin's slash on the Pittsburgh Penguins captain

"The thing everybody’s overlooking - and we’ll never, never know because Sid got hit twice - is the two-hander he took to the back of the neck and the head by Ovechkin," Coffey, a former Penguin, said Tuesday on 590 The Fan, per Luke Fox of Sportsnet.

"When Crosby was falling down, that could’ve been the initial blow that hurt him. Nobody knows, and nobody’s talking about that. That was a brutal two-hander by Ovechkin to Crosby when he was going to the net."

Here's the incident:

The question, in Coffey's mind, is whether Crosby's injury was suffered on the slash, the cross-check, or both. Niskanen won't face a hearing for his actions, but the NHL's attention should be on Ovechkin's stick work, Coffey argues.

"I've got nothing against Ovechkin. I think he's a great player. (But) I honestly think that's what the league should be looking at," he said. "We don't know if he was out of it when he was falling down. We'll never know. Sid's the only guy that knows that."

Niskanen received a five-minute major for cross-checking and a game misconduct, while Ovechkin went unpenalized.

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Do you ever wonder what it would be like to be commissioner of the National Hockey League for a day? What would you keep? What would you change?

The on-ice product is absolutely awesome right now. I applaud the NHL for making the game great again, as rule changes over the last few years have put the focus on skill and talent.

So, what would I change? My beef is with the playoff format.

The NHL playoff setup, to me, is confusing at best. A team can have a great regular season, and still find itself with a daunting early-round matchup.

In the Eastern Conference, the Washington Capitals (118 regular-season points and the Presidents' trophy) having to play the Pittsburgh Penguins (111 points) in the second round of the playoffs, while the Ottawa Senators (98 points) face the New York Rangers (102 points) makes no sense to me. Then you have the Columbus Blue Jackets (108 points) truly getting the shaft, facing the defending Stanley Cup champion in the first round.

How does this even begin to make sense? What’s the point of the regular season?

Washington scratched and clawed and beat itself up during an 82-game schedule to finish as the best regular-season team in the NHL. The reward? A second-round matchup against the reigning champ and the second-best team in the league.

Meanwhile, two teams with fewer points than either Washington or Pittsburgh are playing each other for the same payoff: a trip to the conference final.

So basically, Washington and Pittsburgh are being punished for playing in the more difficult Metropolitan Division, while Ottawa is being rewarded for competing in the less-competitive Atlantic.

If that's the case, why try so hard during the regular season? As a team, you might as well focus instead on staying healthy and just getting into the playoffs. Let the other teams beat the crap out of each other beforehand, because it doesn’t matter as long as you get in.

My solution?

I say rewarded your division winners as is, and scrap the wild card. Then, reseed after the first round.

With my method, the first round would have looked like this:

Washington (118 points, division winner) vs. Toronto (95)

Montreal (103, division winner) vs. Boston (95)

Pittsburgh (111) vs. Ottawa (98)

Columbus (108) vs. N.Y. Rangers (102)

It’s a simple change and rewards teams for better regular seasons. Columbus doing what it did, and then being punished by having to play Pittsburgh in the first round isn’t right.

Some might not like this, but hey, that’s the benefit of having a better regular season. If you don’t like it, then don’t complain to me about how the regular season means nothing.

Actually, maybe playing commissioner isn’t as fun as I thought. I can hear the booing and name-calling now.

So, Mr. Bettman, you can have your job. It will never matter who the head of the National Hockey league is - you’re definitely going to get booed.

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The Chicago Blackhawks have dipped into the European free-agent pool, signing Czech forward David Kampf to a two-year deal, the club announced Tuesday.

Kampf, 22, enjoyed a breakout season in the Czech Extraliga (the top league in the country), scoring 15 goals and adding 16 assists in 52 games with Chomutov Pirati. He also contributed 10 points in 15 postseason games.

Kampf is listed at 6-foot-2, 192 pounds, shoots left, and plays right wing.

The Blackhawks have had success plucking undrafted European free agents, such as Artemi Panarin, but don't expect the same kind of immediate impact.

Kampf will likely begin 2017-18 in the AHL, but with a strong showing in Rockford, he could easily earn his way onto the big club - potentially into a top-six role, where the Blackhawks have some holes.

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