On Monday, Subban was seen entering Bridgestone Arena with a bag full of bottles of Listerine. This all comes after Subban joked Crosby had said on the ice that he had bad breath, which Subban detested, stating he used Listerine.
Although Crosby told reporters he never said that, one thing is certain: Subban clearly uses Listerine.
It's no secret, Matt Murray has what it takes to get the job done on the NHL's biggest stage.
However, Murray was lit up for five goals on 33 shots in the Penguins' Game 3 loss to the Nashville Predators on Saturday. And despite allowing a couple of questionable goals and posting an ugly .848 save percentage, his Penguins teammates know the kind of player they have between their pipes.
"He's a competitor," Penguins center Matt Cullen said Monday, according to Michelle Crechiolo of NHL.com. "You see it, he battles on every shot. At every practice he's (angry) if you score on him during practice and you love that."
"You love that competitiveness and he's got a confidence about him. But I just love that he's a battler, he's a competitor and you know you're going to get a good game out of him."
Cullen's confidence in his 23-year-old netminder could stem from the fact that Murray has only allowed five goals in a playoff game once across his 28 postseason starts, or that he's posted a sparkling 7-0 record to go along with a .935 save percentage in playoff games following a loss.
Or, more simply, it could just be because Murray has been lights out since relieving Marc-Andre Fleury of his starting duties in Game 4 of the Eastern Conference Final against the Ottawa Senators.
Regardless of the reason for Cullen's confidence in his netminder, Murray's playoff numbers suggest he's poised for a big bounce-back showing in Game 4 on Monday night.
Puck drop goes at 8 p.m. ET from Bridgestone Arena.
Many scouts and media members have pegged the 2017 draft as one of the weaker classes in recent memory. Nolan Patrick, the draft's top prospect according to NHL Central Scouting, isn't buying it.
"I think the media's pumped it down more than it is," Patrick said, according to Greg Wyshynski of Yahoo Sports. "I think the scouts I talked to this week said it's an above average draft."
Patrick and Nico Hischier are the consensus top two picks, but it's unclear how the rest of the draft will shape up.
"I think the NHL was spoiled with two unbelievable players in the last two years. I don't think you're going to get a Connor McDavid for a while," said Patrick. "He's one of the top two players in the NHL and he's 19 years old. I don't think any of us think we're that, and none of us should be compared to a guy like that."
It's certainly unfair for anyone to compare Patrick or Hischier to a once-in-a-generation player like McDavid, who actually turned 20 back in January.
McDavid aside, the bar was set extremely high by Auston Matthews and Patrik Laine last season. It's unfair to expect 35-40 goals out of Patrick or Hischier in their rookie season, feats Matthews and Laine both accomplished in their first year.
Regardless of the comparisons, it looks as though the Devils and Flyers will walk away happy with the player they land.
"The top guys are going to be able to have an impact on their NHL clubs," Dan Marr, the NHL's director of Central Scouting, told Kevin Allen of USA TODAY. "But the list does get pretty shallow quick."
Prior to the McDavid-Jack Eichel draft in 2015, the top two picks weren't always a sure thing in recent years.
Year
Pick 1
Pick 2
2014
Aaron Ekblad
Sam Reinhart
2013
Nathan MacKinnon
Aleksander Barkov
2012
Nail Yakupov
Ryan Murray
2011
Ryan Nugent-Hopkins
Gabriel Landeskog
Patrick could very well use this "weak draft" talk as motivation once his NHL career begins.
In 68 games this past season, Fast, 25, recorded six goals and 15 assists, adding an extra six points in 12 playoff contests.
His contract expired at the end of the season, and he's slated for restricted free agency. However, on a Rangers roster chock-full of prominent forwards, Fast is vulnerable for exposure to Vegas in the upcoming expansion draft.
"There's being a lot made of it. If you go back and look, try to figure out the amount of plays that they figured into that created scoring chances, they're both excellent passers, they're both capable of scoring goals, obviously too," Laviolette told reporters at his press conference Monday.
"That being said, because you guys have beat the drum on it enough, they're probably going to shoot the puck from all over tonight."
The Predators, as a whole, have effectively limited Pittsburgh's high-flying offense through three games, but any team would be foolish to take Crosby and Malkin lightly following a sub-standard performance.
So far in the final, Malkin's recorded two points and Crosby has three, but considering they occupy the top two spots in the postseason scoring race, don't expect either player to remain cold very long.
Injured Predators forward Ryan Johansen has been named the honorary mayor of Nashville for the day, as the city's actual mayor, Megan Barry, declared Monday to be "Preds Pride Day."
The Predators, despite facing a 2-1 deficit in the Stanley Cup Final, have carried play through three games at even strength, often smothering Pittsburgh's speed and transition through the neutral zone.
In this case, one would think Pittsburgh could gain some offensive traction through its power play with the likes of Sidney Crosby, Evgeni Malkin, and Phil Kessel patrolling the club's first unit.
However, the Predators have remarkably stymied the Penguins on the man advantage as well, holding the league's third-most prolific regular-season power play (23.1 percent) to just one tally so far - a complete drop-off from Pittsburgh's production leading up to the final.
Opponent
PP%
Blue Jackets
33% (5-for-15)
Capitals
13.6% (3-for-22)
Senators
33.6% (6-for-19)
Predators
7.7% (1-for-13)
Overall, Pittsburgh's power play is running at 21.7 percent in the postseason, but has been held off the scoresheet since Malkin's series-opening goal in the first period of Game 1.
Power plays traditionally run hot and cold over prolonged periods of time, but what's most alarming from Pittsburgh's standpoint is a lack of chances. In the Penguins' 13 opportunities, they've only mustered four shots on goal, including a mere two on seven man-advantage opportunities in Game 2.
"They come with a lot of pressure," Penguins forward Conor Sheary told Yahoo's Greg Wyshynski following power-play practice Sunday. "They make you make quick decisions with the puck, and sometimes that can be difficult. Especially on the break-in. They pressure you right away and you can't make a play off the entry."
With high-danger scoring chances coming few and far between for Pittsburgh so far at even strength, the Penguins' bone-dry power play needs find its old form, and soon.
Everyone knows Penguins forward Phil Kessel has one of the most lethal wrist shots in the entire game. With that in mind, assistant coach Rick Tocchet would like to see him utilize it more often throughout the rest of the Stanley Cup Final.
"A guy with that caliber of shot, very rarely he should be looking to pass," Tocchet told Dan Rosen of NHL.com. "He's an unselfish guy, but he's got to be selfish in these moments. If he gets those three chances again, I think he's got to come off the wall and really rip 'em."
The three chances Tocchet was referring to all came on the power play in Game 3. One shot got blocked, Kessel flubbed another, and he attempted a cross-crease pass to Sidney Crosby on the third, which was certainly the right play.
Nevertheless, a more aggressive mindset from Kessel could ignite a slumping Pittsburgh power play, which is just 1-for-13 in this series. It could also spark the forward, who has just two goals in his last 12 games.
And Tocchet isn't just looking to see more shots out of Kessel with the man advantage.
"If he's going down the wing and he's in around the dots, unless it's a two-on-one and he's got somebody wide open, he should be ripping it," Tocchet said. "I told Phil if you do that early in the game, it's amazing how the game comes to you. If you pass those shots up in the first couple of periods, it kind of closes your mind."
Kessel's evolution into more of a pass-first player hasn't happened overnight. It's been a trend ever since his days in Toronto (SPG = shots per game).
Season
Team
G
A
SPG
2009-10
TOR
30
25
4.24
2010-11
TOR
32
32
3.96
2011-12
TOR
37
45
3.60
*2012-13
TOR
20
32
3.35
2013-14
TOR
37
43
3.72
2014-15
TOR
25
36
3.41
2015-16
PIT
26
33
3.34
'16 Playoffs
PIT
10
12
4.08
2016-17
PIT
23
47
2.79
'17 Playoffs
PIT
7
13
2.86
*2012-13 season was shortened to 48 games for NHL lockout.
Kessel's shot-per-game numbers have taken a pretty steady downturn since his first year in Toronto. In fact, this past season he took 1.45 less shots per game compared to his first year with the Leafs. That's a pretty staggering philosophical shift.
Kessel has become a better passer through the years, and he's arguably one of the most underrated playmakers in the game, but it still wouldn't hurt for him to get back to some of his old ways - like he did during last year's playoff run.
"I just think if he has that home-run attitude, that 'Let me swing the bat, I'm not looking to hit a single, I want to hit a home run' attitude, that's when he's really got it," Tocchet said. "So I just reminded him, 'Hey, shoot.'"
And as Wayne Gretzky once said: "You miss 100 percent of the shots you don't take."