There are hockey geeks. And then there are lifetime obsessives like Mark Stone.

Long before Stone arrived in Vegas to star for the Golden Knights, he was a hockey-mad kid from the Canadian Prairies who would pour over camcorder-recorded game film of him and his minor hockey teammates. Later, he would pop in a new disc to dissect footage of his older brother and his teammates.

In the early 2000s, the Stone family DVD player was seemingly always filled with youth hockey material. "I thought that was the coolest thing in the world," Stone, now a veteran of 500 NHL games, said last year of reviewing the footage at his leisure. "I literally watched them all the time."

You can see the hockey nerd persona in Stone's body of work these playoffs.

Heading into Game 4 of the Western Conference final, which goes Saturday night in Edmonton, the crafty right-winger has racked up 17 points in 18 games by consistently outsmarting the opposition. "He's not the fastest skater, but he plays fast because he's always thinking ahead of the other players," is how Darren Ritchie, one of Stone's junior hockey coaches, put it.

Ritchie, general manager for the Brandon Wheat Kings, was an assistant coach with the WHL club during Stone's four years there. He knows the Winnipeg native well as a player and a person, and on Friday afternoon helped theScore analyze a handful of Stone-related clips. Consider the following a lesson in why and how Stone has been one of the restart's premier two-way forwards:

The stick work

Stone is probably best described as organized chaos on skates.

His long brown hair bulges out of his helmet, his abnormally long Warrior stick is always up to something, and his skating stride won't ever be described as majestic. Yet, good luck finding an NHL winger who is better at defending in the neutral zone, a place where nifty and responsible stick work can shine.

The clip below, pulled from Game 7 of Vegas' second-round series against the Vancouver Canucks, perfectly demonstrates this uniquely Stone quirk:

Notice how Stone practically begs Vancouver's Tanner Pearson to move the puck to the middle of the ice. His body language is focused but standoffish right up until the moment he lunges downward, and his timing is impeccable.

"He forces Pearson to make that pass. It's almost like Mark goads him into it, right?" Ritchie said. "He gets opponents to feel like they're comfortable. But, at the same time, he knows if they try to get a puck through there, he's going to get a stick on it. He gets a lot of stick on it in this case."

Despite appearing in only 65 games, Stone finished tied for second in takeaways in the 2019-20 regular season, with 78. He possesses an uncanny ability to force turnovers and not miss a beat while transitioning to attack mode. Thus far in the playoffs, he's accumulated 16 takeaways, and it feels like almost half of them have blossomed into a scoring chance the other way.

"That's because he's always got really good angles," Ritchie said of the 6-foot-3, 202-pound Stone. "He's always in the proper position when he approaches the player, so he doesn't have to hook the guy's hands. He doesn't take many penalties, and he's always on the right side of the puck."

Stone was a menace all night Thursday in Game 3 of the West final, a 3-2 overtime win for the Dallas Stars. He factored into both Vegas markers in the loss, contributing a primary assist and a goal. The off-balance neutral-zone poke check showcased in the clip below is from a shift that didn't lead to a red light flashing, though it was a beautiful display of angling nonetheless:

Stone quickly converts a clean steal into a blue-line give-and-go with teammate Chandler Stephenson and then pings the crossbar with a long-range shot. His proud ex-coach enjoyed a laugh upon realizing how familiar both examples of Stone's fine stick work looked after a few loops of each.

"We've seen this a thousand times," Ritchie said, referencing Stone's time in Brandon. "We'd have players on our bench turn back and look at us coaches and say, 'Don't these guys know he can do this?!' It got to the point where our players would just laugh. It was completely routine of him to strip guys of pucks in the neutral zone and go the other way on a breakaway or 2-on-1s."

The goal scoring

Ritchie remembers checking in on Stone the season before the youngster joined the Wheat Kings and was blown away by one particular shootout goal. Stone, at the time dominating Manitoba's Midget AAA loop, pulled off a deke affectionately known as The Forsberg. It was something extraordinary, a rare dash of wow from an otherwise nuanced star player.

"He's not polished, he's nothing fancy, he's a hockey player," Ritchie said of Stone then and now. He made the remark after rewatching his former player's power-play goal in Game 3 of the second round. It wasn't an insult. Ritchie was instead emphasizing the understated nature of Stone's full toolbox:

Sure, that's a quality top-corner snipe, but there isn't anything particularly flashy about how Stone released the shot. As per usual, he was in the right place at the right time, and he used pinpoint accuracy to nail an opening.

Stone's calling card is his hockey I.Q. - or hockey sense, whatever you want to call it - which Ritchie estimates is "top five in the NHL." The 2010 sixth-round pick of the Ottawa Senators anticipates on-ice developments so well that he's rarely caught off guard by the run of play, which can often turn on a dime.

Case in point, in the sequence below from the first round against the Chicago Blackhawks, Stone scoops up the puck at the blue line, calmly finds a streaking teammate, glides through the hash marks, and then deflects a pass to the back of the net. Each task is completed at a pretty slow speed:

"He just finishes the play. He goes to the net with his stick on the ice," Ritchie said of the 28-year-old. "Basic stuff, but you also can't really teach it. That's probably the biggest thing that people don't understand about hockey sense. You either have it or you don't.

"Another thing about Mark," he continued, "is that he never lets the opponent have his stick. His stick is always free. They may have his body, but if you ever watch closely, notice his stick is always free. He's never tangled up. They may think they have him in some way or another, but he's still free because his stick is."

Ritchie, like many others in the hockey world, sees a little Pavel Datsyuk in Stone. The Detroit Red Wings legend was a prolific skater while Stone is not, but there's a comparison to be made based on the stick work, puck stripping, and, overall, game-to-game consistency. Two two-way giants.

The dependability and versatility in Stone's game allow Golden Knights coach Peter DeBoer to lean heavily on him in all situations. Stone has logged an average of 18:28 a night in the playoffs, four minutes of which are spent on special teams - three on the power play and one on the penalty kill.

The celebrations

Theory: Maybe Stone has such good hand-eye coordination because his stick is essentially an extension of his body. Based on the length, giant knob at the handle, and how he deploys the blade like a fire poker, Stone's stick may be closer to an instrument or a tool than anything else.

"It's like he's holding a candle," Ritchie said when asked about Stone's habit of skating with his stick upright. "A five-foot candle."

The stick is one eccentricity. Another is his animated goal celebrations, which have become legendary over the years. Perhaps nobody, it's been said a thousand times over, gets as hyped about a goal. Exhibit A from last round:

This next clip comes after a Western Conference final victory. Not a goal, a full-fledge win, which explains why Stone morphs into a WWE Superstar:

Ritchie loved the second clip: "Knowing that they need to win that game, that they can't go down 2-0, you see the emotion that says, 'Hey, we're back in it!' It's a great feeling. Some guys don't show it like him, but he lets it out."

That expressive side of Stone - the part of him that celebrates every achievement like it's his last on Earth - is undeniably infectious. You can tell it's genuine and rooted in competitiveness. Mind you, this is nothing new from the Prairie kid. "He's been like this since he was 16 years old," Ritchie said.

Pulling for Vegas in the restart hasn't been difficult for Ritchie since forward Ryan Reaves, black ace Reid Duke, assistant coach Ryan Craig, director of player personnel Vaughn Karpan, assistant director of player personnel Bob Lowes, and GM Kelly McCrimmon also have ties to the Wheat Kings.

It makes you wonder what Stone's reaction might be if they win the Cup. "Oh God, no kidding," Ritchie said. "I hope we get to see it. It'd be pretty cool."

John Matisz is theScore's national hockey writer.

Copyright © 2020 Score Media Ventures Inc. All rights reserved. Certain content reproduced under license.

On Aug. 3, the third day of the 2020 NHL playoffs, a thunderstorm ripped through Edmonton, one of two cities playing host to the bubbled postseason.

Among the damage was a section of fencing near the Sutton Place, the high-end hotel housing half of the Western Conference playoff teams. Since a downed piece of infrastructure could potentially threaten the integrity of the Edmonton operation, security personnel quickly formed a human fence to stop any intruders. Not long after, the crisis was averted as new fencing was installed.

These are the types of problems Steve Mayer, the NHL's chief content officer, is tackling. Somehow, with the Toronto bubble disassembled and the conference finals underway inside Edmonton's Rogers Place, there still hasn't been a single positive case of COVID-19 reported by the NHL following six weeks of frantic activity in both places.

"It's a mini miracle that we've had no positive tests. Sorry, but it is," Mayer said in a phone interview late last week.

Hired in 2016, Mayer is the NHL's point man for two essential areas of the restart: the development and maintenance of the bubbles, and game presentation. He's also an executive producer for the ESPN+/YouTube docuseries "Quest For The Stanley Cup." It's not a stretch to suggest Mayer - whose last name is appropriately pronounced "mayor" - is on the short list of most influential (and busiest) people involved in the 24-team tournament.

"You know what, I'll sleep in October after the draft. We'll find some time then. You're running on fumes and adrenaline," Mayer joked from Edmonton, where he's been stationed with his team since the middle of July.

theScore chatted with Mayer about what's unfolded behind the scenes during the restart. Below is an abridged version of that conversation.

theScore: You're a seasoned vet in the sports and entertainment business. You've seen just about everything over your career. I'm wondering, what has surprised you about this totally unique, unprecedented experience?

Mayer: I never understood how confining this could be. Listen, we all knew we were going to be in a bubble. But when you're in one place for this amount of time, where you can go left, you can go right, but you can't go backwards and forwards, it's tough for everyone.

We've been trying to add things, whether it's something simple like changing a menu or adding a new activity to an outdoor area. We're constantly trying to come up with what, from an experiential standpoint, is going to feel different.

I don't think much surprised me. I felt like we were pretty well prepared and understood what setting up a bubble meant and how it might be perceived. I say this a lot, and I truly mean it: I was nervous that we would set this up and the teams and players - who are used to luxury and going on the road and going to a hotel and owning that hotel and having things at their beck and call - would be tough (to win over), that they're going to be a tough critic.

(But) the No. 1 thing I hear on a daily basis is, 'This is so much better than I thought it would be, thanks.' And so, expectations, for one reason or another, weren't that high. And I think we have done a good job of getting it to the point for everybody where it's a liveable bubble. There's a lot of options. If you were in the greatest resort in the world for this long of time, yeah, it would get to you after a while.

theScore: Is there anything that's been introduced during the restart - the way the game is being presented on TV, the logistics behind the scenes, anything of that nature - that the league could possibly carry over to "normal times" when we're back to the regular flow, look, and feel of the NHL?

Mayer: There are camera angles that are subtle but really effective.

We changed little things that a lot of people might not know but in some ways, in your mind, you'll understand it's better. We've changed the tone of the music. We've gone from classic rock to pop and hip hop a little more.

Some of the ways we're highlighting our stars (is another transferable element) … When Bo Horvat has a giant picture of himself and his name in lights, that goes a long way in developing star players. Those are things that I think we will push when we come back to fans. How do we keep that momentum going and that presentation going in some form, even in arenas that are filled?

theScore: Why do you think it took the bubble environment for that to happen? Was it simply a matter of wanting to fill those giant sideline screens with something? What was the train of thought in pumping up the stars more?

Mayer: We've heard the criticism. We have a sport that's team over individual. We looked at this as an opportunity since the focus is so on the players, on the games, where we could highlight the guys on that ice and really start to develop these star players. That was one vehicle we knew would be effective.

We're a very local, regional sport in many ways, and we want people in New York to tune into Vegas-Vancouver because they now know all of the players, they're familiar with the guys, they know the names, and they want to watch Vancouver with Horvat and (Quinn) Hughes and (Elias) Pettersson. That's the goal.

We've found this was an amazing opportunity, given how many games we were playing in such a short period of time and how we were presenting the game as a television show and not as a fan-facing, in-arena event. We had this wonderful opportunity to build stars, so it is something we've focused on heavily from Day 1 of this tournament. We think it's going well and we think that certain players have emerged as the next wave of stars in the NHL and we're hoping we're just beginning the promotion of those players.

theScore: On the flip side, what's something you and your team won't be doing ever again? Maybe something you didn't quite hit out of the park and are looking forward to retiring after this postseason wraps?

Mayer: No more bubbles! I don't want to do a bubble again! I'm done with bubbles! Ah, no, I'm joking. Well, we may have to do a bubble again, who knows …

Would I have liked to have been able to get people out of the (secure zones) we're in and outside to do things that are unique but controlled? (Yes), I'd like to do that a little more. It's been very, very difficult to get approvals. Because things are going so well, we've been very averse to risk, and so have the governments in Alberta and Ontario.

We get beat up by players a bit, (who say), 'I want to play golf, I want to do this.' And it's just been very, very difficult to get approvals … I'm just trying to think out loud. The players want movies, for instance, and we had a real movie theater in Toronto but we didn't have one in Edmonton. Would I make sure we did it the next time around? Sure.

And these are things we just didn't realize. We had a player committee that we engaged with in the days and the weeks leading up to here. But until you're in the bubble, you don't understand what the players want to do, what their interests are, what makes them happy, what makes them not happy.

There are things that aren't perfect. They're not. At the same time, there isn't anything here where I'm like, 'Wow, that's embarrassing, we should never have done that.' I just think we could have expanded on certain things or added certain things if we had the right amount of time. Or, we could really have been a little more choicey - I don't even know if that's a word - on where we went. We went to the safest place, period, and we said we're going to make this work. Period.

I truly believe this is the absolute, one-million-percent way that it should be done for all businesses, for schools. It works. We feel very safe. Every one of us here in the bubble, we're tested every day, we've followed protocol, we wear masks, we social distance, and no one complains. Everybody has bought in. Players, staff, coaches.

At the end of the day, I think what we're most proud of - and we're not done, we have so much more to go, close to 30 days - is that we all see the end of the tunnel and we don't let up and everybody is in the same boat.

theScore: The game operations crew has dropped a few jokes on the in-arena screens, thrown hats on the ice following a hat trick. How important has it been to break the tension, keep a sense of humor through all of this?

Mayer: We are of the mindset that you can't always take it so seriously. You've got to have some fun with it. The 'Tonight's Attendance: 0' (on-screen joke) was the first one we did. I have to admit, many of them come from my crazy, dad-joke mind.

One of the misconceptions of the NHL is that we're just too serious, the No Humor League. I say just the opposite. If you watch our awards show, if you watch a lot of the things that we've done over the course of the last few years, there are plenty of opportunities where we either poke fun at ourselves - like Chance The Rapper, Lazlo Holmes, did - or just have some fun. We're not afraid to do that and we think it's fine.

We have about 10 more (jokes) lined up and ready to go, including noise meters, kiss cams, and 'This Date In NHL History' - obviously we've never played games at this time - to just have fun with all of this. So there's a time and a place, but we're really happy with the response. I think it leads to us having a lot more fun in the future with our content and our presentation and being OK with that.

theScore: Given the tight schedule of putting this whole thing together, how much time and energy was spent on the little details? Say, the diagonal lines on the tarps that are covering the lower-bowl seats. Were the lines a big discussion within the NHL offices or was it a quick sign-off? How much did you care about that stuff?

Mayer: To know how I operate and how our team operates is to know how detail-oriented we are. The difference between this (tournament) and, say, one of our outdoor games was the timeline. Talk about not sleeping. We worked around the clock. I have the best team in the entire world. We made quick decisions. We had to. There was no other choice.

It was like, 'We're getting on a Zoom call. We're going to leave this call and this is what we're going to do.' We didn't have the luxury of going back and forth 10 times. I have to admit, we're pretty proud to have made some good decisions.

With the seat covers, we understood clearly that we had to go to a neutral color so you could pick up the puck and the goalie wouldn't be (distracted). Knowing that, we knew that on television there needed to be something, those lines, that gave it a little more feeling, a little more depth so it wasn't just plain light blue or grey.

Knowing we were going to come back in this environment (amid a pandemic and with no fans), I knew that I wanted to do something that was a television set. We were working on that for a while. It didn't matter where we went, we knew that was going to be the design. But all of these decisions, everything that we've done, we just made them quickly. We've trusted everybody on our team to lean on their experience and just go for it. We've been right more than we've been wrong, but I think the amount of experience we all have has led to being able to put this together as quickly as we have.

theScore: Lastly, it's my duty as a representative for hockey fans everywhere to follow up on an important matter: What's the latest on Gary Bettman getting the boo-bird treatment during the Stanley Cup trophy presentation?

Mayer: There's been a lot that's happened over the past six months. A lot. I cannot say enough unbelievable things about our commissioner and what he's done and how he's led all of us to this position that we're in, where we're less than a month away from handing out the Cup. I actually believe - and this is me - public sentiment has gone from booing to potentially cheering. If there's ever a year to stop the booing, it could be this year, with all that's happened and the fact that we've come back and we're all safe. In a minor miracle, we're so close to getting to that position where he hands the Cup to the captain of the winning team.

We have a sound effect (to pipe in through the speakers), we have a booing sound effect, we do. I hope we don't use it. But, if he wants to keep up the humor, hey, listen, we can play along. Right now, there are no plans to use it. In fact, you'll hear a lot of crying and emotion because when we get to that moment, I think that's where my team will become very emotional, for all that we've gone through and all of the sacrifices that they've made to be away from their families and how hard they've worked. That'll be a very emotional time for everyone here in the bubble.

John Matisz is theScore's national hockey writer.

Copyright © 2020 Score Media Ventures Inc. All rights reserved. Certain content reproduced under license.

The 2019-20 Dallas Stars are a perplexing hockey team, to put it mildly.

They began the regular season by losing eight of nine games under former coach Jim Montgomery. Then they went on a thrilling 14-1-1 run. By the pause in March, Dallas had strung together enough good stretches to secure a top-four spot in the Western Conference - yet the team dragged a six-game losing skid into the hiatus.

Defensively dominant but starved for goals, the Stars were considered a fringe contender heading into the restart. Six weeks in, they still can't get out of their own way, having coughed up a 3-1 series lead over the Colorado Avalanche in a second-round meeting of Central Division foes.

"We put ourselves in this position and now we have to deal with it," interim head coach Rick Bowness said following Wednesday's 4-1 loss in Game 6.

The franchise hasn't won multiple playoff series since 2008, back when Brenden Morrow was captain, Dave Tippett was coach, and Mike Modano was still around. In the 2019 postseason, the Stars lost in Game 7 of the second round to the eventual Stanley Cup champion St. Louis Blues.

History is not on Dallas' side. But you just never know with this group.

So, how might Friday's Game 7 shake out? Let's break down both outcomes.

The case for a Stars win

Colorado's Nathan MacKinnon has been the restart's best player. Full stop.

There's also no debate over who's enjoying the biggest breakout performance: 21-year-old Stars defenseman Miro Heiskanen has been the team's MVP this postseason with an absurd 19 points in 15 games. He's averaging 25:48 of ice time a night, which is third among second-round players. He's a multidimensional blue-liner who possesses an innate ability to ignite or calm a game at a moment's notice. He's a future Norris Trophy winner, and another dominant two-way performance from the Finn would tilt the scales in Dallas' favor in Game 7.

"I know there's a lot of attention on his points and everything else, but there should be just as much attention on his ability to get us out of trouble, his ability to skate the puck out of the zone, his ability to make the right play at the right time," Bowness said, adding: "When things aren't going well, put Miro on the ice and he'll settle it down."

The entire Dallas defense corps will be tested Friday. That's perfectly fine because it's the lifeblood of this team and you can't expect to beat an offensive juggernaut like Colorado without pushback from the blue line. Dallas' counterattack and defensive structure are highly dependent on its defensemen. This is the way the Stars were built, and when they're winning, Heiskanen, John Klingberg, Esa Lindell, Jamie Oleksiak, and Stephen Johns are in the middle of the action in all three zones. (Johns has been ruled unfit to play for all but one postseason game, however.)

Defensively, Oleksiak and Lindell have been especially sharp. "Big Rig: He's been fantastic for us all year. He's raised his game to another level," Bowness said of the 6-foot-7, 255-pound Oleksiak prior to Game 5. "You know what you're going to get every shift from Esa Lindell. Just a solid, reliable defenseman who competes very hard."

The club's top-four defensemen have been contributing on offense, too, accumulating 39 total points to lead all defense groups. That output accounts for 30% of the Stars' postseason offense. In Friday's do-or-die environment, active sticks and smart pinches will be key. "Good defense creates offense, right?" rookie forward Denis Gurianov, who has two goals and five assists in the second round, said earlier this week.

Only three Dallas regulars - third-pairing defensemen Andrej Sekera and Taylor Fedun, and depth forward Andrew Cogliano - have failed to register a point since the restart. Veteran Joe Pavelski and Gurianov lead the charge with eight goals apiece, with first-line wingers Alexander Radulov and captain Jamie Benn, as well as Heiskanen, contributing five each.

Yes, on aggregate, Dallas is being outshot, outchanced, and outscored at even strength by Colorado, but it's encouraging that just about everybody has pitched in. It's led to an odd contrast between the regular-season Stars and postseason Stars. The team scored four or more goals 15 times in 69 regular-season games; in the playoffs, they've scored four or more goals seven times in 15 games.

The Stars' power play is tops among the final eight squads, humming at 25.5%. Against the Avalanche in Round 2, it's buried seven goals on 21 opportunities for a sizzling 33.3%. The penalty kill has been equally effective. The Avs' power play has managed to score three times off 28 opportunities (10.7%). And center Nazem Kadri - who assumes the bumper position on Colorado's No. 1 unit and entered the series with five power-play goals in eight games - has recorded just two five-on-five goals against Dallas.

The final factor working in the Stars' favor is out of their control but nevertheless very important: the Avs' lineup. Captain Gabriel Landeskog and young defenseman Conor Timmins are both questionable for Game 7, while coach Jared Bednar's goaltending options - will third-stringer Michael Hutchinson get the nod or will Pavel Francouz be cleared to play? - are, at best, mediocre.

The Stars have looked capable of both big wins and aimless losses during the restart. Which version of the team will show up for a potential narrative-changing Game 7? "We know what we've got in our dressing room. We believe," forward Tyler Seguin said. "We never thought that it was going to be a sweep or an easy series. We always said it was going to go to Game 6 or 7. So here we are."

The case against a Stars win

Only two goals separate the teams after six games, with the Avalanche ahead 25-23. But remember that so far the Stars have faced an NHL starter - in this case, Philipp Grubauer - for a grand total of 23 minutes in the series.

For 198 minutes, Francouz, a 30-year-old playoff rookie with 42 games of regular-season experience, has manned the net, while Hutchinson, also 30 and a career backup, has racked up 129 minutes in the crease. These are beatable goalies that Stars forwards should be peppering with pucks and screens. Instead, Dallas has mostly failed to create chaos in Colorado's end, allowing the Avs to insulate their goalies.

"If you get too cute, you're playing right into their hands. We're making it an easier night on the goalie than it should be," Bowness said following Game 6, in which Hutchinson stopped 27 of 28 Dallas shots. Forward Corey Perry, who has six points in 15 games, believes sustained pressure is the missing ingredient: "It's the O-zone time. It's wearing them down and getting those second opportunities that we really need to capitalize on."

The lack of execution is most evident with the Stars' stars - Seguin, Benn, and Radulov. For a trio that makes a combined $25.6 million a year, five even-strength goals in six games versus a backup and a third-stringer don't cut it. The underlying numbers aren't pretty, either: The line owns just 44% of the shot attempts and 44% of the scoring chances, according to Natural Stat Trick. It's hard to fathom them breaking through in Game 7 when both the results and the process haven't been up to par.

"Don't sugarcoat it. It is what it is. Your top players have to carry you at this time of year and they've got to produce," Bowness said Wednesday night.

Ben Bishop, a Vezina Trophy finalist in 2018-19, is both a top player and a puck-stopper - someone Bowness could really use beyond what was essentially a trial run in Game 5. But, like Grubauer, he's unavailable for Game 7. Dallas has the better backup in Anton Khudobin, who has been solid in relief, but not lights-out. Among the 12 goalies who have logged at least 500 minutes during the restart, Khudobin is 11th in save percentage.

Compounding the issue is the copious amount of penalties Dallas is taking. While the penalty kill is doing an admirable job, every infraction puts a greater strain on Khudobin and robs the top line of ice time. In Game 6, for instance, the Stars were shorthanded on five occasions. This led to Radulov getting 15:52 of ice time, Seguin 15:09, and Benn 14:31. Also, the more penalties Dallas takes, the more it's playing with fire. Colorado has enviable personnel at its disposal - MacKinnon, Rantanen, Kadri, and Cale Makar, for starters - and the floodgates will open at some point.

Oh, right: MacKinnon, on top of all the Stars' other problems. Every single time the dynamic, explosive center is on the ice, Dallas - and any other team in the NHL - plays on its heels. He's a constant threat, especially when he winds up off the rush or regroups in the neutral zone. MacKinnon has an eye-popping 25 points in 14 games. That's already a higher total than last year's Conn Smythe winner Ryan O'Reilly, who tied Brad Marchand atop the postseason points leaderboard. If MacKinnon adds to his tally in any meaningful way Friday, the Stars are done.

John Matisz is theScore's national hockey writer.

Copyright © 2020 Score Media Ventures Inc. All rights reserved. Certain content reproduced under license.

Every group of friends has that person who just doesn't shut up. The chatterbox, the one who invites himself or herself into any and all discussions.

For the Vegas Golden Knights, that person is Jonathan Marchessault.

"Marchy is in the middle of every conversation and of every argument that anyone on the team has," head coach Peter DeBoer reported last week, a few days before the 5-foot-9 forward scored the series-opening goal in Round 2 against the Vancouver Canucks.

This isn't a newfound social skill for Marchessault, who turns 30 in December. The 30-goal forward rarely kept quiet in his years with the Florida Panthers before they foolishly left him unprotected ahead of the 2017 Vegas expansion draft. He gabbed his way through his first six pro seasons, too, paying his dues for three other clubs - the New York Rangers, Columbus Blue Jackets, and Tampa Bay Lightning - while skating mainly in the AHL.

"When he was sitting by me on the plane playing cards, it was like he was a kid brother," former teammate and retired NHL defenseman Matt Carle recently said by phone, shedding light on the 2015-16 Lightning season, in particular. "You wanted to slap him sometimes. Like, 'Shut up, Marchy!'"

Added Carle, who's six years Marchessault's senior: "I was an older guy at the time, so it was kind of a breath of fresh air that he was himself all the time, not shy - although sometimes you did want to put a muzzle on him."

Others around the hockey world who know Marchessault well offer nearly identical responses to questions about the feisty Quebec City native's place within the team structure. "There's some days where you're tired around the rink and he's just bouncing off the walls, wanting to play pingpong," said Dalton Smith, Marchessault's former roommate and teammate for four seasons split between AHL Springfield and AHL Syracuse. "It's nice. It helps you get out of those funks. You can't help but laugh and be happy as well."

Marchessault's exuberance can get on the nerves of some team members and land him in hot water on social media, as in the case of the incident chronicled Wednesday by the Las Vegas Review-Journal. Marchessault apologized during a press conference later that day, calling his Instagram responses to critics "childish, immature, and not professional."

But his personality can also diffuse tension in the dressing room. As a star talent with a sunny disposition and plenty of confidence, he's one of the rare off-ice "glue guys" - that's DeBoer's label - who's also vitally important on the ice.

"I'm a pretty positive guy," Marchessault said in an interview between the first and second rounds of the postseason. "If I lose a playoff game, the next morning I'll be pissed off. But it's going to go away with the day.

"Life is too short to be frustrated and mad. At midnight, it's always a new day. Everybody should regroup and be positive and keep going with your day, and do whatever you can to be a good person and be a better version of yourself."

The Golden Knights have experienced a fair amount of turnover since debuting in spectacular fashion three years ago, replacing Gerard Gallant with DeBoer behind the bench in January and changing several names on the roster through signings and trades. Of the 22 players who have appeared in a 2020 playoff game for Vegas, 12 have been with the franchise for the entirety of its existence. Newcomers include key forwards Mark Stone, Max Pacioretty, and Paul Stastny, as well as current No. 1 goalie Robin Lehner.

Despite the changes, the personality of the group has stayed intact thanks to a strong core that includes Marchessault, Marc-Andre Fleury, Nate Schmidt, Shea Theodore, Ryan Reaves, Reilly Smith, and a few others. But no one, not even the affable Fleury, a fan favorite since Day 1, seems to embody the identity of the Golden Knights quite like Marchessault.

He enters Thursday's Game 3 against Vancouver (the series is tied 1-1) as his team's all-time leading scorer, having recorded 216 points in 262 regular-season and playoff games. His playing style, which combines strong skating, shooting, and offensive instincts with a high hockey IQ and attention to detail on the defensive side of the puck, blends perfectly with the way Gallant and now DeBoer have asked the team to play. Underused or underappreciated by four different NHL organizations before arriving in Vegas, he and his journey fit the "Golden Misfit" mold nicely.

Assessing the composition of Vegas' roster, Marchessault's boldest on- and off-ice traits can be found in some form or another elsewhere in the lineup. Fleury boasts the same no-bad-days outlook on life; Schmidt has a similar reputation as a goofball and is a fellow leader of Vegas' so-called "fun committee" within the Edmonton bubble; Stone competes with a comparable inner fire and intensity; Reilly Smith is just as dedicated in his attention to defensive assignments; bruising winger William Carrier also rarely passes up an opportunity to finish a body check.

"We're just trying to show up every night and give everything we've got. He does that," Carrier said of Marchessault. "And, you know what, he actually plays pretty physical. He's got a couple of good hits, and he gets involved."

Marchessault rubbed out Chicago Blackhawks star Patrick Kane in Round 1 and delivered healthy licks on a few Canucks players through the first two games of Round 2, most notably Elias Pettersson in the first period of the opener. In 10 postseason games, he's racked up 27 hits (fourth on the Golden Knights) and eight points (tied for fourth) while averaging 16:23 of ice time a night, his action split between even-strength play and Vegas' power-play opportunities.

It wasn't that long ago when Marchessault was without a full-time spot on an NHL roster. Heading into the 2015-16 season, Marchessault, then a 24-year-old dad of two with an expiring contract, posed a question to his wife Alexandra: Should we continue here or head overseas to carve out a lengthy career in a top European league?

"We were spending a couple of months at the (Tampa) hotel, and I told her I'm giving myself one more chance to make the NHL," Marchessault said. "That year, the Lightning had three or four injuries up front, so I was able to get a bigger role for them and I started doing well and I made the team." He dressed for 45 NHL games, a career high at that point. There were low moments as a healthy scratch - "there were certainly days when he'd get frustrated," Carle said - but, overall, it was the progress he needed.

It snowballed into a two-year, $1.5-million contract with the Panthers. Then, an injury to Jonathan Huberdeau in October 2016 put Marchessault on a line with two-way master Aleksander Barkov and living legend Jaromir Jagr. He took full advantage, scoring 11 points in the first month of the season and 51 over 75 total games.

"It takes an opportunity, a break, the right timing, the right person, for most players to succeed, you know?" said CAA Hockey's Pat Brisson, who became Marchessault's agent midway through his first season with Florida. "Not everyone is Sidney Crosby or Connor McDavid or Patrick Kane. He's got an amazing story of perseverance and resilience."

Making it that far was an incredible feat considering Marchessault's career almost stalled years earlier in junior, where he butted heads with Hall of Famer Patrick Roy. Marchessault would often come to the rink upset about hockey or something in his personal life. Roy, the owner, general manager, and head coach of the Quebec Remparts, wouldn't tolerate the negativity and entitled attitude. In hindsight, it was both a reality check and a turning point, though Tuesday night's social media outburst showed Marchessault can still struggle to let go of a loss.

"He made my life tough, but he made me realize as well that you have to do everything you can do to be better every day," Marchessault said of Roy. "Life's a grind, so you've got to work every day."

Ten years later, Marchessault finds himself in a bubble in Alberta competing for the Stanley Cup. In the middle of a pandemic, he's about to finish the second season of a six-year deal with the Golden Knights that pays him $5 million a campaign. Alexandra and the kids (the couple now has four little ones) are back in the Vegas suburb of Summerlin, though they may make the trip north if Dad makes the conference finals and health and safety protocols allow for such a visit.

"You talk to them every day and, also as a parent, you miss a lot of things. My 1-year-old started walking and … my two oldest, they started school. It's all stuff that you miss, and it's really unfortunate as a parent to miss those (moments)," he said. "They're asking me how many (days) before they're going to see me. It's hard for me to give them an answer. It could be possible later in the playoffs, but (the current protocol is) not necessarily adequate."

In the meantime, Marchessault is making the most of bubble life after years on the bubble. Vegas' fun committee - tailor-made for a chatterbox like Marchessault - is a welcome distraction as the team tries to navigate a once-in-a-lifetime situation. The talented "glue guy" has never really changed, even as he's settled into his tenure with the Golden Knights.

"He's always got something to say. He's always got a lot of enthusiasm around the rink, loves being at the rink. I feel like he's a perfect guy for it," Vegas forward Nick Cousins said of Marchessault's involvement in the committee. "He always wants to play cards, he always wants to do something. I don't think he can sit in his room for more than five minutes."

John Matisz is theScore's national hockey writer.

Copyright © 2020 Score Media Ventures Inc. All rights reserved. Certain content reproduced under license.

Barclay Goodrow could have pumped the brakes on the forecheck, but instead, he hustled past a Blue Jackets defenseman in a tight race to the puck to negate an icing call.

Blake Coleman could have chipped the puck deep into Columbus' zone, but instead, he curled away from the goal line to find Ryan McDonagh at the point.

Yanni Gourde could have positioned himself for a pass from McDonagh, but instead, he parked himself in goalie Joonas Korpisalo's crease in anticipation of the point shot.

These three smart decisions, one from each of the Lightning's third-line forwards - Gourde, the center, and wingers Coleman and Goodrow - led to a huge goal in Game 1 of Tampa's opening-round series against Columbus.

McDonagh unleashed a slap shot that produced a mad scramble. Then, with Gourde in Korpisalo's kitchen, the puck redirected off the goalie and into the net.

The tally, which came on the first shift of the third period and tied the game 2-2, turned out to be the beginning of the end for an overworked Blue Jackets squad. Columbus never truly recovered from the marathon loss that required four-and-a-half overtime periods. Tampa rolled on to win three of the next four games, setting up a second-round date with Boston.

"We have different lines that can bring different elements to the games. Gourdo, Coleman, and Goodrow (were) phenomenal throughout the first series," Lightning defenseman Victor Hedman said Friday. "They bring that grit, they bring that hard forecheck game.

"But they chip in with big goals as well (four total against Columbus). I like the balance on our team and we expect the best out of everyone every night. We proved that in the first round."

Let's not kid ourselves here: The Lightning are the NHL's best team on paper. At every position, they boast high-end talent and enviable depth. The club's postseason fate, then, will largely rest with whether it can overwhelm opponents, especially up front. A dominant newly formed third line - and yes, Gourde-Coleman-Goodrow has been highly effective since the restart - takes pressure and attention away from Nikita Kucherov, Brayden Point, Anthony Cirelli, and, if he returns from injury, Steven Stamkos.

"This is the reason we got them, right?" Lightning head coach Jon Cooper said after Game 4 when asked about Coleman and Goodrow, who were acquired from New Jersey and San Jose, respectively, ahead of February's trade deadline.

"We feel we're a playoff team," he added. "It all just comes down to winning in the playoffs. You go down our roster and it's hard to squeeze guys into the top six, but we didn't feel like that was our need. We needed to be harder to play against."

The bench boss added that while "harder" used to mean physicality and fighting, nowadays it refers to dialing up the foot speed, competitive drive, and pest-like tendencies.

Cooper likes to call his third line the Gnats because "they're always just buzzing around, and as you try and knock them away they just never leave." Defenseman Kevin Shattenkirk has been impressed, too. "They're just a really annoying line," he said.

Though Gourde and Coleman have both reached the 20-goal mark twice, there's nothing too fancy about the trio. All three are meat-and-potatoes forwards of the modern era - driven and trustworthy, with enough speed and skill to frustrate the opposition's best players. They're not green anymore either - Goodrow is 27 years old, and the others are 28 - so you know what to expect from these hard-working veterans every shift. And that's why Cooper started each period of the first round with them lined up at center ice.

The clip below, from the line's second shift of overtime in Game 5, is a shining example of the three causing havoc in the offensive zone to wear down the opposition. Over a 10-second stretch, Gourde applies puck pressure several times and nearly scores, Coleman takes the body to eliminate a defender from the play, and Goodrow fires a dangerous shot from the dot.

The line's puck-battle victories, fearlessness in front of the net, smart reads, responsible passing, and calories burned from skating end to end during the first round resulted in some eye-popping underlying numbers.

The three generated 45 scoring chances and 16 high-danger shot attempts at five-on-five while surrendering just 18 chances and five high-danger attempts in 75 minutes and 30 seconds against Columbus, according to Natural Stat Trick. Tampa's three other lines finished 95-81 in chances and 39-20 in high-danger attempts. Those are excellent ratios, but not quite as lopsided as the play of the tone-setting third line.

Here's a look at the Lightning with and without its third line on the ice against Columbus (all numbers five-on-five):

	with 3rd line	without 3rd line
Time on ice	75:30	222:55
Attempts	70%	56%
Chances	71%	54%
High danger	76%	60%
Goals	80%	60%

Part of the third line's success can probably be attributed to Columbus lacking forward depth. The Bruins, whose bottom six includes guys like Charlie Coyle, Sean Kuraly, and Jack Studnicka, pose a stiffer test for Tampa.

"(The Gourde line) brought other forward lines into the fight there, as far as the intensity that you need to play with and the simplicity to your game, too - winning your battles, not turning the puck over, and then getting rewarded for it, getting on the scoresheet in different fashions," McDonagh said.

"They're going to be counted on again in a lot of situations here and hopefully our forward group, as a whole, gets brought into the fight with those guys leading the charge and we can just keep rolling all four lines throughout the whole game and our depth can prevail and be an asset for us," he added.

The Lightning infamously flamed out in last year's opening round, losing in four games to the Blue Jackets following an exhilarating 62-win regular season. The franchise has been agonizingly close to a championship since Cooper's first full campaign with the team in 2013-14, losing in the Stanley Cup Final once and the Eastern Conference Final twice.

However, the contention window with this core won't remain open forever, hence general manager Julien BriseBois' willingness to part with two first-round picks to acquire depth pieces like Goodrow and Coleman. Prior to the season pause, neither forward had enough time to fully acclimate, and earlier in the campaign, Gourde went goalless for over two months.

Playoff success for the trio wasn't preordained, and although the advanced stats suggest they won't be a one-series flash in the pan, thriving against the Presidents' Trophy-winning Bruins is far from a guarantee. From BriseBois to Cooper and the players, Tampa nevertheless seems determined to do whatever it can to focus on the early returns and push forward. The Gnats are game-changers, which is exactly what the team needed.

"They've contributed so much for us in these playoffs and I'm just so glad that they're getting rewarded for their efforts, because those are the types of players we needed, we got them, and it's paying off for us," Cooper said.

John Matisz is theScore's national hockey writer.

Copyright © 2020 Score Media Ventures Inc. All rights reserved. Certain content reproduced under license.

The first division champion has fallen in the 2020 NHL playoffs.

The Washington Capitals failed to advance past the round of 16 for the second year in a row, dropping Game 5 against the New York Islanders on Thursday night by a final score of 4-0. The series, in general, wasn't pretty.

Here's how it all went down for Washington, and what might be in store this offseason from general manager Brian MacLellan and Co.:

How the season slipped away

Well, technically, you can't say they didn't go down without a fight.

The Capitals did, in fact, win one game in this series. But that was off the back of two strong periods, not a full-out display of their true potential. Two 20-minute stretches of productive hockey were all they could muster in five games.

"They scored, we didn't," Caps captain Alex Ovechkin told reporters postgame, successfully summing up the series in as few words as possible.

"Over these five games," teammate Nicklas Backstrom added, "they wanted it more than us. You can see that, overall."

Under former Caps coach Barry Trotz's guidance, New York stymied the second-best attack of the 2019-20 regular season by limiting Washington to eight goals. Ovechkin, one of just a few Capitals who looked fully engaged for the entirety of the series, potted four goals, accounting for half of the offense. T.J. Oshie and Evgeny Kuznetsov bagged two apiece, meaning there was nil from everyone else, including key contributors Tom Wilson, Jakub Vrana, and Lars Eller, who combined for 62 goals this season.

The vaunted Caps power play, led by Ovechkin and stud defenseman John Carlson, did all right, pitching in four goals on 18 opportunities. It was at even strength where coach Todd Reirden's squad really struggled - and the problems began in a 1-1-1 round robin. In eight total games, the Caps managed just 52.4 shot attempts per 60 minutes of even-strength action to rank 19th among 24 teams. Contrast that with the regular season, when they recorded 59.7 attempts per 60 to rank sixth among 31 teams, and it's as if a different group of guys was involved in the restart.

The heat map below, courtesy Natural Stat Trick, illustrates the even-strength battle. While Washington allowed New York to enter its high-danger area fairly often, the Isles did everything in their power to keep the Caps from entering their slot and crease areas, as shown by the blue and red blobs.

Not only did the Caps struggle to get good looks in the offensive zone, but they also failed to get enough traffic in front of Isles goalie Semyon Varlamov, who has a sparkling .934 save percentage in nine games. There was a general lack of urgency to the Caps' attack. They lost too many one-on-one battles and didn't seem to have their usual confidence. Some of that malaise can be traced back to Trotz and his soldiers playing to their identity as a structured, disciplined, and soul-sucking hockey team. Most of it, though, is on the Caps.

"This is not acceptable for our organization," Reirden said of the early exit.

Vrana, for one, was ineffective. Kuznetsov was inconsistent. Eller - tasked for bulk of the series with filling in at second-line center for a concussed Backstrom - was essentially a non-factor. Ilya Kovalchuk was virtually invisible. Ditto for Carl Hagelin. Again, props to the Isles for playing the part of a suffocating defensive outfit. Kudos all day. But the list of poor performers on the Caps is way, way too long for such a veteran, tested crew.

Caps defenseman Brenden Dillon put it best during a second-intermission TV interview in Game 4. "It took us 10 periods to get going in this series," he said. And then, ironically, they reverted back to their old ways two days later.

Now it's time to go home. The season's over.

What the future may bring

Will this be an offseason of change in D.C.?

The answer, it would appear, is both "yes" and "maybe/maybe not."

It's highly unlikely that pending unrestricted free agent Braden Holtby, who's been a linchpin for the Caps for a decade and backstopped the club to a Stanley Cup in 2018, re-signs this fall. He's all but gone to a team desperate for goaltending. Ilya Samsonov, injured right now, should slide into the starter's role no problem, so, aside from the sentimental loss, it could be a smooth transition.

As for Reirden's job security, that's a toss-up. He just got schooled by Trotz - his mentor and the man the organization parted with because of money after the Cup win - plus the Caps have now lost 10 of 15 postseason games under his watch. This is a results business.

Reirden was an inside hire by MacLellan. Perhaps the GM uses this opportunity to look outside the confines of Capital One Arena for a different voice and tactician as the team looks to recalibrate for the 2020-21 season.

Conversely, there is a chance MacLellan views the early exit as simply a bump in the road. We are in the middle of a pandemic. Backstrom missed most of the series. Carlson was coming off an injury. Eller wasn't up to speed after temporarily exiting the bubble. There's a built-in rationale.

Another consideration that could point to minimal change in Caps land: The team has a ton of veterans locked up. Ovechkin is around for at least another year; Wilson's under contract for four more; Backstrom, Oshie, and Kuznetsov all have five years remaining; and Carlson has six seasons left.

With an average age of 29.2, the Caps were tied with the Dallas Stars as the oldest team ahead of restart action. They're going to be forced to get creative in an evolving division. Competition in the Metro is fierce. The Penguins also left the Toronto bubble with a sour taste in their mouths. The Flyers look formidable in the restart. The Hurricanes boast an enviable roster. The Blue Jackets are proving doubters wrong again and again. The Rangers are rising fast. And, of course, the Islanders continue to win under Trotz.

Keep your eyes on the Caps - namely MacLellan - in the near future.

John Matisz is theScore's national hockey writer.

Copyright © 2020 Score Media Ventures Inc. All rights reserved. Certain content reproduced under license.

Some NHLers are masters of hockey's nuances. Ryan O'Reilly, for example, is the type of player who is heaped with praise after a strong performance; the cerebral St. Louis Blues center rarely wows you in the moment. Instead, his body of work is the masterpiece.

Nathan MacKinnon, meanwhile, is a force of nature who elicits visceral reactions in real time.

"With Nate, you notice him every shift," Jon Greenwood, MacKinnon's minor hockey coach, said Wednesday night. "He constantly grabs your attention."

MacKinnon played under Greenwood on the Cole Harbour Wings in Peewee AAA and Bantam AAA. The pair also crossed paths at the Maritime Hockey Academy in Dartmouth, Nova Scotia, where Greenwood taught hockey skills during phys ed, as well as math and social studies. Greenwood, now an assistant coach for the QMJHL's Halifax Mooseheads, also leads offseason workouts for MacKinnon, Sidney Crosby, Brad Marchand, and other local pros.

So yes, Greenwood has been watching closely as MacKinnon has destroyed the competition in the early weeks of the restart. The Hart Trophy nominee hasn't missed a beat following a 93-point regular season, recording a league-high 13 points in eight playoff games, including six in his last two contests.

"We had no answer for him all series," Arizona Coyotes head coach Rick Tocchet told reporters Wednesday after MacKinnon and the Avs eliminated his team from the Edmonton bubble via a 7-1 romp in Game 5 of a best-of-seven series.

Why is this cheat code on skates doing so well? With a primary assist from Greenwood, here's a breakdown of some of MacKinnon's finest moments.

Playmaking

When MacKinnon was on the ice at five-on-five against Arizona, the Avs outscored the Coyotes 6-1 and, according to Natural Stat Trick, owned 69% of the shot attempts (90-39) and 72% of the scoring chances (43-17). The clip above, from the third period of Game 1, is a prime example of the 24-year-old's ability to dictate play with longtime linemates Gabriel Landeskog and Mikko Rantanen.

MacKinnon transports the puck from zone to zone, gradually moving toward the middle of the ice, which creates confusion among the defenders. Then, a few feet inside Arizona's zone, MacKinnon taps the puck to Landeskog.

"If Nate drives all the way to outside the dots, all he has is a drop pass for Landeskog. But the fact that he attacks the middle opens a lot up," Greenwood said. "It makes the D really squeeze close together and gives him an option to kick the puck out and make himself available again."

MacKinnon slows down, almost to a full stop, on his way to the corner. It's a subtle yet effective quick screen on Jakob Chychrun, the right-side defender.

"It's almost like he fakes he's going to drive through and taps the stick a little bit, but then he opens up right away," Greenwood said. "I think he slows the D down from closing on Landeskog quickly by getting in the defenseman's ice a little bit."

From there, it's bingo-bango-bongo for the Avs' top trio. Landeskog in the high slot, to MacKinnon in the corner, to Rantanen in the crease area. Goal.

"Nate knows the option before he gets it in the corner there," Greenwood said. "Not that he's in a great position to shoot the puck, but some guys might just blast it from there or throw it at the goalie's pads. The fact that he has the wherewithal to make the pass across for a tap-in is pretty good hockey IQ."

MacKinnon has nine assists in the restart, four of which have come at five-on-five. All four of those helpers have been passes leading directly to a goal. He and Nazem Kadri (11 points) have been Colorado's offensive catalysts so far.

Goal-scoring

No exaggeration here: MacKinnon is one of the greatest skaters in NHL history. Finding a highlight that showcases his wheels wasn't particularly difficult. This clip, from the first period of Game 2, is particularly instructive because MacKinnon is essentially a one-man show.

"At the very start of this clip, he's killing their rush," Greenwood said. "Arizona has a breakout and Nate's speed closing on the guy on the wall makes him panic and throw a shitty backhand play to the middle of the ice. That created the turnover."

"His transition, his skating here, is something," he added with excitement. "His toes are facing his net, and then as soon as he smells the turnover, his toes get to facing the opposition net in a hurry. And then he's gone!"

Nobody is catching MacKinnon as he accelerates through the Coyotes' end. He gets from Point A (entering the zone with possession of the puck) to Point B (firing a shot from the faceoff dot) in two seconds.

"Powerful strides and crossovers - each stride or each crossover takes up 10 or 12 feet of ice at times, it seems," Greenwood said. "That's one thing he always had from a young age: power. He always had that elite balance on his edges, which has allowed him to generate that power."

At the dot, it's only MacKinnon and Coyotes goalie Darcy Kuemper, and the puck is in the back of the net in the blink of an eye. MacKinnon's shot is undoubtedly hard. However, his release is what's overwhelmingly dangerous.

"Some guys have more of a sweeping shot where they have to pull it behind them," Greenwood noted. "But he's getting that thing off in front of his toe, and it's all in the snapping of his wrist. It's amazing to see the velocity from that technique. And it's powerful as hell and really accurate."

MacKinnon's body positioning at the time of the release is noteworthy, too. Notice how he's shooting off his inside foot? Not easy.

"Oftentimes a righty will finish on their left foot because that's the way their balance works," Greenwood said. "I shoot left and I picture myself, where every time I shoot, I finish on my right foot because you pull the puck across your body as you shoot it and finish on that foot. But Nate, a righty, is only on his right foot there as he whips that puck."

None of this is breaking news to Greenwood, of course - though even those closest to MacKinnon are blown away by the Cole Harbour native's development.

"Nate's almost 25, but he's still getting better. He hasn't peaked, at least I don't think he has," Greenwood said. "His trajectory is still on the way up, I think, which is scary. But the overall package - the speed, the shot, and the hands - are on another level right now."

Physicality

MacKinnon earned a Lady Byng finalist spot this year for his "gentlemanly conduct" on the ice, accruing only 12 penalty minutes in 69 regular-season games. Well, through eight postseason contests, he's already up to 10 minutes - minors for unsportsmanlike conduct and interference in the round robin, and minors for interference, hooking, and roughing against the Coyotes.

Let's be clear: There's no way to put a wholly positive spin on taking a penalty. That being said, MacKinnon's manhandling of 6-foot-2, 214-pound Arizona forward Christian Fischer in Game 4 (shown in the clip above) definitely didn't hurt the superstar's reputation among his NHL peers.

"Nate's gliding off like he wants a change, and then when the hit (on Avs defenseman Cale Makar) happens, he's in there pretty quickly. I like that," Greenwood said. "He's in there grabbing a guy who had hit Landeskog from behind a little bit after the Makar hit. He's in there sticking up for teammates."

As the scrum escalates, MacKinnon has a golden opportunity to land a haymaker on Fischer as revenge for a cross-check to the chin that Fischer delivered seconds earlier. MacKinnon opts for the takedown.

"I haven't talked to Nate, but I'd like to know what went through his head, because oftentimes when you're in that situation you snap or black out. You want to pounce on somebody," Greenwood said. "It almost looks like he cocks his fist at one point, thinks twice about it, and decides to throw the guy down."

This sequence of events followed a devastating Game 3 collision in which MacKinnon exploded through the chest of Coyotes blue-liner Jordan Oesterle. Anybody who regularly tracks MacKinnon's on-ice exploits is well aware of his large frame (6 feet, 200 pounds) and immense core and leg strength. That Oesterle hit highlights his mean streak and athleticism.

"One of the freak athletic traits he has is that spring in his legs, that jumping power. His vertical jump has always been off the charts," Greenwood said before recalling a vintage hit from MacKinnon's first year in junior. He's 16 at the time and approaching a loose puck at the red line when he meets a 20-year-old opponent. The older kid is launched backward.

"He completely cartwheels the guy," Greenwood said, laughing at the replay.

"When I coached him at 12 and 13, the early years of bodychecking, it was certainly not uncommon for opposing players to get frustrated and take a run at Nate. He's been dealing with this for a long time."

Comparing players from different NHL eras is tricky business. The game and its players have changed so much, even over the past 20 years. But, as someone who's often asked about MacKinnon and what makes him special, Greenwood has landed on a hybrid comparable.

"If you took a little bit of Eric Lindros and shrunk him down and took a little bit of Pavel Bure and made him larger - sort of meet in the middle of these two guys - it's Nate," Greenwood said. "He has the speed and quickness of Bure but more size than Bure. And he's got a lot of power like Lindros but he isn't as big as Lindros. It's this blend or morph of two guys from the '90s. I know that's a strange comparison, but it feels like the only thing I can say at times."

John Matisz is theScore's national hockey writer.

Copyright © 2020 Score Media Ventures Inc. All rights reserved. Certain content reproduced under license.

The first round of the Stanley Cup Playoffs is heating up. Here are three key takeaways from the Eastern Conference games on Friday's schedule, which included a 5-0 pounding of the Philadelphia Flyers by the Montreal Canadiens and a decisive 5-2 New York Islanders victory over the Washington Capitals.

Relentless Ovi not enough

If Alex Ovechkin's nifty goal 56 seconds into the first period and the subsequent noisy celebration didn't convince Barry Trotz and the Islanders that Relentless Alex Ovechkin came to play Friday night, what followed certainly did.

On his next shift, right in front of the Isles' bench, Ovechkin blurted out what sounded like an "oh, c'mon!" loud enough for everyone in Scotiabank Arena to hear after a linesman accidentally halted a potential odd-man rush for him and linemate Evgeny Kuznetsov. That fieriness deep inside Ovechkin - which was not always present in the Caps' four previous postseason games - didn't really leave until the final buzzer sounded. He looked every bit like a man on a mission.

"We needed a big game from him tonight," Caps head coach Todd Reirdon said postgame. "He's physical, he's able to convert a couple of different ways for us. I thought he had a strong game from his perspective and we need more players like him that are playing to the top of their level."

Alas, Ovechkin - who scored both Caps goals - couldn't propel his squad past New York all by himself. The Isles now lead the best-of-seven series 2-0.

Full marks to New York for dictating the pace and style of play in Game 2. The Islanders put Washington on its heels for most of the night, mercifully carrying out textbook coach Trotz hockey: smothering, physical, and unified.

"They're very disciplined and they stick to it throughout the game," Caps defenseman John Carlson said of the Isles, who gave Washington only two power-play opportunities. The Caps, meanwhile, were the opposite of disciplined, gifting the Isles five power-play chances. They shot themselves in the foot, twice getting assessed a minor for too many men.

Ovechkin, who skated for more than 22 minutes in the loss, managed to record 10 shot attempts, including six that reached New York goalie Semyon Varlamov. Ovechkin had laser focus, deployed his trademark short, chopping strides, and yapped away. Leo Komarov, one of the Isles' better defensive wingers, tried to glue himself to the Russian's hip as best as he could, but Ovechkin bounced around the rink like a ball of energy.

Maybe too much energy. Ovechkin's best chance in the third - a wide-open shot off a back-door feed from Kuznetsov - hit the side of the net.

"I just missed it," he said. "Shit happens."

Habs must bottle this

Max Domi hit the bullseye following the Canadiens' dismantling of the Flyers on Friday. In his media availability, Domi noted the commanding 5-0 Game 2 win was both "just one game" and "a huge step in the right direction for us."

Couldn't have said it better myself for a Habs team that finds itself tied 1-1 with a really strong Philadelphia squad despite selling pieces at the trade deadline. Without head coach Claude Julien, who is back in Montreal recovering from a health scare, the Canadiens displayed their true potential as a collective against the Flyers.

Goalie Carey Price was flawless, turning aside all 30 Philadelphia shots. Montreal's forwards played with a sense of urgency and completed passes with precision from the opening faceoff onward, accounting for the game's first 12 shots on goal and 32 total. Tomas Tatar and Jesperi Kotkaniemi both scored twice, while Domi seemingly flew up and down the ice on every shift.

"We got our butts kicked today in all facets of the game," Flyers coach Alain Vigneault said. "They outworked us, outplayed us, and outexecuted us."

"We're doing it in numbers," is how Kirk Muller, Montreal's associate coach and Julien's temporary replacement, explained his group's inspired showing. In Muller's eyes, everyone who dressed for the Canadiens on Friday played well. That gave him the freedom to roll out four forward lines and three defensive pairs. The Flyers simply had no answer for a team that played like a wrecking ball, especially when Habs captain Shea Weber was on the ice.

"It's nothing new," Ben Chiarot, Weber's defensive partner, said of his teammate's domination. "This is something he's done his whole career. We're talking about 14, 15 years of being one of the best defensemen in the NHL."

It was one of those games where the better team had more giveaways (18-9 for Montreal) because it had the puck the whole time. The Canadiens eventually chased phenom Carter Hart from the Flyers' net before running over backup Brian Elliott moments later. Bottling up this emotional, well-earned win for Julien will be the tricky part, and it's no small task given Montreal is usually no world-beater.

"When we stick to our game plan," Domi said, "we skate, we have everyone going, and we're a very tough team to play against."

The key word there is "when."

Don't sleep on Suzuki

Columbus Blue Jackets center Pierre-Luc Dubois is enjoying a postseason coming out party thanks to four goals and four assists in seven games. So is Miro Heiskanen, the Dallas Stars blue-liner who's opening eyes across the continent with a combination of effortless skating, defensive prowess, and swagger with the puck. Kotkaniemi, who's bagged four goals to pace Montreal, would also count as a breakout player.

What about Nick Suzuki, though? The unflappable Canadiens rookie should be in the conversation as one of the best up-and-comers of the restart. He's arguably been as impactful as Kotkaniemi.

Suzuki, who was drafted 13th overall by the Vegas Golden Knights in the 2017 NHL Draft before being sent to Montreal in the Max Pacioretty trade, has one goal and two assists in six games. However, his contributions are mostly subtle, extending beyond the boxscore.

The 21-year-old ranks second in ice time among Montreal forwards, skating for 19 minutes and 46 seconds per night. The coaching staff trusts Suzuki, just 77 games into his NHL career, to play in any and all situations: up a goal, down two goals, on the power play, on the penalty kill, at even strength, whatever.

"Suzy's starting to tap into playing some big minutes against some high-level talent on the other side," Domi said following Friday's win. "It takes a lot of confidence to do that. It's a tough job to do. He showed it in the first round and he's showing it again, tonight and in Game 1."

Suzuki has mainly faced off against difficult assignments in Sidney Crosby, Evgeni Malkin, and Kevin Hayes thus far, yet he's been on the ice for just one goal against at even strength and has a plus-2 rating. A responsible pivot, he has terrific poise and above-average hand-eye coordination. He's already the rare NHLer that coaches never have to worry about - a master of the little things who is more than willing to, for instance, take a pounding body check to get the puck out of harm's way. And it doesn't hurt that he has some scoring touch, too, as evidenced by his 13 goals and 28 assists in 71 regular-season games.

Suzuki will be lucky to sneak into the top five in Calder Trophy voting. The 2020 rookie class was deep, starting with super studs Quinn Hughes and Cale Makar, and continuing with Dominik Kubalik, Adam Fox, John Marino, Elvis Merzlikins, and Victor Olofsson, plus a few others. But the probable top-five snub shouldn't discount what Suzuki has accomplished both during the regular season and his breakout postseason.

John Matisz is theScore's national hockey writer.

Copyright © 2020 Score Media Ventures Inc. All rights reserved. Certain content reproduced under license.

The first round of the Stanley Cup Playoffs is well underway. Here are key takeaways from two of the four games on Thursday's schedule, which featured the Vegas Golden Knights' 4-3 overtime victory over the Chicago Blackhawks and the Columbus Blue Jackets' 3-1 triumph over the Tampa Bay Lightning.

Vegas doesn't let it slip away

On paper, this is the biggest mismatch of the first round, and it's not particularly close. Vegas is one of the few true Stanley Cup contenders, and Chicago is a flawed team that is rather lucky to still be playing hockey in 2020 after finishing with a 32-30-8 regular-season record.

History tells us the Golden Knights are most dangerous when they're attacking in waves, and the Blackhawks are disorganized and porous on defense. Reilly Smith's overtime goal in Game 2 - which sealed a 4-3 victory for Vegas after it coughed up a 2-0 lead - exposed the extreme stylistic differences:

In the buildup to Smith's goal, Vegas' fourth line of Will Carrier, Tomas Nosek, and Nick Cousins applied pressure on Corey Crawford. Cousins stayed out as his linemates changed, chipping the puck deep into the Blackhawks' zone. From there, Golden Knights center Paul Stastny snatched the puck in the corner and immediately fired a pass to Smith. All alone at the foot of the crease (despite four defenders standing in close proximity), Smith redirected the pass through Crawford and into the net.

The Blackhawks got to overtime only because they managed two of the few things that need to happen for them to even compete with the Golden Knights. First, superstar winger Patrick Kane was the offensive catalyst with three assists. Second, Crawford stood on his head. It worked for a while but not long enough to overcome the superior squad.

"It's a very tight-knit group," said Vegas goalie Robin Lehner, who hasn't lost in seven games since being acquired from Chicago in late February.

"Everyone buys into the system and does the right things. In the long run, I think, you get rewarded," he added. "From a goalie's perspective, letting in a goal (doesn't induce) panic. Letting in two goals, you trust your team that we know that we can come back. It's a very well-structured team here and (we have) a lot of skill at the same time."

The Golden Knights are a perfect 5-0 in the restart. They've dined off the third period, outscoring opponents 10-1. (Ironically, Thursday's third period was scoreless, though the Golden Knights did pepper Crawford with 16 of their 39 total shots.)

More often than not in this series, Chicago will bleed scoring chances and Vegas will push the pace until it scores. This is a recipe for disaster for the Blackhawks, which is why Game 2 might ultimately stand as their lone opportunity to claim victory in a lopsided matchup. Sweep, anyone?

Jackets' train keeps rolling

The biggest question during this NHL postseason is when will the Blue Jackets hit a wall. For now, the appropriate answer might be ... never.

On Thursday, Columbus capped an eight-day stretch during which it went 3-2 in five hard-fought games that featured seven overtime periods for a total of 421 minutes of hockey. By beating the Lightning 3-1 to tie the Round of 16 series at 1-1, the Blue Jackets added yet another impressive chapter, refusing to buckle under the pressure of a ridiculous workload.

"I don't know how many overtimes we had the other day, I forget," star center Pierre-Luc Dubois said while laughing postgame.

"I don't think any of us are lacking (in regard to) timing and stuff like that," Dubois added. "We're feeling good, the team's playing great. (Goaltender Joonas Korpisalo) is playing really well for us, giving us confidence to try plays and we know he can repair our mistakes. On the back end, it's the same thing: blocking shots, making good plays. Defensively, the team's feeling really well right now."

Blue Jackets head coach John Tortorella's squad was outplayed by the Toronto Maple Leafs and is getting outplayed so far by Tampa Bay, with shot attempts and prime looks (measured by high-danger attempts by Natural Stat Trick) favoring the Lightning 257-157 and 37-21, respectively.

But there's an argument to be made that the Blue Jackets have wholly deserved positive results during the restart because the team's defensive system has done such a fine job keeping its netminders - namely Korpisalo, who has an outrageous .961 save percentage on 239 shots - protected from the seemingly endless firepower on the other side.

Tampa Bay was noticeably annoyed on Thursday.

"That's kind of the way we want to play," Blue Jackets forward Alexander Wennberg said of the team's perimeter defense frustrating opponents. "We want to give them a hard time out there."

An unlikely source of offense, Wennberg scored an absurd goal midway through the third period to make it 3-1 - the 25-year-old Swede has bagged just 40 goals in 440 career regular-season games.

The Blue Jackets failed to register a shot during the first 13 minutes of action Thursday, but that's how things are going for them at the moment. Dubois may lead the team with four goals, and Cam Atkinson - who was "unfit to play" Thursday - and Oliver Bjorkstrand have a pair of markers each, but there are also nine other skaters who've pitched in a goal.

Columbus is not just surviving, it's thriving in a way few NHL teams can.

Tampa's 3rd line doing it all

The silver lining for the Lightning after Thursday's loss is that the trio of Yanni Gourde, Barclay Goodrow, and Blake Coleman continue to dominate.

Gourde and his third-line wingers have generated 28 scoring chances in 41 even-strength minutes, according to Natural Stat Trick. The Blue Jackets, on the other hand, have mustered just nine chances against the trio. From an expected goals perspective, the line made up of one free agent (Gourde) and a pair of trade-deadline pickups has racked up a 2.23-0.54 edge over the opposition - a gigantic gap thanks to feverish puck pressure and active sticks.

"They've neutralized all the lines they've played against," Lightning head coach Jon Cooper told reporters. "They give us energy. They kill penalties well. You can't ask much more than that from those guys."

With sniper Steven Stamkos missing the first five contests of the restart, Tampa Bay's forwards have been tasked with elevating their games. The third line and top producers Brayden Point (seven points) and Nikita Kucherov (six points) have led the charge at even strength. The second line - centered by Anthony Cirelli - has scored three goals, while the fourth - centered by Mitchell Stephens - has been OK if not unspectacular.

The special teams battle could ultimately determine this series, which pits a defensive giant against an offensive juggernaut, much like the Columbus-Toronto matchup. So far, the Lightning are 0-for-6 on the power play.

"We had some looks and they didn't go in for us," Cooper said of the two missed power-play opportunities in Game 3.

They'll do it all again Saturday night.

John Matisz is theScore's national hockey writer.

Copyright © 2020 Score Media Ventures Inc. All rights reserved. Certain content reproduced under license.

Moritz Seider can pinpoint precisely when and where he fell in love with hockey. It was a Monday some 14 winters ago in the small town of Zell in western Germany. He and his kindergarten pals, all new to the sport, had been invited to the local arena for a private skate with the best adult players in the area.

"I can remember walking in with my mom and all the pros were waiting to skate with us, these little kids," Seider said in a recent phone interview. "I had no words in that moment. Since then, there's no other sport hitting me that hard in my life."

Seider, now 19 years old and listed at 6-foot-4 and 207 pounds, has developed into one of the top prospects on the planet. If not for COVID-19, the No. 6 pick in the 2019 NHL Draft likely would have made his debut on the Detroit Red Wings' blue line late in the season after getting his first taste of North American hockey with 49 games in the AHL. Back in 2006, though, nobody in Seider's extended family had played competitive hockey.

"When I first told my parents I wanted to be a hockey player, they imagined me fighting every game. They were not really happy, so they decided to buy a hockey book for dummies, like a hockey ABC," Seider said with a short laugh. "Now, they're my biggest fans and they really love the sport. They love the intensity, how fast it is."

In 2020, the perception and profile of hockey across Germany are markedly different than they were a decade ago. The nation of 83 million people has never had a bigger presence in the NHL or on the international stage. In the 24-team restart, seven Germans - including Edmonton Oilers superstar center Leon Draisaitl and Colorado Avalanche goalie Philipp Grubauer - cracked playoff rosters.

Homegrown teen Tim Stutzle is projected to go as high as second overall in the upcoming draft. Two other German prospects, John-Jason Peterka and Lukas Reichel, are potential top-50 picks. Plus, let's not forget, Germany claimed silver at the 2018 Olympics.

"The silver medal is going to be special for my whole life," Buffalo Sabres forward Dominik Kahun said of the unexpected result. "When we came back from PyeongChang, it was unbelievable how many people were waiting for us at the airport. It was a little bit like when the soccer team comes back from the World Cup."

"But," Kahun added, "after a few weeks it was like everybody forgot about it."

That's the predicament that the German hockey community faces: Is this recent progress a fleeting jolt of success and interest in the sport? Or, is it something more permanent, a sign of things to come for a country that has slowly but surely ascended to an impressive seventh on the IIHF World Ranking? Major stakeholders are trying their best to assure it's the latter.

Before Draisaitl, Grubauer, Seider, and Stutzle, there was Marco Sturm.

Sturm, Germany's all-time leading NHL scorer, appeared in 938 games from 1997 to 2012 for six franchises, most notably the San Jose Sharks and Boston Bruins. Sturm, now 41, is an assistant coach for the Los Angeles Kings as well as a vital contributor to the German Ice Hockey Federation. It was Sturm, with barely any coaching experience, who guided Germany to silver in PyeongChang.

The result was shocking despite the absence of NHLers creating a more level Olympic playing field. The German federation hadn't expected to compete for medals at major events like the Olympics and World Championship until at least 2026. "We want to play in the medal round (consistently). That was the goal of Power Play 26," Sturm said. "And then the silver medal happened, and we were laughing."

Sturm officially joined the federation in 2015, shortly after the unveiling of Power Play 26, a comprehensive plan for short-, medium-, and long-term growth. Spearheaded by federation president Franz Reindl amid a "crossroads" for German hockey, Power Play 26 prioritizes a modern approach to developing youth players. For instance, it demands kids' coaches focus on skills training rather than team tactics. The plan is aimed squarely at establishing sustainable success instead of opportunistic, one-off triumphs.

"It was a surprising 14 days in PyeongChang," said Reindl, a former forward who won an Olympic bronze in 1976. "The weather was nice, and everything was great. But this is not normal. We're being realistic. Our goal is to be competitive in the future, which means we need more high-quality players, top players. It feels like we're on a good way, but there's still a lot of work to do."

For years, six nations - Canada, Finland, Sweden, Russia, the United States, and the Czech Republic - have formed the elite echelon in international hockey. The second tier has been traditionally populated by Slovakia, Germany, Switzerland, Denmark, Latvia, and Norway.

"Our goal," Sturm said, "is to always be in the top eight in the world rankings. In order to do that, we've got to start with youth hockey."

There are roughly 24,000 registered hockey players in Germany, Reindl said, which is only 3,000 fewer than rival and neighbor Switzerland, according to the IIHF's website. These German players are spread out across 15 regional branches that oversee 65 local organizations. The federation ships coaches and administrators to these local hubs on a regular basis - 350 total visits a year, according to Reindl - to reinforce best practices and ensure instruction and culture is consistent in all regions.

"We're not waiting for the talent to come to us. We're not being selective," is how Reindl frames the hands-on approach. The hope is that consistency produces a certain type and quality of player.

"We have a close eye on our technique, on basic skills, on stickhandling skills, on skating skills, and as soon as we see we have a good development in those areas, we'll build upon it through our philosophy," said Stefan Schaidnagel, the federation's general manager.

"What's the definition of German hockey players? Is he tall? Is he a good defending player? Is he fast, a quick skater? Does he have clear structure? On top of our skills, we want to reach a real German hockey philosophy. That way everybody knows that when you play against Germany, you're playing against a team which is fast, which is solid on defense, which creates ideas in the offensive zone, which uses the neutral zone for good structure and good transition."

The federation receives €1.5 million in government funding each year, Schaidnagel said, a "little boost" from the amount it received prior to winning silver. The Olympic buzz also triggered an uptick in corporate sponsorship for the national body.

This government stipend, earmarked mostly for growing youth and women's hockey, seems to be having its desired effect. Registration at the youth level has increased between 8% and 10% annually, according to Reindl. It would probably be higher if hockey wasn't such an expensive sport in relation to basketball, handball, and tennis. Hockey's money problem is not unique to Germany. But it is compounded by the fact that its sporting culture is so closely tied to soccer. (Asked for a pecking order of sports in Germany, Sturm said, "There's soccer. Then there's nothing. Then there's the rest.")

"Imagine you only have to pay for two pairs of soccer boots a year, and then you need new skates, which would cost nowadays up to $1,000 or whatever, a stick, which is probably $250 nowadays," Seider said. "It's a pretty expensive sport and not a lot of families are financially ready to do that every single season. I was pretty lucky. My parents probably could have gone on way nicer vacations, but instead they sponsored a lot of tournaments for me, and I appreciate it a lot."

The federation rolled out the Five-Star Program as part of Power Play 26, wherein local clubs are judged and funded based on the professionalism of their operation. The national body distributes stars based on a rubric that grades quality of arenas, locker rooms, and other facilities. Access to goalie coaches, video rooms, and physiotherapy staff are big pluses, too. Organizations' code of conduct is also audited.

"One star could be five or six different topics. And one topic has another five or six different points under it," Sturm said of the program's depth.

This incentive system is in place to help develop players throughout Germany and not just in the traditional hockey hotbeds of Mannheim, Berlin, and Cologne. The master plan is centered around spreading the wealth between Germany's three professional leagues, not just the top flight Deutsche Eishockey Liga (DEL).

"To get to the second star, you have to get through the first star," Sturm said. "It builds up and builds up, and then if you're at five, that's great. There's some teams who are not in the DEL - maybe in the third division - who get five stars. They make 40, 50, 60 thousand euros, and that's huge. For that, they can hire a new coach."

Distributing the wealth across each league is also key to the program's success as the federation attempts to raise standards across the country. Naturally, there's been resistance from well-run DEL teams who have deep-pocketed owners and a particular way of operating. "We don't really care about the Five-Star Program here," said Pavel Gross, head coach of powerhouse Adler Mannheim. "The program here in Mannheim is a six-star program and has been for years."

Another bone of contention in the German hockey community is playing time for teenagers in the DEL. The surefire NHL-bound prospects - such as Seider, Stutzle, Peterka, Reichel - have no gripes, but there aren't many other teens receiving ample ice time. Teams tend to favor veterans who are often imported from elsewhere over developing homegrown youngsters.

"That's probably the most important thing that we are discussing every year here in the DEL," said Kahun, who spent four seasons with Munich EHC. "Last year, they made a rule that you must have two guys of a certain age that have to be on the team and in the lineup. But there are certain coaches who will put them in the lineup but keep them on the bench for all 60 minutes. That's even worse. They should play in the second league and get ice time."

"Our goal has to be to show the (DEL) that (young German players) behind Stutzle, Peterka, and Reichel are easily able to play in the league also," Schaidnagel said. He believes there are 10-to-15 teens capable of playing in the DEL but aren't because teams are focused solely on winning.

Kahun, who like Draisaitl, Seider, and Stutzle moved to Mannheim early in his teens to play with and against better hockey players, found his big break in the DEL. He originally had tried to get noticed by NHL scouts in Canada as an import player on the OHL's Sudbury Wolves, but a move back home proved beneficial for the 25-year-old born in the Czech Republic and raised in Germany.

"Back in the day, if you were a talented guy, you probably went to the (Canadian Hockey League) and hoped to be a high pick in the CHL import draft and then walk your way through that," Seider said. "Now you can actually play in the best German league and stay in your home country. You can be on the power play, be on the PK, be a leader, and compete against men. That's a big one, a big advantage over people who are coming from, I don't know, the U.S. program or the CHL. You're competing against men."

Seider's whole family moved to Mannheim after he outgrew competition in Erfurt, the town where he grew up. "If you want to get to a better team, you have to move on," Seider said. "Or, if you want to develop a little bit more, you have to move on. I had the opportunity to play for Mannheim, and I was really happy that my family took that step."

NHL teams were heavily scouting the DEL to watch the likes of Stutzle (Mannheim), Peterka (Munich), and Reichel (Berlin) before sports around the world were shut down earlier this year. Gross calls the 2002-born trio "something special" but not necessarily a reflection of the state of the entire German development system. "I don't think we'll see some similar players next year or in two years," he said.

Stutzle, who considered playing in North America in his NHL draft year, ended up alongside Canadian center Ben Smith and Finnish winger Tommi Huhtala on Mannheim's top line. The shifty 6-foot-1, 187-pound left-winger skated for 16-17 minutes a game, including plenty of time on the club's No. 1 power-play unit, Gross said. He produced at an eye-popping rate - 34 points in 41 games - for someone who turned 18 in January and was matched up against men every single shift.

"You don't need to know much about hockey to realize how good of a player he is," Kahun said. "He was outstanding (in 2019-20) as a young kid in the DEL."

Stutzle was a fantastic soccer player growing up, showing signs of pro potential. He made a commitment to hockey around age 9, though. "My strengths are my playmaking ability and skating," Stutzle said when asked for a personal scouting report. "My hockey IQ and my work ethic I would describe (as good, too). I think I can still work on everything since I'm very young, especially staying on my feet and winning more battles; gaining more weight, more muscle is probably the biggest thing I need to work on."

Sixty-eight NHL draft picks were born in Germany, according to Elite Prospects. Draisaitl (No. 3 in 2014) is the highest selection in the expansion era. Seider is the only other top-10 pick, while Dominik Bokk (25th in 2018), Marcel Goc (20th in 2001), and Sturm (21st in 1996) round out the country's first-rounders. Goaltender Olaf Kolzig (19th in 1989) grew up in Canada but used his German citizenship to represent the country in various international competitions.

In the NHL's round of 16 - which starts Tuesday - there's Grubauer on the Avalanche, forward Tom Kuhnhackl and goalie Thomas Greiss on the Islanders, and forward Tobias Rieder on the Flames. Draisaitl and the Minnesota Wild's Nico Sturm were eliminated in the qualifying round. This group of playoff warriors, mixed with other German NHLers and the top prospects, could provide a solid roster for the 2022 Beijing Games.

The current generation of youngsters adores Draisaitl, and the NHL scoring champion and MVP finalist reciprocates the love through mentorship.

"He was reaching out during the year at least once a week to check with me, to make sure I'm doing good, that everything's going well," Seider said. "He knows how hard it is in the AHL. He went through it, and he even got sent down to juniors again. So he helped me a lot, and I'm very, very thankful for that."

Said Draisaitl, "I would love to help these kids as much as I can, if they ever need anything or have any questions. I'm always there for them and I'd love to help them, but I think these kids nowadays are so advanced, so good, their confidence is so high, that I think they'll make the right decisions and they'll be great players in their own right."

Sturm likes to compare Draisaitl's popularity in Germany now to that of Dirk Nowitzki when he was at his peak as an NBA superstar.

"There was no bigger guy than Nowitzki, athlete-wise," Sturm said. "But, when you live there, it's hard. You rarely see something on TV. You don't see too many highlights. ... You get lost a little bit in the shuffle and you lose track, and you start wondering what Leon is doing."

Exposing Germans to one of the best hockey players in the world - one of their own - is part of the equation that Reindl, Schaidnagel, and all involved in Power Play 26 are attempting to solve. A mountain of progress has been made over the past five years, but Germany can't get complacent.

"We are on the right track," Schaidnagel said. "But now it's coming to the time where we need to re-evaluate every day, every month, every year, and ask ourselves, 'Are we still on the right track?'"

Sturm's Kings own 11 picks in the 2020 draft. They have an opportunity to draft Stutzle at No. 2, as well as five more chances in the second and third rounds to possibly land Peterka or Reichel. What a capper that would be for Sturm, the country, and the kids.

"I'm very proud to be a German," Sturm said, "and they should be proud too."

John Matisz is theScore's national hockey writer.

Copyright © 2020 Score Media Ventures Inc. All rights reserved. Certain content reproduced under license.