On the Fly, theScore's NHL roundtable series, continues. This week, we look back at what's been one of the prevailing themes this season: Superstars who, after rotten starts, turned their seasons around.

Sidney Crosby

Josh Gold-Smith: Crosby's supposed demise was nothing more than an early-season slump.

The Penguins captain has been on a torrid pace since being snubbed from the All-Star festivities, including 16 points during his current 10-game point streak. He's also averaging more than a point per game for the season.

​The 28-year-old center has played in all but one of the Penguins' 70 games, and he ranks second on the team among all skaters - including defensemen - in average time-on-ice at 20:21. He's playing a ton, and doing it at a characteristically elite level.

Crosby has done most of his damage alongside his usual linemate, Chris Kunitz, but Patric Hornqvist has also clicked with him on the top line, notching 18 goals and 44 points.

Any first-half panicking about Crosby's game is simply laughable now.

Ryan Getzlaf

Justin Cuthbert: "How [insert player] goes, the [insert team] goes" is a tired cliche in a sport for which fans are tired of cliches, but it's one that so plainly applies to Getzlaf and the Ducks. So, our apologies.

There isn't a date or discrete moment to pinpoint the beginning of Anaheim's turnaround. But it's not as blurred for Getzlaf. Two months ago - when the Ducks were scoring at a league-low rate hovering at about 1.9 goals per game - the fanbase let out a collective groan when the captain committed another brainless turnover (the sort that became representative of his struggles), leading to a goal versus the Senators.

Thankfully, that gaffe came early. Because while Getzlaf was stapled to the bench for much of that game, his number was eventually called, and with a smooth zone entry, he teed up Shea Theadore for his first NHL goal and what proved to be the game-winner.

Since that helper - one of 44 on the year - Getzlaf has contributed 1.07 points per game - a rate only Patrick Kane and Jamie Benn have been able to exceed, and maintain, throughout the season. More importantly, though, the Ducks have 46 points in the 29 games since, while shooting up into comfortable postseason seeding.

Whether it was an injury or a lack of game shape (as some have speculated) that plagued Getzlaf in the early going, that doesn't matter much any longer. The captain, and the team that mirrors his successes and failures, appear prepared to bring their best to the Stanley Cup Playoffs.

Jakub Voracek

Navin Vaswani: Voracek had only three points - all assists - in Philadelphia's first 10 games. He scored once through the first two months of the season, and it came in his 17th game. Not good enough, especially considering he's going to make $10 million next season.

While 10 goals are far below what was expected, Voracek's saved his season by being a consummate teammate. His 38 assists are the third-highest total of his career, one short of his 39 in 2013-14, and down from a career-high 58 last season.

And while he's been out of the lineup with a foot injury, he's been the Flyers' biggest cheerleader, going over the math on what the Flyers need to do to make the postseason, and rooting for his team using what's become his go-to tweet: "What a f****** game!!!!!"

Voracek's had a disappointing season - he's be the first to admit that. But his 0.80 points per game is the third-highest of his career, and he's done well to make the best of a bad situation. And if the Flyers do make the playoffs, expect Voracek's redemption story to continue.

Tuukka Rask

Ben Whyte: After starting the season's first 13 games with five wins and an embarrassing .890 save percentage, it appeared Rask salvaged his season in December, posting a 6-2-2 record and two shutouts. But in January, the Finn's struggles resurfaced, as he won just three of 10 starts, and the Bruins headed into the All-Star break clinging to a wild-card spot.

The weekend off seemed to cure whatever ailed Rask, whose 11 wins since early February trails only Braden Holtby. By March 10, Boston jumped past the Panthers and Lightning to take a surprising Atlantic Division lead, surpassing any and all preseason expectations.

Though inconsistencies may make some wary of his $7.5-million cap hit, his knack for being at his best when facing a high number of shots has been a key for the surprising Bruins. Rask owns an incredible 7-0-1 record with a .957 save percentage on the nights he faces at least 35 shots.

The overall team performance has improved in recent weeks as well, but the Bruins aren't in the chase for a division title without their veteran backstop.

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Do you believe in the Loch Ness Monster? What about the possibility that Elvis Presley is still alive? Care to put a wager on it?

If so, you may also have considered dropping some money on Leicester City to win the Premier League title heading into the 2015-16 campaign. You would have gotten the same 5000-1 odds in England.

Six points away from being relegated to the second tier of English soccer last season, Leicester now sits atop the table, two points clear of the chasing pack with nine matches remaining in an absurd year that has defied conventional wisdom at every turn. Chelsea, Manchester United, Manchester City, and Arsenal - perennial powers whose squads took hundreds of millions of Euros to assemble - are all looking up at the Foxes, who weren't even in the Premier League two years ago.

Heading into the season, the undesirability of Leicester's marquee protagonists would make Cinderella's ugly stepsisters bow in deference: a £400,000 signing (Riyad Mahrez); a 29-year-old striker who was playing in England's fifth tier as recently as 2012 (Jamie Vardy); a journeyman bench boss who was so hilariously terrible in his last gig that he was fired after losing to the Faroe Islands (Claudio Ranieri). The. Faroe. Islands.

Together, this band of misfits could conspire to craft the greatest upset in sports history - and in the process, make a pretty penny for a select few, as noted by Forbes.

Ladbrokes and William Hill, who have a combined customer base of 3.8 million online and over 5,000 betting shops, estimate a Leicester win may cost them at least four-million pounds ($5.7 million) ... Only three people in Leicester backed the Foxes, with a total of 8 pounds wagered. The biggest bet, 20 pounds, was made by a man in Manchester who stands to make an astonishing 100,000 pounds if successful.

The Philadelphia 76ers, pegged at 200-1 to capture the NBA title this season, wish they were unheralded in the same way.

Leicester, of course, is far from the first team to defy overwhelming odds and perceived inferiority en route to historical triumphs. Inspired by the Foxes' spellbinding campaign, theScore revisits some of our most revered underdog stories across the sporting world.

Super Bowl III: Namath delivers on his guarantee

David P. Woods: As long as the great leveler that is the NFL's salary cap remains in place, no upset will surpass the New York Jets' stunning 16-7 defeat of the 19-point favorite Baltimore Colts in Super Bowl III.

Days before the game, "Broadway" Joe Namath - quarterback of the upstart AFL champion Jets - famously guaranteed his team would knock off the Colts, the class of the superior NFL, who had cruised to victory in the first two annual bouts between the league winners.

Super Bowl III's outcome helped reshape the sport, solidifying the AFL-NFL merger and building the foundation for the national mystique that accompanies the Super Bowl today.

1914 Boston Braves go worst-to-first

Simon Sharkey-Gotlieb: The Boston Braves finished last in the National League four times between 1909-1913, and appeared well on their way to another basement-dweller finish in 1914. On July 4 of that year, the Braves hit rock bottom; they dropped a doubleheader to fall 15 games behind the first-place Giants. The rest is history. Boston played at an astonishing .782 clip the rest of the season, led by a roster consisting of two marginal Hall of Famers - including one of the worst MVPs ever, statistically speaking - and three starting pitchers who all had the second halves of their lives in unison.

The Braves took first place from the Giants for good on Sept. 8, moved into Fenway Park to accommodate growing crowds, and won the NL pennant by an easy 10 1/2 games. If that wasn't enough, the Braves then swept Connie Mack's Philadelphia Athletics - the defending champions who were appearing in their fourth fall classic in five years - to win the World Series. Alas, within three years the team was back in the cellar - where it'd spend most of the next three-plus decades - but the 1914 "Miracle Braves" remain the authors of the greatest mid-season turnaround in baseball history.

Appalachian State silences the Big House

Dane Belbeck: Michigan entered the 2007 season as the No. 5 ranked team in the polls. Appalachian State came in with two straight FCS national titles, but this was Michigan. Las Vegas refused to set a betting line, which tells you all you need to know about the chances of an upset, and just 66 seconds into the contest it was glaringly obvious why.

The Wolverines overpowered their inferior opponents with a 66-yard drive of domination to stake an early lead. Then something weird happened, the Mountaineers answered immediately. They didn't stop there, taking a shocking 28-17 lead in to the locker room at half. Michigan would battle back, and after taking a 32-31 lead with 4:36 remaining, the 109,218 fans exhaled a sigh of relief.

Once again Appalachian State wouldn't die, striking back with a field goal to take a 34-32 lead with 26 seconds to play. Chad Henne would hit Mario Manningham on a 46-yard gain to set up a 37-yard field goal for a shockingly dramatic win. Then this happened.

Insult to injury, Michigan paid Appalachian State $400,000 to make the trip to Ann Arbor for the contest.

Moses Malone and the Rockets march to The Finals

Joseph Casciaro: In a league that sees no more than a handful of teams establish themselves as true championship contenders each year, there aren't many Cinderella runs to recount in the NBA's storied history.

That said, the closest such thing would be the 1980-81 Houston Rockets.

Through the franchise's first nine seasons in Houston, the Rockets had amassed a .467 winning percentage, and while the '81 version featured an MVP caliber player in his prime - Moses Malone - a subpar supporting cast (all due respect to Calvin Murphy, Robert Reid, Mike Dunleavy, Rudy Tomjanovich) meant no one was expecting much from the fairly mediocre unit. That the Rockets finished 6th in the Western Conference with a 40-42 record, clinching a playoff spot with only one game to spare, did little to heighten those expectations heading into the postseason.

Then the unthinkable happened, as Malone's Rockets upset the defending champion Lakers in the first round (winning the decisive Game 3 by three points), took down the second-seeded Spurs in a seven-game second round series, and dispatched the fifth-seeded Kings in the West Final, before eventually falling two wins shy against a 62-win Celtics squad in The Finals.

Imagine the fanfare a run like this - with a losing team upsetting the champs and marching to The Finals - would garner in the social media era.

1983 NCAA Championship: NC State at the buzzer

Dane Belbeck: Hakeem Olajuwon, Clyde Drexler, and the 1983 Houston Cougars known as "Phi Slamma Jamma" dunked their way to the top of the college basketball world entering the NCAA tournament, capturing the overall No. 1 seed. NC State barely made it into the tournament after a 10-loss season, needing to win the ACC tournament to ensure its place.

The Cougars entered as 7.5-point favorites, but their fast-paced offense struggled with the high-altitude in Albuquerque, N.M., resulting in an eight-point deficit at half. A 17-2 run, led by the two future NBA Hall of Famers, promptly restored Houston's lead, but NC State battled back to tie the matchup at 52 in the final minute. The winning basket for the Wolfpack would be reason enough to list this as the top upset in the sport's history ...

... but the pictures of coach Jim Valvano celebrating wildly are as iconic as they come.

8th-seeded Edmonton Oilers come agonizingly close

Justin Cuthbert: Let's preface this with acknowledgement to the Los Angeles Kings, who became the first-ever eighth seed in North American sports to win a championship in 2012. But they apply only by virtue of their ranking; Los Angeles was too good, too dominant, too damn big to ever be considered Cinderella.

Instead, the misfit Edmonton Oilers in 2005-06, who like Leicester City depended on one man's superhuman contributions to lift them to seemingly impossible heights, bear closest resemblance to the Foxes in the NHL's salary-cap era. Only unlike Riyad Mahrez (and to a lesser extent Vardy), Chris Pronger was a rock star from the back end out.

The punishing Pronger put on one of the single-best postseason performances at his position in the history of the NHL, leading the Oilers to an upset over the 124-point Detroit Red Wings, San Jose Sharks, and Anaheim Ducks to reach the Stanley Cup Final and meet the Carolina Hurricanes. There, an injury to Oilers starter Dwayne Roloson undercut their run, but Pronger, who finished with five goals, 21 points, averaged nearly 31 minutes, and who willed Edmonton to a seventh game after falling behind 3-1, was robbed of the Conn Smythe Trophy, which instead went to Hurricanes goalie Cam Ward.

Leicester, of course, will hope that the parallels between Pronger and Mahrez are limited to the moments leading up to just before the final chapter of their seasons. Because not only did Pronger come up agonizingly short on the final day, he never wore an Oilers jersey again - demanding a transfer, of sorts, that summer.

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On the Fly, theScore's NHL roundtable series, continues. This week, we're freewheeling, diving into the Anaheim Ducks' Stanley Cup chances and an unrestricted free agent who gets no press - Brian Campbell.

Anaheim's Time

Ian McLaren: Anaheim Ducks general manager Bob Murray deserves much credit for waiting out a seemingly disastrous start to the season and allowing head coach Bruce Boudreau to right the ship. After going 1-8-1 while scoring only 10 goals in 10 October games, the Ducks are now within striking distance of the Pacific Division lead and appear poised for a deep and successful playoff run.

Two numbers stick out as primary evidence to back that up. On one hand, the Ducks have a Corsi For rating of 53.2 at five-on-five, behind only Los Angeles and Dallas. Meanwhile, they sit dead last in shooting percentage at 5.88.

Add it up, and the Ducks are a high-end possession team at even strength that hasn't enjoyed the puck luck to make good on regularly out-attempting the opposition.

If that shooting percentage begins to creep up to league average, Anaheim could be the force to be reckoned with in the postseason.

The free agent no one talks about

Justin Cuthbert: What does a soon-to-be 37-year-old defenseman with an enduring game and more than $50 million in career earnings do in unrestricted free agency?

Anything he so chooses.

Barring an unexpected in-season contract agreement, Brian Campbell - who's not the most talked-about member of the Florida Panthers' ascendant blue line, but who's been earning his $7-million salary - will reach free agency with options aplenty.

Campbell would most certainly be welcomed back by the budget Panthers, though likely at a reduced rate. He could spring elsewhere for the largest long-term contract tabled to his management team. Or, he could satiate a market in need, say in Edmonton or Colorado.

But at his age, and having cashed in prior to the NHL salary squeeze, the most attractive option may be leaving millions on the table to chase a second Stanley Cup.

The most obvious and perhaps most likely championship destination is Chicago, the city where he met his wife and an organization that was forced to move his current contract after its first of three Cups this century.

Steven Stamkos will dominate headlines the summer, should his stalemate get that far. But based on what he chooses, Campbell could be the most impactful free-agent add in the short term.

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You can't beat hockey hair. And the Minnesota State High School hockey tournament features some of the best flows in North America. Maybe even the world, dare we say.

The kids are alright. In Minnesota, at least.

- With h/t to Yahoo Sports

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Welcome back to another edition of On the Fly, theScore's roundtable series. With the trade deadline in the rearview mirror, we're making three predictions for the final few weeks of the regular season.

Maple Leafs will finish 30th

Justin Cuthbert: It's Toronto, of course. Though maybe it's Calgary.

It was Toronto and another Albertan city until about 10 days ago, before Edmonton Oilers head coach Todd McLellan simply had enough. You can't blame the failures of an organization on one dude, but the Oilers have simply been a different team since banishing Justin Schultz. Check out the performances since. They're not finishing with a 20 percent chance at Auston Matthews.

The Flames will have a much tougher schedule than the Maple Leafs. But what should separate these two teams in the end, aside from the Flames' four-point bulge, is that Calgary already has proven goal-scorers capable of stealing points, while the eyes of those in skill positions on the Maple Leafs are still wide.

And while Garret Sparks has been good, and Jonathan Bernier has been better of late, it's simply not possible to make up a deficit scoring one or two goals, max, each night.

McDavid will win the Calder

Navin Vaswani: With all due respect to Chicago Blackhawks forward Artemi Panarin, the Oilers employ the NHL's best rookie: Connor McDavid. And by the time the season ends, McDavid, who missed three months due to a broken clavicle, will have closed the gap enough to win the Calder Trophy.

You can see it when McDavid's on the ice - he's on another level. He possesses phenomenal speed and his hockey sense is clearly higher than his peers'. And he only turned 19 in January, while Panarin, 24, spent parts of seven seasons in the KHL.

This isn't a knock on Panarin - he's an excellent hockey player playing on an incredible team. But McDavid's better, and no rational Blackhawks supporter can say otherwise.

McDavid had 17 points in 12 games in February - four more points than Panarin's put up in any month. He's got three points in two games in March. As the Oilers play out another lost season, McDavid's the reason to watch. He's the rookie of the year. (And the Philadelphia Flyers ruin everything.)

Lightning will win the Atlantic

Ian McLaren: With Steven Stamkos locked in for at least the rest of the season, the Jonathan Drouin distraction pushed off to the sidelines, and a now relatively healthy roster, the Tampa Bay Lightning are once again the team to beat in the Atlantic Division.

Stamkos has been red-hot since general manager Steve Yzerman declared he would not be traded, while a return to health for key players further down the lineup gives Tampa a depth up front that is difficult to handle.

Even though Drouin wasn't flipped prior to the deadline in order to shore up the roster for a long playoff run, the Lightning have almost caught the cross-state rival Florida Panthers for first place in the division, and will do so before the end of the season.

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