German_Force » the Senators’ captain gladly

PITTSBURGH (AP) The sluggish opening three months. The so-so finish. The only occasional attention to detail on defense. None of it matters anymore.The playoffs are here. The champs are www.officialcanucks.com , too.Sidney Crosby and the Penguins provided proof in Pittsburgh’s 7-0 dismantling of the Philadelphia Flyers in the opening game of their first-round series Wednesday night.Crosby performed more stick wizardry on his way to his third postseason hat trick, Evgeni Malkin added a highlight-reel goal of his own and the Penguins overwhelmed their seemingly overmatched cross-state rivals to begin their quest for a third straight Stanley Cup with a blowout that seemed to indicate the grudge match could be a mismatch.Not that Pittsburgh’s captain wanted to buy into any sort of message sending, even after the Penguins became only the fifth team in NHL history to win a series opener by at least seven goals.”I mean, it’s one game,” Crosby said. ”Whether it’s 7-0 or 1-0 or double overtime, it’s one game. A big part in the playoffs is to get better every game and to adjust, and that’s the way we have to look at it.”That might be a frightening proposition for the rest of the NHL. It certainly is for the Flyers, who have lost all five meetings with Pittsburgh this season, giving up at least five goals each time. Nothing that happened during the regular season, however, compared to Wednesday night. The Penguins pumped five goals in the first 29:01 to chase goalie Brian Elliott, and the Flyers simply could not keep pace.”It was one of the worst games I’ve been a part of Vancouver Canucks T-Shirts Authentic ,” Flyers forward Claude Giroux said.Philadelphia coach Dave Hakstol mercifully pulled Elliott after Crosby swatted Brian Dumoulin’s point shot out of the air and knocked it by a stunned Elliott to put the Penguins up 5-0 just before the game’s midway point. Elliott stopped 14 of 19 shots before being replaced by Petr Mrazek. Mrazek made 12 saves, but Hakstol indicated he’s likely to go with Elliott again in Friday’s Game 2.Whoever is in net for the Flyers, it won’t matter if the play in front of them isn’t better. Philadelphia’s power play went 0 for 4 and didn’t even generate a shot.”They beat us from pretty much every aspect tonight, starting from the net out,” Elliott said. ”Everybody just has to be better.”Jake Guentzel had a goal and three assists for Pittsburgh. Bryan Rust and Carl Hagelin also scored. Matt Murray stopped 24 shots for his third straight playoff shutout.The Flyers stressed the need to stay out of the penalty box and put together three disciplined, competitive periods if they wanted to put an abrupt halt to Pittsburgh’s run at history. It didn’t happen. Not even close.The Penguins jumped on Philadelphia early. Elliott stopped Kris Letang’s slap shot with his blocker only to see the long rebound go right to Rust, who ripped it over Elliott’s right shoulder to give the Penguins the lead 2:38 into the game.Philadelphia’s best chance at staying in it came minutes later, but Scott Laughton whiffed on his first attempt from the doorstep and Murray made a sprawling glove save on Laughton’s second try to preserve Pittsburgh’s lead.”If that goes in, it’s 1-1 and maybe we’re talking about a different result,” Crosby said.Moments later, Hagelin expertly redirected Patric Hornqvist’s shot past Elliott 10:07 into the game. Malkin drew a hooking penalty to negate a Pittsburgh power play, and when he emerged from the penalty box Vancouver Canucks Hoodies Authentic , he whizzed past three Flyers in one sequence, darting by Jakub Voracek, slipping past Giroux and then fending off Shayne Gostisbehere before flicking a backhand past Elliott to put the Penguins up 3-0 before the series was 15 minutes old.All that before Crosby got involved.The two-time MVP has a knack for scoring in unorthodox ways. He beat Montreal’s Carey Price with an intentional double-deflection and smacked a rebound out of air in overtime to top New Jersey within a span of eight days last month.His first of the playoffs was just as impressive and provided the exclamation point on a night Pittsburgh looked every bit the threat to become the first team since the New York Islanders of the early 1980s to capture three straight Cups.NOTES: Crosby’s hat trick tied Pittsburgh owner and Hall of Famer Mario Lemieux for the most postseason hat tricks in franchise history. … Murray hasn’t allowed a goal since Game 4 of the 2017 Stanley Cup finals, a span of 206:26. … The Penguins, who had the league’s top-ranked power play during the regular season, went 1 for 4 with the man advantage. … Pittsburgh C Derick Brassard, who missed time late in the regular season with a lower-body injury, had an assist in 13:44. … Injured Steelers LB Ryan Shazier, who is recovering from spine stabilization surgery and has already been ruled out for the 2018 season, stood up and led the sell-out crowd in a pre-game cheer.— OTTAWA, Ontario (AP) With their own playoff hopes long gone, the Ottawa Senators are taking great satisfaction in making life harder for those still fighting for a spot.Mike Hoffman scored his 22nd goal at 3:26 of overtime and the Senators beat the Dallas Stars 3-2 on Friday night to win their third game in a row for just the second time this season.Marian Gaborik and Matt Duchene also scored for the Senators (26-33-11) Vancouver Canucks Hats Authentic , and Craig Anderson made 23 saves. Ottawa won on home ice for the first time since Feb. 17.”We’re showing what kind of team we really are in here,” Duchene said. ”It’s too bad it’s so late in the season and we couldn’t have done this a little earlier, but it wasn’t for lack of trying. We want to go into the summer on a high note and we’re on our way.”Tyler Seguin and Tyler Pitlick had the goals for the Stars (38-26-8). Ben Bishop, who stopped 22 shots, made his first start since missing five games with a knee injury sustained March 5 against the Senators. Bishop has a 9-0-4 career record against Ottawa.Dallas, in the thick of a crowded playoff race, has lost four straight for its longest skid of the season.”It’s very disappointing,” Pitlick said. ”Every point is important right now.”Stars coach Ken Hitchcock chose to look at the one point his team earned in a more favorable light.”This is a great point,” he said. ”To come back and we’ve got nothing left in the tank and we keep pushing, this is a good point. The (6-5 overtime loss on Wednesday) in Toronto was tough, it’s really tough, but this is a great point. Ottawa has a lot of skill and a lot of speed and they put us to the test and to come back and get a point in this game after we almost gave it away is good. We move on.”The Stars did themselves no favors in the third.The Senators started the period on a power play and were able to take advantage as Gaborik scored his 10th of the season on a one-timer off some solid work from Thomas Chabot and Ryan Dzingel to tie it at 1.”We’ve done a good job staying strong mentally Custom Vancouver Canucks Jerseys ,” Ottawa coach Guy Boucher said. ”We don’t score the first goal and we’re still winning the game – we’ve had a few of those lately and I think our players are looking really good. But I’ve been saying it for a long time and now we’re getting some results.”The Stars didn’t register their first shot until the 16th minute of the period, shortly after the Senators took a 2-1 lead on Duchene’s goal.Duchene took the puck on his backhand, moved it to his forehand and beat Bishop high from in close. Just more than a minute later, the Stars tied it 2-all as Pitlick put the puck past Anderson.Neither team seemed to be able to get much going in the second.Jean-Gabriel Pageau had a great chance but rang a shot off the post, and the Stars hit one at the other end.Mark Borowiecki took an elbow to the mouth midway through the game and went to the dressing room, but was able to return.Pitlick took a late double-minor for high sticking Senators defenseman Ben Harpur with just under a minute left in the second to set up Ottawa for a three-minute man advantage to open the third.The Stars opened the scoring midway through the first on the power play as some good passing led to Jamie Benn feeding Seguin for a one-timer and his 38th goal of the season, a career high.The Senators had their chances but hit the post three times, twice on the same power play.Benn had a strange moment late in the game when he fell on Erik Karlsson’s stick and wouldn’t let it go and then took it to the Stars’ bench. He later asked Karlsson if he could have it, and the Senators’ captain gladly gave it up.”I’ll gladly give a good player that stick,” said Karlsson, who acknowledged he’d never had anyone ask him for a stick during a game before.NOTES: Ottawa’s Mark Stone missed his third straight game with a leg injury. … Stars D Marc Methot sat out his second consecutive game with a hand injury. The former Senator and Ottawa native was set to play his first game against the team since being selected in the expansion draft by the Vegas Golden Knights and later traded to Dallas.UP NEXTStars: At the Winnipeg Jets on Sunday night.Senators: At the Columbus Blue Jackets on Saturday night.—