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| | I try to do my best in the regular year (20th Dec 18 at 8:00am UTC) | | NEWARK Nate Thompson Jersey , N.J. (AP) For the first time since spending $340 million to buy the New Jersey Devils in the summer of 2013, Josh Harris and David Blitzer are getting a chance to see the team play some meaningful games in the final months of the NHL season.Following Saturday’s 2-1 comeback win over the New York Islanders, the Devils hold a five-point lead over Columbus in the race for the top wild-card spot in the Eastern Conference, and a seven-point edge over the Islanders for the second wild-card spot with 20 games left in the regular season.While it is still too early to start celebrating, the Devils’ five-year playoff drought might be ending.”Yeah, I hope we’re going to the playoffs and long run, we’ve said consistently that we want to be an elite Stanley Cup contender year in, year out and there are no shortcuts to that,” Harris said Saturday night in a rare interview after taking part in the ceremony to retire the No. 26 jersey of Patrik Elias, the franchise’s all-time leading scorer.What makes this turnaround remarkable is that the Devils had their worst season in three decades in 2016-17, finishing last in the conference with 70 points.Their win over the Islanders on Saturday night gave them 72 points this season.”We have always said we were going to do things step by step to build long-run winners,” Harris said. ”Sometimes everyone gets impatient and we get impatient. Last year wasn’t great to be me. It’s very exciting to be in the hunt Authentic Oscar Fantenberg Jersey , but we are not done.”Much of the credit for the turnaround has to go to general manager Ray Shero, who came on board in the offseason in 2015. He has revamped the roster with the latest addition being the acquisition of 25-goal scorer Michael Grabner from the Rangers on Thursday in the first deal between the area rivals since the Devils came to New Jersey in 1982.It was just the latest deal by Shero who has acquired forwards Taylor Hall, Kyle Palmieri and Marcus Johansson, defensemen Sami Vatanen and Mirco Mueller and goaltender Eddie Lack in trades and signed free agents John Moore, Brian Boyle, Ben Lovejoy, Will Butcher, Jimmy Hayes and Drew Stafford.Hall is having a career season with 26 goals and 40 assists. His 66 points are 25 more than any player on the team.The bad season last year also helped earn the Devils the No. 1 overall pick in the draft. They got a winner with 19-year-old Nico Hischier, who is centering the top line.”Look when Ray came in in 2015 I still remember him saying things won’t necessarily change overnight, but we’re going to move this in the right direction and that’s all across the organization,” Blitzer said. ”What he has been able to do over the last 2 years, and I think as we look at the future Tanner Pearson Jersey , it has been incredible.”New Jersey still faces an immediate obstacle in its playoff push. Nine of its next 12 games are on the road, including eight with teams in playoff positions heading into Sunday’s games.Blitzer believes the Devils are going to finish what they started this season.”Certain things happen that you plan and certain things happen that you don’t necessarily plan,” he said. ”We got some really interesting pieces that you could not predict at the beginning of the summer. Will Butcher; for Nico to come and do what he is doing. Taylor Hall to turn over what he is doing this season and the leadership he is showing.”It’s just been incredible,” he added. ”I just think you see a team really gelling. It’s also a team not just built for today. This is a team that is built for the future and that’s what makes it so exciting.”— LAS VEGAS (AP) Last spring, after another crushing postseason loss, Capitals coach Barry Trotz flew to Russia to meet with his best player.Trotz spoke with Alex Ovechkin about his game and how it might be fine-tuned to prolong his career. They discussed the coming season and setting the tone in training camp for a team getting younger and undergoing a roster overhaul.There were bumps in the road, but the end result has seen a reinvigorated Ovechkin playing an instrumental role in getting Washington within reach of its first Stanley Cup.”You don’t want to be a one-trick pony in this league,” Trotz said. ”The league keeps changing on you.”Ovechkin, whose Capitals faced the expansion Vegas Golden Knights in Game 1 of the final Monday night, scored 49 times this season after just 33 goals in 2016-17.”The one thing that Alex does better than anybody, maybe in the history of the game, is score goals Carter Hutton Jersey Womens ,” Trotz said. ”He has fantastic release. He plays a physical game for a pure-skill guy. There’s so many things that he’s done for the game. But we talked about finding other ways to be effective.”The 32-year-old Ovechkin has done just that in pretty much every facet of his game.”I try to do my best in the regular year, in the playoffs,” he said. ”Of course, in the playoffs, you don’t have tomorrow.”Ovechkin has won the Richard Trophy seven times as the top goal scorer. He has 607 goals in 1,003 career regular-season games, 19th on the career list. Another 49 next season would tie him with Brendan Shanahan for 13th.”He has that ability to see past the block, see past the goalie,” Trotz said. ”Some of the better goal scorers in this league don’t see goalies, they just see empty spots. Guys that aren’t goal scorers, they see the goalie.”Trotz sees a certain ease in Ovechkin that wasn’t there when the Capitals were having great regular seasons only to fall well short in the playoffs.”He’s very comfortable within our group,” Trotz said. ”And he’s very comfortable pushing forward and not worrying about anything else.”That comfort was on display Sunday when he was asked about the impact his first trip to the Stanley Cup final is having in Russia.”Vladimir Putin called me and wished me luck http://www.kingsproshop.com/authentic-tyler-toffoli-jersey ,” Ovechkin said before pausing. ”No it’s (a) joke.”Until now, Ovechkin was criticized for the Capitals’ postseason failures. Washington had never moved beyond the second round during his career until this spring surge, with ousters by the Pittsburgh Penguins the last two years especially difficult.He had 46 goals in 97 career playoff games before adding 12 more on this current playoff run. But despite an experienced roster and plenty of blame to go around, the finger-pointing was often aimed at Ovechkin.”Being the captain and the highest-paid player, I think he got a lot of unfair criticism,” said Capitals defenseman Brooks Orpik, who has played with and against Ovechkin. ”That comes with the territory. I think he understands that, but it was really good to see him get by the second round.”I don’t think he necessarily did that much different. I think we just played better as a team.”
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