Tkachuk.Dahlin is taking

PITTSBURGH (AP) The Washington Capitals kept trying to downplay their own forgettable playoff history Youth Yannick Ngakoue Jersey , the one pockmarked with disappointment and despair. Still, they couldn’t run from it.No one bore the weight more than Alex Ovechkin. All the goals in the world – and the star forward is at over 600 and counting now – couldn’t take the sting away from the endless cycle of postseason runs that ended far too soon.”It’s so hard to move forward some time,” Washington coach Barry Trotz said. ”It’s always thrown in your face everywhere you turn. I know it’s thrown in Ovi’s face everywhere he turns and he’s a great player in this league.”One who is finally headed to a conference final, with a team few expected to make it this far. The Capitals advanced to the Eastern Conference finals for only the third time since the franchise’s inception in 1974 with a 2-1 overtime victory in Game 6 against Pittsburgh on Monday night, a victory secured by Evgeny Kuznetsov’s breakaway 5:27 into the extra period .”It feels like something is over,” Kuzntesov said. ”It’s pretty hard to speak.”Maybe because – for now anyway – Washington’s long-held role as playoff fodder for the Penguins is over. The Capitals beat Pittsburgh in the playoffs for only the second time in 11 tries by playing a disciplined style dictated by Trotz, one that focuses on responsibility at both ends of the ice.The game-winning sequence began with Kuznetsov poking the puck away from Penguins star Sidney Crosby as Crosby tried to enter the Washington zone. The puck made its way to Ovechkin and he threaded a pass to a sprinting Kuznetsov, who beat Matt Murray to spark a celebration two decades in the making.”I don’t want to lie, it tastes a little bit better (beating the Penguins),” Kuznetsov said. ”You know, I never focus on the history. I only focus game by game. It feels very nice. You keep playing hockey, it’s unbelievable.”Washington went 1-1-1 against the Lightning in three regular season meetings, the last a 4-2 loss at home on Feb. 20. That was two long months ago, and the team that celebrated in an equal parts joyous and relieved dressing room on Monday night doesn’t look like the one that was still searching for its legs in mid-winter.Injuries forced the Capitals to put together a patchwork lineup that included a handful of rookies, such as Nate Walker, who became the first Australian to record a point in the playoffs when he set up Alex Chiasson’s second-period goal.”We did have our moment in the first period when we said `Do we have five rookies playing tonight?”’ Capitals owner Ted Leonsis said. ”I thought our window had closed and we had an old team and we had five rookies. So our future remains bright and now we just have to focus on the third round.”Washington will do it with a resurgent Braden Holtby. Benched at the start of the playoffs in favor of Philipp Grubauer, Holtby heads to the conference finals playing some of the finest hockey of his career. He stopped 21 of 22 shots in Game 6 and is now 8-3 since Trotz put him back in the lineup.”Obviously everyone knows the difficulties we had getting out of the second round,” Holtby said. ”But that doesn’t make a difference in our main goal. Our main goal is still the Stanley Cup. The third round isn’t the Stanley cup. We have to refocus now. We can enjoy it and use that energy as kind of a recharge for the halfway point and push full force into the next round because it’s going to be a hard test.”One the Capitals believe they’re finally ready to pass. The franchise has only reached the Cup once, getting swept by Detroit in 1998, long before Ovechkin, Holtby and Leonsis came on board. This is their best chance at the club, one they’re intent on not squandering.”We set goals every year,” Leonsis said. ”Make the playoffs. First round. Second round. Third round and win a championship. So we’re trying to check them off. It’s almost embarrassing that it’s taken this long for us to get past it.”Now that they have – at last, becoming the first professional team in the nation’s capital to reach a conference final since the ’98 Capitals did it – they’re eager to shed the past. It’s over and done. The future – and the Lightning – await.”We beat the Pittsburgh Penguins today and they’re a hell of a hockey team and we’re only halfway,” Trotz said. ”We haven’t done anything yet.”— BUFFALO, N.Y. (AP) For all the buzz Rasmus Dahlin has generated at just 18, the Swedish defenseman joked he had never encountered a mob scene such as the one before him on Friday.There were as many as a dozen cameras and two dozen more reporters packed three- and four-deep surrounding Dahlin, seated on a stool at the NHL pre-draft scouting combine in Buffalo.”Yeah, it’s pretty awesome actually,” Dahlin said, his blond hair offset by the jet-black suit he wore. ”It’s the first time so many cameras, I think. It’s fun. I love it.”Dahlin had better become accustomed to it, because the lean, play-making and smooth-skating blue-liner should remain the focus of attention in the days leading up to the NHL draft being held in Dallas in three weeks. That’s when Dahlin is projected to be the first overall pick and join Mats Sundin as the only other Swedish-born player to go No. 1.”If that happens, I would be so glad and proud,” Dahlin said, his eyes growing bigger at the mention of Sundin, who was selected No. 1 by the Quebec Nordiques in 1989.At 6-foot-2 and 181 pounds, Dahlin is considered the most NHL-ready prospect in this year’s draft class for his all-around ability. He’s already drawing comparisons to other elite Swedish defensemen http://www.jaguarscheapstore.com/yannick-ngakoue-jersey-cheap , such as former Detroit star and seven-time Norris Trophy-winner Nicklas Lidstrom and Ottawa captain and two-time Norris winner Erik Karlsson.”All those characteristics they bring to the game, Dahlin has the same potential to bring those same characteristics,” NHL Central Scouting director Dan Marr, told The Associated Press last week.”It’s not fair to compare him to those players, but everything that made them successful National Hockey League players, this kid has it in his game,” Marr added. ”This here’s a player that could be a cornerstone to a franchise. And he’ll be a staple on their blue line for years and years to come.”It’s not just one aspect of Dahlin’s game in which he excels, Marr said. It’s all of them.Whether it’s hitting, scoring or defending, Marr said Dahlin has ”shown he can rise to the occasion or rise to perform whatever needs to be done for that situation.”And the significance of Dahlin being in Buffalo for the combine wasn’t lost on anyone, given the Sabres own the top pick .General manager Jason Botterill isn’t tipping his hand on whether he’ll select Dahlin, but coach Phil Housley has already been crowing about the youngster’s potential.”I’ve been watching on YouTube, and boy it’s incredible,” Housley, a Hall of Fame defenseman, told The Buffalo News last month. ”He’s going to be a complete package in today’s NHL.”Among the prospects ranked behind Dahlin by central scouting are Russian forward Andrei Svechnikov, who played in the Ontario Junior League last season, and Boston University’s Brady Tkachuk, the son of former NHL star Keith Tkachuk.Dahlin is taking nothing for granted in saying, he’s not sure of the Sabres’ intentions.”Of course, nothing is done,” he said. ”But yeah, if I’m coming here, I would love to be here. I heard they have great fans and everybody loves hockey here.”Dahlin got his first taste of Buffalo’s hockey fans this past winter when he was part of Sweden’s silver medal-winning team at the World Junior hockey championships held in the city. Some five months later, the sting of a 3-1 loss to Canada in the championship game had mostly worn off.”At that moment it was pretty bad,” said Dahlin, one of four Swedish players disciplined by the International Ice Hockey Federation for refusing to wear the silver medal during the postgame ceremony. ”But now, if I look back to the tournament, it was a great tournament. It was awesome to be here. We had a great team. We were so close.”Dahlin was named the tournament’s top defenseman after finishing with six assists in seven games. At just 17, he then represented Sweden at the Winter Olympics, where he had an assist in two games. Add to that, Dahlin scored seven goals and 13 assists in 41 games with Frolunda of the Swedish Hockey League, and earned junior player of the year honors.”I went through so many great experiences. I’ve been to so many new places. I’ve grown as a guy, too,” Dahlin said attempting to put the year into perspective. ”I’m a teenager that’s growing every day just as a person.”Once the session with reporters ended, Dahlin made his way to a bank of windows overlooking Buffalo’s newly redeveloped inner harbor, and soaked in the view.—