News, Lob, Kritik und Anregungen » one-timer to push Winnipeg’s

Jason Botterill has experienced both sides of the spectrum in confronting the challenges of building a competitive NHL team versus trying to sustain one.In Buffalo Gabriel Gagne Jersey Womens , the Sabres’ second-year general manager is attempting to rebuild from scratch a team in the midst of a franchise-worst, seven-year playoff drought. In his previous job as assistant GM in Pittsburgh, the test was keeping together a Sidney Crosby-led core of a team that became the first in nearly 20 years to repeat as Stanley Cup champions in 2016-17.Botterill noted the common denominator for both comes down to scouting.“You’re always searching for talent,” Botterill said. “So it gets back to the importance of finding players that are going to join your system.”Teams at the bottom need to stockpile young talent, and hope it eventually jells. The Sabres, for example, enter this season with the top new player to watch in 18-year-old defenseman Rasmus Dahlin , the No. 1 pick in this year’s draft.Other rebuilding teams are counting on their youngsters to make immediate impacts.In Ottawa, the Senators are turning to rookie first-round pick Brady Tkachuk. In Vancouver, there’s center Elias Pettersson. The Carolina Hurricanes, meanwhile, are counting on forward Andrei Svechnikov, the No. 2 pick, to help a franchise snap a nine-season playoff drought — the NHL’s longest active streak.There’s pressure on the league’s elite, too.Winning teams lack the luxury of high draft picks James Van Riemsdyk Jersey Womens , and are required to discover hidden gems in the draft and signing European and college free agents.As Penguins GM Jim Rutherford also noted, the NHL’s salary-cap system means successful teams have a more difficult time retaining their own talent.“You want to keep those players, but you can’t,” Rutherford said. “We went through it two years ago when we lost a bunch of real key players. There’s nothing to do about it. You can’t.”Valuable as they were, forward Chris Kunitz, goalie Marc Andre-Fleury, defensemen Eric Fehr and Ian Cole, and in this offseason’s case, forward Conor Sheary, were among the players the Penguins were unable to retain.Hall of Fame coach Scotty Bowman, who won nine Stanley Cup titles between three teams, said the salary cap makes it more difficult to maintain a contender, though it’s not all that different since winning his first championship with the 1973 Montreal Canadiens.“The challenge is you have to have players coming in the front door,” Bowman said. “When I was in Montreal, they had a slogan that was in the dressing room. It said ‘And the kids go marching on.’ That was 50 years ago Matt Cullen Jersey Womens , but it’s so much more now.”A list of some of the top newcomers (and one familiar returnee) to look out for this season:RASMUS DAHLIN, Buffalo Sabres defensemanHe’s a smooth-skating, heads-up play-making Swedish-born blue-liner, who has shown a fearless ability of jumping into the rush. Dahlin will require time to adapt to the smaller NHL ice surface and has shown signs of being a little too cavalier with the puck in committing turnovers. He is improving as a defender, and expected to quarterback the top power-play unit. The Sabres intend to allow Dahlin to learn from his mistakes in giving him plenty of playing time this year.ELIAS PETTERSSON, Vancouver Canucks centerWith Vancouver’s 2018 first-round draft pick defenseman Quinn Hughes committed to playing this season at Michigan, there’s plenty of buzz over Pettersson, the No. 5 overall pick in 2017. He’s coming off a season in which he helped Vaxjo win the Swedish Elite League championship and earned regular-season and playoff MVP honors.RYAN DONATO, Boston Bruins forwardAfter spending three seasons playing at Harvard for his father, former NHL player Ted Donato, the 22-year-old got a head start on his NHL career by scoring five goals and nine points in 12 games for the Bruins last season.WARREN FOEGELE, Carolina Hurricanes left wingThough the jury remains out as to whether Svechnikov will spend the entire season in Carolina, the Hurricanes are high on Foegele, their 2014 third-round pick.“He’s what we want in a Hurricane,” first-year coach Rod Brind’Amour told The Charlotte Observer this week. Foegele had two goals and an assist in his first two NHL games last season Derek Grant Jersey Womens , and also finished second in AHL Charlotte with 28 goals as a rookie.BRADY TKACHUK, Ottawa Senators forwardSelected with the No. 4 pick in the draft, the son of former NHL star Keith Tkachuk is considered a key building block of a Senators team rebuilding from scratch. At 19, he overcame a slow start in his freshman year at Boston University to score eight goals and 31 points in 40 games. Ottawa’s youth movement also includes Colin White, a 2015 first-round pick, who had two goals and four assists in 21 NHL games last season.ILYA KOVALCHUK, Los Angeles Kings left wingHe’s back. After spending the past five seasons playing in the Kontinental Hockey League, the NHL’s 2001 No. 1 draft pick has returned to North America after signing a three-year contract with the Kings. At 35, Kovalchuk showed he’s not lost a step in splitting two Vegas defenseman and scoring his first preseason goal in a 7-2 loss last week. Kovalchuk has 417 goals and 816 points in 816 career games. LAS VEGAS (AP) — Patrik Laine hadn’t scored a goal for Winnipeg in 15 games. He ended that drought in a big way Friday night.Laine contributed a pair of power-play goals and Connor Hellebuyck made 31 saves to lead Winnipeg to a 6-3 win over the Vegas Golden Knights, the team that eliminated the Jets from last season’s Western Conference Final.The Central Division leaders entered 2-4-2 in their previous eight games but rebounded from an embarrassing 7-1 loss at Colorado on Wednesday to improve to 12-3-2 against Pacific Division opponents this season.“I think there’s always (special) meanings when we’re playing,” said Laine, whose 27 goals rank second on the team. “But especially, we had to win these games. We lost a couple of huge games here last playoffs so we needed to kind of win this one. After the game in Colorado, we needed a good bounce-back and I think we did that.”Nikolaj Ehlers, Kyle Connor Erik Karlsson Jersey Womens , Adam Lowry and Andrew Copp also scored for Winnipeg. Blake Wheeler and Bryan Little each had two assists. Hellebuyck snapped his two-game skid to improve to 27-17-2.The victory was Paul Maurice’s 685th as an NHL coach. He passed Pat Quinn for sole possession of eighth place on the career list and is seven wins shy of tying Dick Irvin for seventh.The high-flying Jets, who average 3.35 goals per game, sixth-best in the league, scored more than three for only the second time in nine games. Vegas, meanwhile, allowed three or more goals for the 14th time in 17 games.Pierre Edouard Bellemare, Shea Theodore and Jonathan Marchessault scored for the Golden Knights.Marc-Andre Fleury made 23 saves. He has lost five in a row and eight of his past 10 starts, allowing 24 goals over his last six games.The Golden Knights are 3-9-1 in the past month, during which they’ve been outscored 45-30. They have just one win in their last eight home games (1-6-1).“We just don’t play for 60 minutes. We don’t work,” Marchessault said. “Our power play’s not working, and they cash in a couple of goals on their power play. Normally we always have more power plays because we work harder and we skate, we’re faster, and that’s not what’s happening with us right now.”Winnipeg, which has the league’s fourth-best power play, was 2 for 4 with extra men Patrick Maroon Jersey Womens , converting 1 of 3 with a 5-on-4, and the lone time it had a 5-on-3 advantage. Vegas, which owns the league’s second-best home penalty kill and ranks third in the NHL with just 7.05 penalty minutes per game, was 9 for 9 over the previous three games when down a man.“There’s no excuses (for) not working,” Marchessault said. “Everybody has control of how you’re going to work in a game. It’s not only one or two guys, it’s everybody. The only guy that probably works hard since the beginning of the year is Cody Eakin. Maybe we should learn a little bit more from him.”Ehlers wasted no time in his first game back after missing 20 with an upper-body injury, as he buried a rebound at the doorstep 56 seconds in to give Winnipeg the early lead.Connor made it 2-0 just 32 seconds later when he beat Fleury top shelf with a quick shot over his left shoulder.Bellemare’s goal late in the first period gave Vegas some momentum heading to the dressing room, and Theodore tied it midway through the second.But just as the Jets opened the game with two quick goals, they ended the second period with a pair in 27 seconds. Laine beat Fleury for a power-play goal and Lowry followed with 3.7 seconds left before the horn to give Winnipeg a 4-2 lead.Marchessault’s goal came eight seconds into the third to make it a one-goal game. But with the Jets enjoying a 5-on-3 power play, Wheeler fed Laine at the left circle for a one-timer to push Winnipeg’s lead back to two.Copp’s empty-netter provided the final margin.“Team win. Everybody had a piece of that. Everyone did the right things when they needed to,” Wheeler said. “We talked about it before the game — everyone was going to have a dirty job at some point in this game and when it’s your turn you’ve got to step up and make the play. From the goaltender out, everyone had a piece of that one.”NOTES: The Jets played minus standout defenseman Dustin Byfuglien for the third consecutive game because of a lower-body injury. He will miss at least the rest of the road trip. … Wheeler’s assist on Laine’s first goal gave him his fourth consecutive 70-point season. … Vegas center Paul Stastny has a point in 17 of his last 24 games (five goals, 17 assists). … Little’s two assists gave him 300 for his career. … Vegas wing Reilly Smith has a point in six of his last eight games (one goal, seven assists). … The Jets are 22-4-4 in their last 30 games against Pacific Division foes since last season.UP NEXTJets: Play at Arizona on Sunday.Golden Knights: Host the Dallas Stars on Tuesday.