Henrik Lundqvist stood tall in goal again for the Rangers, while Alex Ovechkin couldn’t break through. (Getty Images)

By Sarah Kwak

OK, so after seeing that wondrous Bruins comeback against Toronto, a game for the ages, the deciding contest between the Rangers and Capitals was — comparatively speaking — a bit of a dud. If you chose to watch the Rangers and Caps over that epic clash, well, I really hope you were getting paid to do it (like me).

Anyway, before Game 7, New York coach John Tortorella predicted that the stars of each team would be the deciding factors and would be the ones to step up and carry their teams. Well, it didn’t go exactly that way Monday night. Yes, Tortorella’s biggest star, goalie Henrik Lundqvist, was glittering once again, making 35 saves and shutting out the Capitals for the second night in a row to send his team to the second round. But Lundqvist can only do so much himself without goal support. Well, the 31-year-old Vezina finalist finally got it, but from unexpected sources. Arron Asham, Taylor Pyatt and Michael Del Zotto built a comfortable lead for New York through two periods on the way to an eventual 5-0 win. Aside from Lundqvist, it was the Rangers’ role players that carried this team to the second round.

Some other observations:

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There are compelling cases to be made for all three of this season’s Hart Trophy nominees. (AP/AP/Icon SMI)

By Allan Muir

There really ought to be an asterisk on the Hart Trophy to designate the years in which it is awarded to the NHL’s best player instead of, as stipulated by the rules, “the player adjudged to be most valuable to his team.”

Some years, that player is one and the same. This won’t be one of those years because Sergei Bobrovsky isn’t among the finalists. And there is no one in this league who more demonstrably had a greater impact on his team’s fortunes than Bob.

That’s not to overlook the achievements of the three players who made the cut: Pittsburgh’s Sidney Crosby, Alex Ovechkin of Washington, and New York Islanders’ star John Tavares. You can make a solid argument for any of them as the league’s top performer.

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NHL players will have a tough choice among Sidney Crosby, Alex Ovechkin and Martin St. Louis. (AP Photos)

By Sarah Kwak

There was little surprise in the NHL Players’ Association’s announcement of the finalists for the 2013 Ted Lindsay Award, given to the “most outstanding player,” as voted by the players themselves. Penguins center Sidney Crosby, Capitals right wing Alex Ovechkin, and Lightning right wing Martin St. Louis, all previous winners of this award, made strong cases at various points of the season, and each achieved remarkable milestones even with the short schedule.

Crosby scored at a rate of 1.56 points per game, a pace that only he, Jaromir Jagr, Eric Lindros and Mario Lemieux have bettered since 1995. A position switch from left wing at the start of the season revived Ovechkin’s stagnant offensive production, and at right wing, the Great 8 exploded with 23 goals in his final 23 games. From March 14 to the end of the regular season, Ovechkin scored nearly twice as often as the next highest scorers (23-12) and regained his title as league’s most fearsome sniper, winning his third Rocket Richard Trophy. And then there’s St. Louis, who at age 37, outscored both Crosby and Ovechkin — not to mention the rest of the league. Playing against some kids who are half his age, the 14-year vet scored 60 points in just 48 games, a career-high per game pace.

So with such impressive cases for each, how does one begin to rate which performance is the most outstanding?

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Alex Ovechkin (right) was largely hemmed in by the efforts of Rangers defenders such as Ryan McDonagh. (AP)

By Brian Cazeneuve

NEW YORK  – After returning to New York down 2-0 in their series against the Washington Capitals, the Rangers regained their footing with a 4-3 win in Game 3. Another victory by the same score followed in Game 4 on Wednesday, and just like that, a series that once looked lopsided is all knotted up at two games apiece.

Here are some more thoughts and observations from the game:

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Rick Nash (61) finally made a significant contribution by assisting Derek Stepan’s winner. (Scotty Levy/Getty Images)

By Brian Cazeneuve

NEW YORK — After being held to one goal while losing the first two games of their opening round series in Washington, the Rangers went home and got an emotional boost from the return of defenseman Marc Staal, who had not played since March 5 because of a brutal eye injury he suffered when he took a slap shot to the face and went down in a writhing heap. Staal, who replaced Steve Eminger in the lineup, was paired with Anton Stralman and tested on his second shift when Capitals forward Troy Brouwer plowed him into the sideboards. Staal emerged unhurt and the Rangers went on to snap a long scoring funk, get their power play back on track and hold off the Capitals for a crucial 4-3 win. The Rangers’ Game 3 victory cut the Capitals’ series lead to 2-1.

Here are some more thoughts and observations from the game:

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Still chasing Lord Stanley’s sacred chalice, Joe Thornton and Henrik Sedin are in each other’s way. (Getty Images)

By Brian Cazeneuve

For many players, the playoffs present a new opportunity to rewrite history and amend their legacies. But being an All-Star or, in some cases, a future Hall of Famer offers no guarantee of postseason success. Simply getting there in the first place can be an elusive goal. Just ask defenseman Jay Bouwmeester, a two-time All-Star who finally made his postseason debut after a deadline trade to St. Louis. He’d endured an NHL-record 764 games over 10 seasons with perennial also-rans Calgary and Florida before getting a chance to display his considerable skills in the bright spring spotlight.

PREVIEW: Players to watch | Staff picks | X-factors | More

Here are some of the other notable players who are trying to burnish résumés that may look individually scintillating, but still lack one important thing: a Stanley Cup.

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After an eventful regular season, Sidney Crosby and Alex Ovechkin will be central playoff figures. (Getty Images)

By Brian Cazeneuve

The mad 48-game lockout-shortened sprint is over, and the playoff field has been set. As the grueling battle for the Stanley Cup begins, here are some important questions to ponder:

Do the Penguins have Stanley Cup chemistry?

Sure, the sum of their parts is scary good. GM Ray Shero took an already intimidating roster of Sidney Crosby, Evgeni Malkin, Chris Kunitz, James Neal, Kris Letang and Marc Andre-Fleury and beefed it up with late-season acquisitions Jarome Iginla, Brenden Morrow, Jussi Jokinen and Douglas Murray. Those players offer a combined 3,000 games of NHL experience to Pittsburgh.

But here’s the cautionary tale: While the Pens’ collection of talent is now the most robust in the NHL (sorry, Chicago), the unit hasn’t been able to jell over any meaningful length of time. Crosby has been out since March 30 with a broken jaw. James Neal just returned from a concussion, and the Pens have been without Malkin and Letang for blocks of time. So how will all this talent mesh if and when it finally comes together?

The belief is that it will all work, in part because Iginla and Morrow have played in winning situations before (both with the Canadian Olympic team that won gold in Vancouver; Iginla also with the 2002 Olympic team and 2004 Stanley Cup finalist Calgary Flames). In those cases, they had to subjugate their talents to alter their roles for team success, which they did very well. Should the Pens pool their resources effectively, the Islanders and every other opponent along the way will be hard pressed to stay competitive.

EAST PREVIEWS: Pens-Islanders | Canadiens-Senators | Capitals-Rangers | Bruins-Leafs
WEST PREVIEWS: Hawks-Wild | Ducks-Red Wings | Canucks-Sharks | Blues-Kings
MORE PREP: Staff picks | Upset alert | Key storylines | X-factors | Power Rankings | Schedule

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A position switch and an attitude adjustment made Alex Ovechkin a Hart Trophy candidate. (Rob Carr/Getty Images)

By Allan Muir

When the NHL announces its annual All-Star teams at the league’s awards show in June, it will stick with a formula that rings a bit untrue this season. How, after all, can someone be an All-NHL player if he hasn’t played against the entire NHL?

In coming up with our end-of-regular season honors, we’ve decided that the lockout-abbreviated campaign with its intraconference-only games requires a different take, so our All-NHL teams will be broken down by conference to reflect the unique scheduling.

Here are our Eastern honorees. In case you missed them, our Western winners can be found here.

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Did Mike Milbury’s barbs drive Alexander Ovechkin to the barber for a more down-to-business hairdo and mindset? (Patrick McDermott/NHLI via Getty Images)

By Allan Muir

Don Cherry’s critics are going to have a field day with this one.

Asked about the remarkable turnaround of Alex Ovechkin and the Washington Capitals, the bombastic TV star offered up a unique take.

“Mike Milbury, I think, deserves a lot of credit here,” Cherry said on Toronto’s Fan 590 radio station. “He’s not getting it. He’d come on and he ripped Ovechkin – he should be ashamed of himself, boom boom boom, and called him every name – and that’s when Ovechkin changed.

“And if you people have noticed – and I haven’t said it on Hockey Night in Canada, I might yet – have you noticed after a game, he just gives it a [fist] pump?” Cherry asked. “Have you noticed that? Have you noticed he’s got nice short hair, he doesn’t look like a wild man anymore? Adam Oates has got to him and said look, get off this celebrity thing. And what happened was, he was more of a celebrity than he was a hockey player. He forgot.

“And you know, when I went to the Bruins, that’s the same thing happened to me — I got there, they had gold chains on and all that stuff, and they were celebrities there, they forgot to play hockey. They loved the life, they loved the travel, the only thing that got to them, they didn’t like the hockey. And you know, that’s what made Bobby Orr great, and I’ll tell you why: he had no businesses, he did nothing, all he wanted was to play hockey. And that’s the name of the game and Ovechkin’s right there now. He’s playing hockey instead of being a big-time celebrity.”

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Ryan Miller was pulled Friday night after some misadventures with the puck and four goals allowed. (Jerome Davis/Icon SMI)

By Allan Muir

An annotated guide to this morning’s must-read hockey stories:

• We’ve seen this before, haven’t we? A proud goaltender, waving in mock appreciation as a home crowd serenades him with a Bronx cheer? Yeah, Ryan Miller seemed as tired of the First Niagara Center crowd as they were of him after a couple of brutal goals led to an 8-4 Rangers’ win that ended Buffalo’s playoff hopes. Very easy to see him demanding a trade after that display.

• “Yes sir, just like clockwork, you can count on Brad Richards to record a hat trick once every 896 games.” That’s the great lead from Larry Brooks, writing about the veteran’s first career three-goal game in the rout of the Sabres.

• Like everyone else in Boston, the Penguins experienced an unusual day on Friday.

• It became apparent early on that as long as the manhunt for the bomber continued, the show could not go on in Boston. The postponement and rescheduling of Friday’s game means the Bruins play their final six games in a span of just nine days.

• A struggling Milan Lucic could be benched for today’s rescheduled matinee against the Penguins. That should please Bruins fans who are tired of watching him float through games.

• Mike Heika, who offers as entertaining a read as anybody out there these days, says the Stars were taught a valuable lesson in how to impose your will by the St. Louis Blues on Friday night. They probably would have preferred two points, but that lesson might pay greater dividends down the road.

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