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Posted: January 25th, 2019, 2:16 am
WASHINGTON (AP) The sight of Evgeny Kuznetsov clutching his left arm and leaving the ice after a hit from Brayden McNabb isn’t as big a threat to the Washington Capitals‘ title hopes as it might seem.Not after the Capitals withstood three games without Nicklas Backstrom. Not after they missed Kuznetsov for most of Game 2 of the Stanley Cup Final and still beat the Vegas Golden Knights to tie the series.They’d love to have their leading scorer in the lineup Saturday night in Washington , but with superstar captain Alex Ovechkin and several top players producing and filling the void, the Capitals are built to handle life without Kuznetsov if it comes to that.”We’ve had some guys been out here and there these playoffs,” Backstrom said. ”It’s hard to replace Kuznetsov the way he’s been playing, but if that’s the case it is what it is and we just have to have other guys step up.”Coach Barry Trotz provided no update on Kuznetsov on Thursday other than to say the Russian center is day to day. The team practices again Friday.It didn’t look very good for Kuznetsov when he went down the tunnel in the first period Wednesday night and didn’t return. But Ovechkin scored his first career Stanley Cup Final goal on the power play, and Lars Eller, bumped up the lineup to fill in for Kuznetsov, had a goal and two assists.No one player can make up for the potential loss of Kuznetsov, who has 11 goals and 14 assists in 21 playoff games, though Washington’s depth down the middle looks solid with Backstrom , Eller, Jay Beagle and, if need be, Chandler Stephenson. Eller played a key role in two big victories against Tampa Bay in the Eastern Conference final without Backstrom, and will once again be one of the most important players on the ice if Kuznetsov isn’t healthy.”Nick has gone out or Kuzy has been out, Lars has elevated his game and comes up in a more prominent role,” Trotz said. ”I think he embraces the challenge. He takes the moments very seriously that he has to step up and try to find a way to produce, and he has. He’s a veteran player who has good hockey sense, and he’s strong on the puck , and I think his game translates well in the playoffs.”It doesn’t hurt that the Capitals can lean on Ovechkin in times of need, and they have received strong performances from top-six wingers Tom Wilson, T.J. Oshie and Jakub Vrana and defenseman John Carlson.It’s the kind of production Vegas is looking for from its top line of Jonathan Marchessault, William Karlsson and Reilly Smith. Going on the road means coach Gerard Gallant can’t pick matchups, so he’s counting on his best players to play like it.”I don’t care who they play against,” Gallant said. ”We’re going to play well and work hard and compete hard. (Wednesday) night they didn’t have the offensive outburst they usually have. You’re not going to be at your best every night. I expect them to be really good for us like they have all season long.”Gallant tipped his hat to the Capitals, saying they deserved to win Game 2 based on how they performed after losing Kuznetsov. It would be more difficult to sustain that effort and adrenaline for an entire game without him, though it’s a test they passed without Backstrom earlier in the playoffs.”It’ll be a big loss, but as you saw in the Pittsburgh series when Nick went down , sometimes that kind of energizes some other guys to get in there and be able to make some plays,” Oshie said. ”So we’ll roll with the punches.”Rolling with the punches has become somewhat of the Capitals’ identity this season and into the playoffs. They got some more in the form of a ground stop at the airport after they landed on Thursday as lightning kept them from getting off the plane.Trotz considers it just another roadblock for his team to get over.”Our guys are fine,” he said. ”It’s another layer of adversity that we have to go through all the time.”—More Stanley Cup coverage: https://apnews.com/tag/StanleyCupFinals— LOS ANGELES (AP) — The Los Angeles Kings haven’t looked like themselves very much lately.Against the surging Winnipeg Jets, however, the Kings got back to their defensive roots and delivered one of their best performances in a disappointing season.Austin Wagner scored twice and Los Angeles snapped a four-game losing streak Tuesday night with a 4-1 victory over the Jets.“I don’t think there was any doubt in anyone’s mind that we should have won that hockey game,” said Kings defenseman Drew Doughty, who had an assist. “We played a full 60 minutes and it’s really good Kings hockey right there. We need to do it again. And again.”Alex Iafallo and Nate Thompson each had a goal and Jonathan Quick made 27 saves for the Kings, who ended Winnipeg’s five-game winning streak.Mathieu Perreault scored for the fifth straight game and Connor Hellebuyck stopped 27 shots as the Jets lost for only the second time in 11 games. Winnipeg also had won five in a row on the road.“But they earned it,” Jets coach Paul Maurice said of the Kings. “They competed on every puck and battled hard. The back check was outstanding. We weren’t crossing through the neutral zone at all. It was straight lines.”Iafallo extended his point streak to five games by putting the Kings back in front 2-1 at 9:08 of the second period. Iafallo tipped in Doughty’s shot after the defenseman caught Hellebuyck out of position Matt Hunwick Jersey Womens , giving him two goals and four assists during his streak.Wagner scored on a breakaway at 18:08 of the second for the rookie’s first multigoal game, making it 3-1.The Kings scored at least three goals in consecutive games for the second time this season, and Wagner said re-establishing the focus on defending is responsible for the increased production. That commitment was evident in Los Angeles’ 18 blocked shots.“When we’re breaking out clean and not turning over pucks, we’re creating a lot of offense,” Wagner said. “We’re playing well right now and we’ve just got to keep it going.”Thompson added an empty-netter at 19:55 of the third.Wagner put the Kings ahead 1-0 with seven minutes left in the first period by deflecting Daniel Brickley’s long shot. Hellebuyck made the save, but the puck bounced into the air and trickled in. Jets defenseman Josh Morrissey had a chance to clear the puck, only for it to skip over his stick.The Jets tied it 1-all just 1:52 into the second when Perreault redirected Bryan Little’s shot past Quick. The five-game scoring streak is the longest of Perreault’s career, and he has five goals and one assist in his past six games.But quality scoring chances were hard to come by for the Jets. When they did generate them, the Jets failed to convert , such as when Nikolaj Ehlers put his shot toward an open net off the post in the sequence prior to Wagner’s second goal.“Just one of those nights,” Perreault said. “Bounce didn’t go our way. We had our chances, just couldn’t put them in, and they scored on our chances. That’s kind of the story of this game really.”NOTES: Kings forward Kyle Clifford said he cleared concussion protocol. Clifford, who did not play against the Jets, missed five games after being hit in the head by Vegas forward Pierre-Edouard Bellemare on Dec. 8. … Kings forward Nikita Scherbak played one shift in the final two periods, which coach Willie Desjardins said was because of performance.UP NEXTJets: Continue their road trip at San Jose on Thursday.Kings: Visit the Sharks on Saturday.