Calgary Flames captain Mark Giordano has won the Mark Messier NHL Leadership Award for the 2019-20 season, the league announced Sunday.The honor is handed out annually to the player who "exemplifies great leadership qualities on and off the ice and who plays a leading role in his community growing the game of hockey."
New York Islanders general manager Lou Lamoriello is the recipient of the 2019-20 Jim Gregory GM of the Year Award, the league announced Saturday.Lamoriello beat out Tampa Bay Lightning's Julien BriseBois and Dallas Stars' Jim Nill.The award is voted on by a 41-member panel that includes all 31 GMs, five other NHL executives, and five media members. Here are the results:
It was abundantly clear before the end of Friday's Game 3 that the Tampa Bay Lightning and New York Islanders aren't overly fond of one another. Bolts D-man Mikhail Sergachev confirmed that assumption.The blue-liner was asked postgame whether he thought a rivalry was brewing between the two clubs."I don't know if it's a rivalry, but they don't like us and we don't like them," he told NHL.com's Bryan Burns.The tilt, in which the Islanders prevailed 5-3 to cut Tampa's series lead to 2-1, was filled with physicality, chippiness, and hatred. Things got particularly heated toward the end of the game, as the two teams engaged in a little brouhaha after Jean-Gabriel Pageau's empty-netter.
During the first postseason that Brayden Point carried the Moose Jaw Warriors to great heights, the metaphor became slightly too real for team executive Alan Millar's liking.The problem, in effect, was a veteran teammate’s haste to return the favor. Point had just turned 16 when, in the spring of 2012, the Warriors summoned him from the midget ranks for the duration of their Western Hockey League playoff run. Seldom does a young call-up make an immediate impact against players as old as 20.However, the magic act Point conjured is still in a class of its own. He scored in overtime to win Game 4 of the first round - and again in Game 4 of Round 2 to seal a sweep.Millar, the Warriors' director of hockey operations that season, recalls the passing alarm he felt in a low-ceilinged away dressing room when Dylan McIlrath raised Point onto his shoulders to celebrate that second OT goal: "I thought for sure he was going to pummel his head off the roof." McIlrath was a 6-foot-5 future NHL defenseman in a Moose Jaw lineup replete with bruisers. Counterintuitively, Point was the guy who played hero, an astounding debut for a center who'd been drafted to junior weighing all of 130 pounds. Chase Agnello-Dean / NHL / Getty Images"Size was always a topic of conversation. It certainly was a huge topic of conversation heading into his NHL draft year. That's why he ended up going late in the third round," Millar said about Point in a recent interview."I think that was a driving force for him. I think he's always had a little bit of a burr in his saddle about people questioning him. He continues to prove people wrong."With Point in the fold, the Tampa Bay Lightning are a five-star team, and his ascent to stardom at the NHL level was the least expected of all. From the No. 79 draft slot in 2014, Point has bucked external doubts about his skating and his build - he's now listed at 5-foot-10, 166 pounds - to make himself indispensable to a juggernaut. Steven Stamkos, Victor Hedman, and Andrei Vasilevskiy were supposed to be as great as they are. With Point and Nikita Kucherov, the No. 58 pick in 2011, Tampa Bay, well, bottled lightning.Never has that been more evident than in these playoffs. Stamkos, injured in the lead-up to the restart, hasn't played in the bubble and won't appear in the Eastern Conference Final. His is an absence that would rattle or doom most any other team, but Tampa hasn't wavered. The Lightning are 12-3 overall, have outscored opponents on average by more than a goal per game, and are two wins away from getting to the Stanley Cup Final - though they may have to pursue those next wins without Point, who was hurt in Game 2 against the New York Islanders. (Head coach Jon Cooper had no update on his status ahead of Game 3 on Friday.) Bruce Bennett / Getty ImagesWednesday's 2-1 victory was the Lightning's 48th in the playoffs under Cooper, the most in the NHL since 2013-14 - his first season in charge. His tenure has produced a trip to the 2015 final, where the once-dynastic Chicago Blackhawks topped Tampa in six games, and a pair of Game 7 defeats a round earlier. Up until he exited Game 2, being able to count on Point looked like a potential salve, the kind of move that could yet enable a stacked core to finally deliver a championship.Point's 23 points in 15 playoff games slot him second in the NHL behind Colorado's Nathan MacKinnon. His 19 points at even strength are three clear of MacKinnon and Kucherov for the league lead. His Corsi For (61.1%) and expected goals (64.8%) percentages rank top-10 among forwards who've played at least 150 minutes, according to Natural Stat Trick, and no player has matched his two OT winners."His emergence allows you to do so much more with your lineup," Cooper said in a recent media availability. "Having top-tier centermen who can score and check is a pretty good luxury to have."Ever-dependable as Tampa exacted vengeance against the Columbus Blue Jackets and toppled the Presidents' Trophy-winning Boston Bruins, Point had recorded points in six straight games, and in 12 of 13 overall, entering the Islanders series. That was prologue to his magisterial five-point effort in Game 1, when the range of his offensive abilities - the footwork, the stickhandling, the sense to get open in scoring position or to find a teammate who is - helped the Lightning lay waste to New York's normally sturdy defensive structure.Consider his opening goal 74 seconds in, when a nasty stutter-step let him loop around Islanders defenseman Ryan Pulock and bear in alone on goalie Thomas Greiss. Consider his second goal, when he spearheaded a power-play zone entry, snuck backdoor to the crease, called for the puck once he established inside position, and tapped in Hedman's attentive shot-pass.
Tampa Bay Lightning winger Alex Killorn is suspended one contest for his hit on New York Islanders center Brock Nelson in Game 2, the Department of Player Safety announced Thursday.
Find line reports, best bets, and subscribe to push notifications in the Betting News section.We split Game 2 of the conference finals, losing with the Stars while easily cashing the under in the Lightning's 2-1 win over the Islanders.Let's push for the 2-0 in a pair of pivotal Game 3s.Vegas Golden Knights (-165) @ Dallas Stars (+145)Until the narrative surrounding this Golden Knights team changes, we're well-positioned to take advantage. Vegas is still viewed as an end-to-end, high-scoring, fun hockey team that produces a ton of goals at both ends. That couldn't be farther from the truth. This is a very good team, not a fun one.
Tampa Bay Lightning forward Alex Killorn will have a hearing Thursday for boarding New York Islanders forward Brock Nelson in Game 2 on Wednesday, the NHL's Department of Player Safety announced.Killorn was assessed a five-minute major penalty and was ejected from the game for the dangerous hit.Here's a look at the play:
Welcome to Puck Pursuit, an interview-style podcast hosted by John Matisz, theScore's national hockey writer.Subscribe to the show on iTunes, SoundCloud, Stitcher, and Spotify.Puck Pursuit · Blue Jackets forward Nathan GerbeNathan Gerbe, Columbus Blue Jackets forward and a veteran of 400 NHL games, joins the show to discuss a variety of topics, including: