Rest of NHL aims to prevent Pittsburgh three-peat

Each time Seth Jones felt like the Columbus Blue Jackets were dominating, the Pittsburgh Penguins went down the ice and scored. The series was over fast.

T.J. Oshie knows the feeling because the Penguins did it to the Washington Capitals often during playoff series the past two years.

“It kind of deflates what we’re doing and it’s hard to trust your game after that,” Oshie said.

Opportunistic, well-coached and talented, Pittsburgh has won eight consecutive playoff series to become the NHL’s only back-to-back Stanley Cup champion of the salary-cap era and the first since the Detroit Red Wings in 1997 and 1998. Now everyone’s trying to figure out how to stop the march of Sidney Crosby, Evgeni Malkin and the Penguins as they go for the three-peat.

“It’s not one thing,” Jones said. “There’s not a Crosby stopper. There’s not a Malkin stopper. You can’t put a stop on them. You just have to contain them.”

No one has contained them so far. The Penguins mowed through the New York Rangers, Capitals, Tampa Bay Lightning and San Jose Sharks to win the Cup in 2016 and then the Blue Jackets, Capitals, Ottawa Senators and Nashville Predators in 2017, and only three of those series needed seven games. VANCOUVER By the time the Elvis Presley impersonator singing tunes between whistles had left the building, the NHL’s newest franchise was already well on its way to victory in the team’s first-ever exhibition game.

Tyler Wong scored three times and added an assist as the expansion Vegas Golden Knights picked up a 9-4 win over the Vancouver Canucks in pre-season action Sunday.

“It’s a huge honour,” said Wong. “The city’s very excited to get a team. To be a part of excitement like that is something special. “It’s a pretty cool moment for all of us.” The Golden Knights dressed a roster of mostly prospects and fringe NHLers, leaving behind the likes of forwards James Neal, Jonathan Marchessault, David Perron and Cody