from Larry Brooks of the New York Post,

...Alex Ovechkin’s 2018 championship, following years of coming up short in the tournament — and for at least a decade in essentially every high-end competition that included Sidney Crosby — not only changed the narrative for him and his franchise, he is playing as if the spring elevated him into an exclusive club of Cup-winners where only members know the secret.

The chips on his and the Capitals’ shoulders are earned. It is for the first time possible to envision Ovechkin, who entered Saturday with 636 career goals, zooming by Gordie Howe’s second-best 801 to challenge the all-time record of 894 held by unreachable star Wayne Gretzky.

And it is Ovechkin’s step up in class that has altered the historical ranking of the top two draft picks as a tandem as selected by Slap Shots, ranked here from 10 to 1:

10. 1970 (1. Gilbert Perreault, Sabres; 2. Dale Tallon, Canucks) Perreault recorded 1,326 points in 1,191 games and was the magic centerpiece to Buffalo’s French Connection of the ’70s in skating between Rick Martin and Rene Robert. Tallon had a strong NHL career of 642 games that only paled in comparison to the No. 1 selection.

read on plus other topics...