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The Washington Capitals are your DECHL stanley cup champions. After years and years of heartbreak and a finals loss to the oilers and their god like powers many questioned if the capitals could ever get it done. 

And the road wasn't going to be easy. "A first round matchup saw us going against te devils who had been on a tear winning like 20 of 21. We had hope that the one loss was to Washington and we had played them well all year" stated coach Craig Berube. But the caps were able to replicate season success and make short work of the red hot devils after the caps dropped game 1. But up next was a clash of the titans with the islanders...or so the caps thought. 

In the shocker of the playoffs the defending champs squandered a 3-0 series lead and went ice cold to past champion Sean Gerbinski and the Montreal Canadians. 

So from there the capitals didn't know what to expect. Every year there is that one team that goes on a long playoff run shocking teams. Could this be the habs? But the answer was no as the caps also made short work of les habitants and disposed of them in 5. 

Up next was Mr. Newbiew to the league and my neighbour Tom Anderson and the Boston Bruins and trust me the trash talk was happening. Especially after that game 3 wacing 9-2 by the bruins. But once again the caps buckled down and closed it out in 5. 

So on to the finals to face the wild or sharks. When talking with Gord it seemed like this may be the closest that a sharks/caps paper finals could actually happen. But the wild were fighters and after a hard fought 7 game series the Wild were on to the finals. But after a hard road of Veteran GMs in the Ducks, Blues and Sharks the wild just ran out of steam and the caps pulled off the championship in 5. 

So an overall playoff record of 16-4 and your caps have finally won the big one. Marc Andre Fleury was named the playoff MVP after posting a .918 SV % and a GAA of 3.14 which was best in the league. And pending free agency could spell big dollars for the flower. 

And what can ne said about the Tkachuk bros. There was a time when they were going to be shipped out in a package but they stayed and here they are champs. They led the league in hits and PIMS and could be the sandpaper that the caps needed all these years, Nobody stood out on the scoresheet as it was a balanced attack all year and the playoffs. If one ine was down the other lines picked them up. 

The tkachuk bros are said to be on a plane and heading to hershey for game 6 of the AHL championship. The baby caps are down 3-2 in the series but reserves are rumoured to be on their way. 

And let the offseason begin! Thanks Alec for another season. 

With John Carlson requesting a trade alot of fans are speculating why. And where could he go. Here is a list of possible destinations. 

1. Toronto Maple Leafs

Why the leafs? Well...because any time a player becomes available us here at TSN love to look at the leafs. John Carlson is the one thing the Maple Leafs are severely lacking. At every turn this season, the Leafs defense was exposed, forcing them to rely too heavily on their offense.

2. New Jersey Devils

Will he go home? John Carlson moved to Colonia, New Jersey, with his family when he was 5. Growing up he played for the New Jersey Rockets. His favorite player was also Scott Stevens and his favorite team was the Devils.

3. New York Rangers

Another team looking to go young, the Rangers could use a defenseman like Carlson to anchor their blueline as they move forward

4. Buffalo Sabres

A team in rebuild-mode may not immediately seem like the best fit for an all-star defenseman. Carlson is about to sign a “retirement” contract, however — the team doesn’t have to be good right now. What really matters is the future outlook for winning.

5. St. Louis Blues

Because...they just always seem to land the right guy at the right time. And with a strong veteran presence the blues seem to be a good fit. 

Arthur Staple (NY Post) - The New York Islanders are the 2023 DecHL Stanley Cup Champions defeating the Dallas Stars in a thrilling Game 7 today at the Nassau Coliseum. The Islanders' top line came to play as Alex DeBrincat opened the scoring just six seconds into the first period and the capacity crowd erupted. Jeff Skinner of the Stars tied things up at the 7:36 mark, but Mika Zibanejad regained the lead for the Islanders on the powerplay after Stars winger Alex Chiasson took a cross-checking penalty.

In the second period, Zibanejad scored two goals to make it 4-1 by completing the natural hat-trick giving the Islanders a three-goal lead. However, the Stars would not accept defeat, playoff-scoring leader Elias Pettersson would make it 4-2 at the 11:21 mark of the second period.

In the third period, Alex Chaisson would redeem himself by scoring his first goal of the playoffs bringing the Stars within one of the Islanders. At the 7:03 mark, Adrian Kempe of the Islanders would take an Interference penalty and the Stars' Robert Thomas would score his 6th goal of the playoffs and tie the game up at 4-4.

Once again the Islanders would find themselves heading to overtime in a Game 7 just like they did in the last series against the Senators. At the 2:52 mark of the first overtime period, it was all over! Alex Ovechkin would score his league-leading 18th goal by getting his own rebound off his initial shot from a Devon Toews pass to secure the 2023 Stanley Cup Championship.

Alex Ovechkin was awarded the Conn Smythe Trophy as the playoffs MVP for his 18 playoff goals including 2 series overtime game-winning goals, one in the Senators series and this one to win the Stanley Cup.

"What an amazing feeling, this team is a remarkable group of guys, and our coaching staff and management supported us through the playoffs. We were down 3-1 in the series to the Devils and Sorokin stepped in the net, not allowing a single goal in that game. We won 5-0 that night and that was the turning point for us in these playoffs," explained a jubilant Ovechkin.

"After the Stars handed us that 9-1 thrashing in Game 4 to go up 3-1 we sat down as a group and decided that we weren't going to play the Stars style of hockey. Coach Bylsma wanted us to go back and play Islanders hockey by focusing on defense first. We played one game at a time and won Game 5 and regained momentum. Winning our first road game in this series in Game 6 was a huge boost and our dressing room came to play tonight. I may have scored the game-winner tonight but it was a whole team effort to get us here," Added Ovechkin.

This was the Islanders' second consecutive trip to the Stanley Cup Finals. Last year the Islanders lost to the Edmonton Oilers in 6 games after finishing 1st overall to capture their first President's Trophy. I asked General Manager and Owner Trevor Robb what the team took away from last year's defeat to go on and win the Championship this year.

"Going into last year's playoffs I was chatting with San Jose Sharks GM, Gord Trann [2-time Stanley Cup Champion GM in 2015 and 2021] and I asked him if our 2022 roster was good enough to win the Cup. We had Brad Marchand, Mark Stone, Victor Hedman, Brendan Tanev, and Chris Tanev on the team, and while he said the roster was good to win, he was concerned about the lack of youth we had. In his experience having a balanced roster with younger guys and veterans was his key to success. When we got to the finals and fizzled out in 6 games, it hurt. However, when the season opened and the team was faced with losing 8 players to free agency, I had to trade some of our core assets and I made sure to bring in some youth. Bringing in Adrian Kempe, Troy Terry, and Noah Dobson, and matching the Ducks' RFA poaching contract on Jake Bean added some youth to our roster. Bean had a great series finishing with 8 points in the playoffs and a +3 in the Finals," explained Robb.

"I'm proud of this team when we were down they never gave up. I'm proud of our fans. I said that when I took this team over 11 years ago that I would bring the Stanley Cup back to Long Island and it finally happened. We didn't make the playoffs for the first 6 years after I took over the reins even though we had star players like Evgeny Malkin, Brent Seabrook, John Tavares, and Duncan Keith. I retooled the roster in 2019 and we have made the playoffs the last 5 years in a row, finally earning the Cup finally this year," added Robb.

I caught up with head coach Dan Bylsma and asked him about his decision to go with Sorokin in Game 5 of the Devils series down 3-1 in the series. Was that the turning point for him in these playoffs?

"Saros had played well in the Rangers series and we ran with him in the first 4 games of the Devils series. However, he sustained a minor injury at the start of the Devils' series, and while he could still play I could see it was affecting his ability to perform up to his full capabilities. Sorokin took over the goal duties and ran with it. He had the full confidence of the team because, during the regular season, I never ran the team with one of them being the number one starter. Both goalies were capable starters and I treated them like 1A and 1B starters both finished with similar regular season records, save percentages, and goals-against averages," explained Bylsma.

When asked about his decision to start Saros in Game 4 of the Finals where the Islanders lost 9-1 Bylsma had this to say.

"After dropping the next two games after our Game 1 win putting us down 2-1 Saros came to me and said that he was 100% healthy and could go in net if need be. I decided to give him the benefit of the doubt and switch things up. However, the team in its entirety didn't show up to play that night. The score of that game was no reflection on the performance of Saros, we simply did not play well as a whole and we needed to regroup," added Bylsma.

"Being down 3-1 after Game 4 I had to readdress our focus. From that game on we would play Islanders hockey and not try to match the offense of the Stars. Our focus was on defense, all defense! Defend, defend, defend! Focus on defense first and the offense will follow. That strategy worked as you can see by the results," added Bylsma.

The New York Islanders become the third team to win the Stanley Cup having won the President's Trophy for finishing 1st overall in the regular season standings in the same year. The San Jose Sharks did it in 2015 and the St. Louis Blues won both in 2019. The Islanders are locked in for another season their only UFAs this offseason are Adam Pelech and Jimmy Vesey. The Islanders will most likely try to auto-sign Pelech this offseason leaving Jimmy Vesey to go to the open market. With that in mind, the Islanders' roster today looks to be in good shape to make another run at the Cup next season.

DECHL STANLEY CUP CHAMPIONS (to Date)

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Stanley Cup Champion in BOLD
(Overall Regular Season Rankings)

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Recently the Commish said the the current SIM allows him to use the bottom 5 teams for the draft lottery allowing those to move up a max of 5 spots. The current NHL uses a weighted system for all non-playoff teams where each of the 16 teams that miss the playoffs will have a chance to win with the teams earning significantly better odds at winning a high pick if they are lower in the standings. It’s also worth mentioning that a lottery win doesn’t guarantee one of the top-two picks in this year’s draft as teams can only jump a maximum of 10 spots, meaning that only the top 11 teams have a chance of landing the first overall pick. If a team ranked 12-16 ends up winning the lottery (unlikely but definitely possible) they could only jump up 10 spots to the sixth position, dropping every team below that spot by 1 spot. There is also a redraw for the second overall pick with the same rules applying of a team jumping a max of 10 spots.

I took this years Dechl final standings and assigned a team from the real NHL that finished in the exact same position from the real NHL standings and then used a site called Tankathon (https://www.tankathon.com/nhl) to redraw the teams for our draft. See chart below.

In this case I ran the Tankathon simulator only once and came up with these results. If we had used this system for the Bedard sweepstakes this year. The Columbus Blue Jackets would have won the lottery this year jumping 2 spots. In the redraw for the second overall pick the Vancouver Canucks would have scored with a 2 spot jump as well. I look forward to your thoughts.

Gabe Whiddon - Hartford Whalers