DENVER (AP) — Bottom line: Gabriel Landeskog Corey Perry Jersey , Nathan MacKinnon and Mikko Rantanen form the top line in the league.Numbers-wise, anyway. Perception-wise, their reputation is rapidly rising, too.The Colorado Avalanche’s top unit has a combined 55 points so far this season. That’s the most points of any three teammates in the NHL, regardless of line. As for the unit next to them, it would be Boston’s trio of Patrice Bergeron , David Pastrnak and Brad Marchand with 44 points.Landeskog recently took a hardline stance when asked about the topic of top line combinations, telling the home crowd in a TV interview after a win that his fast-flying squad was indeed the best in the league.“A fun line to watch ,” Tampa Bay coach Jon Cooper recently said. “You pre-scout the games and you take your opposing coach hat off and just admire their line.”It all starts with MacKinnon, the All-Star center who’s considered one of the speediest skaters in the league. He’s so quick his fellow linemates worked diligently in the offseason in order to not only keep up with him but to stay ahead of everyone else in hockey. Landeskog resorted to pushing around a heavy sled in workouts to get more explosive on the ice. At 6-foot-1, 215 pounds, he’s trying to find the right balance to be physical in the corners but still stay swift.The early results are in: The Avalanche captain appears a step faster.“Passing the eye test is half the battle,” cracked the 25-year-old Landeskog, who has 10 goals and six assists. “I feel good Conor Timmins Jersey Womens , no doubt. I feel really good.”Rantanen has been on track all season — thanks, in part, to his offseason track sessions. Two times a week, Rantanen would head to a track in Finland for the same sort of workout: Sprints of 20 and 30 meters over and over. The workouts were no more than 40 minutes, but the high-intensity drills did the trick.“I feel better on the ice. My first couple of steps, I feel faster,” said Rantanen, who turned 22 on Monday and leads the league in points with five goals and 16 assists. “I think there are still things I can work on and maybe get better next year. But I definitely think I’m faster than last year.”MacKinnon looks like he’s taken his game to an even higher level, which isn’t an easy endeavor given a 97-point season in 2017-18. His 18 points (nine goals, nine assists) are ahead of his pace from last season, when he didn’t reach this kind of point production until mid-November.“Keep doing what I’m doing,” said the 23-year-old MacKinnon, whose team is tied for the most points in the Western Conference after 12 games (7-3-2, 16 points). “Keep getting better with the little things. Just be very consistent every night.”When they’re clicking http://www.ducksshoponline.com/authentic-jakob-silfverberg-jersey , games like this are possible: A combined 10 points in a 6-3 win over Ottawa on Friday. That sort of offensive production certainly left an impression on the Senators.“They do everything right. They cycle the puck, they don’t make turnovers at the top of the blue line and they get everything low,” Senators right winger Bobby Ryan said. “They attack from a lot of different angles. They keep you guessing.”Colorado coach Jared Bednar assembled the Landeskog, MacKinnon and Rantanen line late last October and they averaged around three points per game.So far this season, it’s jumped to 4.6.“They’re all coming into their own,” former Avalanche and current Senators forward Matt Duchene said. “I look at a guy like Mikko and the steps he’s taken. They’re unbelievable. I mean, that’s a line you’ve got to contain.”In Bednar’s estimation, his top line’s exploits boil down to one thing: a willingness to pass just as much as shoot. It makes them that much harder to defend.“All three of them see the ice really well,” said Bednar, whose first line accounts for 50 percent of the team’s points. “The one other thing that doesn’t get talked about a lot is just the hunger all three of those guys have to move themselves forward in their careers and move our team forward. That’s important.”Although the top unit in Boston generates plenty of headlines for its play, the trio in Colorado is starting to get their fair share of attention around hockey circles, too. Landeskog was the league’s first star last week and Rantanen was named the league’s third star on Monday.“It’s fun,” Landeskog said. “At the same time, you take the good with the bad. You know how tough it can be at times when things aren’t going your way. So you have to enjoy it while you can.” LAS VEGAS (AP) Golden Knights coach Gerard Gallant for months talked about his team’s hard work Womens John Gibson Jersey , ability to battle and their devotion to playing a full ”200 feet of hockey.”In pockets of Game 2 in the Stanley Cup Final on Wednesday night, the Golden Knights were surprisingly outworked, outbattled and outhustled in losing 3-2 to the Washington Capitals. Game 3 is Saturday night in Washington and Vegas is going to need to up the energy level even further in a frantic series with scoring chances galore.Vegas outshot the Capitals 39-26, but the hustle stats in Game 2 went to Washington, which handed the expansion club just its second home loss of the postseason. Washington had 18 blocked shots to eight for Vegas, helping goaltender Braden Holtby turn things around. He allowed five goals in the opener but was sublime in Game 2 as he made 37 saves – none bigger than stopping Alex Tuch with the paddle of his stick in a sprawling move with just 1:59 left.Washington also showed its mettle on the penalty kill, limiting the Golden Knights to a single goal in four attempts – including a 5-on-3 on the third period.”You’ve got to try and capitalize on those,” Vegas defenseman Luca Sbisa said. ”It’s just one of those games, even at the end, with Tuchy having that chance. Most of times it goes in. It’s just one of those games.”And while Washington outhit the Golden Knights, 46-39, it was some of Vegas’ bigger hits that ignited the Capitals in the second period.Vegas defenseman Brayden McNabb hammered Washington’s first-line forward Evgeny Kuznetsov, sending him to the dressing room with a little more than five minutes left in the first period. He didn’t return.Washington coach Barry Trotz didn’t provide an update on his star afterward, but said it was the key moment in the game for his team.”It galvanized us as a group Authentic Josh Manson Jersey , I think it might be a turning point for us,” Trotz said.With Kuznetsov out, Trotz added Nicklas Backstrom to his top line with Alex Ovechkin and Tom Wilson. And 5:38 into the second period, with the game tied at 1-all and the Capitals on a power play, Ovechkin scored his first career Stanley Cup Final goal to give the Capitals the lead.”I think they got energy from that, I think they were pissed off, that’s how sports go,” Vegas forward Erik Haula said. ”You see one of your best players go down and you’re pissed off, that’s part of it. It’s no excuse for us. Bottom line is we were right in that game I think, it was right there for us to grab, we just came short.”Vegas unraveled and gave up more uncharacteristic chances in front of Marc-Andre Fleury, who has yet to lose consecutive games this postseason. The Golden Knights also had 12 turnovers compared to Washington’s four.”We shot ourselves in the foot a few times with some turnovers,” Golden Knights defenseman Nate Schmidt said. ”At the end of the day you really have got to see where your game is at. If you look at it as a whole, we played really well for parts of the first period and we got caught up in the transition game in the second period – and that’s not the game we want to play.”Instead http://www.ducksshoponline.com/authentic-ondrej-kase-jersey , Washington fed off the momentum and dictated the tempo, and a little less than four minutes after Ovechkin scored, Brooks Orpik broke a 220-game goal drought with the eventual game winner. It was his first goal since Feb. 26, 2016.”I haven’t yelled that loud for someone to score a goal since Ovi scored one of his milestones,” Washington forward T.J. Oshie said.Though the Golden Knights outshot Washington 15-6 in the third period, the Capitals skated faster, competed better, worked harder and played smarter to steal home-ice advantage with their first-ever Final win. The Capitals return to Capital One Arena, where they have just a 4-5 record in the postseason. Vegas is 6-2 on the road in the playoffs.—More Stanley Cup coverage: https://apnews.com/tag/StanleyCupFinals