NASHVILLE Ryan Strome Jersey , Tenn. (AP) Predators coach Peter Laviolette’s biggest challenge adding Finnish scoring whiz Eeli Tolvanen has been finding a spot for the teenager in his lineup.Yes, the Nashville Predators are that deep.It’s why the defending Western Conference champions have turned in their best season yet with their sights set on finishing what they couldn’t a year ago. Savvy drafting, surprising trades and a handful of salary-cap friendly contract extensions have the Predators on the verge of what could be a dominant run in the NHL.Boston, the Los Angeles Kings and the Chicago Blackhawks have run into salary cap issues or injuries that slammed the window shut on chasing the Stanley Cup. Dean Lombardi, who won two Stanley Cups with the Kings, said he thinks Nashville general manager David Poile has done the best job yet giving the Predators the chance to compete for the next five years.”He’s still got to win it, but I think he’s certainly positioned for that,” Lombardi said. ”To put a team of this quality together, which is one heck of a team. They can beat you in so many ways. They don’t have a weakness, and to be flexible going forward, I think is a remarkable job.”The Predators not only are in the playoffs for an 11th time in the franchise’s 20 years, they head into the postseason having clinched their first Central Division title and Western Conference regular-season title with a 4-3 win at Washington on Thursday night. Then a few minutes later, Boston’s 3-2 loss at Florida handed Nashville its first Presidents’ Trophy for good measure.Veteran center Mike Fisher, who unexpectedly came out of retirement in February to rejoin the Predators, sees an even deeper roster than a season ago. Despite not having a single player among the NHL scoring leaders, eight Predators have at least 48 points apiece this season along with four different 20-goal scorers.”No question it’s stronger than last year for sure, as strong as I’ve been a part of,” Fisher said. ”You look at last year, you lose a couple key guys, and it made it tough. We were still real close. You just never know. Hopefully, we stay healthy. But you just never know. It’s always great to have that.”Poile didn’t stand pat with a team that lost the final to Pittsburgh in six games.With Fisher taking until August to announce his retirement , Poile signed center Nick Bonino as a free agent. Poile also signed center Ryan Johansen to the longest and richest contract the Predators have ever given out on their own, signing the then 24-year-old center to an eight-year, $64 million deal in July a couple days after signing Viktor Arvidsson to a seven-year deal.Those contracts, combined with a six-year deal in July 2016 for Filip Forsberg, tied up Nashville’s top line through the 2021-22 season for a tidy sum of $18.25 million per year.Poile joined Ottawa and Colorado in a three-way trade in November, bringing center Kyle Turris to Nashville . Poile also signed Turris to a six-year, $36 million extension, keeping him under contract through 2023-24 like Johansen and Arvidsson. The Predators gave Fisher a one-year deal.Poile still had enough money to land forward Ryan Hartman at the trade deadline from Chicago, a seller that will finish last in the Central Division.One deal that could haunt Nashville depends on defenseman Shea Weber, the former captain traded to Montreal for defenseman P.K. Subban . That deal netted the Predators a younger and cheaper defenseman, but Nashville needs Weber to play until he’s 40 to finish the 14-year, $110 million deal first offered by Philadelphia or face a salary cap hit that would cost more in 2025-26 than the Predators’ current defense corps.The Predators are focused on this postseason with Laviolette taking advantage of his depth not to rush anyone back from injury.”Winning always solves a lot of problems, and we’ve been able to do that inside of this game plan,” Laviolette said.To some critics Womens Wayne Gretzky Jersey , adding Tolvanen at the risk of needlessly burning a year on the forward’s entry-level contract seemed almost like too much.Not to the Predators who remember forward Kevin Fiala breaking his leg in their second-round series with St. Louis last spring or Johansen needing emergency surgery for acute compartment syndrome suffered during the Western Conference finals against Anaheim. Johansen said depth matters most in the playoffs.”We feel like we’re in a great spot right now going into this postseason,” Johansen said. ”We got a lot of bodies that can not only play certain roles, but versatile players that can step up and be great players in any area of the game. So for us, our team feels really confident in what our capabilities are.”— BOSTON (AP) Sean Kuraly isn’t so good at waiting.The Boston Bruins forward is usually going full-speed on the ice, whether it’s chasing the puck on the forecheck or sizing up an opponent for a hit. So when he saw David Pastrnak’s shot hit off the post and flutter into the air, it was tough for Kuraly to be patient.”A play like that doesn’t come around very often. When it does, it’s kind of a waiting game,” he said on Thursday night after bunting the puck into the net to help the Bruins beat Toronto 5-1 in the opener of their first-round Eastern Conference playoff series.”It’s not really my style,” said Kuraly, who had to resist hitting the puck before it fell below the level of the crossbar to avoid being called for a high stick. ”To go from 100 mph and hitting everything that moves and (wait) in front of the net, it can be a challenge.”Brad Marchand, David Backes and David Krejci each scored a power-play goal, and Tuukka Rask stopped 26 shots for Boston. Pastrnak scored to make it 3-1 with 38 seconds left in the second period, then moved in on goalie Frederik Andersen seven minutes into the third before backhanding the puck off the post.Kuraly waited, and then two-handed the puck off the shaft of his stick like a bunt as he fell over the sprawling goalie.”I’m a terrible baseball player,” he said. ”It has nothing to do with baseball.”Game 2 of the best-of-seven series is back at the TD Garden on Saturday night.”We’ve got a day to solve our problems,” Toronto coach Mike Babcock said. ”We could feel sorry for ourselves if we want tonight, but that’s a waste of time and energy.”Boston already scored two power-play goals when Toronto’s Nazem Kadri was thrown out of the game and given a five-minute major for an elbow to Tommy Wingels‘ head. Three-minutes later, Krejci bounced it in off Andersen from behind to make it 5-1.”I thought it was the appropriate call,” Bruins coach Bruce Cassidy said. ”Where it goes from here is out of my hands.”Zach Hyman scored Toronto’s only goal, and Andersen made 35 saves.”They cranked it up, and we didn’t answer,” defenseman Ron Hainsey said.The matchup is the first in the postseason for the teams since Toronto’s Game 7 collapse in the first round in 2013, when Boston rallied from a 4-1 deficit in the third period, scoring twice in the last 82 seconds of regulation to send it into overtime. The Bruins went on to reach the Stanley Cup Finals.The Maple Leafs never had a lead to blow in this one.And the Boston power play was the reason.”Obviously, our penalty kill wasn’t good enough,” Babcock said. ”We took too many penalties in the third, and the third was no contest.”With James Van Riemsdyk off for hooking, Marchand scored on a backhander to give the Bruins the lead 5:28 into the game. Hyman tied it for the Leafs with about three minutes before the break but Backes put Boston back in front early in the second on a pass from Krejci.Pastrnak converted a pass from Marchand with 38 seconds left in the period to make it 3-1, and then set up the next goal when he moved in on Andersen and bounced it off the post. As the puck fluttered in the air over the sprawled goalie, Kuraly came in trailing the play and knocked it into the net.NOTESPastrnak and Torey Krug had two assists apiece. … Toronto was 0-for-3 on the power play. Boston was 3-for-6. … The teams came into the game 34-34-1 in their first 69 playoff matchups, but the Maple Leafs hold an 8-6 series edge. … The Bruins pledged the profits of their 50/50 raffle – at least $50,000 – to support the victims of the Humboldt Broncos hockey team bus crash.—
