Journeyman defenseman Nate Schmidt surprisingly leads Panthers in scoring in the Stanley Cup Final

Winnipeg Free Press

5 hours ago

FORT LAUDERDALE, Fla. (AP) — The Florida Panthers' leading scorer through two games of the Stanley Cup Final is not Matthew Tkachuk, Aleksander Barkov or Sam Reinhart.
It's Nate Schmidt. Yes, the journeyman defenseman who was bought out last summer and is playing for just above the NHL veteran minimum.
Schmidt has four points, three of them primary assists, against the Edmonton Oilers.
'He's been great,' teammate Gustav Forsling said Sunday. 'He's been playing unreal, making some huge, huge plays for us in key moments.'
Schmidt is 33 and seven years removed from his first trip to the final, losing with Vegas in the Golden Knights' inaugural season to the Washington Capitals, who he broke into the league. He is one of the newcomers who were not part of Florida's title run last year and are looking to hoist the Cup for the first time.
'It's incredibly hard to get back to this stage, and this time I'm just trying to slow it down and enjoy it,' said Schmidt, who has gone from fresh faced with floppy hair to a shaved head and full beard. 'This is the pinnacle of our sport, and be able to be here at the end is special.'
Schmidt said it's 'kind of reminding yourself that you have that game in you and you're just unlocking it.' He has reminded coach Paul Maurice of the player he was earlier in his career.
'He's getting up the ice, and he looks like he did when he was a kid when he first came into the league in Washington,' Maurice said. 'He was dynamic with the way he'd get up the ice. And then coaches beat that out of you and take the fun out of the game for you, but it looks like he's found his fun again.'
Oilers changes
At their practice in Sunrise, the Oilers unveiled defense pairs that were all different from the first two games. Darnell Nurse and Evan Bouchard were put together, Swedes Mattias Ekholm and John Klingberg, and Brett Kulak with Jake Walman.
They quickly downplayed the impact, saying assistant Paul Coffey, a Hall of Fame defenseman as a player, has been changing things up like this all season.
'Our D corps all year long, it depends on sometimes what day of the week, we could be playing with someone new,' Nurse said. 'Even over the course of a game, you'll be playing with three or four different people, so there's a comfort level everyone has with whoever you're out there playing with.'
Ryan Nugent-Hopkins did not skate, with healthy scratch Jeff Skinner taking his place on the top line. Coach Kris Knoblauch started to say he thinks Nugent-Hopkins will be in for Game 3 on Monday night before calling Edmonton's longest-tenured player a game-time decision.
Ekblad is fine
Florida's Aaron Ekblad took a puck off his left hand in the second overtime of Game 2 on a shot by Nurse and was writhing in pain on the bench. He missed one shift before returning, practiced Sunday and declared himself good to go.
'It's just a routine blocked shot,' Ekblad said. 'Stick your hand out for it and try and get it knocked down and get off the ice as quickly as possible, because when you get that stinger you can't really grip for a second. But all good now.'
McDavid's assist
Connor McDavid wowed in Game 2 when he deked around Barkov and Ekblad and passed the puck to Leon Draisaitl for a one-timer power-play goal that was still getting talked about two days later.
'That was pretty routine in Erie back in the day,' said Oilers winger Connor Brown, who was junior teammates there with McDavid more than a decade ago. 'To do what he's doing (on) the stage that he doing it at, we're lucky to have him.'
Ekblad said McDavid having multiple options is the biggest challenge in defending the undisputed best hockey player in the world with otherworldly abilities.
'You're trying to block a shot, you're trying to block a low pass, a backdoor pass and a walk-on-water toe drag,' Ekblad said. 'So, yeah, McJesus.'
McDavid blushed when asked about what it takes to make that kind of play, fumbling over words like opponents fumble to try to contain him before coming up with, 'A lot goes into that.'
Draisaitl, sitting beside him, chimed in: 'You can't learn that. Let me answer it for you. I'll answer it for him.'
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AP NHL playoffs: https://apnews.com/hub/stanley-cup and https://apnews.com/hub/nhl