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DENVER (AP) The Colorado Avalanche stayed relatively quiet at the NHL trade deadline. Now that Nathan MacKinnon is healthy Scott Laughton Jersey , maybe that’s all they need for a playoff push.MacKinnon had two goals and an assist, Mikko Rantanen added a goal and an assist and the Avalanche beat the Vancouver Canucks 3-1 on Monday night.Semyon Varlamov made 31 saves and came within 1:16 of his third shutout this season. Colorado won for the 11th time in 12 home games and moved within two points of idle Calgary for the second wild card in the Western Conference.The Flames are in town Wednesday night.”Yeah, it is (a big game),” MacKinnon said.Daniel Sedin scored and Jacob Markstrom stopped 25 shots for the Canucks.On a day when big names were on the move all over the league, Colorado general manager Joe Sakic opted not to make a major trade to bolster his team’s playoff charge. He completed one minor deal, shipping Chris Bigras to the New York Rangers for 22-year-old Ryan Graves.Sakic said he didn’t want to trade one of his young assets for a rental player even though Colorado is chasing a postseason berth. He also didn’t want to deal away a veteran and disrupt team chemistry with a chance at making the playoffs.”If we were 10 points out we probably would have had a different approach,” Sakic said before the game.Sakic already made a blockbuster move in early November when he traded disgruntled center Matt Duchene to Ottawa in a three-team swap. Colorado got four players and three draft picks in the deal.Vancouver, which entered Monday 18 points out of a playoff spot, traded a couple of veterans before the deadline Monday afternoon. The Canucks acquired forwards Tyler Motte and Jussi Jokinen from Columbus for Thomas Vanek and later sent defenseman Philip Holm to Vegas for forward Brendan Leipsic.”He definitely loosens the locker room a bit,” Vancouver forward Jake Virtanen said of Vanek. ”He talks a lot in the room. He’s a great teammate and it (stinks) to see him go. Columbus will be lucky to have him.”Canucks coach Travis Green said Jokinen, Motte and Leipsic will meet the team in Vancouver.MacKinnon had four goals and 10 assists in 14 games before Duchene was traded and has 24 goals and 31 assists since the Nov. 5 deal. A shoulder injury that cost MacKinnon the first eight games of February hasn’t slowed him. He has four goals and four assists in the five games since his return last week.”There is all this talk of MVP. I have seen him a few times and for me, I think it’s got to be him,” Sedin said. ”He’s impressive.”MacKinnon gave the Avalanche a two-goal lead at 7:52 of the third period, moments after Virtanen hit a post at the other end. MacKinnon beat Markstrom on the ensuing rush.Sedin scored with Markstrom pulled, but MacKinnon scored into the empty net at 19:15.”I had a lot of really good looks,” said MacKinnon, who has career highs in goals (28) and assists (41). ”I wanted to be aggressive and I’m not sure how many shots I finished with Womens Sean Couturier Jersey , but definitely enough to score.”Rantanen scored his 20th goal with 24 seconds left in the first period to give Colorado the lead. He had a second one disallowed after Vancouver challenged for goaltender interference.Green challenged that Gabriel Landeskog interfered with Markstrom, and the goal was disallowed after a video review.NOTES: MacKinnon had nine shots on goal and 19 overall attempts. … Colorado claimed D Mark Alt on waivers from the Philadelphia Flyers. Sakic said Alt adds depth to the blue line, which is currently without Erik Johnson, Mark Barberio and Anton Lindholm. … Jokinen and Leipsic were listed as scratches. … Avalanche D Nikita Zadorov was back in the lineup after being a healthy scratch for two games.UP NEXTCanucks: Host the New York Rangers on Wednesday night.Avalanche: Host the Flames on Wednesday night.— ARLINGTON, Va. (AP) Raw emotion came from Alex Ovechkin as he wore an ”Eastern Conference champions” hat for the first time.”Oh my God,” he said. ”It’s unbelievable. I can’t explain my emotions. I’m just happy for my boys, for organizations, for fans. Finally.”Finally.Ovechkin and the Washington Capitals will play for the Stanley Cup. It’s a journey 14 years in the making from Ovechkin being the first overall draft pick to the greatest goal scorer of this generation – and a player who until this year hasn’t made it out of the second round of the playoffs through little fault of his own. Yet he’s gotten an uneven proportion of the blame.Ovechkin essentially willed the Capitals to the Cup Final with 12 goals, 10 assists and the best postseason of his career. In one spring, the 32-year-old Russian superstar has ended Washington’s 20-year final drought, slayed demons and destroyed the old narrative that he can’t get the job done when it matters most.”The special thing is because we’re winning,” Ovechkin said before the Capitals left for Las Vegas. ”That’s the whole thing. That’s all I can say. We win and we move forward. We’ve never been in this position before. All my career, I played for this team, and we never get the success like that.”Ovechkin bore the brunt of nine playoff appearances ending after the first or second round despite being a point-a-game player. With time running out on chasing the trophy he knew all about as a kid, this season has featured a different-looking player.General manager Brian MacLellan sees a new level of maturity on and off the ice that he believes comes from Ovechkin getting married. A different offseason training regimen allowed Ovechkin to produce more at even strength, and the result was an NHL-leading 49 goals.”I think the way he plays this year is more within the team structure,” MacLellan said. ”This is the most systematic he’s played throughout his career http://www.officialflyersproshop.com/authentic-adidas-shayne-gostisbehere-jersey , in my mind.”In the playoffs, Ovechkin has raised his game even further. His vintage physicality and his willingness to get his body in front of shots and hustle down ice on the backcheck have been noticeable.”When you see him blocking shots, you see him coming back hard, you see him playing physical, he’s getting more and more excited,” linemate Tom Wilson said. ”It seems like every round you win, he’s playing even harder. And that’s what you need out of your top guys. When he’s going, you’re aware he’s on the ice. Everyone in the building knows he’s on the ice.”During the third round, Tampa Bay coach Jon Cooper said Ovechkin has ”taken 14 years of frustration out in one playoffs.” Ovechkin is reluctant to talk about previous playoff disappointments, but they’ve been tied to him.Even though this is a team sport, someone has to be the greatest player to never win the Cup. Until now, arguably that’s Ovechkin, a label he has the chance to shed beginning in Game 1 of the final Monday at the expansion Vegas Golden Knights.”He’s an elite player that shoulders the responsibility of how our team performs, whether that is fair or unfair, and I think that happens to all those elite players in the league,” MacLellan said. ”They get built up when they win and they get torn down a little bit when they lose. It is not always fair, because it is a team game. And for him Travis Konecny Jersey , he has shouldered a lot of the burden that has gone on here for the last 11 years or whatever the time period has been, and hopefully this is a time when he gets payback and enjoys it this year.”Ovechkin is enjoying hockey seemingly like never before. Coach Barry Trotz wondered if being the face of the franchise and carrying the burden weighed on Ovechkin all those years.Getting past the Pittsburgh Penguins and the second round made Ovechkin look ”freer” in Trotz’s eyes.”You want your top guys to be on a mission, and I think that has freed him to carry on the mission rather than have to explain why he didn’t go farther and have to do it every spring,” Trotz said. ”He’s having fun. He’s producing. He’s all in. If you’re going to have success, you have to have all-in contribution, and he has. I think he’s enjoying the run, the playoffs, maybe for the first time in a long time.”Since returning home to Washington after advancing to the Final, Ovechkin said fans have come up to him to say thank you, good job, and to express pride. But he doesn’t want to celebrate too much because he knows how difficult every step of the playoffs is to conquer.”It’s hard. It’s not easy,” Ovechkin said. ”This organization, it’s been too long to be in this position, and I’ve never been in this position. Only Brooks Orpik has won the Stanley Cup and been in the final. Now this group is excited and we’re ready to go.”—More Stanley Cup coverage: https://apnews.com/tag/StanleyCupFinals—