WASHINGTON (AP) Dmitry Orlov scoring on Sergei Bobrovsky is a popular clip at a bar in their hometown in southwestern Siberia.”They always show my goal to him Barrett Hayton Jersey Womens ,” Orlov said. ”My friends said that.”Orlov and Bobrovsky are good friends going back to their time growing up together and have played together on the Russian national team with Alex Ovechkin, Evgeny Kuznetsov and Artemi Panarin. They’re split on opposite sides of a first-round series between Ovechkin, Kuznetsov and Orlov’s Washington Capitals and Bobrovsky and Panarin’s Columbus Blue Jackets. Game 1 is Thursday night in Washington.”They’re good players, obviously, and we need to work (against) them,” Orlov said. ”Panarin have good skill so we need to not give him a lot of space and Bob we need to put more shots, more traffic on him. If we win, it will be nice.”Perhaps not since the Detroit Red Wings’ Russian Five has a Stanley Cup playoff series had so many prominent players from Russia, with all eyes on those them as potential X-factors. It starts with Bobrovsky, a two-time Vezina Trophy-winning goaltender who aims to rebound from starting his NHL playoff career 3-10 with a 3.63 goals-against average and .887 save percentage.”He’s going to rise to the occasion,” Blue Jackets captain Nick Foligno said. ”He has every time he’s been challenged. If I had to pick anybody in the league to go into the playoffs with it would be him, and I think he’s pretty confident about the team in front of him.”The team in front of Bobrovsky is led by Panarin Michael Grabner Jersey Womens , whose 82 points are 25 more than the second-closest Columbus player.”The Blue Jackets have added a guy like Panarin, I think he’s a little bit of that difference make, just like we have some difference makers,” Washington coach Barry Trotz said. ”They can do some things that they maybe didn’t have in the past. He’s an exceptional player. We’ve got some exceptional players. Sometimes in those tight series, those exceptional players can be the difference.”Ovechkin has made a difference all year, leading the NHL with 49 goals and scoring 19.1 percent of the Capitals’ total over the course of the 82-game regular season. Kuznetsov caught fire late, recording 11 goals and 17 assists in the final 18 games of the regular season.”I would say he is mature, understands the game,” Ovechkin said of Kuznetsov. ”Everybody knew he would be a very good, solid player, a talent, and you can see how he plays right now.”Some things to watch when Columbus and Washington meet in the playoffs for the first time:GRUBAUER HOURBackup Philipp Grubauer got the nod to start Game 1 for the Capitals over 2016 Vezina winner and longtime No. 1 goaltender Braden Holtby. The 26-year-old German started a playoff game in place of Holtby in 2015 because of an illness http://www.sanjosesharksteamshop.com/authentic-brent-burns-jersey , but he earned the starting job this time around by closing out the season 7-3-0 with a 2.32 goals-against average and .925 save percentage. Holtby went into a slump in February and March, opening the door for Grubauer to seize the opportunity. But Trotz only named Grubauer his starter for Game 1 and said he’ll take the decision game by game.TORTORELLA TIMEBlue Jackets coach John Tortorella will face the Capitals in a playoff series for the sixth time after going 3-2 with the Tampa Bay Lightning and New York Rangers. Tortorella has beaten – and lost to – Washington this time of year with less-talented teams than he has right now, particularly after the addition of winger Thomas Vanek and defenseman Ian Cole at the trade deadline made Columbus a high-scoring machine.”I think we’re playing some of our best hockey, both as a group and certainly the individuals,” Tortorella said. ”I think with them and the additions at the deadline, I think our group feels really good about itself.”ACTIVE DWashington’s John Carlson led all NHL defenseman with 68 points in the regular season and yet still might not be the best on the blue line in this series. Columbus has Norris Trophy dark horse Seth Jones, who along with Zack Werenski give the Blue Jackets some serious offense.SPECIAL TEAMSOne area the Capitals have a huge advantage is on the power play and penalty kill, where they’re ranked seventh and 15th in the league. The Blue Jackets are 15th on the power play and 26th on the penalty kill. Since the trade deadline, though, Columbus has scored on 25 percent of its power plays.—AP Sports Writer Mitch Stacy in Columbus, Ohio, contributed.— SAN JOSE Marian Hossa Jersey Womens , Calif. (AP) Eric Fehr and Marcus Sorensen spent most of the season toiling in the AHL, just waiting for their chance.That opportunity has arrived in the playoffs for San Jose and those two fourth-line forwards are a major reason why the Sharks swept Anaheim to advance to a second-round series against Vegas.Fehr scored one goal while anchoring the fourth line and Sorensen had three as San Jose’s bottom group of forwards that also includes Melker Karlsson matched the scoring output of the entire Anaheim team in the series.”It’s awesome to see,” top-line forward Evander Kane said. ”It really gives a big spark to our group when you see those guys go out there and play in the offensive zone, create scoring chances and score goals. That really adds to our group. It takes pressure off us as top players to know all four lines can score.”The deadline addition of Kane provided the Sharks a major spark down the stretch but a lower-profile deal a week earlier for Fehr was also key to San Jose’s success.Fehr stepped right in as San Jose’s fourth-line center, giving coach Peter DeBoer the confidence to roll four lines and keep his top players fresh. It was a surprising development since Fehr’s career looked to be nearing its end after 12 seasons when he cleared waivers for Toronto back in November and got loaned to Anaheim’s AHL affiliate in San Diego.He remained there hoping to return to the playoffs where he helped Pittsburgh win the Stanley Cup against the Sharks two years ago. His opportunity came when the Sharks dealt a 2020 seventh-round pick for him.”That’s what kept me playing, the chance to come in here and play some playoff hockey,” he said. ”That’s the best time of the year. This is what you play for.”While Fehr is on the back end of his career, Sorensen should be ascending. He was expected to make the team out of training camp after playing well in the postseason last year against Edmonton.But Sorensen was beaten out by Barclay Goodrow and spent most of the season in the minors or as a healthy scratch before playing the final five games of the regular season after Goodrow broke a finger.Sorensen showed enough there for DeBoer to have confidence to use him in the playoffs and the move paid off with him scoring goals in the final three games of the sweep.”I think he’s a player who enjoys playing at this time of the year,” teammate Logan Couture said. ”He plays a hard game but this is probably the best hockey I’ve seen him play, at least the NHL level because he’s making a difference every shift.”The Sharks aren’t alone in getting key contributions from fourth liners, whether it’s two goals from Colorado’s Gabriel Bourque, a key empty-net goal from Nashville’s Ryan Hartman Womens Evander Kane Jersey , strong overall play from Washington fourth-line center Jay Beagle, or Boston’s Sean Kuraly chipping in with a goal and two assists.After missing the opener with an upper-body injury, Beagle scored a goal in Game 2 against Columbus and has won 71 percent of his faceoffs in his three games in the series after Washington lost nine of 10 defensive-zone draws late in a Game 1 loss.”Especially this time of year, Beags is an all-in guy, a true pro, a buy that will give up his body to make a difference,” coach Barry Trotz said. ”For me, it’s a mentality. There’s other guys that can probably kill (penalties) as well as Jay, but he pulls people in the fight. And when it comes to the penalty kill unit, he has a lot of pride, and he’ll pull the other guys in.”The Wild got no goals or assists from some of their most skilled forwards, Jason Zucker Authentic Joe Pavelski Jersey , Nino Niederreiter and Charlie Coyle, one reason they lost to Winnipeg in five games.. But their fourth line was a valuable asset, providing more than just a couple of token checks before retreating to the bench. Daniel Winnik (one assist), Joel Eriksson Ek (one assist) and Marcus Foligno (one goal) gave the Wild plenty of productive shifts against the Jets.”It’s a really tough job for a big man to sit on the bench and come out with a lot of energy,” coach Bruce Boudreau said. ”Every big guy that I’ve had has always said, `I’ve got to get into it. I’ve got to get into it. I can’t sit.”’—AP Hockey Writer Stephen Whyno and AP Sports Writers Dave Campbell and Teresa Walker contributed to this report.—