PITTSBURGH (AP) — The Pittsburgh Penguins acquired forwards Nick Bjugstad and Jared McCann from the Florida Panthers on Friday for forwards Derick Brassard and Riley Sheahan and three 2019 draft picks.The deal gives the Penguins an influx of youth in the 26-year-old Bjugstad and the 22-year-old McCann as they make another playoff push. The Panthers Jake DeBrusk Jersey , meanwhile, get some salary-cap flexibility and two expiring contracts that could help at the trade deadline.“We think we’ve got two very good players,” Penguins coach Mike Sullivan said. “We’re really excited about these guys and we think they’re going to make us a better team.”Bjugstad has five goals and seven assists in 32 games for the Panthers this season while McCann has eight goals and 10 assists in 46 games with Florida. Bjugstad is signed through 2021 and carries a contract with an average value of $4.1 million. McCann’s deal is through 2020 and pays him an average of $1.25 million per season.Panthers general manager Dale Tallon said it was difficult to part with Bjugstad and McCann.“You’ve got to put the personal feelings aside and do what’s right for the franchise,” Tallon said. “It’s hard to do sometimes, but necessary.”This marks the end of Pittsburgh’s experiment in attempting to make 31-year-old Brassard the team’s third-line center.“To (Brassard’s) defense, he was asked to play a role that’s different than he’s played in his career,” Sullivan said. “Him and I have had a lot of conversations over the last year or so on trying to help him establish his game in the role we’re trying to cast him in. I think our expectations were so high of him because we value how good of a player he is.”Acquired in a deal with Ottawa last season, Brassard struggled to generate much offense during his brief time with the Penguins, collecting just 12 goals in 64 games with Pittsburgh.“Sometimes that happens for whatever reason,” Sullivan said. “I still have so much respect for (Brassard) and the person and player that he is. It’s unfortunate that it didn’t work the way we had all hoped.”The 27-year-old Sheahan, brought over in a trade with Detroit early in the 2017-18 season, had 18 goals and 23 assists in 122 games with the Penguins. Brassard and Sheahan both have expiring contracts, and the Panthers — who are trying to get back into the Eastern Conference playoff hunt — may move them again before the Feb. 25 trading deadline.“We’ll go game-by-game and week-by-week and then we’ll decide before the deadline what we’re going to do,” Tallon said.Pittsburgh also sent a second-round pick and two fourth-round picks in the 2019 draft to Panthers to complete the deal.Also on Friday Womens Patrice Bergeron Jersey , Sullivan announced forward Evgeni Malkin would miss the next two games with an upper-body injury. Malkin, who had two assists in a win Wednesday against Tampa Bay, has five goals in his last 29 games.“I’m disappointed for him because he had a great game (Wednesday),” Sullivan said. “We think that was a game he could really build on, but we’re hopeful this is a short-term thing. Certainly the fact that he had a strong game as he did the other night is encouraging, and we’re looking forward to getting him back in our lineup.” LAS VEGAS (AP) The Washington Capitals will play for a Stanley Cup championship Thursday night for the first time in 43 NHL seasons. Alex Ovechkin is one win away from carving his name into history at the peak of his incredible hockey career.With a 3-1 lead in the Stanley Cup Final and a city thousands of miles away thirsting for its first championship in a generation, the Vegas stakes are awfully high for the Caps in Game 5.Ovi still wants his teammates thinking about the Golden Knights, not that silver trophy.”To be honest, I think most of us have never been in this position,” said Ovechkin, who could become the first Russian captain to raise the Cup. ”For me personally, I don’t try to think about it too much what’s going on and just try focusing on different things. But it’s hard.”Exactly what could distract an athlete of Ovechkin’s magnitude from the imminent chance to validate his place in his sport?”Whatever. Cars. Hotels. You know, Vegas.”Indeed, this desert is a strange place to end a drought. But with three chances to get one win Karl Alzner Jersey Womens , Ovechkin and his teammates want to seize their very first opportunity for the clincher on the Las Vegas ice.With one more victory, Ovechkin would finally have team success to complement his formidable individual accomplishments. The vaunted goal-scorer can also succeed where a generation of Washington athletes have fallen short by leading the Capitals to their first title and the city’s first major pro sports championship in a quarter-century.With his 33rd birthday looming in the fall, Ovechkin understands the opportunity before him and the magnitude of the situation for everyone who has ever worn the Capitals’ jersey.It’s enough to tighten anybody’s grip on the stick, but the Caps didn’t appear overly tight during their workout or in the dressing room afterward.”It’s a great time,” Ovechkin said Wednesday. ”Probably the best time in my life, hockey-wise. We just enjoy it together, this moment. It’s fun.”Even with a commanding series lead, the Caps all spoke of the importance of consistency and seizing the moment after their light workout. Washington has a shockingly lengthy franchise history of playoff collapses, but these Caps promptly won all three potential closeout games in their first three playoff series this spring.”Maybe because we’ve talked about it so much,” Caps defenseman John Carlson said. ”Guys are sick of hearing about it from the meetings. Sick of not getting it done. They all kind of blend together, but I think we have come out with great efforts every closing-out game, and we’re going to need a big one. This is a good team at home. It’s going to take a really good effort to get it done.”The Caps don’t have the luxury of thinking about the minor disappointment of not being at home to secure Washington’s first championship in a major pro sport since the Redskins’ Super Bowl victory in January 1992. Back home in D.C., fans will be cheering on their team at Capital One Arena in a watch party that sold out in about 20 minutes.”I think the history of the organization is definitely an important thing, but we’re focused on this group Joel Armia Jersey Womens ,” Washington’s Tom Wilson said. ”We’re focused on this year, and obviously once all is said and done or whatever happens, you can look back on it. We want to do it for the city. We want to do it for ourselves.”So far in this series, the Caps have done just about everything well. Washington has scored 16 goals in four games against the reeling Golden Knights, whose charmed expansion season has run short of magic in three consecutive losses.While the Caps focused on changing nothing from their last three efforts, the Golden Knights also don’t believe they need a wholesale change. Coach Gerard Gallant’s team is banking on the resilience of a group that hasn’t lost four consecutive games at any point in their utterly charmed inaugural season.”It’s not the first adversity we’ve faced this year,” forward Jonathan Marchessault said. ”You’d rather have the odds in your favor, but I’m thinking about (Game 5). If you start thinking that we have to win three games, sometimes it gets demoralizing. We’re just focused on the next one. … They’re in a better situation than us, that’s for sure. Stuff we’ve done this year has never been done, so I think that’s what we’re thinking about.”—More Stanley Cup coverage: https://apnews.com/tag/StanleyCupFinals