Dom Luszczyszyn

1 week ago | nytimes.com | Dom Luszczyszyn

After a necessary Cup Checklist refresh, it's time to see how it applies to this year's 16 playoff teams. For those who need a quick reminder, the Cup Checklist is a guide based on the rosters of Stanley Cup champions from the last 15 years. It's a five-point threshold based on the average player from those rosters, separated by role. There are 13 roles separated into three cores. Here's what that looks like.

1 week ago | nytimes.com | Dom Luszczyszyn

There's no exact formula for winning the Stanley Cup, but there are common elements between champions. That was the vision behind the Cup Checklist introduced five years ago. Now it's time for an update. The vision this time? Accounting for roles. While a checklist that breaks down the thresholds previous Cup winners hit at certain positions is good practice, two problems arose. The first is comparing the wrong players due to position rigidity.

1 week ago | nytimes.com | Dom Luszczyszyn |Sean Gentille

After a long time spent apart, the Rankings Boys are back. How did we celebrate the occasion? With a playoff team draft, of course. With the 16-team field likely set (barring an epic collapse) and a pile of work ahead of us next week to prepare, we decided to do our playoff preview ranking a week early. And we did that by doing a draft of the 16 playoff teams. The scoring system: one point for a first round win, two for a second, three for a third, and four for winning it all. The prize?

2 weeks ago | nytimes.com | Dom Luszczyszyn

Heading into the 4 Nations Face-Off break, the St. Louis Blues were 25-26-5, eight points out of a playoff spot with an extra game played. In order to match Vancouver's 94-point pace, the Blues would need 39 points over their final 26 games - a 123-point pace. With two games to spare, the Blues did it. It's one of the most incredible turnarounds I've witnessed in this sport. Genuine question: What would you give the odds of that happening?

2 weeks ago | nytimes.com | Dom Luszczyszyn

With the 895th goal of his career, Alex Ovechkin has passed Wayne Gretzky in all-time goals. Ovechkin beat many goalies in many different ways with an unlimited bag of tricks, but his greatest trick was the one they all knew was coming but couldn't stop. Fitting that goal No. 895 came that exact way: from Ovechkin's spot.