Hall looking to remain among NHL elite after winning Hart Trophy

CHICAGO -- The best came to MB Ice Arena for the NHL Player Media Tour on Thursday. There was Chicago Blackhawks forward Patrick Kane, Pittsburgh Penguins center Sidney Crosby and Edmonton Oilers center Connor McDavid.

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And then there was the reigning winner of the Hart Trophy as the NHL's most valuable player: New Jersey Devils forward Taylor Hall.
"The biggest thing that I want to accomplish is keeping myself in that tier of players," Hall said during a series of interviews and video shoots at the Blackhawks' new practice facility.
"I mean, there's certain guys year in and year out that really are able to perform and keep themselves on an elite level. I performed at that level last year, and I want to do the same this year.
"I want to be a guy that's consistent in the way he plays. Now that I've added myself to a tier of players, I want to stay there."

Two healthy hands should help.
Hall had a full offseason of training after surgery to repair torn ligaments in his left hand April 30. Other than some stiffness, he has had no issues.
If he reached an MVP level playing hurt last season, how well can he play this season?
"Knock on wood, I'm, like, perfectly healthy right now," Hall said. "So it's a nice feeling, for sure."
Hall detailed what happened for the first time on Thursday.
In a 4-1 win against the Blackhawks at Prudential Center on Dec. 23, Hall covered the point in the defensive zone. The opposing defenseman shot the puck down the wall and crosschecked him.
"For the next month or so I didn't really even tell the doctors," Hall said. "I just thought I had a jammed finger, that it would go away. I mean, I've had a bunch. Just look at my knuckles. Stuff happens all the time, right?
"But it didn't go away."
Hall shoots left, so his left hand is his bottom hand. Sometimes when he would bring the hand to his stick, he would feel intense pain.
"There [were] certain shifts where it affected my play throughout the game -- like, I would nick it, and it would hurt for a shift -- and definitely some mornings where I was taking absolute muffins in pregame skate, just because it hurt when I would wake up," Hall said. "It was certainly something I had to play through and I'd think about when I was playing."

Eventually, he told the doctors. They sent him for an MRI, which showed tendons that were supposed to be connected to his ring and pinkie fingers were, well …
"They were just kind of hanging out there," Hall said.
The doctors made a cast for Hall to wear at night to give the hand a break while he slept.
From Jan. 2 to March 6, Hall went on a 26-game point streak, the longest in the NHL since Kane's 26-game streak in 2015-16. Hall had 11 multipoint games during the run and scored 38 points (18 goals, 20 assists).
"He just looked like he got in such a groove, and he got so comfortable," McDavid said. "It's a really good feeling for a player. He just looked like he rode that all the way through."
Hall had 19 points (nine goals, 10 assists) in the Devils' last 13 games, when they went 9-3-1 and were the second wild card into the Stanley Cup Playoffs from the Eastern Conference with 97 points, one point ahead of the Florida Panthers.
He finished with 93 points (39 goals, 54 assists), 41 points more than any of his teammates, the largest gap of any leading scorer in the NHL, then had six points (two goals, four assists) in five games against the Tampa Bay Lightning in the Eastern Conference First Round.
"I felt it a little bit in the playoff series, but I mean, everyone's going through stuff by the end of the year, so I didn't feel too tough," Hall said. "But it was nice to get it cleaned up after the season, and I don't even think about it anymore."
The Devils hope that Hall not only stays among the tier of players he joined last season, but that he doesn't lead the team by 41 points again, either.
Center Nico Hischier, a rookie who turned 19 on Jan. 4, had 52 points (20 goals, 32 assists). What if he takes a step? Forward Marcus Johansson missed 53 games and forward Kyle Palmieri missed 20 games because of injuries. What if they're healthy?
"I learned a lot about myself last year, and I learned how I have to play to play well and how I have to play to help our team," Hall said. "Our team's going to be a fast team, we're going to be tenacious, and we're going to show all those traits that we really had success doing last year.
"So I don't think anything changes. I'm healthy, had a great summer. I'm just really excited to get back and show what we can do as a team."