Friday Four: Golden Knights sparked by top line

Each Friday throughout the Stanley Cup Playoffs, Kevin Weekes will bring you his Friday Four. He will be blogging about four players, teams, plays, or trends that have caught his eye.

Top line powering Golden Knights

Jonathan Marchessault has become a game-breaker for Vegas during this year's Stanley Cup Playoffs. He has 17 points (eight goals, nine assists) including two game-winning goals. Marchessault became the first player in playoff history to score a goal in the first minute and last minute of the same game when he did it in Game 3 of the Western Conference Final against the Winnipeg Jets, and he has four goals in his past two games. The top line of Marchessault with William Karlsson (12 points; five goals, seven assists) and Reilly Smith (14 points; one goal, 13 assists) has been unstoppable.
Goaltender Marc-Andre Fleury has been amazing. After allowing four goals on 26 shots in a 4-2 loss to the Winnipeg Jets in Game 1 of the conference final, he's allowed three goals on 66 shots while winning each of the next two games. He is dialed in right now.
Speaking of being dialed in, how about defenseman Nate Schmidt? His skating, his legs, his reads -- he is playing like a big-game player defensively while also chipping in on offense. Schmidt leads the Golden Knights in average ice time during the playoffs (24:57 per game), and he came at a great price for Vegas; the Golden Knights selected him in the 2017 NHL Expansion Draft and signed him to a two-year, $4.45 million contract ($2.225 million average annual value) after an arbitration hearing.

Scheifele, Byfuglien shine for Jets

You'd be hard-pressed to find five better centers in the NHL than Mark Scheifele. Not only does he lead the playoffs with 14 goals, but he scored two in Game 3 against Vegas and has 11 on the road (in seven games) in this year's playoffs, setting an NHL record. To put this into context, he scored seven goals in 28 road games during the regular season.
Scheifele has nine multipoint games in the playoffs. He's the first to have that many since Chicago Blackhawks forward Patrick Kane had nine and Philadelphia Flyers forward Daniel Briere had 11 in 2010. There's no question he's been Winnipeg's best player in the postseason, but he needs some help if Winnipeg is going to tie the best-of-7 series with a win in Game 4 at T-Mobile Arena on Friday (8 p.m. ET; NBCSN, CBC, SN1, TVAS).
As for Jets defenseman Dustin Byfuglien, it was not that long ago I remember people having disparaging things to say about him. But if you spoke to Kane, Jonathan Toews and Duncan Keith, they would tell you how valuable he was to their Cup-winning team with the Blackhawks in 2010. Byfuglien and Brent Burns of the San Jose Sharks are the only two players who can play defense and offense with no problems.
During a TV timeout in Game 3, Byfuglien not only was listening to coach Paul Maurice, but he was nodding in agreement and paying attention. That's why he's the only player on the roster who's won the Cup before.

Lightning battle back

After a slow start in the playoffs, center Steven Stamkos has stepped it up for the Tampa Bay Lightning. He scored in Game 4 and has a goal in each game of the Eastern Conference Final for Tampa Bay, which tied the best-of-7 series against the Washington Capitals 2-2 after losing the first two games at home. In the past two games, he and his teammates played more of a committed type of hockey. They allowed 10 goals in losing the first two games at home but allowed four in Games 3 and 4 in Washington. Goalie Andrei Vasilevskiy has been great these past two games, but he's been getting the necessary defensive help in front of him. The road team has won all four games in the series. Tampa Bay is 7-0 all-time in Washington during the playoffs and is 5-1 away from home in the postseason this year.
Top-line forwards Alex Ovechkin and Evgeny Kuznetsov have been great for Washington, and forward T.J. Oshie has really elevated his game in the playoffs. But the Capitals can't be happy after they could have taken a 3-1 series lead or even closed out the Lightning at home and failed to win either game. One issue is that they have been giving the Lightning too many power-play chances, which you can't do; Tampa Bay is 6-for-14 on the power play in the series.

General Manager of the Year finalists

I really think that Kevin Cheveldayoff has done a great job with the Jets, especially with the patience he's displayed with their scouting and development. He had a plan and stuck to it. The Jets made the playoffs in 2015 but missed the past two seasons. However he stayed the course, didn't fire Maurice and let his young players develop. Eleven players who were drafted by Cheveldayoff have appeared for the Jets in the playoffs.
George McPhee of the Vegas Golden Knights -- what else can we say about him? We know the job he did at the 2017 NHL Expansion Draft, hiring Gerard Gallant as coach and claiming goaltender Malcolm Subban off waivers from the Boston Bruins just before the season began. Everything he's done this season has worked.
The third finalist is Steve Yzerman of the Tampa Bay Lightning. One season after missing the playoffs, Tampa Bay is back in the Eastern Conference Final for the third time in four seasons. Signing forward Chris Kunitz, a four-time Cup winner, during the offseason as well as acquiring defenseman Ryan McDonagh and forward J.T. Miller from the New York Rangers before the NHL Trade Deadline on Feb. 26 have paid big dividends.

HONORABLE MENTION

It's been a great tournament so far in Denmark, and we're down to the final four teams at the IIHF World Championship.
Kane has set a record for points (19) and assists (11) by a United States player in eight games at the World Championship. He scored two goals to help the U.S. to a 3-2 win against the Czech Republic in the quarterfinals. The U.S. will play Sweden in one semifinal on Saturday.
The other semifinal will feature Canada against Switzerland. Connor McDavid had three assists including a seeing-eye pass to Ryan O'Reilly, who scored in overtime to defeat Russia 5-4 on Thursday. McDavid has looked great playing with Edmonton Oilers teammate Ryan Nugent-Hopkins, and although they'd rather be in the playoffs right now, they could help Canada win gold.