chasing a lot of teams.”The game was Beagle’s first time facing his former teammates after playing parts of 10 seasons with the Capitals and helping them win the Stanley Cup last year. Beagle, who signed a $12 million, four-year contract with Vancouver, g

DALLAS (AP) — First-year Dallas Stars coach Jim Montgomery called out the franchise for a “culture of mediocrity Gabriel Gagne Jersey Womens ,” led a feedback-sharing session with players and briefly benched one of his top-scoring forwards.And this was all in less than a week, not long after team CEO Jim Lites profanely ripped the performances of captain Jamie Benn and fellow high-priced forward Tyler Seguin.While they will never say Lites’ somewhat shocking comments about his highest-profile and most expensive players have anything to do with it, the Stars clearly are eager to escape a rut of missing the playoffs in eight of the past 10 seasons. Dallas has a precarious hold on one of the final two Western Conference playoff spots at the All-Star break.“Right now we’re getting challenged as a group and individually,” forward Jason Spezza told The Associated Press. “As a veteran guy, it’s exciting because it means they want us to push and they’re not happy with where we’re at. When you’re older, you’re trying to win now. You’re not really worried about the future. I like the way the message is going to help us win now.”Perhaps it’s easier for Spezza to pick a word such as “exciting” because the 35-year-old player, now in his 16th season, wasn’t the target of Lites’ rant late last month.The longtime team executive sought out some of the reporters who cover the team regularly and used plenty of profanity along with “terrible” and “embarrassing” to describe the play of Benn and Seguin. Lites turned down an AP request for an interview Thursday.Asked what he made of the events of the few weeks that started with Lites’ bombshell, Benn smiled through apparent disdain for the question and said, “Nothing.” Seguin wasn’t available to reporters after the last practice, morning skate and game before the team’s seven-day break.The day after the criticism from Lites, Benn and Seguin said they needed to play better while taking issue with some of Lites’ more pointed jabs. Both said they played for their teammates, not Lites.“We’re trying to push the envelope,” Montgomery said. “Everybody is, from their respective positions, and trying to make us better and trying to get more consistent at what we are.”Montgomery met with players and the coaching staff on Jan. 14 James Van Riemsdyk Jersey Womens , the same day Dallas traded young forward Devin Shore to Anaheim for 12-year veteran Andrew Cogliano, a move to add experience and speed.Three days later, Montgomery benched Alexander Radulov for the last half of the first period after the Russian forward said he talked back to the coach. In that 2-1 loss to the last-place Los Angeles Kings, the Stars came within 64 seconds of getting shut out in two straight games, both at home, for the first time in 20 years. He wasn’t very happy five nights earlier either after a second straight loss to an also-ran, 3-1 to St. Louis at home following a 2-1 defeat at Philadelphia.The coach making the rare transition from college to the pros wasn’t scathing with his comments on the level of Lites, but his reaction was notable nonetheless.“Two games in a row where we don’t compete at a level that is acceptable, and it is everybody and unfortunately, I am very frustrated that I have not been able to gain consistency in our performance and I haven’t been able to change the culture of mediocrity,” Montgomery said.Lites picked Benn and Seguin because he believed they were underperforming for a team falling short of expectations, and because Lites said he had the support of equally frustrated owner Tom Gaglardi.It also had a lot to do with money. Benn is on an eight-year, $76 million contract that started in July 2016, and Seguin signed an eight-year, $79 million extension before this season that kicks in for 2019-20.While Benn and Seguin are tied for the team lead with 18 goals apiece, neither is in the top 40 in the NHL in points after both finished among the 25 best their first five seasons together. This is also the first time at least one of the two didn’t make the All-Star game since they’ve been teammates.The timing of Lites’ comments was curious Matt Cullen Jersey Womens , with Dallas in the playoff picture and coming off a 2-0 win at Nashville that was notable for backup goalie Anton Khudobin’s club record for saves in a shutout with 49.General manager Jim Nill said he agreed with the message , although not with the use of profanity. Then came the “mediocrity” line from his third coach in three seasons .“My biggest thing is, what’s our identity?” Nill said. “We’ve seen we can be fast. We’ve seen we can be a heavy, hard team. Are we that? Or are we a mix of that? That’s what we have to find out right now. And it’s the consistency of the game.”Consistency is what Montgomery seeks. The question is how many more times the quest will be displayed in such raw terms for everyone to see.“I think it’s a coach trying to push buttons and trying to figure out how to get us from being the middle team to being a team that’s comfortably in the playoffs and looking for bigger things,” Spezza said. “It wasn’t a shock at all to me because we all feel like we’re trying to push the right buttons to get this group to take another step.” WASHINGTON (AP) — T.J. Oshie put in the work to help Alex Ovechkin set another record and get the defending Stanley Cup champions back on track.Oshie scored his 16th goal of the season as part of a dominant performance, Braden Holtby made 30 saves and stopped a penalty shot and the Washington Capitals beat the Vancouver Canucks 3-2 Tuesday night in Jay Beagle’s return to his old home arena.With an assist on Oshie’s goal, Ovechkin picked up his 1,180th career point to become the NHL’s all-time scoring leader among Russian players.The milestone wouldn’t have happened so soon without Oshie, who rebounded from an ill-timed penalty late in a loss to Boston on Sunday to be at his best against the Canucks. He hounded Chris Tanev to force the turnover that led to his goal, flipped the puck over defenders for a scoring chance in the first and created another one in the second.“Personally I’ve felt good here for the last couple weeks,” Oshie said. “Tonight was just kind of another one of those games the puck was kind of finding me. Would’ve liked to score more than one, but I had some fun out there.”Holtby made 13 saves and denied Bo Horvat on a penalty shot in a busy second period to help the struggling Capitals pick up two important points. Holtby was run over by Horvat prior to Elias Pettersson’s goal with 7.6 seconds remaining and was attended to by a team athletic trainer before finishing the game but said he was OK.Since the All-Star break, Holtby is 2-0-1 and has stopped 96 of the 101 shots he has faced.“Hockey goes in cycles sometimes, and I think we’re doing a good job in front of our net right now about making clear lanes to see, taking away different options, limiting the options Derek Grant Jersey Womens ,” Holtby said. “You just try and analyze every game to see what you can do better and move forward.”Ovechkin is ready to move forward after setting another record by passing former teammate Sergei Fedorov for the Russian scoring lead. He did it in 193 fewer games than Fedorov, who Ovechkin played with in 2008 and 2009 and considers a friend.“I talked to him and said it’s a huge honor,” Ovechkin said. “Obviously, we have a very good relationship and I’m pretty sure he’s pretty happy for me that I beat him.”Brett Connolly and Jakub Vrana scored third-period goals for the defending Stanley Cup champions, who had lost eight of their previous nine games. Vrana’s goal with 7:47 left had to be reviewed to make sure Evgeny Kuznetsov didn’t bat it in with a high stick.Markus Granlund also scored for the Canucks, who lost for the second consecutive night and have dropped three of four. Forced to start each side of this back-to-back because of an injury to rookie Thatcher Demko, Jacob Markstrom made 17 of his 28 saves in the first period to keep the Canucks in it.“Most of the game I thought we played good,” Markstrom said. “Same in Philly (Monday). Come February, come March and April we need points and we need them bad. It’s tough when there’s a lot of teams chasing you and our chasing a lot of teams.”The game was Beagle’s first time facing his former teammates after playing parts of 10 seasons with the Capitals and helping them win the Stanley Cup last year. Beagle, who signed a $12 million, four-year contract with Vancouver, got a standing ovation from the crowd during a video tribute in the first period and a hug from Ovechkin after it was over.“It’s something that I’ll remember forever,” Beagle said.NOTES: Canucks D Alexander Edler will miss at least a week with a concussion from a scary fall to the ice Monday in Philadelphia. Coach Travis Green said Edler needed stitches, but X-rays showed no facial fractures from hitting his head on the ice. … Junior G Mike DiPietro backed up Markstrom after Demko injured a knee Monday in warmups and went back to Vancouver for an MRI. … Capitals D Lars Eller returned to the lineup after missing a game with a lower-body injury.UP NEXTCanucks: Wrap up their four-game trip Thursday at the Chicago Blackhawks.Capitals: Continue their six-game homestand Thursday against the Colorado Avalanche.