Vesey’s goal in third lifts Rangers past Blue Jackets, 3-2 (Sports Betting News)

When Jim Rutherford took over the Pittsburgh Penguins in the summer of 2014 he was inheriting a team that was coming off of one of its more disappointing postseason exits, having blown a 3-1 series lead to the New York Rangers in the second-round of the Eastern Conference playoffs. To begin re-tooling his roster Rutherford’s first major trade was to ship James Neal to the Nashville Predators in exchange for Patric Hornqvist and Nick Spaling. With the Penguins and Predators meeting in the Stanley Cup Final beginning on Monday, and with Hornqvist and Neal still playing prominent roles on their respective teams, we should take a quick look back at that trade to see how it has all shaped out.

Between the water bottle that flew onto the ice, the repeated shoving of Nashville defenseman P.K. Subban’s head and the dazzling three-assist performance, Sidney Crosby’s prowess was on full display in Game 5 of the Stanley Cup final. Crosby again showed why he’s undisputedly the best player in the league and also the bane of many opposing fan bases. He was Thursday night’s top performer and also something of a pest. But after the Pittsburgh Penguins’ 6-0 rout of the Predators, Crosby is now one win away from a third Stanley Cup, and approval ratings don’t matter much in that elite company. Just 33 seconds into the game, Crosby split the defense and shot a puck off the post, drawing a penalty