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Alexander Ovechkin says big event. Marc-Andre Fleury says it in both of Canada’s official languages. Evgeny Kuznetsov leads the playoffs in scoring and was a giant and surprising figure in Game 3. John Carlson led all NHL defencemen in scoring during the season and now leads all defencemen in playoff scoring. William Karlsson scored 43 goals for Vegas and heads up a big line that consists of nifty Jonathan Marchessault and the clever passing of Reilly Smith.

What did these men have in common on Sunday afternoon other than the obvious? None of them were made available to the media.

Carpenter, part-time player, with no goals in 16 playoff games, got podium time. So did Luca Sbisa and David Perron, who shared a podium the way Carpenter did with sort of Vegas captain Derek Engelland. Combined goals for the four players in post-season to date: 0.

Imagine an off-day in the NBA Finals, with Steph Curry and LeBron James not available but the league substituting Quinn Cook and Jose Calderon in their places?

Imagine the screaming?

It may cause ESPN to go off the air for an entire afternoon.

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But we don’t have to imagine it because we know better. The NBA makes LeBron James available every day, three times a day on game nights. There is none of this have to protect the stars mentality. The NBA is built on their stars, by their stars, for their stars.

The NHL is the participation ribbon of big time sporting championships. And the hockey press, so used to being slapped in the face, takes the annual slapping, grouses to themselves about it, and carries on.