Devils victory when his general manager asked him a simple question.”I said Cam Atkinson Jersey Kids , `Taylor, what’d you get tonight?”’ Ray Shero recalled. ”He goes, `We got two points is what we got.’ He had a smile on his face. And I knew he was not going to say two goals. I knew it. We got two points.”That’s what Shero wanted to hear from the player most responsible for New Jersey’s turnaround from lottery afterthought to playoff contender. Hall is without a doubt the Devils’ most valuable player but he is one of about a dozen candidates for the overall NHL honor. The race for the Hart Trophy is one of the most crowded, convoluted and subjective in decades.An MVP case can be made for Hall, Colorado’s Nathan MacKinnon, Los Angeles‘ Anze Kopitar, Washington’s Alex Ovechkin, Philadelphia’s Claude Giroux, Tampa Bay’s Steven Stamkos and Nikita Kucherov, Pittsburgh’s Evgeni Malkin, Boston’s Brad Marchand, Winnipeg’s Blake Wheeler, Nashville’s Pekka Rinne and Edmonton’s Connor McDavid. The award is given to ”the player adjudged to be the most valuable to his team.”Reigning Hart winner McDavid leads the league in points and should take home the player-voted Ted Lindsay Award as most outstanding player, but the Oilers have long been out of playoff race, hurting his candidacy to some extent and showing how valuable the other contenders are.Shero said matter-of-factly the Devils ”wouldn’t be in the race” without Hall. The same can be said for the Avalanche without MacKinnon, the Capitals without Ovechkin and the Flyers without Giroux.”Offensively, he’s such a big part of how we generate goals,” Ovechkin teammate T.J. Oshie said. ”Whether he’s scoring them or not, when he’s on the ice www.kingsproshop.com , he’s a concern for the other team. Where we’d be at? I don’t know. I’m not sure.”Washington won the Metropolitan Division for the third consecutive year thanks in large part to Ovechkin after losing Marcus Johansson, Justin Williams, Daniel Winnik, Nate Schmidt, Karl Alzner and Kevin Shattenkirk from a group that captured the Presidents’ Trophy last season. Ovechkin averages 20 minutes a night, has scored 18.7 percent of the Capitals’ goals and leads the league with 46 while not missing a single game.Kopitar is another ironman who leads all NHL forwards in ice time, is fifth with 91 points and has the Kings on their way back to the playoffs. GM Rob Blake said Kopitar means ”pretty much everything” to Los Angeles, particularly because the two-way star has done it all most of the season without No. 2 center Jeff Carter.”When I look at that MVP race and importance to a team, I think Kopi’s head and shoulders above everybody: to do what he’s had to do without the advantage of having Carter come back on the ice after,” Blake said. ”He had to go with Nick Shore and Adrian Kempe on the ice every shift after. He leads forwards in minutes. His defensive stats and some of the advanced stats show the commitment that he’s had, and it’s from day one.”Two-way play extends to Giroux, who has put Philadelphia on his back at times. Giroux has a career-high 97 points – trailing only McDavid and Kucherov – has won 58.6 percent of faceoffs and run the power play and played the penalty kill for a team that has needed to get wins from four different goaltenders.”When you talk about that type of an award there’s a lot more to it and G does a heck of a lot more for this hockey team than just score points,” coach Dave Hakstol said. ”And believe me it’s hard to score points in this league, so I’m not downplaying that. I’m telling you how important a lot of the other things he provides are to our hockey team.”MacKinnon has provided a spark with 38 goals and 56 assists for the Avalanche, who are still fighting to make the playoffs.”He’s a threat to shoot, threat to take pucks to the net, delay and find people,” coach Jared Bednar said. ”He’s got a little bit more change of speed and change of gears on his attack this year.”Given the success of the Lightning, Bruins Womens Josh Anderson Jersey , Penguins, Predators and Jets, it’s hard to discount Kucherov, Stamkos, Marchand, Malkin, Rinne and Wheeler. Even Vegas’ William Karlsson or Columbus’ Artemi Panarin could get some consideration.While Winnipeg GM Kevin Cheveldayoff thinks Wheeler has shown his value beyond his league-tying 67 assists, he knows nothing about the Hart is a slam dunk.”It speaks volumes to the league and to the importance these players have on their team,” Cheveldayoff said.—AP Sports Writer Pat Graham in Denver contributed.— OTTAWA, Ontario (AP) In five previous games against the Senators, Connor McDavid had yet to score a goal. He more than made up for it on Thursday night.McDavid had two goals and two assists, and the Edmonton Oilers eliminated Ottawa from playoff contention with a 6-2 win on Thursday night.”He just took the game over,” Ottawa coach Guy Boucher said.Oilers coach Todd McLellan admitted he’s beginning to run out of accolades for McDavid.”He’s just a remarkable athlete,” McLellan said. ”Especially the way they responded after getting scored on, that was important. It was great leadership and we talked a lot about this pushback, response shifts and he and their line did a tremendous job of doing that. He’s just got so much pace to his game, change of speed, deception, it’s tough to defend.”Drake Caggiula also had two goals for the Oilers Adam Henrique Jersey , with Ryan Nugent-Hopkins and Ty Rattie adding the others. Cam Talbot stopped 33 shots as Edmonton concluded a four-game trip 3-1-0.Matt Duchene and Filip Chlapik replied for Ottawa, while Craig Anderson made 32 saves.Trailing 2-0 to start the third, the Senators made it a one-goal game on Duchene’s power-play tally. But the Oilers responded with a goal eight seconds later by Nugent-Hopkins following a great pass from McDavid.Edmonton then made it 4-1 on yet another stellar play by McDavid, who set up Rattie for his third of the season. Caggiula scored his second of the night at 6:34, also on the power play.”I thought we had some guys who did a really good job on (McDavid) early and he had the one goal where he found some open ice, but other than that I thought we kept him in check,” Duchene said. ”It just shows you that if you give a guy like that a little bit of room, he can make you pay.”Ottawa made it 5-2 as Chlapik scored his first NHL goal, tipping a shot by Marian Gaborik. Bobby Ryan picked up his 500th career point with the second assist.McDavid scored his second of the night and 36th of the season late in the contest as he walked around Mike Hoffman.McDavid gave the Oilers a 2-0 lead five minutes into the second when he took a pass from Nugent-Hopkins in the slot and beat Anderson high.Edmonton opened the scoring midway through the first as Caggiula found a loose puck in the crease and knocked it in for his 11th of the season.NOTES: Ryan Dzingel returned to Senators’ lineup following a one-game absence after taking a puck to the back of the head last Saturday. … D Christian Wolanin made his NHL debut with the Senators. Wolanin signed with Ottawa on Wednesday after three seasons at the University of North Dakota. His father, Craig, played 695 NHL games and won a Stanley Cup with the Colorado Avalanche. … G Filip Gustavsson, acquired by Ottawa from Pittsburgh in the Derick Brassard trade, arrived Thursday and met with reporters for the first time. The Swedish prospect, who had been playing in his native country, will join the AHL’s Belleville Senators on Friday. ”I like playing on the small ice,” Gustavsson said. ”There’s a bit more speed and I’m looking forward to it.” … The Senators were without captain Erik Karlsson (personal reasons) and forward Mark Stone (leg). Edmonton forward Mike Cammalleri was a healthy scratch.UP NEXTOilers: Host Los Angeles on Saturday night.Senators: Host Carolina on Saturday night.—