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For the past six seasons Shannon Sharpe Jersey , the Seattle Seahawks never had to worry about the player lining up on the left side of their secondary.

Richard Sherman locked down the left cornerback spot in Seattle's defensive backfield from the moment he took over as a starter in the middle of the 2011 season until he went down with a torn Achilles last November.

He made the Pro Bowl four times and was a first-team All-Pro on three occasions over his last six seasons with the Seahawks.

But with Sherman now in San Francisco, the Seahawks are asking Shaquill Griffin to move across to the left side as the team's top cornerback. It's a lot of responsibility for a second-year player.

"It's a little different step for me, but nothing that I can't focus on," Griffin said. "But I'm loving the left side and I'm honored to be on that side now. I'm here to help my team any way I can."

When Sherman was injured last season, Griffin remained on the right side of the defense with Jeremy Lane and Byron Maxwell taking over for Sherman on the left side.

With an offseason to adjust, the Seahawks decided to move Griffin to the left side and allow Maxwell to return to the right side where he started 17 games for Seattle over two seasons in 2013 and 2014.

"We think Maxie has done a really nice job on the other side, and we thought if we're going to balance it out and open it up (for competition), let's open it up on the right side and see what happens," coach Pete Carroll said.

Griffin was a third-round pick of the Seahawks last season and managed to work his way into the starting lineup after the first month of the season. He started 11 games and had 59 tackles with an interception and a sack in his rookie season.

The team has since added Shaquill's brother, Shaquem, to the linebacking group Trey Burton Jerseyl , selecting him in the fifth round of this year's draft. While Shaquem has received the headlines for making the NFL despite having his left hand amputated as a child, Shaquill will likely be the more important piece to Seattle's defense in 2018.

"He has been really comfortably involved with everything." Carroll said of Griffin. "He just looks like he's a veteran. He grew a ton out of last season."

Griffin said he's trying to be more of a leader this season with the lingering uncertainty of Kam Chancellor's playing future following a neck injury and Earl Thomas' holdout, plus Sherman's departure to the 49ers.

Add in the departures of Cliff Avril and Michael Bennett along the defensive line and that's five former Pro Bowlers not a part of Seattle's defense.

"It's just telling me I've got to play more of a leadership role and I'm looking forward to doing so," he said. "We've got some guys who are willing to step up and pull some of the weight and take care of their part. We're not going to miss a beat. We're not going to miss a step."

Griffin has been on the left side throughout the team's offseason activities and Carroll said he's had no issues making the transition.

"Physically it was no problem, he had played back and forth in earlier years," Carroll said. "His mentality about it was fine, he was wide open to it. That's most of it.

"If a guy feels uncomfortable and he's telling you he's feeling uncomfortable, then he is. He never balked at it at all, and there's no signs of any evidence at all that it's going to be a problem."

NOTES: Carroll said all players that were on hand for their three-day minicamp should be ready to go for the start of training camp from a health standpoint. That doesn't include S Kam Chancellor, who is awaiting tests on his neck to see if he can continue his football career, or DT Malik McDowell Brandon LaFell Jersey , who was injured in an incident prior to his rookie season and missed the entire year on the non-football injury list.

After dropping the first two playoff games at home in overtime, the Washington Capitals picked up momentum that only got stronger as they took down the Columbus Blue Jackets in four straight.

Now they’ll strive to keep the intensity high as they advance to a second-round rematch with the Pittsburgh Penguins.

The Capitals, who manhandled the Blue Jackets 6-3 on Monday to cap the opening round series, are looking to avenge second-round playoff losses to Pittsburgh in each of the past two seasons.

”I can’t wait to take a step forward,” said Washington star forward Alex Ovechkin, who had two goals on Monday, including his 50th playoff tally. ”They know how to play, they know the pressure. It’s a huge series for us.”

Goaltender Braden Holtby relieved a struggling Philipp Grubauer in Game 2 and was great the rest of the way. He had 35 saves Monday in a game in which his team was outshot 38-28. Fifteen of the saves were in the third period when the desperate Blue Jackets turned up the heat.

”(He’s) been fantastic,” Ovechkin said. ”He’s stepping up big-time. He’s top goalie in the league, and he showed it today and he showed it in the series.”

For his part, Washington coach Barry Trotz wasn’t ready to talk about Pittsburgh yet after a taut opening-round series.

”Please let me breathe Malik Jackson Jersey ,” he said. ”We haven’t taken a breath since this started.”

Chandler Stephenson had a goal and an assist, and Dimitry Orlov, Devante Smith-Pelly and Lars Eller also scored Monday for Washington, which never trailed in OT in Game 5 on Saturday. The Capitals won each of the three games in Columbus.

One of the stories for Washington was its ability to defend Columbus’ power play. After the Blue Jackets went 4 for 8 with a man advantage in the first two games, the Caps held them to 0 for 16 in the last four. Meanwhile, Washington took good advantage of Columbus penalties, scoring on the power play in each of the six games.

”I think going into the year there wasn’t a lot of people who said we would finish first in the Metro, and we did that,” Trotz said. ”And it’s just creating a pretty consistent culture, and it’s having good players too. It was a tremendous test for us. We didn’t get off to a good start and had to dig ourselves out.”

Trotz said he leaned on veterans Ovechkin, Nicklas Backstrom Spencer Drango Jersey , Evgeny Kuznetsov and others to keep the Capitals on an even keel through the tumult of the season.

”We’ve had lots of different adversity through this year and in the past, and we’ve grown up a little bit in some ways,” he said. ”We understand that our core group is really, really strong, they believe in each other. We’ve got a lot of young guys in the room. We’ve had to rely on our core to push us forward, and we have.”

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