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Two weeks into the Miami Dolphins‘ offseason practice regimen Justin Reid Jersey , first-round draft pick Minkah Fitzpatrick’s running tally of interceptions is underway.

”Have I been counting them? Every DB counts them,” Fitzpatrick said with a laugh after Tuesday’s workout. ”I’ve got two picks and a couple of pass breakups. Just doing my job.”

Contact drills won’t begin until training camp, but early indications are the Dolphins used the 11th overall pick wisely when they selected Fitzpatrick.

The safety from Alabama said he’s not fazed by reports Dolphins owner Stephen Ross wanted to trade down on draft night rather than pick Fitzpatrick.

”I heard about it,” Fitzpatrick said. ”He’s a businessman. He’s going to see the business side of everything. This is extra motivation to prove I’m a worthy pick and deserve to be here.”

The front office wanted a playmaker to upgrade a defense that ranked fourth-worst in points allowed last season, and so far Fitzpatrick looks as if he’ll make Miami better.

”He has done a good job,” coach Adam Gase said. ”He has gotten his hands on a lot of balls. He seems to be all over the place. He has a great motor and a great work ethic. You can tell he takes this very seriously and puts everything he has into this.”

The Dolphins’ investment goes beyond a first-round choice. Fitzpatrick signed a $16.44 million, four-year deal last week.

But he said he didn’t celebrate the contract, and doesn’t have any plans for the money besides buying a place to live.

”Anytime you see your hard work paying off, it’s a good feeling,” he said. ”But you’ve got to keep telling yourself it’s not the end goal. I didn’t come here just to be a first-round pick. I wanted to be a great player here and establish a great legacy.”

Fitzpatrick said the Dolphins are dividing his practice time evenly among the strong safety, free safety and nickel back positions. He said he doesn’t have a preference and is happy to move around.

”They trust me to do that Rod Smith Jersey ,” Fitzpatrick said. ”They’re not putting too much on me, but they know they can put a lot on me.”

Pro Bowler Reshad Jones is certain to start at one safety spot, and veteran safety T.J. McDonald also returns after starting the final eight games last season. Defensive coordinator Matt Burke may decide to play both along with Fitzpatrick at times, and June is a time for experimenting.

General manager Chris Grier has compared Fitzpatrick to a Swiss army knife because of his versatility. And wherever Fitzpatrick lines up, he’s making his presence felt.

”He is flying around at practice,” quarterback Ryan Tannehill said. ”He plays aggressive and plays fast, and that’s what you want to see out of a DB.”

Fitzpatrick played for Nick Saban at Alabama, which may be why he hasn’t found the demands of the NFL too daunting so far. In fact, the coaching styles of Saban and Gase are similar, he said.

”They’re both very passionate coaches,” Fitzpatrick said. ”They’re both real hands-on. The only difference is coach Saban yells a bit more.”

At Alabama Jeff Allen Jersey , Fitzpatrick had a school-record four interception returns for touchdowns. He’s confident about quickly improving his professional pick total.

”That’s going to keep going up,” Fitzpatrick said. ”As I get more and more comfortable, I’ll make more and more plays.”

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The Nashville Predators are done dealing with the speed of Nathan MacKinnon and the Colorado Avalanche.

Next, they get the physicality of Dustin Byfuglien and the Winnipeg Jets .

There’s no easy test this time of year.

”They’ve got size. They’ve got skill. They’ve got speed,” forward Austin Watson said Sunday night after Nashville beat the Avalanche 5-0 in Game 6 to clinch the series. ”Get our rest and get prepared.”

Nashville looks every bit like the team that went to the Stanley Cup Final a season ago and won the Presidents’ Trophy this season. The Predators are hitting their stride heading into the Winnipeg series. They had 11 forwards notch at least a point in the Colorado series.

Not to be outdone, the Jets had a balanced scoring attack in closing out Minnesota, 4-1.

”We saw how the regular season went against them. They’re good hockey games,” said Watson, whose team went 3-1-1 against the Jets during the year. ”We’re excited.”

This goaltending showdown should be worth the price of admission: Pekka Rinne vs. Connor Hellebuyck.

One Vezina Trophy finalist against another. Both are coming off a solid series, with Rinne stopping 22 shots in a 5-0 win Sunday to close out the series with Colorado. Hellebuyck had a 1.94 goals-against average in eliminating the Wild.

”Moving into the second round, I think you want to be playing very good defensive hockey against Winnipeg Brandon Linder Jersey ,” Rinne said. ”One of the better teams in the league. They have a lot of firepower, a lot of talent up front. Also, like ours, their `D’ is a big part of their game. I think it’s going to be very exciting, good series.”

The Western Conference semifinals feature a little bit of history: This marks only the third time the final four in the conference are all chasing after their first Stanley Cup since the introduction of conferences in `74-75, according to information provided by the league. The scenario also occurred in 2012 (the Los Angeles Kings hoisted the Cup) and in 1984 (Edmonton).

In the other semifinal matchup set to get underway, expansion Las Vegas faces San Jose.

”Anytime you win a series you’re feeling confident,” Predators forward Nick Bonino said. ”We’re going to be as confident as we can going against Winnipeg. We know how good they are.”

That’s a sentiment shared by forward Filip Forsberg, who scored four goals against Colorado.

”It was a good test for us. These guys have been flying around for six games, playing really fast hockey,” Forsberg said. ”We’ve been trying to play as fast as we can as well. If we can bring that speed into the next round that will be good.”

The Nashville defense will have its hands full with the likes of Jets forward Patrik Laine Todd Davis Jersey , who scored 44 goals in the regular season, and Blake Wheeler (91 points).

Still, the Predators enter on a high after posting a shutout victory in a series-ending game for the first time in franchise history. They joined Vegas and Winnipeg as the third team to accomplish the feat this postseason.

”It’s better to end it this way than hanging on at the end,” Predators coach Peter Laviolette said. ”There are other teams on the ice that are pretty good hockey teams. You see it in other series going on. It would have been great if you win (the series) 4-0 but that wasn’t the case. We had an opposition that was young, skilled and fast and they had nothing to lose, and they played that way. There were times in the first five games it didn’t look like it was just going happen – we were going to have to work for it.

”It was nice tonight to play a game we were comfortable with.”

The Avs take some pride in knowing they gave the Predators fits at times.

”We made them fight for it,” Avalanche captain Gabriel Landeskog said.

Exactly.

”The way Colorado works and battles and plays the game fast, it definitely challenged us,” Predators center Colton Sissons said. ”It was a good experience for us going forward.”

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