query: place_of_birth luke sellars
supports: Scandinavia is a historical and cultural region in Northern Europe characterized by a common ethnocultural North Germanic heritage and mutually intelligible North Germanic languages. The Stanley Cup playoffs is an elimination tournament in the National Hockey League consisting of four rounds of best-of-seven series. Eight teams from each of the two conferences qualify for the playoffs based on regular season points totals. The final round is commonly known as the Stanley Cup Finals, which sees the two conference champions play for the Stanley Cup. Mestis (from 'Mestaruussarja', 'Championship series'), is the second-highest ice hockey league in Finland. Philips Arena is a multi-purpose indoor arena located in Atlanta, Georgia that is home to the Atlanta Hawks, of the National Basketball Association, and the Atlanta Dream, of the Women's National Basketball Association. It also served as home to the National Hockey League's Atlanta Thrashers from 1999 to 2011, before the team moved to Winnipeg. It opened in 1999 at a cost of $213.5 million, replacing the Omni Coliseum. It is owned by the Atlanta Fulton County Recreation Authority and operated by Tony Ressler, who also, with a group of investors that includes Grant Hill, owns the Hawks. The Atlanta Thrashers were an American professional ice hockey team based in Atlanta, Georgia. Atlanta was granted a franchise in the National Hockey League (NHL) on June 25, 1997, and became the League's 28th franchise when it began play in the 19992000 NHL season. They were members of the Southeast Division of the NHL's Eastern Conference, and played their home games at Philips Arena in downtown Atlanta. The Thrashers qualified for the Stanley Cup playoffs only once, during the 200607 season in which they won the Southeast Division, but were swept in the first round by the New York Rangers. The National Hockey League (NHL) is a professional ice hockey league currently composed of 31 member clubs. Of the 30 clubs currently playing, 23 are in the United States and 7 in Canada. Headquartered in New York City, the NHL is considered to be the premier professional ice hockey league in the world, and one of the major professional sports leagues in the United States and Canada. The Stanley Cup, the oldest professional sports trophy in North America, is awarded annually to the league playoff champion at the end of each season. Northern Europe is the northern part or region of Europe. Although no definitive borders or definition exists for the term, geographically, Northern Europe may be considered to consist approximately of all of Europe above the 52nd parallel north; which includes (from west to east) most or all of: Iceland, the Republic of Ireland, the Isle of Man, the United Kingdom, the Faroe Islands, the Netherlands, northern Germany, Denmark, Norway, Sweden, northern Poland, Finland, Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania and northwest Russia. However, narrower definitions may also be used based on other geographical factors, such as climate and ecology. Greenland, geographically a part of North America, is politically a part of the Kingdom of Denmark, and may be included depending on the definition. SM-Sarja was the top level of ice hockey in Finland from 1928 to 1975. SM-sarja is a common abbreviation for "Suomen mestaruussarja", "Finnish Championship Series". Russia (from the  Rus'), also officially known as the Russian Federation, is a country in Eurasia. At , Russia is the largest country in the world by surface area, covering more than one-eighth of the Earth's inhabited land area, and the ninth most populous, with over 140 million people at the end of March 2016. The European western part of the country is much more populated and urbanised than the eastern, about 77% of the population live in European Russia. Russia's capital Moscow is one of the largest cities in the world, other major urban centers include Saint Petersburg, Novosibirsk, Yekaterinburg, Nizhny Novgorod and Samara. Ice is water frozen into a solid state. Depending on the presence of impurities such as particles of soil or bubbles of air, it can appear transparent or a more or less opaque bluish-white color. The Stanley Cup is the championship trophy awarded annually to the National Hockey League (NHL) playoff winner. Originally commissioned in 1892 as the "Dominion Hockey Challenge Cup", the trophy is named for Lord Stanley of Preston, thenGovernor General of Canada, who awarded it to Canada's top-ranking amateur ice hockey club, which the entire Stanley family supported, with the sons and daughters playing and promoting the game. The first Cup was awarded in 1893 to Montreal HC, and subsequent winners from 1893 to 1914 were determined by challenge games and league play. Professional teams first became eligible to challenge for the Stanley Cup in 1906. In 1915, the two professional ice hockey organizations, the National Hockey Association (NHA) and the Pacific Coast Hockey Association (PCHA), reached a gentlemen's agreement in which their respective champions would face each other annually for the Stanley Cup. After a series of league mergers and folds, it was established as the "de facto" championship trophy of the NHL in 1926 and then the "de jure" NHL championship prize in 1947. Norway (; Norwegian: (Bokmål) or (Nynorsk); Sami: "Norgga"), officially the Kingdom of Norway, is a sovereign and unitary monarchy whose territory comprises the western portion of the Scandinavian Peninsula plus the island Jan Mayen and the archipelago of Svalbard. The Antarctic Peter I Island and the sub-Antarctic Bouvet Island are dependent territories and thus not considered part of the Kingdom. Norway also lays claim to a section of Antarctica known as Queen Maud Land. Until 1814, the Kingdom included the Faroe Islands (since 1035), Greenland (1261), and Iceland (1262). It also included Shetland and Orkney until 1468. It also included the following provinces, now in Sweden: Jämtland, Härjedalen and Bohuslän. Luke Sellars ( born May 21 , 1981 ) is a professional ice hockey player who plays for the Jokipojat of the Mestis in Finland . He played one game for the Atlanta Thrashers of the NHL . The 19992000 NHL season was the 83rd regular season of the National Hockey League. Twenty-eight teams each played 82 games. This was the first season played in which teams were awarded a point for an overtime loss. The New Jersey Devils defeated the defending champion Dallas Stars for their second Stanley Cup championship. During the regular season, no player reached the 100-point plateau, the first time this had happened in a non-lockout season since the 196768 season. Also, in the 2000 Stanley Cup playoffs, the New Jersey Devils overcame a three games to one deficit against the Philadelphia Flyers to win the Eastern Conference Finals. This was the first time that this had happened this late in the playoffs also since the 196768 season. 
  League business.
  Throughout the regular season and playoffs, teams wore a patch celebrating the turn of the millennium (see above). Starting in the 19992000 season, teams would earn one point for an overtime loss in the regular season instead of zero. It was hoped that this change would stop teams from playing very defensively during the overtime in an effort to guarantee the single point from a tie. The number of ties had been going up for some years and the NHL was hoping to counter this trend, and in fact did so quite successfully with this rule change. Downtown Atlanta is the central business district of Atlanta, Georgia, United States. The largest of the city's three commercial districts, Downtown is the location of many corporate or regional headquarters; city, county, state and federal government facilities; Georgia State University; sporting venues; and most of Atlanta's tourist attractions. Downtown measures approximately four square miles, and had 26,700 residents as of 2010. Similar to other central business districts in the U.S., Downtown has recently undergone a transformation that included the construction of new condos and lofts, renovation of historic buildings, and arrival of new residents and businesses. Sweden, officially the Kingdom of Sweden (Swedish: ), is a Scandinavian country in Northern Europe. It borders Norway to the west and Finland to the east, and is connected to Denmark in the southwest by a bridge-tunnel across the Öresund. At , Sweden is the third-largest country in the European Union by area, with a total population of 10.0 million. Sweden consequently has a low population density of , with the highest concentration in the southern half of the country. Approximately 85% of the population lives in urban areas. The New York Rangers are a professional ice hockey team based in New York City. They are members of the Metropolitan Division of the Eastern Conference of the National Hockey League (NHL). The team plays its home games at Madison Square Garden, located in the borough of Manhattan. The Rangers are one of three NHL franchises in the New York metropolitan area, along with the New Jersey Devils and New York Islanders. The club is also one of the oldest teams in the NHL, having joined in 1926 as an expansion franchise. They are part of the group of teams referred to as the Original Six, along with the Boston Bruins, Chicago Blackhawks, Detroit Red Wings, Montreal Canadiens and Toronto Maple Leafs. The Rangers were the first NHL franchise in the United States to win the Stanley Cup, which they have done four times, most recently in 199394.
  History.
  Early years.
  George Lewis "Tex" Rickard, president of Madison Square Garden, was awarded an NHL franchise for the 192627 season to compete with the now-defunct New York Americans, who had begun play at the Garden the previous season. The Americans (also known as the "Amerks") proved to be an even greater success than expected during their inaugural season, leading Rickard to pursue a second team for the Garden despite promising the Amerks that they would be the only hockey team to play there. The new team was quickly nicknamed "Tex's Rangers".
  Rickard's franchise began play in the 192627 season. The first team crest was a horse sketched in blue carrying a cowboy waving a hockey stick aloft, before being changed to the familiar R-A-N-G-E-R-S in diagonal. Rickard managed to get future legendary Toronto Maple Leafs owner Conn Smythe to assemble the team. However, Smythe had a falling-out with Rickard's hockey man, Col. John S. Hammond, and was fired as manager-coach on the eve of the first seasonhe was paid a then-hefty $2,500 to leave. Smythe was replaced by Pacific Coast Hockey Association co-founder Lester Patrick. The new team Smythe assembled turned out to be a winner. The Rangers won the American Division title their first year but lost to the Boston Bruins in the playoffs. A sovereign state is, in international law, a nonphysical juridical entity that is represented by one centralised government that has sovereignty over a geographic area. International law defines sovereign states as having a permanent population, defined territory, one government, and the capacity to enter into relations with other sovereign states. It is also normally understood that a sovereign state is neither dependent on nor subjected to any other power or state. Atlanta is the capital of and the most populous city in the U.S. state of Georgia, with an estimated 2015 population of 463,878. Atlanta is the cultural and economic center of the Atlanta metropolitan area, home to 5,710,795 people and the ninth largest metropolitan area in the United States. Atlanta is the county seat of Fulton County, and a small portion of the city extends eastward into DeKalb County. Jokipojat is a Finnish semi-professional ice hockey team that plays in the Mestis. The full name of the club is "Joensuun Kiekko ry". It has spent three seasons in the top flight of Finnish hockey, season 1971-72 in SM-sarja and seasons 1989-90 and 1991-92 in SM-liiga. The club was known as Joensuun Kiekko-Pojat (JoKP) during most of its existence, the current name being in official use since 2001. In ice hockey, the goaltender is the player responsible for preventing the hockey puck from entering their team's net, thus preventing the opposing team from scoring. The goaltender usually plays in or near the area in front of the net called the "goal crease" (often referred to simply as " the crease" or "the net"). Goaltenders tend to stay at or beyond the top of the crease to cut down on the angle of shots. In today's age of goaltending there are two common styles, butterfly and hybrid (hybrid is a mix of the traditional stand-up style and butterfly technique). Because of the power of shots, the goaltender wears special equipment designed to protect the body from direct impact. The goalie is one of the most valuable players on the ice, as their performance can greatly change the outcome or score of the game. One-on-one situations, such as breakaways and shootouts, have the tendency to highlight a goaltender's pure skill, or lack thereof. Only one goaltender is allowed to be on the ice for each team at any given time. A team sport includes any sport which involves two or more players working together towards a shared objective. A team sport is an activity in which individuals are organized into opposing teams which compete to win. Examples are basketball, volleyball, water polo, handball, lacrosse, cricket, baseball, and the various forms of football and hockey. Ice hockey is a contact team sport played on ice, usually in a rink, in which two teams of skaters use their sticks to shoot a vulcanized rubber puck into their opponent's net to score points. Ice hockey teams usually consist of six players each: one goaltender, and five players who skate up and down the ice trying to take the puck and score a goal against the opposing team. The Gulf of Finland  is the easternmost arm of the Baltic Sea. It extends between Finland (to the north) and Estonia (to the south) all the way to Saint Petersburg in Russia, where the river Neva drains into it. Other major cities around the gulf include Helsinki and Tallinn. The eastern parts of the Gulf of Finland belong to Russia, and some of Russia's most important oil harbours are located farthest in, near Saint Petersburg (including Primorsk). As the seaway to Saint Petersburg, the Gulf of Finland has been and continues to be of considerable strategic importance to Russia. Some of the environmental problems affecting the Baltic Sea are at their most pronounced in the shallow gulf. Finland , officially the Republic of Finland, is a sovereign state in Northern Europe. A peninsula with the Gulf of Finland to the south and the Gulf of Bothnia to the west, the country has land borders with Sweden to the northwest, Norway to the north, and Russia to the east. Estonia is south of the country across the Gulf of Finland. Finland is a Nordic country situated in the geographical region of Fennoscandia, which also includes Scandinavia. Finland's population is 5.5 million (2014), staying roughly on the same level over the past two decades. The majority of the population is concentrated in the southern region. In terms of area, it is the eighth largest country in Europe and the most sparsely populated country in the European Union. The European Union (EU) is a political and economic union of member states that are located primarily in Europe. It has an area of , and an estimated population of over 510 million. The EU has developed an internal single market through a standardised system of laws that apply in all member states. EU policies aim to ensure the free movement of people, goods, services, and capital within the internal market, enact legislation in justice and home affairs, and maintain common policies on trade, agriculture, fisheries, and regional development. Within the Schengen Area, passport controls have been abolished. A monetary union was established in 1999 and came into full force in 2002, and is composed of 19 EU member states which use the euro currency. Fennoscandia , Fenno-Scandinavia, or the Fennoscandian Peninsula, is the geographical peninsula of the Nordic region comprising the Scandinavian Peninsula, Finland, Karelia, and the Kola Peninsula. It encompasses Finland, Norway and Sweden, as well as Murmansk Oblast, much of the Republic of Karelia and parts of northern Leningrad Oblast in Russia. Its name comes from the Latin words "Fennia" (Finland) and "Scandia" (Scandinavian). The term was first used by the Finnish geologist Wilhelm Ramsay in 1898. Geologically, the area is distinct because its bedrock is Archaean granite and gneiss with very little limestone, in contrast to neighboring areas in Europe. The Gulf of Bothnia is the northernmost arm of the Baltic Sea. It is situated between Finland's west coast and Sweden's east coast. In the south of the gulf lie the Åland Islands, between the Sea of Åland and the Archipelago Sea.
candidates: atlanta best canada central chicago crest dallas dekalb denmark diagonal enter estonia eu finland germany greenland hammond helsinki home iceland island jersey latvia leningrad oblast limestone lithuania madison manhattan maple montreal most murmansk netherlands new york new york city norway of poland polo puck republic russia ry saint petersburg scandinavia southeast southern region stanley sweden time toronto union united kingdom winnipeg yekaterinburg york åland islands
answer: toronto