When NHL commissioner Gary Bettman was giving his state-of-the-league address at the start of the Stanley Cup playoffs, he transitioned to officiating. “It seems every season,” Bettman started, “it’s a playoff ritual for me to address some aspect of officiating.” Then he dismissed any notion there was anything to criticize. The referees are the best
Canada
Dominique Ducharme has been here before. Well, not right here — down 3-0 in the Stanley Cup final and facing elimination on home ice — but the head coach of the Montreal Canadiens stared at the same long odds back in junior and managed to flip the script. After losing the first three games of
GLENDALE, Ariz. (AP) — Scott Gomez grew up among the diverse cultures that amalgamate around Anchorage, Alaska. Race was something he never really thought about, particularly on the ice. The son of a Mexican American father and Colombian mother, Gomez heard a few disparaging remarks while coming up through the junior and professional ranks, but
Even with the arena at a fraction of its capacity and despite their team trailing for more than 58 minutes, the fans at Montreal’s Bell Centre were never quiet on Friday night. For some of the 3,500 fans at the Bell Centre, seeing the first Habs home game in a Stanley Cup final series since
MONTREAL – The Canadiens’ dream of hoisting the Stanley Cup a 25th time to close out an improbable playoff run in a season like no other is on life support. And the Tampa Bay Lightning are now one victory from sipping out of hockey’s holy grail for the second time in just over nine months.
The Canadiens’ dream of hoisting the Stanley Cup a 25th time to close out an improbable playoff run in a season like no other is on life support. And the Tampa Bay Lightning are now one victory from sipping out of hockey’s holy grail for the second time in just over 10 months. Tyler Johnson
Ugly secrets. Hard to keep them buried forever. The Chicago Blackhawks are certainly finding that out. It took nine years for it to come out, for example, that the Hawks employed a minor-league coach back in 2010, Bill Peters, who liked to shout the n-word to loudly criticize music played by a Black player, Akim
They may have lost the game, but the Montreal Canadiens found their collective game face Wednesday — and it turned out to be Brendan Gallagher’s. All it took was a little blood in the water — well, quite a bit of blood, actually, and it was coursing down the alternate captain’s scowling, moustachioed mug —
MONTREAL—It’s happening. A 28-year-wait comes to an end. A Stanley Cup final game will be played in Montreal, at the Bell Centre. “It has been so long,” says Guy Carbonneau, the Hall of Famer who was captain and coach of the Montreal Canadiens. “The last one was 1993. Any time before that it’s never been
On the first night of the Stanley Cup final, a convoy of trucks waving Canadiens flags arrived outside the rink in Anahim Lake, B.C., where Carey Price played hockey as a kid. The convoy wound its way for about 60 kilometres, honking horns and stopping in different Indigenous communities in the region inhabited by the
LOS ANGELES (AP) — The Los Angeles Kings have acquired forward Viktor Arvidsson from Nashville in exchange for two draft picks. The Predators get a second-round pick this year and a third-round pick in 2022 in the trade announced Thursday. The 28-year-old Arvidsson is a two-time 30-goal scorer who has spent his entire seven-year NHL
Montreal has announced it will set up outdoor viewing parties to allow fans to watch the Canadiens play in the Stanley Cup final, a day after Quebec public health denied a request to allow more fans into the Bell Centre. The city said the free viewings will take place in the city’s entertainment district, the Quartier
TAMPA, Fla. (AP) — The Montreal Canadiens played better, more like themselves. They still weren’t good enough to beat the Tampa Bay Lightning. Carey Price allowed a pair of second-period goals, and despite outshooting the defending champions by a wide margin the Canadiens were unable to generate enough offense to win Game 2 of the
CHICAGO (AP) — Chicago Blackhawks captain Jonathan Toews revealed Wednesday that he missed this past season while dealing with what he described as chronic immune response syndrome. Toews revealed his diagnosis for the first time in a video released on social media. The video showed him skating at the team’s practice facility, though it was
A senior Quebec public health official says a decision on capacity at upcoming Montreal Canadiens home games for the Stanley Cup final will be announced today. The Montreal Canadiens organization said Tuesday it had asked the government to ease COVID-19 health restrictions and increase capacity at the Bell Centre to 10,500 people, up from 3,500.
If you boiled down the Montreal Canadiens’ ride to the Stanley Cup final to its simplest essence, in a lot of ways it came down to star-player suppression: They beat better teams because they stopped their best. They held Auston Matthews and Mitch Marner to one goal between them in the seven-game ouster of the
Edmonton Oilers captain Connor McDavid ran away in the voting to win his second Hart Trophy as NHL MVP on Tuesday, much like he blew away the competition while leading the league in points. McDavid became just the second unanimous Hart selection — joining Wayne Gretzky in 1982 — in receiving all 100 first-place votes
EDMONTON – The Edmonton Oilers have signed centre Ryan Nugent-Hopkins to an eight-year extension with an average annual value of US$5.125 million. Nugent-Hopkins’ previous deal for seven years and $42 million expired after this season. The native of Burnaby, B.C., had 16 goals and 19 assists in 52 games this year. Nugent-Hopkins finished third on