NHL News

7:00 AM ET ESPN staff The 2022 Stanley Cup Final is set to begin Wednesday night in Denver, and it promises to be one of the best matchups in recent memory. The Tampa Bay Lightning are looking to become the first team to three-peat since the New York Islanders won four in a row from

6:59 AM ET ESPN staff It’s all come down to this in the 2022 Stanley Cup playoffs: The Colorado Avalanche and Tampa Bay Lightning are poised to square off for the sport’s ultimate prize. Will it be a three-peat for the Lightning? Or the first Cup in over 20 years for the Avs? Our ESPN

7:00 AM ET The 2022 Stanley Cup playoffs are down to the final two teams. The Western Conference champion Colorado Avalanche will host the Eastern Conference champion Tampa Bay Lightning for Game 1 of the Stanley Cup Final on Wednesday (8 p.m. ET, ABC and ESPN+). Tampa Bay can become the first three-peat Cup champion

6:35 PM ET ESPN News Services NASHVILLE, Tenn. — The Nashville Predators have signed defenseman Jeremy Lauzon to a four-year contract worth $8 million. The Predators announced the move Monday, keeping the defenseman they acquired in March at the trade deadline from the Seattle Kraken. General manager David Poile said they’re excited to keep Lauzon.

7:00 AM ET TAMPA, Fla. — New York Rangers coach Gerard Gallant sat inside a conference room at Amalie Arena, discussing how his team’s surprising Stanley Cup playoffs run ended in Game 6 of the Eastern Conference finals. On the other side of a wall sat coach Jon Cooper, surrounded by Tampa Bay Lightning conference

5:17 PM ET DENVER — The Colorado Avalanche have long aspired to become the Tampa Bay Lightning. Now, it’s the Lightning standing between the Avalanche and their first Stanley Cup win since 2001. The two-time defending champion Lightning topped the New York Rangers in Game 6 of the Eastern Conference finals on Saturday to reach

7:45 AM ET The Stanley Cup Final is determined by more than star players. It’s also about star turns. The ones we expect, and often the ones we don’t. The Tampa Bay Lightning know that better than anyone. The two-time defending Stanley Cup champions are back in the Final for a third straight season, facing

10:45 PM ET TAMPA BAY — The Tampa Bay Lightning have eliminated the New York Rangers and advanced to the Stanley Cup Final for the third straight season, with the Colorado Avalanche rested and ready for Game 1 (Wednesday, 8 ET, ESPN). Here are five things we learned about the Lightning so far in their

8:00 AM ET ESPN staff The 2022 NHL Eastern Conference finals matchup between the Tampa Bay Lightning and New York Rangers has reached Game 6, with the two-time defending Stanley Cup champion Lightning holding a 3-2 advantage. The Colorado Avalanche await the winner of the series, which could be the Lightning following Saturday night’s game.

7:41 AM ET It’s a scene familiar to any NHL fan. The puck crosses the line. The crowd roars as the goal horn echoes through the arena. Then the beats of the team’s goal song hit, signaling a full-on celebration and Pavlovian responses from those in attendance. In New York, the fans sing “whoa” and

7:00 AM ET There was this coach I heard about. He hadn’t yet served as an NHL head coach. His qualifications indicated he was ready to do so. So like a fan of a new indie band double-checking its coolness with a music snob, I reached out to an NHL team executive to ask how

6:58 PM ET The New York Rangers will be back at full strength as they try to regain the edge in the Eastern Conference Final. Coach Gerard Gallant said Ryan Strome and Filip Chytil will be in Thursday night. Strome was cross-checked by Ondrej Palat in the second period of Sunday’s loss in Tampa and

7:00 AM ET The New York Rangers return to Madison Square Garden for Game 5 of the Eastern Conference finals on Thursday following two straight wins by the Tampa Bay Lightning in the Sunshine State that evened the series at 2-2. “We’re one of three teams left here. You expect their best. You want their

7:00 AM ET The 2022 Stanley Cup playoffs have blessed us with some superb — if expected — production from the game’s biggest stars. For Connor McDavid, Andrei Vasilevskiy, Mika Zibanejad, Leon Draisaitl, Cale Makar and Nathan MacKinnon (and many more), we are grateful. However, it’s time we raise awareness about the players who came

7:23 AM ET The Tampa Bay Lightning won Games 3 and 4 at home to knot up their Eastern Conference finals series against the New York Rangers at 2-2. They looked very much like a back-to-back Stanley Cup champion in doing so: Controlling play, coming through in the clutch and getting superstar performances from winger

7:00 AM ET TAMPA BAY — Nikita Kucherov doesn’t exactly have a poker face. “He’s the type of guy where you can tell when things are going good or not going good, on and off the ice, based on his body language,” said ESPN analyst Ryan Callahan, Kucherov’s former linemate with the Tampa Bay Lightning.

11:47 PM ET After dominating three rounds of their postseason competition, the Colorado Avalanche are headed to the Stanley Cup Final. The Avs’ superstars have delivered, as Nathan MacKinnon and Cale Makar are both making strong cases for the Conn Smythe. But they’ve gotten superb production from depth players as well, including a series-winning goal

8:48 PM ET ESPN News Services NEW YORK — Winnipeg Jets forward Kyle Connor has won the Lady Byng Trophy, given to the NHL’s most gentlemanly player. The league announced the honor Monday night before Game 4 of the Western Conference finals between Colorado and Edmonton. Connor tied for the second-fewest number of minor penalties