NHL News

6:50 AM ET We’ve had some remarkable — and tense — hockey so far in the Stanley Cup playoffs, and if Tuesday had a theme, it was stellar goaltending. Netminders in all three games stole the show. On Wednesday, Canadian teams get to join the party, as the North Division slate finally kicks off with

7:00 AM ET Connor McDavid is inevitable. “He’s that good. You turn on the TV every night. If the Oilers played, you’re going to get a McDavid highlight, somehow and some way,” Winnipeg Jets coach Paul Maurice said. The Edmonton Oilers‘ star treated the NHL’s 56-game regular season sprint like most of us treat vacation

3:00 PM ET The Stanley Cup has a ubiquitous place in pop culture. BIA saw it as a proxy for bling in a hip-hop lyric. “Wrist Stanley Cup/I can show you how to skate,” is how it’s name-dropped in “Skate,” a track that dropped in late 2020. “When I went to the studio and heard

6:50 AM ET The incredible hockey continued on Day 3 of the 2021 Stanley Cup playoffs, including the fourth overtime game of the postseason and the Cup favorite Colorado Avalanche showing how dominant they are. Tuesday brings the sequel to perhaps the best game of the playoffs so far, between the Florida Panthers and Tampa

6:43 AM ET Two overtime games, and one absolute barn-burner in front of a crazed crowd in Florida. The road teams went 3-0. No one held more than a one-goal lead. The second day of the 2021 Stanley Cup Playoffs brought the heat. And to think, half of the series haven’t even started yet. Two

7:00 AM ET Anthony Mantha was accustomed to hating this time of year. The 26-year-old, a 2013 first-round pick of the Red Wings, became a regular for Detroit in 2016-17 — right after the franchise’s NHL record streak of 25 consecutive playoff appearances ended. The Red Wings entered a rebuild, with no end in sight.

12:35 AM ET ESPN News Services Making his first appearance after missing the entire regular season with a hip injury, Tampa Bay right winger Nikita Kucherov scored two power-play goals Sunday night to help the defending champion Lightning beat the Florida Panthers 5-4 in Game 1 of their playoff series. Kucherov had surgery on Dec.

7:38 AM ET The first night of the 2021 Stanley Cup Playoffs set the bar high for the postseason. We had drama, with the Washington Capitals losing their starting goalie in the first period. We had intensity, as the Capitals and Boston Bruins had a spirited affair. Finally, we had a surprise, as the Caps

8:00 AM ET NHL Insiders The 2021 NHL season was a campaign the likes of which we’ve never seen — and hope to never see again. The game schedule was limited (both in overall volume and variety of opponents). The fan capacity was limited. Thankfully, the permutations of how the Stanley Cup Final might play

8:00 AM ET NHL Insiders Welcome to the 2021 Stanley Cup Playoffs! The first round gets rolling on Saturday with Game 1 of the Washington Capitals–Boston Bruins series. There’s plenty of history in many of these matchups, as the NHL is using an intradivisional format for the first two rounds, before rebracking the final four

10:05 PM ET Associated Press FRISCO, Texas — Dallas Stars center Roope Hintz will have surgery next week in New York to repair a tendon issue in his groin area that bothered him throughout the season while he was a point-a-game player. General manager Jim Nill said Friday that Hintz played through “an avulsion injury

7:00 AM ET We’ve come a long way since the Tampa Bay Lightning won the 2020 Stanley Cup in a bubble in Edmonton, Alberta. New protocols were agreed upon, and many surprises unfolded — both good and bad — as the NHL embarked on a season like no other. Playoff darlings from last year like

7:00 AM ET Goaltenders are known as “the great equalizers” in the Stanley Cup Playoffs. They give every underdog a chance at an upset. They give every favorite the cold sweats, knowing one bad round from their goalie could be their ultimate undoing. As the 2021 Stanley Cup Playoffs arrive, which teams are in the

7:00 AM ET After the NHL staged a 24-team, bubble-based tournament to determine the Stanley Cup winner in 2020, we’re back to a more traditional 16-team event in 2021 — with a significant twist. The first two rounds of the 2021 playoffs will be intradivisional. After a winner is crowned from the four divisions, the

6:53 AM ET Tim KavanaghESPN.com Close Tim Kavanagh is a senior NHL editor for ESPN. He’s a native of upstate New York. We’ve reached the final three games to determine the winner of the West Division and the Presidents’ Trophy as the team with the best regular season record for the 2021 NHL season. The

7:00 AM ET The 2021 NHL season was — hopefully — the most unique campaign that any of us will witness. Arenas had reduced numbers of fans — or no fans — and as a result of the U.S.-Canada border being closed, the divisions had to be realigned to sequester the Canadian teams; that decision

6:55 AM ET Tim KavanaghESPN.com Close Tim Kavanagh is a senior NHL editor for ESPN. He’s a native of upstate New York. We had a good feeling about Monday’s NHL calendar providing quite a bit of clarity in the playoff races, and it delivered. The Montreal Canadiens clinched the final North Division playoff spot, and

7:00 AM ET If there’s anything we know about NHL hiring practices, it’s that they can be predictable. Since 2005-06, there have been 171 head coaching changes in the NHL — more than the NFL, NBA or MLB. However, 101 of the 171 new hires had previous head-coaching experience, according to the Elias Sports Bureau.