2:30 PM ET The NHL and NHL Players’ Association have agreed that the qualifying round of the 24-team tournament will be best-of-five series and all four playoff rounds will be best-of-seven series, the NHL announced Thursday. The sides also determined that the tournament will not be bracketed but will be reseeded after every round. These
NHL News
3:17 PM ET A Pittsburgh Penguins player has recovered after testing positive for COVID-19, the team announced Thursday. According to the Penguins, the player is “feeling well,” and those in close contact with him leading up to the diagnosis have been notified. “The player is not in Pittsburgh and has been in isolation at his
8:51 PM ET The National Hockey League is transitioning to Phase 2 of its return-to-play plan, as teams will be allowed to reopen their training facilities in their respective cities on Monday if local regulations allow it. On a “strictly voluntary basis,” players can participate in small-group team training, with a maximum of six players
4:01 PM ET The National Hockey League is creating four committees to examine and take action on diversity issues facing the league and the sport, according to Kim Davis, executive vice president for social Impact, growth initiatives and legislative affairs. “We are trying to make sure that we don’t dominate the conversation. That we actually
4:10 PM ET Associated Press BUFFALO, N.Y. — Buffalo Sabres forward Kyle Okposo had surgery to repair a right knee injury, leaving him plenty of time to recover during the team’s extended break. The team on Friday announced Okposo had surgery this week, and is expected to miss up to six weeks. The Sabres are
6:58 AM ET Associated Press MOSCOW — Russia hired Valery Bragin as coach of the men’s national hockey team on Friday as it gears up to defend its Olympic title in 2022. Bragin moves up from his longtime role in charge of the Russian under-20 team, which he led to the silver medal at this
7:00 AM ET Lynsey Koopman and Jayson Furusawa have been together for 13 years, ever since Koopman’s sister introduced them at a party. “We met, we talked, and it was love at first sight,” Koopman said. On March 21 of this year, they were scheduled to get married. The coronavirus pandemic hit, erasing all of
7:20 AM ET Today’s NHL is loaded with skill and talent up and down the ice. But what would the perfect player look like? Using the attributes of current NHL stars, we set out to create the perfect forward, defenseman and goaltender. We complete the series here by building the ultimate goaltender from 15 skills
8:45 AM ET When NHL commissioner Gary Bettman announced the “return to play” postseason tournament format, he announced that the regular season was considered completed as of March 11, the day before the league shut down for the coronavirus pandemic. While there was some brief confusion about where statistics from the qualification round would end
7:30 AM ET Today’s NHL is loaded with skill and talent up and down the ice. But what would the perfect player look like? Using the attributes of current NHL stars, we set out to create the perfect forward, defenseman and goaltender. We continue the series here by building the ultimate defenseman from 16 different
8:30 AM ET The sheer volume of questions about the NHL’s season restart this summer can leave one feeling woozy. Will teams and players come back? Can they come back? Should they come back? And that’s not even getting into the mysteries concerning locations, schedules, and the hundreds of health and safety considerations necessary for
7:30 AM ET Today’s NHL is loaded with skill and talent up and down the ice. But what would the perfect player look like? Using the attributes of current NHL stars, we set out to create the perfect forward, defenseman and goaltender. We start the series here by building the ultimate forward from 19 different
9:30 AM ET It has been 81 days since the NHL hit the pause button on the 2019-20 season because of the coronavirus pandemic. As the cancellations and postponements around the world of sports continue, there also have been continuous nuggets of new information regarding the potential resumption of the season, the draft, the playoffs
7:00 AM ET Angela Ruggiero is a Hockey Hall of Famer, a successful businessperson and a respected former member of the International Olympic Committee. She will add “head coach” to that biography next summer as one of the inaugural group of eight bench bosses for 3ICE, an innovative 3-on-3 hockey league scheduled to begin play
12:49 PM ET ESPN News Services Deputy Commissioner Bill Daly said NHL players will be tested for COVID-19 daily if games start happening. “We will have a rigorous daily testing protocol where players are tested every evening and those results are obtained before they would leave their hotel rooms the next morning, so we’ll know
1:16 AM ET Penguins president and CEO David Morehouse came to the aid of a local television camera operator when protests turned violent Saturday in downtown Pittsburgh. Ian Smith, of KDKA-TV, was thrown to the ground and his camera was broken to pieces outside of PPG Paints Arena, the Penguins’ home rink, just as Morehouse
6:36 PM ET Associated Press RALEIGH, N.C. — The Carolina Hurricanes have reached a five-year lease extension to remain in PNC Arena through July 2029. Arena owner Centennial Authority and Hurricanes parent company Gale Force Sports and Entertainment announced the agreement Thursday. The current lease agreement runs through the end of June 2024. The News
4:23 PM ET Associated Press Massachusetts Gov. Charlie Baker says the state’s five professional sports teams — the Boston Red Sox, Boston Celtics, Boston Bruins, New England Patriots and New England Revolution — can resume practicing at their respective facilities on June 6. But Baker made clear the reopening of those facilities must be done