Friday’s NHL slate features the highest stakes we’ve seen yet, with six teams facing elimination. Auston Matthews, Connor McDavid and Sidney Crosby could all potentially go home. Oh, and the teams ranked 22nd (Arizona Coyotes), 23rd (Chicago Blackhawks) and 24th (Montreal Canadiens) in regular-season points percentage can all clinch a playoff spot. Even for a […]
Continue readingAnd on the fourth day of bubble hockey, we got a very pretty pass, a fake punch … and a sweep. Send some congrats to the Carolina Hurricanes, the first team to qualify for the next round. The Canes also get up to a week’s rest before the next round begins. What a treat. Check […]
Continue readingThe New York Rangers face elimination on Tuesday, and others could be in the same spot after today’s slate of games. Keep this in mind: Teams with a 2-0 lead are 55-1 (98.2 percent) in winning a best-of-five series, which the league had held most recently from 1980 to ’86. The Florida Panthers, Nashville Predators, […]
Continue readingDay 2 of the NHL restart was just as exciting as the opener, as hockey fans were treated to fantastic goaltending performances, more upsets and a buzzer-beater. As we head to Game 2s of the qualification round, let it be known that teams that win Game 1 in a best-of-5 series typically end up winning, […]
Continue readingThe first day of the NHL’s restarted season produced a few shocking moments, a few controversies and a speech that hockey fans won’t soon forget. Day 2 brings the start of the round-robin games among the top seeds and the rest of the qualification-round series, as the Eastern Conference postseason rolls on in Toronto while […]
Continue readingUnlike the traditional playoff format, the league is running a 24-team tournament, with 12 teams from each conference playing in fan-less arenas in Toronto (for the East) and Edmonton, Alberta (for the West). The top four teams in each conference are in the round of 16, and seeds 5 through 12 will square off to […]
Continue readingIt has been 130 days since the NHL hit the pause button on the 2019-20 season because of the coronavirus pandemic. As the sports world continues to reckon with adjusted schedules around the world, there also have been continuous nuggets of new information regarding the resumption of the NHL season, the draft, the playoffs and […]
Continue readingJones said Friday that he tested positive when he returned to Edmonton from his home in Dallas. He says he was asymptomatic. The NHL is not releasing the names of players who test positive for the virus, and the league also is no longer revealing which teams players who test positive play for. The 23-year-old […]
Continue readingRemember salad bars? Nobody likes everything at the salad bar. Grape tomatoes, for example. Little marbles of acidic goo that I wouldn’t even consider for aesthetic adornment. Unless you’re in Vegas, there’s a finite number of bins and tubs at the salad bar. That those grape tomatoes take up valuable real estate that could otherwise […]
Continue readingWhen the NHL halted play in mid-March because of the coronavirus pandemic, injuries to top players had piled up and coach John Tortorella had started to fret that the youngsters he plugged into the lineup wouldn’t have the steam to carry the Blue Jackets to the playoffs. All-Star defenseman Seth Jones and top goal scorer […]
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