For this week’s Power Rankings, we identified our favorite move each team made this offseason. How we rank: The ESPN hockey editorial staff submits selections ranking teams 1-31 — taking into account past results and offseason additions — and those results are tabulated in the list featured here. Stanley Cup odds are courtesy of William […]
Continue readingThe biggest lie NHL free agents tell themselves is that their team is their family. The dressing room can be a band of brothers. Lifelong friendships are forged through daily routines and long playoff runs, through wives and children bonding with others in the organization. All of this is true, and all of this feels […]
Continue readingThe NHL free-agent frenzy was unprecedented this offseason — and not just because it took place when the regular season is usually scheduled to start. The new collective bargaining agreement kept the salary cap flat at $81.5 million. Otherwise, it would have plummeted, just as team revenues have during the COVID-19 pandemic. The financial landscape […]
Continue readingThe word that typically defines free agency in the NHL is “uncertainty.” Players with expiring contracts enter a marketplace unsure of what their next deals will look like or where they’ll next call home. But in the 2020 free-agent frenzy, that uncertainty has reached previously unseen levels for players and teams. There’s a flat salary […]
Continue readingThe deal keeps Anderson in Montreal through the 2026-27 season. Montreal acquired Anderson in exchange for restricted free agent Max Domi. Anderson hasn’t played since December and had his 2019-20 season ended by surgery to repair a torn labrum in his left shoulder. But in 2018-19, he had career highs with 27 goals and 20 […]
Continue readingThe best part is looking through that bubble at the person standing across from you as the soapy curtain ripples in the air. The bubble changes what you normally see and perceive. The last month of Stanley Cup playoff officiating in two different bubbles is evidence of that. Trying to define the refereeing in this […]
Continue readingBoth are infamous for their fluctuation. Stock prices climb and fall and climb again. NHL teams and players exhibit the same streakiness from game to game. The goat on one night can become the G.O.A.T. by the end of the series. It’s the unpredictability that can enrich one’s life or turn one’s portfolio to trash. […]
Continue readingRyan O’Reilly stared down at the table in front him, moments after the Vancouver Canucks completed their six-game upset of his St. Louis Blues. After last season’s final game, he and his teammates passed around the Stanley Cup in victory. But O’Reilly didn’t recognize the team around him Friday night, as far as their effort […]
Continue readingFare thee well to the Washington Capitals and Calgary Flames, who were eliminated on Thursday night. That means that the No. 7-seeded New York Islanders are through in the East, and the No. 3-seeded Dallas Stars have joined the conference semifinal crew in the West. Will the St. Louis Blues and Montreal Canadiens follow the […]
Continue reading“I’m going to think about it still, so I have not made that decision yet,” coach Craig Berube said. Jake Allen took the crease from Jordan Binnington in Game 3 against Vancouver and won two straight games to even their quarterfinal series 2-2. Allen gave up four goals on 30 shots in the Blues’ Game […]
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