We have reached the quarter mark of the 2021 NHL season — at least for the teams that haven’t had their schedules disrupted by COVID-19 yet. But we’re also coming up on another big holiday. So in the spirit of Valentine’s Day, we identified something we love about every team in this week’s edition of […]
Continue readingSpurgeon’s 6-year-old daughter, Colbie, was skeptical. “She asked if he was firing me,” Spurgeon said. No, dear, your dad is about the last player the Wild would get rid of. Guerin and Evason were there to formally name Spurgeon just the second full-time captain in team history. “From the day I got this job, Spurge […]
Continue readingFor 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 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 readingFor Donato, the Wild received a third-round pick in the 2021 draft. The Sharks parted with their fifth-round pick in the 2022 draft for Dubnyk and received Minnesota’s 2022 seventh-rounder in return. The 34-year-old Dubnyk was surpassed by Alex Stalock on the depth chart this season after taking more than a month off from mid-November […]
Continue readingI’m speaking as a lifelong New York Jets fan, of course. But I’m also speaking as a hockey fan who wants the greatest number of people to enjoy the greatest sport on the planet (sorry, marble racing) at its greatest time of the season: The Stanley Cup conference finals round. The Tampa Bay Lightning are […]
Continue readingFriday’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 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’s created by a coach attempting to mesh three players together into a cohesive unit; it’ll stick around for anywhere from a few periods to a few games; and then it’s either broken up, with the spare parts added to different lines, or it passes the chemistry test, living on for months or perhaps for […]
Continue readingThe 2020 NHL trade deadline was going to go one of two ways: Either the lack of sellers due to the league’s tight playoff races was going to produce a snoozer, or the tight playoff races were going to produce a flurry of activity as teams load up for the stretch run. To the joy […]
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