Hockey Page 480 - Sports News, Headlines & Highlights

Penguins’ pitiful pairing of Hextall & Burke shows NHL old useless boys network is alive as ever
Hiring practices in the major sports leagues have been under the microscope of late. Especially in the NFL, where overqualified Black candidates can’t seem to get jobs ahead of white ones that seemingly come from nowhere, or are retreads, or if you’re the Lions you find a guy who had spent the previ...

If you miss NFL refs not knowing the rules, the NHL has you covered
The day after the Super Bowl is a comedown for everyone, and probably more so in the midst of a pandemic where (if you’re logical) you’re stuck inside your house. The NHL and NBA seasons are in their dull bridge section, even in this shortened and changed schedule. Spring training is about to begin,...

Give Connor McDavid and Leon Draisaitl all the ice baths and chocolate milk
The “Battle Of Alberta,” the rivalry between the Edmonton Oilers and Calgary Flames, has lacked a little something for a long while now. Which is a little weird to say about one of the league’s most bitter rivalries, as the two were the league’s best teams in the 80s and contesting playoff series th...

The Canadiens might finally be relevant again
The Montreal Canadiens are the most important team in the NHL. If you don’t believe it, just ask them or any one of their fans. When scrolling through your NHL.TV or Center Ice package, you have to make sure to add 12 minutes to any scheduled start time for games in Montreal, thanks to whatever preg...

Has the NHL had its first team-to-team COVD-19 transmission?
If there was going to be a league that went full fuck-up, it was always going to be the NHL. It’s not clear yet if the league is now home to the first team-to-team transmission of COVID-19, but there are some blinking red lights for sure....

Connor McDavid is once again running into an Oilers-shaped wall
Perhaps we should find comfort in the normality of it, given the angry seas that is this point in human history. Any recognizable port can feel like home right now, anything to lash the ship to feeling like a savior. And that’s as far as I can take my ship/seas metaphors. But here we are, and even i...

Is the Rangers' 2020 No. 1 overall pick, Alexis Lafreniere, butt?
Even with the delayed start to the season, and the much-discussed weirdness of it with no fans and only intra-division play, this was supposed to be a pretty exciting season for the New York Rangers. While the playoffs even in a normal set-up would have been something of a stretch, though they were ...

If the AHL’s Silver Knights don’t have COVID issues, why was their game canceled before the third period?
The Henderson Silver Knights’ “we don’t have COVID” tweet raised a lot of questions already answered by the tweet....

Dubois-Laine trade is full of sound and fury, but signifies... not much
There is something truly hockey about two players wanting to get away from cities and situations they find lacking, and coaches they find dinosaur-like, only to be swapped into the other country’s version of the situations they were trying to escape. But that’s the setting both Patrik Laine and Pier...
![Totally believable Not-Tony DeAngelo burner account roasted by Twitter: Deadspin Investigates [UPDATED]](https://images.deadspin.com/tr:w-900/xjv13jo31jupiifzxvih.jpg)
Totally believable Not-Tony DeAngelo burner account roasted by Twitter: Deadspin Investigates [UPDATED]
Nobody has ever accused Tony DeAngelo of being smart, and Deadspin’s No. 19 Idiot of the Year for 2020 is off to a strong start toward making our 2021 list....

Hockey media's shameful Mike Babcock rehab tour is underway
You can always count on the hockey press to give time to a former coach who gave them time back in the day. That train is never late. One of the more archaic things about hockey, and a way it still drags miles behind, is that the press will almost always side with a coach and GM in a dispute with a ...

Nickelback celebration should make Habs your least favorite team, if they weren’t already
Let’s be honest, it’s not like anyone needed more ammo to have a strong distaste for the Montreal Canadiens. Their fanbase’s sense of entitlement even though the Canadiens have barely managed to cling to the label of “relevant” for 27 years since their last Cup (the last championship won in Montreal...

Pregame warmup oopsie sends Isles’ Varlamov to the training room, offers Ilya Sorokin long-awaited NHL debut
Hockey warmups always have a little bit of danger to them, with every player on the ice having their own puck, and everyone skating around all at once — but it’s really organized chaos. It’s not like everyone is shooting on the goalie at the same time....

You cannot escape being Manscaped, even in NHL rinks — it's like a Zamboni for your ...
Do you find NHL helmet ads irritating? Do they cut you the wrong way? Leave you feeling sensitive about the intrusion of capitalism into sports?...

NHL West Preview: Some top-tier teams, but mostly trash
We move out West, which is probably the most top-heavy of the new-fangled, COVID-adjusted divisions this season. There are three genuine contenders here...and then a whole lot of trash. Colorado, Vegas, and St. Louis will feast on the chum on offer in this intra-division only schedule, and the race ...

NHL Central Preview: This division makes no geographical sense
For the sake of this season, Florida is apparently central, and Dallas is central even though it’s west of St. Paul and St. Louis, which are both in the west this year. This is truly the season of people throwing ducks at balloons and nothing is the way it seems. Whatever the odd alignments, this di...

Gary Bettman reads from the Rob Manfred playbook, which no one should read, like, ever
Gary Bettman is never going to be popular among fans. Not even really liked. Which is fine, it’s not really a commissioner’s job to be liked by fans, not anymore. And the one thing you have to give Bettman credit for is leaning into it the past few years. One can’t imagine Rob Manfred or Roger Goode...

NHL North Preview: Probably no Cup winners here, but expect a spirited competition
The North division, aka the Canadian division, features some of the best offensive talents in the game: Connor McDavid, Leon Draisaitl, Auston Matthews, John Tavares, Elias Pettersson, and Johnny Gaudreau, among others, call this division home. None of these teams have won a Stanley Cup since 1993, ...

NHL East Preview: The gang's all here
This division is loaded with veteran teams like Pittsburgh, Washington, and Boston that still expect to compete for the Stanley Cup, teams on the rise in the Islanders and Flyers, and teams bolstered by recent No. 1 overall picks like the Rangers, Devils and Sabres who are hoping to break through....

Like most everything the NHL does, this season is a wreck before it even starts
Credit to the NHL, in that its summer bubble went off about as smoothly as could be imagined, allowing the league to complete its playoffs and award the Stanley Cup. Betting that the NHL wouldn’t be able to get through anything without fucking up royally was a very chalky play, so it was a real upse...