Hockey Page 486 - Sports News, Headlines & Highlights

We’ll never be rid of the Bruins
The Boston Bruins will never be considered anything close to a dynasty. It’s probably sobering for Bruins fans how close they are to being one, if anything can actually be sobering for Bruins fans. Had Zdeno Chara hit the other side of the post in Game 1 against the Hawks in 2013, and if Brad Marcha...

The Buffalo Sabres are… fun? Is that what this says here? That can’t be right
You know you’ve gotten things unfathomably wrong for an unfathomably long time when you are held up as an example of why teams in any sport shouldn’t rebuild. That was always the call when a GM was threatening to tear it down from paranoid fans and media alike. “Look at the Buffalo Sabres! They’ve b...

Maple Leafs have no bottom
I am as guilty as anyone else of turning the NHL into “How The Maple Leafs Turn.”You spend enough time commenting on how everyone’s always commenting on the Leafs, and well, you’re then part of the problem. But every time the Leafs do something, it’s generally causing some sort of ripple given their...

Phil Kessel is still here, more than anyone else has been
Phil Kessel has never been here for your shit. Which might be one of the reasons he’s going to break the consecutive games streak by playing in his 990th straight game tonight for Vegas....

The NHL’s investigation into the allegations against Ian Cole are a joke
Warning: This story includes allegation of sexual coercion of a minor and may be disturbing...

It’s going really well in Vancouver
Nothing goes right for the Vancouver Canucks. This is an immutable law of hockey and the NHL. It’s mostly comedy fodder for everyone outside of British Columbia, and probably for more sadistic jokes within. It becomes less funny when you’ve spent a decade or two listening to Canucks fans bemoan thei...

Colorado Avalanche celebrate 'All the Small Things' that led to Stanley Cup title
Champions are made of heart, grit, determination... and perhaps a little dash of pop-punk nostalgia? ...

The Maple Leafs are going to try again with Matt Murray and that’s great for the rest of us
The NHL season kicks off for real tomorrow night (the two appetizer games in Prague don’t count, especially because they involved the Sharks), or as it’s known for most of the hockey covering world, “Six months of how does this affect the Leafs?” Yep, the sport’s biggest soap opera, the question of ...

Tampa Bay Lightning’s Ian Cole accused of sexually abusing minor
Another banner day for hockey, as Tampa Bay’s Ian Cole was accused of grooming a minor and sexual assault by an anonymous person on Twitter. The Lightning have suspended Cole pending their own investigation and one conducted by the NHL....

Hockey Canada’s new interim boss is not helping
Hockey Canada’s interim board chair, Andrea Skinner, sat before the Heritage Committee and took zero responsibility for anything that’s gone on under the HC tent. In fact, she tried to glorify Hockey Canada’s settlement with the woman who claimed to be gang-raped by members of the Canadian Junior te...

Are you actually going to have to put up with Red Wings fans this year?
Well yes, because they never shut up, no matter the team’s fortunes on the ice. They’re always around, screaming about the “Yzer-plan!,” and assuring you that the Red Wings dynasty will continue because in their minds whatever comes in 2025 is still connected to what happened in 2002. This is the wa...

P.K. Subban was just a little ahead of his time
Hockey still can’t seem to recognize its need for a rockstar. While not the biggest problem with hockey’s culture at the moment (hi there Hockey Canada), the ethos that no player can stand out or be above the team keeps the game from having vibrancy or personality. And vibrancy and personality are w...

No surrender in Calgary
One of the familiar tropes in the NHL is the “poor ol’ Canadian team.” Lord Stanley’s chalice hasn’t been parked north of the border in 29 years, and there must be a reason for it. After all, the first two Great Bettman Lockouts were somewhat based on the fact that Canadian teams couldn’t have their...

The Calgary Flames will not go quietly into that good night
It’s the kind of trade that’s only cooked up at the bar, and almost certainly not before midnight. It’s only then and there that the right kind of desperation can be tuned into, as fans of whatever team it may be, try and live in denial for just a little while longer that their window of contending ...

The Penguins and Evgeni Malkin wouldn't really split over one year, would they?
We’ve already discussed the annual summer tradition of wondering if this is finally it for the Pittsburgh Penguins as we know it. It’s hard to define when this is “it” for a team that’s accomplished so much, as certainly, no group like Sidney Crosby, Evgeni Malkin, and Kris Letang have earned more r...

Duncan Keith, a shutdown corner on ice
The popular thesis on Duncan Keith, who reportedly is retiring after 16 seasons, was that he was a product of the “new” NHL, after the Great Bettman Lockout II in 2005. The thought was that someone his size would never have survived in the clutch n’ grab n’ hogtie era that came before, given that he...

The Griers aren’t the First Black Family of pro sports C-Suites, they’re really the Only Family
During the NBA Draft, the number of prospects who were the children of former WNBA or NBA stars highlighted an extremely conspicuous trend. An increasing number of professional athletes are the progeny of professional athletes who possess the resources and insider knowledge to pass down what and who...

Don’t congratulate the San Jose Sharks and the NHL for being last to hire a Black general manager
Progress shouldn’t take this long....

Corey Perry is the curse we’d all hoped he’d be
We, as fans, almost never get one over on the villains in our various sports. Of course, they’re out there, we’re up here, so the natural dynamic of the whole relationship is that we’re losers. That’s understood....
