auston - Sports News, Headlines & Highlights

Deadspin presents the Two-Thirds Through the Season NHL AwardsAfter working up a third of a season award post just so my editor would have something to publish during the Holidays, it only seems right that we do an equally meaningless one with some teams having cracked 60 games played. No, 82 doesn’t divide evenly by three, and there really isn’t a distinctive...

This week in the NHL February 24, 2024Sebastian Aho scored with 18.9 seconds to play and Pyotr Kochetkov stopped 44 shots as the Carolina Hurricanes outlasted the visiting Florida Panthers to win 1-0 on Thursday night in a showdown between two of the Eastern Conference's best teams in Raleigh, N.C. - Field Level Media Read More...

RIP the 12-team College Football PlayoffHours after it was announced that the College Football Playoff would adopt a 5+7 format, the conference commissioners leaked that 14- and 16-team formats have been discussed. Jim Phillips, ACC commissioner and captain of a drowning vessel, said “At the end of the day, it’s about the right model.” Th...

Read the room, USA Hockey

As you may have heard after considerable wailing from players and at least the Canadian fanbase who need anything to feel good about themselves these days, the NHL has finally reinstituted an international calendar for not only the Olympics but eventually a World Cup the next few years. The latter w...

Nathan MacKinnon is doing things to Avalanche fans

Seeing a four-goal game is perhaps the rarest thing a hockey fan can witness in person. It’s not too far off from seeing a no-hitter. I’ve been going to hockey games for 364 years, and I’ve seen one. Steve Thomas vs. the Devils in March of 1990 at Chicago Stadium. I didn’t have to look that up (well...

Eastern Conference is a mess; Bruins don't need centers?; Sam Reinhart makes history

We’re halfway through the NHL season, which is now meant as a device to make everyone look stupid. Or really, to make me look stupid, which isn’t all that hard, because I’m stupid. After 41 games, we should have an idea of who is what and who’s going where. But in the Eastern Conference, we really d...

Maple Leafs have unexpected problem; Winnipeg surprises everyone; Hockey players & psychologists?

It’s hard to be an afterthought for an NHL team in Canada, and yet it kind of feels like the Winnipeg Jets are one. They’re not grouped with either of the other blocks. They aren’t near Toronto or Montreal in the Atlantic Division, and even the Ottawa Senators get more shine from being caught betwee...

The Maple Leafs have their problems, but paying their good players isn’t one of them

The free-agent apocalypse that was going to arrive in Toronto next summer has apparently disappeared. Before last summer, Auston Matthews and William Nylander were a season away from unrestricted free agency, and John Tavares and Mitch Marner were two years away. The latter two are still in that spo...