hockey Page 24 - Sports News, Headlines & Highlights

A bunch of Deadspinners sit around Kraken wise
Chris Baud, Jon Hoefling and Jesse Spector got together to talk about the Seattle Kraken expansion draft, in which the team surprised many by not going for big-name players like Carey Price, Gabriel Landeskog, Vladimir Tarasenko or Jakub Voracek. What’s up with that?...

The Kraken are preserving cap space apparently, but for who? For what?
We’re still only in the leaked stage, and leave it to the NHL to not think that the Seattle Kraken’s expansion draft would get out before the big show tonight thus rendering it moot, but it appears that GM Ron Francis has gone the pretty boring route. No Carey Price, no side deals that actually pilf...

Hockey can’t fail this one (but it still might)
There was always hope that if there was one, there would be more. We’re not there yet, but after Carl Nassib came out, and is the first openly gay player in the NFL, the NHL has one now in Luke Prokop. Or it will, whenever Prokop gets called up. I suppose I should write “if” he gets called up, becau...

No, not that Ryan Ellis
Ryan Ellis was traded to the Flyers on Saturday....

The Oilers continue to fail McDavid and Draisaitl
The Edmonton Oilers have arguably the two best hockey players on the planet in Connor McDavid and Leon Draisaitl. Together, the two of them have combined for the last two Hart Trophies and three of the last five. Yet despite incredible efforts from the dynamic duo, the Oilers have never lived up to ...

Under-the-radar sports you should check out during the Tokyo Games
There are certain sports that are staples of the Olympics, the ones that get on in prime time and take hold of the sports world when they’re going for the gold. It used to be that those sports, like gymnastics, swimming, and track, would only really show up on your TV every so often. Maybe you’d cat...

Habs’ Brendan Gallagher is probably having a worse week than you
A Montreal Canadien was robbed last night. I’m not talking about being robbed in a hockey sense. The Lightning definitely won the Cup convincingly. I’m talking about actual robbery — Ocean’s Eleven style....

The Lightning won the Cup, but we <i>all</i> won, because there’s no more Pierre McGuire
When the Lightning finally ran out the clock on the Montreal Canadiens Wednesday night — having strangled them lifeless all game, and making it clear just how much of a mismatch this really was (22 shots in an elimination game and just eight in the third) — pretty much everyone other than those clad...

No, the Lightning didn’t cheat
At some point in the next couple days, the Tampa Bay Lightning will win their second consecutive Cup. Could be tonight, or maybe the Canadiens have one last death rattle in them and send this series back to Tampa on Wednesday. It’s hockey, weird things happen, we’ve seen 0-3 comebacks, but here it’s...

Coupe de “ill”
The Stanley Cup Final is a huge letdown after the rip-roaring semifinals, which isn’t really a surprise, because when the Lightning beat the Islanders to set up their title defense against the Canadiens, it was something of a fait accompli....

It’s been another horrible week for women, and sports isn’t helping one bit
Bill Cosby is out of prison, not because he isn’t a rapist, but because of shoddy lawyering by a former district attorney in Pennsylvania. Britney Spears remains under a conservatorship, even as her father refuses to let her remove an IUD....

EXCLUSIVE: Phoenix Mercury smash through sports betting’s glass ceiling, ink huge deal with Bally’s
Earlier this year, NBA star Draymond Green courted the wrath of female athletes and fans of women’s sports everywhere by suggesting that pro women’s leagues haven’t done enough to court corporate dollars, adding that they can’t complain about the pay gap between men and women’s pro sports until they...

How many firing squads can Carey Price turn back?
The Montreal Canadiens aren’t quite as chained to their history and tradition as the rest of the hockey world (including yours truly) likes to joke about. They can never escape it, and nor should they. it’s the MONTREAL CANADIENS, for fuck’s sake. But the drawn-out pregame ceremonies and insistence ...

This is what the Blackhawks have always been
It’s probably a story that you’ve heard a million times by now if you have any sports leanings, but it needs emphasizing. In the spring of 2010, the Chicago Blackhawks were the center of Chicago. Not just Chicago sports, but Chicago. It was a meteoric and shocking rise, simply because three years be...

The Golden Knights sure know how to lose, just like the tourists they’re built around
It’s no secret that Las Vegas is built on losers. They don’t construct a new hotel per week because everyone goes there and takes down the blackjack tables. It’s a town with a foundation on losing. You lose, they win....

Fun and exciting expansion team hires most boring, mediocre coach available
Hoo-hoo, hahahahaha. The Seattle Kraken have hired their first coach. Bahahahaha. It’s Dave Hakstol....

This Isles cheap shot is reason for NHL’s vaguer-than-vague injury reports
The NHL will get another Game 7, this one between the Islanders and Lightning, as the Isles fought back from a 2-0 deficit to win 3-2 in overtime to tie the series. And I really should spend this section talking about Mathew Barzal’s star turn, as he was basically unplayable for all of Game 6 (even ...

NHL refs are turning a blind eye to everything again
It used to be that I thought NHL refs, of the four major sports at least, did the best job. Which wasn’t an accolade so much as just not crashing the car in quite such a fireball. Baseball umps make up their own strike zone while daring anyone to argue with them about it. It used to be that NBA refs...

It doesn’t matter what we think if Ben Simmons’ teammates are done with him
I admit that I fell into the trap of using every NBA playoff game as a referendum on the legacy of every NBA star. Things are never that simple, and winning a championship is hard. Especially in the NBA, where it’s an actual referendum on how your team is built. It’s not hockey where the bounces jus...

Hockey isn’t any better at picking its defensive player of the year than basketball
Recently, the discussion in basketball has been Defensive Players Of The Year and just how exactly certain players ended up with that award. As we watched Rudy Gobert stare blankly from the lane at the Clippers as they constantly kicked the ball out to whomever he was supposed to be guarding outside...