nhl-playoffs Page 18 - Sports News, Headlines & Highlights

The Agony
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Holy Shit, That Joe Thornton Pass
The Sharks lead the postseason in plays that make their opponents’ fans exasperatedly say, “oh come the fuck on.” It’s a remarkably aesthetically pleasing brand of hockey they play, all speed and puck cycling and a preternatural awareness of their linemates’ positions only made possible by playing t...

Pittsburgh's HBK Line Is The NHL's Hottest
The verb that came to mind watching last night’s 4-2 Pittsburgh win was “overwhelms.” You can hold off the Penguins for a while, you can even shut down a scorer or an entire line for games at a time, but they’ve got so much talent, they’re so deep with scorers up and down their bench and offer barel...

Don't Leave Brent Burns Open
Back east we’ve got two fast, hard-hitting, well-rounded teams, that frankly play fairly similar games. Out west is a more intriguing clash of styles: The Blues are more defensive minded, more deliberate, more physical, while the Sharks thrive on offense, speed, puck movement, and the most exciting ...

Sidney Crosby Scores Right In Jeremy Roenick's Dumb Face
The corollary to not overreacting when Sidney Crosby goes eight games without scoring a goal is also not overreacting when he finally finds the net. But hot damn, did the Penguins need that goal. If only to shut Jeremy Roenick up....

Game 1 Belonged To Brian Elliott
In the 2016 Western Conference Finals: The Great Unchokening, I (and Vegas) give the slight nod to the Blues. They’ve beaten better teams to get here, and they’re constructed more defensively-minded, the sort of team that succeeds in tight playoff games. That’s the blueliners, for sure, but more tha...

Pekka Rinne Smashed The Shit Out Of His Stick, And Yeah I Get It
The Sharks’ dream Game 7 was, necessarily, a nightmare for Nashville. Or: You don’t lose an elimination game 5-0, getting outshot 17-3 in the first and only managing 20 shots on goal of your own all night, without just about everything going wrong....

There's No Secret To Why The Capitals Lost
“We didn’t really play good enough for long enough,” Braden Holtby said. The Washington Capitals were very good, over a very long season, but even good teams falter when they run into better ones. ...

How The Hell Did Jay Beagle Make That Game-Saving Block?
The Pittsburgh Penguins dispatched the Washington Capitals 4-3 in overtime tonight in Pittsburgh, weathering a furious third-period comeback and eventually winning on a Nick Bonino tap-in. However, it could have ended earlier in overtime, had Jay Beagle not morphed into Superman and dove across the ...

The Blues Wouldn't <i>Really</i> Bench Brian Elliott For Game 7. Right?
It was a bad night for Blues goalie Brian Elliott, yanked after allowing three goals—against just four saves—in the first period of Dallas’s 3-2 win. Bad nights happen. But is there really a chance that Elliott was so out of sorts that Jake Allen will get the nod in Wednesday’s Game 7? Ken Hitchcock...

The Predators Have Something Left In The Tank
The Predators are counter-punchers. They fought back from 3-2 down to make it to the second round. They fought back from being outplayed in the multiple overtimes of Game 4 against the Sharks to snatch a win. With their backs up against the wall again last night, they fought back from an early two-g...

Victor Hedman Is Doing Everything
No team left alive will have as long a rest—and no team, perhaps, needs it less—than the red-hot Tampa Bay Lightning, who after their 4-0 series clincher in Game 5 against the Islanders, have made it through to the conference finals for the second straight season, and have done it in just 10 games. ...

The Sharks Thought They Got Screwed On Joe Pavelski's No-Goal
What would a triple-OT game be without some controversy? Two periods before Mike Fisher won it for Nashville to knot up the series, San Jose’s Joe Pavelski thought he had finished things off, scoring from his belly (and with Pekka Rinne pinned beneath him). It was a mess....

The Story Behind Hockey's Most Famous Photo
The number of truly iconic hockey pictures is surprisingly small. The sport is notoriously difficult to photograph, thanks to the fast-paced action, the elusive puck, and some unique space, proximity, and lighting restrictions. There’s Denis Brodeur (yes, Martin’s father) and his shot of Paul Hender...

Gerrit Cole Drank Beer And Hassled The Capitals At The Penguins Game
Pittsburgh Pirates starter Gerrit Cole had a grand time at Game 4 of Capitals-Penguins Wednesday night. The pitcher was so relentless with his boos for the visiting team, security stepped in and told him to take it down a notch....

Penguins Sneak In Overtime Game-Winner, Push Capitals To The Brink
The Pittsburgh Penguins are on the verge of the Conference Finals after a thrilling 3-2 OT win over the Washington Capitals. The two rivals have been punching each other all series long, and tonight was no exception, with Alexander Ovechkin slashing Sidney Crosby and Carl Hagelin going all upside-do...

Man Who Discovered Hockey Attends Hockey Game, Loves It
Nascent Blues fan Anthony Holmes, who learned about hockey when he watched Game 7 of Blackhawks-Blues last week, was St. Louis’s guest for Tuesday’s Game 3 against the Dallas Stars. He had better seats than you’ll ever have....

Ryan Reaves Blows The Stars A Kiss After Beatdown
The Stars scored first, then the Blues reeled off six unanswered goals, with 12 different players recording points. It was a laugher by the time Stephen Johns boarded Alex Pietrangelo, which somehow ended up with Ryan Reaves and Curtis McKenzie (briefly) trading blows....

Islanders Furious After Big Hit Leads To Lightning OT Win
As sexy as playoff overtime is, it tends to overshadow all the good stuff that came before. And the Lightning’s 5-4 win over the Islanders was very good, very fun hockey, even before Brian Boyle finished things 2:48 into OT to give Tampa Bay the 2-1 series lead. The teams traded body blows throughou...

Jonathan Drouin Takes A Bone-Crunching Hit, Returns To Set Up Game-Tying Goal
Jonathan Drouin left tonight’s high-scoring Lightning-Islanders game after taking this monstrous wallop in the second period. There was no penalty on the play....