nhl Page 51 - Sports News, Headlines & Highlights

NHL To Continue Using Playoff Format Everyone Hates
We’re about to enter year six of the NHL’s current playoff setup, a format that has garnered mostly complaints since its inception. To be fair to the league, hockey fans can and do complain about everything, but the format’s drawbacks do seem to outweigh its benefits. So, just a few days out from th...

When Ted Lindsay Fought, Everybody Won
Before Game 3 of the 1956 NHL semifinals between Detroit and Toronto, an unhinged Maple Leafs fan phoned the hotel the Red Wings were staying at to inform whoever would listen that if Ted Lindsay and Gordie Howe took the ice, they’d be shot on sight....

The Blue Jackets Going All-In Isn't Crazy <i>Or</i> Stupid
It’s not at all rare for a contending NHL team to say “Fuck it” and go all-in at the trade deadline. God knows the window of opportunity to win a Cup is small and it makes sense, rather than overvaluing the potential of prospects and draft picks, to acquire the One Final PieceTM that will put you ov...

The Blue Jackets Going All-In Isn't Crazy <i>Or</i> Stupid
It’s not at all rare for a contending NHL team to say “Fuck it” and go all-in at the trade deadline. God knows the window of opportunity to win a Cup is small and it makes sense, rather than overvaluing the potential of prospects and draft picks, to acquire the One Final PieceTM that will put you ov...

Are The Lightning So Good That They Didn't Need To Get Better?
Every Cup winner since 2010 has made a deadline (or deadlineish) trade. The Lightning stood pat. So either Tampa Bay is going to regret not trying to make the NHL’s best team just a little better, or they’re going to buck some recent history. But, then again, no Cup winner, no team, since 2010 or ev...

Are The Lightning So Good That They Didn't Need To Get Better?
Every Cup winner since 2010 has made a deadline (or deadlineish) trade. The Lightning stood pat. So either Tampa Bay is going to regret not trying to make the NHL’s best team just a little better, or they’re going to buck some recent history. But, then again, no Cup winner, no team, since 2010 or ev...

Sports Are For Crying Because Your Friend Got Traded Away
Professional sports are a job, but in many ways very much unlike other jobs. Your teammates are more than co-workers; you work together, but you also socialize together, travel together, practically (and sometimes literally) live together. For half of the season you’re on the road together, sharing ...

This Is What It Takes To Sign Auston Matthews
The thing about building an elite team—something the Leafs have done for the very first time in the salary-cap era—is that, very quickly, you have to figure out how to pay for it. It gets top-heavy, and you either have to get creative, or see it all fall apart. The Maple Leafs already agreed to pay ...

The Penguins-Panthers Trade Makes Sense For Everyone
Everyone look away from basketball for a second, we have a hockey trade!...

Artemi Panarin Wants Out
The NHL, for reasons cultural and historical, is not like the NBA: You don’t see a lot of outright trade demands. That is to say, you do see trade demands, but they’re couched in language that tries to make them sound like anything but. This, if you’re attuned to it, could not possibly be any blunte...
![Brianna Decker Will Get Her Prize Money After All, Just Not From The NHL [Update]](https://images.deadspin.com/tr:w-900/fvojgonn3udv0m4czjjk.jpg)
Brianna Decker Will Get Her Prize Money After All, Just Not From The NHL [Update]
In what can only be described as the smallest of hat tips to diversity and inclusion, U.S. women’s national team hockey player Brianna Decker was brought out to demonstrate the premier passing drill at the NHL All-Star skills event on Friday. While the league never bothered to show her demonstration...

Does Hockey Have Any Damn Business In Texas?
This week we’re talking about Notre Dame, New Year’s resolutions, whether you too can be a Football Man, and of course, Mitsubishi. ...

Blues Add Puppy To Practice So Hopefully Players Will Stop Fighting
Just three days after Blues players brawled during practice, the hockey team’s official Twitter account sent out this video of a puppy on the ice, during practice doing hockey puppy things like playing with a puck, chasing a stick, and just being all-around magical....

More Than You Probably Wanted To Know About The Rules On A Puck Hitting A Ref's Dick And Balls
Just an excellent hockey highlight from Tuesday’s 4-3 Blues win over the Panthers, as St. Louis defenseman Robert Bortuzzo—fresh off of beating the hell out of a teammate in practice—tried to dump in a puck and ended up banking it off of referee Tim Peel’s biscuits, past goalie Roberto Luongo, and i...

Can Seattle's NHL Team Recapture Vegas's Magic?
Seattle was officially awarded the 32nd NHL franchise last week, the culmination of a years-long process that absolutely everyone knew was leading to exactly this outcome. The announcement came one year to the day after Seattle voted to upgrade KeyArena, at which point the NHL’s decision became a me...

The NHL Is Coming To Seattle
Following a unanimous vote from the league’s board of governors on Tuesday morning, the NHL has approved an expansion franchise for the city of Seattle, set to play in a renovated KeyArena. According to TSN, the team will begin play in the 2021-22 season....

William Nylander Ends Holdout, Agrees To Six-Year Deal With Maple Leafs
The William Nylander saga officially came to a close on Saturday after the 22-year-old winger signed a contract extension with the Toronto Maple Leafs, as first reported by TSN’s Darren Dreger....

Antoine Roussel Fined For Biting Sharks' Marc-Edouard Vlasic<em></em><em></em>
NHL Player Safety announced on Saturday that Vancouver Canucks forward Antoine Roussel would be fined $5,000 for biting San Jose Sharks defenseman Marc-Edouard Vlasic during a scuffle in Friday’s game. The fight came in the dying embers of a 4-0 Sharks blowout. Roussel, who bit Vlasic’s hand when it...

How Gritty Conquered America
While Flyers front office types were throwing around names for the new mascot, team president Paul Holmgren tossed out a suggestion: “Gritty.” Players the Flyers liked were always described that way, and Holmgren thought it’d be a good name for a mascot....

Morgan Rielly Apologizes To Devils' Keith Kinkaid For Scoring Very Savable Goal
It was a tough night for New Jersey Devils goalie Keith Kinkaid. The backup-turned-starter was on the wrong end of a 6-1 shellacking from an Auston Matthews-less Toronto Maple Leafs. ...