NHL

Here’s a Stanley Cup final that no one saw at the start of the playoffs — the Philadelphia Flyers vs. the Chicago Blackhawks. But it’s a reality after the Flyers beat the Montreal Canadiens in five games, a day after the Blackhawks swept the San Jose Sharks. This is an intriguing final from a historical […]

Hottest player? Jimmy says it’s this guy. Editor's note: Mikey writes the awesome blog HockeyKidMn and lives in Minnesota. Jimmy did an amazing job blogging during the Olympics from the Frozen North. Both also play hockey, and they have teamed up to write an NHL preview. It's a great complement to Joe's NHL guide, which […]

Liberia is a West African country that has a tropical climate, no electricity grid and where half of the people live on less than $1 a day. It also a place where the concept of ice hockey is totally foreign. Which is why it’s strange that among the most coveted items are NHL jerseys. Bonnie […]

I like hockey, but don’t watch much until the NHL playoffs. But for the past three years, I’ve spent part of New Year’s Day watching the Winter Classic, games played outdoors. It’s a great concept and much more compelling than watching just another bowl game. This year's was played at Fenway Park and saw the […]

Brendan Burke with the Stanley Cup won by his dad’s Anaheim Ducks in 2007. There is a very touching and affirming story on ESPN.com about Brendan Burke, how he came out as gay and was accepted by his father, Brian Burke, the president and general manager of the Toronto Maple Leafs. Brendan Burke, 20, is […]

Pascal Dupuis Of all the major pro sports, hockey has the best championship tradition — the Stanley Cup, awarded to the league champs, basically goes on tour and is found in bars, churches, businesses and just about every conceivable place. I have seen babies given baths in the cup, while Pascal Dupuis of the newly […]

I liked this commercial by the Boston Bruins, who start play this week in the NHL playoffs. I liked this commercial by the Boston Bruins, who start play this week in the NHL playoffs.

Four NHL teams started the 2008-09 regular season overseas. In Prague, the New York Rangers swept two games from the Tampa Bay Lightning, while in Stockholm, the Ottawa Senators went 1-0-1 against the Pittsburgh Penguins. With today's firing of coach Tom Renney by the Rangers, all four of these teams have now changed coaches since […]

What if there’s an All-Star game and the jocks don’t show? That’s the quandary the NHL finds itself in as its All-Star match plays out in Montreal tonight. Burned last year when seven jocks didn’t show in Atlanta for the game in which they were selected to play, the league offered up a one-game suspension […]

Great goaltending, strong steady defense and a potent offense have let the Minnesota Wild jump to a 7-2-1 start. All this without their star winger Marian Gaborik who’s been sidelined for the last five games with what’s been called a “lower body” injury. No matter because the line of Mikko Koivu and Andrew Burnette has […]

The New York Rangers are off to their best start in 25 years (5-1). They won back-to-back 2-1 victories in Prague against Tampa Bay as the NHL tries to expand its interests in Europe. Lundqvist has sparkled in goal with a 1.61 GAA and a sturdy offense leads the league with 17 goals. Similarly, the […]

[youtube:http://youtube.com/watch?v=FtnSuoew_1E] The Pittsburgh Penguins were done. Having blown a 2-0 lead in Game 5 of their Stanley Cup Finals to the Detroit Red Wings, the Penguins trailed 3-2 with under a minute to go and the Detroit fans getting ready to celebrate another title. But, stunningly, with 34 seconds to go in regulation, Maxime Talbot […]

The matchup of the Pittsburgh Penguins and Detroit Red Wings in this year’s Stanley Cup finals gives the National Hockey League something it desperately wanted: the presence of Sidney Crosby. You’ll know this if you tune in by all the praise constantly being thrown Crosby’s way. It’ll be the verbal equivalent of fellatio. I imagine […]

At the website Shop.com you can now buy a Reebok Pittsburgh Penguins 2008 Eastern Conference Champions Locker Room Hat for $28.99 (excluding tax and shipping). This is wrong on two levels. $28.99 is an outrageous price for a baseball cap, even if it's the "official" locker room cap. Oh, and the Penguins haven't actually won […]

O Canada, your teams all now play golf…sorry. Had a bit of a jingoistic feeling to work through. You see, some people had the impression that the Flyers-Canadiens series was being played by the Montreal rule book instead of the one used by the rest of the NHL. As much as I tend to disregard […]

If you attended last night’s San Jose Sharks at Dallas Stars NHL playoff game, you saw a game that did not end until 1:25 a.m. local time; on the East Coast, people watching Versus at that hour saw the game end at 2:25 a.m. What everyone saw was Dallas winning a 2-1 thriller that took […]

New York Rangers forward Sean Avery has gotten some attention from this blog. Jim determined that Avery is gayer than he is, and Cyd wrote about his upcoming summer internship at Vogue. I, on the other hand, called him a jerk after his latest on-ice antics. Unfortunately, this Avery update isn't a very happy one. […]

After one round of the Stanley Cup playoffs, last year’s two finalists are already gone. There hasn’t been a repeat champion since the Detroit Red Wings in 1997 and 1998, and the 2006-07 champion Anaheim Ducks were sent packing by the Dallas Stars. The Ducks become the fifth consecutive Cup winner to either not make […]

It’s not one of those stories you want to read over breakfast, but the New York Times has an article on the time-honored hockey tactic of sticking a smelly glove in an opponent’s face to piss him off: The face wash is a baiting tactic that has been around since gloves were invented, or, as […]

One thing that distinguishes the National Hockey League from the NFL, NBA and Major League Baseball is the fact that they play the game on ice. This means that the players' skates are going to come into play occasionally in such a physical sport, and not just in the case of New York Islander imbecile […]