It was 1-0 in the opening seconds, 2-0 before everyone settled in, and when it reached 3-0 still in the first period, it wasn’t so much that anything looked possible Thursday for the Florida Panthers in Game 2 of the Eastern Conference final.

Everything looked possible beyond this night, too.

A sweep-peat of Carolina?

Why not?

A little ...Read more

TAMPA, Fla. — It had been several years since Mathieu Darche first emerged as a candidate to become an NHL general manager. As the Lightning’s assistant GM, he had been Julien BriseBois’ right-hand man in leading the team’s hockey operations department.

Now, Darche, who played a major behind-the-scenes role in helping to establish the ...Read more

RALEIGH, N.C. — The Florida Panthers had just one goal in mind on Thursday. They already took the series opener in the Eastern Conference final against the Carolina Hurricanes in convincing fashion.

Why stop there?

“We want to get greedy,” defenseman Seth Jones said. “We want to come in here and not just roll over and not be OK with ...Read more

“The Happiest Team in America” continues to lift South Florida as it deep freezes opponents in its path.

The Florida Panthers are on the greatest stretch we have seen in Miami-area sports since the Heat’s Big 3 era produced four straight NBA finals and two championships from 2010 to 2014. It will take 16 playoff victories for the Cats to ...Read more

CHICAGO — The Chicago Blackhawks have found their man.

Former Detroit Red Wings coach Jeff Blashill, who spent the last three seasons as an assistant on Tampa Bay Lightning coach Jon Cooper’s staff, has been named the 42nd head coach in Hawks history.

“Jeff is an incredibly smart and talented coach who boasts more than 25 years of ...Read more

PITTSBURGH — The search for a head coach has been exactly what Kyle Dubas promised: thorough and methodical, an exhaustive and indiscriminate consideration of styles, personalities and backgrounds.

How ironic, though: The best candidate isn’t hard to find, nor does he have an atypical resume for what the Penguins president of hockey ...Read more

RALEIGH, N.C. — Sam Bennett made it look easy, which is typically the one thing that’s least likely to happen when the Carolina Hurricanes are killing a penalty.

He circled around from the right side of the ice to the blue line, had plenty of time and space to shoot and rifled a shot through traffic in front of the net to, essentially, ...Read more

Alexander Nikishin, at last, has played his first NHL game for the Carolina Hurricanes — in the Stanley Cup playoffs, on the road, against the Washington Capitals.

The big Russian defenseman will have a lot of memories from a debut long awaited by Canes fans, but the best will always be it came in a 3-1 victory that lifted the Hurricanes into...Read more

PHILADELPHIA — Well, that was fast. Just like that, the Flyers are finished rebuilding.

Two years ago, the club announced a “New Era of Orange,” finally admitting that both its foundation of personnel and foundational philosophy of winning now at any cost with coaches and brass who bled orange and black had been flawed for the past decade...Read more

The Golden Knights played a nearly perfect defensive game.

They didn’t give up many dangerous looks. The Edmonton Oilers had to work for whatever chances they had.

Perhaps it was fitting that the game’s only goal came on a scramble in front of the crease.

The Knights’ season is over, and a summer of what could have been begins.

Oilers ...Read more

TORONTO — The Florida Panthers entered Scotiabank Arena on Wednesday with a singular goal in mind.

“We need to steal one in their building,” defenseman Niko Mikkola said.

They did more than steal a game.

They absolutely dominated.

The Panthers routed the Toronto Maple Leafs, 6-1, in Game 5 of their second-round Stanley Cup playoffs ...Read more

LOS ANGELES — If you can't beat them, hire them.

That's apparently the conclusion the Kings came to in their search for a general manager because they chose Ken Holland, the architect of an Edmonton Oilers team that knocked the Kings out of the Stanley Cup playoffs in the first round in each of the last four seasons.

Holland, 69, will ...Read more

PHILADELPHIA — Tick, tick, boom, the Flyers got their guy on Wednesday.

Rick Tocchet, 61, was hired as the 25th head coach (including interims) in Flyers history, the Flyers announced Wednesday. Before John Tortorella was fired on March 27, several reports indicated that Tocchet was high on the team’s short list of coaching candidates if ...Read more

LOS ANGELES — Nareg Dekermenjian had Mother's Day brunch with the Stanley Cup, which caused more than a little anxiety since no one was sure what hockey's championship trophy liked to eat.

"I'm thinking all-meat diet for the Stanley Cup," Dekermenjian said before sliding into a large corner booth at Stanley's Restaurant (no relation to the ...Read more

RALEIGH, N.C. — In a Hurricanes-Capitals series that’s delivered a handful of double-take moments, perhaps the biggest so far came in Carolina’s 5-2 win over Washington in Game 4 at Lenovo Center on Monday.

Early in the second period, with Carolina nursing a newly acquired two-goal lead, Washington entered the Canes’ zone with numbers. ...Read more

TAMPA, Fla. — We watched the hit that ended Brandon Hagel’s season. We heard the emotion in the Lightning forward’s voice when he talked about the concussion that resulted from it. We read Florida defenseman Aaron Ekblad’s explanation. We saw Hagel’s hit on Panthers captain Aleksander Barkov. And we listened to Hagel’s acknowledgment...Read more

RALEIGH, N.C. — During the first postseason go-round of what we used to call a Southeast Division Showdown, Alex Ovechkin probably scores twice in the first period Saturday and the Carolina Hurricanes spend Sunday figuring out what went wrong.

But 2025 isn’t 2019. There’s only so much the Washington Capitals can do now. And when their ...Read more