CHICAGO — The 2021-22 Chicago Blackhawks season probably has faded from fans’ memories already — because who really wants to remember anything that transpired on or off the ice during that turbulent time?

The team would rather have fans look forward as it begins to reinvent the franchise, including introducing potential season ticket ...Read more

The Florida Panthers were not openly rooting for anyone Saturday when the Tampa Bay Lightning took down the Toronto Maple Leafs in Game 7 of their first-round series.

A day later, they couldn’t help but be excited about the outcome, though.

“In the end,” defenseman Brandon Montour said, “I think a lot of guys wanted to play this team.�...Read more

NEW YORK – A series that began in Game 1 with a triple overtime marathon that tested both teams’ stamina and Louis Domingue’s stomach was bookended in the same way.

Well, with one notable exception: The result.

The resilient Rangers fought back from 2-0, second-period deficits in Game 5 and Game 6 to force the all-or-nothing Game 7. They...Read more

TAMPA, Fla. — The Battle of Florida is on for Round Two of the playoffs.

The Panthers, who won the Presidents’ Trophy with 122 points this season, earned their first postseason series win since 1996 by defeating the Capitals in six games with a 4-3 win in overtime Friday. The Lightning took out the Maple Leafs in seven games with a 2-1 ...Read more

TORONTO — For many teams this season, the Lightning were the bull’s-eye after winning back-to-back Stanley Cup championships.

For the rival Florida Panthers, they were the blueprint.

Now the teams meet again in the postseason with more than Sunshine State bragging rights on the line.

Ask the Lightning’s players and coaches and they’ll...Read more

EDMONTON, Canada — By the end of a wildly back-and-forth Stanley Cup playoff series between the Los Angeles Kings and the Edmonton Oilers there were no surprises in the decisive game of their first-round matchup Saturday night at Rogers Place in buzzing downtown Edmonton, just superstar efforts.

“You keep seeing the same team every other ...Read more

TORONTO — When the Lightning acquired forward Nick Paul at the trade deadline, general manager Julien BriseBois said his game was made for the playoffs.

And with the Lightning’s season on the line, it was Paul — one of just two players in the Tampa Bay lineup playing in his first postseason — who was the difference in sending the ...Read more

RALEIGH, N.C. — It was Max Domi’s day and the Carolina Hurricanes’ game Saturday.

And the Boston Bruins no longer are a playoff threat to the Canes.

The Hurricanes, sharp from the start in Game 7, turned back the Bruins 3-2 to end a hard-fought series that had many ebbs and flows.

Domi, a late-season addition for the Canes, had the ...Read more

Twenty-six years. Sixteen coaches. Ten general managers, including Dale Tallon twice and one set of brothers, Bryan and Terry Murray.

There were five owners, not counting the group of eight investors briefly fronted by beloved Miami quarterback Bernie Kosar, who said hockey was his, “first and special love” before fading away to the bigger ...Read more

FORT WORTH, Texas — His name was Roman Lyashenko, and the ruling was suicide.

He played 122 games for the Dallas Stars from 2000 to 2002. After 17 games with the New York Rangers, he was dead.

On July 6, 2003, Lyashenko left a note in his Turkish hotel room where he was discovered after he hanged himself during a family vacation; his suicide...Read more

LOS ANGELES — Rebuilding a team goes beyond filling roster spots, past finding right-handed-shooting defensemen to pair with left-handed shooters and acquiring role players who fit alongside the franchise’s foundations.

When all goes right — and that’s rarely swift or sure — a rebuilt team naturally develops and rallies around an ...Read more

ST. LOUIS — Nick Leddy opened the door. Ryan O’Reilly, Tyler Bozak and Vladimir Tarasenko then kicked it over.

For the first time since the Stanley Cup season, the St. Louis Blues have made it out of the first round. Next stop, Denver. And the Colorado Avalanche.

The Blues said farewell to the Minnesota Wild with a 5-1 win in Game 6 of ...Read more

TAMPA, Fla. — Facing elimination Thursday night at Amalie Arena, the Lightning had experience and history on their side against the Maple Leafs.

But few moments could have prepared the Lightning for a do-or-die Game 6 that went to overtime. Talk about tension.

The Lightning certainly looked tired throughout the extra period, but extended ...Read more

SUNRISE, Fla. — Carter Verhaeghe is the same 26 years old as Aleksander Barkov, but made his minor-league debut seven years ago when Barkov was on his third stellar season with the Florida Panthers.

He’s the same age as Aaron Ekblad. But Ekblad was a rising star in his second Panthers season six years ago, when Verhaeghe had such trouble ...Read more

NEW YORK — Back in November 2019, the fire alarm blared inside the visiting locker room at New Jersey’s Prudential Center, a fitting metaphor for the state of panic that permeated throughout the Penguins fanbase that day.

Just hours earlier, Pittsburgh announced that captain Sidney Crosby would miss six weeks due to core muscle surgery. As ...Read more

SUNRISE, Fla. — For the second time in three days, the Florida Panthers were all but dead, stuck in a precarious hole and in need of a thrilling comeback to avoid falling to the brink of first-round elimination.

Of course, comebacks are what they do best and their most important one yet now has them on the verge of reaching the second round ...Read more