LAS VEGAS -- The San Jose Sharks found out right from the start Thursday that the playoff version of the Vegas Golden Knights are a carbon copy of the regular season team.

Fast, opportunistic, relentless.

And that was just in the opening 12 minutes of the first period.

The Sharks were overwhelmed by the Golden Knights in Game 1 of their ...Read more

SAN JOSE, Calif. -- As the Sharks gathered for their first training camp in 1991, they carried with them the optimism that precedes every team's season.

At the time, 16 of the league's 22 teams qualified for the playoffs. To the Sharks' players, being one of the 16 wasn't entirely out of the question, even as an expansion team.

"I distinctly ...Read more

SAN JOSE, Calif. -- Sharks goalie coach Johan Hedberg provides enough material in his scouting reports on opposing goaltenders to make a short novel out of all of his findings on their tendencies.

Chances are Hedberg's had to update his notes on more than one occasion for Vegas Golden Knights goalie Marc-Andre Fleury, who has made the necessary...Read more

RALEIGH, N.C. -- After resigning Friday as head coach of the Carolina Hurricanes, Bill Peters joked that he hoped not to be unemployed very long.

But discussions already were underway with the Calgary Flames, and Peters on Monday was introduced as the Flames' new head coach in a news conference at the Scotiabank Saddledome in Calgary.

Flames ...Read more

PHILADELPHIA -- The Flyers' roller-coaster ride of a season, which featured both encouraging and maddening stages, came to a screeching halt Sunday.

Blame a porous defense and the team's failure to win on home ice.

Blame an offense that, with the Flyers trailing by just a goal, had no shots in the first 11-plus minutes of the third period.

...Read more

WINNIPEG, Manitoba -- A relentless resilience is a trademark of the 2017-18 Wild.

It's the reason why the team reached the playoffs for a sixth straight year after injuries, inconsistency and inexperience threatened a much earlier demise.

But that perseverance wasn't the last impression made by the group.

The Wild were crushed by the Jets, 5-...Read more

PITTSBURGH -- Claude Giroux said the Flyers would win Friday night in Pittsburgh and return to the Wells Fargo for Game 6 on Sunday.

The Flyers' captain backed up his words.

Giroux settled down his team with the game's first goal, and Sean Couturier -- who gallantly returned to the lineup after an injury forced him to miss the previous game --...Read more

RALEIGH, N.C. -- The Carolina Hurricanes are now in the market for a new general manager and head coach.

Bill Peters announced Friday that he was resigning as coach after four seasons, opting out of the final year on a contract that was to pay him $1.6 million. Peters has been mentioned as a leading candidate for the Calgary Flames' head-...Read more

SAN JOSE, Calif. -- It might have been the poorest game the San Jose Sharks had played in its opening-round playoff series against the Anaheim Ducks. Gone was the discipline, some of their attention to detail, most of their odd-man rushes.

The one constant was the play of goalie Martin Jones, who almost single-handedly helped the Sharks finish ...Read more

PHILADELPHIA -- With apologies to Harold Hill from "The Music Man" fame, the Flyers are in trouble, trouble, trouble ... TROUBLE.

That starts with T, that rhymes with P, that stands for Penguins.

Make that the relentless Penguins.

The two-time defending Stanley Cup champions put the Flyers on the brink of elimination Wednesday night as they ...Read more

When the Wild turned to a younger and more inexperienced blue line for the playoffs after losing Ryan Suter to a right ankle fracture, the margin of error didn't just shrink for the new-look defense.

Goalie play became even more critical, too, and although the Wild trails its first-round, best-of-seven series with the Jets 3-1, Devan Dubnyk ...Read more

Before they can gobble up pucks between the pipes, goaltenders sometimes need to clear out the space between their ears. Connor Hellebuyck started that task immediately following his Game 3 loss to the Wild, when the Winnipeg netminder was pulled after giving up six goals in 40 minutes.

Hellebuyck knows the best way to forget a dismal game is ...Read more

The Wild took a major hit Tuesday even before taking the ice for Game 4 when it was revealed winger Zach Parise will be sidelined week-to-week after suffering a fractured sternum in Game 3 against the Winnipeg Jets on Sunday.

The injury appeared to happen when Parise played a puck with his hand near his own blue line with about four minutes ...Read more

SAN JOSE, Calif. -- The San Jose Sharks showed poise and more than a little bit of resiliency in bringing back to SAP Center a 2-0 lead in their opening round NHL playoff series against the Anaheim Ducks.

Game 3 showed one thing above everything else, though. That the Sharks are simply too much right now for their Southern California rivals.

...Read more

LOS ANGELES -- They can't avoid it now that it's that time again. The Los Angeles Kings have to talk about the cockroaches in the room.

Alec Martinez memorably described the 2013-14 Kings as "cockroaches" because they wouldn't die. They became the fourth team in NHL history to win a best-of-seven playoff series from 0-3 down, eventually posting...Read more