SEATTLE — A few minutes before 2 p.m. on Friday, Sept. 25, Philipp Grubauer orders the Green Lake Lager. At his suggestion, you do the same. You take the pair of golden pints to a high-top table at Easy Pace Brewing, a building with warm wood and wall-to-wall windows that overlook the eastern edge of Green Lake Park. He wears a black hoodie ...Read more

SAN JOSE, Calif. – The San Jose Sharks’ season-opening game against the Florida Panthers felt like a playoff game.

Fights, scrums, big hits, and some impressive goals in a back-and-forth game made the Shark Tank the loudest it has been in a long time, maybe since the team’s last postseason appearance in 2019.

Then the roof came off in ...Read more

Berkly Catton entered his second season ready for whatever the NHL throws at him. They won’t all be as easy as the opener.

The Seattle Kraken downed the Calgary Flames, 6-1, quieting a rowdy crowd ready to send off Calgary’s 43-year-old Scotiabank Saddledome. The second-oldest barn in the NHL is set to be demolished after the season ends.

...Read more

Welcome to the new Wild.

Led by a perfect penalty kill, Kirill Kaprizov deflection and veterans stepping up on offense, the Wild dismissed the Predators at Bridgestone Arena in a 3-1 season-opening victory.

Their home opener is Saturday versus Boston at Grand Casino Arena.

Nick Foligno scored the first goal of the season, burying a Michael ...Read more

NEWARK, N.J. — Make no mistake, Joseph Woll was the primary reason the Flyers scored even a point on Thursday.

His 41-save performance masked an up-and-down game from the Flyers in the 3-2 loss to the New Jersey Devils on Jack Hughes’ overtime winner. It was an improvement compared to Wednesday’s 7-0 clunker, enough to send the game to ...Read more

NEW YORK — Lightning coach Jon Cooper admitted he was a little worried going into Tampa Bay’s season opener against the Rangers at Madison Square Garden. Tampa Bay’s opponent had played Tuesday, working off any first-game rust.

The Lightning, who again entered the season with lofty expectations, struggled out of the gate in midtown ...Read more

Nathan MacKinnon did mention on media day that he had been thinking about some things he might do differently this season.

MacKinnon scoring two goals and being an offensive terror? That’s not new.

The Colorado Avalanche superstar dropping his gloves, decisively winning a fight and then throwing his helmet on his way to the penalty box? Yeah...Read more

PHILADELPHIA — Sidney Crosby stated his intentions on the first shift.

On the day he officially became the longest-tenured captain in NHL history and the longest-tenured athlete in Pittsburgh sports history, Crosby crushed Philadelphia Flyers forward Travis Konecny along the boards 15 seconds into the Penguins’ season opener.

His team ...Read more

It might be a new year. It might be the 10th season. Much is the same with the Vegas Golden Knights. They know how to win season openers, and win coaching debuts.

Coach Ryan Craig’s debut as Knights coach couldn’t have gone better in a complete 5-2 win over the Chicago Blackhawks at T-Mobile Arena on Tuesday.

The Knights improved to 8-1-1 ...Read more

BOSTON — Fraser Minten wasted no time in earning some of his money.

The Boston Bruins showered the 22-year-old center with riches in the offseason, giving him a seven-year contract worth $7.2 million a season.

And with 3:46 left in the third period in a scoreless tie with the New York Rangers, Minten scored the game-winner on a pure snipe to...Read more

LAS VEGAS — If Jack Eichel could live at a hockey rink, he probably would. That’s how dedicated the Vegas Golden Knights center is to his craft.

This is the same player who will join an optional skate, shoot 100 pucks into a net and say it was just because he wanted extra touches. He’s been one of the hardest-working players in the ...Read more

RALEIGH, N.C. — Don’t expect Carolina Hurricanes coach Rod Brind’Amour to be emotional when the Stanley Cup banner is raised Tuesday at Lenovo Center.

The Florida Panthers will be in the house. It’s time to start a new season. It’s great to put a new banner next to the one Brind’Amour helped win as the Canes captain in 2006, but it�...Read more

TAMPA, Fla. — It was one thing to feel the all-too-familiar sting of another first-round playoff exit. What made it even more difficult for the Tampa Bay Lightning heading into an early summer was that they felt like they had recaptured the camaraderie and swagger of the franchise’s championship teams.

The organization has been remarkably ...Read more

One day last spring, just after the Flyers had finished an off-day practice in Raleigh during the Eastern Conference semifinals against the Carolina Hurricanes, Matvei Michkov lingered in the locker room, the only player there.

Two or three media members were hanging out, too, chatting with him about soccer, Michkov chatting back in splintered ...Read more

Andrei Kuzmenko will return to Russia following the death of his father and will likely be away from the Penguins as they conclude the preseason.

Alexander Kuzmenko was killed by a bear while on a fishing trip this week, according to a report from Russian media outlet REN TV. The report said he was fishing with several travel companions in the ...Read more

DENVER — The running joke in the Grading The Week offices is that Joe Sakic will have his job forever. And by Joe Sakic, we don’t mean Super Joe. We’re talking about Cyber Joe.

Cyber Joe is an artificial intelligence program that replicates everything that the smartest man in the NHL does right now, only a gazillion times faster. Joe’s ...Read more

LAS VEGAS — In one way, everyone is embracing a clean slate. A starting over point, as their new coach likes to call it. In another, there isn’t a player on the Golden Knights who wants to forget.

You can have it both ways, of course.

One doesn’t have to cancel the other.

Ryan Craig has begun his tenure as the Knights’ coach and yet ...Read more

SAN JOSE, Calif. — The Sharks’ Ryan Warsofsky, the NHL’s youngest coach who has helped orchestrate a turnaround for the franchise during his two seasons as its head coach, has signed a multi-year contract extension, the team announced Thursday.

Terms of the 38-year-old Warsofsky’s new contract were not disclosed, but he was entering the...Read more

SAN JOSE, Calif. — Former San Jose Sharks forward Ryan Reaves, one of the NHL’s most feared enforcers during an unlikely and memorable 16-year career, announced his retirement on Wednesday with training camps across the league set to begin.

A fifth-round draft choice by the St. Louis Blues in 2005, the 39-year-old Reaves played for seven ...Read more