Washington Capitals star Alex Ovechkin scored his 49th and 50th goals of the season in a 4-3 overtime loss to the Vegas Golden Knights in Las Vegas on Wednesday night, hitting a milestone that he’s seemingly made look easy year after year. Vegas coach Peter DeBoer pulled starting goalie Robin Lehner after the first period and turned to Logan Thompson. […]

Tim Kavanagh is a senior NHL editor for ESPN. He’s a native of upstate New York. With 11 days left in the 2021-22 NHL regular season, one of the hottest remaining playoff races is the scramble for the two Western Conference wild cards. Heading into Monday night’s games, the Dallas Stars and Nashville Predators hold a four-point lead over the […]

ST. PAUL, Minn. — Enjoying the best season of his NHL career, Ryan Hartman sure has plenty of support in Minnesota. The Wild center was fined $4,250 by the league for unsportsmanlike conduct in the game Tuesday night against Edmonton, stemming from a fight with Oilers left wing Evander Kane. After the scrap was over and the two were separated, […]

Avalanche left wing and team captain Gabe Landeskog has not yet begun on-ice activities in his recovery from knee surgery but remains on pace to return to the lineup by the playoffs. “That’s the goal,” Avs coach Jared Bednar said after Monday’s practice. Landeskog hasn’t played since March 10 at Carolina. He underwent knee surgery on March 13 and has […]

Jared Bednar was busy Wednesday in Pittsburgh. He had just led an Avalanche practice at PPG Paints Arena on the heels of a 6-4 victory over the Penguins in the same building some 14 hours earlier. Colorado’s head coach wasn’t thinking about the fourth-year anniversary of the Humboldt Broncos bus crash that killed 16 players and team staff members and […]

TORONTO — On a night when the Toronto Maple Leafs honored Auston Matthews for setting the single-season franchise mark for goals earlier in the week, the star center added two more before the first period even ended. Matthews netted his 57th and 58th goals 27 seconds apart early on in the first frame as the Maple Leafs outlasted the Montreal […]

Tim Kavanagh is a senior NHL editor for ESPN. He’s a native of upstate New York. As we gaze upon the current NHL standings, one first-round playoff matchup appears to be more locked in than all of the rest: the Minnesota Wild vs. the St. Louis Blues in the Central Division’s No. 2-vs.-No. 3 seed matchup. Luckily for us, we […]