NHL

12:57 AM ET Associated Press EDMONTON, Alberta — Connor Bedard became the youngest player to score four goals in a world junior hockey championship game, leading Canada to an 11-2 win over Austria on Tuesday night. The 16-year-old joined Mario Lemieux (1983), Simon Gagne (1999), Brayden Schenn (2010), Taylor Raddysh (2016) and Maxime Comtois (2018)

6:06 PM ET ESPN News Services Sixteen months after choosing Canada as the safest place to complete its season, the NHL now faces a series of hurdles north of the border that complicate its bid to power through the pandemic all over again. The league postponed nine more games Tuesday — all of them in

7:40 AM ET ESPN staff Dave Sandford/NHLI via Getty Images The NHL returns to action Tuesday after the league took an extended holiday break due to increased COVID-19 cases. There haven’t been any games played since Dec. 21. The ESPN+ exclusive schedule continues on Tuesday with the Tampa Bay Lightning hosting the Montreal Canadiens and

11:46 PM ET ESPN News Services EDMONTON, Alberta — Ville Koivunen scored twice as Finland routed Austria 7-1 on Monday at the world junior hockey championship. Brad Lambert had a goal and two assists for Finland (2-0), while Kalle Vaisanen, Samuel Helenius, Kasper Simontaival, and Topi Niemela also scored. Goalie Juha Jatkola made eight saves.

7:30 PM ET Associated Press CHICAGO — A lawsuit filed against the Chicago Blackhawks by a former Michigan high school student who said he was sexually assaulted by ex-assistant coach Brad Aldrich has been dismissed, an attorney said Monday. Susan Loggans, who represents the former student, told The Associated Press that an order in the

7:00 AM ET Kevin Sousa/NHLI via Getty Images Every NHL team has one — the player it can’t win without. With the league on pause until at least Tuesday, we’ve combed through each roster to find the player having the biggest impact. Sometimes it was easy to spot that player, in other instances, a closer

12:30 AM ET Associated Press RED DEER, Alberta — Boston University goalie Drew Commesso made 23 saves and the defending champion United States opened the world junior hockey championship with a 3-2 victory over Slovakia on Sunday night. Up 3-0 after two periods, the Americans held on after Martin Chromiak scored twice for Slovakia in

5:26 PM ET Associated Press The NHL will emerge from an extended holiday break with taxi squads and other roster revisions, a move made to guard against more disruptions to the season amid more players and coaches going into COVID-19 protocol Sunday. Each team will be allowed to have a taxi squad of up to

6:59 PM ET The NHL announced that it will not resume its regular season until at least Tuesday. The NHL and NHLPA agreed to begin their holiday break last Wednesday due to the number of players and teams impacted by COVID-19. The original plan was to begin games again on Monday. That means the entire

6:04 PM ET Associated Press TORONTO — Toronto forward William Nylander entered the NHL’s COVID-19 protocols Friday, giving the Maple Leafs 13 players on the list. Maple Leafs captain John Tavares, defenseman Morgan Rielly and goaltender Jack Campbell also are in the protocols along with coach Sheldon Keefe, two assistants and four other members of

8:52 PM ET The International Ice Hockey Federation is canceling all of its January events because of the rise in COVID-19 cases and could announce the move as soon as Friday, sources told ESPN on Thursday night. The cancellations include the 2022 U18 Women’s World Championships in Sweden, making it the second straight year the

3:42 PM ET The retirement of Willie O’Ree’s No. 22 by the Boston Bruins will be a landmark moment, happening 64 years to the date that he became the first Black player in the NHL. A summit scheduled around the event is intended to honor the power of that moment while trying to make hockey’s

6:53 AM ET Associated Press The World Junior Championship is a holiday hockey tradition like no other. And it should look a little different this year. Due to COVID-19 concerns, the 2021 tournament was moved to Edmonton, Alberta, and played in “bubble” conditions with no fans allowed to watch the proceedings. This year, Edmonton and

9:00 AM ET It’s hard to think about leveling up at a time when hockey is sinking into an abyss of positive tests, postponed games and a best-on-best Olympic tournament that will exist only in our daydreams and video game simulations. So let’s remember the good times, shall we? Here are 10 players and teams

2:44 PM ET The NHL and NHL Players’ Association have come to an agreement to not participate in the 2022 Winter Olympic men’s hockey tournament in Beijing, multiple sources told ESPN. The NHL and NHLPA had negotiated Olympic participation in 2022 and 2026 into the newest collective bargaining agreement after NHL players did not participate

5:27 PM ET Associated Press CALGARY, Alberta — The Calgary Flames have pulled out of a deal with the city for a new arena because of increased costs. John Bean, president and chief executive officer of Calgary Sports and Entertainment, said Wednesday that there is no viable path forward to complete the 19,000-seat Event Centre.

1:22 PM ET Kelly CohenESPN The idea, back in 1995, was to have the world’s best hockey players on the ice for the Winter Olympics. Three years later, NHL players debuted in the Winter Games in Nagano, Japan, with all of the accompanying fanfare and excitement. It hasn’t gone as planned. NHL players were not

10:20 AM ET On Monday, the NHL announced that it was hitting pause on the 2021-22 season through the Christmas break. On Tuesday, the second piece of disappointing news emerged, as the NHL and NHLPA came to an agreement that NHL players would not be participating in the 2022 Olympic Games in Beijing, after such