NHL

8:00 AM ET I don’t care if the Seattle Kraken are good or bad. I only care that they’re weird. The Vegas Golden Knights warped our expectations for how an NHL expansion team should perform in its first season, having leveraged the league’s new advantageous draft rules to maximum compensatory effect. None of us figured

6:16 PM ET Associated Press CHICAGO — The Chicago Blackhawks have hired Rob Cookson as an assistant coach and promoted Marc Crawford to associate coach. The Blackhawks announced the moves before Wednesday night’s game at Seattle. The 60-year-old Cookson also has worked on NHL staffs with Ottawa, Calgary and Philadelphia. “Rob’s extensive NHL experience will

4:25 PM ET Associated Press SUNRISE, Fla. — Aleksander Barkov is hurt, and the Florida Panthers are relieved it’s not as bad as initially feared. Barkov will be week-to-week with a knee injury but will not need surgery, Panthers interim coach Andrew Brunette revealed Wednesday. “It’s the best-case scenario,” Brunette said. “Could have been worse.

4:14 PM ET Fenway Sports Group is in advanced talks to purchase the Pittsburgh Penguins, a source confirmed to ESPN on Tuesday. Ron Burkle and Mario Lemieux have been the Penguins’ majority owners since 1999. The Wall Street Journal and Sportico were the first to report on the potential sale. The agreement needs to be

2:05 AM ET ESPN News Services LOS ANGELES — Staples Center is getting a new name. Starting Christmas Day, it will be Crypto.com Arena. The downtown Los Angeles home of the NBA’s Lakers and Clippers, the NHL’s Kings, and the WNBA’s Sparks will change its name after 22 years of operation, arena owner AEG announced

7:00 AM ET With the one-month mark in the rearview mirror — with the requisite awards presented to their winners — teams are certainly beginning to show tendencies that are more than just early-season trends. For this week’s power rankings — which saw a new No. 1 — we identify that key tendency for all

11:29 PM ET ESPN News Services Florida Panthers center Aleksander Barkov left Tuesday night’s game against the New York Islanders with a lower-body injury, marring a 6-1 rout that kept the Panthers unbeaten at home. Barkov collided knee-on-knee with Islanders defenseman Scott Mayfield with 18 minutes, 13 seconds left in the second period. Barkov remained

1:46 PM ET Associated Press PROVIDENCE, R.I. — A former minor league coach in the Pittsburgh Penguins system who also had a brief NHL playing career has been indicted on multiple sexual assault charges in Rhode Island, the state attorney general’s office announced Tuesday. Clark Donatelli, 55, of South Kingstown was indicted by a grand

8:00 AM ET The Hockey Hall of Fame welcomed its newest class on Monday night in Toronto, which means it’s time to start speculating on next year’s immortals. Because of the COVID-19 pandemic, there wasn’t a 2021 class for the Hall. That means players like Henrik and Daniel Sedin carry over to the Class of

7:00 AM ET His friends call him Bruno. For 1,110 regular-season games over 16 NHL seasons, many called Andrew Brunette their teammate. After he retired in 2012, the Minnesota Wild called him by many titles — coach, assistant general manager, special assistant to the general manager and director of player personnel. In July 2019, Joel

9:18 PM ET NHL commissioner Gary Bettman is pledging to do better. The league has been reeling from an investigation into the Chicago Blackhawks that showed the club mishandled allegations of sexual misconduct in 2010 by Kyle Beach against former Blackhawks video coach Brad Aldrich. Speaking at the Hockey Hall of Fame induction ceremony on

2:35 PM ET The NHL postponed the Ottawa Senators‘ next three games because of a COVID-19 outbreak, the first games this season that the league has had to postpone for COVID. The Senators were due to travel to New Jersey to face the Devils on Tuesday before returning home for games against the Nashville Predators

7:00 AM ET In the first month of the NHL’s 2021-22 season, the biggest news was clearly off the ice. The investigation into how the Chicago Blackhawks handled claims by Kyle Beach that video coach Brad Aldrich sexually assaulted him in 2010 led to resignations by Chicago GM Stan Bowman and by former coach Joel

6:27 PM ET Associated Press WASHINGTON — The Washington Capitals re-signed forward Nic Dowd to a three-year contract extension with an average annual value of $1.3 million. The Capitals announced the move Sunday before their game against Pittsburgh. The 31-year-old has one goal this season, but provided good depth in the 2020-21 season with a

2:56 PM ET Associated Press PITTSBURGH — Pittsburgh Penguins center Sidney Crosby, defenseman Brian Dumoulin and head coach Mike Sullivan are scheduled to rejoin the team in Washington D.C. on Sunday after exiting the COVID-19 protocol. Crosby and Dumoulin went into the protocol on Nov. 3. Sullivan joined them a day later as part of

5:21 PM ET Associated Press NEW YORK — Vancouver Canucks defenseman Tucker Poolman was suspended for two games without pay by the NHL on Friday for high sticking Colorado Avalanche forward Kiefer Sherwood. Poolman was assessed a match penalty midway through the third period in the Canucks’ 7-1 loss in Denver on Thursday night. The

7:00 AM ET Early in the 2021-22 NHL season, rookies aren’t just building their respective cases for the Calder Trophy. Many of them are helping to change the trajectory of their teams — in most cases for the better, in some cases for the worse. Here’s a look at which rookie forwards, defenseman and goaltenders

12:03 AM ET ESPN News Services DETROIT — Zach Fucale became the first goaltender in Capitals history to post a shutout in his NHL debut, stopping 21 shots as Washington beat the Detroit Red Wings 2-0 Thursday night. Dmitry Orlov and Lars Eller scored 10 seconds apart in the first period as the Capitals ended