NHL

10:43 AM ET The Buffalo Sabres finally fired head coach Ralph Krueger on Wednesday, having gone 6-18-4 in this cursed season for them. That included a 3-2 loss to the New Jersey Devils on Tuesday night, who snapped an 11-game home losing streak (0-10-1) while pushing Buffalo’s losing streak to 12 games (0-10-2). Krueger finally

7:00 AM ET Time is a warp these days, but believe it or not, we’re at the halfway mark of the NHL’s abridged 56-game 2021 season. For this week’s ESPN Power Rankings, we identified the MVP on every team at the midseason point. How we rank: The ESPN hockey editorial staff submits selections ranking teams

9:54 PM ET ESPN News Services WASHINGTON — Alex Ovechkin scored his 718th career goal to pass Phil Esposito for sole possession of sixth on the NHL’s career list and became the second active player to record 1,300 points, helping the Washington Capitals beat the New York Islanders 3-1 Tuesday night. The Capitals have won

7:00 AM ET Some rookie stars arrive in the NHL with their own gravitational pull, knocking a franchise out of its orbit. Minnesota Wild coach Dean Evason saw it happen first hand while with the Washington Capitals when Alex Ovechkin arrived. He was a player whose pulsating lifeforce, on and off the ice, infused every

4:53 PM ET Associated Press LOS ANGELES — The Los Angeles Kings‘ game against the St. Louis Blues on Monday night has been postponed because of weather conditions that kept the Kings in Denver on Sunday. The NHL didn’t immediately announce a makeup date Monday. The Kings’ plane couldn’t leave after their 4-1 loss to

1:43 PM ET Associated Press MONTREAL — Canadiens defenseman Ben Chiarot could miss the rest of the regular season after undergoing surgery Monday for a fractured hand. The operation was at Montreal General Hospital and he is expected to miss six to eight weeks, the team said before Monday’s game in Winnipeg. Chiarot was hurt

7:00 AM ET Death, taxes, and discounting the New York Islanders until they go on a run that forces you to pay attention. It’s been a yearly tradition for the Isles in the Lou Lamoriello and Barry Trotz era. But as a rival player told me recently: “The Islanders have the strongest team identity in

5:09 PM ET ESPN News Services BOSTON — Chris Kreider scored his team-leading 14th goal, Artemi Panarin had an assist in his first game back since leaving the team, and the New York Rangers beat the Boston Bruins 4-0 Saturday to halt a three-game losing streak. Panarin left Feb. 22 after a Russian tabloid printed

12:25 PM ET ESPN News Services BUFFALO, N.Y. — The Buffalo Sabres will be without captain Jack Eichel for what coach Ralph Krueger called “the foreseeable future” in delivering yet another blow to a team in the midst of a nine-game skid. The injury is not considered season-ending, though Krueger on Saturday was unable to

5:00 PM ET Washington Capitals general manager Brian MacLellan didn’t rule out goalie Henrik Lundqvist returning to the team this season after undergoing open-heart surgery in January. “It would be pretty incredible if he was able to come back. I guess we’ll see where he is at the end here,” said MacLellan on Friday. “Probably

4:39 PM ET Associated Press COLUMBUS, Ohio — The Columbus Blue Jackets on Friday acquired defenseman Mikko Lehtonen from the Toronto Maple Leafs for goaltender Veini Vehvilainen. Lehtonen, 27, skated in his first NHL game on Jan. 18 against Winnipeg and earned his first career assist on Jan. 30 at Edmonton. He will join Columbus’

7:15 AM ET It was March 11, 2020, and the Winnipeg Jets were holding their morning skate before a game at the Edmonton Oilers. Coach Paul Maurice had just stepped onto the ice when his captain, Blake Wheeler, skated over with a concerned expression. “You think they’re going to shut us down tonight?” asked Wheeler.

7:44 PM ET Jordan Binnington bet on himself and won a lucrative new contract with the St. Louis Blues. The 27-year-old goalie agreed to a six-year contract extension worth $36 million on Thursday. His average annual contract value of $6 million is a jump up from his current AAV of $4.4 million. His cap hit

10:17 PM ET The Detroit Red Wings‘ most recent Stanley Cup championship was 13 years ago, even if their multiyear residency in the NHL’s basement makes that memory feel protractedly distant. There were 23 players who appeared for Detroit in the 2008 playoffs. Twenty of them are retired, with three having been subsequently enshrined in

8:14 PM ET ESPN News Services GLENDALE, Ariz. — The Arizona Coyotes could be without top goalie Darcy Kuemper for a significant amount of time due to a lower-body injury. Kuemper was injured in Monday’s game against Colorado. The team said Wednesday he is listed as week to week. 2 Related Kuemper, who missed three

3:55 PM ET ESPN News Services NEW YORK — The NHL has suspended Nashville Predators defenseman Dante Fabbro two games for elbowing Carolina Hurricanes forward Brock McGinn. The league’s Department of Player Safety announced the suspension Wednesday after a morning hearing for the rookie defenseman. Fabbro will forfeit $15,948.28 based on his average annual salary,

1:19 PM ET Artemi Panarin returned to Rangers practice on Wednesday, more than two weeks after he took a personal leave of absence from the team. Panarin took an indefinite leave on Feb. 22 after his former Kontinental Hockey League coach, Andrei Nazarov, told a Russian newspaper that Panarin got into a physical altercation with

1:24 AM ET We’re now eight weeks into the 2021 NHL season,Teams are nearing (or have passed) the halfway points in their schedule, although we don’t have an All Star break as a symbolic marker. For this week’s ESPN Power Rankings, we identified an underrated story line on every team How we rank: The ESPN