NHL

9:44 PM ET Edmonton Oilers forward Zack Kassian was suspended for seven games by the NHL Department of Player Safety on Friday, after kicking Tampa Bay Lightning defenseman Erik Cernak with his skate blade in Thursday night’s loss. Kassian is a repeat offender, having been suspended two games on Jan. 13 after a one-sided fight

5:30 PM ET Associated Press Former Columbus Blue Jackets general manager Scott Howson will be the American Hockey League’s next president and CEO. The AHL’s board of governors Friday unanimously elected Howson as Dave Andrews’ successor. Andrews served in that role for the past 26 years. Howson, who has a law degree from Canada’s York

1:55 PM ET Bruce Boudreau’s tenure with the Minnesota Wild has come to an end. GM Bill Guerin fired Boudreau on Friday, ending the coach’s four-season tenure with the organization. The coach went 158-110-35 with the Wild, making the playoffs in his first two seasons but losing in five games both times. In 13 seasons

7:10 AM ET “What we have at hand is the rarest of sporting events, an event that needs no buildup, no superfluous adjectives. In a political or nationalistic sense, I’m sure this game is being viewed with different perspectives, but manifestly, it is a hockey game.” Al Michaels’ “Do you believe in miracles?” call in

12:10 PM ET It’s getting very, very hard to sympathize with the National Hockey League when it comes to Olympic participation. For a while, it was easy. The International Olympic Committee was on the other side of the table, an organization that makes FIFA look like Amnesty International by comparison. Pick your toxicity: The bottomless

10:43 PM ET David Pastrnak‘s MVP-like season continued Wednesday night for the Bruins. The star right winger needed just two periods to record his fourth hat trick of the season as Boston bested the rival Canadiens at TD Garden, 4-1. The four hat tricks are the most in a season by a Bruins player since

6:50 AM ET The best moves at the NHL trade deadline are usually the ones teams don’t make. Sure, there’s always a chance a team finds that perfect, Butch Goring-sized puzzle piece to complete a championship picture. But more often than not, the NHL trade deadline is like impulse-buying a poorly constructed boat: filled with

7:30 AM ET Scouting is an inexact science. Just look at the years-later reaction to every NHL draft after any given player has a modicum of NHL success, especially those who were drafted outside of the top 10. “How did he go that low in the draft? How did all of those teams pass on

7:30 AM ET SAN JOSE — J.T. Miller has a reputation in the NHL. He’s a blue-collar player with a physical edge. He’s a versatile forward able to play in a variety of roles. But when the Tampa Bay Lightning traded him to the Vancouver Canucks last summer, he earned another label: someone worth spending

11:06 PM ET St. Louis defenseman Jay Bouwmeester was taken to the hospital after suffering a cardiac episode on the bench during Tuesday night’s game against the Anaheim Ducks and is conscious and alert, the Blues said. “Thankfully, with the quick response of our medical trainers, Anaheim medical trainers and their team physicians, they were

7:30 AM ET One of the best stories in the NHL is happening in Columbus, where the Blue Jackets keep losing players but keep winning games anyway. Since coach John Tortorella’s volcanic eruption at the expense of the officials (and his bank account), which happened to coincide with the loss of their starting goalie, the

7:30 AM ET MOSCOW — It’s a Friday night at the hockey rink, and a dozen kids rush to the first row of the 100 level and begin calling for their hero. “Gretz-key! Gretz-key!” they yell, waving pens and asking for autographs. No. 99 finally walks over. He’s lanky, at 6-foot-4, with long, angular features

7:30 AM ET When Carolina Hurricanes second-year right wing Andrei Svechnikov rounded the Calgary net in late October, scooped the puck onto his stick and tucked it home top shelf, he ushered in a new wave of highlight-reel, how’d-he-do-that innovation in NHL goal scoring. Although many had tried the expert-level move, no one had succeeded

10:15 PM ET Greg WyshynskiESPN Close Greg Wyshynski is ESPN’s senior NHL writer. Follow on Twitter Facebook Twitter Facebook Messenger Pinterest Email The Pittsburgh Penguins addressed a need in their top six as they ready for the playoffs. But they had to pay a price to do so, sending a decent-sized package back to the

6:44 PM ET ESPN News Services Montreal Canadiens prospect Jayden Struble is out for the rest of the season with a lower-body injury, a person with direct knowledge of the situation told the Associated Press. 2 Related The person spoke to The Associated Press on condition of anonymity because Struble’s prognosis had not been announced

9:40 AM ET The baseline reaction to the annual NHL trade deadline is that it’s always underwhelming, which is frankly unfair. It’s like going into a movie having seen all the trailers and read all the spoilers and then being disappointed when the action on the screen doesn’t match the movie in your head. The

10:42 PM ET Colorado Avalanche forward Nazem Kadri left Sunday’s 3-2 victory over the Minnesota Wild with an injury after an awkward fall backwards in the second period during an offensive-zone faceoff. Kadri, who appeared to twist his left leg as he back-passed the puck after the faceoff, returned to the ice for the third

7:30 AM ET On June 22, 2017, then-New York Islanders forward Ryan Strome was flying from Toronto to Chicago. He was supposed to meet his brother, Dylan, at O’Hare International Airport, and together, they were going to attend the NHL draft to cheer on their youngest brother, Matthew. While surfing Twitter on the plane, Ryan