NHL

10:37 AM ET Boston Bruins goalie Tuukka Rask is leaving the NHL bubble and opting out of the Stanley Cup playoffs, he announced via a statement from the team on Saturday. “I want to be with my teammates competing, but at this moment there are things more important than hockey in my life, and that’s

7:45 AM ET The Stanley Cup champions from 2018 (Washington Capitals) and 2019 (St. Louis Blues) are both in an 0-2 hole after Friday. The team that won in 2016 and 2017 (Pittsburgh Penguins) has already been eliminated. It sure feels like there’s going to be some new blood winning this summer. We also got

11:53 PM ET One the St. Louis Blues‘ defining traits in their Stanley Cup run last season was an ability to bounce back after losses. They were 8-2 after defeats, including their Game 7 win over Boston on the road for the championship. In this postseason, the Blues lost Game 1 of their Western Conference

9:27 AM ET Canadiens coach Claude Julien was released from the hospital and will return home to Montreal to rest after having a stent inserted into his coronary artery, the team announced Friday. Julien was admitted to St. Michael’s Hospital in Toronto on Wednesday after experiencing chest pains following his team’s 2-1 loss in Game

6:46 AM ET For many series, this is a critical juncture: Teams with a 2-0 lead in a seven-game playoff series are 324-51 (86.4 percent) in those series. The Vegas Golden Knights are already there. Four more teams — the Colorado Avalanche, Philadelphia Flyers, New York Islanders and Vancouver Canucks — have a chance to

7:00 AM ET For Robin Lehner, the situation would have been comical had it not been so maddening. The blade popped off the Vegas Golden Knights goaltender’s skate — twice — against the Chicago Blackhawks in Game 1 of their quarterfinal series on Tuesday night. At one point, he was scrambling on the ice to

2:24 PM ET Montreal Canadiens coach Claude Julien was admitted to a Toronto hospital after experiencing chest pains following his team’s game on Wednesday night. Montreal GM Marc Bergevin said he does not believe the issue is related to COVID-19, but Julien was undergoing tests on Thursday. “He’s for sure in really good hands,” Bergevin

9:00 AM ET The worst thing about the New York Rangers winning the Alexis Lafrenière draft lottery is how their fans are going to absolutely mangle his name. My father grew up in the city. His first attempt at a pronunciation was “Lufthansa.” The Canadian hamlet of Saint-Eustache produced an exquisite French Canadian moniker —

7:25 AM ET Wednesday didn’t bring us any five-overtime games. But it did bring us brunch hockey, double overtime, two unreal saves, a $25,000 fine and a lot of heat in postgame Zoom calls. Check out the ESPN Stanley Cup Playoffs Daily every day of the postseason until the Cup is handed out in October.

6:58 AM ET The start of the NHL’s Stanley Cup quarterfinals set the bar rather high. Like, five overtimes high. Before the next day of competition, please check out our staff picks for each series, including the uncomfortable number of us predicting that the best team in the NHL during the regular season will get

7:00 AM ET The fans’ volume increased as Vegas Golden Knights forward Alex Tuch raced into the Colorado Avalanche zone during overtime. They let out a jubilant roar when he snapped a shot over goalie Philipp Grubauer to win the game and earn his team the No. 1 seed in the Western Conference half of

9:59 PM ET The first game of the first round of the 2020 Stanley Cup Playoffs began at 3 p.m. ET on Tuesday, between the Tampa Bay Lightning and Columbus Blue Jackets. It didn’t end until the fifth overtime, which was 6 hours, 24 minutes later in real time. Along the way, playoff records for

7:05 AM ET The 2020 NHL playoffs will officially begin on Tuesday, as the 24-team tournament — with five-game qualification round series and round-robin seeding matchups — has moved on to a more recognizable, 16-team version. This round includes several matchups where revenge will be on the mind of one team (or both, for separate

6:54 AM ET Playoffs? Yes, you can now actually say that these are the 2020 NHL playoffs. The tournament is now officially in the first round, with only 16 teams left. Day 1 brings us a slate of four games, though none before 3 p.m. ET. We miss morning/noon hockey already. Check out the ESPN

8:00 PM ET The New York Rangers won the second lottery for the 2020 NHL draft, which determined which team would have the opportunity to pick at No. 1 overall. That first selection is widely expected to be phenom Alexis Lafreniere of Rimouski Oceanic in the Quebec Major Junior Hockey League. In June, a ‘Placeholder’

6:40 PM ET The New York Rangers won Monday’s NHL draft lottery — and the right to select consensus No. 1 pick Alexis Lafreniere. The Rangers committed to a rebuild in 2018, but that has been expedited after an exciting 14 months. New York selected No. 2 overall in the 2019 draft, picking Finnish winger

7:05 AM ET There have been many extraordinary aspects to the National Hockey League’s return to the ice after it paused its season for the coronavirus pandemic in March. Hockey being played in August. Stanley Cup playoff games held in empty arenas echoing with artificial crowd noise. But perhaps most notable of all about the

11:13 PM ET Associated Press TORONTO — Joonas Korpisalo stopped 33 shots and the Columbus Blue Jackets advanced to the first round of the NHL playoffs with a 3-0 win over the Toronto Maple Leafs in a decisive Game 5 on Sunday night. Zach Werenski‘s floater from the left point in the first period held