DENVER — The Colorado Avalanche had a chance Thursday night to regain some real separation between them and the Minnesota Wild.

It didn’t happen, and special teams were again an issue.

Minnesota’s Joel Eriksson Ek scored a pair of power-play goals, while the Avalanche took too many penalties and did not convert their chances with the ...Read more

NEW YORK ― It appears all of that on-ice time during the NHL’s break for the Winter Games paid off for Matvei Michkov.

He scored not only the Flyers’ first goal of the game, but he also took a penalty to put the Flyers on the kill at the end of regulation, and then he came right out of the box and scored the overtime winner in a 3-2 win ...Read more

PITTSBURGH — In the first two periods Thursday, the Penguins often looked like a team that hadn’t played in three weeks and was missing its captain.

But their goaltender kept them in the game. And the third period brought the type of all-around dominance that has propelled Pittsburgh into playoff position deep in the season.

The Penguins ...Read more

The Lightning found themselves in an early three-goal hole less than seven minutes into Thursday night’s game in Carolina.

But Tampa Bay has shown before that it’s able to survive such surges. It wasn’t that long ago when the Lightning rallied from four down in front of 65,000 fans at Raymond James Stadium to beat the Bruins in their ...Read more

The party isn't ending for Dylan Larkin.

The Red Wings' captain and Team USA gold-medal winner scored his 28th goal — and second goal of Thursday's game — in overtime, giving the Wings a 2-1 victory over host Ottawa.

Larkin won a faceoff, got the puck to Lucas Raymond on the wing, and Raymond lofted a feeder pass to Larkin who won the race...Read more

SUNRISE, Fla. — The night started with the Florida Panthers’ Matthew Tkachuk and Toronto Maple Leafs’ Auston Matthews at center ice, set to take an honorary puck drop from Panthers president of hockey operations and general manager Bill Zito and head equipment manager Teddy Richards.

The four were part of the United States men’s hockey ...Read more

BOSTON — Charlie McAvoy changed his red, white and blue for black and gold on Thursday for the Bruins’ morning skate. But rest assured, those American colors will not be running from the B’s standout defenseman any time soon.

McAvoy returned to everyday life after he and his USA teammates captured the gold medal over Canada in the Winter ...Read more

BOSTON — The Bruins return to action was not a work of art, but it delivered them the two points they needed to start the final stretch run.

With the Columbus Blue Jackets breathing down their necks in the Eastern Conference standings, the B’s gutted out a 4-2 victory over the Jackets at TD Garden on Thursday.

A couple of former Blue ...Read more

FORT LAUDERDALE, Fla. — Soon after the USA men’s hockey team sparked celebrations across the country with Jack Hughes’ gold-medal-winning goal against Canada on Sunday, the team was engulfed in a political controversy.

FBI Director Kash Patel was seen on video celebrating in the locker room with the team, and Panthers star Matthew Tkachuk...Read more

LOS ANGELES – The Vegas Golden Knights rolled out a roster that would’ve been suited for a preseason game.

It took a four-minute span to make that point completely irrelevant.

The Knights, trailing by one entering the third period, scored three times in 4:14 and five times overall and defeated the Los Angeles Kings 6-4 at Crypto.com Arena ...Read more

SALT LAKE CITY — The Colorado Avalanche didn’t have superstar Nathan MacKinnon on Wednesday night, but they did have Parker Kelly and a bunch of other Olympians.

Kelly created a highlight-reel goal, while Brock Nelson and Martin Necas scored in their first game back from the 2026 Winter Olympics to help the Avs defeat the Utah Mammoth, 4-2,...Read more

WASHINGTON — It feels like it’s been 84 years since the Flyers last played an NHL game.

On Wednesday night, they kicked off the final 26 games of the season against the Washington Capitals. Entering the night, Philly sat four points back of Washington — with three games in hand — and eight points back of a playoff spot.

By the end of ...Read more

TAMPA, Fla. — Things didn’t come easily for the Lightning early on in their first game in nearly three weeks.

In Wednesday’s return to play against the division rival Maple Leafs, the Lightning saw two first-period goals negated following Toronto coach’s challenges. It was ruled that Tampa Bay was offside entering the offensive zone ...Read more

TAMPA, Fla. — This has certainly been a hectic four days for Tampa Bay Lightning forward Jake Guentzel, from winning an Olympic gold medal for Team USA, to the politically fueled controversy circling the team that followed and then opening a stretch of 27 games in 50 days to round out the NHL regular season.

“It’s been a whirlwind,” ...Read more

PITTSBURGH — Sidney Crosby is expected to miss at least four weeks with the lower-body injury he suffered while playing for Canada at the 2026 Winter Olympics, the Penguins announced Wednesday.

Crosby left Canada’s quarterfinal matchup after a series of hard hits, including a collision with Czechia’s Radko Gudas that caused Crosby’s ...Read more

DENVER — Show of hands if your wife has looked at you the way Nathan MacKinnon looked at that stuffed stoat.

Heck, yeah, Brock Nelson put family first this week.

And good for him. The Avalanche center’s got four young, adorable kids at home, all under 8 years old. Daddy’s spent the last three weeks in the Alps, grinding through Olympic ...Read more

FORT LAUDERDALE, Fla. — By Sunday night, even as the gold-medal celebration swirled in Milan, Bill Zito began moving on. This always was the bargain. Team USA’s assistant general manager helped construct a generational hockey win against Canada in the Olympics …

“It was so exciting, so humbling,’’ he said.

… and now became the ...Read more

SEATTLE — I keep coming back to something Ron Francis said on April 29, 2024, the day he fired former Seattle Kraken coach Dave Hakstol. Seattle’s then-general manager and current president of hockey operations stood in a corner of the Kraken Community Iceplex, outside the locker room, and fielded the kind of questions that beckon when the ...Read more