NHL News

11:04 PM ET Game 3 of the Stanley Cup Final saw the long-awaited return of Tampa Bay Lightning captain Steven Stamkos. In true storybook fashion, Stamkos scored on his first shot (he skated only 2:47 for the game), and his team overwhelmed the Dallas Stars en route to a 5-2 victory. Tampa Bay now leads

7:00 AM ET The Tampa Bay Lightning are teasing us with a potential Steven Stamkos return; could Wednesday’s Game 3 be the night? In the meantime, Tampa Bay has continued its postseason-long trend of rebounding after losses (the team is now 6-0 after a loss) to tie the Stanley Cup Final, 1-1. Meanwhile, the Dallas

7:30 AM ET A young hockey player’s first out-of-town tournament is in many ways a rite of passage in the sport. It means the first time seeing players from other parts of the country or world and gauging where one’s game stands against that of peers. It’s hours on end at the rinks, parents nursing

7:20 AM ET The 2020 NHL draft is right around the corner. Teams will begin to finalize their personal draft boards ahead of the two-day event. But today, I’m not concerned with those draft boards. I’m looking only at my own. My mock draft typically weaves in team preferences and projects what I believe will

7:00 AM ET For nearly two months, the National Hockey League has kept the teams in its postseason tournament inside “bubbles” that it helped construct with the NHL Players’ Association in an effort to safely finish the 2019-20 season after it was paused because of the COVID-19 pandemic. Initially there were two: The 12 teams

9:00 AM ET Tyler Seguin has been teammates with Jamie Benn since 2013. With the Dallas Stars playing in the Stanley Cup Final, it’s been a time for reflection for these friends and linemates. “It’s great. We’ve been through a lot of stuff,” Seguin said as a grin crept across his face during a recent

7:00 AM ET The Stanley Cup Final began on Saturday with an emphatic 4-1 win by the Dallas Stars. The Tampa Bay Lightning haven’t lost consecutive games all postseason. Can they keep that trend alive, or will they fall into the dreaded 0-2 hole tonight? Check out ESPN NHL Playoffs Today every day of the

6:13 PM ET ESPN News Services Severely outplayed in Game 1 of the Stanley Cup Final in losing 4-1 to the Dallas Stars Saturday, the Tampa Bay Lightning appeared optimistic Sunday about seeing their captain, Steven Stamkos, return to game action. Coach Jon Cooper said Stamkos “is inching his way closer,” but declined to specify

10:17 PM ET Game 1 of the 2020 Stanley Cup Final was a wonderful site for Dallas Stars fans, as their team took a 1-0 lead over the Tampa Bay Lightning on goals from Joel Hanley, Jamie Oleksiak, Joel Kiviranta and Jason Dickinson; the lone goal for the Lightning came from Yanni Gourde. In case

7:00 AM ET The Tampa Bay Lightning and Dallas Stars are the final teams standing in the NHL’s postseason bubble, ready to battle for the second Stanley Cups in their franchises’ respective histories. But before they lift the Cup, one player will be handed the Conn Smythe Trophy as the most valuable player in the

7:00 AM ET So here we have it, a Stanley Cup being awarded in September. In a bubble. It will be either the Tampa Bay Lightning (whose only Cup win came back in 2004) against the Dallas Stars (lone Cup in 1999). It’s the first time two Sun Belt teams have faced off in the

12:19 PM ET The 2020 Stanley Cup Final between the Eastern Conference champion Tampa Bay Lightning and the Western Conference champion Dallas Stars begins Saturday night in the Edmonton bubble. As a service to fans who have a general interest in NHL hockey but have no idea what has happened in the past few months,

7:41 AM ET The 2020 Stanley Cup Final is set! The Tampa Bay Lightning — this summer’s cardiac kids — knocked out the New York Islanders with a Anthony Cirelli overtime goal. It’s the third straight series the Lightning have clinched in an overtime game this summer, and earns them the right square off against

10:00 AM ET What a time to be a New York Islanders fan. Normally when you hear that, it doesn’t portend good things. It means the Islanders were criminally mismanaged or were purchased by an actual criminal or were forced into a nomadic arena existence that hopefully doesn’t end with them in Quebec City. But

6:55 AM ET There has been only one NHL playoff team to rally and win after facing a 3-1 series deficit in the round immediately preceding the Stanley Cup Final: The New Jersey Devils in 2000, who went on to win the Stanley Cup. The architect of that team? New York Islanders GM Lou Lamoriello.

6:53 PM ET Associated Press Jim Montgomery was hired by the St. Louis Blues as an assistant Wednesday, less than a year after he was fired by the Dallas Stars for unprofessional conduct. Montgomery is getting a second chance 10 months after Stars general manager Jim Nill said the coach acted inconsistently with “core values

6:47 AM ET The Dallas Stars are in the Stanley Cup Final for the first time in 20 years … and they’ll have to wait a little bit longer to find out who they are playing. The New York Islanders kept their season alive by besting the Tampa Bay Lightning in a double-overtime Game 5.

7:00 AM ET The New York Islanders were one of the strongest teams in the Toronto bubble, but ever since they arrived in Edmonton, they’ve been outmatched by the Tampa Bay Lightning in the Eastern Conference finals. Sure, we can forget about the 8-2 drubbing in Game 1 and chalk it up to an unfavorable