1:22 PM ET Kelly CohenESPN The idea, back in 1995, was to have the world’s best hockey players on the ice for the Winter Olympics. Three years later, NHL players debuted in the Winter Games in Nagano, Japan, with all of the accompanying fanfare and excitement. It hasn’t gone as planned. NHL players were not
NHL
10:20 AM ET On Monday, the NHL announced that it was hitting pause on the 2021-22 season through the Christmas break. On Tuesday, the second piece of disappointing news emerged, as the NHL and NHLPA came to an agreement that NHL players would not be participating in the 2022 Olympic Games in Beijing, after such
9:16 PM ET ESPN News Services The Tampa Bay Lightning were without coach Jon Cooper on Tuesday night in the only game left in the NHL this week after he was placed in COVID-19 protocol earlier in the day, according to the team. Assistant coach Derek Lalonde took his place running the bench in Las
2:44 PM ET The NHL and NHL Players’ Association have come to an agreement to not participate in the 2022 Winter Olympic men’s hockey tournament in Beijing, multiple sources told ESPN. The NHL and NHLPA had negotiated Olympic participation in 2022 and 2026 into the newest collective bargaining agreement after NHL players did not participate
10:18 AM ET ESPN staff The headlines on Monday night were stark, if unsurprising: The NHL was going to pause the 2021-22 season Wednesday, and resume after Christmas break, amid a spike in COVID-19 cases. This followed a flurry of team shutdowns that left a diminishing number of games on the schedule. In the aftermath,
1:13 PM ET Associated Press The Washington Capitals–Philadelphia Flyers game scheduled for Tuesday night has been postponed. It’s the 50th NHL game postponed this season for coronavirus-related reasons. The league said COVID-19 issues with the Capitals prompted the postponement. That left the Tampa Bay Lightning at the Vegas Golden Knights as the only game left
7:00 AM ET Shane Wright remembers the first arm he was asked to autograph. “It was a forearm. I’ve signed a couple of them, actually,” he said. “Signing people’s skin has been a little weird for me.” Wright, 17, is a center for the Kingston Frontenacs of the Ontario Hockey League. He’s also the consensus
9:06 PM ET The NHL plans to pause its season on Wednesday, two days before its planned Christmas break, sources told ESPN on Monday evening. All NHL team facilities will be closed between Dec. 22 and 25 as the league tries to weather several COVID-19 outbreaks. Players are set to report back to team facilities
12:34 PM ET The NHL has shut down two more teams through the Christmas break as COVID-19 cases have continued rising around the league. On Monday, the Columbus Blue Jackets and Montreal Canadiens both had their team activities paused until after Dec. 26. They were the eighth and ninth teams that the NHL has closed
8:12 AM ET The year in hockey 2021 began with a 56-game season, impacted the COVID-19 pandemic, that saw the league’s 31 teams realigned into four new divisions. It ends with the teams back in their usual divisions, although there are now 32 of them thanks to the Seattle Kraken. Oh, and it’s once again