7:00 AM ET ESPN’s 64-player “Greatest NHL Name” tournament bracket dropped this week and garnered the expected reaction from hockey fans: passion, amusement, obsession and countless people vehemently protesting that Slater Koekkoek should have been a No. 1 seed. To recap, we took some of the greatest names to grace NHL ice — and Ukko-Pekka
NHL
7:45 AM ET The 2019-20 NHL season started on Oct. 2, 2019, and didn’t finish until Sept. 28, 2020, thanks to a pause of nearly five months due to the COVID-19 pandemic. December is usually when we start to hear significant trade rumblings begin — Taylor Hall was traded on Dec. 16 of last season
8:50 AM ET The Stanley Cup is something that sets the National Hockey League apart from other sports. Not only because it’s the rare championship trophy from which you can drink, but also because the names of those who won it are etched along its rings, forged into hockey history. Oh, the names hockey has
10:47 AM ET The NHL is now aiming for a mid-January start date with a 52 or 56-game schedule, at best, sources confirmed to ESPN. That NHL’s initial target of Jan. 1 became unfeasible, because of necessary time for training camp — plus extra time promised to the seven teams that did not make this
7:00 AM ET Nearly 15 years ago, Erik Cole lay in a Pittsburgh hospital bed with two fractures in his vertebra, wondering about his future. Brooks Orpik had crushed him with an illegal check from behind in a game on March 4, 2006, an act for which the Penguins’ punishing defenseman was suspended three games.
5:09 PM ET Several NHL teams are exploring the possibility of playing some 2020-21 home games in outdoor venues and in front of fans if local COVID-19 restrictions on mass gatherings would allow for them, sources confirmed to ESPN on Thursday. The Boston Bruins confirmed they’re exploring home games at Fenway Park, which has hosted
9:25 AM ET The Angry Beaver has endured a lot. Perhaps that’s why it’s so angry. Billed as Seattle’s only hockey bar, the Angry Beaver has been operating in the Greenwood neighborhood since 2012. On busy nights, it looks like a hockey quilt: different fans in different jerseys, clustered together, watching their NHL teams, never
5:00 PM ET University of North Dakota players Jasper Weatherby and Jacob Bernard-Docker took a knee during the national anthem before their game against Miami (OH) on Wednesday, in what is believed to be the first such demonstration against racial injustice during an NCAA Division I men’s hockey game. The game was held in an
3:48 PM ET NHL commissioner Gary Bettman pushed back on the idea that owners have asked players to renegotiate the CBA that was signed five months ago, saying it is “unfortunate and inaccurate” how conversations with the NHLPA have been portrayed in the media. Speaking at the Sports Business Journal’s “Dealmakers in Sport” panel on
7:15 AM ET The halls of Yost Ice Arena should be bustling right now, with the Michigan Wolverines’ pep band blaring “The Victors” and the Children of Yost — the boisterous student section — heckling an opposing goaltender. But with no fans allowed in the building, one of college hockey’s most sacred cathedrals is empty.