7:00 AM ET The NHL appears to have gotten the message that its star players want the All-Star Game’s skills competitions to be challenging but not debilitating. It was outright painful to watch seasoned professionals struggle with carrying the puck through some convoluted, light-up gate or fruitlessly send 100 passes toward a tiny net on
NHL
7:23 PM ET ESPN News Services Toronto Maple Leafs forward Auston Matthews (wrist) won’t play in this weekend’s NHL All-Star Game, but he will attend the event in St. Louis, the team announced Wednesday. Matthews, 22, is day-to-day while he gets treatment for an ongoing wrist issue, Toronto said. 2 Related Matthews is tied for
7:00 AM ET The 2019-20 NHL season will take a pause this week as the league descends upon St. Louis for All-Star Weekend, a celebration of the league’s best. For this week’s edition of the Power Rankings, we identified the best decision each team has made since the end of the 2018-19 season. How we
3:46 PM ET Police in Philadelphia are investigating a complaint that Gritty, the Flyers‘ mascot, punched a 13-year-old following a photo shoot at a November event for season-ticket holders, a police spokesperson told The Philadelphia Inquirer. Chris Greenwell told the Inquirer that his son, Brandon, playfully patted Gritty on the head after the photo was
11:55 PM ET ESPN News Services Joel Quenneville is used to winning games at United Center. When you coach the Chicago Blackhawks for 11 seasons, it comes with the territory. Tuesday night was more of the same for him … just on the opposing bench. Frank Vatrano had three goals, Mike Hoffman had two assists
8:50 PM ET New York forward Artemi Panarin, the Rangers’ leading scorer and potentially the biggest offseason addition of any team in the NHL, missed Tuesday’s game vs. the New York Islanders with an upper-body injury. Panarin, signed by the Rangers in July after he led the Columbus Blue Jackets to the playoffs, has 26
3:51 PM ET Associated Press Former NHL forward Akim Aliu has signed in the Czech Extraliga for the remainder of the season, a source told the Associated Press on Tuesday. Aliu joins the Czech league team with 14 games left in the season; playing for HC Litvinov gives him a chance to display his game
7:10 AM ET The NHL’s All-Star Weekend isn’t the mathematical midway point of the season, but it is perhaps the spiritual one. As we head into this week’s events, it is a good time to reflect on some notable performances we have seen in the 2019-20 season. But rather than running down the current leaders
1. David Pastrnak, LW, Bos LW1 1 2. Connor McDavid, C, Edm C1 2 3. Nathan MacKinnon, C, Col C2 3 4. Jack Eichel, C, Buf C3 4 5. Brad Marchand, LW, Bos LW2 5 6. Nikita Kucherov, RW, TB RW1 7 7. Leon Draisaitl, C, Edm C4 8 8. Auston Matthews, C, Tor C5
7:00 AM ET ESPN has done player polls in the past — here’s a recent edition, in which we asked players about dreaded road trips, worst dressing rooms and Gritty — but we’ve never done them in Russia. While covering the 2020 Kontinental Hockey League All-Star Game in Moscow — plenty more content coming soon!