3:39 PM ET The Columbus Blue Jackets announced that forward Zac Rinaldo, who has chosen not to receive a COVID-19 vaccination, will remain under contract but not play for them or their AHL affiliate to start the season. Rinaldo, 31, signed a one-year, $750,000 free-agent contract with the Jackets in the offseason. But the team

8:30 PM ET Hosts Linda Cohn and Emily Kaplan bring their hockey expertise and passion for the sport, discussing the latest news around the league as well as interviewing the biggest names both on and off the ice. Longtime SportsCenter anchor Linda Cohn was the goalie on her high school boy’s team and has kept

3:00 PM ET ESPN.com standard fantasy leagues award a bonus 0.5 fantasy points when a player collects a goal or assist on special teams. While the shorthanded points are a nice little bonus when they happen, they are more or less inconsequential. Power plays are where you need to focus for fantasy. The leader for

8:25 AM ET As the 2021-22 NHL season opens, the Arizona Coyotes are the only team with plans to fully relax their game-day dress code for players, according to an ESPN survey of all 32 teams. The NHL is the only one among the four North American major men’s professional sports league with a strict

7:00 AM ET Aesthetics matter in hockey. The player with the wooliest thicket of playoff beard competes with the might of King Leonidas of Sparta. The team that gets the spiffy state-of-the-art arena stands just a bit taller in its skates. I think the New York Islanders are a playoff team this season not because

11:00 AM ET In fantasy competition, it isn’t always about putting the puck in the net, even though, for the most part, it certainly used to be. Back in the infancy of make-believe hockey management – we’re talking the 80’s here – goals and assists counted with little concern for other contributions, beyond the odd

9:12 AM ET The Ukrainian Hockey League has suspended HC Kremenchuk forward Andrei Deniskin for three games plus an additional 10 games for making a racist gesture at defenseman Jalen Smereck of HC Donbass in a game Sunday — but Deniskin is unlikely to serve all 13 games. In the second period of their game,

Sep 16, 2021 The NHL season returns on Oct. 12 with a doubleheader that will air on ESPN. The first game will feature the Pittsburgh Penguins at the Tampa Bay Lightning at 7:30 p.m. ET, and the nightcap will showcase the Seattle Kraken, the NHL’s newest franchise, against the Vegas Golden Knights. Both games will

7:00 AM ET Ranking the NHL’s goaltending tandems used to be a predictable process: Pencil in the Boston Bruins, Vegas Golden Knights, Dallas Stars and whoever the Tampa Bay Lightning have playing with Andrei Vasilevskiy at the top, and then figure out the rest. Unfortunately for us, and fortunately for the rest of the NHL,

4:10 PM ET NEWARK, N.J. — New Jersey Devils goaltender Mackenzie Blackwood said that he has chosen not to receive a COVID-19 vaccination, making him potentially unavailable for some of his team’s games this season. The 24-year-old starter said he’s “not currently” vaccinated, leaving open the possibility that he could still get the vaccine. He