7:00 AM ET ESPN.com staff It’s being billed as The Return and as Week 4 of the NFL season approaches, it’s the game everyone has been talking about: Tampa Bay Buccaneers quarterback Tom Brady heads back to Foxborough, Massachusetts, to face his former team, the New England Patriots (8:20 p.m. ET, NBC). Brady won an

9:11 PM ET Associated Press CHICAGO — Chicago Blackhawks goaltender Kevin Lankinen practiced Monday after he was removed from the COVID-19 protocol list. Lankinen had been held out since Friday. His absence doesn’t necessarily mean he tested positive for COVID-19. General manager Stan Bowman said last week that the team was 100% vaccinated. The 26-year-old

12:45 AM ET Associated Press SPOKANE, Wash. — The concourses of the Spokane Arena were jammed. The merchandise lines snaked through the crowds, causing bottlenecks as fans filed in for their first glimpse of the Seattle Kraken. There seems to be little doubt about the popularity and reach of the NHL’s newest franchise, even when

4:40 PM ET HC Kremenchuk forward Andrei Deniskin is facing disciplinary action from the Ukrainian Hockey League after making a racist gesture toward American-born defenseman Jalen Smereck of HC Donbass, who is Black. In the second period of their game on Sunday, Deniskin shouted at Smereck and then pantomimed unpeeling a banana and eating it.

8:10 PM ET ESPN News Services ST. LOUIS — The St. Louis Blues signed longtime president of hockey operations and general manager Doug Armstrong to a five-year contract extension Saturday. Armstrong, 57, was named the organization’s 11th general manager after the 2009-10 season after joining the Blues as assistant general manager in 2008. “When I

4:19 PM ET ESPN News Services OTTAWA, Ontario — The Ottawa Senators acquired Zach Sanford on Saturday, sending St. Louis native Logan Brown to the Blues in exchange for the veteran forward. St. Louis also received a conditional 2022 draft pick from Ottawa. Sanford had 10 goals and 16 points in 52 games for the

6:03 AM ET Associated Press ST. PETERSBURG, Russia — French official Luc Tardif was elected president of the International Ice Hockey Federation on Saturday ahead of the return of NHL players to the Olympics in February. Tardif, who was born and raised in Canada, beat German candidate Franz Reindl by 67 votes to 39 in

6:10 PM ET Associated Press CHICAGO — An attorney who represents a former Chicago Blackhawks player who alleges he was sexually assaulted by a then-assistant coach in 2010 says her client has been interviewed as part of the team’s review of the accusations. A former federal prosecutor has been hired by the Blackhawks to conduct

1:00 PM ET You may have heard, but the NHL is back on ESPN. We are very excited about this. But, I’ll let you in on a little secret – in some ways, the NHL never left ESPN. Our Bristol, Connecticut campus, for example, is full of passionate hockey fans, always has been. I feel

Sep 24, 2021 Philadelphia Flyers forward Kevin Hayes admitted it was a conversation that he had been dreading, but on Friday he spoke for the first time about the death of his brother Jimmy Hayes last month. “My brother was a special person. He touched a lot of lives,” Kevin Hayes said in an emotional