12:35 AM ET ESPN News Services Making his first appearance after missing the entire NHL regular season with a hip injury, Tampa Bay right winger Nikita Kucherov scored two power-play goals Sunday night to help the defending champion Lightning beat the Florida Panthers 5-4 in Game 1 of their playoff series. Kucherov had surgery on

4:17 PM ET ESPN News Services PITTSBURGH — The New York Islanders gave up quite a bit to acquire the services of Kyle Palmieri at the trade deadline. And though it took him awhile, he did choose the right time to pay major dividends. Palmieri’s second goal of the game 16:30 into overtime lifted the

7:38 AM ET The first night of the 2021 Stanley Cup playoffs set the bar high for the postseason. We had drama, with the Washington Capitals losing their starting goalie in the first period. We had intensity, as the Capitals and Boston Bruins had a spirited affair. Finally, we had a surprise, as the Caps

11:32 PM ET It was Craig Anderson to the rescue in the Washington Capitals‘ Game 1 overtime victory against the Boston Bruins. Anderson, who turns 40 next Friday, stopped 21 of 22 shots after replacing injured starter Vitek Vanecek in the first period, leading the Capitals to a 3-2 overtime win at home on Saturday

5:55 PM ET Associated Press LOS ANGELES — Drew Doughty isn’t the only player on the Kings roster who was disappointed about the team’s disappointing run down the stretch. But as they go into a third straight offseason missing the playoffs, the defenseman laid down a challenge to the entire organization. “As a team, we

8:00 AM ET NHL Insiders The 2021 NHL season was a campaign the likes of which we’ve never seen — and hope to never see again. The game schedule was limited (both in overall volume and variety of opponents). The fan capacity was limited. Thankfully, the permutations of how the Stanley Cup Final might play

10:05 PM ET Associated Press FRISCO, Texas — Dallas Stars center Roope Hintz will have surgery next week in New York to repair a tendon issue in his groin area that bothered him throughout the season while he was a point-a-game player. General manager Jim Nill said Friday that Hintz played through “an avulsion injury

7:00 AM ET After the NHL staged a 24-team, bubble-based tournament to determine the Stanley Cup winner in 2020, we’re back to a more traditional 16-team event in 2021 — with a significant twist. The first two rounds of the 2021 playoffs will be intradivisional. After a winner is crowned from the four divisions, the

12:25 PM ET Associated Press The Professional Women’s Hockey Players’ Association is forging ahead with its bid to establish an economically sustainable professional league in North America with or — for now — without the NHL’s full financial backing. In response to a Sportsnet report that the NHL was not in a position to operate

12:09 AM ET Associated Press DENVER — Tyson Jost scored two of Colorado’s five second-period goals as the Avalanche clinched the West Division and the top overall seed in the NHL playoffs with a 5-1 win over the Los Angeles Kings on Thursday night. Pierre-Edouard Bellemare, Joonas Donskoi and Andre Burakovsky also scored in the