NHL

8:00 AM ET Picture an NHL coach. Windbreaker with a team logo at the morning skate, business attire at the game. Frantically scribbling notes on a card or whiteboard, less concerned with a player’s “underlying numbers” than with “grit and jam.” Eschewing analytics for “their gut” during key decisions. Pittsburgh Penguins coach Mike Sullivan fits

The Canadian Press Family affair: Surtain, Samuel could go early in NFL draft Alabama’s Patrick Surtain II, Florida State’s Asante Samuel Jr. and Jaycee Horn of South Carolina are three of the top cornerbacks in this year’s NFL draft. If their names sound familiar, well, they should. Surtain is the son of a standout cornerback

USATSI Ducks goaltender Ryan Miller announced he will retire from the NHL at the end of the 2020-21 season, according to a press release by Anaheim on Thursday. Miller has been in the league for 18 years and is the all-time leader in wins among U.S.-born goaltenders with 390. Miller’s list of accomplishments is long.

9:00 AM ET Connor McDavid is going to win the Hart Trophy this season. They literally should just list his name three times as the winner and the finalists. No one else should even be in the conversation. As an example, Matt Larkin of The Hockey News noted that through April 26, the Edmonton Oilers

Welcome to the PHT Morning Skate, a collection of links from the NHL and around the hockey world. Have a link you want to submit for the PHT Morning Skate? Email us at phtblog@nbcsports. • Wild top pick Marco Rossi on his battle with COVID-19, which has kept him from playing this season: “They said

7:00 AM ET Tim KavanaghESPN.com Close Tim Kavanagh is a senior NHL editor for ESPN. He’s a native of upstate New York. On Wednesday in this space, we pondered whether any of the West Division teams would spoil a matchup between the Vegas Golden Knights and Colorado Avalanche in the second round of the playoffs

Starting next season, NHL games will air on network properties no longer affiliated with (or on) NBC, whose exclusive broadcast rights deal with the league will expire at the end of this year’s Stanley Cup Final. The NHL knew the right business decision would be to partner with multiple broadcast entities. NBC is no longer

The Telegraph Peter Sagan sprints to stage win as Rohan Dennis retains Tour de Romandie lead and Chris Froome makes further time losses Wednesday April 28 — Aigle to Martigny, 168.1km Peter Sagan claimed his first Tour de Romandie stage since his last appearance at the race in 2010 when the Bora-Hansgrohe rider won a

The Telegraph Peter Sagan sprints to stage win as Rohan Dennis retains Tour de Romandie lead and Chris Froome makes further time losses Wednesday April 28 — Aigle to Martigny, 168.1km Peter Sagan claimed his first Tour de Romandie stage since his last appearance at the race in 2010 when the Bora-Hansgrohe rider won a

10:14 AM ET Associated Press The National Women’s Hockey League announced Wednesday that it is doubling its salary cap to $300,000 for each of its six teams based on projections that it is making strides in achieving financial stability entering its seventh season. “Making an investment in those players by doubling the salary cap we

2:33 PM ET Associated Press PITTSBURGH — Pittsburgh Penguins center Evgeni Malkin practiced on Wednesday, indicating he is near a return from a lower-body injury that’s kept him out since mid-March. Malkin wore a white “no contact” jersey during Pittsburgh’s skate, but coach Mike Sullivan said the Russian star was a full participant and will

1:02 PM ET Associated Press MONTREAL — Canadiens forward Jonathan Drouin is taking an indefinite leave of absence for personal reasons, the team said Wednesday. The Canadiens announced on their Twitter feed that Drouin will be placed on long-term injured reserve by the club. “We ask everyone to respect his privacy,” the Canadiens said. Drouin

CBC Top Canadian sport officials want athletes fully vaccinated ahead of Tokyo Sport officials in Canada are calling for Canadian athletes headed to Japan to compete in the Olympics and Paralympics to get priority access in the vaccination program and receive two doses prior to leaving for Tokyo. “If most Canadians are going to be

NBCSN’s coverage of the 2020-21 NHL season continues with the Wednesday Night Hockey matchup between the St. Louis Blues and Minnesota Wild. Blues-Wild coverage begins at 6 p.m. ET on NBCSN. You can watch the game online and on the NBC Sports app by clicking here. There’s a tendency to look at the dominance of

6:48 AM ET Tim KavanaghESPN.com Close Tim Kavanagh is a senior NHL editor for ESPN. He’s a native of upstate New York. There have been many surprises during the 2021 NHL season, a campaign that has been quite different than usual thanks to the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic. However, one reality on April 28 that shocks

7:00 AM ET With the 2021 NHL season winding down, some playoff races have yet to be determined — but each team’s identity has been clarified. For this week’s ESPN NHL Power Rankings, we identified the breakthrough player for all 31 teams. How we rank: The ESPN hockey editorial staff submits selections ranking teams 1

This is a great time to be a hockey fan in Florida. The Tampa Bay Lightning and Florida Panthers are not only making the playoffs, but both squads clinched their playoff berths with time to spare. The Lightning and Panthers both secured their trip to the postseason on Tuesday with 7-4 victories against Chicago and

11:52 PM ET For just the sixth time in franchise history, the Florida Panthers are a playoff team. Which is not an achievement many predicted for them prior to this season. “We knew what kind of character we had in the room. What kind of players we were. That’s just outside noise we didn’t need