
Call It the National Heart Attack League
"Old people don't watch it, because you might die just watching." -- Jaromir Jagr, on the first two games of the Stanley Cup Final Jaromir Jagr is exaggerating for effect, of...
NHLChris Johnston, Sportsnet Magazine
Matt Kalman, Boston Herald
Jackie MacMullan, ESPN Boston
Brian Hamilton, Chicago Tribune
Jeff Jacobs, Hartford Courant

So far, this has been entirely too easy for Claude Julien. On a night where the Boston Bruins coach likened the line matching during the Stanley Cup final to a chess match, it loo...(full article)

His team was about to take on the Chicago Blackhawks in Game 2 of the Stanley Cup finals last Saturday when Bruins coach Claude Julien incredulously responded to a question abou...(full article)

BOSTON -- If you carved the Mount Rushmore of Boston's recent championship coaches into stone, Claude Julien would occupy the space chiseled for Teddy Roosevelt. Washington wou...(full article)

When the Stanley Cup Final is tied after two games, the winner of the third game historically goes on to win the whole thing 84 percent of the time. The Chicago Blackhawks' chanc...(full article)

The T-shirt in support of one of Boston's great role players is as clever as it is profane. "Yippee Paille … !" There's another word following Paille, of course, but this is...(full article)


"Old people don't watch it, because you might die just watching." -- Jaromir Jagr, on the first two games of the Stanley Cup Final Jaromir Jagr is exaggerating for effect, of...

Go ahead and question Blackhawks coach Joel Quenneville for having Brandon Bollig on the ice for overtime of Saturday night's 2-1 loss to the Bruins in Game 2 of the Stanley Cup F...

CHICAGO—The Boston Bruins and Chicago Blackhawks have proven, through 185 minutes and 56 seconds' worth of hockey, that they are evenly matched. Both teams have scored five goal...

These Boston Bruins are one resilient bunch. Daniel Paille scored at 13:48 in overtime and the Bruins shrugged off a sluggish start to beat the Chicago Blackhawks 2-1 on Saturday ...

Believe it or not, Evgeni Malkin’s asking price could probably have grown even more just by waiting a little longer to sign his massive extension with the Pittsburgh Penguins. ...

Let’s get the big question out of the way first, as Evgeni Malkin commits to the Pittsburgh Penguins for eight additional seasons at $76 million, beginning in 2015 and runnin...

What we had, playing out in front of us on a continuous loop, was crazed, energy drink hockey. Ferocious hockey. It was the first overtime Wednesday night, and players were gladl...

Back on the biggest stage in hockey for the first time in more than two decades, Jaromir Jagr looked like a younger man. The 41-year-old Boston Bruins winger arrived at United Cent...

If this Stanley Cup Final lives up to the expectations many people have for it, we could witness a series that we'll remember for years to come. It has all the ingredients of a t...

Brad Marchand is called “The Little Ball of Hate,’’ which is just about the greatest nickname ever. It’s borrowed from former NHL player Pat Verbeek, but that’s OK. It f...

Would the Avalanche win the Stanley Cup or the Nuggets still have George Karl as coach, if the family of billionaires that owns the teams wasn't so darn cheap? Is money the root o...

The Boston Bruins are back in the Stanley Cup Final two years after winning the NHL championship. Comparing the current Bruins to the 2010-11 edition: Roster changes: With 17 r...

The season that almost wasn’t has turned out better than anyone dared expect. The NHL still ranks fourth among North America’s five major professional sports leagues, but d...

The last 14 images CBC viewers saw before Game 3 of the Eastern Conference finals, set to the wistful tones of Radiohead's "Karma Police," all involved Sidney Crosby. There was C...

Each time a city wins a sports championship, the local fans’ hearts swell with pride. With Slate’s comprehensive championship map, you can tell exactly how swollen they are. ...

When a fighter is outmatched by his opponent, steady jabs are eventually replaced by a desire to land one haymaker that’ll injure his body and his pride, and make him recons...

Jaromir Jagr lost the battle last night. Then he won the war and maybe the Eastern Conference finals for his new team the way he once did for the old one whose heart he broke just...

No one really needed to see the sight of Marc Staal flailing around violently on the ice at Madison Square Garden to know that hockey players should protect their eyes with a vis...

The greatest players get it done. For all the blood and guts, the broken sticks and gutted psyches, the every single sinew strained to exhaustion between the Penguins and Bruins i...

So, this is how it's going to go down, right? This chance-of-a-lifetime collection of talent Ray Shero has amassed, fronted by the world's two best players, supported by some of ...

PITTSBURGH — It was a great big, fat Boston cream pie mushed directly into the collective yaps of Bruins fans far and wide. They went to bed one night believing the B...

The Los Angeles Kings have set the standard for hard-to-play-against, grinding out 24 playoff wins over the last two springs. But does it matter today, if the Kings can’t score...

CHICAGO—If the story sounds familiar, that's because it is. It's the one about a goaltender whose first two playoff campaigns as a starter ended with first-round exits, foll...

The N.H.L.’s conference finals will begin on Saturday, and fans in Boston, Chicago, Los Angeles and Pittsburgh can still dream of a Stanley Cup championship. But this year is...

The rarity of having the last four Stanley Cup champions as the remaining teams left in the playoffs means the field is filled with experienced combatants who know what it takes ...

Home-field advantage is one of the most talked-about intangibles in sports, but for some events it’s a home-field curse. It’s no surprise that with the rapid shrinking of the ...

WLIMINGTON — The only thing missing from Bruins practice yesterday morning at Ristuccia Arena was a hysterical Mrs. Rocky Balboa bursting into the locker room and, with arms fla...

Yes, it seems a little odd to praise and defend the Sharks now, after one more postseason full of hope ended with a frustrating exit. I'm going to do it, anyway -- within the prop...

You didn’t have to do anything but watch the Rangers in the playoffs to see that in the end they wanted to play for John Tortorella about as much as Carmelo Anthony and the ...

If you want to know exactly how Brent Seabrook scored the game-winning goal in overtime Wednesday night, don’t ask him. But if you want to experience hockey’s fog of ...

John Tortorella can be a jerk. Maybe he hugs kids and pets dogs and supports charities away from the rink, but that doesn’t make him misunderstood. Far too often he chooses to ...

The Detroit Red Wings and the San Antonio Spurs play different sports in different leagues on different surfaces in different states, but make no mistake: They're the same team....

It has long been thought that when visors were eventually mandated in the NHL the rule would only apply to new players entering the league. But might everyone be forced to wear on...

Talk to some NHL scouts and the general feeling about the Bruins-Penguins Eastern Conference title series is that the B’s can beat the super-talented Pens — but only i...

Jarome Iginla approved a trade to the Penguins in late March because he hoped to win a Stanley Cup. He already has gotten closer to achieving that goal than he had in all but one o...

There was something a tad much about what Jonathan Toews said Thursday morning. Something overboard, something overdone. Something too too, if you know what I mean. “When y...

What had become almost a doormat (dormant?) NHL franchise now has life again. First, Joe Sakic agreed last month to become more of a factor in the day-to-day running of the Colora...

We’re big believers that your best columnists have to step it up for the playoffs. We just gotta hope Scott can get it going. Q: Talk about the column so far. A: Getting that fir...

NEW YORK — The Bruins propped up an accommodating collection of players to speak with the media following yesterday’s optional skate at Madison Square Garden, but it w...

The last Primanti Brothers sandwiches and Iron City brews have been consumed and we’re left with one nagging question from NHL draft weekend in the Steel City. Where the he...

Every team in the NHL is happy with the draft picks they made this weekend. To hear the early projections and future scouting reports of the 211 players that were selected in Pit...

Armed with salary cap space — and a captain they believe can serve as hockey’s finest pitchman — the Penguins aim to go nuclear when NHL free agency opens July ...

Brayden Schenn was watching the NHL Draft on Friday night in Saskatchewan when he heard the news about Penguins forward Jordan Staal being reunited with his older brother, Eric, in...

As hard as it is to repeat as Stanley Cup champs these days, the Los Angeles Kings may be better positioned than any other recent winner to pull it off. For one, this was a team ...

Jonathan Quick held the Conn Smythe Trophy for as long as he could, through a live television interview, and then swapped it for his 2-year-old daughter, Madison. His grip was a...

There will probably be more attention paid to who signs where on July 1 when hockey’s silly season begins anew, but the Los Angeles Kings are the latest example of why what h...

Dustin Brown wasn't sure how to express himself with the celebration around him after the game. He had handed off the Stanley Cup to teammate Willie Mitchell a good 20 minutes ea...

The Los Angeles Kings hardly sounded daunted on Sunday. Sure, they had lost two games in a row and allowed the New Jersey Devils back into the Stanley Cup finals, but they were a...

Martin Brodeur will play again next season and he thinks it will be for the Devils. Nevertheless, the 40-year-old goalie who silenced some doubters, said he will become an untrestr...

It's not that Kings can't handle adversity in the Stanley Cup Playoffs. It's that they haven't really faced it until the Stanley Cup Final against the New Jersey Devils. For thre...

Jonathan Quick was in a corner of the room, hemmed in, and he all but growled when asked a perfectly reasonable question. Is it natural that, after whipping through the West like...

After seven weeks of waltzing through the Western Conference and to within one win of the Stanley Cup, the Los Angeles Kings have arrived at their biggest challenge to da...

Only two teams that trailed 0-3 in a Stanley Cup Final have ever pushed the series to six games: the Detroit Red Wings in 1945 and the famed '42 Toronto Maple Leafs, who won the ...

The front office of the NHL might have been almost as disappointed as NBC, fans at the Belmont Stakes and the owners of I’ll Have Another. The prospect of a Triple Crown rac...

Kings captain Dustin Brown has had a huge impact on the team's march to the Stanley Cup Final, making his mark by scoring clutch goals and delivering game-changing hits that left...

After 1,394 combined NHL regular season and playoff games, there is not a whole lot that Martin Brodeur has not seen or done. Still on the list: coming back from a 3-0 deficit in...

When you’re down three games to none in the Stanley Cup finals, lineup adjustments are to be expected. And as he has done all playoffs, Devils coach Pete DeBoer made the ri...

As the New Jersey Devils fell into that darkest of playoff holes, a 3-0 series deficit, it was hard not to imagine them as they might be. Captain Zach Parise is almost certainly he...

The NHL's ratings for the Stanley Cup Final are continuing to suffer after an NHL playoff season that started out so well for the league. Game One was down by 25%. Game Two on Sat...

On the road again. It's a ballad better suited for a team in a country and western city. It could work in Dallas or Nashville, but the L.A. Kings will at least feel comfortable b...

All Martin Brodeur wants to do is his job. It's all he's really ever wanted to do. If because he does it so well that means people are going to fawn over all of the spectacular sa...

Don’t put the champagne on ice just yet. That was the mindset a day after the Los Angeles Kings snowplowed the New Jersey Devils, 4-0, in Game 3 of the Stanley Cup finals. Th...

The only number that matters to the Los Angeles Kings is 16. They're one win away from it. The number that has helped them get closer to win No. 16 in the Stanley Cup Playoffs tha...

The last man alive who knows how it feels for a team to dig itself out of the deepest of craters will not be watching to see if these Devils can accomplish the feat. Wally Stanows...

The clock is not only ticking on the Devils’ season, but on Zach Parise’s career in New Jersey, for when the puck is dropped tonight for Game 4 of the Stanley Cup Fin...

See, here’s the thing: If the Devils truly believe they worked to maximum effort last night, if they believe that other for a break or two they could have won this Game 3 t...

Defense in hockey means more than punishing hits, acrobatic saves and blocked shots. As the Los Angeles Kings are demonstrating in this year’s Stanley Cup playoffs, effective...

The Los Angeles Kings and New Jersey Devils were going to be a tough sell as a Stanley Cup Final. Neither team has the enormous national fan support that Pittsburgh, Detroit, Phil...

A potentially busy offseason for the Penguins began with general manager Ray Shero making a move to bolster a weakness. The Penguins acquired goalie Tomas Vokoun to replace Brent J...

To win the Stanley Cup, the New Jersey Devils have to win four of the next five games against a team that has lost only twice in 16 games this postseason. The New Jersey Devils are...

The Los Angeles Kings made some history on Monday night. They're ready to make even more on Wednesday. The Kings' 4-0 victory against New Jersey in Game 3 of the Stanley Cup Final...

Perhaps some coaches would feel the need to make lineup changes after losing the first two games of the Stanley Cup Final on home ice, but Peter DeBoer doesn't appear to be one of...

The Kings got this. Got it? The Kings are two wins away from winning the Stanley Cup. It's time to shed those 45 years of disappointments and heartache and let it all go. The Kings...

The best defenseman on the top pairing on the hottest team in the N.H.L. logged the most ice time in Game 2 of the Stanley Cup finals Saturday night, just as he did in the series...

Martin Brodeur tried planting his stick on the ice to stop Jeff Carter’s shot from the high slot, but Brodeur made his move a split-second too late. The Los Angeles Kings th...

Jerry Reese grew up in rural Tennessee, not exactly a hotbed for ice hockey. So he isn’t being modest when he sums up his knowledge of the sport in four words: “I don...

Zach Parise sat his locker, head hung low, recounting how close he and his teammates came to grabbing a late lead Game 1 of the Stanley Cup Final against the Los Angeles Kings o...

It was not the start the New Jersey Devils wanted. On home ice to start the Stanley Cup finals, the Devils were tentative in the first period and overwhelmed in the second, with t...

There was Zach Parise sprawling around the Kings net, desperate for any chance to finally make his mark on the opening game of the Stanley Cup Finals. The Devils’ captain h...

There are passes. And then are passes. Anybody with two eyes could see that the Kings, who had smoked Vancouver, St. Louis and Phoenix to get to their first Stanley Cup Final in ...

(Today's festival of overwriting, tortured logic and mangled syntax is brought to you by Craig Stanke, who whipped them all in his day and still had the time and stre...

The NHL's lion in winter is back in the spring. Martin Brodeur turned 40 this month. He should be in his anecdotage -- because there are few players who can tell a story about th...

The Devils and Kings will meet Wednesday night in Game 1 of the Stanley Cup Finals, and though past Devils’ Cup-winning teams were defensive-minded, this New Jersey squad p...

So here’s the Stanley Cup Final no one could have anticipated in early April. Kirk Penton of The Winnipeg Sun figured out that this is the “worst” match-up in 20 ...

To say that the 2011-12 Stanley Cup Final between the Los Angeles Kings versus the New Jersey Devils was predicted by advanced analysis would be folly — even the most ardent ...

Humor is often used as a coping mechanism to deal with life's stresses. It's no wonder Dustin Penner is the jokester of the Kings locker room. Even when he scored more pancakes th...