We can admit it. We were wrong. Well, mostly wrong. When The Athletic first asked its NHL staff for their bold predictions, it was a different time. One week into the season, we heard about everything from breakout players to trades to offer sheets to 40-goal scorers. Two months later when we revisited our preseason … Read more
An incident between John Tortorella and Philadelphia Flyers defenseman Cam York this week contributed to a deteriorating relationship between coach and team that led to Tortorella’s firing on Thursday morning, a team source said. The source said that after Tortorella benched York for the final 50 minutes of the Flyers’ game on Tuesday at Toronto, … Read more
Years before it became obvious that Alex Ovechkin was going to smash the NHL’s all-time goals record, he had an unbroken five-season run leading the league in power-play goals. The 101 pucks he pumped home with the man advantage over that stretch, from 2012-13 to 2016-17, prompted opponents to significantly adjust how they gameplanned around … Read more
The lyrics to both verses were finished, and the first line of the chorus — Fill my eyes — was in place. Lou Gramm and Mick Jones, the driving forces behind Foreigner, one of the best-selling rock bands in history, had worked through the melody enough to know they had another hit on their hands. … Read more
Chris Driedger was 16 minutes away from winning the 2022 men’s World Championships for Team Canada when disaster struck. A post-to-post push led to the complete tear of his ACL, ending his night and putting his professional hockey career in jeopardy. He watched Finland complete its comeback from the sidelines, feeling helpless, haunted by the … Read more
The trade deadline is behind us and there are only 26 days until the end of the 2024-25 NHL regular season. With each team having 15 or fewer games left, attention has shifted to the final stretch of the season. Whether a team is vying for a division title, in a tight playoff chase or … Read more
Editor’s note: This article is part of our Rankings & Tiers series, an evaluation across sport about the key players, front offices, teams, franchises and much more. They’re not always talked about as much as star players, head coaches and general managers. And, in many cases, they’re not in the limelight. But one thing I’ve seen repeatedly covering … Read more
Jack Johnson was in good shape. On Dec. 27, 2024, once David Pastrnak stickhandled out of the left corner at Nationwide Arena, the Columbus Blue Jackets defenseman broke for the near post to deny his opponent’s net-front arrival. By doing so, Johnson angled Pastrnak to where the majority of NHL players cannot score: behind the … Read more