Month: April 2008

ANAHEIM, Calif. – Forget about the Ducks’ being defending Stanley Cup champions. Anaheim coach Randy Carlyle has – or at least that’s his story as Anaheim prepares to open its Cup defence.

SPRINGFIELD, Mass. – Providence Bruins’ Scott Gordon has won the Louis A.R. Pieri Memorial Award for American Hockey League coach of the year.

MONTREAL – Barring a last-minute recovery by Saku Koivu, it will be Alex Kovalev wearing the captain’s C when the Montreal Canadiens begin the playoffs against the Boston Bruins on Thursday night.

DETROIT – The Detroit Red Wings led the NHL in points for the third time in four seasons and the sixth time since 1995.
No other team has won the President’s Trophy more than twice since the league started recognizing the accomplishment a little more than two decades ago.

Canada and USA haven’t fought over a piece of land since the War of 1812, but almost 200 years later, the United States has managed to lay claim to Pominville.

COLORADO SPRINGS, Colo. – Forward Patrick Kane, the first player selected in last year’s NHL entry draft, was among 17 players named Wednesday to the U.

PITTSBURGH – The conspiracy theorists in Ottawa believe the Pittsburgh Penguins purposely lost last Sunday’s regular-season finale to Philadelphia in order to avoid the Flyers in the first round and instead draw the Senators.

MONTREAL – The National Hockey League is trying to score more goals in the digital world.It launched an online site Wednesday, timed with the start of this year’s Stanley Cup playoffs, that focuses on video content, a growing trend on the Internet.

ST. PAUL, Minn. – Kurtis Foster leaned on his crutches, his pale face showing about 10 fewer pounds, and beamed about his first time out of the hospital or the house in three weeks.

LOS ANGELES – Jason Reitman, Lauren Conrad, Dierks Bentley and Kevin Smith are among the celebrities who will blog about their love of hockey on the National Hockey League’s website.

WASHINGTON – Sergei Fedorov knows how it feels to win the Stanley Cup.So simply qualifying for the NHL playoffs shouldn’t be that big of a deal, right? Actually, being a part of the Washington Capitals’ worst-to-first surge was a thrill for Fedorov, and not just because neither he nor his new team hadn’t participated in the postseason since 2003.

HARBIN, China – Canada secured a berth in the gold-medal game at the women’s world hockey championship Wednesday and Finland hopes the Canadians can do the same for them.

ST. PAUL, Minn. – Beaten up last April by the eventual NHL champions, the Minnesota Wild have some playoff experience to build on a year later.

SPRINGFIELD, Mass. – Michael Leighton of the Albany River Rats captured the Aldege (Baz) Bastien Memorial award Tuesday as the AHL’s top goaltender this season.

If Canada becomes the first country in more than 20 years to win the IIHF World Hockey Championship on home soil, the experience from last year’s tournament in Russia will be part of the reason why.

MONTREAL – The Boston Bruins would do well to stay out of the penalty box when they face the Montreal Canadiens in the NHL playoffs.One clear advantage Montreal will hold over the Bruins when their best-of-seven Eastern Conference series begins on Thursday night is special teams.

NEWARK, N.J. – Stopping Jaromir Jagr, Scott Gomez and Chris Drury isn’t the biggest task facing the New Jersey Devils in their first-round playoff series with the New York Rangers.

NASHVILLE, Tenn. – Detroit is the team Predators fans love to hate. They don’t call them the Chicken Wings for nothing. Yet ask the Predators players about their division rival, and all anyone will acknowledge is respect.

PITTSBURGH – Sidney Crosby would have never admitted this a year ago but on the eve of his second NHL playoffs, the Pittsburgh Penguins superstar centre revealed just how awestruck he and his young teammates were when the puck first dropped last spring in Ottawa.