Hockey, Ice
Tampa Bay Lightning Try To Win Stanley Cups. How Hard Is It?
Winning a championship is the peak achievement for a professional sports team. Repeating the next year is a rarity. But trades get made, and players retire. Injuries happen, and so do upsets. Postseason play is a grueling gantlet to run, and it keeps expanding. Winning a third straight title is one of the toughest feats […]
Know More
Lightning Will Go for a Third Straight Stanley Cup Against the Avalanche
No matter the sport, winning back-to-back championships titles is rare because it’s so hard. Injuries, egos, contract demands and the N.H.L. salary cap often derail second title runs. The Tampa Bay Lightning, though, are close to accomplishing something even more difficult: Winning three Stanley Cups in a row. The two-time champions beat the Rangers, 2-1, […]
Know More
Russian Goalies Like Shesterkin and Vasilevskiy Dominate the NHL Playoffs
“Banning team sports, particularly ones that represent Russia, is certainly justified,” he said. “But it would be hard to exclude the hockey players. The hardest one to justify would be banning Vasilevskiy or Shesterkin.” Frye has traveled to Russia regularly since 1985 and has been to about a half-dozen hockey games there, both before and […]
Know More
The Lightning Are Trying to Three-Peat. A Ranger Is, Too.
The Tampa Bay Lightning are talented, rugged and playoff tested. As the two-time defending champions, they possess a rare understanding of what it takes to carry the Stanley Cup around the rink — twice in two years. But Barclay Goodrow, the Rangers forward, is also talented, rugged and playoff tested. And he is a two-time […]
Know More
Rangers Hand Hurricanes First Home Loss of the Playoffs to Advance
The question entering Monday night wasn’t whether the Rangers could win an elimination game or a high-stakes Game 7; it was whether they could beat the Carolina Hurricanes away from Madison Square Garden. The answer is yes they can. The Rangers’ rather magical N.H.L. playoff run has, for the first time since 2015, carried them […]
Know More
To Win Series, the Rangers Must Do What No Team Has Done
The Carolina Hurricanes have not lost a home game in this year’s N.H.L. playoffs, so naturally their success in their own arena was a main topic of conversation when the Rangers met with reporters before their flight to North Carolina on Wednesday afternoon. But contained in all the discussion about travel, loud fans and tactical […]
Know More
Oilers and Flames in Battle of Alberta: Bedlam on the Ice, Torn Loyalties Off It
ON THE ROAD BETWEEN CALGARY AND EDMONTON, Alberta — A white sedan trundled down a quiet road in Gasoline Alley, a tiny hamlet alongside Highway 2, with two flags flapping in a Saturday breeze. One fluttered for the Edmonton Oilers hockey club and the other for the Calgary Flames, two of the fiercest rivals in […]
Know More
The Rangers’ Goalie Is Adjusting to the Pressures of the Playoffs
He is also one of the N.H.L.’s best players at any position. He was named as one of the three finalists for the Hart Trophy for most valuable player during the regular season and is almost guaranteed to be awarded the Vezina Trophy as the best goalie. All the evidence voters needed was his .935 […]
Know More
In N.H.L. Playoffs, a Canadian Divide Between Winners and Losers
TORONTO — Here, in the part of Canada that likes to think of itself as the center of the country — and as the center of ice hockey — the N.H.L. playoffs quickly and predictably withered. But hockey is raging like wild roses in Alberta, way to the west. The second round of the postseason […]
Know More