The NHL's Board of Governors approved the establishment of a franchise beginning with the 2024-25 season in Utah. In addition, a plan was approved that renders the Arizona Coyotes franchise inactive, with a right to reactivate if owner Alex Meruelo has fully constructed a new, state-of-the-art facility appropriate for an NHL team within five years. The TSN Hockey Insiders have more.

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NEW YORK (April 18, 2024) – The National Hockey League’s Board of Governors today approved the establishment of a franchise beginning with the 2024-25 season in Utah, that will be owned and controlled by Smith Entertainment Group, which is led by Ryan and Ashley Smith. In addition, the Board approved a plan that renders the Arizona Coyotes franchise inactive, with a right to reactivate if owner Alex Meruelo has fully constructed a new, state-of-the-art facility appropriate for an NHL team within five years.

from Damien Cox at the Toronto Star,

Of course, Toronto’s ugly playoff drought against the Bruins also could have ended in Game 7 in 2018, but it didn’t. It could have ended with the Leafs holding a 3-2 series lead in 2019, but then Toronto’s finest could only score three goals in the final two games and went down to defeat again.

Which brings us to 2024, and another meeting between the two clubs. This time, someone of a conspiratorial mindset might think that this matchup was deliberately orchestrated by the Bruins, another chance to pummel the Leafs.

All Boston had to do, after all, was beat hapless Ottawa at home on Tuesday night to win the Atlantic Division. Instead, the Bruins made Anton Forsberg look like Vladimir Dzurilla and mailed in a 3-1 loss. That allowed the Florida Panthers, who beat the Leafs that night, to win the division and allowed the Bruins to draw the Leafs in the first round.

Was that Boston’s preference all along? If you had Boston’s record against Toronto, wouldn’t you have done the same? The Leafs haven’t bested the Bruins in a playoff series since 1959, and currently are on a seven-game regular-season losing streak against their Atlantic Division “rival.”

Just this season, it’s been all Boston. Four games, four wins. The Bruins held the powerful Toronto offence to nine goals and the vaunted Leafs power play to nine per cent efficiency. Boston goes right at the strengths of the Leafs and takes them away.

If teams were permitted to choose their first-round playoff opponent, we can agree the Leafs would have been Boston’s No. 1 pick. And maybe that’s exactly the preference the Bruins expressed in losing to the Senators.

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"It should come with an air sickness bag, this whole saga," Burke said. "It's just ridiculous that a city of 6 million people is going to fold and move to a city with 1.5 or whatever Salt Lake City has … so we're going to give up a marketplace of 6 million people for a marketplace of 1.5 million people where they've never had pro hockey other than the IHL and some AHL teams that were there.

"OK, does that make sense to anyone else? … It doesn't to me. Make this guy sell the team, get a new team in the right location and keep playing."

via azcentral

from Helene St. James of the Detroit Free Press,

When the Wings opened the visitor's locker room at Centre Bell to reporters after Tuesday's events, players looked and sounded devastated. They had done what they could, rallying from a third-period deficit for the 14th time and winning in a shootout, only to find it was moot because the Washington Capitals won their game, ending the Wings' playoff chase.

That it's over is a letdown — but consider where the team was five years ago when Steve Yzerman was named general manager on April 19, 2019: Fourth from the bottom. The next year, the Wings finished at the bottom of the standings, 23 points below the 30th-place team.

To be in contention for a playoff spot all the way to Game 82 just four years later is tremendous progress. These past two weeks, when the Wings took 11 of 16 possible points while facing one opponent after another with something of their own to play for — is something that stands to pay dividends next season.

It was a remarkable finish, especially after what transpired over the past seven weeks. On Feb. 27, the Wings were 13 games above .500 and in the first wild card spot, only two points behind the Toronto Maple Leafs for third place in the Atlantic Division. The Wings lost their next three games, but two of those were to the Florida Panthers and Colorado Avalanche, both elite opponents. The team looked deep enough, and had promising prospects in the minor, that Yzerman stood pat at the trade deadline.

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27 years in Arizona for the Coyotes.

* The 2023-24 campaign became just the second in NHL history to feature two 100-assist players as Nikita Kucherov hit the mark in his final game of the season.

* The Stars clinched the top seed in the Western Conference for the fifth time in franchise history and first since 2015-16, which in turn locked in a First Round matchup between the Canucks and Predators.

* The final gameday of the 2023-24 season will see the last two First Round matchups decided as well as a potential faceoff between Connor McDavid and Nathan MacKinnon on ESPN and Sportsnet.

fromm Matt Vensel of the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette,

Jeff Carter’s two little ones and his wife, Megan, were waiting Wednesday night when a line suddenly formed near center ice at UBS Arena.

As the Penguins played their season finale against the New York Islanders, a game in which they were competitive but lost 5-4, there were signs throughout the arena the 39-year-old was skating in the final game of his fantastic career.

Carter’s family had flown in from Pittsburgh to be there in person to watch him. They sat in a suite next to Jonathan Quick, his former Los Angeles teammate.

The Penguins made Carter a starter and Sidney Crosby briefly slid over to the wing so Carter could take the opening faceoff, a classy gesture by the captain.

During the third period, Penguins coach Mike Sullivan kept sending Carter over the boards, and his teammates forced passes to him whenever they got the puck. It paid off when Crosby set up Carter for the tying goal during the third period.

And then after the final horn sounded, the Islanders lined up in the neutral zone so they could shake hands with Carter, one of the NHL’s oldest active players.

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He joins Orr, Gretzky, Lemieux and McDavid. Kucherov is the first winger to hit the 100 assists mark.

from Ted Kulfan of the Detroit News,

"All of these guys never quit," said Larkin, whose leadership as captain was again impressive. "We had a very close-knit group this year. To have the last month, the last two weeks that we had, we just wouldn't go away. Comeback after comeback, just so much fun."

Tuesday's victory was the Wings' 14th third-period comeback victory of the season. It's a staggering number and spoke to the attitude and resiliency of the roster. The Wings' comeback ability was shocking in the final games.

David Perron's game-tying goal, with three seconds left Tuesday in regulation time, was a fitting example to of this Wings' roster that simply would not quit.

"For this team, the way that we battled, whether it was to come back in games or just find ourselves in this position was incredible," Kane said. "It was like nothing I've ever seen. There's no quit in this team. Really had a lot of fun playing with these guys and playing for the team here in general.

"It was a really fun year. It's very disappointing right now, but hopefully we can find some positives in the way we played towards the end of the year. The battle level" of this group was just so impressive."

There's no doubt Tuesday was a gut-wrenching punch. But you couldn't miss the undercurrent of optimism regarding the future given all the positives from this season: The growth of Raymond and Seider, the continued development of Michael Rasmussen and Joe Veleno, and the drive and example of a list of veterans that showed the way.

A continued theme after Tuesday's game was the closeness of the group. The unity was apparent as the season progressed and the success mounted.

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NEW YORK (April 17, 2024) – The National Hockey League today announced the dates, starting times and national television coverage for the Eastern Conference Game 1s of the 2024 Stanley Cup Playoffs First Round, which begins Saturday, April 20. The complete First Round schedule will be announced when available. All times listed are ET and subject to change.

Hey there hockey enthusiasts! As the NHL season heats up and the race for the Stanley Cup intensifies, all eyes are on the Toronto Maple Leafs. With a storied history and a passionate fan base, the Leafs are no strangers to playoff aspirations – but are they a true dark horse contender for hockey's ultimate prize?

From their strong regular season performance to their offensive firepower and defensive improvements, there's no denying that the Leafs have been making waves in the league. But with tough competition and high expectations, the road to the Stanley Cup won't be easy. So, let's break it down and see if the Maple Leafs are indeed a dark horse contender for hockey's most coveted trophy.

$2.5M

from Tim Benz of the Pittsburgh Tribune-Review,

The Pens needed both the Red Wings and the Caps to lose Tuesday in order for their regular-season finale against the New York Islanders to matter Wednesday night. But that didn’t happen. So for the second consecutive season, the Pens will miss the playoffs after making them every year from 2007-22....

So the Pens had their chances to do better against the teams they needed to edge in order to make the playoffs. That’s to say nothing of losing 6-3 in Detroit on Oct. 18.

Or, instead, we could focus on the three games the Penguins lost with multi-goal leads against Calgary, Colorado and Columbus since the calendar flipped to March. Or any game they could’ve won if their 31st-ranked power play (14.6%) wasn’t so bad. Or if they could’ve been at least average among playoff-contending teams when it came to winning games in 3-on-3 overtime instead of failing to win in that period 12 times.

The point is, any time a pro sports team needs to rely on help to qualify for the postseason and fails to get it, it’s not about the help letting them down. It’s about what the organization itself didn’t do to secure a spot on its own.

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from Helene St. James of the Detroit Free Press,

Derek Lalonde wanted to make sure the Detroit Red Wings appreciated just how much they accomplished.

He addressed them minutes after they were eliminated from playoff contention Tuesday in the regular-season finale. They won their game against the Montreal Canadiens, 5-4 in a shootout, but the Washington Capitals also won their game and have the tiebreaker on Detroit. It was a bittersweet way to finish — win, but lose.

Lalonde related what he told players: "Be proud of their effort. Leave this rink with their head up. Positive narrative about the group. All year long, especially down the stretch, they played for each other. It was all about the team. We take seven of our last eight points the way we did. We won 14 games trailing in the third period.

"This stings, but they did move this proud organization forward from where it’s been, and we have to keep pushing forward."

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from Mark Spector of Sportsnet,

It was a book on terminally ill patients — On Death and Dying — that introduced us to the five stages of grief: denial, anger, bargaining, depression and acceptance.

Brian Kulina never read the book.

He doesn’t have to.

He’s an Arizona Coyotes fan.

“One day you wake up and you’re bargaining: ‘Maybe it would be different if this thing happened ... ?’” Kulina said this week, as he prepared to attend Wednesday’s franchise finale against the Edmonton Oilers at the tiny, sold-out Mullett Arena on the Arizona State University campus.

“Then you see something, and you get angry. And then you get sad,” he said. “We're running through the gamut, and where it's all coming from is, we feel like we were directly lied to.”

There will be plenty of time for Coyotes Nation to recline on its collective therapy couch and process the loss of its team to Salt Lake City. But for now, finding acceptance means avoiding the Coyotes' NHL.com web page.

The day before dropping the puck on what is 99.9 per cent certain to be this franchise’s last game here, the Coyotes' web page sports a banner across the top reading: BREAKING: Coyotes Announce Commitment to Win State Land Auction & Build Privately Funded Arena.

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from Ted Kulfan of the Detroit News,

It will be the eighth consecutive season the Wings miss the playoffs.

"It’s hard, gutting," captain Dylan Larkin said. "We're pretty sad in here, just to see it come to an end. It's very sad, very hard."

The Wings found out about Washington's victory just before the shootout.

"We are you going to do, you know?" said an emotional Larkin.

Still, the way the Wings closed the season earning seven of a possible eight points and displaying amazing resiliency was a big step forward for the organization and may indicate better days ahead.

"Be proud of their effort, leave this rink with your head up," said coach Derek Lalonde of what his post-game message was. "It's a positive narrative about the group all year long, especially down the stetch. They played for each other. It was all about the team.

"I feel awful for the guys because they literally gave everything they had. It's gut-wrenching for the group. I'm proud of them, I don't know what more this group could have done."

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Below watch the post-game interviews.

* The fierce race for the final Wild Card spot in the Eastern Conference came to a close Tuesday after a chaotic finish that saw the Capitals capture the final berth into the 2024 Stanley Cup Playoffs.

* The Panthers and Canucks both earned wins Tuesday to clinch the Atlantic and Pacific Division, respectively. All four division titles have now been accounted for.

* The stage was set for three playoff matchups during Tuesday’s eight-game slate, with the Panthers set to face the Lightning, the Bruins confirmed to clash with the Maple Leafs and the Rangers slated to battle the Capitals.

* As the penultimate day of the 2023-24 regular season arrives, attention switches to the Western Conference as three matchups remain undetermined and a conference title still needs to be clinched – two of the six clubs still without a First Round opponent play during Wednesday’s four game slate: Dallas and Edmonton.

1-1 after 20 minutes. Late goals by Seider could change the momentum.

Habs took a 3-1 lead inn the 2nd, Veleno score for the Wings to make it 3-2 after 40 minutes.

Sprong tied the game at 3-3 early in the third but Montreal went up 4-3 with just over 7 minutes to play.

Perron scores with 3 ticks left on the clock, to overtime again.

No scoring in OT and in the shootout, Kane with the only goal to win 5-4 but Detroit will miss the playoffs again due to a Washington win.

Team Stats

Detroit goals are below.

Good evening and welcome to all. It’s game #82 with outcomes yet to be decided, and, as long as the Red Wings take care of their own game, then the rest doesn’t matter. The team, and the fans, are well aware that it’s all or nothing.

Reimer is in goal tonight. No other changes to the lineup have been announced.

It’s the Red Wings vs the Canadians in an Original Six matchup. The puck drops around 7:00 PM and will be broadcast/simulcast on Bally Sports Detroit and TV20 (WMYD in Detroit), and on the Red Wings Radio Network 97.1 (The Ticket in Detroit). Also available on ESPN+/NHLPP, TSN2, RDS, SPORTSNET+, and SCRIPPS.

It’s a Live Blog!

As the hockey season draws to a close, anticipation is mounting for the playoffs. April 22 is the date when it’s all due to kick off in the race to win the Stanley Cup.

It’s a race that 16 hopeful teams will enter. But only one is going to emerge victorious.

Wings win, Caps lose? Wings win, Caps win? Wings lose, Caps win? Both teams lose?

There are more scenarios but you get the picture.

My gut says Wings win, Caps score late to tie game, Flyers win in OT.