When the NHL playoffs began, the bookmakers didn’t give the Dallas Stars much of a chance to win the Stanley Cup. The Stars had a decent regular season, buttressed by their excellent goaltending tandem of Ben Bishop and Anton Khudobin, who each ranked among the league’s top 10 in terms of save percentage and quality […]
On Saturday, the NHL joins the ranks of sports returning to action, with 24 teams plotting out one of the strangest paths to the Stanley Cup in hockey history. Like the NBA, the NHL season will restart in a “bubble,” with early games split between two “hub” sites: Toronto (for the Eastern Conference) and Edmonton […]
Being a head coach in any professional sport is a good way to experience meager job security. But even relative to coaches in other sports, hockey’s bench bosses have it especially tough. According to research Peter Tanner conducted for FiveThirtyEight a few years ago, the average NHL coach stayed in his post for 2.4 seasons, […]
The NHL’s annual All-Star weekend is upon us, and that means fast skaters, blistering shots, mascot hijinks and even a new trick-shot competition. For the fifth-straight year, it also means a heavy focus on the 3-on-3 format, including a women’s All-Star Game on Friday night and the four-team men’s tournament on Saturday. The NHL seldom […]
Before the puck dropped on the St. Louis Blues’ title defense, my colleague Terrence Doyle and I marveled at just how little respect the betting markets gave their repeat chances. According to odds from SportsBetting.ag and BetOnline.ag, St. Louis opened the 2019-20 season with 16-1 odds of winning it all again, which after adjusting for […]