Islanders PA announcer tweets ‘Cindy Crosby’ photo, encourages chant The New York Islanders host Sidney Crosby and the Pittsburgh Penguins on Saturday afternoon in a key Eastern Conference game for both squads. Veteran Islanders PA announcer Roger Luce? Oh, he’s pumped. And he wants Islanders fans at Barclays Center – at least the ones that got tickets before Penguins fans inevitably … [Read more...]

Top 5 Stanley Cup Playoff match-ups we're dying to see (Video) The jockeying for position is almost done. The playoff match-ups, and the brackets, are almost solidified. It's time to start wishing and hoping that certain teams meet each other in the postseason.  Greg Wyshynski of Yahoo Sports' Puck Daddy blog looks at the five playoff matchups he most wants to see this postseason.  Go ahead … [Read more...]

Hawks' Keith banned six games When the Chicago Blackhawks open the Stanley Cup playoffs they will be without the services of their best defenseman for the first game. The league announced Friday evening that Duncan Keith has been suspended for six games for a high-sticking incident involving Minnesota Wild forward Charlie Coyle earlier this week. After an altercation that resulted in Coyle … [Read more...]

Duncan Keith suspended for rest of season, Game 1 of playoffs (Video) The NHL suspended Duncan Keith of the Chicago Blackhawks for the rest of the regular season (five games) and the first game of the Stanley Cup Playoffs for his reckless, vengeful whack with his stick to Charlie Coyle’s mouth on Tuesday night.  From the NHL: Chicago Blackhawks defenseman Duncan Keith  has been suspended … [Read more...]

NHL Playoff Death Watch: Could Rangers slip to wild card? Since we're down to the final moments of postseason life for teams in contention, Puck Daddy solemnly begins a daily countdown to annihilation.  The New York Rangers blew a third-period lead on Thursday night in a loss against the Carolina Hurricanes, which is a reminder that (a) these aren’t the same Rangers we’ve seen in the past, … [Read more...]

NCAA Tournament of NHL Players: Vote now in the Elite 8! Graphic by Amber Matsumoto, Yahoo Sports Puck Daddy’s NCAA Tournament of NHL Players had reached the ELITE 8! Here’s how it works: We’ve taken 64 current NHL players who also played NCAA men’s ice hockey and through the pain-staking work of our Selection Committee (i.e. at least four emails) ranked them from 1-through-64, placing them … [Read more...]

Friday Picks: Blues top Bruins in pivotal game Welcome to NHL Picks where CBSSports.com hockey writers Chris Peters and Adam Gretz make their predictions for all of the day's games. Boston Bruins at St. Louis Blues, 8 p.m. ET There's a lot on the line when the Blues and Bruins meet in Friday night's inter-conference matchup. The Blues still have a shot at the Central Division title, while the … [Read more...]

Jaromir Jagr worried rivals will hire rat-throwing fans for Florida penalties On Thursday night, the Florida Panthers celebrated the 20th anniversary of their Eastern Conference championship by handing 10,000 commemorative rubber rats to fans.  While the hope was that fans would take those souvenir rodents home, they instead followed through with the team’s decades-long tradition: Tossing … [Read more...]

NHL in Mexico City? Preseason games may head South of Border OK, let’s just get this out of the way up front: Yes, we imagine they would throw sombreros for a hat trick.  Mexican news agency NOTIMEX is reporting that Mexico City officials have had two meetings with NHL officials about bringing two preseasons games South of the Border, presumably in the 2016-17 season, before President Trump … [Read more...]

Panthers gave fans 10,000 rubber rats; guess what happened? (Video) Twenty years ago, the Florida Panthers had “The Year Of The Rat.”  It was a season in which the Panthers advanced to the Stanley Cup Final, losing to the Colorado Avalanche. It was a season where forward Scott Mellanby scored two goals after killing a rat with his stick in the locker room, sparking a fan tradition in which … [Read more...]