After spending 14 years with the Boston Bruins, 43-year old Zdeno Chara has signed a one-year, $795,000 with the Washington Capitals. The Capitals finished an offseason of signing veteran defenders, including Paul LaDue, Trevor van Riemsdyk, and Justin Schultz, by signing the six-foot, nine-inch Slovak.
As the NHL previously announced, the NHL will realign its divisions for the 2021 NHL season which is to begin on January 13. To minimize the potential spread of the coronavirus, teams will only play other teams in their division. As a result of the 56-game regular season schedule, each team will play the others in their division 8 times a year. Here is one rivalry from each division that fans should be excited to see twice as much as usual.
Wednesday morning, the New York Islanders announced the retirement of veteran defenseman, Johnny Boychuk. Boychuk’s retirement is a result of an injury to his left eye sustained towards the end of the 2019-2020 regular season.
“Don’t worry y’all, James got fined too.”
The Edmonton Oilers’ 2020 NHL season ended poorly, as the team’s promising Stanley Cup hopes died abruptly when they were eliminated in the Stanley Cup Qualifiers to the 12 seed, Chicago Blackhawks. The bad news for the Oilers continues a week after the Stanley Cup Playoffs have ended, as their captain and arguably the current face of the NHL, Connor McDavid, has tested positive for the coronavirus.
The actress took to Instagram to share the big news publicly in September.
24 teams traveled to the two NHL bubbles at the end of September to start the NHL postseason, and seven weeks later, we are down to two teams. With the Stanley Cup Final starting on Saturday, the Stanley Cup will be awarded to a new team before the end of September. The Dallas Stars are looking for their second Stanley Cup Championship, and the Tampa Bay Lightning are looking for their second cup as well. With puck drop imminent, who will be crowned the 2020 Stanley Cup Champion?
With the Colorado Avalanche, Philadelphia Flyers, and Vancouver Canucks all coming back from 3-1 series deficits to tie them at 3-3, we will be treated to three Game 7s over the next two days. The winners of the Avalanche vs. Stars and Canucks vs. Golden Knights games will go on to play each other in the Western Conference Final while the winner of the Flyers vs. Islanders game will play the Lightning in the Eastern Conference Final. Out of these six teams, who will be advancing to the penultimate round of the Stanley Cup Playoffs?
Slightly to the surprise of fans, Alex Ovechkin, has been named the cover athlete of NHL 21, or CHEL, as it’s known to fans. This is the second time Ovechkin has been on the cover of EA’s NHL game, the third counting the time he was on the cover of NHL 09 games sold in Russia. The first time Ovechkin was back in 2006 was when he was on the cover of NHL 07.
With the NHL and NHLPA reaching a new collective bargaining agreement, it looks like NHL players will be able to participate in the 2022 Winter Olympics in Beijing. Players were unable to play in the 2018 Pyeong Chang Winter Olympics, as commissioner, Gary Bettman refused to create a break in the NHL schedule for the games. The new collective bargaining agreement, however, looks like it will allow for a break in the schedule so players will be able to participate in the Olympics without missing any of the NHL season.