Thornton was subjected to a league hearing earlier Monday. The hit occurred at the 16:54 mark in the second period of San Jose’s 6-3 loss at Las Vegas when Thornton appeared to blind-side check Nosek. Thornton was assessed a two-minute penalty on the play, while Nosek returned in the third period. “I honestly thought I barely touched him,” Thornton said after the game, via the Mercury News. “He just came right back; it was just one of those plays that it is what it is....

The Avalanche and the Lightning will square off for a chance at raising the Stanley Cup. Tampa Bay is eyeing a three-peat, coming into this series as champions from 2020 and 2021. They would be the first team to accomplish the rare feat since the Islanders in the early ’80s. Opposing them is the preseason favorites to win the championship, the Avalanche. Colorado has not won it all since 2001 when current general manager Joe Sakic was still playing as their captain....

That hasn’t changed in our first rankings of 2018. However, there has been much movement in between, including the expansion Golden Knights surging into the second spot in the rankings. Here is the complete breakdown of Sporting News’ NHL power rankings for Week 12. PREVIOUS POWER RANKINGS: Preseason | Week 1​ | Week 2 | Week 3 | Week 4 Week 5 | Week 6 | Week 7 | Week 8 | Week 9 | Week 10 | Week 11...

Artemi Panarin’s ongoing reluctance to re-sign with the Blue Jackets gave rise to growing speculation over his departure via this summer’s unrestricted free-agent market. Last week, the 26-year-old left wing removed any doubt over his intentions. After revealing he switched agents from Dan Milstein to Paul Theofanus, Panarin told reporters he plans to test the market. While not ruling out the possibility of signing with the Jackets, he remained non-committal to the idea....

It didn’t take long for former Maple Leafs GM Lou Lamoriello to find a new home. Earlier this week, the Islanders announced Lamoriello was taking over as their president of hockey operations. The New York Post’s Larry Brooks believes this move spells an end to the Islanders’ long-standing tradition of hoarding draft picks and prospects in hopes they’ll blossom into stars. With two picks in the first two rounds of the 2018 NHL Draft, Brooks thinks Lamoriello could draw upon those selections, as well as the Isles’ depth in promising youth, to bolster the lineup with upper-level veteran talent....

In anticipation of an epic showdown between the Lightning and Blackhawks, the NHL released a video that is sure to give you chills. MORE: Lightning keeping tickets from Blackhawks fans | Final predictions The climatic clip looks back at the history of both teams and how they arrived at the pinnacle of the NHL. Fair warning: If you’re a fan of hockey, you’re about to feel real feelings. Give me Stanley Cup Final hockey or give me death!...

Vesey, 26, is coming off a season in which he tallied a career-high 35 points while matching his best goal-scoring output of 17. The left winger has one year remaining on the two-year deal he signed with New York in 2018. He has a cap hit of $2.275 million. Vesey became expendable, more or less, when New York selected Finnish teenager Kaapo Kakko with the second overall pick in the NHL Draft last month....

NHL Network analyst Brian Lawton caused a stir over the weekend by stating he “would not be surprised” if Boston decided to part with its high-scoring winger rather than continue trudging through sluggish contract negotiations. Sweeney shot down that report Tuesday in a succinct email to the Boston Globe. MORE: Gronk on ice? Bruce Cassidy loves the idea Pastrnak, a restricted free agent, is coming off an age-20 season in which he scored 34 goals, tied for 10th most in the NHL, with 70 points....

The New York Islanders appeared to pull off one of the latter on Thursday night, sending Peter Regin and Pierre-Marc Bouchard to the Chicago Blackhawks for a fourth-round pick in 2015. New York is also retaining half of those players' salary cap hits, which is now allowed under the CBA. That total: $1.375 million. MORE: Thomas Vanek narrowly avoids injury The Isles could well need to clear contracts from their books; NHL teams are only allowed to have 50 players on the payroll at any given time, and it would make sense for New York to add players in potential trades for winger Thomas Vanek and Andrew MacDonald....

Cannon, 41, whose ever-growing brood has become a talking point in recent years, announced on Instagram on Wednesday that he and model Lanisha Cole welcomed his newest bundle of joy, a girl named Onyx Ice Cole Cannon. The TV personality, ex-husband of singer Mariah Carey, also stated in a lengthy Instagram caption that he plans to “protect” his daughter as he also urged his detractors not to direct any criticism at former The Price Is Right model Cole....

The TV host and Alyssa Scott revealed that their young son recently died of a brain tumor and that they noticed something was wrong with his breathing just after he was born in late June this year. “[The doctors] didn’t think it to be anything too concerning,” Cannon explained in an interview with People. Cannon also shared the sad news on Tuesday on an episode of his talk show, The Nick Cannon Show....

Saban is undefeated in the past six years. He has, according to 247 Sports, never lost when it comes to pulling in the nation’s top recruiting class during that time period. The last coach to unseat Saban from the top recruiting class was Urban Meyer in 2010, then at Florida. MORE: SN’s 2016 All-Americans Meyer’s now at Ohio State, and he and Saban both have their teams in the College Football Playoff, with a potential rendezvous in the national championship game....

Sure, he’s happy his team is up there, but there are still many games left to be played. When he was asked about his team’s ranking during his Wednesday press conference, he went on a rant about how silly it is to have rankings this early. MORE: Does Alabama deserve No. 4 spot? | Predicting LSU vs. Alabama “I don’t think the ranking means anything,” he said. “All it means is you’ve created an opportunity to have a chance to finish the season and maybe have an opportunity to play in some other games that are big games....

Keonna Green, who is 22 weeks pregnant with their second child, told US Weekly she and Young’s romance picked up again three months after he proposed to musician Iggy Azalea in 2015. According to Green, the two would fool around when they were spending time with their son, Nick Jr. MORE: How Azalea caught Young | Swaggy’s greatest quotes “We got caught up in the moment and it just happened,” Green recalled....

The rapper, 39, made an appearance on The Late Late Show with James Corden’s Carpool Karaoke segment on Wednesday night, during which she candidly discussed the way in which industry scrutiny has affected her. After the chart-topping star, real name Onika Maraj-Petty, ran through a medley of some of her biggest hits, titular host James Corden enquired why she was eating ice in the car, as he said that he regularly sees her being supplied ice at events....

Johnson, who won his party’s leadership election on Tuesday, is promising to deliver Brexit by October 31 with or without a deal, despite Parliament voting repeatedly against any “no deal” scenario in Britain leaving the European Union (E.U.). The Conservatives have a majority of just two in the House of Commons. Populist leader Farage wants a no-deal Brexit, which he refers to as a “clean break,” but believes this is not achievable with the current Parliamentary arithmetic....

And having made his debut at the 2014 edition in Brazil, the Tianjin Teda midfielder, leading the Super Eagles to Russia this time around, cannot wait to have another taste of it. Mikel took to Twitter to share a video of him sweating it out on a treadmill, and captioned it: “Running to Russia like…. Ready for action at World Cup 2018.” After their opening Group D game against the Fiery Ones, Gernot Rohr’s men trade tackles with Iceland and Argentina....

In four frenetic minutes, operating seven telescopes, astronomers conducted investigations into such cosmic mysteries as interplanetary dust, which produces zodiacal light, and solar winds. Atmospheric conditions hampered some experiments, including an infrared look at solar dust rings. Even so, the eclipse still produced the first infrared pictures of the solar corona. Most scientists won’t really know what they have found for weeks. The only “instant science” came from a group working on the James Clerk Maxwell radio telescope....

The ship is currently in a San Diego port, and if its flames aren’t extinguished quickly enough, the fuel could ignite, creating a deadly environmental disaster, and perhaps putting the ship out of commission. Though 160 sailors were aboard the ship when the fire began Sunday morning, more than 400 sailors have reportedly since boarded the vessel to fight the fire, working in rotating shifts of 15 minutes to avoid overexposure to the smoke and flames....

It was Collins’ last day as director on Sunday, when he sat for an interview with Fox News host Brett Baier. Despite over 60 percent of the United States being fully vaccinated and the government offering out booster shots, COVID numbers are quickly climbing in the country with the arrival of the Omicron variant, which it’s feared could overwhelm health systems and lead to hundreds of millions of new cases....