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The Oilers got their ninth win of the season Sunday, a 4-2 road victory over the Bruins at TD Garden. That’s the good news. Kind of. Their 20 points are the fourth-fewest in the NHL, a far cry from their Pacific Division contention a season ago and their first playoff appearance in a decade, aka their first since losing the 2006 Stanley Cup Final to the Hurricanes. It’s been a disaster so far for the Oilers, and the speculation is raining down from every direction as the pressure continues to rise....

One day after Milwaukee Bucks boycotted their NBA playoff game to protest racial inequality, sending a tidal wave of action across the sports world, the NHL’s players joined the movement and opted to not play on Thursday or Friday. The efforts came in response to the police shooting of Jacob Blake in Kenosha, Wis., over the weekend. “After much discussion, NHL Players believe that the best course of action would be to take a step back and not play tonight’s and tomorrow’s games as scheduled,” a joint statement by the NHL and NHL Player’s Association read....

That’s the case for the single-game postseason records, anyway. There has been a plethora of exceptional performances by the usual suspects — Wayne Gretzky, Mario Lemieux, Maurice Richard and others. But you’ll find some names in the record book that you might never have heard of, or that you would never guess had such dominant playoff performances. The Sporting News looks at the NHL records for points, goals, and assists in a playoff game....

Ottawa Senators defenseman Mark Stone laid the boom on Boston Bruins forward Dominic Moore in open ice during Game 1 of the teams’ Eastern Conference playoff series. FOLLOW LIVE: NHL scores and highlights from first-round games Watch Moore get stopped dead in his tracks by Stone after a nifty deke in front of the net. Now that’s playoff hockey at its finest.

Above all, though, glass-half-full types pointed to the guy in net as reason to be excited. In the eyes of many, Marc-Andre Fleury needed to put the Golden Knights on his back for them approach competitiveness. And all he did was have the best regular season of his career. GOLDEN STANDARD How Vegas became the most successful expansion team in sports history At 34 years old, Fleury’s regular-season save percentage (....

On Tuesday, in Game 3, Wilson was right back in the middle of another controversial play for n questionably high check. Wilson laid a big hit on the Penguins’ Zach Aston-Reese during the second period of Game 3, leaving the rookie forward bleeding before he quickly retreated to the locker room. Officials did not penalize Wilson on the play. It was difficult to tell if Wilson’s principal point of contact was Aston-Reese’s shoulder or head....

The Flames forward, who averaged just 10 minutes and 44 seconds of ice time in the regular season, netted a memorable goal in the second period of Thursday’s Game 1 matchup against the Colorado Avalanche. Mangiapane, 23, avoided three Colorado defenders, faked out goalie Philipp Grubauer and backhanded the puck from his knees to give Calgary a 1-0 lead. A sixth-round pick in 2015, he did not make his season debut until early December and was actually sent down at one point....

Coach Jon Cooper told reporters that defensemen Victor Hedman and Anton Stralman will be out for Game 4 on Tuesday. Forward Alex Killorn will be a game-time decision. Hedman missed Game 3 as well after getting into a scrum in Game 2. Stralman has not played since the team’s regular-season finale. The Lightning trail the Blue Jackets, 3-0, in the first-round series. Only four teams have ever come back from 3-0 in the NHL postseason....

This matchup should be just as entertaining as it pits the New York Islanders against the Carolina Hurricanes, two teams who surprised the NHL in the regular season and the postseason, respectively, Probably the most interesting aspect will be to see how the teams play in Game 1. The Islanders have been off since April 16 following a sweep of the Pittsburgh Penguins while the Blue Jackets wrapped up a grueling seven-game series with the Washington Capitals on Wednesday — in double overtime....

Brind’Amour’s comments came on the heels of Capitals captain Alex Ovechkin knocking out 19-year-old Andrei Svechniko during the first period of Monday’s Game 3. NHL MOCK DRAFT 2.0: Devils hit jackpot with Jack Hughes; lottery prizes aplenty after No. 1 Svechnikov, who was clipped on the chin and hit his head on the ice, appeared to be knocked unconscious briefly and went to the hospital after the fight. He was placed in concussion protocol Tuesday morning....

Several teams are surging, though, including the Rangers, Maple Leafs, Jets and Wild — with all four of those teams making significant strides this week up the rankings. Here is the complete breakdown of the NHL power rankings for Week 6. PREVIOUS POWER RANKINGS: Week 1 | Week 2 | Week 3 | Week 4 | Week 5 NHL Power Rankings 6.0 1. Tampa Bay Lightning 14-2-2, 30 pts (last week: 2)...

The Senators made the first significant trade of 2018, shipping defenseman Dion Phaneuf to the Kings in a four-player transaction. That move might not be the last by Ottawa general manager Pierre Dorion before the NHL’s Feb. 26 trade deadline. Hours before the Phaneuf trade, TSN’s Darren Dreger reported the Senators feel they have the top center in the market in Derick Brassard and are building the case for Mike Hoffman as the best winger available....

In a new initiative launched for this holiday sales season at Dick's in Cranberry and two other locations, there will be dedicated store-in-store space for the National Hockey League. So far, the NHL has rolled out three of what it’s calling NHL-branded “Super Shops” in Chicago and suburban New York as well as Cranberry, Pa., in a marketing partnership it’s describing as an “unprecedented” collaboration that could be expanded to other Dick’s stores....

Monday, April 12, at 3 p.m. ET is the cutoff for teams to decide whether they’re playoff contenders or playoff pretenders — although, with the way things are set up this year, that may not actually be known until the last day of the season. With border and quarantine constraints, abnormal division alignments and the Kraken expansion cloud hanging over the league, will teams even be looking to wheel and deal?...

Pacific Division Anaheim Ducks Dany Heatley is “fine” according to Bruce Boudreau, although he’s got a groin pull that’ll have him out “at least” a week. But he’s fine. Bruce said so. Kyle Palmieri is somewhat less fine, having suffered a high ankle sprain in mid-September. He’s skating, but gingerly . A high ankle sprain differs from a regular one in that it affects the ligaments that actually hold the two bones of the lower leg together....

In front of a backdrop of the golden dome and Touchdown Jesus, the 2019 Winter Classic went in favor of the visiting Bruins by a 4-2 margin at Notre Dame Stadium in South Bend, Ind., dropping the Blackhawks to 1-5 all time in outdoor games (and 0-4 at the Winter Classic). MORE: Watch NHL games live and on-demand with fuboTV (7-day free trial) The two Original Six franchises staged an entertaining affair for two periods, at least....

At no club is this more evident than Paris Saint-Germain, where they have plenty to celebrate. They have made it comfortably through to the Champions League knockout stages where they’ll face Chelsea, while their 3-1 victory over Lille on Saturday means that they are guaranteed to finish the year top of the table. And the players took a well-deserved break on Sunday with a trip to Disneyland Paris, where they spent an enjoyable day in the company of Mickey Mouse and friends....

Kyrgios lost his cool on a number of occasions during a dramatic quarter-final loss to Rafael Nadal at Indian Wells. Despite showing great skill at times, the 26-year-old struggled to maintain focus as his Spanish opponent triumphed 7-6 5-7 6-4. Having broken one racket during the match, Kyrgios was guilty of slamming another in frustration at the end of the match with the racket then bouncing wildly towards a ball boy....

Alabama coach Nick Saban isn’t concerned about those narratives heading into another national championship opportunity. After all, this is the Crimson Tide’s sixth CFP championship game in eight seasons. DECOURCY: College Football Playoff is too elusive, too exclusive; expansion is a must “A lot of external people talk about things like that,” Saban said on Sunday. “I think internally we talk a lot about, ‘What do you have to do technically in the game to be able to have success in terms of your ability to execute probably against the best player you played against all year?...

Watney, a five-time Tour winner, made a 20-foot birdie putt from the right edge of the green on the par-4 18th for a 5-under 65. LEADERBOARDS: Wyndham Championship | LPGA Championship “I’ve been trying to keep it pretty simple — a lot of fairways and greens, and I’ve been able to do that so far,” Watney said. “I’m super excited about going into tomorrow with the lead. … I’m looking forward to everything that comes with it, all the emotions and wanting to do well and whatnot....