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NEW YORK – The clock struck midnight, and the NHL turned into another sports league closed for business. Unable to reach agreement on a new labor deal, the National Hockey League locked out its players at 12:01 a.m. Sunday, the third major pro sport to impose a work stoppage in the last 18 months, behind the NFL and NBA. The action also marks the fourth shutdown for the NHL since 1992, including a year-long dispute that forced the cancellation of the entire 2004-05 season when the league successfully held out for a salary cap. That fight ended with the latest...

Members of three Canadian-based teams are attempting to use provincial law to contest the legality of a potential lockout by the National Hockey League owners. The National Hockey League Players' Association believes that laws in the provinces of both Alberta and Quebec would make the potential lockout unlawful. "The filings are intended to interfere with the broader labor negotiating process," NHL Deputy Commissioner Bill Daly said Monday. "They will have absolutely zero impact on the broader negotiation, or on the deal we ultimately agree on." According to the NHLPA, the fact that the Union is not recognized by the Quebec...

There is no guarantee the Minnesota Wild's decision to give matching 13-year, $98 million deals to Zach Parise and Ryan Suter is going to work out. Free agent deals of this magnitude have failed before, setting franchises back and backfiring in ways that no could have expected on the day they were signed. But on Wednesday, as the Wild announced they had secured the services of the two biggest free agents on the market, there was no time for this type of cynicism in the Twin Cities sports community.

Captain Dustin Brown has a goal and two assists to lead the 45-year-old franchise to its first NHL championship. Jeff Carter and Trevor Lewis each score twice.

2012 Stanley Cup Finals Schedule Game 1 at New Jersey—Wednesday, May 30 at 8 p.m. EDT—NBC TV. Game 2 at New Jersey—Saturday, June 2 at 8 p.m. EDT—NBC TV. Game 3 at Los Angeles—Monday, June 4 at 8 p.m. EDT—NBC Sports Network. Game 4 at Los Angeles—Wednesday, June 6 at 8 p.m. EDT—NBC Sports Network. Game 5 at New Jersey (if necessary)—Saturday, June 9 at 8 p.m. EDT—NBC TV. Game 6 at Los Angeles (if necessary)—Monday, June 11 at 8 p.m. EDT—NBC TV. Game 7 at New Jersey (if necessary)—Wednesday, June 13 at 8 p.m. EDT—NBC TV.

The CBC is planning some counter-programming for female non-hockey fans who might be forced to tune into the Stanley Cup final next week. Viewers can go online to listen to an alternate commentary from Lena Sutherland and Jules Mancuso, who run WhileTheMenWatch.com. They describe their site as a sports talk show for women, “Sex and the City” meets ESPN, with banter “from a woman’s point of view.” “One afternoon while (our husbands) were both watching the same game on TV Jules and I were on the phone and we started just making comments to each other like, ‘Did you see...

The Montreal Canadiens have tabbed former NHL player Marc Bergevin as its new GM and will introduce him in a Wednesday afternoon press conference at the team's practice facility. Bergevin, 46, will replace the fired Pierre Gauthier, who was let go near the end of the 2011-12 season, and become the 17th GM in Canadiens history. The Canadiens not only missed the Stanley Cup Playoffs this season, but finished last in the Eastern Conference and No. 28 in the League with a 31-35-16 record. A Montreal native, Bergevin has spent the past seven seasons in Chicago's front office. This past...

NASHVILLE -- The Nashville Predators announced on Tuesday morning that they will hold top-six forwards Andrei Kostitsyn and Alexander Radulov out of Game 3 of their Western Conference Semifinal series with the Phoenix Coyotes on Wednesday (9 p.m. ET, CNBC, TSN) for an unspecified violation of team rules. "The Nashville Predators have a few simple rules centered around doing the right things," general manager David Poile said in a statement. "We have always operated with a team-first mentality and philosophy. Violating team rules is not fair to our team and their teammates." Poile expanded upon that statement in a brief...

<p>Just when you think sports are about fun and happiness and escaping the real world, along comes the Internet to remind you that no, you’re crazy.</p> <p>I can’t really repeat much of the racial garbage that was tossed in Ward’s direction after he scored that dramatic game-winning goal Wednesday night, but suffice it to say there was a whole lot of vile stuff going on, in multiple platforms, on multiple sites.</p>

Earlier today, I said that Caps fans really can have an impact on the players they support when they tweet. While it’s not the case (I hope) that players are reading through their Twitter feeds between periods, it’s definitely true in the broader sense that social media has brought fans closer than ever to their teams, increasing the visibility fans, players, team staff and media have to one another. And Caps fans were wildly active on Twitter in the minutes after tonight’s win. It was what I planned to write about – messages of congratulations, excitement for the next round....

Todd McLellan stopped short of labeling the Sharks' regular season a disappointment. "We got where we wanted to go," the coach said Saturday night after the Sharks were eliminated by the St. Louis Blues in Game 5 of their first-round playoff series. "We wanted to get into the tournament." But whenever a franchise loses its standing as one of the NHL elite, it's a disappointment. So now what? The angriest segment of the fan base has been calling for a roster makeover for weeks, and the volume will only increase after a five-game playoff stay that was the shortest in...

Jarret Stoll beat Cory Schneider with a wrist shot at 4:27 of overtime to give the Los Angeles Kings a 2-1 victory over Vancouver on Sunday night, knocking out the top-seeded Canucks in five games in the Western Conference first-round series. Stoll scored from the left wing after a turnover at Vancouver blue line. The forward skated in on a 2-on-1, but took the shot himself, picking the top-left corner above Schneider's blocker. Brad Richardson tied it for Los Angeles at 3:21 of the third period, and Jonathan Quick made 26 saves. Henrik Sedin opened the scoring for Vancouver with...

Chicago Blackhawks coach Joel Quenneville paid the price Thursday for criticizing officials after Game 3 of the Western Conference quarterfinals. After the officials failed to call a penalty on the Coyotes' Raffi Torres following the winger's hit on the Hawks' Marian Hossa that sent Hossa to the hospital during the first period Tuesday night, Quenneville said: "I saw exactly what happened, it was right in front of me and all four (officials) missed it, The refereeing tonight was a disgrace." The NHL lowered the boom on Quenneville, fining the coach $10,000 "for public comments critical of the officiating." A day...

NHL EASTERN CONFERENCEOttawa Senators(8) vs. New York Rangers(1)Washington Capitals(7) vs. Boston Bruins(2)New Jersey Devils(6) vs. Florida Panthers(3)Philadelphia Flyers(5) vs. Pittsburgh Penguins(4)--------------------------------------NHL WESTERN CONFERENCELos Angeles Kings(8) vs. Vancouver Canucks(1)San Jose Sharks(7) vs. St. Louis Blues(2)Chicago Blackhawks(6) vs. Phoenix Coyotes(3)Detroit Red Wings(5) vs. Nashville Predators(4)

Is Sean Avery done with hockey? Avery said Monday night during an After Show segment of Bravo TV's Watch What Happens Live that he was leaving the game. When asked about his hockey future, Avery said, "I am officially retired. I threw my skates in the Hudson." If true, the announcement would close out a tumultuous final season for Avery spent with the New York Rangers and their American Hockey League affiliate, the Connecticut Whale. After being waived by the Rangers earlier this season, Avery was assigned to the Whale before re-joining New York on Nov. 5. In 15 games...

EDMONTON, Alberta -- General manager Doug Wilson does not want to discuss how his struggling Sharks have come to be fighting for their playoff lives with 15 games left. "To me there is nothing to be said other than just line up and play," Wilson said Sunday. The Sharks aren't performing the way Wilson and his staff envisioned last May when they analyzed their elimination from the Western Conference finals and began building this year's team. Players came, players left. Now time is getting short. A woeful 3-9-3 record over the past 15 games gives the Sharks only four weeks...

DETROIT -- The streak is alive -- and the Detroit Red Wings have three of their best players to thank for it. Pavel Datsyuk broke a 1-1 tie by scoring with just 5.8 seconds left in regulation to give the Wings a 2-1 victory against the Nashville Predators on Friday night, extending their NHL-record home winning streak to 22 games. With overtime looming, Nicklas Lidstrom controlled a bouncing puck in the neutral zone and backhanded a pass to Henrik Zetterberg, whose no-look pass caught Datsyuk in stride just as he hit the Nashville blue line. Datsyuk took over from there,...

Next year's Winter Classic could set an attendance record. The Detroit Red Wings will face the Toronto Maple Leafs on Jan. 1 at Michigan Stadium, a matchup of two Original Six teams at the iconic college football facility that drew more than 104,000 fans for a college hockey game in 2010. [...] The centerpiece will be the Winter Classic at Michigan Stadium in Ann Arbor, 45 miles west of Detroit, and it will include a Canadian team for the first time. "It's Hockeytown versus the center of the hockey universe," said Brian Burke, the Toronto general manger who was at...

TORONTO — The NHL is investigating a scoreboard error that could have an "enormous impact" on playoff races in the Western Conference. During Wednesday night's game at Staples Center in Los Angeles, the clock briefly stopped in the closing seconds — giving Drew Doughty enough time to score the winning goal in a 3-2 victory over the Columbus Blue Jackets. The puck officially crossed the line with less than a second to play in regulation. However, when the Blue Jackets looked at video after the game, they discovered the clock froze for roughly a second just prior to Doughty's goal...

OTTAWA — Prop comedy. Such a simple concept, so rarely incorporated in the NHL's Breakaway Challenge Skills Competition. Alex Ovechkin won the 2009 event in Montreal by donning sunglasses and a goofy hat. In 2012, two NHL superstars finally gave props to the skills competition again. [...] (vids at link)