SALT LAKE CITY — Lawson Crouse scored twice in a 5:42 span in the second period and the Utah Mammoth won the first NHL playoff game in the state, beating the Vegas Golden Knights 4-2 on Friday night for a 2-1 series lead.
Game 4 of the best-of-seven series is Monday night in Salt Lake City. In Las Vegas in the first two games, Vegas won the opener 4-2 on Sunday and Utah replied with a 3-2 victory Tuesday.
The Mammoth are in their second season in Utah after leaving Arizona.
MacKenzie Weegar and Dylan Guenther scored for Utah in the first period, with Guenther striking on a power play. Crouse had a tip-in at 4:06 of the second and struck on a long shot at 9:48 to make it 4-0.
Karel Vejmelka made 29 saves for the Mammoth, who had only 12 shots on goal against Carter Hart. Clayton Keller had two assists.
Jack Eichel got Vegas on the board with 6:40 left in the second. Nic Dowd made it 4-2 with 3:08 left in the third.
Weegar opened the scoring with 7:01 left in the first, tracking down a feed from Liam O’Brien and blasting the puck between the circles.
Guenther converted on a power play with 2:14 to go in the period on a slap shot from the top of the left circle.
It's a very tall mountain for the Penguins to climb, and getting themselves back into this series won't be easy. Teams down 3-0 in a series are 4-209 all-time in NHL history, so comebacks of this nature almost never happen.
So, if the Penguins have any hope to be the fifth, they are going to need to make some adjustments.
Much of what has been giving the Penguins headaches throughout this series so far has been the Flyers' stacking the blue line and playing a neutral zone trap that they can't seem to solve, forcing them to play dump-and-chase hockey that they aren't built for. While there's only so much they can do to counteract that issue, there are some adjustments they can make - lineup or otherwise - to give themselves better opportunities to score and lessen their chances of giving up prime scoring opportunities against.
Here are three adjustments the Penguins should consider making prior to Game 4:
During the stretch run of the regular season, the pairing of Kris Letang and Sam Girard actually started to gain some traction and improve alongside one another.
But, in the playoffs, a reversion has happened.
According to Moneypuck, the pairing of Girard and Letang has a measly 42.9 percent expected goals share. And, even if plus/minus is, generally, a pretty arbitrary stat, Letang is a minus-5 and Girard a minus-3 in this series - which are significant numbers across only three games and are the worst marks among Penguins' defensemen.
It appears that Penguins' head coach Dan Muse is going back to this pairing in Game 4, even if Connor Clifton looks like he has been swapped out for Ilya Solovyov on the bottom pairing - another change that needed to happen. However, if things start off on the wrong foot yet again for Girard and Letang, Muse should have a short leash.
Even if the pairing wasn't exactly lighting the world on fire earlier in the season, reuniting Letang with a more familiar partner in Ryan Shea might not be the worst thing. It also gives the Penguins a puck-moving defenseman on each pairing as well as a more traditional stay-at-home partner on each.
Again, if things look bleak early, this should be a default move for Muse.
Putting Chinakhov on the first PP unit, out in six-on-five
Everyone knows by now just how lethal a shot Egor Chinakhov possesses. He may not be playing his best hockey in this series, and he has missed the net with a glaring frequency in these first three games.
But, at the end of the day, he shoots the puck. And he's got a talent for it, too. In a series and in situations where goals are absolutely necessary, why isnt' he on the ice?
Chinakhov being on the first power play unit is something that should have happened ages ago. He has enough defensive awareness to cover up high and man the left point on the power play, and he - obviously - has a weapon as a shoot-first type from that spot.
But, even more so than the first power play unit, the fact that he is not deployed in six-on-five situations is simply mind-boggling.
In the game's most desperate few minutes, teams should be deploying the players on the ice that give them the best chance to put the puck in the net. Chinakhov scored at a 34-goal pace with the Penguins during the regular season, and - again - his devastating shot and reputation as a shoot-first player are huge reasons why.
With a weapon like that at your disposal, why not use him? Again, with the awareness he's shown, there's no harm, no foul in having him out in these situations. And, when your team needs a goal most, perhaps it makes sense to have arguably your best goal-scorer on the ice.
The truth of the matter is that the Penguins cannot continue to attack the Flyers the same way they have been in the first three games and expect different results. They need to use the middle of the ice more, play more of a dump-and-chase style when necessary, and use energy and offensive zone pressure to overwhelm the Flyers in their own zone.
And this is why having a good forechecker on each line is going to be key for the Penguins.
To be honest, I do think a guy like Avery Hayes in this series could have made a great deal of difference on the third line. This is the exact style that suits a player like him. But, without him as an option, the Penguins have Bryan Rust on the first line (as well as Rickard Rakell, who also excels at certain aspects of the forecheck), Tommy Novak on the second, Elmer Soderblom on the third, and, well, pretty much all three of those types on the fourth line.
The Penguins will need to play some "get-your-hands-dirty" hockey in order to win this game and have a shot at coming back in this series. They need to generate more around the net-front and more second-chance opportunities, but it all starts with deploying players who can win footraces to pucks, win puck battles, win physical battles, and get the cycle going.
Hopefully, the lineup deployment in this game will help lend to doing that. Good forechecking will be essential for the Penguins.
The Wilkes-Barre/Scranton Penguins are bringing in some reinforcements for the 2026 Calder Cup Playoffs.
They have officially signed forwards Kale Dach, Jordan Charron, and Travis Hayes to amateur tryout agreements. The news was released on Thursday.
Dach was picked by the Penguins in the seventh round of the 2025 NHL Draft and just wrapped up a great season with the WHL's Calgary Hitmen, finishing with 34 goals and 75 points in 63 games. He also compiled three goals and seven points in seven playoff games.
The Penguins have signed Kale Dach, Jordan Charron and Travis Hayes to amateur tryout agreements. All three forwards were drafted by Pittsburgh in this past summer's 2025 NHL Entry Draft.https://t.co/YjWqK3T59Bpic.twitter.com/D4fFtEnqYC
— x - Wilkes-Barre/Scranton Penguins (@WBSPenguins) April 23, 2026
It will go down as his only season in the WHL since he's committed to Penn State for the 2026-27 season.
Charron was selected by the Penguins in the fifth round of the 2025 NHL Draft and just played his second season with the OHL's Soo Greyhounds. He finished with 25 goals and 47 points in 66 games before compiling three goals and four points in 10 playoff games.
Hayes was a fourth-round pick by the Penguins in last year's draft and has been Charron's teammate for the last two years. He finished the 2025-26 season with 16 goals and 40 points in 63 games and had one goal and three points in 10 playoff games. He's also the younger brother of Avery Hayes.
WBS is still waiting to learn who it will face in the second round of the Calder Cup Playoffs.
MONTREAL — Lane Hutson scored on a slap shot at 2:09 of overtime and the Montreal Canadiens beat the Tampa Bay Lightning 3-2 on Friday night to take a 2-1 lead in the first-round series that has opened with three extra-time thrillers.
Hutson fired a shot from the top of right circle that went through traffic and found the top left corner behind goalie Andrei Vasilevskiy on the only shot on goal in overtime.
Kirby Dach tied it for Montreal with 7:17 left in the second period. He fired a snap shot through traffic from the top of the right circle that beat Vasilevskiy on the short side.
Game 4 is Sunday night in Montreal. The Canadiens took the opener 4-3 on Sunday and the Lightning countered 3-2 on Tuesday night.
Dach assisted on Alexandre Texier’s opening goal at 4:53 of the first period. Jakub Dobes stopped 15 shots,
Brayden Point and Brandon Hagel scored for Tampa Bay, and Vasilevskiy made 26 saves. In the third, Vasilevskiy stymied Cole Caufield and Josh Anderson on breakaways.
Point tied it on a power play at 7:42 of the first. After Dobes was penalized for tripping Yanni Gourde, Point took Jake Guentzel’s centering pass and ripped a shot past Dobes’ blocker from the high slot.
Hagel gave Tampa Bay the lead at 4:47 of the second with his fourth goal of the series. After a Montreal turnover at its own the blue line, Hagel beat Dobes with a snap shot to the short side from the top of the left circle.
The Penguins are down 3-0 in their first-round series against the Flyers and will be eliminated from the playoffs with one more loss. Now, if they win, they'd send the series back to Pittsburgh for a Game 5.
However, there's still a chance that Saturday's game could be Evgeni Malkin's final game as a Penguin since he's set to be an unrestricted free agent this summer. He spoke to the media about it on Friday and, once again, confirmed that he wants to be back with the Penguins next year and retire a Penguin.
“I hope it’s not over," Malkin said, via King Jemison of the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette. "I hope we’re still fighting. And my future again, I say the same thing. I want to be here. I want to be part of a team next year, too, and I want to be retired in Pittsburgh. But it’s not my choice. It’s Kyle’s decision. New owners, probably, too."
Evgeni Malkin on his future: “I hope it’s not over. I hope we’re still fighting. And my future, again … I want to be here. I want to be part of a team next year, too, and I want to be retired in Pittsburgh. But it’s not my choice. It’s Kyle’s decision. New owners probably, too.” pic.twitter.com/VZ6fHYAstT
Malkin has been one of the Penguins' best players in this series, compiling two goals and three points in three games. He also finished the regular season with 19 goals and 61 points in 56 games.
He has shown that he can still play at a strong level in the NHL, but it'll be up to general manager/president Kyle Dubas if he returns.
Puck drop for Game 4 on Saturday is set for 8 p.m. ET on TBS, truTV, HBO Max, and SportsNet Pittsburgh.
Two of the Islanders’ biggest holes should fill themselves this offseason.
The Isles struggled all year to adequately replace Kyle Palmieri’s production after he tore his ACL, and ended up trading a third-round pick to the Rangers for Carson Soucy in an attempt to fill the hole left by Alexander Romanov’s shoulder injury.
Both players are expected to be back without any limitations on day one of training camp which does, at least, change some of the contours of the offseason, even if their returns will come too late to save the Islanders from missing the playoffs.
“Disgusting. Terrible,” Romanov said of how it felt to miss all but 15 games this year. “It’s really tough to just watch hockey all season long and just practicing and rehabbing. That’s what I was dealing with.”
Had the Islanders made the playoffs, Romanov would likely be in the lineup right now. When the season ended, he had rejoined practices and was getting close to playing in games. His summer should be close to normal, albeit with a little extra work on his shoulder.
The same doesn’t necessarily hold true for Palmieri. While he may have attempted a comeback had the Islanders made a deep run, he said on breakup day that he’s “got a couple more months here of the day to day of the rehab stuff.”
The history of players returning from ACL injuries also shows that it usually takes some time to play at the same level as before; Anders Lee, for example, has talked before about not feeling like himself for much of his first season back after suffering the same injury.
New York Islanders center Kyle Palmieri (21) during the second period of an NHL hockey game against the Tampa Bay Lightning, Tuesday, April 1, 2025 in Elmont, N.Y. Noah K. Murray-NY Post
The speed at which Palmieri recovers, and the role Romanov ends up playing, are both massive questions for the Islanders’ 2026-27 hopes.
The Islanders were depending on Palmieri to score 25-30 goals and finish with around 50 points when they signed him to a two-year extension last summer, and after his injury, that production was never really replaced. In a free agency class that’s not highly regarded by general manager Mathieu Darche, it’s doubtful there’s an easy option available on the open market for the Islanders to plug into their top six either.
So there’s a strong possibility that a lot hinges on their hope that Palmieri can recover his game quickly.
“I’m a little over four months post-op. It’s feeling really good on the ice,” said Palmieri, who had begun skating on his own before the season ended. “I’m looking forward to putting this behind me and having a pretty normal summer as far as training and getting ready for the season.”
Alexander Romanov #28 of the New York Islanders moves the puck down ice during the second period at UBS Arena, Monday, Oct. 13, 2025, in Elmont, NY. Corey Sipkin for the NY POST
As for Romanov, his reentry into the fold presents Darche with an interesting dilemma on the left side of the blue line.
After Matthew Schaefer’s ascendence into superstardom came so quickly, Romanov — who the Islanders signed to an eight-year deal at $6.25 million annually last summer — suddenly looks like the third-pair defenseman, behind both Schaefer and Adam Pelech.
That trio also means there’s no obvious spot for Isaiah George, another lefty, to play after a season in which injuries meant George never really got his chance while the Islanders were searching for call-ups to replace Romanov.
Do the Islanders move someone to their off-side, given their depth chart is much thinner on the right? Or do they explore moving one of Pelech, who has a 16-team no-trade clause, or George? That could be one route to improving the forward group, but it would amount to another major bet on Romanov, who’s coming off a serious injury and who struggled through the first 15 games of this season before getting hurt.
How that situation sorts itself out is a question for Darche to grapple with throughout the offseason.
As the Golden Knights approach their 10th anniversary in the NHL, they've gone from an upstart franchise looking at others for a standard to follow, to the one setting a standard for the two newest franchises that have entered the league since, league commissioner Gary Bettman and Utah Mammoth owner Ryan Smith both agreed, speaking before Game 3 in Salt Lake City on Friday night.
"You start from an expansion standpoint, Vegas and Seattle did it right, although slightly different circumstances, to here in Utah," Bettman said. "Starting with how well George McPhee managed the expansion draft, the fact that they reinvented what pregame shows are made in quintessential Vegas. It's been very gratifying to see that a market that some were skeptical about when we announced expansion, to now see that every other sport thinks they invented, it has been a little gratifying."
That owner Bill Foley and Bettman saw something before the WNBA, NFL, MLB and NBA did, in a town long known for being an adult Disneyland with its 24-hour gambling, burlesque shows and late-night steak specials, is something nobody will take away from them.
What followed after the announcement that there would be ice hockey in the desert was something nobody would predict, with one of the greatest professional sports franchise debuts in 2017-18, when the Knights made it to the Stanley Cup Final, and then hoisting the Cup in 2023. The franchise has been in the postseason in all but one season since its inception, with this year's opening round becoming special with the close ties between Utah and Nevada.
"I think the national landscape doesn't understand the proximity in so many different ways, of Utah and Las Vegas," Smith said. "Growing up in Las Vegas, it's where kids went for youth sports, it's where we went on the weekends. We're just close."
Smith, who also owns the NBA's Utah Jazz, earned the NHL's newest franchise on April 18, 2024, when the league's Board of Governors granted him an expansion franchise.
In lieu of an expansion draft to stock the new team, Smith acquired the hockey assets of the Arizona Coyotes, which suspended hockey operations at the same time, as players, coaches and draft picks simply shifted to Utah.
The team is now in its second season, and has established as fervent a fanbase as the Knights have in Vegas.
And even though the Knights were a true expansion team, and the Mammoth were a relocation project from Phoenix, it was the standard that left Smith optimistic for the future.
The ties between St. George, Utah and Southern Nevada run deeper than most people might realize, as legendary basketball coach Jerry Tarkanian once held his basketball camp at Dixie College, now known as Utah Tech, in the late 1970s.
Before CSN established an athletics department, Dixie became the go-to school for Southern Nevada athletes needing a start-up vehicle before landing their dream car, er, college of choice.
So, naturally, despite the teams being in different divisions - the Mammoth in the Central and Knights in the Pacific - an opening-round series is the perfect setting for a border rivalry.
The Mammoth fired up the rivalry even more before Game 3, when the organization offered a jersey exchange in front of the Delta Center, offering Utah residents to swap their fandom from the Knights to their new team. It worked, too, as hundreds of fans lined up to swap jerseys hours before puck drop.
"As much as everyone thinks I'm just trolling (the Knights), no, it's 50 percent," Smith joked. "I think it's way more of a respect for how they've grown. And I think that's part of the responsibilities. Kind of slide over and let the new group come in, in a weird way, similar to the way that someone slid over for them to come in. And so nothing but respect."
Respect is all Smith has for Foley, McPhee and general manager Kelly McCrimmon, and everything Vegas has built the past nine seasons.
"I understand the soul that hockey has brought to Vegas in a really creative way," Smith added. "Watching it succeed there gave me a ton of confidence that it would work here. Given my background and the landscape and the way I think culturally, we're way more similar than different, and that's the part that most people don't understand."
What's clearly understood, even with the NBA and MLB arriving in the next two years, is that in helping Las Vegas establish an identity beyond the Strip, the Knights have a firm fanbase that started from day one and helped set the standard for professional sports in a town that's gone from the Entertainment Capital of the World to one of the most sought after cities for professional sports franchises and all sporting events.
PHOTO CAPTION: NHL commissioner Gary Bettman and Utah Mammoth owner Ryan Smith speak to the media before game three of the first round of the 2026 Stanley Cup Playoffs at Delta Center.
There may never be another NHL team assembled like the 2001-02 Detroit Red Wings, who boasted a total of 10 future Hall of Fame players and were led by the legendary Scotty Bowman, the game's greatest coach.
However, that aura seemed to fade a bit during the opening two games of the 2002 Stanley Cup Playoffs.
The Red Wings, who were the first overall seed by a wide margin, were matched up against the No. 8 Vancouver Canucks, who stunned them with two straight victories to open the series at Joe Louis Arena.
Heading into Vancouver for a pivotal Game 3, the Red Wings took a 1-0 first-period lead thanks to a tally from captain Steve Yzerman, who was essentially playing on one leg.
But Vancouver knotted the score at 1-1 midway through the second frame after future Red Wings forward Todd Bertuzzi roofed a backhander past a sprawling Dominik Hasek.
With time winding down in the second period, both teams appeared as though they would head to their respective dressing rooms to figure out a game plan on how to gain the advantage in the third period.
However, Nicklas Lidstrom singlehandidly changed the series around with what appeared to be an innocent shot from center ice.
Lidstrom's shot from almost 100 feet away skipped under the glove of goaltender Dan Cloutier, giving Detroit a stunning 2-1 lead.
From that point on, the Red Wings won four straight against the Canucks, rallying from what had the makings of a disastrous first-round exit.
Eventually, they'd raise the Stanley Cup for the 10th time in team history later that spring with a five-game series win over the Carolina Hurricanes.
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SALT LAKE CITY (AP) — The NHL Winter Classic for the 2026-27 season will be played on New Year’s Eve, league commissioner Gary Bettman announced on Friday.
The Utah Mammoth will host divisional rival Colorado Avalanche at Rice-Eccles Stadium on the University of Utah campus.
Bettman was in Salt Lake City for Game 3 of the first-round series between Utah and the Vegas Golden Knights.
Mammoth owner Ryan Smith said other events will be put together in conjunction with the Winter Classic to run throughout the holiday weekend — highlighted by a postgame concert at the Delta Center on New Year's Eve.
“Our hope is this is a whole weekend that is a version of an all-star game where we can come in and we can program and activate our state and show our state off,” Smith said. “You can expect a weekend of full programming of events, sports, concerts, and activities that will be pretty special.”
And, the most recent case in 2014 involved the Los Angeles Kings looking lifeless in their first three games in the opening round against the San Jose Sharks, only to storm back, win the series, and go on to win the Stanley Cup.
Coming back from down 3-0 to win a series in the NHL is extremely rare air, as the 209 other teams in NHL history that have gone down 3-0 went on to lose their respective series. But, even if it's near-impossible, it's not, in fact, impossible, and it has happened. Special teams make history for a reason.
And, this year, there are three different opportunities in the first round of the 2026 Stanley Cup Playoffs for history to repeat itself. The Ottawa Senators trail the Carolina Hurricanes by a 3-0 series deficit, as do the Kings against the mighty Colorado Avalanche.
Then, there are the Penguins, who are on the brink of getting swept by their cross-state rival Flyers.
These teams have both been players in this situation before: The Penguins were on the wrong end of it in 1975, while the Flyers did the improbable in 2010. It is the Penguins who are faced with the improbable this time around, and - to be quite frank - they have looked much like the Kings did in 2014 prior to their out-of-the-blue comeback against the Sharks. And they look just like most of those 209 other teams that couldn't pull off historical feats.
In Games 1 and 2 in 2014, the Kings lost 6-3 and 7-2, respectively. They did take home a 4-3 overtime loss in Game 3, which - oftentimes - is the nail in the coffin for teams in that situation. But they somehow flipped a switch, and they found a way to dominate the remaining four games. They won by sequential scores of 6-3, 3-0, 4-1, and 5-1, and - again - went on to defeat the New York Rangers in five games during the Stanley Cup Final.
There was belief, just like there is with a lot of teams in this situation. And that belief is still alive and well in the Penguins' locker room, despite the daunting task that lies ahead of them.
And one Penguins' player has some experience in this arena, as his former team came pretty close to accomplishing the feat.
"You win one game, and a lot of things can happen, a lot of things can change," said goaltender Stuart Skinner, whose Edmonton Oilers recovered from a 3-0 deficit against the Florida Panthers in the 2024 Stanley Cup Final only to lose in Game 7. "As a team that's up 3-0, and you lose that first game... it's a tight second game, and you end up losing that second game... I mean, it's a series. Momentum shifts, and that can change a lot of things. One win can do a lot."
During media availability following Friday's practice, Skinner recalled that series, talking about how - one by one - plays built up throughout Game 4 that snowballed and allowed Edmonton to find their game again, forcing Florida to back into a bit of a corner. They took it one play at a time, one game at a time.
And that will be the Penguins' focus heading into Game 4 on Saturday in Philadelphia: win one game. It can be a bit hard to get into that headspace, especially knowing that four consecutive wins are necessary to stay alive.
But Skinner dove into the mental side of things as well, and he is confident in his own ability to do that.
"I've done a lot of that work in, just, my career in general, because it's the same thing in a season, too," Skinner said. "You can be having a couple tough bad games or, just, results aren't going your way, and you've got to find out how to switch that up in your mind.
"To be honest, I've been in so many situations that this feels - I don't want to say, 'normal,' because we're down 3-0, but - just normal in the sense of mentally juggling. I feel like I know how to do that."
It helps, too, that the Penguins have a nice collection of veterans in the room who know what it takes to win. Sidney Crosby, Evgeni Malkin, Kris Letang, and Sam Girard all have Stanley Cup wins on their resumes, and the adversity of the playoffs is something they've all experienced to the very end, when they - ultimately - had the chance to hoist Lord Stanley in celebration on the ice.
"It's pretty clear. I think, being in this position, you can't look too far ahead, you've just got to look at what's in front of you, and that's tomorrow and making sure that we put our best game on the ice," Crosby said. "I don't feel like we feel like we've done that for a complete game yet. Maybe different parts of games, but that first period's more of how we want to play. We just weren't able to sustain it. So, if we can put some periods together like that, then we can give ourselves a chance."
He added: "Ultimately, as a player, this is the best time of year, and it's not an ideal situation. But, at the same time, we would have took this last year. So, I think it's a matter of having the right approach, enjoying it, and just making sure we focus on what's in front of us here."
But, even though winning means everything to every player in that locker room, for guys like Skinner and Erik Karlsson - veterans who have "been there, done that" but never got to the finish line - defining moments like this mean even more.
"We believe in ourselves, and I believe in my team."
The last time Karlsson skated in the playoffs prior to this season was in 2019 with the Sharks. The closest he came to the Stanley Cup Final was in 2017, when the Penguins beat the Senators in dramatic fashion during a memorable Game 7 double-overtime - and when Karlsson was the best player on the ice for either team in that series.
Karlsson and the team know what's at stake. But, at the end of the day, he's also aware that it's important to embrace the feeling of playing in the hardest postseason in sports, having fun with it, and understanding the opportunity that lies in front of them.
“We're going to have to embrace and understand that being in this situation, even though we're down 3-0, is still a lot of fun, and we would have paid a lot of money to stand here today back in October and say this is where we were going to be,” Karlsson said after Game 3. “We've just got to realize that and understand that we're a good hockey team here. We've got a great opportunity."
And, as who understands what it takes to come back in an a near-impossible situation, Skinner believes this group of Penguins has what it takes to seize that opportunity and do something very few others in NHL history have managed to accomplish.
“You know it's possible,” Skinner said. “Statistics are fun to look at. But, it doesn't mean they're always right. What really helped me in my experience was it, kind of, just frees you up. You don't really have anything to lose.
“We've got the bodies in here. We've got a resilient group. I can say that over and over and over again, but we've proven it. We've shown it. This is the group that can definitely come back from this deficit. I certainly believe that.”
For a long time, hockey team options were sparse for fans west of Colorado. It was basically one of the Los Angeles area teams, or the now-defunct Arizona Coyotes.
Utah fans had that lack of choice assuaged with the advent of the Vegas Golden Knights in neighboring Nevada, but when the Coyotes transferred to Utah to play in Salt Lake City, fans had a truly local team to support.
That was not lost on the Mammoth, who made a brilliant play ahead of the team's first home playoff game at the Delta Center against the Golden Knights: Let fans exchange their sweaters for a Mammoth sweater so they can truly welcome their home team.
The Mammoth and Golden Knights will face off in Game 3 of their first-round Stanley Cup playoffs series tied 1-1. The exchange details, per the Mammoth website, were simple:
Bring any Vegas Golden Knights jersey (official team jersey only)
Mammoth owner Ryan Smith has become a more well-known face in the playoffs. A video of him going and mingling with fans went viral, and he said on April 22 he was going to host eight Mammoth fans in his suite for their game on April 24.
The unfortunate reality for the Detroit Red Wings is that they now own the NHL's longest active postseason drought at 10 years.
Near the end of January, they were in a prime position to make the postseason. They were tied for first overall in both their division and the Eastern Conference, but as they have in each of the last three seasons, things began unraveling at the beginning of March.
Eventually, Detroit tumbled out of their playoff spot and had to scratch and claw for every possible point in the standings as the schedule ran out of runway. Their fate was officially sealed with a 5-3 loss at Little Caesars Arena to the New Jersey Devils in their 80th game.
During Thursday's press conference, GM Steve Yzerman acknowledged there were multiple warning signs he was wary of before Detroit began falling in the standings.
“We had concerns,” he said. "We were in third overall or something, and we're like, 'Let's be realistic.' I don't think we're as good as our record at the time, but we are winning games, and we are where we are, and at the deadline we were where we were, and for the most part we were playing at .600 hockey, a little over .600, and at the end we were under .400."
One of the main areas of concern for the Red Wings all season long was their lack of even strength scoring, which finished 30th overall in the NHL.
They were also heavily reliant on goaltender John Gibson, who, after a subpar first two months, caught fire and became arguably the best player at his position in the League for several weeks.
For Yzerman and the Red Wings, the bottom line is that they need more talent on the roster.
“We need better players, we need to improve specifically in certain areas," Yzerman said. "We can talk about goal scoring; we need to improve in that area, particularly five-on-five."
“Collectively, if you’re watching the playoffs, and I’m assuming and I’m hoping our players are, to play with the intensity and determination needed to be successful to make the playoffs and get there," he said. "But ultimately it’s incumbent upon me and my staff to improve the team.”
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The Los Angeles Kings have been struggling to score all series long. After Game 3's 4-2 loss to the Colorado Avalanche, the Kings are tied with the second-fewest goals scored in the Stanley Cup playoffs with four.
Only the Ottawa Senators have fewer goals, and the Pittsburgh Penguins are the team that shares a four-goal total with the Kings. All three teams are down 3-0 in their respective series.
The bottom line for Los Angeles is that they've struggled offensively, with the top line of Artemi Panarin, Anze Kopitar, and Adrian Kempe should take a bigger part of the blame for that. It may be time to change the look of that line ahead of Game 4.
Game 3 is a great example of why the team's first line hasn't had the answer in these playoffs. Panarin, Kopitar and Kempe combined for a minus-nine plus-minus rating, including for the empty-net goal that Brock Nelson scored to close out the game.
On Friday's off day for Los Angeles, interim coach D.J. Smith spoke about how the effort is there on the ice, but he's looking for results.
"As well as we've played, in my opinion, there's some guys that can play better," Smith told reporters. "There's a few guys that I think can play better. Not for a lack of effort, (but) better execution."
Panarin leads the team in scoring with two goals and three points, but every single marker he's contributed to has been on the power play.
Artemi Panarin (Isaiah J. Downing-Imagn Images)
The same can be said about Kempe, who has just one point in this series. It was Los Angeles' second goal in Game 3 on the mad advantage, and with the goalie pulled.
As for Kopitar, the Kings captain hasn't registered any sort of scoring and could very well be making his final NHL appearance in Game 4 on Sunday.
With the makeup of the top line on a downward trajectory in terms of form, it's a good time for Smith to try something new and mix up the personnel. Especially since the Kings are in a position where they have nothing to lose, against a team they had no business competing with.
"I think you got to think about everything," Smith said. "Whether it's jumble the top six, move a guy up, move a guy down… we're going to look at all possibilities to win one game."
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Philadelphia Flyers forward Garnet Hathaway had caught Crosby with a high stick in the face in Game 3 as he lined up for a faceoff. Crosby dropped to the ice, Hathaway made a diving gesture and the Penguins captain was called for embellishment.
Instead of the Penguins going on a power play because of the Hathaway high stick, it was 4-on-4. The Penguins lost the game, trail the series 3-0 and face elimination on Saturday, April 25.
"I don't really want to get into it," Crosby told reporters Friday about the incident. "It happened. He hit me in the face with his stick. I don't know what else you want me to tell you. Make up whatever you want to make up. Those are the facts. He got away with it. Good tradeoff."
Hathaway high sticked Crosby before the draw, but Crosby was ALSO penalized for embellishment, we play 4 on 4.... pic.twitter.com/QcsGi9wg7J
Penguins coach Dan Muse had been upset after Game 3 that Crosby was also penalized.
"We don't have a single embellishment all year," he told reporters afterward. "Sidney Crosby doesn't have an embellishment in 21 seasons. So stick's in his face and they take both. I disagree on that strongly.
"Not one. Not one for our team all season. We didn't come in this series to start now. Our guys have done a good job with that, and Sid doesn't embellish."
The Penguins will try to win Game 4 in Philadelphia Saturday, April 25 (8 p.m. ET, TBS) to stay alive.
The Carolina Hurricanes can punch their ticket to Round 2 with a Game 4 win over the Ottawa Senators at the Canadian Tire Centre on Saturday, April 25.
While this has been the tightest, most defense-driven series of Round 1, my latest Hurricanes vs. Senators predictions and NHL picks expect a shift in tone, with both offenses starting to come alive.
UPDATE: Added prediction for who will win & goal scorer pick.
Hurricanes vs Senators Game 4 prediction
Who will win Hurricanes vs Senators Game 4?
Carolina Hurricanes: Ottawa No. 1 defenseman Jake Sanderson (concussion) joining partner Artem Zub (undisclosed) in the press box for Game 4 is a massive blow, and the Sens were already limited to just three goals all series and haven’t held a lead once.
With the Hurricanes also generating an eye-popping 59.8% of the expected goals to this point, Carolina will cruise to Round 2.
Hurricanes vs Senators best bet: Over 5.5 (-115)
Despite combining for 23.72 expected goals and 81 high-danger scoring chances, the Carolina Hurricanes and Ottawa Senators have totaled just 10 goals across the first three games of the series.
Hurricanes starter Frederik Andersen sports a .964 save percentage for the series, and Sens No. 1 Linus Ullmark checks in at .933, so statistical correction will be rearing its ugly head due to the unsustainable play of both goalies.
This is also an elimination game, so we could see an early goalie pull if Ottawa is trailing late in the third period, and the Sens haven’t had a lead all series long.
Hurricanes vs Senators Game 4 same-game parlay
Ottawa defenseman Thomas Chabot is set to log huge minutes in Game 4, including quarterbacking the No. 1 power-play unit. It’s a role he’s familiar with, and with the season on the line, I’m anticipating the longest-standing Senator stuffing the stat sheet.
Chabot has already picked up five shots on 19 attempts while blocking eight shots in the series, in addition to being on the ice for a team-high 5.24 expected goals.
Hurricanes vs Senators SGP
Thomas Chabot Over 0.5 points
Thomas Chabot Over 1.5 shots
Thomas Chabot Over 2.5 blocked shots
Hurricanes vs Senators Game 4 goal scorer pick
Andrei Svechnikov (+180)
Carolina winger Andrei Svechnikov leads the series in individual expected goals (2.06) without finding the back of the net, and he’s also racked up an impressive 15 shots, 24 attempts, and five high-danger scoring chances.
The 26-year-old Russian sports 27 career playoff goals, including eight across 15 games last spring.
Carolina has won 15 of its last 20 games (+9.40 Units / 32% ROI). Find more NHL betting trends for Hurricanes vs. Senators.
How to watch Hurricanes vs Senators Game 4
Location
Canadian Tire Centre, Ottawa, ON
Date
Saturday, April 25, 2026
Puck drop
3:00 p.m. ET
TV
Sportsnet, TBS
Hurricanes vs Senators latest injuries
Odds are correct at the time of publishing and are subject to change. Not intended for use in MA. Affiliate Disclosure: Our team of experts has thoroughly researched and handpicked each product that appears on our website. We may receive compensation if you sign up through our links.
