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The Penguins are more than Sidney Crosby and a dynamic offense, and that is just one of five reasons Scott Burnside cites for Pittsburgh being the favorite going into the playoffs.

If the Western Conference remains a place of high anxiety for teams such as the Minnesota Wild, Detroit Red Wings and Columbus Blue Jackets, who are wrestling for the final two playoff berths in the final days of the regular season, there is at last ...

For a host of playoff bubble teams facing dire situations, Tuesday was not a good night. With the Dallas Stars, New York Rangers, New York Islanders and Winnipeg Jets all scrambling to secure tickets to the postseason dance, those four teams some...

When you make the playoffs every year since 1990, as the Detroit Red Wings have, you're going to run into some naysayers and skeptics along the way. That's been the case pretty regularly since the last lockout, and yet the Wings keep plugging along, ...

So, maybe we were a bit hasty in assuming the Minnesota Wild were locks to make the playoffs. After a lackluster 4-1 loss Sunday night to the lowly Calgary Flames, the Wild woke up Monday to find that they'd sunk into a tie with the Columbus Blue...

Funny how the expected can suddenly get turned on its ear in the push for a playoff berth. A week ago, after the trade deadline had passed and the Dallas Stars had sold off three key pieces of today for a bunch of tomorrows, they were whipped 5-2 ...

What will Jaromir Jagr do for the Boston Bruins? ESPN.com's Scott Burnside and ESPNBoston.com's Joe McDonald debate the finer points. BURNSIDE: Well, Joe, you and I chatted in this forum last week after Jarome Iginla made his last-second decision ...

ESPN.com's Scott Burnside and ESPN The Magazine's Craig Custance debate the Dallas Stars' trading Derek Roy to the Vancouver Canucks. Go! BURNSIDE: Well, my friend, an interesting morning as the clock ticks toward Wednesday's 3 p.m. ET trade deadl...

Here's a look at five teams for whom the trade deadline looms large, writes Scott Burnside.

It is almost a rite of spring, the annual pre-trade deadline move by Pittsburgh Penguins GM Ray Shero. It doesn't always have the intended result -- think Alexei Kovalev or Alexei Ponikarovsky in 2011 and 2010, respectively -- but it has worked of...

Three years ago, Nashville's Rich Clune's boozing and drug use pushed him to rock bottom, Scott Burnside writes. Which makes his recovery all the more remarkable.

We all like to point to statement games without acknowledging that those games and their importance last exactly the amount of time it takes to play the game. So you can rest assured that, although disappointed at being beaten 5-2 at Staples Center o...

• On a rare light night in the league, Swedish goaltending sensation Viktor Fasth earned his first NHL shutout, stopping all 31 Colorado shots en route to a 3-0 victory. The win moved the surprising Ducks to 7-1-1 as Fasth has quickly surp...

• Anyone who isn't taking the Anaheim Ducks seriously might want to start after the Ducks handed the red-hot San Jose Sharks their first regulation loss of the season, clipping them by a 2-1 count Monday night. Perhaps more interesting is ...

--It was an absolutely huge win for the Philadelphia Flyers Thursday night -- their first of the season -- as they edged the New York Rangers 2-1. The Flyers have been ravaged by injury and signed veteran Mike Knuble Thursday to plug a hole in their ...

--Let's start with the reunion of Ryan Suter and his former teammates from Nashville in Minnesota. This won't have the emotional charge of Suter's much-anticipated return to downtown Nashville on March 9, but you know that Suter's old mates were look...