JOE THORNTON

The two-time defending champion Tampa Bay Lightning face the best in the West Colorado Avalanche in the Stanley Cup Final beginning Wednesday in Denver.

Joe Thornton’s career may be over.

There will be a Presidents’ Trophy banner hanging over the Florida Panthers’ home ice next season.

Andrei Vasilevskiy had 49 saves and the Tampa Bay Lightning completed a four-game sweep of the Florida Panthers with a 2-0 victory that sends the two-time defending Stanley Cup champions back to the Eastern Conference final for the sixth time in eight years.

The pressure is squarely on the Florida Panthers, New York Rangers and Calgary Flames down two games to one in their respective first-round series.

Aleksander Barkov scored his 38th goal of the season and the Florida Panthers tied a franchise record with their 12th straight win, beating the Detroit Red Wings 5-2.

Joe Thornton’s pursuit of the elusive Stanley Cup is bringing him to the Florida Panthers.

The NHL says it has not told players virus protocols would be relaxed when a team reaches a certain threshold of vaccination.

Patrick Marleau has played at least one game against 37 percent of players who have played in the NHL’s 104-year history (3,009 of 8,100). Now Marleau is poised to become the league’s all-time games played leader. NHL’s all-time games played leaders1. Patrick Marleau 1,7673. Brent Burns 1,157Lonest active games played streaks1.

Zdeno Chara is no longer in Boston after the Bruins captain signed with Washington. And the Sabres made an even bigger splash in free agency by landing 2018 NHL MVP Taylor Hall in October. Hall, for example, signed a one-year, $8 million deal with Buffalo by realizing the free-agent market was going to be tight. Oilers general manager Ken Holland chalked it up to the new economic realities facing the NHL. “It’s salary-cap related, which is related to the pandemic, which has given us a hard, flat cap for the foreseeable future,” Holland said.