Tampa Bay Lightning

Tampa Bay begins the season Oct. 1 at the New York Rangers, then opens at home two days later against the Washington Capitals. For the first time since 1994, the NHL will play an 84-game slate.

Tampa Bay had to wait until the second round, but traded up six spots to take the forward, who will play at UMass this season. Kulebiakin and the other picks will be at this week's development camp in Brandon.

Tampa Bay's Nikita Kucherov, who claimed his second MVP, finished 10 points ahead of Edmonton's Connor McDavid in a close vote by the Professional Hockey Writers Association.

Andrei Vasilevskiy, a runaway winner in voting by the league's GMs, earned the honor for the second time in his career. He learned about the honor during a prank carried out with help from Tampa police.

Cooper was caught off-guard when he was presented with the trophy during a ceremony at Tampa General Hospital to open a pediatric cancer lounge was fundred by his charity.

Tampa Bay's captain had been around the team in recent weeks, even taking part in some skates. But his last game was in mid-March. He didn’t play in the final 22 games, including the playoffs against Montreal.

Montreal scored twice off fluky deflections and rookie goaltender Jakub Dobes made 28 saves to eliminate Tampa Bay in the opening round of the playoffs for the fourth straight season.

Gage Goncalves scored off his own rebound at 9:02 of the extra period to end a scoreless tie and keep Tampa Bay alive for a series finale on Sunday at Benchmark International Arena.

Tampa Bay is down 3-2 in the best-of-seven and on the brink of first-round elimination for the fourth straight postseason. The teams head back to Montreal for Game 6 on Friday night.

Maria Scruggs wants to be St. Petersburg's mayor, and she's going to tell you why. Also, some hockey playoff talk and making a criminal case against artificial intelligence.

A momentum-swinging hit by Max Crozier and two third-period goals by Brandon Hagel highlight Tampa Bay's comeback from a 2-0 deficit in a 3-2 victory. Game 5 is on Wednesday in Tampa.

All three first-round playoff games were decided in the extra period. In Game 3, Lane Hutson's slap shot gave Montreal a 3-2 victory over Tampa Bay, with Game 4 back in Montreal on Sunday night.