Hockey

It appears the Boston Bruins have two front-runners for their vacant head coaching position.

Former New York Rangers head coach David Quinn and Seattle Kraken assistant Jay Leach are the two leading candidates to replace Bruce Cassidy as head coach of the Black and Gold, according to The Athletic's Fluto Shinzawa.

Quinn is set to interview with the Bruins next week, and Leach is expected to interview with the franchise "at some time," Shinzawa added.

"Quinn has the personality that general manager Don Sweeney would prefer in his next coach: positive, engaging and uplifting," Shinzawa wrote. "Cassidy’s demanding style with his players, especially his younger ones, prompted Sweeney to fire him at his house on June 6."

Quinn was hired as head coach of the Rangers in 2018, leading the team to a 96-87-25 mark in three seasons and only one playoff appearance in 2020. The Blueshirts fired him in May 2021, replacing him with Gerard Gallant.

Before coaching the Rangers, the 55-year-old served as head coach of the Boston University men's hockey team, his alma mater where he coached current Bruins defensemen Charlie McAvoy and Matt Grzelcyk. The Rhode Island native also recently served as head coach of Team USA at the 2022 Olympics, coaching another current Bruin in Marc McLaughlin.

Leach had served as an assistant to Mike Sullivan for the AHL's Wilkes-Barre/Scranton Penguins in 2015 before being promoted to interim head coach after Sullivan was promoted as the next head coach of the Pittsburgh Penguins.

The 42-year-old left the Penguins organization after just one season and joined the Providence Bruins, Boston's AHL affiliate, as an assistant in July 2016. The Providence College product was eventually promoted to head coach of the P-Bruins before the 2017-18 season.

With their experience coaching younger players, it's no surprise general manager Don Sweeney prefers a coach like Quinn or Leach.

Boston shockingly fired Cassidy on June 6 after a first-round playoff loss to the Carolina Hurricanes. The 57-year-old served as head coach of the Bruins for six seasons, compiling a 245-108-46 record.

Cassidy led the Bruins to the playoffs in each of his six seasons behind the bench, including a Stanley Cup Finals appearance in 2019.

"After taking some time to fully digest everything, I felt that the direction of our team for both this season and beyond would benefit from a new voice," Sweeney said in a statement at the time.

Cassidy, who made his NHL head coaching debut with the Washington Capitals in 2002, was hired Tuesday as head coach of the Vegas Golden Knights.

John Tortorella was named the 23rd head coach in Philadelphia Flyers history this week, and he knows he has to do a lot of work to get the team back to a place where it can contend for a Stanley Cup.

"I'm not gonna sit here and say that we're going to be Stanley Cup contenders next year," Tortorella told reporters. "Having said that, I know there's some work to do. That's what I want to do."

The 2021-22 campaign was disappointing for the Flyers based on their roster, including Carter Hart, Cam Atkinson, Sean Couturier, Kevin Hayes, James van Riemsdyk and Joel Farabee.

Philadelphia traded its longtime captain, seven-time All-Star Claude Giroux, to the Florida Panthers in part because of its lack of success.

The Flyers fired former head coach Alain Vigneault last December following an 8-10-4 start. Mike Yeo served as the team's interim head coach and led the team to a 25-46-11 last-place finish in the Metropolitan Division.

With the team missing the postseason for the second consecutive year, the Flyers announced Yeo would not return as head coach.

Tortorella should be able to get more out of Philadelphia's current roster in 2022-23, and he called the Flyers the "right fit" for his coaching comeback, per ESPN. However, it'll be a difficult task getting the team ready to compete with the likes of the Tampa Bay Lightning, New York Rangers and Carolina Hurricanes in the Eastern Conference.

The 63-year-old most recently served as head coach of the Columbus Blue Jackets from 2015-21, going 227-166-54 and becoming the winningest coach in franchise history. He led the team to the playoffs four times in his six seasons, though it only advanced past the first round once.

Tortorella also coached the Lightning for seven seasons from 2000-08, leading the team to a Stanley Cup title in 2004, and has also coached the Rangers and Vancouver Canucks. He most recently served as an NHL analyst for ESPN.

Bill Haslam, who served as Tennessee's governor from 2011-19, will purchase the Nashville Predators in a gradual process.

Per ESPN's Greg Wyshynski, Haslam will become the Predators' new owner "over a period of years" as he purchases shares of the franchise from the ownership group led by Herbert Fritch.

Scott Soshnick, Kurt Badenhausen and Eben Novy-Williams of Sportico reported Thursday that Haslam was nearing a deal to purchase the franchise.

The report noted that the Predators are valued at $680 million, which ranks 26th out of 32 NHL teams.

Per Hockey Reference, Nashville ranked fourth in the NHL in home attendance (758,317) and average attendance (18,496) and third in capacity percentage (100.6) during the 2021-22 regular season.

According to Wyshynski, the process of Haslam purchasing a majority of shares to become the majority owner is expected to happen over three years. The are "no current plans" for minority owners to sell their shares to Haslam.

Per the Predators' official website, there are 17 people listed as owners of the Predators.

Fritch joined Nashville's ownership group in 2007 and assumed control of the franchise in January 2019. He succeeded Tom Cigarran, who remains a member of the ownership committee.

Forbes estimates Haslam's net worth at $2.3 billion. His father is the founder of the Pilot Flying J truck stops. The 63-year-old served as president of the family business from 1995-99.

Haslam is the younger brother of Cleveland Browns owner Jimmy Haslam.

The Predators have made it to the playoffs in each of the past eight seasons. They reached the Stanley Cup Final during the 2016-17 season, losing in six games to the Pittsburgh Penguins.

Nashville finished fifth in the Central Division this season with 97 points. The No. 1 wild-card team was swept in the first round of the postseason by the Colorado Avalanche.

It appears the Nashville Predators will soon have a new owner.

The team's ownership group, which is led by Herbert Fritch, is inching closer to a deal to sell the franchise to former Tennessee governor Bill Haslam, according to Sportico's Scott Soshnick, Kurt Badenhausen and Eben Novy-Williams.

Haslam, the brother of Cleveland Browns owner Jimmy Haslam, is worth $2.3 billion, according to Forbes, which values the Predators at $600 million.

The Predators entered the NHL in 1998 as an expansion team, though Fritch didn't join the ownership group until 2007, when the franchise's original owner, Craig Leipold, was considering selling the team to an investor that wanted to relocate the franchise to Canada.

Fritch assumed control of the team in January 2019 when he was named chairman. His reasons for wanting to sell the franchise are unclear.

Despite being one of the more lower-valued teams in the NHL, the Predators have a strong following in the Music City. Nashville had the league's second-highest attendance percentage (100.6) during the 2021-22 season, according to ESPN, trailing just the Vegas Golden Knights (104.2).

The Predators have grown particularly popular in Nashville since the team reached the Stanley Cup Final in 2017. Despite falling to the Pittsburgh Penguins that year, the team has reached the postseason every year since and in 15 of the last 18 seasons.

That said, the Predators had a disappointing 2021-22 campaign, finishing fifth in the Central Division with a 45-30-7 record and being swept out of the first round of the playoffs by the Colorado Avalanche.

Nashville has struggled to contend for a title since that 2017 Stanley Cup run, and the team's new owner will be tasked with helping get the team back on track.

If the sale goes through, the Predators will become the second NHL team over the last year to be sold. The Pittsburgh Penguins were sold to the Fenway Sports Group, which owns the Boston Red Sox, in November 2021.

Former New York Rangers winger Sean Avery has been convicted on attempted criminal mischief stemming from a road rage incident from 2019.

According to TMZ Sports, Avery was accused of slamming his scooter into a car. He was found guilty of the misdemeanor charge Thursday in Manhattan.

A spokesperson from the Manhattan District Attorney's Office said Avery has been sentenced to time served. He had originally been facing up to three months in prison. According to the New York Post, Avery had turned down multiple plea deals from prosecutors.

Avery damaged the car of a New York-based businessman during a dispute over the vehicle blocking a bike lane.

Avery told the New York Post in 2019, "If I need to be the poster boy for defending the bike lanes, I will absolutely do that. We need to be able to just bike in freedom."

The man said his four-year-old daughter was in the car during the incident, and Avery's attack left a hole in the door near where she was sitting. The judge presiding over the case issued full orders of protection for the victims in the case.

The 42-year-old Avery testified Thursday and admitted to raising his voice during the altercation, but he claims he changed his tune when he noticed that a child was present.

"It was three years ago, I can’t exactly remember whether the vehicle was damaged. … As soon as I saw the kids, everything, just you know, changed," he said.

Avery retired from the NHL in 2012 after a 10-year career.

The Montreal Canadiens have traded defenseman Shea Weber to the Vegas Golden Knights in exchange for forward Evgenii Dadonov, the team announced Thursday.

General manager Kent Hughes said in a statement:

First of all, I would like to thank Shea for all that he has done for and represented to the Montreal Canadiens. Not only was Shea an exceptional hockey player who played through significant injuries in an attempt to bring the Stanley Cup back to Montreal, he was also a great leader whose leadership will have a positive impact on our team well beyond his time with us. I also want to welcome Evgenii Dadonov to our organization. He is a talented forward who has produced at all levels since the start of his career.

Weber has four years remaining on the 14-year, $110 million deal he signed with the Nashville Predators in July 2012. The Predators traded him to the Canadiens in June 2016 in exchange for P.K. Subban, who now plays for the New Jersey Devils.

Weber had spent the last five seasons of his career in Montreal, tallying 58 goals and 88 assists for 146 points in 275 games. He was named the team's captain in 2018.

Seeing as how Weber has a cap hit of nearly $7.9 million per year over the remaining years of his contract, it's not hard to see why the Canadiens traded him. Montreal finished the 2021-22 season with the worst record in the NHL at 22-49-11, and the Weber trade means that the team is committed to a rebuild.

That said, Dadonov is 33 years old and isn't going to help speed up Montreal's rebuild. However, he provides the Canadiens with more financial flexibility and he has just one year remaining on his contract at $5 million before entering free agency.

The Golden Knights initially tried to trade Dadonov to the Anaheim Ducks in March, but the trade was invalidated by the NHL because of a discrepancy in the status of his no-trade clause that prohibited him from being sent to the Ducks.

In 78 games with the Golden Knights during the 2021-22 season, Dadonov tallied 20 goals and 23 assists for 43 points.

While the Canadiens cleared freed up some money by trading Weber, they still have just $1,923,334 in cap space, per CapFriendly. That's not going to be enough to make any significant additions in free agency.

That said, the Canadiens own the No. 1 pick in the 2022 NHL draft and will be able to select a player to build around for the future. Selecting someone like Shane Wright, Juraj Slafkovsky or Logan Cooley will help put Montreal back on the right path.

Tampa Bay Lightning head coach Jon Cooper told reporters that "the right team won tonight" after the host Colorado Avalanche earned a 4-3 overtime win over the Bolts in Game 1 of the Stanley Cup Final on Wednesday.

Colorado outshot Tampa Bay 38-23 and held a 3-1 first-period lead after Artturi Lehkonen's power-play goal at the 17:31 mark. However, Tampa Bay struck back with two second-period goals to tie the game at three.

Neither team scored in the third, but overtime lasted just 1:23 after Andre Burakovsky put home the game-winner.

Despite the tough loss, the head coach of the back-to-back defending Stanley Cup champions took away some positives.

To their credit, the Lightning got up from the mat after a rough opening 20 minutes and looked far better from that point forward. That's something Tampa Bay can take away as it looks to bounce back in Game 2 of the Stanley Cup Final on Saturday in Colorado.

How about that for a Game 1?

Andre Burakovsky gave the Colorado Avalanche a 1-0 advantage in the Stanley Cup Finals on Wednesday night, scoring the game-winning goal one minute and 23 seconds into overtime to give the Avs a 4-3 win over the Tampa Bay Lightning.

Not surprisingly, his huge goal was the talk of Twitter after the game:

Burakovsky was given his flowers, and justifiably so, but this was a wild game that played out over three acts.

Act One: The Avs jumped to 2-0 and 3-1 leads behind goals from Gabriel Landeskog, Valeri Nichushkin and Artturi Lehkonen.

Act Two: The Lightning, showing the poise of a two-time defending champion, pulled even behind goals from Ondrej Palat and Mikhail Sergachev within a minute of one another.

Act Three: The two teams, after the explosive opening periods, played to a stalemate in the third period before Burakovsky called game in overtime.

We've got all the early makings of an epic series here, folks.

The Lightning will look to bounce back in Colorado during Saturday's Game 2 at 8 p.m. ET (ABC/ESPN).