“Prust has played probably 300-plus games without any hearing, or anything going on with him,” Tortorella said. “He’s probably one of the most honest players. I look at (New Jersey’s Dainius) Zubrus’ elbow to (Anton) Stralman. I look at (Zach) Parise launching himself at (Michael) Del Zotto.” Prust’s hearing was at 11:30 a.m. Sunday morning [...]

In Sunday’s practice, the Devils broke up Zach Parise and Ilya Kovalchuk, and Jacob Josefson looked like he could be in the lineup and Petr Sykora could be out. “We were trying to generate some offense,” DeBoer said. “That’s been fairly common practice for us to move people around when we haven’t had success scoring [...]

Shane Doan scored two goals, Mike Smith made 36 saves in his third playoff shutout, and the Coyotes emphatically avoided playoff elimination with a 2-0 victory against the Los Angeles Kings in Game 4 of the Western Conference final on Sunday. Ray Whitney and Antoine Vermette had assists for the Coyotes, who escaped a series [...]

Phoenix has managed only three goals compared with the 17 it scored against the Chicago Blackhawks and 12 against the Nashville Predators. Their most-skilled forwards, Ray Whitney and Radim Vrbata, have yet to register a point in the series, and the secondary scoring that the team relies on has disappeared. PHOTOS: Images from the NHL [...]

By Jim McIsaac, Getty Images New Jersey’s Anton Volchenkov, right, grabs his head after being elbowed by New York’s Brandon Prust. Article source: http://rssfeeds.usatoday.com/~r/UsatodaycomNhl-TopStories/~3/a8jSYYeN_iA/1

Goaltender Henrik Lundqvist frustrated the New Jersey Devils Saturday with 36 saves to lead the Rangers to a 3-0 win against the Devils that gives New York a 2-1 lead in the best-of-seven Eastern Conference Final. Game 4 will be Monday in Newark (8 p.m., ET, NBC Sports Network). RESULTS: Rangers 3, Devils 0 PHOTOS: [...]

Last year, the Detroit Red Wings were the villains, amassing a commanding lead in a first-round series that they never relinquished en route to sweeping the Coyotes in four games. Even though the Coyotes are facing a similar fate in the Western Conference finals against the Los Angeles Kings, the circumstances aren’t exactly the same. [...]

After losing out in the Rangers’ block party in Game 1, the Devils found a solution in Game 2. They forechecked, moved the puck, didn’t give the New York defense time to set up, shot quickly and got traffic in front of the Rangers’ goaltender. It wasn’t anything novel. It was Hockey 101, and a [...]

He’s not tempting fate while the Kings are on the verge of exceeding his wildest dreams for his first NHL postseason run. “It’s a dream,” King said Friday at the club training complex while Los Angeles recovered from its 2-1 victory in Game 3. “You want to be part of the Stanley Cup playoffs. To [...]

In terms of hockey impact, they should be the same player. Both are wickedly quick, terrifyingly dynamic and often lethal with the puck on their stick. But as the Devils and Rangers prepare for Saturday’s Game 3 (1 p.m., ET, NBC) of their 1-1 best-of-seven Eastern Conference final, Gaborik and Kovalchuk, at least for now, [...]