NHL Previews

The Seattle Kraken do not have a true No. 1 line, with three high-scoring stars that can instill fear into an opponent. So coach Dave Hakstol has tried to balance all four of his lines. The move has worked, as the Kraken have tied a franchise record with eight straight wins and have a team-best 12-game point streak (10-0-2) heading into Saturday’s game at Columbus. “It kind of messes with the other team a little

The Florida Panthers, who have won nine straight games, will try to make it a perfect 10 Saturday night when the New Jersey Devils visit Sunrise. Panthers star Matthew Tkachuk said his team is laser focused. “The only thing on our minds is to try to make it 10 in a row,” Tkachuk said. Sam Reinhart, who leads the Panthers with 30 goals, scored with 0.7 seconds left in overtime on Thursday night as Florida

The San Jose Sharks finally are in position to win back-to-back games for the first time since early December when they visit the Ottawa Senators on Saturday. The Sharks snapped a 12-game losing streak with a 3-2 win over the Montreal Canadiens on Thursday. It was San Jose’s first win since a 2-1 victory over the Winnipeg Jets on Dec. 12. “I feel relieved to get the win, and it was a pretty good performance

The red-hot Vancouver Canucks pay a visit to the Buffalo Sabres for a Saturday afternoon matchup, hoping to continue their surge up the NHL standings. In the penultimate game of a seven-game road trip, the Canucks enter the cross-conference clash off a 4-3 overtime win Thursday against the Pittsburgh Penguins. The victory followed a franchise-first sweep of the New York Metropolitan area, knocking off the Devils, Rangers and Islanders in successive games. Vancouver, sitting second

The Winnipeg Jets are on a franchise-record run with points in 10 consecutive games as they continue a road trip on Friday night against the Anaheim Ducks. The Jets are riding a four-game winning streak and are 12-1-2 since the start of December. “It’s fun. It’s fun to play hockey. It’s fun when you win,” forward Gabriel Vilardi said. “We have belief in each other, play for each other, and we’ve got to keep going.”

The New Jersey Devils haven’t fully emerged from the deluge of injuries they’ve encountered during the first half of the season. But the Devils are much closer to being whole than the Chicago Blackhawks are. The Devils will look to continue surging, and the undermanned Blackhawks will attempt to salvage the finale of their five-game road trip Friday night when New Jersey hosts Chicago in Newark in the final game of the season between the

The Carolina Hurricanes have found their stride, and it has been an impressive stretch. “Just take the best things we did (in recent games) and move those things to the next game and just keep it going,” Hurricanes forward Andrei Svechnikov said of the approach. That’s the plan that the Hurricanes will try to implement against the host Washington Capitals Friday night. Carolina holds a four-game winning streak and has secured at least a point

Veteran goaltender Marc-Andre Fleury will have a chance to reach another milestone when the Minnesota Wild host the Philadelphia Flyers on Friday night in Saint Paul, Minn. The 39-year-old Fleury needs one more victory to pass Patrick Roy for sole possession of second place on the NHL’s all-time win list. Fleury and Roy are tied for second with 551 career victories. Wild coach John Hynes elected to sit Fleury in his team’s most recent game

Coming off a pair of lopsided victories, the Dallas Stars are out for revenge when they host the Nashville Predators on Friday. The Central Division rivals have split their first two games of the season, and most recently squared off just last Saturday. The Predators claimed a 4-3 win in Dallas on the strength of two third-period goals from Filip Forsberg. That loss marked the Stars’ third one-goal defeat in as many games, yet the