The Toronto Maple Leafs forward Mitch Marner is getting roasted on social media for his post-game comments after a horrible team effort against the Vancouver Canucks last night.

All these years later, the descriptions practically write themselves. Brayden Point? He glides. Nikita Kucherov? He creates. Anthony Cirelli? He bleeds. Those are all compliments, by the way. Shorthand for a signature style of play.

PITTSBURGH — Nikita Kucherov had two goals and an assist, and the Tampa Bay Lightning beat the Pittsburgh Penguins 5-2 on Sunday. Brandon Hagel also scored for the Lightning, and Anthony Cirelli ...

Saturday’s game between the Toronto Maple Leafs and Montreal Canadiens provided hockey fans with one of the more exciting games of the season, while giving both fan bases a free ride on an emotional roller coaster.

Konecny has been on a steady rise. He has led the Flyers in scoring each of the last three seasons and four of the past five. An All-Star last February, he finished the 2023-24 season with a career high in goals (33) and points (68), and he’s on pace to shatter his best numbers with 35 goals, 59 assists and 94 points this year.

When you add up the salaries of the Leafs first power play — assuming it has Auston Matthews, Mitch Marner, Willam Nylander, John Tavares and Morgan Rielly on the ice — you get to $54.1-million worth of talent.

With every team now having played 40+ games, it’s a great time to reflect on the season so far and look at some of the incredible performances we’ve seen from players around the league.

This is the obvious one. Nathan MacKinnon leads the NHL with 68 points, seven more than Edmonton’s Leon Draisaitl in second place. Also of note, he’s first in points per game at 1.58, narrowly ahead of the Art Ross winner last season, Tampa Bay’s Nikita Kucherov at 1.57.

NHLs team must make adjustments, some more extreme than others. The difference between years of winning and losing may come down to branding.

To mark the halfway point of the 2024-25 regular season, NHL.com is running its third installment of the Trophy Tracker series. Today, we look at the race for the Hart Trophy, given annually to the player adjudged to be the most valuable to his team in the NHL as selected in a poll by the Professional Hockey Writers Association.

Malkin may not be directing as many pucks on net compared to previous campaigns, but he's still at 33 points in 42 games — including 10 on the power play — and skating his usual elevated minutes. And yet,

Now another season is about to begin. The Blue Jays chased hard after Roki Sasaki, the Japanese free agent pitcher, and superstar Juan Soto, just as they chased hard after the unicorn, Shohei Ohtani, a year ago. Chasing hard is a wonderful trait. Baseball, and all sports, though, are forever about winning.