Columbus Blue Jackets

NHL 2024-25 bold predictions: Breakout players, trades, offer sheets and 40-goal scorers

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NHL 2024-25 bold predictions: Breakout players, trades, offer sheets and 40-goal scorers

Will the NHL’s newest club finish as one of the highest-scoring teams in the league? Will Pierre-Luc Dubois finally find a long-term home with the Washington Capitals? Are players like Juraj Slafkovský going to make a significant jump in their production? Those were among the responses The Athletic got this week when it asked its […]

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NHL 2024-25 season predictions: Stanley Cup winner, playoff teams, dark horse and more

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NHL 2024-25 season predictions: Stanley Cup winner, playoff teams, dark horse and more

Can the Florida Panthers repeat as Stanley Cup champions or is it the Edmonton Oilers’ turn to go from runners-up to No. 1? What will happen in the Eastern Conference wild-card race? After kicking off The Athletic NHL staff’s season predictions Thursday with individual awards, today we look at team expectations. Who makes the playoffs?

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Tragedy in the locker room: How 2 teams coped with the deaths of beloved teammates

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Tragedy in the locker room: How 2 teams coped with the deaths of beloved teammates

COLUMBUS, Ohio — In March 1993, the morning after two of his relief pitchers died in a boating crash, then-Cleveland Indians manager Mike Hargrove arrived at the team’s spring-training facility at approximately 6 a.m. to find the parking lot full and most of the players already in the clubhouse. The team leaders thought it was

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For Don Waddell, leading Blue Jackets through Johnny Gaudreau tragedy is an echo of the past

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For Don Waddell, leading Blue Jackets through Johnny Gaudreau tragedy is an echo of the past

In the hours after the Columbus Blue Jackets announced that star forward Johnny Gaudreau and his brother Matthew had been killed, team president and general manager Don Waddell said he received 500 or so text messages. One hit him even harder than the rest. It was from Graham and LuAnn Snyder. On Sept. 29, 2003,

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Johnny Gaudreau’s death devastates a Blue Jackets organization already familiar with tragedy

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Johnny Gaudreau’s death devastates a Blue Jackets organization already familiar with tragedy

COLUMBUS, Ohio — The tragedy that took the life of Columbus Blue Jackets star winger Johnny Gaudreau and his brother, Matthew, still doesn’t seem real. At an evening vigil outside Nationwide Arena on Friday, fans placed flowers, candy and candles in a makeshift memorial by the main entrance. A lonesome bagpipe wailed in the background.

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