JAN RUTTA

The Pittsburgh Penguins have acquired Erik Karlsson in a blockbuster trade with the San Jose Sharks.

The New Jersey Devils have agreed to terms with left winger Ondrej Palat on a $30 million, five-year contract.

Executives around the NHL expect plenty of movement before free agency opens Wednesday.

The Colorado Avalanche winning the Stanley Cup showed the value of speed and skill in a league dramatically tilting in that direction.

The Tampa Bay Lightning spoiled Colorado’s party and they are still in the hunt for a third straight Stanley Cup title after beating the Avalanche 3-2 in Game 5.

Filip Chytil scored twice in the second period and the New York Rangers routed the two-time defending Stanley Cup champion Tampa Bay Lightning 6-2 on Wednesday night in Game 1 of the Eastern Conference finals.

Brayden Point and Ondrej Palat delivered early goals and NHL playoff scoring leader Nikita Kucherov had three more assists to help the Tampa Bay Lightning rebound from a series-opening loss and beat the New York Islanders 4-2 in Game 2 of the Stanley Cup semifinals.

Semyon Varlamov made 30 saves and the New York Islanders got goals from Mathew Barzal and Ryan Pulock to beat the defending champion Tampa Bay Lightning 2-1 on Sunday in Game 1 of the Stanley Cup semifinals.

The triumph of winning the NHL championship in a bubble was certainly no less sweet for the Tampa Bay Lightning. He played 964 regular-season and 137 playoff games to get to this point, losing in the final twice before. Tampa Bay had Point and No. Coach Jon Cooper thought the attitude needed to change from wanting to beat every opponent 9-0 because that’s not realistic in playoff hockey. ... Alexander Volkov made his NHL playoff debut for Tampa Bay, which also saw Patrick Maroon become just the eighth player to win the Cup in back-to-back seasons with different teams (St. Louis).