Before Connor Bedard had taken the ice for the Blackhawks, the 18-year-old hockey phenom’s No. 98 jersey had already taken over the Windy City, and beyond.
With two goals against the Winnipeg Jets, Ovechkin, the Capitals winger, passed Gordie Howe on the N.H.L. career list, leaving only one player in his path to being the greatest goal scorer of all time.
The N.H.L. playoff series between the Oilers and the Flames is boiling over with the heavy hits, trash talk, deafening arenas and bountiful goal scoring that defined hockey in the 1980s, the last time the rivalry was so fierce.