Philadelphia Flyers defenseman Tony DeAngelo wasn't happy that head coach John Tortorella made him a health scratch for the last five games of the season, but he plans on being back in the City of Brotherly Love."My whole life, I've wanted to be a Flyer, and now I am, so I don't take it for granted at all," he told reporters during his end-of-season media availability. "It's something that means a lot to me so I'm not gonna let any relationship stuff get in the way."He's the coach of the team, so you've gotta respect that, and I respect what he does. Do I agree with it, what happened in the last five games? Absolutely not. I think it's ridiculous that I didn't play in the last five."DeAngelo's final game of the campaign was the Flyers' 4-2 loss to the St. Louis Blues on April 4.The native of New Jersey added he was sure Tortorella had reasons for sitting him, but they didn't talk about it "a whole lot."DeAngelo also missed four straight games earlier in the season; the Flyers listed him as a healthy scratch on Dec. 9 but later gave him non-roster status due to personal reasons.DeAngelo led all Philadelphia blue-liners with 42 points in 70 games this season, but he was also a team-worst minus-27 while averaging 22 minutes of ice time per contest. His minus-15.1 defensive goals above replacement was the worst mark among all NHL skaters in 2022-23, according to Evolving Hockey.Tortorella said in February the Flyers needed to work with DeAngelo on his defensive game.Philadelphia acquired DeAngelo and a seventh-round pick from the Carolina Hurricanes in the offseason in exchange for second-, third-, and fourth-selections.The Flyers then signed him to a two-year deal with an average annual value of $5 million. The 27-year-old is set to become an unrestricted free agent next summer.Philadelphia went 31-38-13 in Tortorella's first season at the helm, finishing 17 points outside of a playoff spot.The organization fired general manager Chuck Fletcher in March and replaced him with Daniel Briere.Copyright © 2023 Score Media Ventures Inc. All rights reserved. Certain content reproduced under license.

Count captain Brady Tkachuk among the Ottawa Senators who are sick and tired of having their season end early."I just don't like being done in April anymore. I'm pretty done with it," he said during his end-of-season media availability, per TSN. "I think moving forward, it won't be the case. That's the belief in the locker room, that's the next step: We're not gonna be done in April anymore."After bringing in Alex DeBrincat, Claude Giroux, and Cam Talbot during an electric offseason, the Senators finished the campaign six points out of the second wild-card spot in the Eastern Conference and failed to make the playoffs for the sixth straight year.Giroux entered his first season in Canada's capital with 95 games of playoff experience under his belt, and the 35-year-old veteran was disappointed to not have the chance to add to that total with the young Senators in 2022-23."I think we did a lot of good things. ... Saying that, honestly it's not the position we want to be in right now," he said. "Well, me personally, I know we took a step from the team they had last year, but you want to be in the playoffs. You want to be competing. It's just a little frustrating right now."Tkachuk previously emphasized that this season felt "different" than past years, including the 2021-22 campaign when the Senators finished in seventh place in the Atlantic Division with a 33-42-7 record. Then, they were a distant 27 points out of a playoff spot.Ottawa earned six more victories and finished with 13 more points in 2022-23.Newcomer Jakob Chychrun acknowledged the improvement and has liked what he's seen from the club since his arrival in March."It's awesome. That's what you look for as a player, is to be on a team that's trending in the right direction, and I think this could be a really special few years with this group," he said. "The sky's the limit for this team and the potential that we have in there."Chychrun could only get into 12 contests as a Senator due to injury, but he noted he was "pretty close" to returning and that he hopes to get into "every game next year."Ottawa has some decisions to make in the summer. The likes of DeBrincat and Shane Pinto are set to become restricted free agents, while Talbot and defenseman Travis Hamonic are among those who can become unrestricted free agents.Copyright © 2023 Score Media Ventures Inc. All rights reserved. Certain content reproduced under license.

For the majority of the campaign, the Lightning and Maple Leafs knew a rematch of last season's seven-game first-round series was coming. If preparation and familiarity lead to buttoned-up defenses, expect the under to be in play in each game of this first-round matchup.This is despite a pair of rosters loaded with offensive talent - including Auston Matthews, Nikita Kucherov, Mitch Marner, Steven Stamkos, John Tavares, Brayden Point, William Nylander, and Mikhail Sergachev.As fans of both teams can attest, last year's series was decided in a do-or-die game by a pair of goals from fourth-line support player Nicholas Paul. One year later, with Toronto again the site for a prospective Game 7, the Maple Leafs are favored by slightly more than last season.Series oddsTEAMGAME 1SERIESSERIES HANDICAPLightning+125+130+1.5 (-175)Maple Leafs-145-150-1.5 (+140)The Leafs were just -120 to win this series last year - thanks to home-ice advantage - after a season in which the Lightning's metrics suggested they were the better team. Those same numbers show the Leafs' improvement and the Lightning's decline this season.RatingsUsing primarily even-strength metrics to evaluate a team's quality, we've established how a team rates relative to an average NHL team. We use these ratings to create an implied win probability split in each game which we then translate to a fair moneyline price for each before home-ice advantage is applied, and the sportsbook takes their vig on a bet. Here's how these teams rated for the season, and when isolating play after the All-Star break.TEAMSEASONPOST-ASBLightning+17%+2%Maple Leafs+19%+4%For the entire season, the Lightning and Leafs both rated just below the top teams at 17% and 19% above an average NHL team, respectively. But since the All-Star break, both have slipped relative to their start. That could easily be attributed to having little or nothing to play for as the season progressed. The Bruins' incredible start meant there was little chance of catching them for the division, and there was no threat the Lightning or Leafs would be caught from behind to prevent this 2-3 divisional matchup.Advanced metrics at even strengthXG%= Expected goal share

The Anaheim Ducks won't renew head coach Dallas Eakins' contract after finishing last in the NHL this season, the team announced Friday."This was a very difficult decision, one that comes after careful and considerable deliberation," general manager Pat Verbeek said. "At the end of the day, I simply feel that a fresh perspective and new voice will be beneficial for the team."Dallas has handled himself with class and character through a difficult season, and we wish him the best in the future."The Ducks have not named a replacement.Eakins addressed the organization's decision in a statement on Twitter:

New York Islanders star forward Mathew Barzal will be in the lineup for Game 1 of the club's first-round series against the Carolina Hurricanes on Monday, head coach Lane Lambert confirmed Friday, according to Newsday's Andrew Gross.Barzal, 25, hasn't played since Feb. 18 due to a lower-body injury. He was in the midst of his most productive offensive season (51 points in 58 games) since winning the Calder Trophy as the league's top rookie in 2018.The Islanders locked up the Eastern Conference's first wild-card seed with 93 points after missing the playoffs last season. They last met the Hurricanes in the postseason in 2018-19, losing in a four-game sweep.Barzal has 38 points in 49 career playoff games and was a key factor in New York's runs to the conference final in 2020 and 2021.Copyright © 2023 Score Media Ventures Inc. All rights reserved. Certain content reproduced under license.

The Pittsburgh Penguins have fired general manager Ron Hextall, assistant general manager Chris Pryor, and president of hockey operations Brian Burke, the team announced Friday.Pittsburgh failed to qualify for the Stanley Cup Playoffs for the first time since 2005-06, Sidney Crosby's rookie season."We are grateful to Brian, Ron, and Chris for their contributions to the organization over the past two seasons, but we feel that the team will benefit from new hockey operations leadership," owners John Henry and Tom Werner said in a statement. "While this season has been disappointing, we believe in our core group of players and the goal of contending for the Stanley Cup has not changed."The Penguins will begin searching for replacements immediately. Members of Pittsburgh's AHL affiliate and Penguins head coach Mike Sullivan will make hockey operations decisions in the interim.Pittsburgh hired Hextall and Burke in February 2021 after the surprise resignation of Jim Rutherford, who guided the Penguins to Stanley Cup wins in 2016 and 2017. Pittsburgh has only won one playoff series since capturing its most recent championship.The Penguins missed this year's playoffs by a single point. They entered the season with high expectations after Hextall signed longtime stars Evgeni Malkin and Kris Letang to new contracts in the offseason, but depth proved to be a significant problem over the course of the campaign.

The Pittsburgh Penguins' 2022-23 campaign ended with a whimper after they dropped their season finale to the Columbus Blue Jackets on Thursday.Head coach Mike Sullivan admitted that his side's 3-2 overtime loss was a difficult one to assess, given that the Penguins were eliminated from playoff contention for the first time since 2006 the day prior."It's been a long time since this group has been in this type of a game," he told reporters postgame. "I always believe there's something to play for, but obviously when you're officially eliminated from the playoffs, it's a whole different experience."Prior to this campaign, the Penguins had made the postseason for 16 straight years, good for the longest streak across all major North American pro sports.Captain Sidney Crosby offered a typically diplomatic take after his team failed to make the playoffs for the first time since his rookie season."I think, regardless of that, it's just disappointing," Crosby said. "I mean, I think that's the motivation when you start camp and start the season. That's what you're playing for. So to not have the opportunity, it's disappointing."But it's something you have to earn, and we didn't do that."Pittsburgh finished the season with a 40-31-11 record and a .555 points percentage, its lowest since 2005-06.The Penguins had difficulty stringing victories together all campaign long. They won three consecutive games or more on just three different occasions and went on losing skids of four-plus contests four times.Forward Jason Zucker pointed to that inconsistency as Pittsburgh's Achilles' heel."Overall, it was a failure of a season. … I have a lot of belief in this group," he said, per National Hockey Now. "Obviously, we didn't do enough to have success this year, and that's on us. It's nobody else's fault but our own."He added, "You can start looking through the season, the amount of points and leads and games we gave away. ... Ultimately, that hurt us."Despite the disappointment, Sullivan is confident his team can bounce back in 2023-24."The culture is strong enough (to rebound) because the expectations are high and the standard is high," he said. "When you don't live up to them, all of us feel it."He continued, "Nobody likes this feeling. I believe we'll be more determined than ever to try to right this ship and get this thing moving in the right direction."The Penguins made a major change Friday morning, firing general manager Ron Hextall, president of hockey operations Brian Burke, and assistant general manager Chris Pryor.Copyright © 2023 Score Media Ventures Inc. All rights reserved. Certain content reproduced under license.

Thursday night was a great one on the ice. We successfully backed the Flyers to top the Blackhawks in Chicago, while Aleksander Barkov and Jack Hughes both hit their player props.We'll aim to build on that success with three plays for the last slate of the regular season.Sabres (-165) @ Blue Jackets (+140)On the surface, this game holds little meaning. That changes when you dig a little deeper.From the Sabres' perspective, a 7-2-1 run down the stretch has given them the opportunity to post their highest point total since 2010-11. They can accomplish that - and finish just one point out of a playoff spot - with a win over Columbus.For the Blue Jackets, this contest holds a lot of weight in the Connor Bedard race. Another win would see them jump from 32nd to 29th in the span of 24 hours.A loss of any kind would slot them 31st in the NHL, giving them a 13.5% chance of landing a generational talent. That's certainly preferable to odds in the single digits, which would be the case if Columbus wins tonight.That's not to say the players are going to go out and deliberately lay an egg, but they don't have to; the front office and coaching staff are icing so little talent that the result should take care of itself.The Blue Jackets have posted a league-worst 36% share of the expected goals over the past 10 games. That's unfathomably bad.Jon Gillies is expected to be tasked with cleaning up the abundance of mistakes made in front of him. Gillies owns an .876 save percentage in the AHL this season, so he's not exactly well-equipped to do the job.The Sabres will want to finish their season feeling good about themselves, and their high-powered offense should overwhelm this Blue Jackets team.Look for Buffalo to win in 60 minutes - likely in convincing fashion.Bet: Sabres in regulation (-110)Avalanche (-220) @ Predators (+190)This one is pretty cut-and-dry. A win tonight gives the Avalanche a division title and home-ice advantage through two playoff rounds.Standing in their way is a bad Predators team playing its worst hockey of the season. Nashville owns a sub-40% expected goal share over the past 10 games, and no team has scored fewer goals at five-on-five.With multiple key injuries, the Predators don't have the firepower, depth, or defensive acumen to stop that slide.Juuse Saros was a one-man band keeping the team afloat during the wild-card race. He started Thursday night, though, and this season finale holds no significance for Nashville; it's likely he'll get the night off.Kevin Lankinen has been solid as a backup, but Saros has saved nearly 40 more goals above expected on the year. Lankinen won't be able to bolster this version of the Predators the way Saros does, and he's unlikely to get much offensive support at the other end.Expect the Avalanche to take care of business against a watered-down lineup and put themselves in prime position heading into the playoffs.Bet: Avalanche in regulation (-145)Nathan MacKinnon over 4.5 shots (-140)We're going back to ol' reliable with our final player prop of the regular season.MacKinnon continues to generate shots in bulk, going over this total in 18 of the past 30 games (60% hit rate). Only David Pastrnak has attempted more shots than MacKinnon over that span, which is also true of the last 10 games.Colorado still has something to play for, and the Predators are struggling mightily to limit shots. MacKinnon should pile them up, especially after generating six shots on goal or more in seven straight games against Nashville dating back to last year.Todd Cordell is a sports betting writer at theScore. Be sure to follow him on Twitter @ToddCordell.Copyright © 2023 Score Media Ventures Inc. All rights reserved. Certain content reproduced under license.

All four Eastern Conference first-round matchups are now locked in and just two are to be decided out West as the NHL's playoff picture has come into view on the penultimate day of the regular season.The league-best Boston Bruins will face last season's Presidents' Trophy winners, the Florida Panthers, in a series beginning Monday.The Toronto Maple Leafs and Tampa Bay Lightning will meet for the second straight year in a series that's been set in stone for weeks. The Leafs secured second place in the Atlantic Division, while the Lightning finished third. They will kick things off Tuesday night.The Carolina Hurricanes - who clinched their second consecutive Metropolitan Division title Thursday night - will battle the New York Islanders beginning Monday. The Islanders clinched the NHL's final postseason berth while eliminating the Pittsburgh Penguins from playoff contention on Wednesday.The New Jersey Devils will meet their neighbors and bitter rivals the New York Rangers in a series beginning Tuesday. The Devils finished second in the Metropolitan Division, while the Rangers placed third.Over in the Western Conference, the Vegas Golden Knights secured the Pacific Division title with a 3-1 victory over the Seattle Kraken on Thursday. Vegas will face the Winnipeg Jets in a rematch of the 2018 Western Conference Final that starts Tuesday.The red-hot Edmonton Oilers are the second seed in the Pacific and will meet the Los Angeles Kings in the first round for the second consecutive year starting Monday.Still to be decided is the top spot in the Central Division. Should the Colorado Avalanche win Friday's regular-season finale against the Nashville Predators, the defending Stanley Cup champions would secure the division title and face the Seattle Kraken in the first round. The Dallas Stars would then battle the Minnesota Wild.If the Avalanche lose in regulation Friday, Dallas will instead square off against the Kraken, while Colorado would meet the Wild.Copyright © 2023 Score Media Ventures Inc. All rights reserved. Certain content reproduced under license.

Arizona Coyotes bench boss Andre Tourigny will serve as Team Canada's head coach at the upcoming IIHF World Championship.D.J. Smith, Alex Tanguay, and Troy Ryan are also on staff as assistants, Hockey Canada announced Friday.Tourigny and Smith were both assistants at last year's tournament, which culminated in an overtime loss to Finland in the gold-medal game.Tanguay is making his international coaching debut, while Ryan will become the first coach to serve both Canada's men's and women's national teams. He coached the women's program to gold medals at the Olympics in Beijing and the women's world championship in 2021 and 2022.Canada is set to name its roster in the coming weeks as the NHL regular season will conclude Friday. St. Louis Blues general manager Doug Armstrong is serving the same role for his country this year, with Steve Yzerman and Shane Doan working as assistants.This year's Worlds run from May 12-29 in Finland and Latvia.Copyright © 2023 Score Media Ventures Inc. All rights reserved. Certain content reproduced under license.

The Minnesota Wild signed forward Frederick Gaudreau to a five-year contract extension with an average annual value of $2.1 million, the team announced Thursday.The 29-year-old played in all 82 games this season and scored a career-high 19 goals. His 38 points rank fifth on the Wild. He paces the NHL in shootout goals with eight, and his four shorthanded goals are tied for third league-wide.Gaudreau has blossomed into an NHL regular with Minnesota over the past two seasons. He tallied a career-high 44 points in 2021-22 after scoring a combined 18 points in 103 previous games with the Nashville Predators and Pittsburgh Penguins."He’s willed himself to be a National Hockey League player," Wild head coach Dean Evason said of Gaudreau, according to The Athletic's Michael Russo. "Clearly has a skill set, which all these guys do to play at this level. But what sets them apart is their battle, their compete, and them as human beings. He’s one of the best that you’ll find.”The Quebec native inked a two-year contract worth $1.2 million per season with Minnesota in July 2021. He was set to become an unrestricted free agent this summer.Copyright © 2023 Score Media Ventures Inc. All rights reserved. Certain content reproduced under license.

Philadelphia Flyers interim general manager Daniel Briere is staying on as the team's GM on a full-time basis, TSN's Darren Dreger reported Thursday.The Flyers are expected to hire a president of hockey operations above Briere, though, Dreger added.Briere took over as interim GM in March after Chuck Fletcher was fired. He was previously serving as a special assistant to Fletcher.The Flyers' front office is primed for a busy offseason."(Briere's) plate is absolutely full," Dreger said. "He's willing to get involved in some heavy lifting, some big time business, which means he's interested in listening on basically every asset the Philadelphia Flyers have."Philadelphia reportedly made defenseman Ivan Provorov available for a trade in January, but no deal ever came to fruition. The 26-year-old is under contract through 2024-25 with $6.75-million cap hit.Defensemen Tony DeAngelo and Nick Seeler are the team's most notable 2024 pending unrestricted free agents.The Flyers drafted forward Cutter Gauthier fifth overall in 2022 and are currently projected to select seventh overall in 2023. However, Dreger added that Briere could potentially try to move up in the draft."(Briere) wants to be aggressive," Dreger said.The Flyers missed the playoffs for the third straight season in 2022-23. It's the longest postseason drought in team history since they missed the playoffs for five consecutive campaigns from 1990-94.Copyright © 2023 Score Media Ventures Inc. All rights reserved. Certain content reproduced under license.

If the Colorado Avalanche are going to repeat as Stanley Cup champions, they'll have to do so without their captain.Gabriel Landeskog won't play in the 2023 postseason due to a knee injury, the team announced Thursday. Landeskog has missed the entire 2022-23 regular season.The 30-year-old has undergone at least two knee surgeries in the past 13 months. He had one procedure in March 2022 before he returned for the playoffs and helped lead the Avalanche to the Stanley Cup. The Swede had another knee surgery in October and was given a 12-week timeline, but he never returned.Head coach Jared Bednar said earlier Thursday that Landeskog had been working hard to make himself ready for the playoffs."He’s pushing himself to the limits of what he feels he can do," Bednar said, according to The Athletic's Peter Baugh.Landeskog recorded 59 points in 51 regular season games a year ago and added 11 goals and 11 assists in 20 playoff contests. The Avs signed him to an eight-year, $56-million contract in July 2021.The Avalanche have been hampered by injuries this season. In addition to Landeskog, the team is also currently without defensemen Cale Makar and Josh Manson, although the former is expected to return for Game 1 of the opening round.Copyright © 2023 Score Media Ventures Inc. All rights reserved. Certain content reproduced under license.

The New York Islanders booked the final spot in the Stanley Cup Playoffs and dashed the Pittsburgh Penguins' postseason hopes with a 4-2 win over the Montreal Canadiens on Wednesday night.The Islanders only needed one point against the Habs to nab the last wild-card spot in the Eastern Conference. The Florida Panthers secured the other one Tuesday night.Pittsburgh last missed the playoffs in 2005-06, Sidney Crosby's rookie campaign. The Pens made 16 consecutive postseason appearances between 2006-07 and 2021-22.This is the first time both NHL teams in Pennsylvania have failed to qualify since 1989-1990.New York will return to the playoffs after missing out last season. The Isles reached the semifinal round in 2020 and 2021, losing to the eventual champion Tampa Bay Lightning both times.The Penguins re-upped franchise fixtures Evgeni Malkin and Kris Letang last summer, inking Malkin to a four-year deal and Letang to a six-year pact. Crosby is signed through 2024-25. Malkin will turn 37 in July, Letang turns 36 on April 24, and Crosby will be 36 in August.Pittsburgh won the Cup with its current core in 2009, 2016, and 2017. However, the Pens haven't made it past the second round since their most recent championship victory and haven't won a playoff series since 2017-18.Copyright © 2023 Score Media Ventures Inc. All rights reserved. Certain content reproduced under license.

A career year across the board won't mean a thing to Toronto Maple Leafs forward William Nylander without some postseason success.The 26-year-old has set personal bests in goals (39), points (86), shots (287), and average ice time (18:35) in 2022-23 but isn't resting his laurels with the playoffs around the corner."I'll be proud when we f-----g win," Nylander said, according to The Athletic's Jonas Siegel.Toronto is locked into a first-round rematch with the Tampa Bay Lightning beginning next week. The Leafs have qualified for the postseason in each of the past six seasons, and Nylander has been a key contributor despite the team's failure to win a series. He's collected 30 points in 39 playoff games, including a team-leading 15 points over the past two years.Nylander enters the postseason slumping somewhat by this year's lofty standards. After opening the year with 72 points in 60 games, he's managed only 14 points in 21 contests since. Despite the downtick in production, Nylander thinks his approach has been consistent all season."I think it's just mentally," Nylander said of his growth. "Like when you're having a tough game, just trying to grind your way out of that and find something positive to win the game. Whereas maybe in the past it hasn't been as easy for me to get out of those situations like that."Nylander's final chance to add to his season's totals comes Thursday against the New York Rangers.Copyright © 2023 Score Media Ventures Inc. All rights reserved. Certain content reproduced under license.

It's the end of an era in the Windy City.After a "difficult conversation," the Chicago Blackhawks decided against re-signing longtime captain and pending unrestricted free agent Jonathan Toews in the summer, general manager Kyle Davidson announced Thursday.

We have our final big slate of the regular season on the docket tonight. Let's get to the best ways to attack it.Flyers (-120) @ Blackhawks (+100) The Flyers are a bad hockey team, but they're not Blackhawks bad. They also have nothing riding on this result, while the Blackhawks need to lose.If things break their way, a loss could have the Blackhawks in last by the end of the night. A win, however, could put them as high as 29th. Such a swing – perhaps not likely, but possible – is the difference between a 25.5% chance at Connor Bedard or a 9.5% chance. That's an extreme gap.Although the Blackhawks have been able to grind out the occasional surprise victory, they are mind-numbingly bad. They've won seven of their past 25 games and controlled only 40% of the high-danger opportunities in that span. They've also lost by multiple goals in 12 straight defeats. When they lose, they lose big - and they lose often.For all their faults, the Flyers have more depth, a much better underlying process (they own a 47% share of high-danger chances over the last 25), and a big edge in goal with Carter Hart.The Flyers also have a bench boss in John Tortorella who never takes his foot off the gas and will be pushing to win as if the world is at stake. This line gives a little too much respect to a terrible Blackhawks team that has everything to lose by, uh, winning.Bet: Flyers (-120)Jack Hughes over 3.5 shots (-120)Last game, Hughes broke the franchise record for most points in a single season. With the Devils still playing for first place in the division, and Hughes within striking distance of a 100-point campaign (he's at 97), I expect to see a motivated effort.Normally a high-end shot generator, Hughes attempted only two shots against the Sabres, and one came with an empty cage. He created chance after chance for his teammates, none of which were converted. I think he's going to take matters into his own hands and generate the kind of shot volume we're accustomed to seeing.Hughes has gone over his shot total at a 62% clip this season. If all else was equal, that would indicate -163 is a fair price based on 77 games of hockey.A matchup with the Capitals isn't an average matchup, though - at this point, it's better. They have won only seven of the past 25 games and allowed more shots per minute than all but six teams in that span. They're really laboring defensively.Look for Hughes to take advantage.Aleksander Barkov over 2.5 shots (-132)The Panthers must win their season finale in order to surpass the Islanders and claim the 7-seed in the Eastern Conference. That means they'll be playing for keeps and relying heavily on their captain.Barkov is sizzling hot at shooting the puck on home ice. He registered three shots or more in eight of the last 10 and 14 of the past 16 games at home, and he's done it in 23 of 34 games on the season. Those are very good hit rates.While the Hurricanes are generally not a team I want to target for shots, Barkov is worth making an exception. He plays a ton of minutes, his numbers at home are rock-solid, and he actually has a great track record against the Hurricanes.Dating back to 2021, Barkov has gone over this number in 10 of 12 meetings with Carolina. He's willing to work to get inside the dots, which is how you have to grind out offense against the Hurricanes.Todd Cordell is a sports betting writer at theScore. Be sure to follow him on Twitter @ToddCordell.Copyright © 2023 Score Media Ventures Inc. All rights reserved. Certain content reproduced under license.

The Calgary Flames may no longer be in contention for the playoffs, but Wednesday's season finale against the San Jose Sharks was exciting nonetheless.Top goaltending prospect Dustin Wolf and forward Matt Coronato made their NHL debuts during the Flames' 3-1 win over their Pacific Division rivals.Wolf made 23 saves in the victory. Coronato played 14:38 and registered four shots on goal. He lined up alongside Jakob Pelletier and Nazem Kadri.Wolf, 21, has been outstanding for the AHL's Calgary Wranglers this campaign. He leads the league in wins (41), save percentage (.932), goals against average (2.08), and shutouts (seven) across 53 appearances.He won the 2021-22 Aldege "Baz" Bastien Memorial Award as the AHL's top netminder during his rookie campaign after posting a .924 save percentage to go along with a 33-9-4 record. Wolf was similarly impressive during the 2022 Calder Cup Playoffs, where he pitched three shutouts in a series win over the Colorado Eagles.The Flames selected Wolf in the seventh round of the 2019 draft.Coronato, meanwhile, signed a three-year, entry-level pact with the Flames in late March after his season with Harvard concluded. The 20-year-old registered 36 points in 34 games in each of his two collegiate campaigns but hit the 20-goal mark for the first time in 2022-23.Calgary drafted Coronato 13th overall in 2021.Copyright © 2023 Score Media Ventures Inc. All rights reserved. Certain content reproduced under license.

Adam Francilia, an exercise physiologist for NHL players, has long believed goaltending is, at its very core, similar to a martial art like jiu-jitsu or judo.Both the hockey goalie and martial artist begin in a static stance, he explains, then read and react to whatever unfolds in front of them. Both operate in a confined space - the crease or the mat. Both need to be flexible and nimble. Both must find a mental sweet spot, no matter the environment."You're putting on this special gear, and you're entering this other self. It's very Zen," Francilia said of goaltending. "In a sense, you play a different sport than the skaters on your team and the other team, yet you're on the ice at the same time. You have very difficult responsibilities, a very different oneness with the game than skaters. And it's a position of perfection - especially these days."Thatcher Demko looks on from his crease. Jeff Vinnick / Getty ImagesFrancilia, currently working with 11 NHL goalies, most notably starters Connor Hellebuyck and Thatcher Demko, emphasizes the plight of the modern goalie for two main reasons. One, making saves is extremely hard in today's offense-first environment. Two, staying healthy is also challenging, with the most effective save-making techniques inflicting a heavy toll on the body.As the 2022-23 regular season comes to a close and goalies switch into either offseason recovery mode or a deeper Zen mindset for the playoffs, let's unpack Francilia's second point. What exactly is the deal with this save-making conundrum facing today's goalies? And how can they counteract it?The conundrumAll modern goalies rely on some variation of the butterfly technique, popularized by Hall of Famer Patrick Roy in the late 1980s. The up-and-down style helped elevate save percentages in the '90s, but an increased injury rate followed. In 2009, Sports Illustrated declared hip injuries an epidemic in a seminal article chronicling the struggles of goalies who grew up imitating Roy.A few years later, Jonathan Quick of the Los Angeles Kings popularized the RVH, a goal-post-integration technique used by nearly every current NHL netminder. Short for reverse vertical horizontal, the RVH involves the goalie leaning toward the post with his short-side pad tilted horizontally and far-side pad vertical. The RVH wards off offense from below the hash marks, and, like the butterfly, misuse and overuse can agitate ankles, knees, groins, and hips.Anton Forsberg executes the RVH. Icon Sportswire / Getty Images"You look at the butterfly, and you go, 'Oh, that's not ideal,'" said Maria Mountain, an exercise physiologist in London, Ontario, who works closely with goalies of all ages and skill levels through her online training programs."And then you look at the RVH," she added, "and it's like, 'Oh my God …'"The RVH, Francilia noted, is "more of a culprit" than the butterfly in contributing to injuries. It's a completely unnatural shape and movement for a human being to execute, with the ankle and knee exploding toward a steel beam to hold an awkward posture. This puts tremendous torsion on the joints."If the joint that's directly and most locally involved with the movement has a lack of mobility, if it isn't doing its job properly, the joints above or below have to pick up that slack," Francilia explained of, for example, a mobile right knee compensating for an immobile right ankle. All of that kinetic energy must travel somewhere.In other words, the only tried and true way to consistently stop pucks in 2023 sends goalies down a path that frequently ends with a trip to the surgeon's table and months of rehab. While forwards and defensemen are by no means immune to joint overuse injuries - our ancestors weren't skaters, after all - suffering a major hip injury has almost become a rite of passage for goalies.Connor Hellebuyck, Logan Thompson, and Stuart Skinner. Dave Sandford / Getty ImagesSix NHL-caliber netminders - Robin Lehner, Laurent Brossoit, Joonas Korpisalo, Anton Khudobin, Jonathan Bernier, and Daniil Tarasov - underwent hip surgery in 2022 alone, according to reports. Others, including Elvis Merzlikins and Tristan Jarry, missed time this season because of hip issues, and it's safe to assume at least a few of the vaguely labeled "lower-body" injuries were, in fact, hip-related. Prospect Ian Scott, a 2017 Toronto Maple Leafs draftee who had hip surgery in 2019, retired last July at 23 after failing to return to "full playable health.""Everyone gets it now," Buffalo Sabres goalie Eric Comrie said recently before pointing out he and teammates Craig Anderson, 41, and Ukko-Pekka Luukkonen, 24, have all gone under the knife to repair at least one ruined hip."I had no choice. I couldn't prolong it. I had to stop playing. It was a lot of pain," Comrie, 27, said of undergoing double hip surgery in 2013, his NHL draft year.Linus Ullmark, the front-runner to win the Vezina Trophy this season, also opted to get both hips fixed prior to making the jump to the NHL. In recalling the thought process behind choosing double over single, the Boston Bruins goalie said: "Let's do both of them at the same time and be done with it."Comrie and Ullmark sounded like baseball pitchers fresh off Tommy John surgery, a procedure that not only repairs wonky elbow ligaments but can also provide performance benefits. Both goalies reported increased mobility, flexibility, and strength. "It helped at the time, and it's helped in the long run," Comrie said.Linus Ullmark salutes the crowd. China Wong / Getty ImagesAnatomy plays a considerable role in goalie health. Some, including Ullmark, develop femoroacetabular impingement, or FAI, a condition in which wear and tear causes the head of the femur to sit and move improperly within the socket of the pelvis. Others are blessed with a hip structure capable of absorbing the butterfly and RVH, ultimately delaying wear and tear."It seems to be genetics, a lot of it, with how shallow or how deep your hips are. So I've been really lucky," Washington Capitals starter Darcy Kuemper said prior to the season. "Knock on wood here and hope that continues.""So far, thank God I didn't have any major issues," said Andrei Vasilevskiy, the Tampa Bay Lightning superstar known for his freakish flexibility.The counteractionBorn in 1999, Capitals prospect Clay Stevenson has lived his entire life in the butterfly era. He first dropped to his knees at the ripe age of six, and he added the RVH to his repertoire at about 16 while playing midget in British Columbia.The late bloomer signed with the Capitals as an undrafted free agent last spring following an excellent season at Dartmouth College. Stevenson, a 24-year-old rookie pro, has posted strong numbers in 38 games between Washington's AHL and ECHL affiliates. His development arrow is pointing up.Adam Francilia works with Clay Stevenson. David Hutchison / Alpha HockeyAbove all else, Stevenson must stay healthy - and he's tapped Francilia to help. "The pro season is so taxing on your body, so you have to find ways to combat that," the netminder said. "I'm learning how to stack my body right."Francilia, who originally trained athletes from a variety of sports, including powerlifting, football, gymnastics, and equestrian, zeroed in on goaltending as his niche about a decade ago. His sweeping objective: To optimize how goalies move physiologically in and out of various save techniques - or "stacks.""As soon as a muscle turns off and you're in any sort of shape, compression, or bend, the load goes through the connective tissue. That's not good. If the muscles are on the tissues don't have to work as hard," Francilia said.The longtime trainer, based in B.C.'s Okanagan Valley, interacts with his clients often during the season, calling, texting, or meeting in person. Most crucially, Francilia produces a weekly video featuring narrated clips of good and bad in-game postures and stances. A polished foundation is crucial.The hope is that smooth biomechanics equal fewer injuries and more saves."One of my favorite terms is that I'm giving myself 'the most access to pucks,'" Stevenson said. "If I'm stacked the right way and making saves with clean mechanics, there's a performance benefit. You're giving yourself optimal percentages to make that second save or third save - whatever you need."Clay Stevenson hydrates during an AHL game. Hershey BearsFrancilia also wants his clients to hone a Zen-like mentality when it comes to maintenance. Devise a plan and trust the process. On game days, Stevenson starts by placing a heating pad on his groins, hips, hamstrings, and lower back. He then dives into active stretching to wake up specific muscles and tissues - leg raises, hip bridges, forward-facing wall squats, side lunges, and A-skips, to name a handful. The full warmup takes approximately an hour.Postgame, Stevenson stretches and rolls out specific areas to "unpretzel" his body as much as possible. He then hits the cold tub to recover further.On top of those routines, the former Ivy Leaguer loosens up before bed four-to-five nights a week through full-body stretching sessions. Occasionally, a team trainer provides treatment on his lower back, ankles, glutes, groins, or hips."My first job," Mountain said of her approach, "is to keep the goalie healthy. The second is to help them perform better. So I'm mostly selling them on the performance side, yet in reality, giving them the injury prevention side too."The new Bauer Konekt skate. BauerKevin Woodley, who reports on goaltending trends for NHL.com and InGoal Magazine, has noticed modern goalies are better than previous generations at trying to find the "happy medium" between elite performance and longevity.For instance, many goalies have experimented with a "shin lock" variation of the RVH, which is more forgiving on the body. Goalies are also welcoming with open arms the new Bauer Konekt skate, which offers additional ankle mobility and flexion and, thus, in theory, less stressful butterflies and RVHs."If your ankle is locked in, where does the energy go? It goes up the chain to the knees, then the hips," Woodley said. "What this Bauer skate has done is it's allowed the ankle and the lower shin to absorb some of that energy."Francilia would love to see other equipment changes to help prolong careers.The knee stack on the inside of the pads - or pad riser as it's called in the NHL rulebook - can't exceed 2.5 inches in thickness when uncompressed. Permitting an extra inch or two, Francilia said, "would alter, in a healthy manner, the angle of the knee joint to the ankle joint. It would take a lot of torsion off the goalie's lower leg, which is a significant factor in the increase in ankle, knee, groin, and hip injuries."Meanwhile, despite the RVH's increasing popularity, goalie pants have lost some circumference. "In order to seal the post, the angle required from the knee joint to the hip joint is so extreme that it's creating a lot of soft tissue tension," Francilia said. "When the pants had a little more flare to them, the goalie was able to perform the same task but maintain a much healthier physiological shape.""The sport's blurring the line between goal-scoring and the health, safety, and wellness of goalies," he said, summarizing his concerns. "It's not good enough. I strongly feel like this needs to be addressed for the sport to move forward."Keith Petruzzelli takes a break after a practice drill. Steve Russell / Getty ImagesAs for workload, Francilia dreams of a friendlier future. Starters play fewer games in 2023 versus 2003, which counts as progress. However, the typical practice still caters to shooters, resulting in untold butterfly and RVH drops.Well, what if hockey treated goalies the same way baseball treats pitchers?"In MLB, everything is about pitch count. And not just total pitch count but how many curveballs, how many off-speed pitches, how many knuckleballs, and how many heaters are you throwing in a single session?" Francilia said. "This is where we have to do a way better job with goalies. We need to start emphasizing a qualitative approach versus a quantitative approach."In the current climate, as Mountain knows well as a trainer of goalies competing in beer leagues, the pros, and everything in between, the position's physical drawbacks are severe though not wholly unique. To make saves, a goalie must pay the price. In a strange way, it's the cost of doing business."If you look at any sport, really, it's not good for your body," Mountain said. "You look at football: It's not good to get smashed into by another 200-pound human being. Baseball pitchers: Not good for your shoulder to rip a baseball. Rowing: Not good for your back. You decide as an individual - 'Well, this is how I'd like to spend my body currency' - and that's it. That's the cost."John Matisz is theScore's senior NHL writer. Follow John on Twitter (@MatiszJohn) or contact him via email (john.matisz@thescore.com).Copyright © 2023 Score Media Ventures Inc. All rights reserved. Certain content reproduced under license.

Winnipeg Jets defenseman Neal Pionk avoided a suspension for cross-checking Minnesota Wild forward Marcus Johansson in the final minute of Tuesday's clash.The NHL Department of Player Safety dinged the rearguard with a $5,000 fine - the maximum allowed under the collective bargaining agreement - on Wednesday.Pionk caught Johansson in the ribs with a cross-check as the latter was playing the puck behind the Jets' net. Officials handed Pionk a five-minute major and a game misconduct.

The 2022-23 Boston Bruins have etched themselves in the NHL history books once again.Boston established a new NHL benchmark by recording its 133rd point of the season after beating the Washington Capitals 5-2 on Tuesday, surpassing the previous record of 132 held by the 1976-77 Montreal Canadiens.The Bruins, now 64-12-5, set the NHL record for wins with their 63rd victory of the season on Sunday, passing the 2018-19 Tampa Bay Lightning and 1995-96 Detroit Red Wings.The points record does come with asterisks, though. The Bruins accomplished the feat in their 81st game, but the Canadiens played only 80 regular season contests when they set the record. Boston's also picked up an additional 11 points with overtime and shootout wins, but Montreal didn't have that luxury back in the '70s when games ended in a tie after regulation.Copyright © 2023 Score Media Ventures Inc. All rights reserved. Certain content reproduced under license.

The NHL is headed Down Under.Melbourne, Australia will play host to the first-ever NHL games in the southern hemisphere when the Arizona Coyotes and Los Angeles Kings meet in exhibition matchups on September 23 and 24, the league announced Tuesday.The preseason tilts will be held at Rod Laver Arena - the multipurpose site of the Australian Open tennis tournament - and will be part of the league's annual Global Series."The Arizona Coyotes and Los Angeles Kings are two of our league's rising young teams and among our most innovative and adventurous franchises," NHL commissioner Gary Bettman said in a statement. "We look forward to their two games at Rod Laver Arena and know this history-making visit will thrill our many avid fans in Australia and cause so many more throughout the sports-loving nation to be captivated by our great game."The Kings are no strangers to lengthy flights, having played preseason games in China back in 2017. They've also flown to Austria and Germany for exhibition contests, and played in Germany for regular season games, along with visits to England, and Sweden.Jordan Spence is an Australian-born Japanese-Canadian defenseman who's primarily suited up for Los Angeles' AHL affiliate, the Ontario Reign, this season. He's appeared in six games with the NHL club during this campaign after getting in 24 contests with the Kings in 2021-22. Spence was born in Manly, New South Wales before moving Osaka, Japan, as a child and then to Prince Edward Island as a teenager.The Coyotes have played a preseason game in Latvia and two regular season tilts in Czechia.The Nashville Predators and San Jose Sharks flew to Germany and Switzerland last October for preseason games, then opened the regular season by facing off twice in Czechia.Copyright © 2023 Score Media Ventures Inc. All rights reserved. Certain content reproduced under license.

The injury-riddled Colorado Avalanche got some good news on Tuesday.Though there's still no specific timeline for defenseman Cale Makar's return, head coach Jared Bednar considers the star "day-to-day" and anticipates him being back for the playoffs, he said during an appearance on Altitude Sports Radio."He's feeling better. He's eyeing a return. We don't want to rush it. We want him feeling good come playoff time," he said. "We're managing some of those injuries in a way that we don't want them to pop back up. ... We expect him to be back."We're not worried about his return for playoffs; we're trying to get him feeling as best he can possibly feel before that date. I'd like to get him in a game this week if everything goes well."There are three games remaining on the Avalanche's regular-season schedule, beginning Tuesday against the Edmonton Oilers. Makar has sat out the last four games with a lower-body injury.The reigning Norris Trophy winner has played in 60 of the Avalanche's 79 games so far in 2022-23, putting up 17 goals and 49 assists while averaging over 26 minutes of ice time a night. He's been sidelined by an upper-body issue, a head injury, and a different lower-body ailment this campaign.Bednar also told reporters Tuesday that he expects blue-liner Josh Manson to be ready for the postseason. Manson hasn't played since March 1 due to a lower-body ailment and missed 31 games earlier in the season due to injury. He's only suited up for 27 matchups, chipping in with 10 points.Though Bednar acknowledged that he wants injured players like Makar to see some playing time prior to the playoffs, that might not end up being the case."I would love to get all our guys back to play a game or two," he said, per The Denver Gazette's Kyle Fredrickson. "I don't know if that's going to happen, though. So, am I comfortable with them coming in Game 1 of the playoffs? Yeah, I don't have a choice, really."It's not something I control. ... We've seen our guys come back after long stretches and play real well."The Avalanche have been red-hot as of late, winning eight of their last 10 games.The defending Stanley Cup champions clinched their spot in the playoffs last week and are currently in a battle for the top spot in the Central Division with a 49-24-6 record.Makar won the Conn Smythe Trophy last season after leading the Avalanche with 29 points in 20 playoff games.Copyright © 2023 Score Media Ventures Inc. All rights reserved. Certain content reproduced under license.

Headlined by a battle between two Western Conference powerhouses, we have an exciting 10-game slate Tuesday night. Let's dive into a few of the best ways to attack it.Oilers (-115) @ Avalanche (-105)The Oilers are the hottest team in hockey. They've posted an absurd 9-0-1 record over the past 10 games and put themselves firmly in contention for the top spot in the division (and conference) as a result.Their numbers during this hot stretch have been nothing short of remarkable. Edmonton is controlling better than 55% of the expected goals share and 57% of the high-danger chances at five-on-five.Dominating at even strength to such an extent makes the Oilers almost impossible to beat given the caliber of their special teams. The power play continues to fire on all cylinders - no team has netted more PP markers the past 10 games, or all season - and they own a positive goal differential while shorthanded over the same stretch.As dangerous as the Avalanche are, I think they're getting a little too much respect in this spot. They are missing a ton of key pieces - Gabriel Landeskog, Cale Makar, Artturi Lehkonen, Bowen Byram, etc. - while facing a star-studded team playing as well as anybody.Call me crazy, but I have concerns about a defense that features Jack Johnson, Brad Hunt, and Kurtis MacDermid holding up against Connor McDavid, Leon Draisaitl, and the high-flying Oilers.Look for arguably the league's most in-form team to grab another crucial two points.Bet: Oilers (-115)Jack Hughes over 3.5 shots (-130)Hughes is enjoying a truly fantastic season in every sense of the word. The most important sense for our purposes, though, is the shot-prop market. We've frequently targeted him, and he's consistently gotten the job done. Hughes has registered at least four shots on goal in 63% of his games, including a whopping 69% on home ice.Hughes averages seven shot attempts per game in New Jersey, which is a healthy rate to begin with. His numbers have risen even higher recently to 7.7 over his past 10 home dates.In that span, he has gone over the number against teams like the Maple Leafs, Lightning, Wild, and Hurricanes. It doesn't much matter who the Devils are playing; Hughes simply gets the job done.I expect that to be the case once again Tuesday night against the Sabres. They play a fast-paced, high-event brand of hockey that tends to bring out the best in offensive players. They were in action last night, so fatigue could be a factor. It's also worth noting Buffalo ranks bottom five in shots allowed to centers over the past 10.This is a really good spot for Hughes to get involved offensively, and he should be looking to take every available chance since he's four points shy of becoming the Devils' first-ever 100-point player.Connor McDavid over 3.5 shots (-120)Unless he's facing top-tier shot-suppression teams like the Hurricanes and Kings, I'm always looking to back McDavid at 3.5 shots. He simply has so much of the puck and spends so much time in the offensive zone that the opportunities will always be there.McDavid has gone over this total at a healthy 64% clip this season. If we assumed all opponents were neutral and his chances of hitting were exactly 64% each night, that would imply -178 odds, which are obviously a lot higher than we have here.McDavid has enjoyed success against the Avalanche this season, picking up four shots and a point in each meeting. With the Oilers still fighting for home ice - and a division title - he should see a full workload and then some. Expect the league's best player to take advantage.Todd Cordell is a sports betting writer at theScore. Be sure to follow him on Twitter @ToddCordell.Copyright © 2023 Score Media Ventures Inc. All rights reserved. Certain content reproduced under license.

Tommy Novak netted the winner in the shootout as the Nashville Predators prevailed 3-2 over the Calgary Flames on Monday, eliminating the hosts from playoff contention.

Success is all relative.With a two-point lead in the Central Division with three games to go as of Monday morning, the Avalanche won't exceed expectations with a division title. After all, they were favored to win it before the season. Meanwhile, the Kraken's 2022-23 campaign can be considered an overall win by just making the playoffs, since expectations were for a sub-.500 season.Then there's the Maple Leafs, whose bar for success is to either win a playoff series or win the Stanley Cup - or anywhere in between, depending on who you ask.While many teams have yet to determine whether their season is a success, all 32 were assigned a season point total goal for bettors to buy (by betting the over) or sell (by betting the under).With either two or three games left to play, let's look back at which teams - in the eyes of bettors - had a successful season and which have work to do to go over their prescribed point total.Regular-season point total winnersTEAMRSP TOTALCURRENTBruins95.5131Hurricanes102.5109Devils91.5108Golden Knights96.5107Rangers99.5106Oilers102.5105Stars94.5102Wild99.5100Kings96.5100Kraken81.598Jets88.591Sabres78.585Coyotes65.569It's strange to discuss the Coyotes in the same breath as the Bruins, but here we are. Arizona's expectations were so low that it could finish 28th overall and still have cashed bettors' over tickets with more than a week left in the season.It won't come as a surprise that the Bruins led the way in gross margin, but they've also already racked up 37% more points than expected. The Kraken were second in that department, with already 20% more points than their expectation - which was well below what's required of a playoff team.If getting one's team to play above expectation is the reflection of a coach, Jim Montgomery should win the Jack Adams Award, with Seattle's Dave Hakstol right behind him in voters' eyes. To handicap the betting markets for that award for future seasons, look at which team will exceed their point total by the highest percentage to determine which bet is worth making.If the Jets seal a playoff spot in the season's final week, that would mean at least 11 of 16 playoff teams went over their point totals.Regular-season point total success TBDTEAMRSP TOTALCURRENTMaple Leafs107.5105Islanders93.591Senators86.583Red Wings84.580Flyers73.571Bettors for five teams will still be made to sweat during the race to the finish line.Of course Toronto's regular-season success barometer is still in question days before their annual high-stakes temperature check. No team teeters on a balance beam of joy and sorrow more than the Leafs and their backers. While the final three games are largely meaningless in the locker room, many bettors care more about what happens on a three-game road trip to close the season than the upcoming rematch with the Lightning.In a rare instance of betting imitating life, the Islanders are more than motivated to accrue as many points as possible with two games to go, as they battle the Penguins and Panthers for the two wild cards in the Eastern Conference.Regular-season point total losersTEAMRSP TOTALCURRENTAvalanche111.5104Lightning103.596Panthers105.591Penguins101.590Flames102.590Predators96.588Blues97.581Canucks92.579Capitals94.577Canadiens72.568Sharks74.560Ducks79.558Blackhawks66.556Blue Jackets79.556Speaking of Pittsburgh and Florida, bettors didn't expect them to be in such desperate states before the season. Of course, a playoff spot clinched and a potential deep run won't make their season-long backers feel any better about bets that were lost long ago. The same goes for the Avalanche and Lightning, whose Stanley Cup Final matchup last summer helped set the bar slightly too high this season.Never a threat to hit their prescribed number, the Ducks and Blackhawks each have two points in their last 10 games and are in a battle for the most draft lottery balls with the Sharks and Blue Jackets. Bettors who didn't believe in a turnaround after those four teams missed the playoffs by a mile last year will be satisfied.If the Flyers can't register three points in their final two games, it will mean that teams lined at less than 80 points went 6-2 to the under - making the "bet the bad teams to be bad" preseason strategy profitable.Matt Russell is the senior betting writer for theScore. If there's a bad beat to be had, Matt will find it. Find him on Twitter @mrussauthentic.Copyright © 2023 Score Media Ventures Inc. All rights reserved. Certain content reproduced under license.

The Boston Bruins established a new NHL record for wins in a single regular season Sunday, claiming their 63rd in a 5-3 victory over the Philadelphia Flyers.Boston surpassed the 2018-19 Tampa Bay Lightning and 1995-96 Detroit Red Wings, whom they tied Saturday night with a win over the New Jersey Devils. The league-leading Bruins set the record in their 80th game of 2022-23.They need two more points to break the NHL single-season record of 132, a mark held by the 1976-77 Montreal Canadiens, who played an 80-game season.The Bruins have skated circles around the rest of the league during this campaign. They clinched the Presidents' Trophy on March 30.However, Boston has four shootout wins in 2022-23, along with five points earned in overtime or shootout losses - advantages from which the 1995-96 Red Wings and all other teams in NHL history before 2005-06 couldn't benefit.The Bruins played without six key players Sunday: Linus Ullmark, Patrice Bergeron, Charlie McAvoy, Taylor Hall, David Krejci, and Dmitry Orlov all sat out for various reasons.David Pastrnak netted a hat trick in the win, capping it off with his 60th goal of the season that was also the 300th of his career.Copyright © 2023 Score Media Ventures Inc. All rights reserved. Certain content reproduced under license.

The Toronto Maple Leafs have signed top prospect Matthew Knies to a three-year, entry-level contract, the club announced Sunday. The pact will begin this season at an average annual value of $925,000.Knies was one of three finalists for the Hobey Baker Award, which the NCAA bestows annually to its top men's hockey player. He was also named Big Ten Player of the Year for his efforts this season.The 20-year-old winger produced 21 goals and 21 assists in 40 games with the University of Minnesota in 2022-23. He helped the Golden Gophers reach the national championship game, which they lost to Quinnipiac on Saturday.Knies built on a strong 2021-22 freshman campaign in which he collected a point per game, posting 15 goals and 18 assists across 33 contests.Last year, the Phoenix-born forward represented the United States at both the Olympics and the World Junior Championship.Toronto drafted Knies 57th overall in 2021.Copyright © 2023 Score Media Ventures Inc. All rights reserved. Certain content reproduced under license.

Finding the scoresheet in historic fashion isn't the only thing Connor McDavid feels he's excelled at in his eighth NHL season.The Edmonton Oilers captain said he feels much more comfortable using his influence as the face of the NHL now than when he entered the league as one of the most highly regarded prospects ever."(Being guarded), it worked, it got me through that time," McDavid told NHL.com's Mike Zeisberger. "Now, like I said, I'm 26 years old, I've been around the league a long time, and I feel more comfortable just being me."I think the other thing for me was I cared a lot about what the older guys thought about me. … I feel like I'm in a place now where I have a little bit more respect in the game and can maybe speak (my) mind a little more freely."Despite racking up awards and accolades throughout his entire career, McDavid has never been regarded as outspoken. In recent weeks, he's shared his desire for the NHL to organize a best-on-best international tournament and stressed the Oilers' support of the "Hockey is for Everyone" campaign amid Pride jersey controversies across the league."I understand my position in the game and that my voice carries some weight, so with that, what I talk about and when I talk about it is a little bit more strategic," McDavid said. "I put a little more thought into some things. And with that being said, the league has always been super, super open with me. They've always wanted to have conversations with me, and the players' association the same thing."So I feel very lucky to be in that position. I know not every guy gets that type of treatment, so if you do, you'll feel very lucky that way."The Oilers drafted McDavid first overall in 2015 and made him the youngest captain in league history prior to his second season. He racked up 848 points in 567 games and is widely expected to claim his third Hart Trophy after notching the league's first 150-plus point season since 1995-96.Copyright © 2023 Score Media Ventures Inc. All rights reserved. Certain content reproduced under license.

Sidney Crosby collected three points Saturday afternoon in Pittsburgh's 5-1 win over the Detroit Red Wings to become the 15th player in NHL history to reach 1,500 points.The longtime Penguins captain achieved the feat in his 1,188th career game with a power-play goal in the third period.

Toronto Maple Leafs forward Mitch Marner's three points in a 7-1 victory over the Montreal Canadiens on Saturday night gave him a new career high of 98 in a single campaign.Marner opened the scoring just over nine minutes into the game. He then notched the primary assist on John Tavares' tally around six minutes later to tie his previous personal best in the NHL, which he achieved last season. Marner buried his second goal of the contest - his 30th of the campaign - early in the second period for his 98th point of 2022-23.Johnathan Kovacevic provided the Canadiens' lone goal less than three minutes into the second period.Tavares added an insurance marker just over six minutes into the final frame, while William Nylander, Auston Matthews, and Michael Bunting netted the other Toronto tallies. Matthews also registered three assists, while both Ryan O'Reilly and Erik Gustafsson picked up three helpers apiece for the Maple Leafs.University of Toronto goaltender Jett Alexander entered the game for the Leafs in the final minute. Toronto signed the 23-year-old to an amateur tryout contract before the game, and he backed up Ilya Samsonov, who turned aside all but one of 21 shots.Marner, who turns 26 next month, set the career high in his 78th game of the season. He racked up 97 points across only 72 contests in 2021-22.The winger is only the second member of the Maple Leafs ever to produce back-to-back 97-point seasons or better. Doug Gilmour did so when he amassed 127 in 1992-93 and then 111 in 1993-94.Toronto further solidified its second-place standing in the Atlantic Division, improving to 47-21-11. The Leafs will round out their regular-season schedule on the road against the Florida Panthers, Tampa Bay Lightning, and New York Rangers on Monday, Tuesday, and Thursday, respectively.The Canadiens sit last in the Atlantic and are near the bottom of the league standings, falling to 31-43-6 with the defeat.Copyright © 2023 Score Media Ventures Inc. All rights reserved. Certain content reproduced under license.

The New Jersey Devils signed 2021 fourth overall pick Luke Hughes to a three-year entry-level contract, the team announced Saturday.Hughes, the younger brother of Devils superstar Jack and Vancouver Canucks defenseman Quinn, recently completed his sophomore season at Michigan. He finished the campaign with 48 points and played a pivotal role in helping the Wolverines reach the Frozen Four, where they lost in the semis to Quinnipiac.The 19-year-old has also represented the United States twice at the world juniors and won bronze this past winter as captain.Hughes joined the Devils in Boston, but head coach Lindy Ruff announced the blue-chip prospect wouldn't make his debut against the league-leading Bruins.New Jersey enters Saturday's affair one point back of the Carolina Hurricanes for top spot in the Metropolitan Division with an extra game played.Copyright © 2023 Score Media Ventures Inc. All rights reserved. Certain content reproduced under license.

Puck on his blade, John LeClair sped down the left wing in the Stanley Cup Final intending to give up the chance to be heroic. A Montreal Canadiens teammate streaked open beside him, ready to one-time a cross-ice feed. The last defenseman back and the opposing goaltender both sprawled to muddle their two-on-one rush."I really didn't have a pass to Stephan Lebeau," LeClair told reporters afterward. "I ended up behind the net with everybody out of the net, so I tried to jam it in myself, and I got some help."The bounces that decide tense NHL games favored the Canadiens in the spring of 1993. Banking the puck off a backchecker, LeClair bagged Montreal's 10th consecutive goal in playoff overtime. It effectively clinched the championship, the famed franchise's 24th and most recent, a triumph tied to that unfathomable streak of clutch production and Patrick Roy's invincibility between the pipes.Lacking a 100-point dynamo, different Montreal scorers stepped up in huge moments to deliver the last NHL title celebrated by a Canadian fan base. The national Cup drought turns 30 as a new postseason approaches this month.The puck drops in the Stanley Cup Playoffs as NBA knockout play begins and as day breaks in baseball. Each sport's spotlight beamed on Canada in 1993. The Toronto Raptors were conceptualized and Joe Carter's walk-off bomb crowned the Toronto Blue Jays as repeat World Series champs.This is the story of Canada's blissful sports year, a boom time that millions of people around the country relished before the bottom fell out.Bruce Bennett / Getty Images Magic in MontrealDynastic in the 1950s, '60s, and '70s, the Canadiens rocketed to glory in 1986 because of Roy's brilliance as a rookie. Defeats followed to the Calgary Flames in the '89 Cup series and to the Boston Bruins in three straight Adams Division finals. Bench boss Pat Burns resigned, decamping to Toronto to coach the archrival Maple Leafs.Roy and captain Guy Carbonneau were the lone holdovers in 1992-93 from Montreal's last Cup team. Keen to add weapons, general manager Serge Savard dealt for proven veteran scorers right before training camp started, swinging blockbuster trades to acquire Vincent Damphousse and Brian Bellows. They became two of the Habs' four 30-goal, 80-point producers that season, joining Lebeau and Kirk Muller."The Cup was won when Serge made the trades for Damphousse and Bellows," Jacques Demers, Burns' successor as head coach, once opined to Sportsnet. "I really believe as great as Roy was, we needed help offensively." David E. Klutho / Sports Illustrated / Getty ImagesOwner of the league's sixth-best championship odds in the preseason, Montreal placed fourth in the Prince of Wales Conference following a down year for Roy. The three-time Vezina Trophy recipient slumped to sixth in the voting when his save percentage cratered to .894. Surveyed during the season, 57% of respondents to a Journal de Montreal poll maintained that Savard should trade him.Hospitalized with chest pains in the midst of a late-year skid, Demers brought his team to a ski resort on the eve of the playoffs to escape media and fan consternation at home. Refreshed, Montreal contained Mats Sundin and Joe Sakic, the Quebec Nordiques' dynamic center tandem, and erased a two-loss deficit in the final installment of the Battle of Quebec.Roy was beaten on a wraparound in overtime of the playoff opener, but he upstaged Nordiques counterpart Ron Hextall once the series shifted to the Montreal Forum. Damphousse's greasy winner in Game 3 rebounded off a defender's skate through Hextall's legs and was upheld despite the goalie's conniption. Roy gutted out a collarbone injury in Game 5, receiving numbing injections to hold the fort and enable Muller to score in OT.Montreal benefited from the Buffalo Sabres' stunning sweep of Boston, which Brad May finalized with his "May Day" deke and finish. OT goals by Carbonneau, Gilbert Dionne, and Muller in the Adams final lifted the Canadiens to a string of 4-3 wins. Dionne's goalmouth tip stoked controversy when he tapped his chest twice to signal that he scored. Some replay angles suggested his stick didn't actually graze Patrice Brisebois' point shot."But I did score the goal. I know that for sure. I don't care what ESPN's been showing," Dionne said later in the series. "They should stick to baseball and basketball, because they don't really know what's going on on the ice."The Canadiens unwound at a local hotel as their expected next opponent, the mighty Pittsburgh Penguins, were felled in one of the NHL's great upsets. Mario Lemieux racked up 160 points in 60 games in a season interrupted by treatment for Hodgkin's lymphoma. Rewarded with the Hart, Art Ross, and Bill Masterton Trophies, Lemieux's superlative campaign ended in Game 7 of Round 2 when David Volek struck for the New York Islanders."We were in our hotel on the seventh floor, and the Islanders won in overtime, and we all got out of our rooms and high-fived," Lebeau recalled to theScore several years ago. "Between Boston and Buffalo, and between Pittsburgh and the Islanders, I think 99% of the players would have chosen Buffalo and the Islanders."Spent from battling Lemieux, the Islanders conceded OT tallies to Lebeau and Carbonneau that extended Montreal's win streak in sudden death to seven games.Roy's .932 save percentage in Round 3 was sterling, but New York bemoaned missed calls, arguing Montreal iced too many men before Carbonneau scored to seal Game 3. Legendary Isles head coach Al Arbour accused the NHL of trying to orchestrate an all-Canadian Cup Final between historic foes.In the Clarence Campbell Conference, memorable OT goals from Nikolai Borschevsky, Doug Gilmour, and Glenn Anderson powered Burns' Leafs to the brink of the final. Toronto was one win from bouncing the Los Angeles Kings when Wayne Gretzky, debunking Arbour's conspiracy theory, notoriously wasn't penalized for high-sticking Gilmour in crunch time of Game 6. Gretzky's OT tap-in and hat trick on the road in Game 7 helped L.A. advance."It was agony for Leafs fans … They felt it was their time," Kerry Fraser, the referee of Game 6, acknowledged in a 2016 essay for The Players' Tribune. "If I had one opportunity to turn back the hands of time for a 'do over' it would be to catch that high-stick."Gretzky scored on Roy and dished three assists to open the Cup Final, prompting Carbonneau to act. Swearing that a persistent knee injury wasn't bothering him, the tenacious checker asked Demers to let him shadow the Great One, who managed a modest three helpers the rest of the way.Down by a goal with two minutes left in Game 2, Carbonneau convinced Demers to risk a delay-of-game penalty, requesting from Fraser the measurement that confirmed L.A. defenseman Marty McSorley's stick curve was illegal. Habs blue-liner Eric Desjardins scored on the ensuing six-on-four, then blasted a snapshot through Kelly Hrudey in the Kings net 51 seconds into overtime, completing a hat trick."These are mistakes that those longtime Stanley Cup party animals, Les Canadiens, chew up and wash down with great gulps of champagne," E.M. Swift wrote about the McSorley incident in Sports Illustrated's recap of the series.When Games 3 and 4 required extra frames, LeClair ended both, roofing a rebound on his third thwack at a loose puck before he converted the two-on-one rush with Lebeau. Earlier in Game 4, Roy was captured on camera winking at Tomas Sandstrom after he robbed the Kings forward by the crease. The overtime victory was Montreal's 10th in the postseason, the NHL record by a wide margin, per Stathead."It's possibly a record that will never be beaten," Demers told reporters postgame.Game 5 enthroned the Habs as champions and triggered a riot in downtown Montreal. The Kings barely challenged Roy, mustering a season-low 19 shots on net, zero from Gretzky in a pointless effort. Muller netted the Cup winner by shoveling the puck past Hrudey in a scramble early in the second period.Montreal wasn't a Cup favorite at the outset of the playoffs, Bob Cole intoned on the CBC broadcast on June 9, 1993."But (team president) Ronald Corey got Serge Savard, he hired Jacques Demers, and all together they worked a young team to the top," Cole said as the crowd roared in the waning seconds of the finale. "And now a 24th Stanley Cup banner will hang from the rafters of the famous Forum."Toronto's time to shineToronto never forgot the high-stick that bloodied Gilmour, but the local sports scene rebounded from that blow and expanded. Eager to internationalize under the late commissioner David Stern, the NBA in the summer of 1993 solicited bids to own the new franchise that became the Raptors. John Iacono / Sports Illustrated / Getty ImagesThe bidders included Magic Johnson, who explained with characteristic earnestness that he was ready to face Canadian winters: "A little rain, snow, or sleet won't bother me, because basketball is played indoors." Construction magnate Larry Tanenbaum, the Raptors' current governor, submitted a rival bid after vying unsuccessfully to buy and relocate the Denver Nuggets and the San Antonio Spurs. He proposed naming the team the Toronto Thunder.Prevailing over Tanenbaum in an upset was businessman John Bitove Jr., whose restaurateur family owned the concession rights at Toronto's SkyDome and Pearson International Airport. A college acquaintance of Isiah Thomas, whom he hired to run the Raptors' front office, Bitove had helped attract the FIBA World Cup to Toronto and possessed every issue of Sports Illustrated produced since 1969, the Toronto Star noted when his bid was chosen.The NBA tapped Bitove's group as the winner in September 1993 on his 33rd birthday. Supporters sang "Happy Birthday" before digging into a celebratory meal as Bitove smiled and buried his head in his palm. He deflected credit for the triumph to his ownership partners."I was just the quarterback, the point guard, the playmaker," Bitove said, per the Star.The Bitove syndicate paid $125 million, a record sum, to join the NBA as Michael Jordan retired for the first time. More than 25,000 Torontonians flocked to SkyDome a year earlier to see Jordan shake off rust in a preseason game. Jordan stepped away at the peak of his powers in October '93, the day after he patronized the Chicago White Sox's playoff opener, bouncing the ceremonial first pitch in the right batter's box.The Blue Jays saw that happen live. The reigning World Series winner, Toronto secured in 1993 its fourth American League East title in five seasons, setting up the ALCS brush with Chicago that kick-started the club's championship defense.Five All-Stars batted consecutively at the top of Jays manager Cito Gaston's order. Toronto's fearsome WAMCO quintet - Devon White, Roberto Alomar, Paul Molitor, Joe Carter, and John Olerud - powered the Blue Jays to third place in MLB scoring. Olerud hit .363 in 1993, edging Molitor and Alomar atop the AL batting leaderboard. Fresh off catching the decisive out of the '92 Fall Classic, Carter slugged a team-best 33 home runs.Deadlocked for the division lead as late as Sept. 9, the Blue Jays rattled off nine straight victories and 17 in 21 to eclipse the New York Yankees in the AL East by seven games. Toronto closer Duane Ward's 45 saves in a 95-win season elevated him to fifth in the AL Cy Young voting.The Jays rocked the winner of the award, White Sox ace Jack McDowell, for 18 hits over his two starts in the ALCS. McDowell sailed a pickoff attempt into center field in Game 5, permitting midseason acquisition Rickey Henderson to score the opening run. The day before Game 6 was Canadian Thanksgiving, so Dave Stewart, Toronto's scheduled starter, served turkey dinners at a Salvation Army center downtown before he hopped a late flight to Chicago."I met Stewart's mother last week at a restaurant," White Sox designated hitter Bo Jackson told The New York Times ahead of Game 6. "I told her the next time we face her son, we're going to kick the beans out of him. I can't lie to his mother."The prediction didn't take. Stewart limited Chicago to four hits over 7 1/3 innings and Ward induced the final five outs, the last of which Carter snared in right field to retain the AL pennant."For some reason, the ball finds my glove for the last out, again," Carter told Sportsnet years later. "Those things just seem to happen to me."Toronto proceeded to top the Philadelphia Phillies in an epic World Series. Phillies outfielder Lenny Dykstra stroked four homers in defeat, but the Blue Jays outscored the National League champs 45-36 over six barn burners, thanks largely to Alomar and Molitor combining to hit .469.The matchup teemed with rich storylines. Toronto tagged Phillies ace Curt Schilling for seven runs in the opener, then lost narrowly in Game 2 despite Schilling's dread about the outcome.Nervous in the dugout, Schilling covered his head with a towel when erratic Phillies closer Mitch Williams took the mound, angering Williams behind the scenes. Before his next start, Schilling pinned a neon green button to his cap that proclaimed, "I survived watching Mitch pitch in the 1993 World Series."Braving the rain, more than 62,000 fans packed Veterans Stadium in Philadelphia for back-to-back slugfests that lasted past midnight. Gaston benched Olerud in Game 3 so that Molitor, unable to DH in the NL park, could man first base. Molitor tripled and homered, but also urged the commissioner to change the DH rule: "Mr. (Bud) Selig, if you're listening, it just doesn't make a lot of sense."Game 4 was soggy and thrilling. Jays pitcher Todd Stottlemyre cut his chin in a baserunning misadventure, but Toronto collected 17 of the night's 31 hits and erased a five-run deficit in the eighth inning to win 15-14."Two touchdowns is usually safe," Stewart remarked to Sports Illustrated.Schilling blanked the Jays on 147 pitches in Game 5, ensuring the clincher would be played at SkyDome in Toronto. On Oct. 23, Dykstra's shot to the second deck chased Stewart in the seventh inning of Game 6, sparking Philadelphia to a 6-5 lead that Williams would fail to protect.Molitor singled Henderson to second base with one out in the ninth right before Carter stepped to the plate. On the fifth pitch he saw, Williams hung a slider down and in that Carter belted over the left-field wall into the Toronto bullpen. Fireworks detonated, jubilant fans and his teammates stormed the turf, and Carter's helmet flew off as he jumped rounding the bases.Interviewed on TSN as a million revelers filled the streets outside the dome, Carter said he lost the ball in the lights before he realized it cleared the fence. He was living every ballplayer’s childhood fantasy."Every dream as a kid that you have, it's always the bottom of the ninth. It's the last game of the World Series. You hit the game-winning home run," Carter said. "I can look back and say for one moment, I did that."Elsewhere, backup outfielder Rob Butler poured Budweiser onto the coiffed hair of CTV reporter Rod Black. The party raged in the clubhouse as Butler, the lone homegrown Blue Jay, spoke through the camera to family and friends in Newfoundland: “I love everybody in Butlerville. I love everybody in Toronto. I love everybody in Canada!"Carlo Allegri / AFP / Getty Images The aftermathPat Gillick, architect of the Blue Jays' championship lineups, resigned as GM in the afterglow of the Carter bash and wasn't around for the club's imminent collapse. A losing team in the strike-shortened 1994 season, Toronto finished 30 games back of the AL East lead in '95, then played mediocre baseball for the next two decades.The Montreal Expos' fate was worse. Losers of the "Blue Monday" NLCS heartbreaker in their only taste of the postseason, the Expos infamously owned the best record in the majors in '94 when the strike began and ultimately nixed the World Series. Stars of that team - Moises Alou, Pedro Martinez, Larry Walker - gradually signed elsewhere or were traded. The Expos plunged in the standings and moved to Washington in 2005.Around the time Bitove named his team the Raptors, unveiling pro basketball's "newest, freshest, and hungriest look," the NBA doubled down on expanding to Canada. The Raptors and Vancouver Grizzlies both debuted in the league in 1995-96. Dealing for Vince Carter in 1998 put Toronto on the NBA map, but the Grizzlies posted a .220 win percentage over six seasons, alienating their original fan base before they uprooted to Memphis.All the while, Canada's Stanley Cup drought persisted. Canadian NHL teams have combined to make 93 playoff appearances since Montreal reigned in '93. They've won 63 series without raising the chalice.Five Canadian franchises surged to the final in that span, but their collective record in those series is 0-6. In 2004, officials didn't see Martin Gelinas' would-be Cup winner for Calgary cross the goal line. Canada's most recent Game 7 loss incited rioting in Vancouver.Expansion and the establishment of the salary cap created parity in the NHL, empowering 14 American clubs to split the last 28 titles. Canada's dry spell became historically interminable. The second-longest national Cup drought lasted seven years, between when the Montreal Maroons prevailed in 1935 and the Leafs won in 1942.The wait could end in June or continue indefinitely. The Oilers and Leafs would stage a stirring Cup Final if both teams ever got that far. The current iterations of the Flames and Jets might already have peaked. Committing to a rebuild like the Senators and Canadiens did could eventually heighten the Canucks' ceiling.The Raptors bottled magic in the spring of 2019 to hoist the Larry O'Brien Trophy before Kawhi Leonard departed. The promise the Blue Jays have flashed since Vladimir Guerrero Jr. and Bo Bichette broke onto the scene has yet to translate to playoff victories. They chase what Muller savored 30 years ago, when he described the meaning of the Cup triumph to the Montreal Gazette's Red Fisher."Somewhere down the road - next week, next year, 20 years from now - somebody will look at you and tell you you’re a winner," Muller said in 1993. "It’s looking in the mirror and knowing you’re a winner."Nick Faris is a features writer at theScore.Copyright © 2023 Score Media Ventures Inc. All rights reserved. Certain content reproduced under license.

Michigan forward Adam Fantilli won the Hobey Baker Award on Friday as the NCAA's top men's hockey player.The projected 2023 second overall pick recorded 30 goals and 35 assists in 36 games during his freshman season.Minnesota forwards Logan Cooley and Matthew Knies were the other two finalists.Fantilli is the third freshman to ever win the award, joining Hockey Hall of Famer Paul Kariya and Vegas Golden Knights star Jack Eichel. He's also the third Wolverine to win the award, joining Brendan Morrison and Kevin Porter.Copyright © 2023 Score Media Ventures Inc. All rights reserved. Certain content reproduced under license.

The Minnesota Wild announced Friday that forward Joel Eriksson Ek is week-to-week due to a lower-body injury.Eriksson Ek exited Thursday's contest against the Pittsburgh Penguins in the second period after blocking a shot.The 26-year-old has tallied a career-high 61 points in 78 games this season. He's averaged 19:00 of ice time per contest as Minnesota's most used center. His 49.4% faceoff percentage is tops among Wild players with more than 100 draws.However, the impact of Eriksson Ek's loss may be lessened with the return of star forward Kirill Kaprizov.Minnesota announced its leading scorer will feature in the lineup Saturday against the St. Louis Blues. Kaprizov has missed 13 games with a lower-body injury sustained against the Winnipeg Jets. The 25-year-old has 39 goals and 74 points in 65 contests.The Wild also announced forward Oskar Sundqvist is day-to-day with a lower-body ailment. The trade-deadline acquisition has three goals and seven points in 15 games with the team.Minnesota sits third in the Central but is just two points behind the Colorado Avalanche for the division lead.Copyright © 2023 Score Media Ventures Inc. All rights reserved. Certain content reproduced under license.

For the first time in franchise history, the Seattle Kraken are heading to the playoffs.

It's around 11 a.m. in early March, moments after a morning skate, when Buffalo Sabres defenseman Mattias Samuelsson starts scanning the home team's dressing room inside KeyBank Center. He cranes his neck to see past the reporter blocking his view of the semi-circle wall where the forwards sit.He's compiling a list of the squad's biggest "hockey nerds.""Mittsy, Coz, Skinny, Quinner, OP - oh man, there's a bunch of them. Joster, for sure. Okie is when he has some free time with the family," Samuelsson says, smile widening. "Sometimes he's just busy. But on the road, man, Okie's always watching hockey and always has something to say about it." Ben Green / Getty ImagesMittsy is Casey Mittelstadt. Skinny is Jeff Skinner. Coz is Dylan Cozens. Quinner is Jack Quinn. OP is Owen Power. Joster is Tyson Jost. Okie is Kyle Okposo. All of them "know every detail about everything" to do with hockey and the NHL, Samuelsson explains. "All the stats, stick curves, tape jobs … "Samuelsson, 23, signed a seven-year contract extension on the eve of the season. He committed to the Sabres through 2029-30 partly because he feels strongly about the core's abilities on the ice and its makeup off it."Nobody's ego is too sensitive. Everybody kind of gives it to everybody," Samuelsson says. Yes, that includes 41-year-old goalie Craig Anderson, respected captain Okposo, and star forward Tage Thompson. "I can chirp him just as much as I chirp anybody else," Samuelsson says of "Thommer.""You can also tell someone to get their head out of their ass, and they're not going to get mad at you for it," the blue-liner adds. "They know you're just looking out for them, and you're trying to do what's best for the team." Joe Hrycych / Getty ImagesThis open environment is shaped by time spent away from the rink - team dinners, golf outings, Xbox battles, NFL and UFC watch parties, shopping trips, and card games - plus the fact the Sabres' roster is the youngest in the league. "Sometimes," Samuelsson says, "it honestly feels like a college team."That's what a "good room" looks and feels like for the Sabres. What about elsewhere? What are the pillars of a "good room" in cities across the NHL?'Honest but not too harsh'Colorado Avalanche head coach Jared Bednar has described Nathan MacKinnon's leadership style as "feisty." To maintain the Avs' high standard, the 100-point center has been known to be abrasive on occasion.MacKinnon isn't a tyrant, though. His ears perk up when others take charge."We encourage guys to speak before games and voice to the group what they really think, regardless of how long they've been in the NHL," MacKinnon tells theScore. "That's really big as far as establishing and keeping a good room. It's simple in a way: Just be good to each other. Be honest but not too harsh." Michael Martin / Getty ImagesCase in point: Perhaps Cale Makar, a force of nature on the ice but relatively shy off it, wouldn't speak up as much as he does had he not been encouraged to do so by MacKinnon or team captain Gabriel Landeskog."He's the best defenseman in the world, so he should be able to express his opinion," MacKinnon says. "This year, he's honestly been great in that department. It's been a tougher year for us with so many injuries, right, but he's been there to take the edge off that by being a little bit more vocal."Alex Kerfoot subscribes to the same school of thought. The Toronto Maple Leafs forward thinks it's important for a room to be filled with unique individuals, 23 guys of varying nationalities, birth years, and career journeys."If your ultimate goal is to win the Stanley Cup, you want to have different opinions in the room," says Kerfoot, traded from Colorado to Toronto in 2019. "You want to have different experiences in the mix, people who have been through different scenarios. That is probably more valuable than having a bunch of guys who have been in similar circumstances."The out-for-dinner test Icon Sportswire / Getty ImagesIt's fair to suggest Max Domi should be an expert in the study of hockey player dynamics. The Dallas Stars forward and son of longtime enforcer Tie Domi currently finds himself on his sixth NHL team in only eight pro seasons.Insight No. 1 from Domi: He swears he's never been in a bad room, a toxic room, or one that's overly cliquey. "All of a sudden, you get a new guy coming in, and it's like butter," he says of the prevailing vibe. "He just fits right in."(Side note: Domi's perspective isn't unique. All 16 of the players interviewed for this story were adamant they'd spent little to no time in a so-called bad room. If they have, they may prefer to forget those experiences or don't feel comfortable talking about them now.)Insight No. 2: It helps to mingle. "We're all in the NHL for a reason. That's the easy part," Domi says. "But getting to know guys is key. Where are you from? Where did you play junior? What's your career been like? You get to know guys pretty quickly - it's not hard - and then it translates onto the ice." Brian Babineau / Getty ImagesInsight No. 3: There's a foolproof way to test the cohesiveness of a group, no matter the win-loss record. "If you can go out to dinner with anyone on the team, on any given night, you know you're in a good locker room," Domi says.Carolina Hurricanes defenseman Calvin de Haan makes the point that "guys lead in different ways." Sure, fans and media know about the role of the rah-rah and lead-by-example types. But the other characters - the designated DJ, the collector of fines, the party planner - often lead too, just in covert ways.Regardless of the talent level, de Haan says, hockey is a team-first sport."I go out and play with my friends in the summer, and no offense to them, but I'm better than all of them," de Haan says. "But we don't necessarily win every time, even though I play in the NHL. The teams who win have guys who use each other well and play like a team. That's a part of leadership, too."Leaders lead (and read) John Russell / Getty ImagesMark Giordano's bona fides include captaining the Calgary Flames and Seattle Kraken and being the oldest skater in the NHL this season. He believes reading the room is a leader's most important job within the team setting.Some teammates "need to get slapped," the Maple Leafs defenseman says, while others "need to get patted on the back and encouraged." Some are wired to beat themselves up too much; others are not self-reflective at all. And a bunch of guys fall between the two extremes."It's important to approach guys on a personal level and say, 'Hey man, I think you need to do this,'" Giordano explains. "That's for myself too. I like when guys come up and say, 'Hey, this is what I see about your game lately.' Sometimes you're caught off guard, and it gives you a different perspective.""The biggest tell," the 39-year-old adds, "is when a group gets quiet. You know you're not in a good spot. But, when guys are chirping a lot, having fun but in a serious manner, I think that's when you know a team is rolling." Icon Sportswire / Getty ImagesAlex Galchenyuk has bounced around the league enough to spend time in every kind of hockey market: big (Montreal, Toronto), mid-size (Pittsburgh, Minnesota, Colorado, Ottawa), and small (Arizona). The 2012 third overall pick finds standards are set by the captain and head coach, moods tend to rise and fall with wins and losses, and the "block out the noise" discussion can be useful.Fan and media attention is so cranked up in Canadian markets - "more of a TMZ style," he puts it with a grin - that leaders need to do their best to downplay the hysterics."Especially the world we live in now, you try and not focus on social media and things like that. But everywhere you go, it's hockey, hockey, hockey," Galchenyuk says. "So it's, 'Hey, let's keep what we've got going on in the room and block out the noise.' That's definitely a thing in the huge markets."Short and long memory Len Redkoles / Getty ImagesThrough his various stops, Alex Chiasson has shared a room with five recent greats - Jaromir Jagr in Dallas, Erik Karlsson in Ottawa, Alex Ovechkin in Washington, and Connor McDavid and Leon Draisaitl in Edmonton."They're just like me. They love the game, they want to work, they want to compete. When you really go to the basics of it, their skills are slightly higher - OK, probably a little bit more than slightly higher - but that's the only real difference," says Chiasson, who's competed in 646 NHL games for seven teams, including 15 contests this year as a member of the Detroit Red Wings.Chiasson's 32, so he's at the age where he'll run into retired teammates and reminisce. The winger snapped his fingers three times to illustrate how quickly he and former Star Ray Whitney recently rekindled their bond.Victor Hedman is also 32. The Norris Trophy-winning defenseman practically grew up in the Lightning room, arriving in Tampa at 18, just two weeks after getting his driver's license. He's now a father of two with a pair of Cup rings. Dave Sandford / Getty ImagesOver the years, Hedman has learned to separate hockey from the rest of his life. If he's having a bad day at home or the rink, he can park the negativity."You can have stuff going on in your life, but when you get into the locker room, it's like a different world," he says with a sense of wonder. "Everything else, yeah, you put that aside for those few hours. You go in there and be with the boys. It's a great feeling and probably the thing I'm going to miss the most about hockey: the camaraderie that you have every day."Hedman, who isn't retiring anytime soon, says contributing to a good room is all about having both a short memory - you can't hold grudges against a teammate for making a few mistakes on the ice - and also a long one.You want to remember the pranks, the mindless banter, the intermission speeches, the player-of-the-game presentations. The blood, sweat, and tears."That brotherhood," Hedman says, "you can't get it anywhere else."John Matisz is theScore's senior NHL writer. Follow John on Twitter (@MatiszJohn) or contact him via email (john.matisz@thescore.com).Copyright © 2023 Score Media Ventures Inc. All rights reserved. Certain content reproduced under license.

March Madness vacuums up the attention of the sports world in March, as college basketball took its turn in the spotlight. While pouring over your bracket, you have may have seen various trends when it comes to picking your last team standing. You may have heard about the high frequency with which the national champion finishes in the top 25 in both offensive and defensive efficiency metrics. Sure enough, as wacky as the tournament was, UConn qualified on both parameters.The NCAA Tournament is actually a good comparison for the Stanley Cup Playoffs because, while the one-and-done nature of the big dance creates madness, the nature of hockey creates similar randomness even with seven-game playoff series.Which makes one think - is there a correlation between Stanley Cup winners and their regular season offensive and defensive efficiency?If offensive efficiency is defined by high-danger chances created at even-strength and expected goals during 5-on-5 play, and defensive efficiency is defined by high-danger chances prevented at even-strength and expected goals allowed during 5-on-5 play, let's see where champions have finished in recent regular seasons.YEAR CHAMPION XGF HDCF XGA HDCA2022Avalanche13th14th8th15th2021Lightning15th18th4th9th2020Lightning9th15th3rd4th2019Blues10th9th3rdT-2nd2018Capitals20th11th30th30th2017Penguins1st1st25th22nd2016Penguins3rd4th5th8th2015Blackhawks6th6th21st20th2014Kings8th10th4th5th2013Blackhawks10th22nd7th7th2012Kings16th21st4th2nd2011Bruins14th20th22nd18th2010Blackhawks2nd7th1st2nd2009Penguins19th21st8th10thAdmittedly, things have gotten weird in recent history. 2021 saw the Lightning win after a season where they didn't use Nikita Kucherov during a 48-game schedule and only played a quarter of the league. That was one year after they won the Stanley Cup in the bubble - the playoffs started months after the regular season was halted due to COVID-19.The Blues' 2019 Stanley Cup sits in betting lore. St. Louis was lingering at the bottom of the league at Christmas time, but they actually had some of the most balanced metrics of any recent champion.Even the 2012 Kings - who barely made the playoffs with 95 points - did something very well.Just two champions didn't finish a regular season in the top quarter of any metric. The 2018 Capitals were very close to being eliminated in the first round but ended up beating the expansion Golden Knights in the Stanley Cup Final. The 2011 Bruins turned a Vezina Trophy season from Tim Thomas into a Conn Smythe award for Thomas, but they were on the ropes in the first round, down 0-2 going to Montreal and eventually winning in overtime of game seven.So, with merely a week remaining in the regular season, who are the teams (and their Stanley Cup odds) on pace for 99 points or more that sit in the top eight of either of our four categories above?TEAMXGFHDCFXGAHDCAODDSBruins15th15th2nd4th+350Avalanche21st22nd4th10th+675Hurricanes2nd2nd1st1st+900Oilers6th7th14th5th+900Maple Leafs8th8th10th15th+900Devils1st1st8th3rd+1200Lightning7th5th15th11th+1600Stars18th13th9th8th+1600Wild24th24th5th2nd+2200Kings14th9th3rd7th+2500Kraken20th25th7th9th+4000The Maple Leafs, Stars, and Kraken just barely qualify historically, while a run to a Stanley Cup for the Rangers and Golden Knights - along with whomever gets the final couple of playoff spots - would be an historical outlier.Matt Russell is the senior betting writer for theScore. If there's a bad beat to be had, Matt will find it. Find him on Twitter @mrussauthentic.Copyright © 2023 Score Media Ventures Inc. All rights reserved. Certain content reproduced under license.

The Colorado Avalanche may have to play through the stretch run without their top defenseman.Head coach Jared Bednar announced Thursday that Cale Makar and depth forward Darren Helm are out indefinitely with lower-body injuries, according to the Denver Gazette's Kyle Fredrickson.Bednar added that both players are dealing with new injuries, not just maintenance from previous ailments.Thursday's meeting with the San Jose Sharks will be Makar's second straight missed game and 17th total of the campaign. He's been sidelined for brief stints multiple times this season with an upper-body ailment, a head injury, and a previous lower-body issue.Makar, the reigning Conn Smythe and Norris Trophy winner, has been spectacular when available, posting 66 points in 60 games while averaging a league-high 26:23 per contest.Injuries to key players are nothing new for the defending champions. Nathan MacKinnon, Valeri Nichushkin, Evan Rodrigues, and Bowen Byram are among the Avs who've missed at least 10 games. In addition to Makar, Colorado is also currently without Artturi Lehkonen, Josh Manson, and captain Gabriel Landeskog, who's yet to play this season.Copyright © 2023 Score Media Ventures Inc. All rights reserved. Certain content reproduced under license.

New York Rangers defenseman Adam Fox and Tampa Bay Lightning forward Alex Killorn were each fined $5,000 for slashing, the NHL Department of Player Safety announced.Fox appeared to spear Corey Perry during Wednesday's game between the two teams.

We have one of the last monster slates of the season ahead of us Thursday night, with 28 of the league's 32 teams set to take the ice.Let's take a look at the best way to attack the games.Sabres (-115) @ Red Wings (-105)The Sabres are quietly heating up. They've gone 4-1-1 over the past six games, leaving the door ever so slightly open for a miracle run to the playoffs.While the odds are still stacked against Buffalo, the team has a ceiling of 93 points. That's six clear of where the Panthers and Islanders are at, with those teams having four games remaining. If the Sabres take care of business the rest of the way, things could get very interesting.As daunting of a task as that is, they only need to take things one step at a time, and the first step isn't a big one.This Red Wings team is nothing more than mediocre, particularly on offense. Detroit ranks 28th in expected goals per 60 over the past 10 games at five-on-five, keeping company with clubs like the Coyotes, Canadiens, and Blackhawks.The Red Wings struggle to generate scoring opportunities at a healthy clip. With top prospect Devon Levi likely to start for the Sabres, Detroit probably can't rely on outscoring its expected outputs. The team will need to generate plenty of volume, which is something it hasn't done all season.I think the Sabres have a lot more firepower. They've overwhelmed the Red Wings in each and every meeting this season, piling up 18 goals and 115 shots over three games.Detroit's goaltending has been iffy of late, with its trio of netminders combining to post a .884 save percentage. I'm not sure they'll hold up against an offense like Buffalo's.With a more talented roster and a lot to play for, the Sabres should be able to grind out a big two points to keep their slim playoff hopes alive.Bet: Sabres (-115)Alex Ovechkin over 3.5 shots (-135)For one reason or another, players always seem to perform better against certain teams. The Canadiens are one of them for Ovechkin.Ovechkin has scored 10 goals over his past 10 games against Montreal. He has consistently piled up shots in bulk, recording four or more each contest.There's every reason to believe Ovechkin's success against the Habs will continue Thursday night.They're a poor five-on-five team and rank in the bottom 10 in shot suppression over the past 10 games. They've also taken penalties at an above-average rate during that period, which is especially beneficial to a primary power-play shooting threat like Ovechkin.With nothing else to play for, Ovechkin will no doubt be hoping to chip away at No. 99's goal scoring record over the final few games of the season. This is as good of a spot as any for him to do so.Jason Robertson over 3.5 shots (-135)Robertson continues to be a priority shooting target on home ice. He's gone over his total in 24 of 38 games, good for a 63% success rate.What I love about Robertson is we've seen no real dip in volume. His shot attempt average over the past 10 home dates (7.4) is directly in line with his outputs for the season (7.8).I believe Robertson has a strong chance at a ceiling game against the Flyers. They give up plenty of shots at five-on-five, take a lot of penalties, and struggle most against Robertson's position; no team has conceded more shots per game to left-wingers over the past 10 contests.Look for Robertson to capitalize on an advantageous matchup he doesn't necessarily need to find success.Todd Cordell is a sports betting writer at theScore. Be sure to follow him on Twitter @ToddCordell.Copyright © 2023 Score Media Ventures Inc. All rights reserved. Certain content reproduced under license.

The Calgary Flames couldn't have asked for a better bounce-back game from goaltender Jacob Markstrom during Wednesday night's vital 3-1 victory over the Winnipeg Jets."He was great today," forward Andrew Mangiapane told reporters postgame. "He's been great down this stretch here, so we've got three more games. We're gonna need him for all three of those."He's a big part of our team, and I'm happy to see how he's playing right now."Markstrom made 34 stops in the victory and saved 2.59 goals above expected while turning aside all nine of the high-danger shots he faced, according to Natural Stat Trick.It's been a rough season for Markstrom, who was named a Vezina Trophy finalist last season.The 33-year-old also manned the Flames' crease during Tuesday's difficult loss to the lowly Chicago Blackhawks, surrendering four goals on 23 shots.Markstrom was happy to be singing a different tune one day later."(I was) obviously still pissed off from the other night (against Chicago)," he said. "I think that fed into it a little bit coming into this game - a little bit more emotions than usual. It was a great atmosphere and a big win, but we've gotta keep going here."Wednesday's victory helps the Flames keep their playoff hopes alive amid a spirited battle for the second wild-card spot in the Western Conference. Winnipeg and Calgary both have 89 points on the season, but the Jets have played one less game and own three more regulation wins.Walker Duehr may have scored the eventual game-winner for the Flames, but he pointed to Markstrom as the most valuable player in the contest."He was huge, he bailed us out a handful of times," Duehr said. "You could say he won us the game for sure. He was amazing tonight."Heading into the all-important showdown, Jets head coach Rick Bowness said the matchup would be "like a Game 7." Flames bench boss Darryl Sutter offered a more measured take after the final horn sounded."We're not in (the playoffs) yet. If we didn't win tonight, or if you lose in overtime or the shootout, that's a big swing, too," he said. "All we did was close the gap."Sutter added, "The media and outside the room has been telling us it's the biggest game, or we're over, or how bad we are since the All-Star break, so, it's like I tell the players: Block it out and play the game."Next up for the Flames is a clash with the Vancouver Canucks on Saturday.Copyright © 2023 Score Media Ventures Inc. All rights reserved. Certain content reproduced under license.

New York Rangers captain Jacob Trouba is day-to-day after suffering an upper-body injury on Wednesday night, head coach Gerard Gallant announced, per The Athletic's Arthur Staple.The defenseman will travel with the team to St. Louis, where the Rangers will take on the Blues on Thursday.Trouba went down the tunnel after colliding with Tampa Bay Lightning forward Corey Perry in the first period of the Blueshirts' 6-3 victory. Trouba was playing the puck and took a hard fall, with the side of his face appearing to take the brunt of the impact.

Toronto Maple Leafs head coach Sheldon Keefe announced forward Ryan O'Reilly will return to the lineup Thursday against the Boston Bruins, according to The Athletic's Joshua Kloke.O'Reilly has missed the past 14 games after breaking his finger on an Auston Matthews shot March 4 against the Vancouver Canucks. Toronto went 8-4-2 without its prized trade-deadline acquisition, good enough to hold second spot in the Atlantic Division.The Maple Leafs slotted O'Reilly on the third line between Alexander Kerfoot and Noel Acciari at practice Wednesday, according to the Toronto Sun's Terry Koshan.O'Reilly has appeared in eight games with Toronto following the blockbuster trade with the St. Louis Blues, registering three goals and two assists while averaging 15:46 per contest.The 2019 Conn Smythe winner has 24 points in 48 games between the two clubs this season.Copyright © 2023 Score Media Ventures Inc. All rights reserved. Certain content reproduced under license.

Winnipeg Jets head coach Rick Bowness is well aware of the stakes in Wednesday's clash with the Calgary Flames."(Wednesday) is probably going to be like a Game 7 for both teams," Bowness said Tuesday, per Sportsnet's Ken Wiebe. "I think that's the importance of the game."The Jets and Flames are locked in a tense battle for the second wild-card spot in the Western Conference. Winnipeg currently holds the advantage with 89 points through 77 contests, but a Calgary win in regulation would create a tie with one extra game played.The Jets also hold the edge in regulation wins (33-29), the first tiebreaker if the two Canadian clubs end up tied in points at season's end. Despite being in the driver's seat, Winnipeg knows it can't take its next game for granted."(Wednesday) is as close to a must-win as you'll get in the regular season," forward Adam Lowry said. "It's a huge game."Lowry added: "There's still pressure. The race is so close. These next couple of games are going to be the pressure release. We’re ready for the challenge."The Flames head to Winnipeg on the heels of a loss to the 30th-place Chicago Blackhawks on Tuesday. Calgary forward Mikael Backlund hinted postgame that the Flames were focused on the Jets rather than the task at hand.Puck drop between the Jets and Flames is set for 7:30 p.m. ET.Copyright © 2023 Score Media Ventures Inc. All rights reserved. Certain content reproduced under license.

The 2023 Frozen Four tournament for the NCAA men's hockey national championship is shaping up to be an all-time classic.Four star-studded programs in Minnesota, Michigan, Quinnipiac, and Boston University head to Tampa Bay's Amalie Arena to complete this year's bracket.Minnesota faces Boston University in one semifinal, while Quinnipiac takes on Michigan in the other. Both contests are Thursday evening, with the national championship game commencing Saturday night.Here are 12 prospects to keep an eye on as the 2022-23 NCAA men's hockey season comes to a close.Potential playoff reinforcements Dave Reginek / Getty Images Sport / GettyA duo of stars at the Frozen Four could jump from the national championship to the Stanley Cup playoffs in a two-week span.Luke Hughes, the New Jersey Devils' 2021 fourth overall pick, has been among the most electrifying NCAA players over the past two seasons. After scoring the most goals ever by a freshman defenseman in 2021-22 with 17, he backed it up with a monster 47 points this campaign.Hughes' production as a U20 NCAA defenseman is historic. His 86 points are the most scored by a junior-aged blue-liner across two seasons since the 1970s. Only New York Rangers star Adam Fox has come close over the past 20 years to Hughes' 1.09 points per game as a U20 defenseman in the NCAA.The youngest Hughes brother will almost certainly sign with the Devils after this weekend. And he'll have a legitimate chance to usurp Kevin Bahl and Brendan Smith for a spot in New Jersey's playoff lineup.Meanwhile, Matthew Knies might as well get comfortable in Florida. Following the Tampa Bay-hosted Frozen Four, Knies will likely join the Toronto Maple Leafs for a back-to-back against the Florida Panthers and Tampa Bay Lightning.Much has been made about the Maple Leafs' top prospect and his potential impact in a playoff series. While it's far from guaranteed that Knies will play in the postseason for Toronto, his blend of size, physicality, and scoring prowess makes for a tantalizing late-season addition.After a quiet showing in the regional bracket, the pressure is on Knies to perform as Minnesota looks to capture its first national title since 2003.BU's dynamo on the back end Icon Sportswire / Icon Sportswire / GettyThe U20 scoring of Hughes is historic over a two-year span, but it's been exceeded in a single season by Montreal Canadiens prospect Lane Hutson this year.Hutson's a phenomenon with Boston University. He has a team-high 48 points and plus-28 rating, while his 15 goals are one back of the lead on the Terriers. Remember, this is a freshman defenseman we're talking about, and not one who was a high first-round pick, either. This is a player the Canadiens selected at the end of the second round.It's a truly historic freshman campaign for the Boston University blue-liner. His 48 points are the most by a U19 defenseman since 1983 and exceed totals from the likes of Hall of Famer Brian Leetch and Norris Trophy winner Adam Fox.How did this breathtaking prospect fall so far in the draft? Hutson is listed at 5-foot-10 and 155 pounds on Boston University's website, and that's probably generous.Hutson will have hurdles to overcome once he turns pro due to his lack of size. But there's no denying the incredible skill and skating that makes him among the highest potential players participating in the Frozen Four. There are few prospects as exciting to watch as Hutson right now. Expect him to put on a show in Tampa Bay.Fab freshmen forwards Icon Sportswire / Icon Sportswire / GettyThe 2023 class of freshmen forwards have made a massive impact this season.Adam Fantilli and Logan Cooley are leading the way, with both starring for their respective teams en route to Hobey Baker nominations.Fantilli is the projected second overall pick this summer after Connor Bedard, and he's put together a remarkable campaign with Michigan. Leading the NCAA with 64 points in 35 games, Fantilli's scoring rate as a draft-eligible player exceeds Jack Eichel's dominant 2014-15 campaign with Boston University.Fantilli is also two goals away from matching Craig Simpson's NCAA draft-eligible record of 31 goals set in 1985.Cooley - the Arizona Coyotes' third overall pick last summer - has been as advertised with Minnesota. Centering the best line in the country, Cooley leads the NCAA with a plus-37 rating and is second to Fantilli in scoring with 57 points. Only a few NHL-affiliated prospects match his dynamic, game-breaking ability.But the freshmen forwards starring in prominent roles aren't limited to Fantilli and Cooley. The Wolverines feature projected 2023 first-round pick Gavin Brindley and Rutger McGroarty, the Winnipeg Jets' 14th overall pick. St. Louis Blues first-rounder Jimmy Snuggerud has been among the biggest surprises this season as a running mate with Cooley on the Golden Gophers. And Quinnipiac rookie Sam Lipkin shouldn't be overlooked, despite playing on an experienced squad.Trio of touted free agents Icon Sportswire / Icon Sportswire / GettyMinnesota has 14 NHL-drafted players. Boston University and Michigan have 12 a piece. Quinnipiac has just three, and one is the team's backup goaltender.With a lack of NHL-affiliated players and a massively successful season, multiple Bobcats are in line to land entry-level contracts as free agents.The most notable of the group is forward Collin Graf. After a freshman season at Union College, Graf transferred to Quinnipiac and has flourished as a sophomore. He leads the Bobcats in scoring with 56 points, 17 clear of second-most on the team.Graf's breakout play has made him one of the top NCAA free agents on the market this season. Not only does his scoring make him an appealing target, but so does his age. Graf is still only 20 years old and is among the youngest free agents in addition to the highest scoring.At the other end of the rink, netminder Yaniv Perets took over the Bobcats' crease in 2021 and hasn't looked back. The 23-year-old has posted an astonishing 54-9-5 record with 21 shutouts over the past two campaigns, and only Buffalo Sabres prospect Devon Levi has a higher save percentage than Perets' .935 mark over that span.While Graf and Perets have NCAA eligibility remaining that could see them stay at Quinnipiac in 2023-24, defenseman Zach Metsa will close out his five-year stay with the Bobcats this weekend.The undersized right-shot blue-liner has been Quinnipiac's top player on the back end for three years but has taken a big step over the past two. Metsa led the team in scoring in 2021-22 and has an eye-watering plus-68 rating since 2021. The 24-year-old will have many suitors vying for his services after his collegiate career ends.Statistics from Elite Prospects.Copyright © 2023 Score Media Ventures Inc. All rights reserved. Certain content reproduced under license.

Darryl Sutter questioned the effort of several of his players following Tuesday's crucial loss to the Chicago Blackhawks - without naming names, of course."Just to sum it up, when you can see the fatigue, or you don't have great legs, you just got to keep your game really simple," the Calgary Flames head coach said after the 4-3 defeat. "Some of us didn't manage the puck very well."I just don't know that the energy was there," Sutter added. "Some of our guys looked like they had flat tires."Flames forward Mikael Backlund wondered if the team had prepared more for Wednesday's clash with the Winnipeg Jets than Tuesday's tilt with the lowly Blackhawks."Maybe too many of us were thinking about tomorrow's game and thinking too far ahead," Backlund said.Backlund's teammate, Nazem Kadri, committed a pair of costly giveaways that led to goals. On Chicago's second tally, he recovered a Blackhawks dump-in but then coughed the puck up behind the net with a one-handed tap to opposing winger Boris Katchouk, who shoveled it to Jujhar Khaira for a backhand goal in the final minute of the opening frame."(I) just turned it over, (they) made a nice play," Kadri said. "The ice was getting a little chippy there at the end of the period. We've got to simplify our game, and we can't make those mistakes."The Flames haven't been eliminated from playoff contention, but they lost all three games against Chicago this season. The Blackhawks entered Tuesday sitting dead last in the NHL and have been at or near the bottom of the standings for most of the campaign.Winnipeg has two more points than Calgary with a game in hand. The Jets occupy the second wild-card spot in the Western Conference.

The Columbus Blue Jackets could find themselves picking first overall at the 2023 draft, but that won't necessarily stop them from aggressively trying to upgrade their NHL roster this offseason.Columbus general manager Jarmo Kekalainen said he's "100%" open to moving the Los Angeles Kings' 2023 first-rounder, he told TSN's Pierre LeBrun on Tuesday.The Blue Jackets acquired the pick, along with a 2024 third-round selection and goaltender Jonathan Quick, from the Kings in exchange for netminder Joonas Korpisalo and defenseman Vladislav Gavrikov in March. Columbus then flipped Quick to the Vegas Golden Knights.The Kings have already clinched a playoff spot, so the pick will fall in the latter half of the first round.Kekalainen added that he's interested in using the pick to land a top-four caliber defenseman to replace Gavrikov, who logged 22:20 of ice time per game for Columbus this season before the trade.The Blue Jackets entered Tuesday's games ranked 30th in the NHL standings, but injuries have hit them hard this campaign, particularly on the back end. Zach Werenski, the club's top D-man, notably suffered a season-ending shoulder ailment in November.Werenski, Erik Gudbranson, Adam Boqvist, Andrew Peeke, and Jake Bean are expected to make up five spots on Columbus' blue line next year. Nick Blankenburg, David Jiricek, and others will compete for jobs, but there's certainly room for another addition. The Jackets project to have $17.9 million in cap space this offseason without any notable pending free agents.Copyright © 2023 Score Media Ventures Inc. All rights reserved. Certain content reproduced under license.

The Minnesota Wild let us down Monday night, blowing their lead with 35 seconds remaining before eventually losing in a shootout. That proved to be the difference between a winning night and a losing night with our best bets.We'll look to get back on track with three plays for Tuesday night's big slate of games.Red Wings (-120) @ Canadiens (+100)The Canadiens have dropped three consecutive games, over which time they've been outscored 11-4 in aggregate. I don't see things getting much better for them Tuesday night against Detroit.With seemingly half the roster on injured reserve, an already poor Canadiens lineup is paper-thin top to bottom. It's gotten to the point where Montreal's top six is littered with mid-tier prospects and journeymen forwards, such as Jesse Ylonen and Alex Belzile.While that's the optimal path to take for a team in the basement, it's not an ideal way to get results.That certainly shows in the numbers, as the Canadiens have controlled only 38% of the high-danger chances at five-on-five the past 10 games. They're getting caved in on a nightly basis.For teams with poor underlying metrics, the path to victory generally comes from high-end finishing or goaltending. The Canadiens have neither.They don't have the shooting talent to outperform their expected outputs, and Cayden Primeau is more likely to harm than help between the pipes. He owns a .876 save percentage through 20 NHL appearances and simply hasn't looked good at this level.For all the Red Wings' faults, they have a lot of edges in this game. Detroit possesses more talent up front, it's more compact defensively, and Ville Husso - despite an up-and-down season - is the much better goaltender.Look for the Red Wings to take two points in Montreal.Bet: Red Wings (-120)Sebastian Aho over 2.5 shots (-125)Aho is quietly having a nice season shooting the puck. He's registered three shots or more in 41 of his 69 games, which equates to a 59% success rate.Aho has been especially good at home, where he's gone over his total in 20 of the past 30 for a 67% hit rate.There's every reason to believe the home cooking will continue Tuesday night against Ottawa.The Senators have really struggled to limit shots of late, which makes sense given the absences of top defensemen Thomas Chabot and Jakob Chychrun.A lot of the volume has come from opposing centers. In fact, the Senators rank 25th in shots allowed per game to centers over the last 10. Aho should be the primary beneficiary.Carter Verhaeghe over 3.5 shots (-130)Death, taxes, and Verhaeghe at home. He's an absolute machine in his own building, where he's gone over his shot total in eight of the past 10 contests and 67% of his games for the season.The volume continues to be mouthwatering from Verhaeghe on a nightly basis. He's averaged a whopping 8.2 shot attempts over his last 10 games overall, which is more than all but Nathan MacKinnon, David Pastrnak, and Mikko Rantanen. He's the No. 1 shooting threat on a Panthers team that piles up the shots every time out.The Sabres give up plenty of attempts and tend to play in high-event games. That should only raise Verhaeghe's already high floor, and ceiling, in terms of generating shots.It's also worth noting the Sabres rank in the bottom 10 in shots against versus left-wingers over the past 10.Verhaeghe registered seven shots on nine attempts the last time these two teams met. He's well-positioned for another big night this time around.Todd Cordell is a sports betting writer at theScore. Be sure to follow him on Twitter @ToddCordell.Copyright © 2023 Score Media Ventures Inc. All rights reserved. Certain content reproduced under license.

Toronto Maple Leafs goaltender Matt Murray is day-to-day with a head injury and "other stuff," Sheldon Keefe said Tuesday, according to TSN's Chris Johnston."It'd be difficult to put any real timeline on it until we give it more time to settle," the head coach said, according to The Hockey News' David Alter.Murray exited Saturday's contest against the Detroit Red Wings after an accidental collision with forward Lucas Raymond.