NHL Atlantic

The Tampa Bay Lightning will no longer ban fans from wearing opposing teams' apparel in the premium seats at their home stadium, Amalie Arena.

The team relayed the information to ESPN's Greg Wyshynski, who provided more information about the now-defunct policy:

Starting in 2015, the Lightning instituted this ticket policy that prohibited any other team's gear in club seat areas. The team told ESPN that at full capacity, the policy impacted roughly six percent of the seats in the arena. With limited capacity due to COVID-19 protocols, the policy impacts around 10 percent of seats.

As Wyshynski reported, the policy change happened soon after a Florida Panthers fan and his 11-year-old son were asked by security to remove their Panthers jerseys while sitting in Amalie Arena premium seats during the Lightning's first-round playoff series win over their in-state rival. The Panthers fan recorded the incident, which can be seen below:

The Panthers fan in question said he was made aware of the policy before the game by a team representative, and the Lightning said that they clearly communicated the team's policy to fans who buy premium seats in advance, per Wyshynski.

However, that policy is now no longer in place, and the team issued this statement about it to John Romano of the Tampa Bay Times.

After careful consideration the Lightning have elected to relax its visiting team apparel policy in the premium clubs for playoff games at Amalie Arena. The policy was originally instituted in 2015 at the request of our valued ticket holders in those areas, but we realize we have grown as an organization and as a hockey market since that time and it is no longer necessary.

The defending Stanley Cup Final champion Lightning will now play the Carolina Hurricanes in the second round of the NHL playoffs. Game 1 will take place in Raleigh, North Carolina on Sunday.

Tampa Bay, which will host Games 3 and 4 (and 6 if necessary), announced that the team will welcome 13,500 fans into Amelie Arena 

Toronto Maple Leafs center Auston Matthews said John Tavares sent teammates a group text Thursday night to say his condition was improving after being stretchered off the ice during the team's first-round playoff game against the Montreal Canadiens.

"He texted us last night and said he was feeling better," Matthews told reporters Friday. "... There are some things bigger than hockey."

Leafs defenseman Morgan Rielly added: "We're playing for him."

Tavares was falling to the ice after a hit from Habs blueliner Ben Chiarot when his head struck the knee of Montreal winger Corey Perry. The Leafs captain tried to get up to skate off but immediately fell back to the ice, creating a scary scene in Toronto.

Leafs winger Nick Foligno fought Perry on the first shift after the game resumed, but explained it wasn't a reaction to a dirty hit but rather a necessary move for the series to continue without further issue.

"Our captain is laying on the ice," Foligno said. "They would have done the same if [it was] their captain. [The hit] wasn't malicious. [The fight] takes away any grey [area]. Perry's a big boy. It just allows everyone to go back and play."

Toronto announced Friday that Tavares was discharged from a local hospital but will be "out indefinitely":

An update on @MapleLeafs captain John Tavares. pic.twitter.com/sV0dlfpdI8

— Leafs PR (@LeafsPR) May 21, 2021

The Canadiens went on to secure a 2-1 victory in Game 1 of the seven-game series with Paul Byron scoring the game-winning goal midway through the third period.

Game 2 is scheduled for a 7 p.m. ET puck drop Saturday on CNBC in the U.S. and CBC in Canada.

The Toronto Maple Leafs announced Friday that center John Tavares is out indefinitely after getting kneed in the head during the Leafs' Game 1 first-round playoff loss to the Montreal Canadiens on Thursday.

The Maple Leafs added that Tavares was released from the hospital Friday and is home resting under the supervision of team doctors.

Tavares released a statement on Twitter on Friday afternoon:

pic.twitter.com/XiHjGvSewg

— John Tavares (@91Tavares) May 21, 2021

The injury occurred in the first period of the Leafs' 2-1 loss when Tavares fell to the ice on a clean hit by Ben Chiarot before taking a knee to the head from Habs forward Corey Perry. The 30-year-old captain stayed motionless on the ice until trainers could attend to him. Tavares was then seen falling over again as he tried to regain himself.

That led to trainers immediately calling for a stretcher as the terrifying scene quieted Scotiabank Arena. 

"I honestly felt sick to my stomach when I saw it," Perry later told reporters. "When I saw him, with the way he is, it's a scary situation. I'll reach out to him and talk to him, and hopefully he's OK."

Tavares was alert enough to give a thumbs-up sign as he was taken away by paramedics. Perry even skated over to him as he exited the ice to give him some words of encouragement after the incident. It did not appear there was any malicious intent on the part of the Habs for the injury, but that didn't stop Toronto's Nick Foligno from dropping the gloves with Perry as soon as the two were back on the ice. 

After the game, Toronto head coach Sheldon Keefe said Tavares was conscious and communicating well at the hospital but would remain there overnight even as tests came back "clear." 

Without Tavares in the lineup, the Leafs were forced to play without one of the most dynamic two-way centers in the sport—and will likely remain without him for the foreseeable future. 

In 56 regular-season games, the Mississauga, Ontario, native posted 50 points (19 goals, 31 assists)—the third-most on the team behind Mitch Marner (20 goals, 47 assists, 67 points) and Auston Matthews (41 goals, 25 assists, 66 points).

Montreal Canadiens forward Corey Perry said he did not intend to injure Toronto Maple Leafs captain John Tavares when his knee caught the center's head in Game 1 of their first-round playoff series.

The incident occurred in the first period of the Habs' 2-1 victory and left Tavares crumpled on the ice before paramedics were able to get him on to a stretcher and transport him to a local hospital for further evaluation.

"I honestly felt sick to my stomach when I saw it," Perry told reporters after the win. "When I saw him, with the way he is, it's a scary situation. I'll reach out to him and talk to him, and hopefully he's OK."

The Maple Leafs and Canadiens showed their support for John Tavares after a scary collision in Toronto.

Tavares gave the thumbs up as he was being stretchered off. pic.twitter.com/1OpiVLXmOu

— Sportsnet (@Sportsnet) May 21, 2021

Tavares took a clean hit from Ben Chiarot and was falling to the ice when Perry's knee caught him flush in the head. The Canadiens veteran said he tried to avoid Tavares as soon as he fell in his path but couldn't react quickly enough.

"I don't know what else I could do," Perry explained. "I tried to jump over him."

Maple Leafs head coach Sheldon Keefe told reporters Tavares was conscious and communicating well following the hit but will remain in hospital overnight despite initial tests coming back "clear."

None of that mattered in the immediate aftermath of the injury, as Toronto's Nick Foligno took it upon himself to drop the gloves with Perry when play resumed.

Despite the accidental nature of Perry's hit, Foligno felt a need to drop the gloves with Perry as retribution.

"Our captain's laying there on the ice," Foligno said. "Nothing more than that. I don't think it's malicious, but our captain's laying there."

Perry understood the sentiment, even if he was clearly shaken from what happened to Tavares.

When asked by @JohnLuTSNMtl if any Leafs accused him of the hit being intentional, Corey Perry said:

“I mean, it’s an accident. All [Foligno] said was ‘let’s settle this now. I know it’s an accident,’ he said. But it’s their captain, so it is what it is. That’s all I can say.”

— Greg Wyshynski (@wyshynski) May 21, 2021

Perry himself made it clear to Tavares that he had no ill intent, skating over to the center as he was being taken off the ice to wish him well.

Toronto Maple Leafs captain John Tavares had to be taken off the ice on a stretcher during Thursday's Game 1 matchup against the Montreal Canadiens after he took a knee to the head.

The Maple Leafs later announced Tavares had been transported to a local hospital for further evaluation.

The 30-year-old center tallied 19 goals with 31 assists in 56 games this season, following up a 2019-20 campaign that saw him post 60 points. He had a career-high 47 goals in his first year in Toronto (2018-19), including an NHL-best 37 from even strength.

If Tavares misses time, Mitchell Marner, Auston Matthews and William Nylander will need to carry the offense for the Maple Leafs, who lost 2-1 Thursday and next play Saturday at 7 p.m. ET.

The Detroit Red Wings announced Tuesday they have agreed to a contract extension with head coach Jeff Blashill.

Detroit finished the season with 48 points in 56 games, tied for the worst mark in the Central division. It represents the organization's fifth straight year with a losing record and no playoff appearances after reaching the postseason in each of the previous 25 seasons.

Blashill just completed his sixth year as head coach of the Red Wings and is the third-longest tenured coach in the NHL.

The 47-year-old has a 172-221-62 mark in his career, plus just a 1-4 mark in the playoffs.

It's been an extensive rebuild for the Red Wings, although there were significant improvements this year compared to the 17-49-5 mark from 2019-20.

The team has several promising young players including Filip Hronek and Filip Zadina while Lucas Raymond should make an impact before too long. It could be enough to provide optimism for 2021-22, although there will be plenty of pressure on Blashill to improve in a hurry. 

Despite being unhappy with how the organization has handled his neck injury, Jack Eichel reportedly isn't yet looking to leave the Buffalo Sabres. 

Per Pierre LeBrun of The Athletic, Eichel's camp hasn't asked the Sabres for a trade, though the two sides haven't spoken "for a few weeks."

Eichel did hint during a press conference Monday that he could play somewhere else next season. 

"I've been a bit upset about the ways things have been handled since I've been hurt," Eichel told reporters. "There's been a bit of a disconnect between myself and the organization. The most important thing now is to get healthy and be ready to play hockey next year, wherever that might be."

The Sabres announced April 15 that Eichel would miss the remainder of the season because of a herniated disk in his neck. 

Head coach Don Granato said at the time that the decision about surgery was up to Buffalo's medical staff. 

During his press conference Monday, Eichel made it sound like he wanted surgery, but the team prevented it. 

"It doesn't work like that. I wish. ... I'm under contract with this team, and they definitely hold a lot of cards on what I can and can't do," he said. 

The Sabres signed Eichel to an eight-year, $80 million contract extension in October 2017. The deal runs through the 2025-26 season. 

Buffalo selected Eichel with the No. 2 overall pick in the 2015 NHL draft. He debuted for the team that same season at the age of 18, scoring 56 points in 81 contests. 

Eichel's final game of the 2020-21 campaign was March 7 against the New York Islanders. The 24-year-old had 18 points in 21 games. 

The Sabres finished their season with 37 points, the fewest in the NHL, and a 15-34-7 record.     

The Tampa Bay Lightning made history Monday by becoming the first NHL team to start a forward line comprised completely of Black players.

It was announced as part of the broadcast during the second period of Monday's game between the Lightning and Florida Panthers that the Bolts did something that had never been done before in the NHL by opening the game with Mathieu Joseph, Gemel Smith and Daniel Walcott up front:

Tampa makes history! #HockeyIsForEveryone pic.twitter.com/94MwLN1msh

— NHL (@NHL) May 11, 2021

Per NHL.com's William Douglas, Lightning head coach Jon Cooper said the following about the historic triumvirate: "First of all, they're all in the NHL for a reason. They deserve to be here and have worked their tails off. To have them all together, they had a little chemistry. Moving forward in the league, you hope it isn't a story anymore and will be the norm. It was a pretty cool moment for all those guys."

The Lightning lost Monday's game 4-0, and the trio of Joseph, Smith and Walcott combined for two shots on goal and 11 hits. Walcott made his NHL debut in the contest and picked up a fighting major after battling Panthers defenseman Kevin Connauton.

While it was Walcott's first NHL game, Joseph has now appeared in 56 games this season and 163 games over three seasons with the Lightning, and Smith has appeared in 88 career NHL games with the Dallas Stars, Boston Bruins and Lightning.

With regard to playing alongside Walcott and Smith, Joseph said:

"It's a step in the right direction. My goal, and the goal of players of color in this league, obviously want to showcase their sports to your families or other people of color. It's definitely awesome to be one of the guys who were for that, and it was all from the coaching staff that did that tonight, but it's a great recognition, for sure."

Douglas noted that while an all-Black line starting an NHL game had never happened before Monday, it has occurred at other levels of professional hockey. Most recently, the American Hockey League's Ontario Reign—the Los Angeles Kings' affiliate—started Quinton Byfield, Akil Thomas and Devante Smith-Pelly together on March 22.

Monday's game was a playoff preview, as the Lightning and Panthers will clash in the first round of the Stanley Cup playoffs with Florida owning home-ice advantage by virtue of Monday's win.

The Montreal Canadiens are back in the playoffs for the second straight season. The 24-time Stanley Cup champions sealed a berth in the postseason with a 4-3 overtime defeat to the Edmonton Oilers on Monday.

Forcing the extra period was enough to get the job done regardless of the game's outcome.

🔵🔴 CLINCHED 🔵🔴

Welcome to the #StanleyCup Playoffs, @CanadiensMTL! pic.twitter.com/AuFMCFlr1g

— NHL (@NHL) May 11, 2021

With the Canadiens in, three teams have now qualified from the North Division, with four teams from each division moving on to the next stage.

          

Qualified Playoff Teams

Central

• Carolina Hurricanes (80 points)
• Florida Panthers (79 points)
• Tampa Bay Lightning (75 points)
• Nashville Predators (62 points)

East

• Pittsburgh Penguins (77 points)
• Washington Capitals (75 points)
• Boston Bruins (73 points)
• New York Islanders (71 points)

North

• Toronto Maple Leafs (76 points)
• Edmonton Oilers (70 points)
• Winnipeg Jets (59 points)
• Montreal Canadiens (58 points)

West

• Vegas Golden Knights (80 points)
• Colorado Avalanche (76 points)
• Minnesota Wild (75 points)
• St. Louis Blues (57 points)

Montreal will be looking to advance past the first round, something it hasn't achieved since 2015. It upset the Pittsburgh Penguins in the qualifying round of the amended 2020 postseason before falling to the top-seeded Philadelphia Flyers in six games.

Signing Tyler Toffoli to a four-year, $17 million deal looks like a masterstroke as he has registered 28 goals in his first season with the team, tied for sixth-most in the NHL. The offensive support for him has been somewhat lacking, though, with Jeff Petry the only other Canadiens player to have at least 40 points so far. Montreal's 2.91 goals per game rank 14th.

Carey Price has endured a tough go of it as well. His performance (.901 save percentage and 2.64 goals-against average) is solid but below what you'd expect of the NHL's highest-paid goaltender at $10.5 million annually. Price has also been sidelined with a concussion.

In general, the fanbase would probably be content with a trip to the second round. The team's winning percentage has increased slightly from .500 to .538 entering Monday, and there are encouraging signs for the future.

Almost all of the Canadiens' key players are returning next season. Nick Suzuki has provided solid returns (13 goals, 26 assists) in his second year, and 2019 first-round pick Cole Caufield made his NHL debut April 26 against the Calgary Flames.

Caulfield, 20, scored his first goal on May 1, delivering the decisive blow in overtime against the Ottawa Senators.

While the arrow is pointing upward for Montreal, it's probably too early to expect the team to make a lot of noise in the playoffs.

Buffalo Sabres center Jack Eichel has been out since March with a herniated disk in his neck that prematurely ended his season, and he doesn't like how the team has treated him following his injury. 

"I've been a bit upset about the ways things have been handled since I've been hurt," Eichel said Monday. "There's been a bit of a disconnect between myself and the organization. The most important thing now is to get healthy and be ready to play hockey next year, wherever that might be."

Eichel explained that the organization wouldn't let him get surgery, per John Vogl of The Athletic.

"It doesn't work like that. I wish. ... I'm under contract with this team and they definitely hold a lot of cards on what I can and can't do."

The 24-year-old is under contract through 2026 after signing an eight-year, $80 million contract extension, but his future with the team is suddenly uncertain.

"I have a lot of thinking to do in this offseason," Eichel said. "I think that there's a lot that I have to consider. But for now, obviously, I'm here."

When the team announced in April that Eichel would miss the rest of the season with the injury, general manager Kevyn Adams indicated the initial plan was to avoid surgery.

"The course of treatment was to rehab it and give it some time to see if the disk had moved back to where the doctors were comfortable, and then the hope was that he could jump back in and play," Adams said.

Adams did not reveal if there was a plan to have surgery going forward in order to prepare him for the future.

"We all want him back on the ice, [one] hundred percent healthy, and we all feel that will happen at the start of training camp next year," he added.

If Eichel does want to play somewhere else next season, there will likely be plenty of interest based on what the young player has showed while healthy. The 2015 No. 2 overall draft pick had at least 50 points in each of his first five years, peaking with 82 in 2018-19.

The center was at his best in 2019-20 with 36 goals and 42 assists in 68 games, earning votes for the Hart Trophy despite playing for a team that missed the playoffs. The Sabres will miss the playoffs for the 10th straight season this year and currently have the worst record in the NHL.

It could be time for the two sides to part ways, helping the player get a fresh start while helping Buffalo rebuild.

According to Eric Duhatschek of The Athletic, the Rangers made a "hard push" for Eichel last offseason but couldn't complete a deal.