ERIC STAAL

Canadiens goaltender Carey Price has voluntarily entered the NHL/NHL Players’ Association joint player assistance program.

Montreal Canadiens forward Joel Armia has been placed in the NHL’s COVID-19 protocol.

The Montreal Canadiens have finally earned respect during a remarkable playoff run that has them in the Stanley Cup Final for the first time in 28 years.

Carey Price made 26 saves to lead the Montreal Canadiens to 4-1 road victory over the Vegas Golden Knight, putting the Canadiens one win away from the Stanley Cup Final.

Montreal's Cole Caufield is the best of a handful of college hockey stars who went from playing at the NCAA level this season to jumping right into the NHL playoffs.

The Washington Capitals have made a blockbuster deal to acquire Anthony Mantha from the Detroit Red Wings at the NHL's trade deadline.

Quarantine requirements are making the trade deadline drastically different for teams around the NHL.

The banged-up Boston Bruins are getting a boost for their late-season playoff push by acquiring forward Taylor Hall in a trade with the Buffalo Sabres.

Buffalo Sabres forward Jack Eichel (9) carries the puck past New Jersey Devils forward Yegor Sharangovich (17) during the second period of an NHL hockey game Saturday, Jan. 30, 2021, in Buffalo, N.Y. (AP Photo/Jeffrey T. Barnes)BUFFALO, N.Y. – Jack Eichel scored in a shootout, Linus Ullmark made 31 saves and the Buffalo Sabres beat the New Jersey Devils 4-3 on Saturday. Victor Olofsson, Tobias Rieder and Eric Staal also scored to help the Sabres improve to 3-0-2 in their past five games. AdJanne Kuokkanen, Ty Smith and Andreas Johnsson scored for New Jersey in former Sabres coach Lindy Ruff’s first trip to Buffalo since taking over the Devils this offseason. Buffalo’s top free-agent acquisition assisted on two goals, tying Eichel for the team lead with nine points in eight games. RUFF’S RETURNRuff served as a Rangers assistant and Stars head coach since being fired by the Sabres in 2013.

“I wasn’t thinking about it," Vanecek said of his first NHL shootout. “We want to win hockey games in good ways and feel good about ourselves,” Dowd said. Buffalo rookie Dylan Cozens scored his first NHL goal on a top-shelf snipe past Vanecek in the second period. The Capitals were fined $100,000 Wednesday for breaking league rules since those four players were together in a hotel room not wearing masks. Goaltender Carter Hutton didn’t travel with the team because of an apparent head injury from a collision Tuesday in Philadelphia.

Zdeno Chara is no longer in Boston after the Bruins captain signed with Washington. And the Sabres made an even bigger splash in free agency by landing 2018 NHL MVP Taylor Hall in October. Hall, for example, signed a one-year, $8 million deal with Buffalo by realizing the free-agent market was going to be tight. Oilers general manager Ken Holland chalked it up to the new economic realities facing the NHL. “It’s salary-cap related, which is related to the pandemic, which has given us a hard, flat cap for the foreseeable future,” Holland said.

(AP Photo/Andy Clayton-King, File)The Minnesota Wild traded goalie Devan Dubnyk and forward Ryan Donato to the San Jose Sharks in two separate deals Monday, continuing their makeover under general manager Bill Guerin. The selection the Sharks sent to the Wild was originally Pittsburgh's, first dealt to San Jose on Feb. 24 for forward Patrick Marleau. The Wild now own two 2021 picks from the Penguins, who traded next year's first-rounder to Minnesota for forward Jason Zucker. Donato, who is the son of former Bruins stalwart Ted Donato, has 29 goals and 28 assists in 130 career NHL games. The 26-year-old Soucy had seven goals, seven assists and a team-leading plus-16 rating in 55 games in his first full NHL season.