Toronto Maple Leafs
Mitch Marner returned for the Maple Leafs against the Montreal Canadiens on Saturday.
The forward had missed the past 12 games with a lower-body injury he sustained in a 4-1 loss to the Boston Bruins on March 7.
“I just want to get back, get back in the rhythm of things and try to contribute to help our team win games,” Marner said Friday. “Just getting up to game speed (is the biggest challenge) regardless of how many skates or workouts you do, it’s always tough to get back into game speed, especially the game speed at the level we are at right now. Just try to get acquainted with it as quickly as possible and just make sure the first couple shifts you try to keep them short and quick.”
Coach Sheldon Keefe opted to keep Auston Matthews at center on a line with left wing Tyler Bertuzzi and right wing Max Domi. He slotted Marner at right wing on a line with center John Tavares and left wing Bobby McMann.
Right wing William Nylander moved to a line with center Pontus Holmberg and left wing Matthew Knies.
Marner is third on Toronto with 76 points (25 goals, 51 assists) in 62 games this season. -- Dave McCarthy
Dallas Stars
Mavrik Bourque made his NHL debut in a 3-2 loss to the Chicago Blackhawks on Saturday.
The 22-year-old forward was recalled from Texas of the American Hockey League on Friday. He was selected with the No. 30 pick in the 2020 NHL Draft and leads the AHL with 72 points (26 goals, 46 assists) in 66 games.
Bourque had two shots on goal in 10:56 of ice time.
"He's excited," Stars coach Pete DeBoer said before the game. "Anybody's first NHL game is exciting. We had the opportunity to get his parents in here. You can feel that energy when you have a young guy like that playing his first game. It's good for our group and well earned by him. He wasn't handed anything here. He went down to the American League and has been the best player in the American League this year with (Stars forward Logan) Stankoven. Well earned."
Bourque took Tyler Seguin's spot in the lineup. Seguin did not play in order to manage his ice time because of an upper-body injury he sustained Feb. 22, but he is expected to play at the Colorado Avalanche on Sunday.
Seguin missed 11 games before returning to the lineup March 20. He has played in six of seven games since returning.
"He's got some bumps and bruises," DeBoer said. "It didn't make sense playing him in back-to-back games. Tomorrow is the biggest game of the year for us. We want to make sure we don't overlook this one (against Chicago), but that's the reality of where we're at with Colorado. If we had to pick one of the two games for him to play, it was going to be tomorrow."
The Stars lead the Avalanche by three points for first in the Central Division. -- Bruce Miles
Los Angeles Kings
Phillip Danault is expected to return from an upper-body injury when the Kings host the Vancouver Canucks on Saturday (10 p.m. ET; BSSC, SNP, CITY, SN1)
Danault, a center who typically draws the toughest defensive assignments and plays on both the power play and penalty kill, has missed the past four games.
He has 42 points (17 goals, 25 assists) in 72 games this season. -- Dan Greenspan
Ottawa Senators
Thomas Chabot returned from a lower-body injury against the New Jersey Devils on Saturday.
"It feels really good," Chabot said after an off-ice workout Friday. "I've been skating a lot the past few days."
The defenseman had missed four games with the same injury that previously kept him out five games in March. In a corresponding move, defenseman Tyler Kleven was returned to Belleville of the American Hockey League on Friday.
Tim Stützle is day to day with an upper-body injury and did not play against the Devils. The center was slow to get up after taking a hit from defenseman Niko Mikkola in a 6-0 loss to the Florida Panthers on Thursday. Stutzle leads the Senators with 70 points (18 goals, 52 assists) in 75 games this season. -- Callum Fraser
Tampa Bay Lightning
Anthony Cirelli did not play in a 5-4 loss to the Pittsburgh Penguins on Saturday because of an undisclosed injury.
The forward left in the second period of a 7-4 win against the Montreal Canadiens on Thursday.
"This isn't a long-term thing," Lightning coach Jon Cooper said before the game. "Knowing that you're in this situation (having clinched a playoff spot), precaution has become more prevalent."
Cirelli has 43 points (19 goals, 24 assists) in 75 games this season.
Brandon Hagel, who was left wing on the second line with Cirelli at center, played against Pittsburgh. He left the game Thursday after colliding with teammate Steven Stamkos at 12:53 of the third period.
Forward Tanner Jeannot missed his second straight game because of an upper-body injury. -- Wes Crosby
Columbus Blue Jackets
Jake Bean will miss the rest of the season because of a broken hand.
The defenseman left a 4-2 loss to the New York Islanders on Thursday at 12:30 of the third period after blocking a slap shot by Islanders forward Mathew Barzal.
The 25-year-old has 13 points (four goals, nine assists) and a minus-10 rating in 72 games.
Goalie Daniil Tarasov did not practice Friday and was scratched against the Philadelphia Flyers on Saturday.
Tarasov left the game at 17:53 of the first period Thursday after Columbus defenseman David Jiricek clipped him with his hip. Jet Greaves , who relieved Tarasov, started against the Flyers.
Forward Johnny Gaudreau did not play Thursday because of illness but practiced Friday and was in the lineup Saturday. Center Boone Jenner remains out on personal leave.
Goalie Elvis Merzlikins (lower body) did not practice Friday. He and forward Sean Kuraly (lower body) were not be available Saturday and each is day to day, according to coach Pascal Vincent. -- Craig Merz
Chicago Blackhawks
Connor Murphy practiced for the first time since sustaining a groin injury in January and the defenseman hopes to play for the Blackhawks next week.
"This was my first practice, so we'll just see how it responds," Murphy said Friday. "Have a couple of more full-paced skates to be able to [have] the combination of being in good shape and testing it good enough so that I can handle whole games and be able to play. Just not having a strict timeline, like this whole 2 1/2 months, but at least having optimism that I'm very close."
Murphy sustained the injury, which he said was osteitis pubis, in Chicago's 3-1 loss to the Dallas Stars on Jan. 13. It's the same injury that has kept San Jose Sharks forward Logan Couture out for all but six games this season and Murphy said he and Couture have spoken about their shared injury.
"Mine wasn't as bad as his with the levels of pain and stuff," said Murphy, who did not play in a 3-2 win against the Dallas Stars on Saturday. "You feel bad for a guy's frustration but it's nice to know you're not the only one going through a confusing time trying to figure it out and know how to handle a certain injury." -- Tracey Myers
Vegas Golden Knights
Tomas Hertl is nearing a return but did not make his Golden Knights debut Friday when Vegas lost 7-4 at the Arizona Coyotes on Friday.
The 30-year-old forward, who has been skating on his own, hasn't played since Jan. 27 and opted to have surgery to clean out loose cartilage in his left knee Feb. 12. He said March 11 he was hoping to be back on the ice with Vegas in two weeks.
Hertl practiced in a regular jersey with the Golden Knights for the first time Tuesday but did not play in a 6-3 win against the Vancouver Canucks. Vegas plays at the Vancouver Canucks on Monday and the Edmonton Oilers on Wednesday.
"We're coming back here [to Vegas] after Arizona," Golden Knights coach Bruce Cassidy said Thursday. "He's not going to play tomorrow, so he won't travel. Sunday, when we practice, I'll have a better idea of how it's shaping out for the Vancouver and Edmonton trip."
Hertl, who sustained the injury with the San Jose Sharks, was acquired by Vegas on March 8 in a trade for forward prospect David Edstrom and a first-round pick in the 2025 NHL Draft.
Hertl, who has 34 points (15 goals, 19 assists) in 48 games this season, has six seasons remaining on an eight-year contract he signed with San Jose on March 16, 2022. He had to waive his no-movement clause in order to be acquired by Vegas. -- Paul Delos Santos
Philadelphia Flyers
Sean Couturier missed his second straight game because of an upper-body injury when the Flyers played the Columbus Blue Jackets on Saturday.
"Little nicked up now, hopefully we'll get him back here and get him going down the right road," coach John Tortorella said Friday.
Couturier left a 4-3 overtime loss to the New York Islanders on Monday with 7:39 remaining in the first period after falling hard into the boards in the Islanders zone. He also missed a 4-2 loss at the Buffalo Sabres on Friday.
The center has 36 points (11 goals, 25 assists) in 70 games. -- Adam Kimelman
