The Vancouver Canucks lost again Saturday, making it eight in a row, but they went down fighting against the Toronto Maple Leafs. And they scored three goals - more than the two they tallied in their previous five games combined.

Tempers flared in the third period, as multiple skirmishes broke out after Nazem Kadri rocked Daniel Sedin with a blindside hit. Eventually, a line brawl saw goaltender Ryan Miller come to the aid of rookie defenseman Troy Stecher, who was being pummeled by enforcer Matt Martin.

"It's great to see us sticking together," Daniel Sedin - who escaped serious injury on the Kadri hit - said after the game. "The game got out of hand, but we stayed together. We'll get through this."

Head coach Willie Desjardins agreed with his star player.

"We thought it was a high hit on Danny. I like the fact our group stuck up for each other. The room cares," he said. "I have no problems with that. One thing you want is your guys to stick up for each other and Miller did that."

Miller put it well when explaining why he stepped up for Stecher, who officially recorded the first fight of his career against Martin.

"I wasn't going to let Stecher get baptized like that by Martin," he said, according to Canucks beat writer Jeff Paterson. "It was a bit predatory."

Miller's hoping the Canucks will grow from what their experience in Toronto. Mired in a prolonged losing streak, Vancouver must right the ship sooner than later.

"We're getting towards rock bottom here," Miller added, "so maybe this will get us going. We had our blood boiling out there."

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This one's going on Sidney Crosby's mixtape.

No. 87 was doing exceptional things Saturday against the San Jose Sharks, scoring twice to give him a league-leading eight goals on the season.

Crosby's played only six games.

The captain finished with two goals, while Carl Hagelin added three assists. Matt Murray stopped 32 Sharks shots to earn the shutout in a 5-0 win.

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The Dallas Stars will be without Jason Spezza for at least one game.

The 33-year-old suffered a lower-body injury in the team's 3-2 loss against the Chicago Blakchawks on Saturday. After the game, head coach Lindy Ruff noted that Spezza will miss a little bit of time and will definitely be out for the second part of a home-and-home with the Blackhawks on Sunday, according to Mike Heika of the Dallas Morning News.

Spezza has had a questionable start to the season, managing just four goals and a single assist through nine games.

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Devin Setoguchi's name is back on an NHL scoresheet.

The Los Angeles Kings forward pounced on a rebound and buried his first goal of the season Saturday night against the Calgary Flames.

It was his first as a member of the Kings and his first NHL goal since March 1, 2014, a span of 980 days.

Los Angeles signed Setoguchi to a one-year deal prior to the start of this season.

In September, he opened up about his battles with alcoholism and depression. In the summer of 2015, he revealed that he checked into rehab that spring.

Setoguchi scored 31 goals for the San Jose Sharks in 2008-09. The Sharks drafted him eighth overall in 2005.

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The Vancouver Canucks have a lot of problems. The Toronto Maple Leafs are on now on the list.

Things got ugly between the two clubs Saturday in the third period of an eventual 6-3 Toronto win. It was Vancouver's eighth straight defeat, and frustrations reached their boiling point after the game, when defenseman Erik Gudbranson was reportedly heard threatening Maple Leafs enforcer Matt Martin.

Here's what happened in the third frame that led to the above comment:

• Morgan Rielly hit Jannik Hansen with a shoulder in the neutral zone, which looked a lot worse than it was.
• Moments later, Nazem Kadri caught Daniel Sedin with a vicious blindside hit, for which the Maple Leafs forward will likely be suspended. Hansen fought Kadri in the aftermath.
• With more than half the third period in the books, and almost five minutes after the Kadri-Sedin incident, Derek Dorsett and Leo Komarov dropped the gloves. Dorsett had apparently turned down an invitation from Martin before fighting Komarov. Dorsett had to be restrained as he was being escorted off the ice after the fight, as he and Martin exchanged words.
• On the next faceoff, Alex Burrows instigated a fight with Rielly, after appearing to spear the Toronto defender on a prior shift.
• With just over five minutes to play, Martin went after Canucks rookie defenseman Troy Stecher, and that got Ryan Miller involved, as he rushed from his position in goal in to help his young teammate in the corner.
• Martin, Miller, and Frederik Andersen received game misconducts. The two goalies were tossed for leaving their crease.
• The last five minutes were played without incident - and with short benches.

Miller talked about his decision to confront Martin after the game:

In the end, the Canucks finished with 86 minutes in penalties, while the Maple Leafs came in at 55.

There's sure to be more fireworks on Dec. 3, when the two teams meet again in Vancouver.

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A mild line brawl broke out late in the third period between the Vancouver Canucks and Maple Leafs on Saturday.

Rookies Auston Matthews and Mitch Marner, though, weren't too interested in hearing what penalties Toronto received after the fact, as they were caught on camera singing along to Bon Jovi's "Living on a Prayer" as the referee came over to explain.

Kids these days.

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Even the goalies wanted a piece of the action Saturday night.

Ryan Miller interrupted Toronto Maple Leafs enforcer Matt Martin's bout with Vancouver Canucks rookie Troy Stecher late in the third period, and what followed was an all-out melee.

Martin challenged the defenseman after veteran Derek Dorsett turned down his invitation to fight earlier in the game, and after having words with the Canucks bench as Dorsett was leaving the ice following his ejection.

When the dust settled, the combined penalty minute totals were in triple digits.

(Courtesy: NHL.com)

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MONTREAL - Tomas Plekanec scored a short-handed goal in the third period to lift the Montreal Canadiens to a 5-4 win over the Philadelphia Flyers on Saturday night.

Andrei Markov, Greg Pateryn, Alex Galchenyuk and Phillip Danault also scored for Montreal (10-1-1) while Carey Price stopped 34-of-38 shots.

Chris VandeVelde, Shayne Gostisbehere, Claude Giroux and Travis Konecny scored for Philadelphia (6-6-1), which saw its three-game winning streak snapped. Michal Neuvirth made 12 saves in defeat.

Plekanec scored the eventual winner at 10:57 while the Habs were playing down a man. Streaking down the wing, Plekanec beat Neuvirth for his first goal of the season.

Saturday's contest was the second game of a back-to-back for Montreal. The Habs were coming off a 10-0 drubbing at the hands of the Blue Jackets on Friday - the first time Montreal conceded 10 goals since Dec. 2, 1995.

Canadiens coach Michel Therrien played around with his lines on Saturday, most notably putting Artturi Lehkonen on the first line with Galchenyuk and Alexander Radulov.

But it was Montreal's defensemen who provided the offense to start the game.

Markov made it 1-0 just 1:06 into the game, jumping on a giveaway by Sean Couturier and firing home his first of the year. Neuvirth got his glove on Markov's slap shot, but not enough of it as the puck trickled in.

After VandeVelde and Gostisbehere got two goals in quick succession for the visitors, Pateryn made it 2-2 for Montreal at 9:09 of the first. The young defenseman just threw the puck on net, and a screened Neuvirth saw absolutely nothing until it was already too late.

Galchenyuk put the Canadiens ahead late in the second period, scoring at 18:38 on Montreal's third shot of the middle frame. The first-line centre, all alone at the side of Neuvirth's goal, took a cross-ice pass from Radulov through traffic and scored into a gaping net for his fourth goal of the season.

Galchenyuk now has six points in his last five games.

After Danault made it 4-2, Giroux made things interesting in the third period, scoring on the power play. But Plekanec scored his short-handed goal on the same four-minute minor to Andrew Shaw.

Konecny got the Flyers back to within one goal at 16:16, but that's as close as the visitors would come.

NOTES: Montreal is 9-0-0 when scoring first this year. ... The Canadiens remain perfect at home this season 7-0-0. ... The Habs are 6-0-0 at home against the Flyers in their last six games. ... This was the second of three meetings between Philadelphia and Montreal this season.

UP NEXT:

Flyers: Hosts Red Wings on Tuesday.

Canadiens: Hosts Bruins on Tuesday.

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Jeff Skinner continues to torch opposing goalies.

The Carolina Hurricanes forward made Pekka Rinne his latest victim, scoring a beautiful spin-o-rama on the Nashville Predators backstop Saturday night.

For Skinner, the goal was his sixth of the season and his 12th point in nine games.

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Vladimir Tarasenko is one of the most dangerous players when the game's down to 3-on-3.

The St. Louis Blues forward finished off the Columbus Blue Jackets in overtime Saturday night, dancing around his defender before picking the corner on Curtis McElhinney.

The Blues won 2-1, as one night after scoring 10, the Blue Jackets could only manage a single goal.

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