Bill Peters could be heading home.

The Calgary Flames called the Carolina Hurricanes on Thursday to ask permission to speak with head coach Bill Peters, which the Canes granted, a source told TSN's Pierre LeBrun.

Peters, a native of Three Hills, Alberta - located about an hour and 20 minutes northeast of Calgary - exercised an opt-out clause in his contract with Carolina and resigned Friday.

The Flames are one of four teams with a head coaching vacancy, and Peters appears to be their preferred replacement for the recently fired Glen Gulutzan.

Peters failed to make the playoffs in four seasons as the Hurricanes' bench boss, compiling a 137-138-53 record. He's set to coach Canada at the upcoming World Championship.

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Bill Peters resigned his position as head coach of the Carolina Hurricanes on Friday.

"I want to thank (current owner) Tom Dundon, (former owner) Peter Karmanos, and (former general manager) Ron Francis for the trust they put in me to lead the team," said Peters. "I feel the incoming general manager should have the ability to hire his own head coach."

Peters added, "I feel like this is a good time to move on, and I am looking forward to my next challenge."

He had until Friday to exercise an exit clause in his contract, team president and interim general manager Don Waddell confirmed Monday.

"I have a lot of respect for Bill as a person and coach," Dundon said. "We thank him for his time with the Hurricanes and wish him success in whatever comes next."

Peters held the position for four seasons, leading the Hurricanes to a regular-season record of 137-138-53 and zero playoff appearances. He's set to serve as Canada's bench boss at the World Championship in May.

The Hurricanes will immediately begin searching for a new head coach. The team is also looking for a GM after removing Francis from that position in early March.

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The Winnipeg Jets will welcome the return of one of their big anchors on the back end.

Tyler Myers, who missed Game 4 with a lower-body injury, told reporters that he will indeed suit up for Game 5 against the Minnesota Wild on Friday night.

"I stepped out there today, I feel pretty good, so I'll be out there tonight," he told TSN's Frank Seravalli.

Contrary to what was originally suspected, Myers' injury did not occur when Wild forward Marcus Foligno punched him in the back of the leg in Game 3, he told Seravalli.

Foligno, Myers' former teammate on the Buffalo Sabres, apparently reached out to apologize.

"It's all good," Myers said, according to TSN's Pierre LeBrun.

With Josh Morrissey suspended for Game 5, head coach Paul Maurice told LeBrun that he'll keep Tucker Poolman in the lineup rather than inserting AHL defenseman of the year Sami Niku. That gives the Jets four right-handed blue-liners for Friday's matchup.

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Toronto Maple Leafs center Auston Matthews had the top-selling jersey during the 2017-18 regular season, the NHL announced Friday.

The sales figures are from the Fanatics network of e-commerce sites, which includes Shop.NHL.com and NHLShop.ca.

Matthews finished directly ahead of Pittsburgh Penguins star Sidney Crosby - last year's top seller - and the Edmonton Oilers' Connor McDavid.

The rest of the top 15 rank as follows:

• Marc-Andre Fleury, Vegas Golden Knights
• Henrik Lundqvist, New York Rangers
• Alex Ovechkin, Washington Capitals
• Mats Zuccarello, New York Rangers
• Patrick Kane, Chicago Blackhawks
• Jonathan Toews, Chicago Blackhawks
• Vladimir Tarasenko, St. Louis Blues
• Patrice Bergeron, Boston Bruins
• T.J. Oshie, Washington Capitals
• Jack Eichel, Buffalo Sabres
• Andrei Vasilevskiy, Tampa Bay Lightning
• Evgeni Malkin, Pittsburgh Penguins

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Patrik Laine had many reasons to celebrate on Thursday.

The Winnipeg Jets winger turned 20, and reached the milestone with the third-most regular-season goals ever scored by teenager at the NHL level.

With 80 goals through 155 games as a teen, Laine is behind only Jimmy Carson, who scored 92 for the Los Angeles Kings (1986-88), and Dale Hawerchuk, who recorded 85 for the original Jets (1981-83), according to Tim Campbell of NHL.com.

With 54 assists, Laine's 134 points are also the ninth most in NHL history among players before turning 20.

"I'm happy with my numbers as a teenager," Laine said. "Now I'm disappointed that it's over but I'm happy what I was able to do before my 20th birthday. It's nice to be here."

Laine's Jets hold a 3-1 series lead over Minnesota heading into Friday's Game 5, and the Finn has contributed two goals and two assists in four playoff games.

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With four-time Selke Trophy winner Patrice Bergeron (upper body) sidelined for the Boston Bruins on Thursday, the previously quiet Toronto Maple Leafs duo of Auston Matthews and William Nylander had a glorious chance to break out in Game 4.

Maple Leafs head coach Mike Babcock certainly thought so, as the young, dynamic forwards were set to face a weakened bottom-six with Riley Nash moving up the Bruins' lineup and Toronto receiving the last change as the home team. However, Matthews and Nylander were both held without a point and failed to generate many scoring chances.

"I'm assuming that (Matthews) thought he was going to come tonight and dominate the game. That's what I thought," Babcock told reporters following Toronto's 3-1 loss. "I thought the same with (Nylander). That didn't happen."

Thursday was more of the same for Matthews and Nylander, as they've combined for just a goal and an assist throughout the first four games against Boston, which leads the opening-round series 3-1.

"The other people you're playing against are pros and they're trying too and they're competitive," Babcock added "There's regular-season competitiveness and there's first-round Stanley Cup playoff competitiveness and it keeps amping up the whole way through.

"In order to find that out we've got to play better than we are right now, if we're ever going to find that out. In reality, when you leave here tonight as an individual, as a coach, as a player, you've got time to evaluate yourself and most guys are pretty honest."

Matthews and Nylander will have another chance to get on track in Game 5 on Saturday, though it will come at TD Garden where the Bruins will get the last change, and where they'll potentially have Bergeron back in their lineup.

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John Tortorella spent several minutes explaining what he felt went wrong for his Columbus Blue Jackets in Game 4 of their first-round playoff series against the Washington Capitals, but after a while, he got right to the point.

"We weren't good," the Blue Jackets head coach told reporters following a 4-1 loss when asked about the chances they had to trouble Capitals goaltender Braden Holtby.

"There's no sense in asking me things about the game," he continued. "I'm telling you, we laid an egg, so I'm not going to break it down for you. We sucked. We sucked. So let's move (on) and see if we play better Saturday afternoon (in Game 5)."

Tortorella said the Blue Jackets "laid an egg" multiple times in his postgame comments Thursday, and likened his club to robots in the defeat on home ice that drew the Capitals even in the series at 2-2 after Columbus won the first two games in Washington.

The Blue Jackets actually drove possession in Game 4 by a slim margin (52.63 to 47.37 percent at 5-on-5), and held the edge in scoring chances at 5-on-5 as well (51.06 to 48.94 percent), but Washington outshot Columbus 33-24 and Holby stopped 23 of the 24 shots he faced.

The puck is scheduled to drop for Game 5 after 3 p.m. ET on Saturday in D.C.

(Analytics courtesy: Natural Stat Trick)

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Alex Ovechkin tried to warn you.

Facing a steep uphill battle after dropping the first two games on home ice versus the Columbus Blue Jackets, the Capitals captain called his shot and said his club would return to Washington with the series tied.

Lo and behold, he was right, as the Caps drew even with a 4-1 victory on Thursday night, with Ovechkin contributing a key insurance marker - his third goal of the postseason.

After overtime decisions went the Blue Jackets' way in Game 1 and 2, the Capitals flipped the script and eked out a double-overtime win in Game 3, followed by Thursday's solid performance. The turnaround marks the first time in franchise history the Capitals have evened a series after losing the first two contests, per NHL PR.

Game 5 goes Saturday afternoon at 3:00 p.m. ET.

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