The NHL denounced NBC hockey analyst Mike Milbury's comment during a broadcast Thursday when he suggested women would be a distraction for players in the bubble.

"The National Hockey League condemns the insensitive and insulting comment that Mike Milbury made during (Thursday) night's broadcast and we have communicated our feelings to NBC," the league said in a statement Friday. "The comment did not reflect the NHL's values and commitment to making our game more inclusive and welcoming to all."

Milbury is the second NBC hockey analyst to make inappropriate remarks about women this season. The network suspended Jeremy Roenick indefinitely without pay in December after the former NHL forward made comments of a sexual nature about then-co-worker Kathryn Tappen.

Copyright © 2020 Score Media Ventures Inc. All rights reserved. Certain content reproduced under license.

The Round 1 series between the Philadelphia Flyers and Montreal Canadiens has become as heated off the ice as it is on it.

The teams' current off-ice spat began Thursday when Flyers head coach Alain Vigneault downplayed the injury Brendan Gallagher suffered - which was later diagnosed as a broken jaw - after Matt Niskanen cross-checked him during Game 5.

"In my estimation, Gallagher got up and seemed fine, he was talking to the referees, the whole time that he was on the bench he was talking to our players for the rest of the game," Vigneault said, according to The Athletic's Arpon Basu.

"Gallagher's a very competitive player, but I don't think it's Nisky's fault he might not be as tall as the other guys, but he competes as big if not bigger than anybody else," Vigneault continued. "It just seemed (like) a hockey play that unfortunately cut him a little bit."

Niskanen later received a one-game suspension for the incident while Gallagher was ruled out for the remainder of the series. Canadiens general manager Marc Bergevin didn't like how Vigneault downplayed Gallagher's injury before knowing the severity of the ailment.

"I was expecting more and I was extremely disappointed that AV would make a comment about a player's injuries without knowing the extent of it," Bergevin said Friday, per Sportsnet's Eric Engels. "Brendan Gallagher will be missing an extended period of time and will be eating his meals out of a straw, and I don't wish that on anybody, and that includes the Flyers' players."

If the Canadiens win Game 6 to force a Game 7, Niskanen will be back in the lineup for the winner-take-all tilt. Gallagher, meanwhile, may have surgery Friday and will be "out a while," Bergevin added.

"The authority of the NHL has made their decision and we'll live with it. We'll respect the decision," Bergevin said. "It's unfortunate that our player, Brendan, is going to miss an undetermined amount of time while their player will miss one game. I don't have more comments on it."

As part of the NHL's explanation for why the suspension is not more than one game, the league said, "the sudden and significant movement by Gallagher contributes to the fact that this blow lands on his head, rather than somewhere else on his body."

Bergevin was not a fan of that assessment.

"We agreed to disagree," he said, according to Basu.

Game 6 is set for Friday at 7 p.m. ET.

Copyright © 2020 Score Media Ventures Inc. All rights reserved. Certain content reproduced under license.

Find line reports, best bets, and subscribe to push notifications in the Betting News section.

Thursday was a 1-1 night for us, but it felt a lot bigger as we cashed in a couple big series bets on the Dallas Stars.

Round 1 of the NHL playoffs is winding down, so let's finish strong.

Philadelphia Flyers (-140) @ Montreal Canadiens (+110)

The only real difference between Game 2 and Game 5 of this series was Jesperi Kotkaniemi's major penalty. Instead of a 5-0 win, the Canadiens settled for 5-3, with the Flyers scoring three times on the power play (twice on Kotkaniemi's major). But, in reality, it was yet another game in which Philadelphia was clearly second-best, failing to generate anything at five-on-five.

The Flyers came out flat after a Game 1 win, and then again in Game 5 with a 3-1 stranglehold on the series. However, they responded appropriately to a Game 2 battering and will do the same here.

Montreal will find it tough to match the intensity it carried throughout Game 5, especially without Brendan Gallagher. He's a nightmare for the opposing team - even when he's not playing well - with his relentlessness on the puck and Pitbull mentality on the forecheck. This group is a lot easier to face without him.

The Habs aren't especially great at finishing their chances, and now they have to produce without their leading scorer against Carter Hart, who is as mentally tough as a 22-year-old goaltender can be - he responded to being pulled in Game 2 with back-to-back shutouts. The Canadiens are 2-12 this season when scoring five or more goals in their previous game, and unlucky No. 13 will be the one that ends their campaign.

Pick: Flyers (-140)

St. Louis Blues (-135) @ Vancouver Canucks (+115)

This is an incredibly tough series to cap. You can exhaust yourself by examining data and combing through the numbers, but there are so many variables that can undo all that work. Motivation is a big one - the Blues have looked deprived of it at times - and Jacob Markstrom is another. He's stolen a couple of games already in this series, just as he did against the Minnesota Wild.

The Blues were outstanding in their two "road" contests this series and should come out swinging in Game 6 with their backs against the wall, as they did in Game 3 and 4 after going down 2-0.

However, there's just something about this series - be it the bubble, a Cup hangover, or a hungry Canucks team - that scares me off the Blues at this price. Markstrom is in sensational form, Elias Pettersson deserves more recognition as one of the best players in the league, Bo Horvat is playing like a man against boys, and Vancouver is getting the sort of depth scoring it wasn't for most of the season. I can't pass up the Canucks at this price and will be on them again in Game 7 if they lose here.

Pick: Canucks (+115)

(Odds source: theScore Bet)

Alex Moretto is a sports betting writer for theScore. A journalism graduate from Guelph-Humber University, he has worked in sports media for over a decade. He will bet on anything from the Super Bowl to amateur soccer, is too impatient for futures, and will never trust a kicker. Find him on Twitter @alexjmoretto.

Copyright © 2020 Score Media Ventures Inc. All rights reserved. Certain content reproduced under license.

The first division champion has fallen in the 2020 NHL playoffs.

The Washington Capitals failed to advance past the round of 16 for the second year in a row, dropping Game 5 against the New York Islanders on Thursday night by a final score of 4-0. The series, in general, wasn't pretty.

Here's how it all went down for Washington, and what might be in store this offseason from general manager Brian MacLellan and Co.:

How the season slipped away

Well, technically, you can't say they didn't go down without a fight.

The Capitals did, in fact, win one game in this series. But that was off the back of two strong periods, not a full-out display of their true potential. Two 20-minute stretches of productive hockey were all they could muster in five games.

"They scored, we didn't," Caps captain Alex Ovechkin told reporters postgame, successfully summing up the series in as few words as possible.

"Over these five games," teammate Nicklas Backstrom added, "they wanted it more than us. You can see that, overall."

Under former Caps coach Barry Trotz's guidance, New York stymied the second-best attack of the 2019-20 regular season by limiting Washington to eight goals. Ovechkin, one of just a few Capitals who looked fully engaged for the entirety of the series, potted four goals, accounting for half of the offense. T.J. Oshie and Evgeny Kuznetsov bagged two apiece, meaning there was nil from everyone else, including key contributors Tom Wilson, Jakub Vrana, and Lars Eller, who combined for 62 goals this season.

The vaunted Caps power play, led by Ovechkin and stud defenseman John Carlson, did all right, pitching in four goals on 18 opportunities. It was at even strength where coach Todd Reirden's squad really struggled - and the problems began in a 1-1-1 round robin. In eight total games, the Caps managed just 52.4 shot attempts per 60 minutes of even-strength action to rank 19th among 24 teams. Contrast that with the regular season, when they recorded 59.7 attempts per 60 to rank sixth among 31 teams, and it's as if a different group of guys was involved in the restart.

The heat map below, courtesy Natural Stat Trick, illustrates the even-strength battle. While Washington allowed New York to enter its high-danger area fairly often, the Isles did everything in their power to keep the Caps from entering their slot and crease areas, as shown by the blue and red blobs.

Not only did the Caps struggle to get good looks in the offensive zone, but they also failed to get enough traffic in front of Isles goalie Semyon Varlamov, who has a sparkling .934 save percentage in nine games. There was a general lack of urgency to the Caps' attack. They lost too many one-on-one battles and didn't seem to have their usual confidence. Some of that malaise can be traced back to Trotz and his soldiers playing to their identity as a structured, disciplined, and soul-sucking hockey team. Most of it, though, is on the Caps.

"This is not acceptable for our organization," Reirden said of the early exit.

Vrana, for one, was ineffective. Kuznetsov was inconsistent. Eller - tasked for bulk of the series with filling in at second-line center for a concussed Backstrom - was essentially a non-factor. Ilya Kovalchuk was virtually invisible. Ditto for Carl Hagelin. Again, props to the Isles for playing the part of a suffocating defensive outfit. Kudos all day. But the list of poor performers on the Caps is way, way too long for such a veteran, tested crew.

Caps defenseman Brenden Dillon put it best during a second-intermission TV interview in Game 4. "It took us 10 periods to get going in this series," he said. And then, ironically, they reverted back to their old ways two days later.

Now it's time to go home. The season's over.

What the future may bring

Will this be an offseason of change in D.C.?

The answer, it would appear, is both "yes" and "maybe/maybe not."

It's highly unlikely that pending unrestricted free agent Braden Holtby, who's been a linchpin for the Caps for a decade and backstopped the club to a Stanley Cup in 2018, re-signs this fall. He's all but gone to a team desperate for goaltending. Ilya Samsonov, injured right now, should slide into the starter's role no problem, so, aside from the sentimental loss, it could be a smooth transition.

As for Reirden's job security, that's a toss-up. He just got schooled by Trotz - his mentor and the man the organization parted with because of money after the Cup win - plus the Caps have now lost 10 of 15 postseason games under his watch. This is a results business.

Reirden was an inside hire by MacLellan. Perhaps the GM uses this opportunity to look outside the confines of Capital One Arena for a different voice and tactician as the team looks to recalibrate for the 2020-21 season.

Conversely, there is a chance MacLellan views the early exit as simply a bump in the road. We are in the middle of a pandemic. Backstrom missed most of the series. Carlson was coming off an injury. Eller wasn't up to speed after temporarily exiting the bubble. There's a built-in rationale.

Another consideration that could point to minimal change in Caps land: The team has a ton of veterans locked up. Ovechkin is around for at least another year; Wilson's under contract for four more; Backstrom, Oshie, and Kuznetsov all have five years remaining; and Carlson has six seasons left.

With an average age of 29.2, the Caps were tied with the Dallas Stars as the oldest team ahead of restart action. They're going to be forced to get creative in an evolving division. Competition in the Metro is fierce. The Penguins also left the Toronto bubble with a sour taste in their mouths. The Flyers look formidable in the restart. The Hurricanes boast an enviable roster. The Blue Jackets are proving doubters wrong again and again. The Rangers are rising fast. And, of course, the Islanders continue to win under Trotz.

Keep your eyes on the Caps - namely MacLellan - in the near future.

John Matisz is theScore's national hockey writer.

Copyright © 2020 Score Media Ventures Inc. All rights reserved. Certain content reproduced under license.

The New York Islanders blanked the Washington Capitals 4-0 in Game 5 on Thursday to advance to the second round.

Anthony Beauvillier scored a pair of goals for New York, and netminder Semyon Varlamov made 21 saves for his third career playoff shutout.

Josh Bailey, who finished with three points on the night, and Nick Leddy each added an empty-net goal to cement the win.

Washington has now been eliminated in the opening round of the playoffs in consecutive seasons since winning the Stanley Cup in 2018.

Copyright © 2020 Score Media Ventures Inc. All rights reserved. Certain content reproduced under license.

Philadelphia Flyers defenseman Matt Niskanen has been handed a one-game suspension for cross-checking Montreal Canadiens forward Brendan Gallagher during Game 5 on Wednesday, the NHL's Department of Player Safety announced Thursday.

Gallagher suffered a broken jaw on the play and will miss the remainder of the series. Niskanen didn't receive a penalty for the hit.

"What causes this play to rise to the level of supplemental discipline is the force of the blow, and the fact that the original intent of the play was to deliver a forceful stick foul to the upper body of an opponent," the league said.

This marks the first time Niskanen has been suspended over his 13-year career. However, he was fined in February for slashing.

The 33-year-old blue-liner has yet to record a point this postseason. But he's logged important minutes for the Flyers, ranking second on the club in both average ice time (22:05) and blocked shots (19).

Philadelphia will look to close out the opening-round series without Niskanen in Game 6 on Friday.

Copyright © 2020 Score Media Ventures Inc. All rights reserved. Certain content reproduced under license.

Washington Capitals forward Nicklas Backstrom is set to return to the team's lineup for Game 5 on Thursday against the New York Islanders, the team announced.

Backstrom exited Game 1 after taking a hard hit from Islanders forward Anders Lee and has been out of the lineup since.

Backstrom has recorded one assist in four games this postseason.

The Capitals are down 3-1 in their first-round series. They managed to win Game 4 to avoid a sweep after dropping the first three contests.

Copyright © 2020 Score Media Ventures Inc. All rights reserved. Certain content reproduced under license.