Leafs’ Foligno debuting alongside Matthews, Marner vs. Jets

Newly acquired forward Nick Foligno will debut with the Toronto Maple Leafs Thursday against the Winnipeg Jets on the team's top line alongside Auston Matthews and Mitch Marner.

"Might as well jump right in, right?" Foligno said Thursday about starting with the duo, according to TSN's Kristen Shilton.

With the addition of Foligno, the Leafs' lines looked like this during their morning skate Thursday:

There's no timeline for defenseman Zach Bogosian's return after he suffered an injury Tuesday, though the veteran will miss more than a week, head coach Sheldon Keefe said.

Foligno was acquired from the Columbus Blue Jackets ahead of the trade deadline, and he's been in quarantine since arriving in Toronto. He hasn't appeared in a game in nearly two weeks, so the 33-year-old is tempering expectations.

"I think I'll be playing off adrenaline more than anything tonight, and I'm looking forward to being out there," Foligno said. "I haven't played in 10 days, I'm not expecting to jump in and start dangling, but I do want to contribute."

Foligno has recorded seven goals and nine assists over 42 games this season.

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Golden Knights become 1st team to clinch playoff berth

The Vegas Golden Knights beat the San Jose Sharks 5-2 on Wednesday night, becoming the first team this season to punch its postseason ticket.

Vegas is the fourth team in league history to make the playoffs in each of its first four seasons, according to NHL Public Relations. The other three are the Edmonton Oilers (13; 1980 to 1992), New York Rangers (nine; 1927 to 1935), and St. Louis Blues (six; 1968 to 1973).

The Golden Knights have won eight games in a row and lead the NHL with 68 points. Their West Division rivals, the Colorado Avalanche, are ahead by points percentage, though.

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NHL targeting Oct. 12 for start of 2021-22 season

The NHL hopes to begin the 2021-22 campaign on Oct. 12, the league said Wednesday during virtual general manager meetings, according to TSN's Pierre LeBrun.

That would be about a week later than the start of a normal season. The date is contingent on no further delays this campaign, LeBrun added.

Training camps would reportedly open on Sept. 22 if all goes according to plan.

The Seattle Kraken, the NHL's 32nd franchise, are set to play in 2021-22.

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Flyers’ Hart to miss at least 2 more games with mild knee sprain

Carter Hart needs a bit more time before he can return from injury, but his head coach isn't worried about the ailment being a long-term issue.

"I'm not concerned at all," Philadelphia Flyers bench boss Alain Vigneault said Wednesday. "It's a mild sprain to his knee. It's just taken a few more days than we anticipated. He's had (doctors) look at it, he'd had the MRI, there's nothing serious."

Vigneault added that Hart won't travel with the team to New York, according to NHL.com's Adam Kimelman. The Flyers will play the Rangers at Madison Square Garden on Thursday and Friday before returning home to host the New Jersey Devils on Sunday.

Hart has missed the club's last two games.

The 22-year-old has been arguably the NHL's worst netminder this season, posting a 9-11-5 record and a .877 save percentage. He's authored the league's worst goals saved above average (minus-22.99) and goals saved above expected (minus-24.45) in 2021, according to Evolving Hockey.

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Lehner: NHL hasn’t kept promises to vaccinated players

Vegas Golden Knights goaltender Robin Lehner says the NHL isn't fulfilling promises made to players about loosening restrictions once they're vaccinated against COVID-19.

"At some point, we gotta start looking at the mental health of people around us. Not just (the) NHL, but everyone in society and see how can we start getting back to normalcy," Lehner told reporters Wednesday. "Because the problem is gonna be huge, but being lied to us about things changing, to kind of force us to take the vaccine. Unacceptable.

"And to now when we have taken the vaccine to have the excuse of saying, 'Nah, we're not changing because of competitive advantage.' It's outrageous."

Lehner says the NBA was used as an example of how the NHL would ease restrictions for players who get vaccinated. In March, the NBA and NBPA agreed that restrictions would loosen for players who get fully vaccinated, including not needing to quarantine after coming into direct contact with someone who tests positive and being allowed to leave their hotels on the road.

The netminder said the league is waiting for more teams to get vaccinated so that restrictions aren't unfairly lifted for some clubs and not others, leading to a competitive-balance issue.

"That made me go crazy, to be honest. ... We are humans as everyone else," Lehner said. "So, there's a two-fold problem for me here. The first one is we get promised something to take something that not necessarily everyone wanted, so that was a lie, a blatant lie."

"No one thinks about the mental impact, and there are people struggling," he added. "I know people will say, 'Oh, you're millionaires, this and that, you're crying, what about these guys.' We care about that too, man. No matter what people think, this is a society problem. But when government, corporations, NHL, whoever, are taking decisions in terms of these irrelevant things like a competitive edge over the human being, it's not OK, man."

Lehner took to Twitter shortly after speaking to the media to clarify his comments, saying his main point is about remembering the mental health of players.

NHL deputy commissioner Bill Daly pushed back against Lehner's remarks shortly thereafter.

"I respect Robin's views and feelings. It's a tough situation. Having said that, I reject the assertion that any promises were ever made on protocol changes related to player vaccination," Daly wrote in an email to the Las Vegas Review-Journal's David Shoen.

Here are Lehner's full comments:

The 29-year-old has been vocal about his own battle with mental health in the past, including his diagnosis as bipolar.

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Women’s worlds canceled again; IIHF, Hockey Canada aim for summer

The 2021 Women's World Hockey Championship has been canceled after Nova Scotia's provincial government determined the tournament could not proceed as scheduled due to COVID-19 safety concerns, the IIHF announced Wednesday.

The tournament was set to take place May 6-16 in Halifax and Truro. The IIHF and Hockey Canada said in a joint statement that they are aiming to stage the event "in the summer of 2021."

“In the end, we must accept the decision of the government," the two governing bodies said. "This does not mean that we will not have a Women's World Championship in 2021.

"We owe it to every single player that was looking forward to getting back on the ice after such a difficult year that we do everything possible to ensure this tournament can be moved to new dates and played this year."

The IIHF and Hockey Canada pushed the tourney to May from its original target dates of April 7-17 in March.

This is the second consecutive year the tournament has been called off because of the coronavirus. Halifax and Truro were also the intended host cities for the 2020 women's worlds, but the event was canceled last March.

The number of COVID-19 cases in Nova Scotia has been relatively low throughout the pandemic, but rising totals prompted the provincial government to close its borders to seven other provinces Tuesday.

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