Boston Bruins captain Patrice Bergeron is in the lineup for Saturday's game against the New York Islanders, Bruins head coach Bruce Cassidy confirmed.

Bergeron missed four games after the re-emergence of a previous injury. The club said at the time that he'd sit out at least two contests, and they were being cautious due to the risk of infection.

The 36-year-old has excelled this season, posting 17 goals and 28 assists while averaging over 18 minutes of ice time across 56 games.

Bergeron's typically stellar defensive play hasn't declined either, as he's again in the Selke Trophy conversation. He has claimed the award four times, and he's tied with Montreal Canadiens legend Bob Gainey for the most Selke wins.

Boston entered Saturday's slate sitting in fourth place in the Atlantic Division in terms of points percentage.

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Calgary Flames center Sean Monahan is set to be a healthy scratch for the first time in his NHL career Friday against the Arizona Coyotes, reports Sportsnet's Pat Steinberg.

"You gotta look at the big picture with Sean, for sure," head coach Darryl Sutter told reporters ahead of the game. "I think that he had major hip surgery last summer. And he worked his tail off to come back and be ready."

Monahan failed to record a point in his last 14 contests, and Sutter blames himself for not resting the center earlier in the season.

"I'd say his first 40 were good games, but then I think he's struggled offensively the last 20 or 25," Sutter said. "But I should've been monitoring how much he played a little bit more, meaning I should've been giving him some games where he wasn't playing, so that's my plan now."

Monahan has 22 points in 63 games this season. On a per-game basis, he's on pace for career lows in goals, points, shots, and ice time.

The 27-year-old averaged 30 goals and 33 assists per 82 games during the first six seasons of his career. Since then, however, he's averaged 18 goals and 26 assists per 82 contests.

Here's Calgary's projected lineup:

The Flames drafted Monahan with the sixth overall pick in 2013. He's the third-highest-paid player on the team and carries a $6.375-million cap hit through next season before becoming an unrestricted free agent.

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Brett Howden appears to have avoided a serious injury scare.

The Vegas Golden Knights forward is no longer in the hospital after being removed from Thursday's game on a stretcher, Golden Knights head coach Peter DeBoer said Friday, according to The Athletic's Jesse Granger.

DeBoer said Howden is sore but has no broken bones, adding that the center is "probably out for a while."

The bench boss also said Howden was at the Golden Knights' facility Friday morning, according to the Las Vegas Review-Journal's Ben Gotz.

Howden had to be stretchered off the ice after colliding awkwardly with Nashville Predators forward Filip Forsberg. Howden was falling before he was hit and crashed against the boards headfirst.

The 23-year-old was in stable condition shortly after the incident but was taken to hospital for further testing.

Howden is in his first season with Vegas after playing his first three NHL campaigns with the New York Rangers.

Meanwhile, the injury-riddled Golden Knights got more bad news Friday. Max Pacioretty suffered a setback in his recovery and won't be available to play in the near future, DeBoer said. Pacioretty hasn't suited up since March 11 due to an undisclosed ailment.

Vegas currently has six players on IR, including Pacioretty, starting goaltender Robin Lehner, and star winger Mark Stone. The Golden Knights also have two players (Brayden McNabb and Michael Amadio) on the COVID-19 list.

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The Montreal Canadiens will be without two key forwards for the foreseeable future.

Jonathan Drouin is out indefinitely with an upper-body injury for the second time this season and remains at home as a precaution after coming in contact with someone who tested positive for COVID-19. The Canadiens placed him on injured reserve Friday.

The winger, who'll turn 27 on Monday, missed Montreal's 4-3 loss to the Florida Panthers on Thursday night.

Drouin has had horrible luck this season even before his latest concerns. He was also out indefinitely with an upper-body ailment in late January, missing 22 games before returning on March 19. In early November, an errant puck hit Drouin in the head, forcing him to sit out six contests.

Despite Drouin's numerous absences, he's produced 20 points (six goals and 14 assists) over 34 games this season.

Meanwhile, Brendan Gallagher will be out for another week due to a lower-body injury. The Canadiens will play four times in the next seven days. Gallagher has already missed the last three games. The 29-year-old has five goals and nine assists across 43 contests in 2021-22.

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No one would blame Evgenii Dadonov for being upset at what he had to endure this week, but the Vegas Golden Knights forward said it's water under the bridge after scoring a goal in his first game back with the club.

After finding the back of the net in a 6-1 win over the Nashville Predators on Thursday night, the veteran acknowledged the uncertainty and difficulty of the trade debacle.

"I would say it was a stressful couple of days," the veteran said postgame, according to The Athletic's Jesse Granger. "(There was) nothing I could do. I was just waiting on the decision."

The 33-year-old was playing his first game with the Golden Knights since the NHL voided the trade Wednesday that sent him to the Anaheim Ducks two days earlier. Dadonov didn't suit up for the Ducks and missed Vegas' games on Monday and Tuesday while in limbo.

Dadonov reportedly had Anaheim on his no-trade list, but the league didn't have the list on record, mistakenly rubber-stamping the swap before reviewing and canceling it.

When asked postgame Thursday if he was upset that Vegas attempted to deal him, Dadonov replied, "I guess so," but then quickly expounded his feelings.

"I kind of try and be a pro," Dadonov said. "I’ve been around the league. I understand every decision, so I wasn’t really mad. I just have my right and just was waiting."

The fans at T-Mobile Arena cheered loudly for the winger ahead of puck drop Thursday and then again after the game when he was named second star.

Dadonov finished Thursday's victory with three points after adding a pair of secondary assists on goals by Jack Eichel and Alex Pietrangelo. The Russian is on a three-game goal streak with four markers in that span. He has five tallies and two assists in his last five contests.

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There were a lot of bags packed and Ubers to the airport ready to go Monday. The NHL trade deadline came and went with veterans Marc-Andre Fleury and Mark Giordano as the big buys, while general managers bid wildly for Rickard Rakell, Artturi Lehkonen, and Marcus Johansson.

Did the buzz of the deadline have anything to do with favorites going 4-0 on Monday? We may never know. However, when the dust settled, our collection of valuable bets stormed back for an epic week. The Sharks, Sabres, Canucks, Flyers, and Senators all won at +200 or better.

Meanwhile, if you found the widely available prices on the Kings (-120 vs. the Predators), Bruins (-110 vs. the Lightning), and Golden Knights (-115 vs. Nashville), you took advantage of the continuing run of rare valuable favorites on our list.

Whether Monday's acquisitions are what created an overreaction in the market - or whether we can attribute success to random variance - remains to be seen. However, the highs and lows of betting on hockey remain the same, even if a few players of varying degrees of impact change locations and colors.

The recipe

Before the 2021-22 campaign, we devised a three-part series on how to use the regular-season point-total market to create team ratings, how to interpret home-ice advantage, and then how to use those to create your own moneylines.

We're due for a tweak to our formula following the deadline. We'll take this opportunity to move this season's on-ice predictive metrics to 80% of our total rating. While our ratings are weighted to this season, basing 20% of the ratings on preseason "priors" allows us to emphasize team metrics without going all-in on what's happened during this elastic campaign. Of course, we still have a relatively small sample size that includes some tainted results from when COVID-19 ravaged lineups.

The stabilization of rosters at the All-Star break has meant that underdogs, or teams that aren't favored by enough, are now priced that way due to less quantifiable reasons, like public perception or short-term variance.

The cheat sheet

What follows is my fair price on the matchups (true moneyline) and the moneyline price I would need to bet either side. I just need a 1% edge for a favorite if we're getting better than a fair price on the team more likely to win. For the underdog, I'll need 4% or better to make it a bet. On games I've projected to be a near coin flip, a 2.5% edge is enough to make it a worthwhile wager. I also have a 5% win probability consideration for a side playing in the second game of a back-to-back with travel and 3% for without travel.

Matt Russell is a betting writer for theScore. If there's a bad beat to be had, Matt will find it. Find him on Twitter @mrussauthentic.

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Our best bets Wednesday were a mixed bag. We successfully played the under in Minnesota, but, despite a 1-1 scoreline after 40 minutes, the Dallas Stars and Carolina Hurricanes crushed our spirits with two goals apiece in the third period to guarantee a loss.

We'll hope for better with our best bets for the weekend.

Penguins (-120) @ Rangers (+100)
Mar 25, 7 p.m. EST

We were under heavy in Thursday's best bets, so it's only fitting we pick up where we left off to get the weekend started.

The Pittsburgh Penguins are playing very sound defensive hockey, sitting fifth in scoring chances allowed per game - and sixth in expected goals against - over their last 10 contests. They're not giving their opponents many opportunities, which is a recipe for success with how Tristan Jarry is playing.

He's appeared in 14 of Pittsburgh's last 20 games. In those contests, he posted a .929 five-on-five save percentage and .919 SV% overall - both rank significantly above league average. I don't see the New York Rangers scoring much in this game.

Although Igor Shesterkin has looked a little more human lately, he should be able to keep Pittsburgh's offense in check. He still leads the NHL in save percentage and goals saved above expected. He also held the Penguins to just one goal when the sides met late last month.

With both sides jockeying for positioning in the Metro Division standings, this game has significant playoff implications. I expect that to show. Look for a tight, lower-scoring affair.

Bet: Under 6 (-120)

Hurricanes (-124) @ Blues (+102)
Mar 26, 8 p.m. EST

The Hurricanes have long been a team that dictates the run of play at five-on-five. It's been their calling card for any and all success dating back to when their roster had less talent than it does now. Yet, they seem to be hitting a new level.

Carolina's share of the shot attempts sits above 61% over the last 10 games. It's not a quantity over quality thing either. The team looks just as good when it comes to expected goal share or high-danger chances, controlling better than 60% of each.

While the St. Louis Blues are a solid team, their biggest weakness is staying afloat in the chance department. They routinely give up more than they create and rely on finishing at a high rate to make up for it.

I'm not sure that's going to happen against this Carolina team. Not with Frederik Andersen (likely) in net. Only Shesterkin has posted better numbers than Andersen over this season, and the gap is nowhere close to as large as it once was.

The Hurricanes should have a big edge at five-on-five in this game. If Andersen starts against Jordan Binnington, that'll be the case in goal as well. Back Carolina to take care of business in St. Louis.

Bet: Hurricanes (-124)

Todd Cordell is a sports betting writer at theScore. Be sure to follow him on Twitter @ToddCordell.

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