Calgary Flames forward Matthew Tkachuk suffered a concussion during the team's first-round series against the Dallas Stars, general manager Brad Treliving said on Monday, according to Postmedia's Wes Gilbertson.

The concussion forced the star out of the team's final four postseason games.

The 22-year-old left Game 2 of the series after getting sandwiched between two Dallas players. He managed one goal and one assist in six playoff games prior to his departure.

Treliving also said two other key players suffered significant injuries during the club's qualifying-round series against the Winnipeg Jets. Defenseman Rasmus Andersson played through a broken foot, and forward Sam Bennett played with a torn tricep muscle.

Bennett was a vital piece for the Flames during the postseason, racking up five goals and three assists over 10 games. Andersson was equally important, recording three goals and two assists in five contests while averaging 21:27 minutes of ice time.

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Philadelphia Flyers head coach Alain Vigneault expects an interesting second-round series against the New York Islanders.

"It’s going to be a greasy series," Vigneault said Sunday. "It’s going to be a lot of fun."

The Flyers squeezed past the Montreal Canadiens in the first round of the playoffs despite being outscored in the six-game span. Vigneault liked what he saw from his team, but believes they can elevate it to another level for the upcoming series.

"We were able to win that first round playing hard hockey, good hockey," Vigneault said, according to NHL.com's Adam Kimelman. "But when you analyze it, I do believe there's another level we can attain if our top-end guys execute the way that we've seen them execute throughout the year."

The Islanders and Flyers met three times during the regular season, with New York winning each game. The teams last met on Feb. 11, just before Philadelphia caught fire and went on a 10-2-0 run that was halted when the season paused on March 12.

Islanders head coach Barry Trotz thinks his team has figured out the recipe for success in playoff hockey after decimating the Washington Capitals in the first round.

"I think our 5-on-5 play, you can say (has) confidence, I think we just trust it," Trotz said. "We know what works for us. I think we understand how you win in the playoffs. We've basically gotten through two rounds right now from a mental and physical standpoint that it's sort of ingrained in your DNA of what you need to do and how you have to play."

The first game of the series is Monday at 7 p.m. ET.

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Colorado Avalanche goaltender Philipp Grubauer left Game 1 against the Dallas Stars on Saturday with an apparent groin injury after stretching out to make a save in the second period.

Avalanche head coach Jared Bednar said postgame that "time will tell" how long Grubauer will be out, according to The Athletic's Ryan S. Clark. Bednar added that he doesn't expect Grubauer to be on the ice Sunday, and Pavel Francouz is the team's starting goalie for now.

Grubauer seemed to tweak something, and he grabbed his groin area before going down to the ice. He was then helped off without putting pressure on his leg.

Francouz stepped in to replace Grubauer. He's appeared in two games for Colorado this postseason, winning one and losing the other, and posting a .958 save percentage and 1.02 goals-against average.

Grubauer missed a number of games this season due to undisclosed lower-body injuries.

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The Vancouver Canucks eliminated the defending Stanley Cup champion St. Louis Blues from the playoffs with a 6-2 victory in Game 6 of their series on Friday.

Vancouver came ready to play in Game 6, with Jay Beagle taking advantage of a turnover early in the first period to put the Canucks ahead.

Antoine Roussel then managed to beat Blues goaltender Jordan Binnington just two minutes into the second frame to extend the lead. Things quickly took a turn for the worst for St. Louis when Vancouver potted goals from Troy Stecher and Brock Boeser. St. Louis then opted to pull Binnington in favor of Jake Allen, who started the last three games of the series.

Vancouver entered the third period with a large 4-0 cushion. Blues forward Jaden Schwartz netted two goals in the final minutes of the game, but the Canucks hung on for the win.

Vancouver goalie Jacob Markstrom stopped 32 of the 34 shots he faced, while Binnington allowed four goals on 18 shots, and Allen gave up one goal on six shots.

Vancouver will now take on the top-seeded Vegas Golden Knights in Round 2.

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The Philadelphia Flyers eliminated the Montreal Canadiens from the postseason with a narrow 3-2 victory in Game 6 on Friday.

The top-seeded Flyers will now take on the No. 6 New York Islanders in the second round.

More to come.

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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.

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The NHL's bubbles maintained their clean slates for the third straight week of hockey's return-to-play plan.

No positive results for COVID-19 were recorded from the 5,640 tests administered from Aug. 9-15, the league announced Monday.

Since players and staff entered the bubble in late July, zero positive tests have been recorded. The league has been testing players and staff daily in both the Toronto and Edmonton bubbles.

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Forward Chris Wagner and the rest of the Boston Bruins are in full support of Tuukka Rask's decision to opt out of the NHL playoffs.

"My initial reaction to people that bash Tuukka is that they don't know what we're going through and we don't know what those people are going through," Wagner said, according to NBC Sports Boston's Joe Haggerty.

He continued, "They don't know what we're missing. I don’t have kids, so I can't speak for Tuukka like that. But I'm sure that is a whole other level of missing somebody and wanting to be there for your kid if they're missing you and struggling. I think Tuukka tried to power through that, but there are some things that he felt like he needed to sort out."

Rask opted out Saturday and left the bubble in Toronto midway through his team's first-round series versus the Carolina Hurricanes. The 33-year-old explained that while he wanted to remain with his teammates, being with his family was more important.

He was named a Vezina Trophy finalist for his performance during the 2019-20 regular season but struggled to perform at his usual elite level during the round robin and beginning of Round 1. Rask went 1-3-0 in four games, with a .904 save percentage and 2.57 goals-against average.

Wagner understands that Rask's decision wasn't one he took lightly and that family should always be the No. 1 priority.

"I definitely think it was probably a difficult decision for him," Wagner added. "I think he wants to be here. He wants to win just like all of us, but at the same time - as guys have been reiterating - family is the most important thing. Even if it is a job and it is playing hockey, family comes before everything, and Tuukka felt like he needed to be home. We all support that decision."

The Bruins lead the Hurricanes 2-1 in their series, with Game 4 scheduled for 8 p.m. on Monday.

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Pittsburgh Penguins forward Evgeni Malkin underwent left elbow surgery and is expected to recover in three-to-four weeks, the team announced Monday.

Malkin drew some criticism after the Penguins collapsed in the qualifying round earlier in August versus the Montreal Canadiens. He collected just one assist but managed 21 shots on goal in four games.

The 34-year-old missed 14 games during the 2019-20 regular season, 11 of them due to a knee injury he suffered early in the campaign.

Malkin was dominant during the regular season when he was in the lineup, amassing 25 goals and 74 points in 55 games.

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Connor McDavid knows at least one area that the Edmonton Oilers must improve on this offseason.

"Teams that win are the teams that defend," McDavid said Friday, according to The Athletic's Daniel Nugent-Bowman. "We haven't figured that out yet."

After a promising regular season in which the Oilers finished with the fifth-best record in the Western Conference, Edmonton was unable to advance past the 12th-seeded Chicago Blackhawks in the qualifying round.

McDavid and teammate Leon Draisaitl, who finished first and second in the league in regular-season points, respectively, were on the ice for six goals for and five goals against at even strength during the qualifying series.

Edmonton finished the regular season with the 14th-best goal differential in the league at plus-8. Only Kailer Yamamoto, Ryan Nugent-Hopkins, and Matt Benning managed a positive plus-minus rating.

Defenseman Darnell Nurse insisted the team as a whole has to improve next season.

"Everyone is pissed off about it," Nurse said, according to Sportsnet's Mark Spector. "You can beat yourself over the head with it for weeks. Is that going to bring you back in a better mind frame?"

He added, "There's a taste in everyone's mouth that no one likes. We've had it four out of five years here. We need to be better."

Despite a promising leap during the regular season, the Oilers have now failed to reach the round of 16 for the 13th time in their last 14 campaigns. They last made the playoffs in 2017, where they were eliminated in the second round.

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