Montreal Canadiens goaltender Carey Price released a statement Tuesday after rejoining the team following his voluntary participation in the NHL/NHLPA player assistance program.

"Over the last few years I have let myself get to a very dark place and I didn't have the tools to cope with that struggle. Last month I made the decision to enter a residential treatment facility for substance use," he said in an Instagram post. "Things had reached a point that I realized I needed to prioritize my health for both myself and for my family. Asking for help when you need it is what we encourage our kids to do, and it was what I needed to do.

"I am working through years of neglecting my own mental health which will take some time to repair; all I can do is take it day by day. With that comes some uncertainty with when I will return to play.

"I appreciate all of the overwhelming support and well wishes. I please ask that the media and our hockey community continue to respect our privacy at this time. Your support and respect of this so far has been a critical piece to my recovery."

Price missed all of training camp while recovering from offseason knee surgery and entered the player assistance program on Oct. 7.

Head coach Dominique Ducharme laid out the conditioning steps for Price's potential return earlier on Tuesday, according to TSN's John Lu.

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Ottawa Senators defenseman Nick Holden and associate coach Jack Capuano have joined forward Austin Watson in NHL's COVID-19 protocol, the team announced Sunday.

Watson has been in the protocol since Friday. Head coach D.J. Smith has confirmed the 29-year-old tested positive.

Holden has put up one point in 10 games this season while averaging 17:35 a game. Watson only suited up for two contests with the Senators after recovering from an ankle injury before being sidelined due to the protocol.

In a corresponding move, Ottawa recalled defenseman Erik Brannstrom from its AHL affiliate. Brannstrom has yet to play in an NHL game so far this campaign but has three points in nine games with the Belleville Senators.

Ottawa faces the Boston Bruins on Tuesday.

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The Edmonton Oilers retired Hall of Fame defenseman Kevin Lowe's No. 4 jersey prior to Friday's clash against the New York Rangers.

A six-time Stanley Cup champion and a major component of the Oilers' dynasty era, Lowe recorded 431 points over 1,254 career NHL games.

Lowe spent his first 13 seasons in Edmonton and won his first five Stanley Cup championships as an Oiler. He notoriously played through a broken wrist and broken ribs en route to Edmonton's Cup victory in 1988.

Lowe also played for the Rangers for four seasons and won his sixth Stanley Cup in the Big Apple. He returned to the Oilers for a second stint in 1996 and played one full campaign before retiring in 1998.

During the festivities, the Oilers also shared a tribute video for their first-ever draft pick.

After hanging up his skates, Lowe stuck around with Edmonton and has since served as an assistant coach, head coach, general manager, and president of hockey operations. He's currently the team's alternate governor.

The 62-year-old was inducted into the Hockey Hall of Fame in the Class of 2020. However, the ceremony was postponed until Nov. 15 of this year due to the pandemic.

Lowe is the eighth Oiler in franchise history to have his number retired.

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When the Buffalo Sabres selected Jack Eichel second overall in the 2015 draft, failing to finish outside of the bottom 10 in the league and missing the playoffs for six straight seasons couldn't have been what the team had in mind for the superstar's tenure.

It certainly isn't what the 25-year-old envisioned for himself or the fanbase.

"I can't say enough good things about the fans here. They love hockey, they deserve a winner. I feel bad that I wasn't able to contribute more to winning here, but they deserve it all," the former Sabres captain said in an interview with ESPN's John Buccigross. "I really, truly care a lot about the fans here in Buffalo."

Eichel's frustrating stint as the face of the Sabres came to a close on Thursday. He's headed to Sin City following a blockbuster trade with the Vegas Golden Knights.

The past couple months in Buffalo were especially contentious. Both sides were unable to agree on a type of surgery to repair the herniated disc in Eichel's neck, which has kept him sidelined since March, and rumors about the center's future began to swirl.

"It's been tough since I got hurt. It just seems like things haven't really went my way, and that's fine, people deal with adversity, and this is no different," he said. "It's definitely been a long process. ... Just a lot of drama that you don’t really want to deal with. I guess you just learn to.

"I'm just happy to be on the other side of it. I'm happy to be moving on."

The Golden Knights have announced Eichel will undergo artificial disc replacement surgery, which is his preferred procedure. The club estimates he will miss about three to five months.

"I really appreciate the Vegas Golden Knights organization for giving me the opportunity to move forward with what I want to do and just get back to playing hockey and doing what I love," Eichel said.

Eichel added that he's "not sure" if he would've stayed with the Sabres even if they did let him get his desired surgery.

"We obviously changed management in 2020. It just seemed like we were heading towards another, I don't want to say 'rebuild,' we weren't really in a position that we were going to try and go win," he said in an interview with Sportsnet's Elliotte Friedman.

"I went to the team and said I wasn't really happy with the idea of that, and if that's the route they wanted to take, that maybe it would be better to move me.

"Obviously, that didn't go over well. I'm a competitor, I want to win, we obviously hadn't won."

Eichel pointed to Taylor Hall's offseason addition in 2020 as a move that got him "excited" about the team again. However, Buffalo ultimately fell short once more during the 2020-21 campaign, which the star forward said was a "disaster" for him personally.

Vegas has struggled with injuries to start the year and currently holds a 4-5-0 record. The Golden Knights have made the playoffs in each of their first four seasons so far.

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Nathan MacKinnon called for the league to take action following Minnesota Wild rookie Brandon Duhaime's questionable hit on Colorado Avalanche defenseman Bowen Byram.

"I thought that that was a very dirty play. I think he should get suspended," he said following the Avalanche's 4-1 victory on Saturday, according to The Athletic's Peter Baugh.

The incident occurred just a few minutes into the final frame. Duhaime cross-checked Byram from behind and into the boards, and MacKinnon immediately took matters into his own hands, dropping gloves with the Minnesota forward. The skirmish only lasted a couple of seconds and both players received a two-minute minor for roughing.

Duhaime also got a five-minute major for cross-checking and a 10-minute misconduct.

"That's just Nate. He's not going to jump in for minor infractions," Avalanche head coach Jared Bednar said. "When he takes exception to something he deems dirty, he tends to get in there."

The Central Division rivals will meet again on Jan. 17 in Colorado.

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Seven San Jose Sharks players, along with head coach Bob Boughner, have been placed in COVID-19 protocol prior to their clash against the Winnipeg Jets, the team announced Saturday.

Defensemen Erik Karlsson, Jake Middleton, Radim Simek, and Marc-Edouard Vlasic as well as forwards Andrew Cogliano, Jonathan Dahlen, and Matt Nieto are all sidelined.

Captain Logan Couture is "under the weather" and won't be playing Saturday, but he isn't in COVID-19 protocol, according to Sportsnet's Elliotte Friedman.

With Boughner unavailable behind the bench, assistant coach John MacLean will take over for the time being.

The Sharks recalled a group of players from their AHL affiliate, including defensemen Nicolas Meloche, Ryan Merkley, and Jaycob Megna in addition to forwards Nick Merkley and John Leonard.

The start of the game was delayed 15 minutes to allow for the analysis of test results.

All players and staff within the Sharks organization have been fully vaccinated against COVID-19.

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After the Florida Panthers won their first game without Joel Quenneville on Friday night, interim head coach Andrew Brunette said he couldn't be more pleased with the effort he saw from his squad.

"Very emotional for our whole group. Really proud of the way they rallied under these difficult circumstances the last few days. Really proud of them," Brunette said postgame, according to Panthers beat writer Jameson Olive. "(Jonathan Huberdeau) made a great play, and (Aleksander Barkov) ... what a goal. A big win for us."

The Panthers dispatched the Detroit Red Wings in overtime thanks to a slick play from Huberdeau and Barkov to improve to 8-0-0 on the season.

Quenneville resigned as the Panthers' head coach Thursday due to his involvement in the Chicago Blackhawks' mishandling of sexual assault allegations in 2010, when Quenneville was Chicago's head coach.

"I think we're all so emotionally raw," Brunette said, per NHL.com's Mike Zeisberger. "Probably not going to go away right away."

Defenseman MacKenzie Weegar added that it was a "big one" for the undefeated Panthers.

"It’s been a tough 48 hours, it's been heavy on the team," he said. "It was a big win for our dressing room, and the coaching staff really stepped up."

The 3-2 win was Brunette's first victory as an NHL head coach.

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Jordan Binnington wasn't happy during Thursday's heated contest between the Colorado Avalanche and St. Louis Blues.

In his most recent on-ice outburst, the 28-year-old shot the puck at Avalanche netminder Darcy Kuemper and then swung his stick at center Nazem Kadri at the end of the second period.

Both Binnington and Kadri were assessed 10-minute misconducts, with forward Robert Bortuzzo serving the time for the Blues goaltender.

"(The stick-swinging was) kind of the heat of the moment," Binnington said Friday, according to Sportsnet. "I might have taken it a bit too far. I don't want to condone the stick-swinging.

"Having a guy sit in the box for 10 minutes isn't being a good teammate. I definitely don't want kids out there swinging their sticks. It's an emotional situation, emotions were high and it was a competitive game, and these are big games against a big team."

The incident began with 29 seconds left in the middle frame after Colorado blue-liner Cale Makar appeared to score a goal. However, it didn't count since the net was out of position. Blues defenseman Jake Walman then went after Avalanche forward Logan O’Connor along the boards and a scrum ensued.

"I don't condone it. It doesn't need to happen. Getting in the scrum was enough, I didn't need to do the stuff after. But stuff happens out there and you learn, and you keep moving forward," Binnington said.

He added: "No, I'm not crazy."

Kadri addressed the incident after the game on Thursday.

"I don't know why I got a 10-minute penalty there," he said, according to The Athletic's Peter Baugh. "We exchanged some words, I got a stick swung at my face ... I'm getting misconducts for just talking now."

The Avalanche won 4-3. The rivals don't meet again until April 26 in Colorado.

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As the ramifications from the Chicago Blackhawks sexual assault scandal continue to sweep the league, Boston Bruins forward Taylor Hall called for change.

"Every culture needs to keep getting better, and hockey is no different," Hall said Thursday after the Bruins' 3-0 loss to the Carolina Hurricanes. "This is a game that's, I guess, what you would call an old boys' club, and there's definitely some secrecy and things that need to change. Hopefully, they can."

Hall added: "You never want to think of an incident like this (having) positives coming from it because it's been so terrible, but there need to be changes and, unfortunately, people need to be held accountable."

An independent investigation found that Blackhawks executives were informed during a May 2010 meeting that former video coach Brad Aldrich acted in a sexually inappropriate way toward a player, later revealed to be Kyle Beach.

However, per the investigation, the franchise didn't act on that information until reporting it to human resources three weeks later, days after the team won the Stanley Cup.

In the aftermath of the investigation, general manager Stan Bowman and senior vice president of hockey operations Al MacIsaac, who were found to be present in the meeting, both stepped down from their positions with the Blackhawks.

Joel Quenneville, who was Chicago's bench boss from 2008-18 and who also attended the meeting, resigned as the Florida Panthers' head coach earlier Thursday night.

"Our hearts go out to Kyle Beach," Hall said. "We were playing junior at a similar time. It's just so unfortunate that he had to go through that. I think everyone, we were talking about it last night, everyone just feels terrible for him and hopes that he can get some solace (at) the end of this."

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Kyle Beach took time to thank fans for their support just one day after identifying himself as "John Doe," the former Chicago Blackhawks player who filed a lawsuit against the organization for mishandling his sexual assault allegations against former video coach Brad Aldrich.

"I have immense gratitude for the outpouring of endless love and support that has come through within the past 48 hours," he wrote in a statement on Twitter.

"Although the results of the private investigation have been released and the Blackhawks have apologized, my battle is really just beginning as the Blackhawks continue to attempt to destroy my case in court."

Chicago filed a motion on Tuesday asking for his lawsuit to be dismissed, but the franchise maintains the move was just about meeting court deadlines, according to TSN's Rick Westhead.

Blackhawks CEO Danny Wirtz said Tuesday that he directed the team's legal department to try to settle with Beach as well as a former Michigan high school player who also sued the organization.

Although he did not appear in a game, Beach was a member of Chicago's roster during the 2010 playoffs, which is when he alleges Aldrich sexually assaulted him. He brought his personal story to light after revealing his identity Wednesday during an incredibly emotional interview with Westhead.

Above all, the 31-year-old wants to advocate for a better way forward.

"This is not about me as an individual. This is to promote open communication that will facilitate change for the future," he concluded.

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