Philadelphia Flyers forward Oskar Lindblom has been diagnosed with Ewing's sarcoma and is not expected to return for the remainder of the season, the team announced Friday.

Ewing's sarcoma is a rare type of cancer that occurs in the bones or the surrounding soft tissue. Lindblom will undergo further testing and evaluation next week and begin treatment immediately after.

The 23-year-old winger was enjoying a career season in his third year with the Flyers. Lindblom has contributed 18 points and is tied for the team lead with 11 goals through 30 games.

Selected by Philadelphia in the fifth round of the 2014 NHL Draft, Lindblom has amassed 30 goals and 57 points over 134 contests.

Copyright © 2019 Score Media Ventures Inc. All rights reserved. Certain content reproduced under license.

Colorado Avalanche defenseman Cale Makar left Saturday's contest after taking a hard hit from Boston Bruins forward Brad Marchand.

The play occurred just under four minutes into the third period as the rookie phenom went to retrieve the puck behind his net.

Makar has already established himself as one of the league's elite blue-liners with a sensational rookie campaign to date. The 21-year-old entered Saturday's action leading all first-year players - and tied for second among NHL defensemen - with 28 points in 29 contests.

Avalanche goaltender Philipp Grubauer also left the contest in the first period and did not return.

Head coach Jared Bednar did not provide an update on either Makar or Grubauer following the game, according to The Athletic's Ryan Clark.

The Avalanche won the game 4-1 to hand Boston its first regulation loss at home this season.

Copyright © 2019 Score Media Ventures Inc. All rights reserved. Certain content reproduced under license.

The Colorado Avalanche are apparently making a serious run at acquiring New Jersey Devils star Taylor Hall.

"The feeling in the industry is that the Avalanche are the favorites right now, pushing to try and get Taylor Hall perhaps as soon as the Christmas break, which starts Dec. 19," Sportsnet's Chris Johnston reported on the latest edition of "Saturday Headlines."

Hall is in the final year of his current deal, which carries an average annual value of $6 million. The 28-year-old is set to become an unrestricted free agent in July, and Devils general manager Ray Shero is reportedly listening to offers amid the team's struggles this season.

The Avalanche own the fourth-lowest cap hit this season with $5.98 million in projected space. Colorado also possesses a talented prospect pool that includes defensemen Bowen Byram and Conor Timmins, along with forwards Alex Newhook, Martin Kaut, and Vladislav Kamenev.

The Arizona Coyotes are another team reported to be interested in acquiring the Devils' star winger.

Hall entered Saturday's action leading all Devils with 23 points in 28 games. The Alberta native tallied a career-high 93-point season in 2017-18 to become the first player in franchise history to capture the Hart Trophy.

Copyright © 2019 Score Media Ventures Inc. All rights reserved. Certain content reproduced under license.

Montreal Canadiens head coach Claude Julien didn't hide his displeasure with Colorado Avalanche defenseman Nikita Zadorov following Thursday's contest.

Zadorov caught Canadiens forward Jesperi Kotkaniemi with a heavy hit that forced the Finn from the game after just 47 seconds. The collision caused Kotkaniemi to flip and land awkwardly on his head.

"(Zadorov's) leg went up and he used his upper body to flip him, and to me, that's a dirty hit," Julien said, according to Sportsnet.

"I don't know how the league is going to see it, that's up to them to look at it. But when I talk to our people, to upper management and all that stuff, we seem to think that's definitely a suspendable move on his part ... it's a dangerous play.

Julien also confirmed Kotkaniemi will not travel with the Canadiens when they visit the New York Rangers on Friday.

Kotkaniemi has already lost seven games to injury this season and has struggled to find his offensive touch. The 19-year-old has accrued just three goals and five points through 22 contests after a 34-point rookie campaign in 2018-19.

Copyright © 2019 Score Media Ventures Inc. All rights reserved. Certain content reproduced under license.

The Arizona Coyotes are definitely interested in trading for New Jersey Devils star Taylor Hall, TSN's Darren Dreger reported on Thursday's edition of "Insider Trading."

Hall, 28, is in the final year of his current deal, which carries an annual cap hit of $6 million. He's scheduled to become an unrestricted free agent in July, and Devils GM Ray Shero is reportedly listening to potential offers for the blue-chip winger.

The Devils entered the 2019-20 campaign with high expectations after being one of the most aggressive teams in the offseason. But New Jersey has stumbled to a 9-14-4 record through 27 contests and sits second-last in the NHL entering Thursday's action.

Arizona, on the other hand, has enjoyed a strong start to the season as it looks to end a seven-year playoff drought. The Coyotes have been one of the league's best defensive teams but rank 23rd in goals-per-game and could use an offensive boost.

Coyotes general manager John Chayka added perennial goal-scorer Phil Kessel in a deal with the Pittsburgh Penguins in July, and his apparent interest in Hall seems to indicate Arizona is all-in on this season; the Coyotes are currently projected by CapFriendly to have just $785,000 in cap space for 2020-21 - the first season of Hall's next contract.

Hall captured the 2018 Hart Trophy as league MVP with a career-best 93-point campaign. The Alberta native leads the Devils with 22 points this season but has mustered just four goals in 27 games.

Copyright © 2019 Score Media Ventures Inc. All rights reserved. Certain content reproduced under license.

Auston Matthews didn't mince words when assessing the Toronto Maple Leafs' late-game effort in Tuesday's 6-1 loss to the Philadelphia Flyers.

"We just folded, kind of just quit," Matthews said postgame, according to TSN's Mark Masters.

Matthews added, "We can't be doing that, not to a guy like (Frederik Andersen), not to our starting goalie. Have to have a little more pride than that."

The Leafs allowed five third-period goals, with four coming in the final 3:28. The Flyers scored an empty-netter to extend their lead to 4-1 then, with Andersen back, added two more just 12 seconds apart to complete the blowout.

"We have to play to that last minute, because that's just unacceptable," Matthews said. "We just left him out to dry ... suddenly the score's 6-1 so that's on us. That just can't happen."

It was the Maple Leafs' worst showing under new head coach Sheldon Keefe, who denounced the way his team closed out the contest.

"Our response, our reaction after giving up the empty-net goal is not what we want to be about," Keefe said, per Masters.

"We want to be a team of high character and (a group) that cares for one another and we just left our goaltender completely out to dry there and stopped playing," Keefe added.

Toronto will look to bounce back Wednesday when they host Nazem Kadri and the Colorado Avalanche.

Copyright © 2019 Score Media Ventures Inc. All rights reserved. Certain content reproduced under license.

New Jersey Devils general manager Ray Shero has seen enough.

After the 57-year-old executive fired head coach John Hynes on Tuesday following Monday's embarrassing 7-1 loss to the Buffalo Sabres, he ripped into his players for their role in the club's 9-13-4 start.

"The Ranger game was disconcerting as well, but the Buffalo (loss), I'm not even sure how to explain that one," Shero said.

"We can't make a 5-foot pass," he added.

The Devils have failed to meet expectations after a busy offseason, during which they added forwards Nikita Gusev and 2019 first overall pick Jack Hughes along with All-Star defenseman P.K. Subban.

"Collectively ... I don't think there's any one player that is performing even at the level, let alone above, that we'd expect or maybe they'd expect and that's the thing that's disappointing," Shero said.

When asked about the slow start form star winger Taylor Hall, who has been mentioned in reported trade rumors, Shero reiterated he expects more out of everyone.

"It's not even one particular player, it's almost everybody, and that's the frustrating and confounding thing for both the players and us," he added.

Assistant Alain Nasreddine was named interim head coach following Hynes' dismissal.

Copyright © 2019 Score Media Ventures Inc. All rights reserved. Certain content reproduced under license.

Chicago Blackhawks head coach Jeremy Colliton confirmed Tuesday that defenseman Duncan Keith will be sidelined for at least two more games, according to team insider Carter Baum.

Keith, 36, suffered a groin injury Nov. 29 against the Colorado Avalanche and has missed the club's last two contests.

The two-time Norris Trophy winner has declined offensively but remains the Blackhawks' most steady fixture on the blue line. Keith has logged a team-high 23:51 of ice time per game and ranks second on the club with 44 blocked shots through 25 outings this season.

Keith joins a few other key pieces on the injury list, as forwards Dylan Strome, Drake Caggiula, and Andrew Shaw are all in concussion protocol.

The Blackhawks have lost six of their last seven games and travel to Boston for a matchup with the league-leading Bruins on Thursday.

Copyright © 2019 Score Media Ventures Inc. All rights reserved. Certain content reproduced under license.

The Vegas Golden Knights will be acquiring forward Chandler Stephenson in a trade with the Washington Capitals, according to Sportsnet's Elliotte Friedman.

More to come.

Copyright © 2019 Score Media Ventures Inc. All rights reserved. Certain content reproduced under license.

Former Detroit Red Wings forward Johan Franzen told Swedish publication Expressen on Monday that ex-Toronto Maple Leafs head coach Mike Babcock is "the worst person I have ever met," as translated by the outlet.

On a recent episode of the Spittin Chiclets podcast, Franzen's former teammate Chris Chelios said Babcock "verbally assaulted" Franzen during the 2012 playoffs while serving as bench boss in Detroit, causing him to have a "nervous breakdown."

"I get the shivers when I think about it," Franzen said. "That incident occurred against Nashville in the playoffs. It was coarse, nasty, and shocking. But that was just one out of a hundred things he did. The tip of the iceberg.

"He would lay into a couple of the other players. The nice team players, the guys who don't say very much. When they left the team he went on to focus on me. It was verbal attacks, he said horrible things."

Franzen admitted that as a coach, Babcock was "meticulous and well prepared" but said "he's a terrible person, the worst I've ever met. He's a bully who was attacking people."

The Swedish winger claims Babcocks' tirades began one year prior to the event in Nashville and got so bad he struggled to get out of bed.

"From 2011 on, I was terrified of being at the rink," Franzen said. "That’s when he got on me the first time. I just focused on getting out of bed every morning from that moment. Last year I could sleep naturally for the first time since then.

"It was just his attacks, playing in my head. Each and every day."

Babcock was fired by the Maple Leafs on Nov. 20. Just days after his removal, it was revealed that in 2016, the former bench boss made then-rookie forward Mitch Marner rank his teammates by work ethic before showing the list to the players on it.

Copyright © 2019 Score Media Ventures Inc. All rights reserved. Certain content reproduced under license.