Both the Colorado Avalanche and Dallas Stars are shaking things up in goal for Game 5 on Monday night.

Michael Hutchinson will start for the Avs with their season on the line, while Ben Bishop will return to the crease for the first time since Game 2 of Dallas' first-round series versus the Calgary Flames.

Hutchinson relieved Pavel Francouz - who was deemed unfit to play Monday - in Game 4 but hasn't started a game since March 2. Hunter Miska will serve as the backup.

Colorado's usual starter, Philipp Grubauer, was injured in Game 1 versus the Stars and has no timeline on a potential return.

Hutchinson began his 2019-20 season with the Toronto Maple Leafs, posting an .888 save percentage in 16 appearances. He got a win in his only start after joining the Avalanche at the trade deadline, and Game 5 will be his first-ever playoff start.

Dallas holds a 3-1 series lead and can advance to the Western Conference Final for the first time since 2007-08 with a victory.

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Tampa Bay Lightning superstar Nikita Kucherov didn't come out for the third period of Monday's Game 5 versus the Boston Bruins.

Kucherov was high-sticked by Zdeno Chara in the opening frame.

The Lightning winger left the game after Chara's four-minute penalty and briefly returned only to exit again late in the second period.

Kucherov has been the driving force of Tampa Bay's offense so far in the postseason, recording 16 points in 12 contests entering Monday's pivotal contest.

The Lightning can ill afford an absence of any sort for Kucherov, as the club is already without captain Steven Stamkos.

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The Florida Panthers interviewed St. Louis Blues assistant general manager Bill Armstrong twice for their GM vacancy, sources told The Athletic's Jeremy Rutherford.

Armstrong has also served as St. Louis' director of amateur scouting since 2010-11. He's not related to Blues GM Doug Armstrong.

The Blues have made some astute draft selections over the last decade despite never owning a top-10 pick. Among the best are Jaden Schwartz (14th overall) and Vladimir Tarasenko (16th) in 2010, Jordan Binnington (88th, 2011), Colton Parayko (86th, 2012), Sammy Blais (176th, 2014), Vince Dunn (56th, 2015), and Robert Thomas (20th, 2017).

Rutherford notes Florida has considered numerous candidates for the position, including Scott Mellanby, Chris MacFarland, Mike Futa, Laurence Gilman, Bill Zito, Ron Hextall, Eddie Olczyk, Kevin Weekes, and Sean Burke.

The Panthers fired Dale Tallon as their GM on Aug. 10 after the club's qualifying-round loss to the New York Islanders. Tallon is under investigation for potentially using a racial slur while with the team in the Toronto bubble.

Florida has made the playoffs just twice in the last 19 seasons.

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Tampa Bay Lightning defenseman Ryan McDonagh is in the lineup for Game 5 against the Boston Bruins after missing three contests with an undisclosed injury, the team announced.

The Lightning opted to go with seven defensemen in the contest.

McDonagh recorded 12 regular-season points in 50 games, and he's added three assists in nine playoff matchups. He leads all Lightning players in average postseason time on ice, and only Victor Hedman averaged more regular-season minutes.

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Boston Bruins head coach Bruce Cassidy believes goaltender Tuukka Rask's sudden departure from the Toronto bubble has played a role in his club's slump midway through the Stanley Cup Playoffs.

Rask opted out of the postseason on Aug. 15 to tend to a family emergency, with backup Jaroslav Halak starting each game since.

"Listen, we've said it before: We support Tuukka's decision 100%," Cassidy said Monday, according to Stephen Whyno of The Associated Press.

He added: "It does affect you mentally and it affects how you sort of construct your lineup when you had those back-to-backs."

Rask played in the round robin and two games during Boston's first-round series versus the Carolina Hurricanes. Halak has posted a 4-3 record with a .906 save percentage in the seven games since, and the Bruins face a 3-1 series deficit against the Tampa Bay Lightning with Game 5 scheduled for Monday night.

Dan Vladar made his NHL debut in relief of Halak during a blowout loss in Game 4. Cassidy said the Bruins didn't expect to be dealing with such uncertainty between the pipes when they entered the postseason.

"It's a tough spot for him to go in," Cassidy said. "We saw that when he had to go in in the middle of a game. Then the mental part of it as a group, yeah, you get down. Do you believe you have all the pieces to win? You'd have to ask the players that. I always do."

The Bruins were the NHL's No. 1 team in the regular season with Rask and Halak splitting starting duties.

Rask has made 93 career postseason starts, owning a 51-42 record and a dominant .926 save percentage.

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The NHL has maintained a clean slate in each bubble for the sixth consecutive week.

The league recorded zero positive COVID-19 tests among the 2,814 administered from Aug. 23 to 29.

As per NHL protocol, the league completed daily testing for players and every other member of the teams' 52-person traveling groups.

The second round of the postseason could conclude as early as Tuesday, at which point the two remaining Eastern Conference clubs will join the two surviving teams out west in the Edmonton bubble for the remainder of the playoffs.

The NHL's streak of zero positive tests includes the week leading up to the restart when teams arrived at their respective hub cities.

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The New York Rangers have added longtime NHL bench boss Jacques Martin to their staff as an assistant coach, the team announced Monday.

Martin, 67, replaces Lindy Ruff, who was hired as head coach of the New Jersey Devils in July.

The Ontario native has been with the Pittsburgh Penguins since 2013, serving as an assistant coach with the club over parts of the last five seasons. He helped Pittsburgh capture the Stanley Cup in both 2016 and 2017.

Pittsburgh parted ways with Martin and fellow assistants Mark Recchi and Sergei Gonchar after the club's qualifying-round loss to the Montreal Canadiens earlier this month.

Martin began his NHL coaching career as the St. Louis Blues' bench boss in 1986-87. He has since served as head coach for the Ottawa Senators (1995-2004), Florida Panthers (2006-08), and Canadiens (2010-12). Martin earned the Jack Adams Award as the league's top coach in 1998-99.

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Find line reports, best bets, and subscribe to push notifications in the Betting News section.

Another 2-0 day on Sunday closed out a perfect 4-0 weekend as we cruise toward the end of Round 2. Those series bets are looking quite nice, as well.

Let's never lose again.

Boston Bruins (-105) @ Tampa Bay Lightning (-125)

You imagine a team as experienced as the Bruins will come out swinging when backed into a corner. But, they've provided little evidence to suggest that will be the case here. This veteran bunch has been thoroughly outplayed since the second period of Game 1 and, on the brink of elimination in Game 5, they look cooked.

As good as Boston's top line is, it's asking a lot for them to shoulder this large of a burden. The Lightning's depth has overwhelmed the Bruins, who have been deprived of secondary scoring as a result. Brad Marchand and David Pastrnak have scored five of their team's eight goals in the series, and four of those eight have come on the power play. Scoring just four five-on-five goals through four games isn't a recipe for winning a series.

The Lightning have been better in every aspect of this series, one which they are good value to finish off Monday night. Boston won Game 1 when these teams met in the 2018 playoffs before losing four straight, and all signs point to history repeating itself tonight.

Pick: Lightning (-125)

Dallas Stars (+115) @ Colorado Avalanche (-135)

We cashed together on the Stars (+115) if you tailed yesterday, but I'm flipping the script Monday night. Dallas was coming off its best contest of the series in Game 3, and now the same can be argued regarding the Avalanche in Game 4 despite losing.

It was the first time in this series the Avs truly had the better play at five-on-five, controlling an almost unbelievable 68.99% of the expected goal share and generating 14 high-danger scoring chances to Dallas' six. Colorado couldn't stay out of the box and its penalty kill struggled, allowing the Stars to strike three times on the power play.

That wasn't the only issue for the Avalanche in a truly strange game. Cale Makar's error gifted the Stars the winning goal, but most detrimental was the Avs' awful start as they fell into a 3-0 hole after about 10 minutes. With their playoff lives hanging in the balance, expect a much different showing from the Avalanche right out of the gate to extend this series to a sixth game.

Pick: Avalanche (-135)

(Odds source: theScore Bet)

Alex Moretto is a sports betting writer for theScore. A journalism graduate from Guelph-Humber University, he has worked in sports media for over a decade. He will bet on anything from the Super Bowl to amateur soccer, is too impatient for futures, and will never trust a kicker. Find him on Twitter @alexjmoretto.

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