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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The NHL denounced NBC hockey analyst Mike Milbury's comment during a broadcast Thursday when he suggested women would be a distraction for players in the bubble.

"The National Hockey League condemns the insensitive and insulting comment that Mike Milbury made during (Thursday) night's broadcast and we have communicated our feelings to NBC," the league said in a statement Friday. "The comment did not reflect the NHL's values and commitment to making our game more inclusive and welcoming to all."

Milbury is the second NBC hockey analyst to make inappropriate remarks about women this season. The network suspended Jeremy Roenick indefinitely without pay in December after the former NHL forward made comments of a sexual nature about then-co-worker Kathryn Tappen.

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The Round 1 series between the Philadelphia Flyers and Montreal Canadiens has become as heated off the ice as it is on it.

The teams' current off-ice spat began Thursday when Flyers head coach Alain Vigneault downplayed the injury Brendan Gallagher suffered - which was later diagnosed as a broken jaw - after Matt Niskanen cross-checked him during Game 5.

"In my estimation, Gallagher got up and seemed fine, he was talking to the referees, the whole time that he was on the bench he was talking to our players for the rest of the game," Vigneault said, according to The Athletic's Arpon Basu.

"Gallagher's a very competitive player, but I don't think it's Nisky's fault he might not be as tall as the other guys, but he competes as big if not bigger than anybody else," Vigneault continued. "It just seemed (like) a hockey play that unfortunately cut him a little bit."

Niskanen later received a one-game suspension for the incident while Gallagher was ruled out for the remainder of the series. Canadiens general manager Marc Bergevin didn't like how Vigneault downplayed Gallagher's injury before knowing the severity of the ailment.

"I was expecting more and I was extremely disappointed that AV would make a comment about a player's injuries without knowing the extent of it," Bergevin said Friday, per Sportsnet's Eric Engels. "Brendan Gallagher will be missing an extended period of time and will be eating his meals out of a straw, and I don't wish that on anybody, and that includes the Flyers' players."

If the Canadiens win Game 6 to force a Game 7, Niskanen will be back in the lineup for the winner-take-all tilt. Gallagher, meanwhile, may have surgery Friday and will be "out a while," Bergevin added.

"The authority of the NHL has made their decision and we'll live with it. We'll respect the decision," Bergevin said. "It's unfortunate that our player, Brendan, is going to miss an undetermined amount of time while their player will miss one game. I don't have more comments on it."

As part of the NHL's explanation for why the suspension is not more than one game, the league said, "the sudden and significant movement by Gallagher contributes to the fact that this blow lands on his head, rather than somewhere else on his body."

Bergevin was not a fan of that assessment.

"We agreed to disagree," he said, according to Basu.

Game 6 is set for Friday at 7 p.m. ET.

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

Thursday was a 1-1 night for us, but it felt a lot bigger as we cashed in a couple big series bets on the Dallas Stars.

Round 1 of the NHL playoffs is winding down, so let's finish strong.

Philadelphia Flyers (-140) @ Montreal Canadiens (+110)

The only real difference between Game 2 and Game 5 of this series was Jesperi Kotkaniemi's major penalty. Instead of a 5-0 win, the Canadiens settled for 5-3, with the Flyers scoring three times on the power play (twice on Kotkaniemi's major). But, in reality, it was yet another game in which Philadelphia was clearly second-best, failing to generate anything at five-on-five.

The Flyers came out flat after a Game 1 win, and then again in Game 5 with a 3-1 stranglehold on the series. However, they responded appropriately to a Game 2 battering and will do the same here.

Montreal will find it tough to match the intensity it carried throughout Game 5, especially without Brendan Gallagher. He's a nightmare for the opposing team - even when he's not playing well - with his relentlessness on the puck and Pitbull mentality on the forecheck. This group is a lot easier to face without him.

The Habs aren't especially great at finishing their chances, and now they have to produce without their leading scorer against Carter Hart, who is as mentally tough as a 22-year-old goaltender can be - he responded to being pulled in Game 2 with back-to-back shutouts. The Canadiens are 2-12 this season when scoring five or more goals in their previous game, and unlucky No. 13 will be the one that ends their campaign.

Pick: Flyers (-140)

St. Louis Blues (-135) @ Vancouver Canucks (+115)

This is an incredibly tough series to cap. You can exhaust yourself by examining data and combing through the numbers, but there are so many variables that can undo all that work. Motivation is a big one - the Blues have looked deprived of it at times - and Jacob Markstrom is another. He's stolen a couple of games already in this series, just as he did against the Minnesota Wild.

The Blues were outstanding in their two "road" contests this series and should come out swinging in Game 6 with their backs against the wall, as they did in Game 3 and 4 after going down 2-0.

However, there's just something about this series - be it the bubble, a Cup hangover, or a hungry Canucks team - that scares me off the Blues at this price. Markstrom is in sensational form, Elias Pettersson deserves more recognition as one of the best players in the league, Bo Horvat is playing like a man against boys, and Vancouver is getting the sort of depth scoring it wasn't for most of the season. I can't pass up the Canucks at this price and will be on them again in Game 7 if they lose here.

Pick: Canucks (+115)

(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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