ST. LOUIS - St. Louis Blues coach Ken Hitchcock will decide on the status of his injured players after the pre-game skate before Game 5 of the Western Conference finals against the San Jose Sharks on Monday night.

Captain David Backes and rookie Robby Fabbri, both forwards, were injured in Game 4. Backes missed the final two periods and Fabbri had just two shifts in the third period of a 6-3 victory that knotted the series at 2-2.

Hitchcock said he'll have the same number of players dressed for the warmup as in Game 4, when he had two extra forwards and one extra defenseman on the ice.

Sharks coach Peter DeBoer indicated he'd have no lineup changes.

Copyright © 2016 Score Media Ventures Inc. All rights reserved. Certain content reproduced under license.

ST. LOUIS - St. Louis Blues coach Ken Hitchcock will decide on the status of injured players after the pre-game skate before Game 5 of the Western Conference finals against the San Jose Sharks on Monday night. Captain David Backes and rookie ...

Bruce Boudreau is hiring.

The Minnesota Wild have informed longtime assistants Rick Wilson and Darryl Sydor that they won't be retained to serve on Boudreau's staff next season, Michael Russo of the Minneapolis Star-Tribune reports.

Russo notes that it's unclear whether Wilson or Sydor will be reassigned within the organization.

Elsewhere, Andrew Brunette is expected to shift from the bench to a position in hockey operations, while coaches Darby Hendrickson and Bob Mason have renewed their contracts.

Boudreau signed a reported four-year contract to coach the Wild less than two weeks after being fired from his post with the Anaheim Ducks, whom he guided to a fourth straight division title.

Copyright © 2016 Score Media Ventures Inc. All rights reserved. Certain content reproduced under license.

Evgeni Malkin and Kris Letang are following Patric Hornqvist into the foxhole.

After sleeping on their Game 5 letdown, a loss that prompted Hornqvist to all but guarantee a win in Tampa Bay in their elimination Game 6, the Pittsburgh Penguins stars shared a similar sentiment.

"I believe in my team. I believe in myself. We're coming back to Pittsburgh for sure," Malkin said Monday, according to NHL.com's Dan Rosen.

Letang, meanwhile, suggested that the Penguins know "the recipe" to beat the Lightning. Mind you, this was just a few hours after Letang was on the ice for all four Lightning goals.

That blueprint may or may not include turning back to rookie goaltender Matt Murray. Head coach Mike Sullivan will announce his decision between the 21-year-old and veteran Marc-Andre Fleury, who took the loss Sunday in his first start in seven weeks, Tuesday in advance of Game 6.

Copyright © 2016 Score Media Ventures Inc. All rights reserved. Certain content reproduced under license.

The Pittsburgh Penguins are making the hockey world hold its breath on their Game 6 starter.

Mike Sullivan said Monday that the decision between goaltenders Marc-Andre Fleury and Matt Murray will be announced Tuesday.

The coach continued on about his "imperfect" situation in net, saying, "We wish the circumstances were different, but they're not."

Fleury gave the Penguins a chance to win, but also showed rust in his first start in more than seven weeks in Sunday's 4-3 loss in Game 5. His performance, however, did not keep up to the standard Murray has maintained throughout his run in goal since Game 3 of the first round.

The 21-year-old Murray secured nine wins on a .923 save percentage in 13 playoff starts before being lifted for the veteran.

Copyright © 2016 Score Media Ventures Inc. All rights reserved. Certain content reproduced under license.

John Brophy, former head coach of the Toronto Maple Leafs, died Monday morning at 83.

A legend in his native Nova Scotia and known for his passionate, often over-bearing leadership style, Brophy accrued 1,027 coaching wins over the course of his career - a total second only to Scotty Bowman.

Brophy's time in the NHL was limited to two-plus seasons behind the bench of the Maple Leafs in the late 1980s, his playing and coaching accolades having been primarily achieved in the East Coast Hockey League.

He was inducted into the ECHL Hall of Fame in 2009.

Copyright © 2016 Score Media Ventures Inc. All rights reserved. Certain content reproduced under license.

MOSCOW - Connor McDavid's first goal of the world hockey championship proved to be golden. The defence and goaltending took care of the rest. McDavid's goal in the first period stood as the winner, backing a 16-save shutout from Cam Talbot as...

The Florida Panthers have made a change at the draft table.

On the heels of a complete restructuring of the front office, the Panthers have fired longtime director of scouting and player personnel Scott Luce - a scout that's received plaudits for his work in recent seasons.

Newly-appointed general manager Tome Rowe told George Richards of the Miami Herald that simply, "we wanted a different voice."

Luce prepared the selections of Aaron Ekblad, Aleksander Barkov, Jonathan Huberdeau, and Erik Gudbranson in the lottery position over the last several years, but his finest work may be overseeing the selections of Nick Bjugstad 19th overall in 2010, and Vincent Trocheck 64th overall a year later.

Pundits expect Luce to be in demand.

Copyright © 2016 Score Media Ventures Inc. All rights reserved. Certain content reproduced under license.

The opponent has "quiet calm;" Patric Hornqvist has stern conviction.

After the Pittsburgh Penguins lost consecutive games for the first time since mid-January - a letdown that has them within a loss of elimination with the Stanley Cup Final nearly within reach - Hornqvist is confident his club won't suffer a third.

"We're in a tough position," Hornqvist said after Sunday's loss in Game 5 to the Tampa Bay Lightning, per Sportnet's Chris Johnston, "but there's no doubt in my mind we're going to come back (to Pittsburgh) for a Game 7."

There's been virtually no margin for error in the Eastern Conference final, as Tyler Johnson's off-the-rear end overtime winner is the only thing that separates the two teams in the series and the aggregated scoreboard.

But Hornqvist's rallying cry might be required on an emotional level, as the Penguins dominated the run of play throughout the series until the teams' overall performances seemed to level out in Game 5.

Copyright © 2016 Score Media Ventures Inc. All rights reserved. Certain content reproduced under license.

Before attrition sets in, beginning to work against teams taxed well into spring, accumulated know-how specific to the Stanley Cup Playoffs is often the difference against an opponent still on its way up the ladder.

This is true for experienced entities missing their captain or starting goalie; or who played catch-up against the hottest team in hockey for the last five months; or were down to their last 70 seconds to score before being pushed to elimination for the first time in the postseason.

The Tampa Bay Lightning have tapped their own brand of resiliency - or as head coach Jon Cooper coined it, their "quiet calm" - to overcome all of the above, all over again, Sunday night.

"The more times you get put in these situations and you're behind the wheel navigating what's going out there, the better you are to handle them, and I think our guys are doing a heck of a job handing all sorts of situations, whether it's injuries, being down, being up, just the list goes on," Cooper said.

"The guys have really matured as a group on how to win hockey games."

Tampa Bay's latest win, a come-from-behind triumph in Game 5 versus the Pittsburgh Penguins, moved them to within one more victory of returning to the Stanley Cup Final for a second straight season.

In a vacuum, though, it was just another obstacle overcome.

“We got hit was adversity a couple of times, but nothing really changed for us. We kept doing the right things, and were rewarded at the end,” said Anton Stralman, another player who missed postseason spells.

"I don't think we get hit by panic or anything like that."

The Penguins will have to share in the Lightning creed to avoid elimination when the puck drops Tuesday in Tampa Bay for Game 6.

Copyright © 2016 Score Media Ventures Inc. All rights reserved. Certain content reproduced under license.