The truck driver who caused the deadly crash with the Humboldt Broncos' bus was sentenced to eight years in prison Friday, according to Bre McAdam of the Saskatoon StarPhoenix.

Jaskirat Singh Sidhu of Calgary, Alberta, pleaded guilty earlier this year to 29 counts of dangerous driving.

Judge Inez Cardinal said Sidhu's remorse and guilty plea were mitigating factors, but she had to consider the number of people who were killed or seriously injured as a result of the crash.

In April 2018, Sidhu drove through a stop sign at a rural Saskatchewan intersection and collided with the junior hockey team's bus. Sixteen people were killed and 13 were injured.

The judge noted that Sidhu will be deported after serving his sentence because he's a permanent resident and not a Canadian citizen.

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Tampa Bay Lightning forward Yanni Gourde will have a hearing Friday for an illegal check to the head of Carolina Hurricanes forward Jordan Staal, the NHL Department of Player Safety announced.

Here's a look at the play, which took place in the first period of Thursday's contest:

Gourde was handed a 10-minute match penalty and a game misconduct for the hit. The 27-year-old has never faced supplemental discipline from the league.

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Ottawa Senators owner Eugene Melnyk joined CFRA's Bill Carroll for a radio interview on Friday morning and voiced strong opinions on a number of topics, including the Toronto Maple Leafs' rebuild, his own team's trades, and Ottawa Mayor Jim Watson.

While discussing the challenges of building and maintaining a championship contender in the salary cap era, Melnyk was quick to take a jab at how the Leafs have allocated their salaries.

"They're going to have a tough time winning the Stanley Cup without defense," Melnyk said, "because they're hitting the cap, they can't bring anybody new in so they're stuck, and that's where you have to be extremely careful. ... They collapse their team, say we gotta do a rebuild, but you know, mistakes were made and somebody forgot about defense."

When talking about his own rebuild with the Senators, Melnyk insisted he needed to trade away Ottawa's budding stars to accommodate the younger talents of the future.

"A lot of people were really upset about us trading away the three in the end, (Matt) Duchene and (Mark) Stone and (Ryan) Dzingel, and if you think about it, they're all looking for a seven- or eight-year contract at the age of 27," Melnyk said.

"Five or six years from now, they're all going to be in their almost mid-30s and you're going to have all these kids coming up."

In a later discussion regarding the contentious RendezVous LeBreton proposal to build a new downtown arena west of Parliament Hill, Melnyk openly ridiculed Ottawa Mayor Jim Watson after Carroll noted how critical Watson has been of Melnyk throughout the process.

"He is so lucky that I keep my mouth shut, he should keep his," Melnyk said of Watson. "I have a lot to say but I don't say it, but you know what, I'd be very careful I was him and walking around mouthing off. With him opening up like that, you know all he does is the NHL offices, they look at it and say, 'Hey do we really want to bring more events to this city?'"

Melnyk concluded the radio hit by calling out the Ottawa media, specifically stating that one particular reporter was "bush league" for asking general manager Pierre Dorion to listen to a taped call of an upset Senators fan.

TSN's Ian Mendes immediately took to social media, tweeting, "So, Eugene Melnyk just called me 'bush league' on the air. So there's that." Soon after, Mendes' colleagues began speaking out in his defense.

The Friday radio hit came just one day after Melnyk joined Sportsnet 590 The Fan and stated that the Senators need to identify their "real fans."

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Tobias Rieder's representative is not pleased with Bob Nicholson.

Darren Ferris expressed as much on Thursday night, hours after the Edmonton Oilers CEO criticized Rieder at a breakfast for season-ticket holders.

“I am totally astonished and disappointed that the president of an NHL team can make such a callous and reckless statement about a player," Ferris told TSN's Ryan Rishaug. "This is unacceptable.”

Nicholson apologized to Rieder, according to TSN's Darren Dreger, and later told Sportsnet's Mark Spector he "screwed up."

The executive told fans that the Oilers would probably be a playoff team if Rieder had 10-to-12 goals, and that the 26-year-old winger won't be re-signed for next season.

Oilers head coach Ken Hitchcock had Rieder's back after Thursday's victory over the Columbus Blue Jackets.

Rieder has no goals and 11 points in 60 games this season. The Oilers signed him to a one-year, $2-million deal on July 1.

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Alexander Steen and his father, Thomas, joined some elite company Thursday night.

The St. Louis Blues forward picked up three assists in a 5-2 win over the Detroit Red Wings, and his second was the 600th point of his career.

With that helper, the Steens became only the fourth father-son tandem to each hit the 600-point plateau in their careers, joining Gordie and Mark Howe, Bobby and Brett Hull, and Peter and Paul Stastny, according to NHL.com's Lou Korac.

Thomas Steen racked up 817 points in 950 games across 14 NHL seasons with the original Winnipeg Jets from 1981-82 to 1994-95.

Alex Steen has 601 in 955 contests over 14 campaigns spent with the Blues and Toronto Maple Leafs.

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Yanni Gourde's night ended early Thursday after his high hit on Jordan Staal.

The Tampa Bay Lightning center was assessed a match penalty and a five-minute major after catching the Carolina Hurricanes pivot in the head in the first period.

Staal left immediately for the dressing room after the hit but returned to the bench for the second period.

The 30-year-old missed 32 games earlier in the season due to concussions.

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Eugene Melnyk wants to know who really supports the Ottawa Senators as criticism of him and his hockey club continues to dominate headlines.

The team owner wondered aloud Thursday who the true Senators are when asked how he plans to win back fans who've lost faith in the ownership group.

"The key for us is, first of all, to identify who's a Senators fan and (who's) not," Melnyk said on Sportsnet 590 The FAN.

"We tripped up one of these guys, somebody big, and it turns out it was a 12-year-old in Toronto that was upset with the Senators in general," he added. "I'm a high-profile person that's an easy target, so let them do what they want to do. I basically ignore 99 percent of it."

Melnyk said the organization is trying to turn things around for those who remain patient with the team.

"For our fans, our real fans, we're doing the best we can and all you can do is just keep doing what you've been doing," he said.

The Senators have traded away Erik Karlsson, Mike Hoffman, Mark Stone, Matt Duchene, and Ryan Dzingel within the last six months and have also suffered from various off-ice scandals.

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Bob Nicholson has found his scapegoat.

The Edmonton Oilers CEO criticized Tobias Rieder at length at a breakfast for season-ticket holders Thursday, according to the Edmonton Journal's Bruce McCurdy.

Nicholson said the Oilers won't re-sign Rieder at season's end, lamented that he hasn't scored a goal with the club and has "missed so many breakaways," and added that if the struggling forward "would have scored 10 or 12 goals, we'd probably be in the playoffs."

The executive said that other teams wanted Rieder in free agency last summer, but the 26-year-old signed with the Oilers for one year because he wanted to play with fellow German national Leon Draisaitl.

"He thought if he wasn't playing with Leon, he'd be playing with Connor (McDavid), he'd score 15-16 goals, and instead of making $2 million, he'd sign a four-year (extension) at $3.5 million (annually)," Nicholson said.

The Oilers CEO opened his remarks at the breakfast by saying he wouldn't throw anyone under the bus, according to McCurdy.

Nicholson later apologized to Rieder and admitted he "stepped out of bounds," according to TSN's Darren Dreger.

Rieder has 11 assists in 59 games with the Oilers this season. He signed with Edmonton last July 1 after mustering 12 goals and 13 assists in 78 contests split between the Arizona Coyotes and Los Angeles Kings in 2017-18.

The Oilers entered Thursday's action with a minus-38 goal differential and sit seven points out of a Western Conference wild-card spot.

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