J.P. Barry is not happy about his client getting hurt in a seemingly unnecessary scuffle.

The prominent agent, who represents Montreal Canadiens winger Paul Byron, is questioning the unwritten rules of hockey that encourage players to settle scores by fighting.

Byron was injured in a fight with Florida Panthers defenseman MacKenzie Weegar on Tuesday night. The bout was apparently Weegar's response to Byron's high hit on him in January, which drew a three-game suspension.

"This wasn't a hockey fight," Barry texted to The Athletic's Pierre LeBrun. "Paul knew he had to deal with it then or likely later. Paul probably gives up five inches and 50 pounds to a very tough player - how is this the code?"

Barry added, "Player Safety already gave Paul three games for an improper check and now the 'code' gets to give him several more? ...

"This exact situation is Exhibit A for re-examining our current rules for fighting. If the fight is patently retribution for something that happened long before this game was ever played, how is that allowed to occur without being addressed?

The agent said he expected many others to praise Byron as a "warrior" who "answered the bell."

"These are the people that believe in the old 'code,'" Barry continued. "It's time for Player Safety to be the new 'code.' What really matters is eliminating avoidable concussions wherever we can."

Byron struggled to skate off the ice after the fight and didn't return to the game.

Weegar asked Byron whether he wanted to fight and the Canadiens forward said yes, the Panthers blue-liner told La Presse's Richard Labbe postgame.

Byron won't play on Thursday against the Columbus Blue Jackets and he'll be evaluated on a daily basis, his club announced Wednesday.

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

The Buffalo Sabres aren't parting with Phil Housley, but the team's owners say the bench boss has room for improvement.

Terry and Kim Pegula, who also own the Buffalo Bills, said as much at the NFL owners meetings in Arizona on Tuesday. They also acknowledged general manager Jason Botterill recently giving the head coach a vote of confidence.

"The season obviously hasn't finished yet. But, I think Botts has said it pretty well that he supports Phil," Terry told WIVB's Nick Filipowski. "Phil communicates with the players well. Are we happy with the way the season has gone? Absolutely not. So, something has to change. We don't know what but we're going to put our heads together and talk about it."

He was then asked about justifying bringing Housley back for a third season in 2019-20.

"He's a young coach," Terry said. "He was a great player and I think he can grow as a coach."

Kim echoed that sentiment.

"I don't think, anytime these things happen, it's usually not just one thing or just on one person," she said. "We'll figure all that out. Know that, Terry and I, our staff, everybody in the organization we want to get better, no doubt about it.”

The Sabres reeled off a 10-game win streak in November, but have since plummeted in the standings, sitting third-last in the Atlantic Division with the fourth-worst record in the Eastern Conference.

Entering Wednesday's action, Buffalo ranks 26th in goals scored per game and ninth-worst in goals allowed per contest. The team also sits in the middle of the pack in power-play and penalty-kill efficiency.

Buffalo finished with a 25-45-12 record in 2017-18, Housley's first campaign as an NHL head coach. Despite adding Jeff Skinner and first overall pick Rasmus Dahlin for the 2018-19 season, the club has posted a 31-36-9 record with six games left.

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

Evgeny Kuznetsov is flapping back at Don Cherry for criticizing his bird-themed goal celebration again.

“If he want(s) to say something, he can call me or he can meet me, but to call me (a) jerk on TV doesn’t make him look good, you know? But whatever he said, my parents (taught) me a lot of good things when (I was) young, and I’m not going to say anything bad about a guy who’s much older than me," the Washington Capitals Russian forward told Scott Allen and Isabelle Khurshudyan of The Washington Post on Tuesday.

During Saturday's edition of "Coach's Corner," Cherry called Kuznetsov a "jerk" for doing the bird celebration after scoring against the Tampa Bay Lightning, insisting that players should "never inspire the other team" with such behavior.

Kuznetsov said on Tuesday that he's a fan of the Carolina Hurricanes' "Storm Surge" celebrations, which Cherry also infamously bemoaned, calling that team "a bunch of jerks."

“That’s what hockey should be for, for fun,” Kuznetsov said. “Fans like it, and you know, the way (Cherry) talk(s), it doesn’t make him look good, right? If he thinks he’s good, he should check his record when he was coaching in the CHL and that’s it, he should shut his mouth.”

Cherry's Mississauga IceDogs went 11-47-10 during his stint behind the bench in 2000-01.

The "Hockey Night in Canada" pundit knocked Kuznetsov in January for doing the move in front of the Columbus Blue Jackets' bench after scoring a game-tying goal, noting that the Blue Jackets then did it themselves to mock him following their overtime winner.

A similar move in the "FIFA" video games inspired Kuznetsov's celebration, and he says his daughter loves it, according to The Post.

When the Capitals host the Hurricanes on Tuesday night, they'll be giving away bobbleheads featuring Kuznetsov doing his trademark post-goal routine.

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

The Tampa Bay Lightning signed head coach Jon Cooper to a multi-year extension on Tuesday, the team announced.

Tampa Bay has a league-leading 122 points - 21 more than the second-best team - with five games remaining. The historic campaign could put Cooper in the running for the Jack Adams Trophy.

The Lightning are 302-157-44 since Cooper became head coach during the 2012-13 season. He led them to the Stanley Cup Final two years later, though they fell to the Chicago Blackhawks.

Prior to coaching the Lighting, Cooper led the AHL's Norfolk Admirals to a Calder Cup championship in 2012.

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

Florida Panthers general manager Dale Tallon wasn't shy when discussing his team's offseason plans on Monday.

"We’ve been very close to being a good team for a long time," the veteran executive told The Athletic's Pierre LeBrun. "It’s just a matter of adding the right pieces this summer. The great thing is our owner Vinnie Viola is committed to being a cap team. He wants to win. He wants us to do what we have to do. It’s a really good situation.

"We’re going to be aggressive this summer."

After February's trade that sent Nick Bjugstad and Jared McCann to Pittsburgh, the Panthers project to enter the offseason with roughly $21 million in cap space, and very few of their own players requiring new deals.

The 2019 free-agent class could be one of the better ones in recent memory. Here's a look at the top pending unrestricted free agents:

In February, LeBrun reported that Florida hopes to take a run at Sergei Bobrovsky and Artemi Panarin.

Being aggressive this summer could also mean more trades, and the potential for a shake-up has at least one player on edge.

"It’s a little nerve-racking," forward Vincent Trocheck said. "A lot of these guys I’ve literally spent my entire career with. We’ve created some great friendships. I couldn’t say a bad word about a single guy in this room. It’s always tough when you see guys go. We had a couple of guys traded earlier the year, I spent my entire career with Bjugstad... But that’s the business side of it and you do what you have to do to become a winning team."

Led by a potent top-six forward group, the Panthers rank eighth in goals for this season, but 29th in goals against.

Trocheck believes a change is necessary.

"I think we need to kind of change our culture," he said. "It seems like every year we look at our personnel and we think, ‘This is a team that should definitely be able to compete in the playoffs.’ And I 100 percent agree. We have all the right personnel to be a great team, to compete in the playoffs. It’s just we need to create a winning identity, a winning culture a little bit more in this locker room.

"It seems like sometimes we kind of feel sorry for ourselves and don’t really do much about it. I think that’s something that’s on me, on (Aleksander Barkov), on (Jonathan Huberdeau), other guys, to create in here."

The Panthers sit 10 points out of a playoff spot with just six games remaining.

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

Jason Botterill, Ron Francis, and Ron Hextall will form Canada's management team for the upcoming 2019 IIHF World Championship, Hockey Canada announced Tuesday.

Botterill, the only one of the three who's currently employed by an NHL team, has been the general manager of the Buffalo Sabres since May 2017. He previously served as an associate GM with the Pittsburgh Penguins.

Francis served as the GM of the Carolina Hurricanes for four years until the end of last season. He can largely be credited with building a squad on the verge of snapping a nine-year playoff drought.

Hextall was GM of the Philadelphia Flyers for four years before he was fired this past November. He was the GM of Canada's silver-medal winning team at the 2017 World Championship.

The 2019 World Championship will be held in Bratislava, Slovakia from May 10-26. Canada finished fourth at last year's tournament.

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

The New York Islanders will be without one of their top-six forwards for the rest of the season.

Andrew Ladd is out for five months or so with a torn ACL and will undergo surgery on the knee this week, Islanders president of hockey operations and general manager Lou Lamoriello told reporters Tuesday.

Ladd was hurt in New York's 2-0 win over the Arizona Coyotes on Sunday.

Earlier this season, the 33-year-old missed more than three months with what the club called a lower-body injury before returning in late February.

Ladd has three goals and eight assists in 26 games in 2018-19.

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