The Montreal Canadiens have already punched a ticket. The Edmonton Oilers are nearly there, too.

The Ottawa Senators also look be on course for a return to the Stanley Cup playoffs. The Winnipeg Jets, meanwhile, have some work to do — and need a lot of help.

Four of Canada’s seven NHL teams remain in the mix for the NHL’s annual spring dance, with the Vancouver Canucks, Calgary Flames and Toronto Maple Leafs all set to miss out.

The Canadiens clinched a second straight post-season berth last weekend, but are jockeying for position in the Atlantic Division with the Buffalo Sabres and Tampa Bay Lightning. Buffalo tops the ledger with 106 points, followed by Montreal (104) and Tampa Bay (102).

The Sabres, who hold the first tiebreaker with 41 regulation victories, have two games remaining on the schedule, while the Canadiens and Lightning each play three more times in the regular season.

Montreal, which fell to the Washington Capitals in last year’s first round, could face either of those clubs to open the playoffs, while other possibilities include Ottawa and the Boston Bruins.

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The Oilers are on the cusp of making the post-season a seventh year running, a stretch that includes back-to-back Cup final appearances against the Florida Panthers in 2024 and 2025.

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Edmonton leads the Pacific Division — a race captain Connor McDavid called a “pillow fight” last month because of its slow crawl to the finish line — with 90 points, one better than both the Vegas Golden Knights and Anaheim Ducks. Each team has three games remaining, with the Oilers holding the tiebreaker thanks to 31 regulation victories.

The website MoneyPuck.com pegged Edmonton’s chances of qualifying for the playoffs at 99.98 per cent heading into Saturday after the league took Friday night off. Claiming the division crown would likely mean a first-round matchup with the Utah Mammoth.

The Senators have captured four of their last five games in regulation to push the club’s post-season chances to 92.1 per cent.

Ottawa occupies the Eastern Conference’s second wild-card berth with 94 points and three games remaining.

The Senators are two back of the Bruins for the first wild card, while the Detroit Red Wings and New York Islanders are three points adrift of Ottawa. The Columbus Blue Jackets have 90 points, followed by Washington with 89.

Boston, Ottawa, Detroit, New York, Columbus and Washington all have three games left.

The Senators, who made the playoffs a year ago for the first time since the franchise’s run to the 2017 conference final before bowing out to the Maple Leafs, could face the Carolina Hurricanes in the opening round, while the Sabres, Canadiens and Lightning are also possible.

Winnipeg sat last in the overall standings on Jan. 8 with a 15-22-5 record. The Jets steadied themselves and have made 20-9-7 surge in the second half to stay in the playoff conversation in the top-heavy West.

Last season’s Presidents’ Trophy winner with a league-topping 116 points, however, will need a lot to go right to get in.

Winnipeg currently sits on 82 points, three back of the Los Angeles Kings for the conference’s second wild-card slot. The Nashville Predators have 84 points, while the San Jose Sharks are at 81.

The Kings, Jets and Sharks have four games left, one more than the Predators.

Winnipeg still has a shot, but MoneyPuck.com had its chances at 12.6 per cent heading into the weekend. Snagging an improbable post-season appearance would also likely mean a first-round date with the powerhouse Colorado Avalanche.

This report by The Canadian Press was first published April 10, 2026.

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MONTREAL – Prime Minister Mark Carney visited the Montreal Canadiens dressing room after the team’s 2-1 win over the Tampa Bay Lightning in a thrilling game Thursday night.

Carney was in Montreal for a Liberal party convention running through Saturday, attending the game following a day of media appearances and speeches across the city.

He met with Canadiens captain Nick Suzuki, forwards Alex Newhook and Jake Evans, and defenceman Mike Matheson after an eventful game that featured fights, a dramatic finish and Cole Caufield scoring his 50th goal of the season.

“I’m going to be honest, I haven’t had that much fun in over a year,” Carney said, drawing laughs from the players. “Fantastic game.”

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Carney arrived at the start of the second period with the score 0-0 and sat three rows behind the Canadiens’ bench, shaking hands and chatting with nearby fans.

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When Caufield scored his milestone goal six minutes into the period, Carney jumped up and hugged those same spectators.

He joined the energetic crowd in doing the wave, took photos on his phone and high-fived fans once Juraj Slafkovsky’s late goal sealed the win for Montreal, the only Canadian team to clinch a Stanley Cup playoff spot so far.

Carney placed a hand on his chest and applauded as he entered the locker room, telling players they needed no introduction.

“It’s a real, real honour,” he said while shaking Suzuki’s hand. “It was a key moment in the game, the way you stood up, it was unbelievable.”

Suzuki answered that it was a real pleasure to meet him.

“Is that all you got?” Carney joked.

Canadiens head coach Martin St. Louis, meanwhile, said he discussed “leadership” with Carney when they briefly met after the game.

Carney wore two different Canadiens hats despite being a lifelong Edmonton Oilers fan. He grew up in Edmonton during the Wayne Gretzky era and was a third-string goaltender at Harvard University.

Last March, he joined Connor McDavid and the Oilers at practice and previously posted a photo of himself wearing a “McJesus” T-shirt.

The Liberal convention in Montreal — and Carney’s visit to the game — comes ahead of three byelections on Monday, and a day after a fifth opposition MP crossed the floor to join the Liberal caucus.

— With files from Erika Morris and Daniel Rainbird.

This report by The Canadian Press was first published April 9, 2026.

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TORONTO – Logan Thompson made 21 saves to register his third shutout of the season as the Washington Capitals breathed life into their fading playoff hopes with a 4-0 victory over the Toronto Maple Leafs on Wednesday.

Dylan Strome and Martin Fehérváry, with a goal and an assist each, Ryan Leonard and Cole Hutson, into the empty net, scored for Washington (40-30-9), which sits three points back of the Eastern Conference’s final wild-card spot with three games left on the schedule.

Anthony Stolarz suffered a lower-body injury early in the first period after stopping the second of two shots he faced for Toronto (32-32-14).

Joseph Woll finished with 14 saves in just over 57 minutes of work for the Maple Leafs, who are set to miss the post-season for the first time since 2016.

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Alex Ovechkin — Washington’s leader with 31 goals and 61 points — announced Wednesday he won’t make a decision on his playing future until after the season.

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The 40-year-old broke Wayne Gretzky’s all-time goal mark of 894 last April and has found the back of the net at least 30 times in 20 of his 21 NHL campaigns.

TAKEAWAYS

Capitals: Rookie forward Ilya Protas made his NHL debut on a line with older brother Aliaksei and Tom Wilson. The bruising trio — Wilson is the smallest at six-foot-four, while the siblings each stand six-foot-six — tips the scales at a combined 700 pounds.

Maple Leafs: Oliver Ekman-Larsson returned to the lineup after missing Saturday’s overtime loss in Los Angeles with a lower-body injury. The veteran defenceman is the club’s nominee for the Bill Masterton Trophy, as voted by the Toronto chapter of the Professional Hockey Writers Association, awarded annually to the player who best exemplifies the qualities of perseverance, sportsmanship and dedication to hockey.

KEY MOMENT

Washington turned a one-goal lead into a 3-0 advantage early in the second period. Leonard ripped his 18th goal of the season 40 seconds after the restart before Fehérváry added his fifth just over two minutes later.

KEY STAT

Ovechkin has 45 goals and 35 assists for 80 points across 64 regular-season games against Toronto.

UP NEXT

Maple Leafs: Visit the New York Islanders on Thursday.

Capitals: Visit the Pittsburgh Penguins on Saturday.

This report by The Canadian Press was first published April 8, 2026.

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TORONTO –

Pierre-Luc Dubois was still trying to figure out NHL life.

Helmet firmly fastened under his chin, the Columbus Blue Jackets rookie stepped on the ice for warm-ups ahead of his eighth professional hockey game in October 2017.

The Los Angeles Kings — a roster full packed with Stanley Cup winners — were at the rink’s opposite end, many with slicked back hair as they emerged from the tunnel.

“Like 14 guys without a helmet,” recalled Dubois, now a centre with the Washington Capitals. “I was like, ‘This is so intimidating.’ I’m 19 years old and they’ve won (titles), they’re huge, they have no helmets, no teeth, so scary.

“I remember thinking, ‘Wow, that’d be really cool to do one day.’”

Helmets — or buckets — off in warm-ups remains a unique part daily life for many NHLers despite the league instituting a rule that states anyone not in the league before the 2019-20 season must don the protective gear pre-game.

Players making their debuts are still allowed to take them off for the “rookie lap” initiation before putting the equipment back on, but there remains plenty of athletes leaving helmets in the locker room.

“There’s a few hidden gems in the NHL,” San Jose Sharks winger Tyler Toffoli said. “No helmet in warm-up is in the top-3.”

Tampa Bay Lightning forward Corey Perry has played 21 seasons, mostly without a helmet in warm-up. There have been close calls and scary moments — including off his own stick — as pucks rattle glass and chime posts.

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“I hit myself,” he said. “Off the crossbar and cut my eyebrow open.”

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The NHL issued a memo earlier this season after a few teams had ineligible players go without helmets pre-game.

Toronto Maple Leafs defenceman Morgan Rielly used to be mesmerized by the ritual going to Vancouver Canucks games as a kid.

“I remember seeing Markus Naslund out there with no helmet,” he said. “I thought that was the coolest thing.”

Toronto, like Columbus when Dubois entered the league, had an internal team policy that forced players to wear helmets in warm-ups under past management regimes.

The directive now loosened, Rielly, William Nylander, Max Domi and Jake McCabe are among the players sans head garb when the Maple Leafs hit the ice about 30 minutes before puck drop.

“In a tough stretch everyone’s talking about confidence this, confidence that,” Rielly said. “So we said, ‘Screw it, let’s start.’”

But just because a player entered the league back when helmets could be removed didn’t mean it was allowed.

Toffoli got to take his off when he hit 100 games with the Kings after veterans let him know it was time.

“One of the first things I wanted to do was warm-ups with no helmet,” he recalled. “(Former teammate) Jarret Stoll gave me some Dippity Do gel to throw in my hair.”

Added Perry: “Back in the day if you took your helmet off, you knew you’d done something right.”

Anaheim Ducks rookie Beckett Sennecke got to take his off just once.

“Pretty cool feeling,” the forward said of that initial lap. “Wish that was still a rule.”

Los Angeles defenceman Drew Doughty said his group wasn’t allowed to remove them in warm-ups until after capturing their first Cup in 2012.

“We started winning and basically our entire team was no buckets,” he said. “Maybe we should go to buckets on until we win again … but you seem cool if you have no bucket.”

Maple Leafs centre John Tavares, who did warm-ups without a helmet earlier in his career, said there’s a tradition element.

“The league has been around for over 100 years,” he said. “A little bit of getting to play in the NHL, the uniqueness of that.”

There have also been serious injuries, including Taylor Hall falling and getting stepped on when he was with the Edmonton Oilers, resulting in a nasty row of stitches across his forehead in 2012.

Self-preservation without a helmet is key.

“You have to think of warm-ups different,” Tampa Bay Lightning centre Nick Paul said. “You’re always watching, listening for shots off posts and crossbars. I’ve ducked a couple. You never go below the goal line. And when you’re shooting, you see a guy with no helmet, you know not to rip it.”

The risk, however, remains worth it.

“I feel alive and awake,” said Dubois, who doesn’t have a set helmet routine. “You always have to be on the lookout, but it’s scary at times.

“And my parents would like for me not to do it.”

DOWN THE STRETCH

The race for the final Eastern Conference wild-card berth looks set to go down to the wire.

Columbus currently occupies the spot with 88 points and seven games left. Ottawa, Detroit and Philadelphia all sit with 86 points and eight contests remaining. Washington, meanwhile, is still in the mix with 85 points and seven dates still on the schedule.

BENCH TURNOVER

The Vegas Golden Knights’ decision to fire head coach Bruce Cassidy and replace him with John Tortorella this week once again demonstrated that career path’s volatility.

Just eight NHL teams have the same coach as at the start of 2023-24 — Ryan Huska (Calgary), Rod Brind’Amour (Carolina), Jared Bednar (Colorado), Paul Maurice (Florida), Martin St. Louis (Montreal), Andrew Brunette (Nashville), Jon Cooper (Tampa Bay) and Spencer Carbery (Washington).

This report by The Canadian Press was first published April 1, 2026.

TORONTO – The Toronto Maple Leafs will be looking to hire a “data-centric” visionary as they move on from a disappointing NHL season that led to the firing of general manager Brad Treliving.

Maple Leafs Sports & Entertainment president and chief executive officer Keith Pelley faced the media Tuesday to answer for a season gone wrong and give an idea of how the Leafs will move on in an increasingly competitive Atlantic Division.

“They have to be data-centric,” Pelley said of whoever will replace Treliving as the head of Toronto’s hockey operations. “They have to really understand the importance of data and where data is moving.”

“Every single decision we make will be evidence based,” he added. “Evidence-based decisions are never wrong.

“That’s not to say there’s not room for the heart, that doesn’t mean there’s not room to check culture, but it’s evidence based.”

Pelley said the misfortunes of the Maple Leafs, who entered the day in third-last place in the Eastern Conference standings, could not be placed solely on Treliving’s shoulders.

But after firing him Monday following three seasons on the job, Pelley said the team must “chart a new course” under different leadership, calling Treliving a “good man” and an “excellent hockey executive.”

“The team is blessed with the best resources in hockey,” Pelley said. “I can emphatically tell you, with the greatest of confidence, that there are many teams competing next month in the Stanley Cup playoffs that their expenditures on hockey operations pales in in comparison to the Toronto Maple Leafs.

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“But without the right structure, without the right processes in place, without the right culture, without the alignment and accountability among everyone inside the operation, we will not be successful.”

Pelley said the search for the Maple Leafs’ new head of hockey operations will begin immediately, but assistant general managers Brandon Pridham and Ryan Hardy will share the duties on an interim basis for the rest of the season.

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Pelley did not say whether the Leafs’ hockey operations would be led by a president, a general manager or a combination of the roles.

“There’s no right or wrong way to actually run it,” he said.

But perhaps Pelley can find clues from division rivals Montreal and Buffalo, two teams he lauded for making big leads this season.

“We definitely didn’t see the train coming, which was the Buffalo Sabres and the Montreal Canadiens,” Pelley said, adding they are young and energetic teams that are “going to be here for a long time.”

Buffalo entered Tuesday in second place in the Atlantic Division, tied on points with Tampa Bay, while the Canadiens were third while riding a five-game winning streak.

Treliving was hired by former Toronto president of hockey operations Brendan Shanahan after he handed Kyle Dubas his walking papers as GM in May 2023.

Treliving took over a top-heavy, high-priced roster led by Auston Matthews, Mitch Marner, William Nylander and John Tavares originally pieced together by Shanahan, Dubas and former GM Lou Lamoriello that was never able to get over the playoff hump. Dating back to 2017, Toronto is 2-14 with a chance to eliminate an opponent and 0-7 in winner-take-all contests, including 0-6 in Games 7s.

Pelley, who took over as president of Maple Leaf Sports & Entertainment in April 2024, declined to renew Shanahan’s contract after last season’s second-round playoff exit that was accented by consecutive 6-1 losses to the Florida Panthers on home ice in Games 5 and 7. Shanahan’s position in the hockey brain trust wasn’t subsequently filled.

Treliving’s tenure, meanwhile, will be marked by the loss of Marner — there was a window where the organization could have traded the hometown forward before his contract’s no-movement clause kicked in — and the high price paid for defenceman Brandon Carlo and centre Scott Laughton ahead of last season’s NHL trade deadline.

The Maple Leafs shipped prized forward prospect Fraser Minten, a top-5 protected first-round pick this June and a fourth-rounder last year for Carlo, a veteran blueliner yet to meet expectations. Minten is 21 years old and centring Boston’s top line in the middle of a playoff race.

A pending unrestricted free agent, Laughton was dealt to the Los Angeles Kings for a 2026 conditional third-round pick — much less than what Toronto paid 12 months earlier — at this season’s deadline.

This report by The Canadian Press was first published March 31, 2026.

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CALGARY – Matt Coronato extended his point streak to five games with a goal and two assists as the Calgary Flames scored four times in the second period in a 7-3 NHL victory over the Vancouver Canucks on Saturday.

Morgan Frost also had a goal and two assists for Calgary (31-34-8). Joel Farabee, Ryan Strome, Olli Maatta, Zayne Parekh and Adam Klapka rounded out the scoring. The Flames finished 5-0-1 on their six-game homestand.

Liam Ohgren, Jake DeBrusk and Nils Hoglander scored for Vancouver (21-43-8). The last-place Canucks have lost five straight.

Getting the start for Calgary, Dustin Wolf had 31 stops to win his third straight and improve to 22-25-3.

For the Canucks, Nikita Tolopilo was beaten four times on 11 shots before getting pulled early in the second. He falls to 5-7-2. Kevin Lankinen gave up three goals on 12 shots in relief.

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The Flames entered the game as the league’s lowest-scoring team, averaging 2.47 goals per game. The seven goals ties a season-high output. Calgary also scored seven in a 7-4 win over the Buffalo Sabres on Dec. 8.

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Calgary will look to carry its momentum into a difficult six-game road trip that begins Monday against the league-leading Colorado Avalanche.

TAKEAWAYS

Canucks: Vancouver is closing in on clinching last place. With 10 games to go, they are 17 points behind the New York Rangers and Chicago Blackhawks, who are tied for second-last.

Flames: With a goal and assist, Maatta has 10 points in 12 games since joining the club at the trade deadline. That leads the team. He had one point in 22 games with Utah at the time of the trade. Parekh also had an assist for his first career multi-point game. Brennan Othmann had an assist in his Flames debut.

KEY MOMENT

Leading 3-1 early in the second, Calgary scored 11 seconds apart to blow the game open. Maatta’s goal at 4:36 ended the night for Tolopilo. The Flames went right back on the attack off the ensuing face off with Frost beating Lankinen on a backhand.

KEY STAT

Twenty-year-old Matvei Gridin had an assist to extend his point streak to five games (one goal, four assists), which is the longest by a Calgary rookie since Matthew Tkachuk had a nine-game streak in 2016-17.

UP NEXT

Canucks: Visit the Vegas Golden Knights on Monday.

Flames: Visit the Colorado Avalanche on Monday.

This report by The Canadian Press was first published March 28, 2026.

&copy 2026 The Canadian Press