Another ugly high sticking incident.

Montreal Canadiens forward Alex Galchenyuk got four minutes for high sticking Sunday night when he whacked Boston Bruins defenseman Kevan Miller in the face in the third period, but he may be in store for some further discipline.

Miller left to be looked at by trainers but did return to the game, which the Bruins won 4-0.

Earlier Sunday, Gustav Nyquist landed a vicious high stick to the face of Minnesota Wild defender Jared Spurgeon, and the Detroit Red Wings forward will be suspended as a result.

The incident involving Galchneyuk appeared more accidental in nature, as the Canadiens forward lost his balance after Miller lightly cross checked him towards the boards.

Copyright © 2017 Score Media Ventures Inc. All rights reserved. Certain content reproduced under license.

The Buffalo Sabres came up with a loss for the sixth time in nine games Sunday night, dropping a 4-2 decision to the Vancouver Canucks.

And according to Mike Harrington of The Buffalo News, goaltender Robin Lehner wasn't having any of it.

The 25-year-old sounded off on his team's performance after the game.

"We haven't done anything," Lehner told Harrington after the loss. "We win one game and we think we're Chicago ... We haven't done anything in this league. (Gionta) has won a Cup. All respect to him, he's done something. The rest of us haven't."

Lehner pointed specifically to the Sabres' lack of structure throughout, going so far as to call his mates "disrespectful" for ignoring the coaching staff's game plan.

Yikes.

Buffalo's performance against Vancouver certainly left more to be desired. The Sabres gifted the Canucks with six power-play opportunities, trading goals with the Canadian club before going dry for the final two periods. Canucks winger Alexandre Burrows scored the eventual game-winner early in the second frame.

Lehner finished the night with 27 saves on 31 shots, and his 16th loss of the season. The Sabres remain five points out of a playoff spot heading into the home stretch.

Copyright © 2017 Score Media Ventures Inc. All rights reserved. Certain content reproduced under license.

The Montreal Canadiens have some soul searching to do during their bye week.

So says goaltender Carey Price, who lamented the team's recent struggles following a 4-0 loss to the Boston Bruins.

"We seem to have lost our identity," Price said, according to Amanda Stein of TSN 690.

Since starting the season with a record of 13-1-1, the Canadiens have gone 18-18-7, and things have been quite dire over the past month or so.

The shutout loss to the Bruins - Tuukka Rask's first regular-season home win over Montreal - marked the third time the Canadiens have been held off the scoresheet in the past five games.

Price, meanwhile, hasn't been his usual self, allowing four goals against in each of his past three starts, two of which came against lowly Arizona and Colorado.

The Canadiens remain atop the Atlantic Division, but their cushion has shrunk to six points, with both Boston and Ottawa looking to overtake them, and Toronto lurking further down the standings with games in hand.

Montreal is off until Feb. 18, giving the team ample time in which to try and figure out what's gone wrong.

Copyright © 2017 Score Media Ventures Inc. All rights reserved. Certain content reproduced under license.

The Dallas Stars were feeling pretty good Sunday morning, and most of Sunday evening.

Lindy Ruff's squad snapped a four-game losing streak Saturday against the Carolina Hurricanes, and the Stars were up 3-1 on the Nashville Predators after 40 minutes Sunday. And then it all fell apart.

Six minutes into the third period, it was 4-3 Nashville, the final result a 5-3 Predators decision. And for the Stars, more frustration.

"You go into a third period with a 3-1 lead with your lives on the line, and that's the effort and the result that we get? It's unacceptable," captain Jamie Benn said, according to The Dallas Morning News' Mike Heika. "We're fighting for our lives, and that's what we put out there for 20 minutes."

Benn had a goal and an assist in over 22 minutes of ice time, but the ice was tilted in Nashville's favor for most of the final 40 minutes. The Predators outshot the Stars 30-13 in periods two and three combined.

"I don't know what to say," Benn added. "We've got to know by now."

The Stars could have moved without four points of the second wild-card spot in the Western Conference with a win, but remain six points back of the Kings, and now eight points back of the Predators. Both teams have games in hand on Dallas, so Sunday's loss is undoubtedly a big one.

"It really stings," said head coach Lindy Ruff. "That's a tough one. That hurts."

There's been too many painful losses for the Stars this season, who saw goaltender Kari Lehtonen turn in another subpar performance, finishing with a .886 save percentage.

Another big game is on deck: Dallas is in Winnipeg on Tuesday night to face the Jets, and both teams are tied in the standings with 54 points.

Copyright © 2017 Score Media Ventures Inc. All rights reserved. Certain content reproduced under license.

If you're the head coach of an underwhelming NHL club, you're probably not too excited about the new trend taking the league's coaching landscape by storm:

New coach, instant success.

That's certainly been the case for the most recent trio of clubs who swapped out their head coaches. The New York Islanders, St. Louis Blues, and Boston Bruins have all been flying high since parting ways with their former bench bosses, with only three regulation losses coming in their combined 21 games since Doug Weight, Mike Yeo, and Bruce Cassidy took over.

The Bruins earned the 16th win for the new-coach club on Sunday night, taking down the Montreal Canadiens with a dominant 4-0 effort. In doing so, Cassidy earned his third straight win at the helm, adding fuel to the coaching swap fires.

There's no denying the fact that coaching changes can have a significant impact on a club's success. Last year's Stanley Cup champion would certainly agree - the Pittsburgh Penguins looked like a shell of their former selves until Mike Sullivan was brought in, after which the club went on a months-long tear that ended with Lord Stanley.

This season's biggest surprise, the Western Conference-leading Minnesota Wild, are in the same boat. The Wild have gone from a fringe team to a genuine contender since bringing in Bruce Boudreau in the offseason - they continued their run Sunday night as well, earning a 6-3 win over the Detroit Red Wings.

For talented clubs trending downwards, like the Canadiens and Dallas Stars, that's sure to raise a few eyebrows. Even the most drastic of moves - the Bruins' ill-timed ousting of longtime coach Claude Julien - has led to nothing but success thus far, which means Michel Therrien and Lindy Ruff could be on the clock.

Copyright © 2017 Score Media Ventures Inc. All rights reserved. Certain content reproduced under license.

Tuukka Rask could not have picked a better time to mark a first.

After posting a record of 0-9-3 in 12 previous regular-season home games against the Montreal Canadiens, the Boston Bruins goaltender finally earned a win over the team's fierce rivals within the friendly confines of TD Garden.

Rask, of course, had beaten the Canadiens twice on home ice back in the 2014 Stanley Cup Playoffs.

The victory came courtesy of a 25-save shutout performance in Boston's final game heading into their bye week, and capped a perfect record of 3-0-0 for the Bruins under head coach Bruce Cassidy.

For Rask, it was a much-needed strong start after posting a save percentage of .868 in 16 games so far in 2017.

The Bruins are now off until Feb. 19, when they will visit the San Jose Sharks, who they beat 6-3 in Cassidy's debut as head coach.

Copyright © 2017 Score Media Ventures Inc. All rights reserved. Certain content reproduced under license.

It's that time of year.

With the trade deadline slightly over two-and-a-half weeks away, who's where and who's talking to who will take on added significance. And on Sunday, Colorado Avalanche general manager Joe Sakic decided not to watch his team lose in Brooklyn, instead attending the Bruins-Montreal Canadiens tilt in Boston.

Sakic caught up with Bruins GM Don Sweeney during the second intermission, according to The Boston Globe's Fluto Shinzawa.

What's that? Pics or it didn't happen? Here:

That Sakic is trying to trade Matt Duchene and/or Gabriel Landeskog is the worst-kept secret in hockey. The Bruins have been linked to the Avs' sale, reportedly unwilling to part with young defenseman Brandon Carlo in a trade.

To have been a fly on that wall.

Copyright © 2017 Score Media Ventures Inc. All rights reserved. Certain content reproduced under license.

Nathan Beaulieu appears to enjoy living on the edge.

The Montreal Canadiens defenseman was called for slashing late in the second period after swinging his stick upwards between the legs of Boston's Zdeno Chara.

Similar incidents have been reviewed by the NHL's Department of Player Safety in the past.

Copyright © 2017 Score Media Ventures Inc. All rights reserved. Certain content reproduced under license.

Hear that? It's the New York Islanders. They're coming.

The Brooklynites on Sunday won their eighth game in 12 since Doug Weight took over behind the bench, spanking the Colorado Avalanche by a score of 5-1. The Isles are 8-2-2 since Jack Capuano was fired, and Weight may have this whole coaching thing figured out.

Weight's crew will go to bed Sunday night one point out of a playoff spot, trailing the Maple Leafs for the second wild-card spot in the Eastern Conference. Toronto's got 61 points and a plus-4 goal differential in 54 games, while New York's got 60 points and is plus-3. And the two teams will play Tuesday in Toronto, a Valentine's Day affair with a lot on the line.

The Islanders' playoff chances shot up eight percent after Sunday's win, according to Sports Club Stats, and their odds to make the postseason now sit at 45.7 percent.

There is some bad news: While the Islanders improved their home record to an impressive 18-8-6 after beating Colorado, the rest of the schedule isn't kind. New York will play 19 of their final 28 games on the road, and so far have only seven wins in 22 games away from home.

More bad news: The Islanders have a nine-game road trip commencing on Feb. 21, taking them to: Detroit, Montreal, Columbus, Dallas, Chicago, Calgary, Edmonton, Vancouver, and St. Louis. The journey will be broken up by the club's bye week, which begins on Feb. 26. But that's a brutal trip and will undoubtedly define the Isles' season.

Copyright © 2017 Score Media Ventures Inc. All rights reserved. Certain content reproduced under license.

The big man has soft hands.

Boston Bruins defenseman Zdeno Chara displayed a rare moment of grace by dangling through the Montreal Canadiens' zone for the seventh shorthanded goof his career.

Credit Ryan Spooner for being patient enough to wait for Chara to enter the zone before dishing off the puck.

Copyright © 2017 Score Media Ventures Inc. All rights reserved. Certain content reproduced under license.