NHL notebook: Lightning's Stamkos eyes Game 1 return

[April 10, 2018]  Tampa Bay star Steven Stamkos, sidelined due to a lower-body injury, said he hopes to be ready for Game 1 of the Lightning's first-round playoff series against the New Jersey Devils on Thursday.

Stamkos missed the final three games of the regular season due to the injury. He was a full participant in practice Monday, centering a line between Nikita Kucherov and J.T. Miller.

"It felt nice to be back out on the ice," Stamkos said. "Definitely a step in the right direction. I felt pretty good, all things considered. It was good to be out there with the guys. The fun time of the year starts right now."

Stamkos had 27 goals and 59 assists in 78 regular-season games. His 86 points were second on the team, behind Kucherov's 100.

--Ilya Kovalchuk is close to returning to the NHL for the first time since leaving to play in the Russian KHL five years ago, according to reports.

Sport-Express reported the 34-year-old Kovalchuk was near a contract with the New York Rangers, which would mark his return to the NHL for the first time since 2013.

The terms of that agreement would need to be hashed out by league officials because of the complex terms under which Kovalchuk left the United States and New Jersey Devils. Kovalchuk retired in June 2013 with 12 years and $77 million remaining on a 15-year deal signed in 2010. Because he was designated to the voluntary retirement list, Kovalchuk's rights belong to the Devils until he turns 35. Kovalchuk's 35th birthday is April 15.

--The NHL will be moving the events of 2019 All-Star Weekend up a day, the league announced.

The All-Star Game, which usually takes place on Sunday, will instead be played on Saturday, Jan. 26 next season. As a result, the skills competition, usually a Saturday event, will be held Friday, Jan. 25.

When NHL commissioner Gary Bettman announced in January that the San Jose Sharks will host the 2019 NHL All-Star Game at SAP Center, the game was originally scheduled for Sunday, Jan. 27, with the skills competition a day prior. San Jose last hosted the event in 1997.

Three seasons as a member of the struggling Buffalo Sabres have taken their toll on center Ryan O'Reilly.

As Sabres players cleared out their lockers Monday after yet another last-place finish (62 points) in the NHL standings, the 27-year-old lamented what he believes is a culture of losing in Buffalo and noted that it's caused him to lose his love for the game.

"We're stuck in this mindset of just being OK with losing," O'Reilly told reporters, via NHL.com. "I feel, too, I think it's really crept in with myself and, over the course of the year, I lost myself a lot and where you just kind of get through and being the guy and being OK with making a mistake and that's just not winning hockey at all and it's crept into all of our games."

--Field Level Media

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