The two Stadium Series games at MetLife Stadium this weekend increase the NHL’s total of outdoor games to 41.

Dougie Hamilton snapped a third-period tie, Vitek Vanecek made 32 saves and the New Jersey Devils beat the Detroit Red Wings 4-3 in the season opener for each team.

Akira Schmid rebounded from his only bad game and made 31 saves in Game 7 to lead the New Jersey Devils to a 4-0 victory over the New York Rangers Monday night in an entertaining first-round playoff series.

It took until the final day of the NHL regular season to set all eight matchups for the first round of the playoffs.

The Columbus Blue Jackets landed the biggest prize on the opening day of NHL free agency by signing Johnny Gaudreau to a $68.25 million seven-year contract.

Brad Marchand scored one goal and assisted on another to lead the Boston Bruins past the Carolina Hurricanes 5-2 and send their first-round playoff series to a decisive seventh game.

Seth Jarvis and Nino Niederreiter scored second-period goals while Antti Raanta was strong in net to help the Carolina Hurricanes beat the Boston Bruins 5-1 in Game 1 of their first-round playoff series.

Lars Eller had a goal and an assist to help the Washington Capitals beat the Boston Bruins 4-2 for their third consecutive victory.

Erik Haula scored a tiebreaking goal in the second period and the Boston Bruins pulled away with three more in the third to beat the Detroit Red Wings 5-1.

Brad Marchard scored twice and Jeremy Swayman made 27 saves and the Boston Bruins beat New Jersey 5-2, ending the Devils’ three-game winning streak.

Sebastian Aho scored his second goal of the game 1:06 into overtime to send the Carolina Hurricanes to the second round with a 4-3 comeback victory over the Nashville Predators on Thursday night in Game 6.

Jordan Staal scored off a rebound at 1:44 of overtime to give the Carolina Hurricanes a 3-2 come-from-behind win over the Nashville Predators on Tuesday night.

Luke Kunin scored his second goal at 16:10 of the second overtime,and the Nashville Predators beat the Carolina Hurricanes 4-3 Sunday to tie the first-round series 2-2.

Jordan Staal scored twice and Nino Niederreiter beat Juuse Saros for the go-ahead goal early in the third period, helping the Carolina Hurricanes to a 5-2 win over the Nashville Predators in the first game of the teams' first-round playoff series.

Grimaldi scored four goals to tie a team record and lead the Nashville Predators over the Detroit Red Wings 7-1 on Thursday. “Rocco was flying obviously in the first period,” Nashville coach John Hynes said. “I just thought we had too many no-shows tonight,” Red Wings coach Jeff Blashill said. OFFENSIVE STRUGGLESThe Red Wings have scored just once during their three-game slide. WHAT’S NEXTThe Red Wings return home to host Columbus on Saturday and Sunday.

Detroit Red Wings center Sam Gagner (89) and Detroit Red Wings center Dylan Larkin (71) celebrate after beating the Nashville Predators 5-2 in an NHL hockey game Thursday, Feb. 25, 2021, in Detroit. (AP Photo/Paul Sancya)DETROIT – Sam Gagner scored three goals, ending a 17-game drought that lasted nearly a year, and the Detroit Red Wings beat the Nashville Predators 5-2 on Thursday night. “At the end of the night, we’ve got to be a team that competes extraordinarily hard every night,” Red Wings coach Jeff Blashill said. ON THE MOVEThe Red Wings recalled forward Mathias Bromé and defenseman Danny DeKeyser from the taxi squad and assigned forward Frans Nielsen to the taxi squad. Red Wings: Travel to Chicago for back-to-back games Saturday and Sunday.