NHL Notebook

Tampa Bay Lightning star Steven Stamkos is back playing after missing 45 games with a broken right shin. Stamkos, out since getting hurt Nov. 11 at Boston, was in the lineup for Thursday night’s game against the Buffalo Sabres. Stamkos received a partial standing ovation during pre-game introductions, when it was announced that the centre was the new team captain. Right wing Ryan Callahan, acquired Wednesday by Tampa Bay from the New York Rangers for former team captain Martin St. Louis, made his Lightning debut. The NHL reduced its penalty against the New Jersey Devils on Thursday for signing Ilya Kovalchuk in 2010. The Devils will keep the first-round draft pick they were scheduled to forfeit this year, and the league will reduce the US$3-million fine assessed against the team for circumventing the NHLNHLPA collective bargaining agreement. The Devils recently applied to the league for reconsideration and relief from a portion of the original penalty, citing primarily changes in circumstances which, in the club’s view, changed the appropriate- ness of the sanctions. The NHL did not spell out what changed, but Kovalchuk retired after last season and returned to Russia to play there. A helmet worn by St. Louis in the men’s Olympic final and pucks from the women’s bronze-medal game are among the items being donated for an exhibition at the Hockey Hall of Fame in Toronto. More than 50 artifacts will make up two new displays that will commemorate the 2014 Sochi Olympics.