San Francisco Chronicle - (Sunday)

New ‘home’ for Sharks to start year

- — Ross McKeon

As anticipate­d, the Sharks’ first two scheduled home games will not take place in San Jose as a result of Santa Clara County’s coronaviru­s ban on contact sports. Instead, the Sharks will “host” the Vegas Golden Knights on Feb. 1 and 3 at Gila River Arena in Glendale, Ariz.

The Sharks have been in regular contact with county health officials and plan to continue that practice until given the green light to return.

“In our discussion­s with county officials over the past several months, we have shared our detailed returntopl­ay plans and are hopeful that we can find practical solutions to this difficult situation very soon,” Sharks president Jonathan Becher said in a statement.

Blue Jackets 5, Lightning 2: Hours after trading center Pierre-Luc Dubois to the Jets for forwards Patrick Laine and Jack Roslovic, Columbus handed visiting Tampa Bay its first loss. Powered by three goals in the first period and goalie Elvis Merzlikins’ 30 saves, the Jackets beat the defending Stanley Cup champions, showing they can compete with elite teams without Dubois, who requested a trade after signing a two-year contract extension before training camp. Nick Foligno, Mikhail Grigorenko, Vladislav Gavrikov and Zach Werenski scored the first four goals for the Blue Jackets and Eric Robinson added an empty-netter with 1:48 left.

Canadiens 5, Canucks 2: Montreal improved to 4-0-2, joining the 196869 Canadiens as the only teams to open a season with six road games and get at least a point in each. Corey Perry scored in his first game with Montreal. Carey Price made 23 saves to collect his 350th NHL win.

Bruins 6, Flyers 1: Brad Marchand and Patrice Bergeron had two goals apiece as host Boston scored five times in a row to pull away. Charlie Coyle and new Bruins teammate Craig Smith each had a goal and an assist in the second period to break open a 1-1 game.

Blues 4, Kings 2: Torey Krug scored his first goal with St. Louis and David Perron added a goal and an assist. Adrian Kempe and Dustin Brown scored for Los Angeles, which was playing its first road game of the season. Vince Dunn and Jaden Schwartz scored the other goals for the Blues.

Jets 6, Senators 3: Winnipeg scored four times in the final period on home ice. Andrew Copp had two of them; Paul Stastny scored one and assisted on two.

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