PALM BEACH, Fla. — NHL Commissioner Gary Bettman says there’s significant opposition among team owners to continuing participation in the Winter Olympics, and the league is running out of time on negotiations to take part in the 2018 Games.

Following a meeting of the league’s Board of Governors on Thursday, Bettman said no decision was made regarding Olympics participation in 2018 in South Korea.

“I think it’s fair to say that there is some strong negative sentiment in the room,” Bettman said. “But nothing was decided today.”

NHL players have competed in the past five Winter Olympics dating to 1998 and want to continue taking part, but owners are concerned about the midseason interruption and injury risk.

Bettman has said a decision regarding the Olympics needs to be made by early January.

 The NHL does not intend to reconsider the name or logo of the Las Vegas expansion franchise after U.S. patent authorities denied the club’s trademark request, deputy commissioner Bill Daly said.

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The patent office cited potential confusion with the team name for the College of Saint Rose in New York, which is also the Golden Knights.

“It’s much ado about nothing,” Daly said. “The franchise will go forward with that name and that logo. We have every expectation we’ll ultimately get that registration.”

THURSDAY’S GAMES

PENGUINS 5, PANTHERS 1: Sidney Crosby got his 18th goal and added an assist to lead Pittsburgh to a win at Sunrise, Florida.

Conor Sheary, Tom Kuhnhackl, Matt Cullen and Carl Hagelin also scored for Pittsburgh, which has won four straight.

Jaromir Jagr scored his 755th career goal for the Panthers in new coach Tom Rowe’s home debut.

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CANADIENS 5, DEVILS 2: Carey Price lost his temper after being bumped twice in his crease and made 19 saves to help Montreal win at home.

Torrey Mitchell scored twice for the Canadiens, who had a season-high 49 shots on Cory Schneider.

A wild first period included three goals, four goal reviews and Price’s meltdown.

RANGERS 2, JETS 1: Kevin Hayes scored a power-play goal with 1:09 left in the third period to lift New York to a win at Winnipeg, Manitoba.

Chris Kreider also scored for New York and Antti Raanta, playing for the first time since Nov. 27, stopped 17 shots.

Mark Scheifele scored for Winnipeg.

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CANUCKS 5, LIGHTNING 1: Jayson Megna and Jack Skille each had two goals, Ryan Miller made 38 saves before leaving late in the third period and Vancouver won at Tampa, Florida.

Miller skated to the bench and then went to the locker room. There was no immediate word on why he departed.

ISLANDERS 3, BLUES 2: Anders Lee’s second goal of the game with just over seven minutes remaining lifted New York to a win at home.

John Tavares also scored and Thomas Greiss stopped 24 shots for the Islanders.

Robby Fabbri and Kyle Brodziak had goals for the Blues.

FLYERS 6, OILERS 5: Michael Raffl scored with 1:29 remaining, and host Philadelphia rallied from two goals down to win its seventh straight.


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