NHL Morning Coffee Headlines – February 14, 2021

by | Feb 14, 2021 | News, NHL | 20 comments

Recaps from Saturday’s action, the Senators send Paquette and Galchenyuk to the Hurricanes for Dzingel, and more in today’s NHL morning coffee headlines.

NHL.COM: Brady Tkachuk scored in the dying seconds of the third period to lift the Ottawa Senators over the Winnipeg Jets 2-1. Evgenii Dadonov scored the game-tying in the second period. Mark Scheifele tallied for the Jets. The Senators snapped a four-game losing skid.

Ottawa Senators winger Brady Tkachuk (NHL Images).

Earlier in the day, the Senators traded forwards Cedric Paquette and Alex Galchenyuk to the Carolina Hurricanes in exchange for winger Ryan Dzingel.

SPECTOR’S NOTE: Paquette was the prize for the Hurricanes as they sought to add more grit and playoff experience to their forward lines. He’d won a Stanley Cup last season with the Tampa Bay Lightning before they shipped him to the Senators in an offseason cost-cutting move.

The Senators hope to boost their anemic scoring punch by reacquiring Dzingel, whose best seasons were in Ottawa before he was traded in 2019 to the Columbus Blue Jackets. He signed later that year with the Hurricanes but struggled to regain his scoring touch. The 28-year-old winger is in the final year of his contract so the Sens won’t be on the hook for long if he doesn’t pan out.

Galchenyuk is now on his sixth team since 2017-18. His production has steadily deteriorated and was a frequent healthy scratch with the Sens this season.

Speaking of the Hurricanes, they downed the Dallas Stars 4-3 on a shootout goal by Vincent Trocheck. The Stars have dropped their last five games.

The San Jose Sharks dropped their belated home opener 3-1 to the Vegas Golden Knights. Chandler Stephenson tallied a goal and collected an assist for the Golden Knights. The Sharks also lost defensemen Erik Karlsson (lower body) and Radim Simek (upper body) to injuries.

Third-period goals by Mathew Barzal and Jean-Gabriel Pageau carried the New York Islanders to a 4-2 win over the Boston Bruins, snapping the latter’s 10-game points streak. Pageau had two goals for the Isles, including a short-handed tally.

Tyler Johnson scored twice as the Tampa Bay Lightning netted four first-period goals on route to a 6-1 drubbing of the Florida Panthers. Andrei Vasilevskiy made 33 saves for the Lightning, who also announced Anthony Cirelli was listed as week-to-week with an upper-body injury suffered during Thursday’s game against the Panthers.

Montreal Canadiens winger Brendan Gallagher tallied the tie-breaker as his club edged the Toronto Maple Leafs 2-1 to end the latter’s four-game win streak. Habs goaltender Carey Price made 21 saves. Leafs center Auston Matthews picked up an assist to extend his points streak to 12 games.

The St. Louis Blues nipped the Arizona Coyotes 5-4 on an overtime goal by Mike Hoffman. The Coyotes played without forward Johan Larsson as he’s serving a two-game suspension for an illegal hit to the head of Blues forward Zach Sanford in their previous match.

SPECTOR’S NOTE: This was the sixth straight game between the two clubs due to schedule changes brought on by COVID-19. They’ve each won three games with the final contest in this unexpected best-of-seven slated for Monday.

Alex DeBrincat’s overtime goal gave the Chicago Blackhawks a 3-2 win over the Columbus Blue Jackets. Patrick Kane collected two assists including one on the game-winner. Patrik Laine and Cam Atkinson replied for the Jackets.

The Detroit Red Wings doubled up the Nashville Predators 4-2. Wings forward Luke Glendening had a goal and two assists. The Predators pulled goalie Pekka Rinne after he gave up three goals on 21 shots.

Third-period goals by Tyler Myers and Brandon Sutter gave the Vancouver Canucks a 3-1 victory over the Calgary Flames. The win ended a six-game losing skid by the Canucks. Jacob Markstrom made 43 saves for the Flames. Before the games, Canucks owner Francesco Aquilini tweeted his “full confidence” in general manager Jim Benning and head coach Travis Green. “Progression is not always a straight line,” tweeted Aquilini. “There is no easy fix, only patience, commitment and hard work.”

SPECTOR’S NOTE: That will buy some time for Benning and Green but we’ll see if they still have Aquilini’s confidence by season’s end if the Canucks miss the playoffs.

IN OTHER NEWS…

THE DENVER POST: Nathan MacKinnon has fully recovered from his lower-body injury and will be ready to suit up when the Colorado Avalanche face the Vegas Golden Knights today. It’ll be the Avs’ first game since their schedule was postponed by COVID-19 nearly two weeks ago.

NEW YORK POST: Former Rangers defenseman Tony DeAngelo took responsibility for the mistakes in his on-ice play during an interview with Larry Brooks on Friday. He also claimed he’s been misportrayed in the media. “I’m not a racist, I’m not an extremist and I’m not an insurrectionist”, said DeAngelo.

SPECTOR’S NOTE: DeAngelo remains sidelined by the Rangers as they attempt to trade him to another NHL club.

TRIBLIVE.COM: The Pittsburgh Penguins have made requests to the governor and the state of Pennsylvania seeking permission to open their arena to spectators at 25 percent capacity.

TORONTO STAR: Long-time hockey writer Frank Orr passed away Saturday at age 84. Winner of numerous sportswriting honors, Orr was inducted into the Hockey Hall of Fame in 1989. He rose to fame during the 1960s and 1970s with his NHL coverage, particularly the Toronto Maple Leafs. He also mentored countless sportswriters, many of whom still cover the NHL today.

SPECTOR’S NOTE: My condolences to Orr’s family, friends and colleagues.







20 Comments

  1. Read that Brooks article and comments on Twitter. Sure felt like a PR campaign to help build trade value. I’m not a fan of his political views, but he deleted his Twitter account before his incident with Gorgiev. I do feel that the criticism of him is over the top. Marc Staal had some quotes in story which gave me impression Detroit could have some interest.

  2. Dear Ottawa fans and/or general hockey fans:

    Help!?

    I commented yesterday about this, but since then – and I swear I am not making this up – I actually lost sleep over this last night trying to figure it out.

    The Dzingel trade makes no sense to me from the Ottawa side

    1) All 3 players are on expiring contracts, so no future benefit to either side

    2) Ottawa loses $675K in the actual trade

    3) Ottawa loses another ~$700k by having to replace Galchenyuk’s roster spot

    4) Actual salaries and cap values are basically the same for all players (so that takes out the ‘paying actual $’s that are way less than cap value’ angle)

    5) No draft picks exchanged to help Ottawa in the future.

    So, Ottawa doesn’t get any better, and pays $1.3M for that privilege.

    How on earth does this make any sense? what am I missing?

    • They may get better. This opens roster spots for their young guys and what they are hoping is Ryan to return to how he played in Ottawa. With the Senators, he was a 20+ goalscorer.

      Looks like they were willing to pay a bit more to gamble on him being happier back in Ottawa and finding his game again.

      • Galchenyuk is addition by subtraction, that guy will be in the khl next year

      • Fair enough, JJB, but if you’re going to go that route, why not just wait until after the season and low-ball Dzingel when he’s UFA? Why pay more for him now during a lost season?

    • Couldn’t agree more … Sens gave Paquette away for nothing, I know he’s not a scorer but he brings grit and energy to the Hurricanes who got rid of a non-productive player … I think the Sens could have parlayed Paquette for a better return …

      and since this is the land of second chances DeAngelo deserves another shot at it … maybe this leopard will change his spots?

      • Could it be that the Dzingel for Paquette trade needed a sweetner and dumping Galchenyuk along with Paquette was that sweetner. Ottawa gets to see this year if Dzingel can return to form.

      • Dzingel himself is irrelevant to my question, I suppose. It just boils down to:

        If you’re in a lost season, why make a trade that increases your salary if it doesn’t help you in the future?

      • Well, one thing it does is it puts to rest the “Melnyk is cheap” crapola.

        I totally agree with JJB in that, I’d rather be seeing what my young prospects can do the rest of the way, coupled with a guy that did have two 20-goal seasons in Ottawa. You don’t get “hosed” when you get someone who has a history of scoring, rather than watch Galchenyuk rehearse every game for the Ice Capades and Paquette struggle to reach his career high of 13 goals. “Grit” they have plenty of in Watson, Tkachuk and Gudbranson.

    • Galchenyuk and Paquette were not good fits in Ottawa. Dzingel has done well there previously. Maybe he’ll rediscover his game in Ottawa.
      I can’t understand how Galchenyuk has fallen this quickly. Seems like yesterday that geniuses like Pierre McGuire were screaming about how dumb the Habs were for trading him. If he doesn’t step it up in Raleigh, his next team will be in the KHL.

  3. After watching 6 rangers games you have to wonder if laffy shouldn’t have been brought up yet? He looks slow and his big frame isn’t helping him at the nhl level like it did in junior. In a regular year yo have to wonder if he would be back in junior? The rangers first and second overall picks haven’t done what a lot thought they would have but it’s still very early

    • BBB. Yes. Very early. I don’t see any benefit to either playing anywhere but nhl. Neither look out of place. Obviously expectations for both are a lot higher than most young players. Rangers biggest weakness is at center and that sure isn’t helping any of the wingers.

  4. Laffy looks out of place, over 14 mins a game in 13 games and only 1 point for a point getter something is not right! You really notice his skating in the nhl compared to junior it’s obvious it needs to be worked on

    • Laf has looked fine when he plays with offensive players. Stuetzle gets top powerplay time already and helps him get into the NHL game. Laf gets saddled with an AHL center in Howden. Sure great players make the players around them better but a playmaker needs someone to setup who can finish

      Laf and Kakko both more playmaker than finisher.

      • ds. Even worse was watching him stuck playing with Strome last game. At least twice Strome missed getting him the puck in stride. I’m really having a hard time watching Strome and trying to figure out what exactly Quinn likes about him.

      • @slick I agree with Strome

        Kakko+Laf you can see them feeding off each other….imagine Chytil who can actually shoot the puck between them….

      • You can’t deny his poor skating though, he definitely needs to work on that

  5. Trocheck looking like his pre-leg break self.
    Canes top 9-12 are deep

    • I really have to take back everything bad I have said about Don Waddell in the past … he has put together a really formidable team that has depth, skill, good puck moving d-men and an outstanding head coach … he needs a top flight goalie to round it out … they could also use a little more sandpaper but Paquette helps in that department.

      • Paquette was a bust in Ottawa and did not work out and was benched after it was clear he did not want to be their or even try. Hopefully a playoff team like the canes will motivate him.

        Dzingel played well in the past with Ottawa. However it does seem like many moons ago.

        Dorion made some questionable off season UFA signings and trades. Left many fans scratching their heads. Now that they have not worked out other then Austin Watson , seems like he is trying to save some face but doubt this will be move that makes that happen.