NHL Morning Coffee Headlines – April 7, 2021

by | Apr 7, 2021 | News, NHL | 18 comments

Patrice Bergeron reaches a career milestone, Artemi Panarin has a four-point performance, Carey Price sidelined, an update on Henrik Lundqvist, and more in today’s NHL morning coffee headlines.

GAME RECAPS

NHL.COM: Patrice Bergeron tallied a hat trick and reached his 900th career NHL point leading the Boston Bruins over the Philadelphia Flyers 4-2. Brad Marchand had a goal and three assists. Boston defenseman Charlie McAvoy missed the game with an upper-body injury. With 46 points, the Bruins hold fourth place in the MassMutual East Divison, sitting four points behind the third-place Pittsburgh Penguins. The Flyers (41 points) slip to sixth place.

Boston Bruins captain Patrice Bergeron (NHL Images).

The New York Islanders edged the Washington Capitals 1-0. Semyon Varlamov had a 29-save shutout while Brock Nelson scored the only goal and Josh Bailey collected his 500th career NHL point. Washington goalie Vitek Vanecek kicked out 38 shots. The Islanders moved into a tie with the Capitals (54 points) but the latter holds first place in the East Division on the basis of regulation plus overtime wins.

Artemi Panarin had a goal and three assists as the New York Rangers romped to an 8-4 win over the Pittsburgh Penguins. Pittsburgh defenseman John Marino left the game in the third period with an undisclosed injury. The loss leaves the Penguins in third place in the East while the Rangers move into fifth place with 41 points.

The Carolina Hurricanes got two goals from captain Jordan Staal to down the Florida Panthers 5-2, snapping the latter’s six-game winning streak. Carolina center Sebastian Aho collected three assists while Florida captain Aleksander Barkov tallied both of his club’s goals. The Hurricanes moved into second place in the Discover Central Division with 55 points, one point back of the first-place Panthers.

A 36-save performance by Joonas Korpisalo carried the Columbus Blue Jackets to a 4-2 victory over the Tampa Bay Lightning. Max Domi and Jack Roslovic each had a goal and an assist for the Blue Jackets (38 points), putting them five points behind the fourth-place Nashville Predators in the Central. The Lightning, meanwhile, slipped to third place with 54 points. They’ve won just two of their last seven contests.

Speaking of the Predators, shootout goals by Ryan Johansen and Roman Josi gave them a 3-2 win over the Detroit Red Wings. Nashville holds fourth place with 43 points in the Central.

The Chicago Blackhawks remain two points behind the Predators after doubling up the Dallas Stars 4-2. Patrick Kane and Alex DeBrincat each had a goal and an assist and Kirby Dach tallied his first of the season since returning from a broken wrist on March 27.

A 34-save performance by John Gibson gave the Anaheim Ducks a 5-1 victory over the San Jose Sharks. The Sharks remain in sixth place in the Honda West Division with 38 points, five behind the fourth-place Arizona Coyotes.

The Buffalo Sabres beat the New Jersey Devils 5-3. Rasmus Dahlin and Casey Mittelstadt each had a goal and an assist for the Sabres, who’ve won three of their last four following their 18-game winless skid.

HEADLINES

TSN: Montreal Canadiens goaltender Carey Price is listed as day-to-day after suffering a lower-body injury during Monday’s 3-2 win over the Edmonton Oilers. The club called up goalie Cayden Primeau from the AHL’s Laval Rocket.

SPECTOR’S NOTE: Price will remain in Montreal receiving treatment as the club travels to Toronto to face the Maple Leafs tonight.

Frank Seravalli reported Washington Capitals goalie Henrik Lundqvist remains intent on resuming his playing career as he recovers from open-heart surgery earlier this year. He’s continuing to skate as he awaits word from his doctors later this week. The Capitals aren’t ruling out Lundqvist returning to play later this season.

SPECTOR’S NOTE: The Capitals have come up in recent media chatter suggesting they could pursue an experience rental goaltender before the April 12 trade deadline. That conjecture will cease immediately if Lundqvist gets the green light to return to action this season.

SPORTSNET: Jake Virtanen was the latest member of the Vancouver Canucks added to the NHL’s COVID-19 protocol list. Eighteen Canucks players are now on the list.

SPECTOR’S NOTE: Virtanen is among several Canucks still popping up in recent trade chatter for some bizarre reason. Who the hell is gonna pursue a trade-deadline deal with Vancouver now?

CBS SPORTS: Columbus Blue Jackets forward Riley Nash will be sidelined for four-to-six weeks with a sprained knee.

SPECTOR’S NOTE: Nash had popped up in trade talks before his injury. He’s an unrestricted free agent this summer and may have played his final game with the Jackets.

OTTAWA SUN: The Senators re-assigned former goaltender coach Pierre Groulx to a scouting and development while Zac Bierk takes over the Sens goalie coach.







18 Comments

  1. Wow !! had to watch Swayman with the big club last night. He deserved a medal Tuesday. Second period he was the reason the bruins were still in it. The kid was unbelievable. They have to give him at a couple more starts. very impressed,

  2. The Bruins are in a good situation .they can evaluate their young goalies and still make the playoffs.They should look to trade all ufa s,because it looks like they will make the playoffs with this lineup.Will have competition with the St. LoUis Blues who will be doing the same thing.

  3. When the Flyers cannot beat a Bruins team, decimated by injuries to it’s defense, starting 2 basically rookie goalies and playing at home in what can only be described as a “MUST WIN” game, then my friends the writing is on the wall. No trades till the off season and then clean house, coaches, players, zamboni drivers, everybody. The culture of losing that surrounds this team is offensive, pervasive and only a high colonic can remedy that.

  4. The good news, the last two games showed that the future of Boston net looks promising with Vladar and Swayman.

    The bad news that second period was brutal, left a young rookie goalie playing his first NHL game out to dry. 25 second period shots on goal for Philly.

    You have to be a real core believer to think the Bruins are going anywhere.

    Bergeron 3 goals Marchand 1 goal 3 assist; Marchand has taken his game to another level and is basically carrying the team. The 2 young goalies are giving the Bruins a chance to win.

    • Caper, so you’re saying there’s a chance!

    • Lol Ray, there always a chance, just got to get in.

    • Not as high on Vladar as Swayman…. want to get Rask healthy trade him to Colorado

  5. . When a team scores 5 goals in one game then 4 in the next, fair odds that they might get at least 2 of a possible 4 points…. getting 0 points… ouch

    A 5-7 Loss followed by 4-8 loss… wow!!

    Last two games save percentages between the two goalies… 731… 🤬😡🤬😡💩💩

    Yes a couple of seeing eye goals and another couple of odd bounce goals in EACH of the last two games; but Pens also had those types of goals

    The Perfection crew found the back of the net; the Breadman , KK, Lafrennierre and Fox all had success

    Yes another really tough night defensively for Marino, and now he might be out

    A goal and a serious guffaw for each of Dumo and Matheson

    Great passing and one timer by Guentzel

    Sids line was pounding away but they also fumbled a couple of passes

    The last two games have been the Good , theBad and the extremely Ugly (especially the results)

    Defensively it shows when Turbo and Blueger are out and then add to that when ZAR has a rough game and Gaudreau played quite average

    Consistency is lacking… mostly a product of injuries

    The only true consistent Pen all year has been Ceci… a PLUS 1 in each of the last two games; and has not had a negative game since Feb 16th (Wash) … that’s 25 straight games of + or even; and has only had 3 negative games all year

    Pens are also poor overall on the road this year

    Yes two very bad games in a row… if Pens can win tomorrow convincingly ; then theses two games can be considered a blip

    I still believe that a healthy Pens team with a 3C addition, can come out of the East, and if (1/3rd chance) East plays North in Semis… then can make SCF

    First Pens have to get healthy

    Come Friday… Malkin hits the 24 day on LTIR threshold…. so his “Cap free up” counts from then. His annual Cap is $9.5 M, and his roster replacements (not in actual replacement but one player out one player in) have basically been players near the League min. Pens have also had to call up here and there extra 1 off players … Zohorna etc to fill short term injury spots. Even if game in game out there was an extra cap hit of 3 League mins (total $2.1 M annual Cap) while Malkin’s 9.5 M Cap was out (net 7.4 M annually)… the Cap savings at 24 (of 119 day schedule) days is about $1.5 M and counting at about 63K a day

    Malkin won’t return before TDL…. at that point the net savings with above…. just on Malkin’s LTIR (don’t forget there was Zucker and others)…. is over $1.7 M…. with 29 days left at TDL…. $1.7 M “buys” a player at an annual Cap hit of $6.9 M… just sayin’

    Tradeable assets

    Extra LHD on roster
    Zucker
    Lafferty
    Prospects NOT named P-O J, Poulin; or Legare

  6. Time for Dubas to outmaneuver his less creative GM counterparts.

    Let’s get Riley Nash and Niemi for peanuts for starters. Both are on injured reserve. Leafs are thin in C depth and need another goalie to tandem with Campbell.

    Since they cab both be held on ltir until playoffs no cap hit. Nash injured likely cost only a 7th or C prospect. Niemi can recover while quarantininng, then conditioning stint with Marlies and add to roster after season ends. Also wont cost much I.e. 4th this year or 3rd next year or an A- or B prospect.

    There is probably an injury reserve depth D in same situation leafs could acquire. Can anyone think of a decent pending UFA D on a non playoff team expected to be recovered in 4-6 weeks?

    Not sure if waiver process still works like it used to where the team that loses a player on waivers gets first dibs at 50% if the claiming teams puts back on waivers, but if so, future considerations to VAN to put Boyd back on waivers to Leafs at 50% (who was useful for Leafs this year) and he can join team once he clears Covid.

    Come on Dubas, get to work!

  7. John Marino left the game with an injury, of course, it wouldn’t be a Pittsburgh Penguin game w/o someone getting hurt … Hextall & Burke really need to take a long look into why so many Penguins get hurt year in and year out … Malkin got bumped by Tinordi and he hasn’t even begun skating yet … same with Kappy, he innocently tried to keep a puck in the offensive zone and he’ll be out a good month … only a matter of time before Doumalin gets hurt again … now Tanev is out again, long term … Pens have the most fragile players in the league, not even close … the 4th line the Pens put out on the ice these days would be a 4th line in the minors as well … no depth and it’s pathetic

    • THATS BECAUSE THEY FLUSH 7.5 MILLION DOWN THE DRAIN ON LeTURNOVER 58 EVERY SEASON. HE IS A 3 MAN ON ANY GOOD DEFENSIVE TEAM AND AT ABOUT 4 TO 5 MILL TOPS. PLUS THEY SHOULD OF KEPT KESSEL INSTEAD OF BUYING ZUCKER ALWAYS HURT AND CANT SCORE. KESSEL WAS NEVER GONNA PLAY D BUT HE SCORED AND STAY HEALTHY

  8. If Bruins give a player and a first to Devils for Kyle Palmieri I’m going to throw up please stay away let the Islanders have him.Bostons goaltending for the future looks pretty good Philly should have won game but young goaltender had either ideas.

    • It does look good Obe. If they continue to play well and Rask is out long term, what does Sweeney do next year, run with the young guys?
      Risky and I would prefer to let Swayman play a whack of games next year and keep Rask or get some other tender on a 1 year deal.
      Vladar keeps improving, big athletic tender. Was a project that worked out. So far at least.

  9. After watching last nights Canes and Florida game I am more convinced that Waddell will try to trade for a defensive defenseman that plays the body and is a good skater. A right handed Brady Skjei type player.

  10. When the Rangers decide to score goals they don’t mess around.

  11. Was real nice to see Kevan Miller back he’s a Dman that knows his limits but die his job well

    • Yes, Miller played well. Usually does.
      Seems like he is held together with duct tape and baling wire sometimes, but when plays he adds an element they don’t have.

      Plus he has an outdoor gear company going with Marchand. If you’re into that kind of stuff.

      https://marchandmillco.com/

  12. Bruins ……its possible they can have $25+ million coming off their books this off season and if the play of the two young goaltenders improve that would go a long way to setting them up for the future ….should be very interesting