NHL Morning Coffee Headlines – October 24, 2021

by | Oct 24, 2021 | News, NHL | 21 comments

Check out the recaps from a busy Saturday night in the NHL morning coffee headlines.

NHL.COM: David Perron tallied a hat trick to lead the St. Louis Blues to a 7-3 win over the Los Angeles Kings. Torey Krug collected three assists for the Blues. Kings captain Anze Kopitar was held scoreless for the first time in five games.

St. Louis Blues winger David Perron (NHL Images).

SPECTOR’S NOTE: The Kings were without defenseman Drew Doughty, who was sidelined by a knee injury following a collision with Dallas Stars blueline Janne Hakanpaa on Friday. Doughty avoided ligament damage but he’s not expected to return to the lineup anytime soon.

The Vancouver Canucks’ 4-2 victory over the Seattle Kraken spoiled the latter’s first home-opener in franchise history. Conor Garland snapped a 2-2 tie with the game-winner late in the third period. Canucks captain Bo Horvat tallied twice and Thatcher Demko made 29 saves for the win. Defensemen Vince Dunn and Mark Giordano tallied for the Kraken, who’ve won just once (1-4-1) in six games.

A four-goal second period carried the Pittsburgh Penguins to a 7-1 drubbing of the Toronto Maple Leafs. Defenseman Marcus Pettersson had a goal and two assists, forward Drew O’Connor tallied twice and goalie Tristan Jarry kicked out 28 shots. Earlier in the day, the Penguins announced defenseman Kris Letang was placed in COVID protocol.

SPECTOR’S NOTE: The Penguins were without Letang, Sidney Crosby, Evgeni Malkin, Bryan Rust and Jeff Carter. That didn’t unnoticed in restless Leafs Nation as their club put up a feeble effort against their depleted opponent.

Calgary Flames forward Elias Lindholm’s game-winner completed his hat trick in his club’s 4-3 overtime victory over the Washington Capitals, who overcame a 3-0 deficit with three unanswered third-period goals to force the extra frame. Alex Ovechkin’s game-tying goal was the 735th of his career, putting him within six of Brett Hull (741) for fourth place on the all-time list.

The Montreal Canadiens picked up their first win of the season (1-5-0) by thumping the Detroit Red Wings 6-1. Mathieu Perreault had a hat trick, Jake Allen made 26 saves and Jonathan Drouin, Christian Dvorak, Ben Chiarot and Sami Niku each collected two points. Filip Hronek, the Wings’ top defenseman last season, was a healthy scratch from this contest.

SPECTOR’S NOTE: The Wings were playing without leading scorer Tyler Bertuzzi, whose decision not to be vaccinated for COVID-19 prevents him from traveling to Canada for road games. They missed his production against Montreal and in their 3-0 shutout loss to Calgary on Thursday. Bertuzzi is now reportedly the only unvaccinated player in the league.

Jonathan Huberdeau scored twice and added an assist as the Florida Panthers doubled up the Philadelphia Flyers 4-2. The Panthers are 5-0-0 to start this season and are jockeying with the Edmonton Oilers (5-0-0) for first place in the overall standings. Flyers defenseman Ryan Ellis missed this game with an undisclosed injury and is listed as day-to-day.

The Minnesota Wild remains unbeaten (4-0-0) following a 4-3 overtime victory over the Anaheim Ducks. Ryan Hartman netted the game-winner for the Wild. Rickard Rakell scored twice for the Ducks.

A two-goal performance by Vincent Trocheck helped the Carolina Hurricanes defeat the Columbus Blue Jackets 5-1. Andrei Svechnikov and Jordan Staal each had two points for the Hurricanes, extending their record to 4-0-0.

The Colorado Avalanche snapped a three-game skid by nipping the Tampa Bay Lightning 4-3 on shootout goals by Gabriel Landeskog and Cale Makar. Nathan MacKinnon had a goal and two assists for the Avs.

A 26-save shutout performance by Ilya Sorokin backstopped the New York Islanders to a 3-0 blanking of the Arizona Coyotes. Brock Nelson had a goal and an assist. The Coyotes are still seeking their first win of the season (0-4-1).

Paul Stastny scored twice and Nate Schmidt collected three assists as the Winnipeg Jets held off the Nashville Predators 6-4. Nick Cousins and Thomas Novak each had three points for the Predators, who drop to 1-4-0 to start the season. The Jets, meanwhile, move to 2-2-1.

Third-period goals by Chris Kreider, Ryan Lindgren and Barclay Goodrow rallied the New York Rangers over the Ottawa Senators 3-2. Matt Murray left the game following Kreider’s goal after the Rangers’ winger accidentally collided with the Senators goaltender. Ottawa also played without center Shane Pinto, who will miss at least two weeks with a shoulder injury.

An overtime goal by Pavel Zacha lifted the New Jersey Devils over the Buffalo Sabres 2-1. Devils rookie goalie Nico Daws won his NHL debut with a 24-save performance. Nico Hischier also scored for the Devils. New Jersey netminder Mackenzie Blackwood is now reportedly vaccinated for COVID-19, allowing him to travel to Canada with his teammates for their first Canadian road trip in December.

SPECTOR’S NOTE: Being fully vaccinated would also allow Blackwood to play for Team Canada in the 2022 Winter Olympics if he is chosen as one of their three goaltenders. He’s reportedly among their long list of six potential candidates.

NBC SPORTS CHICAGO: The Blackhawks placed Patrick Kane, Ryan Carpenter and Erik Gustafsson in COVID protocol on Saturday morning.

NHL.COM: Vegas Golden Knights defenseman Zach Whitecloud is week-to-week with an upper-body injury suffered during a 5-3 loss to the Edmonton Oilers on Friday.







21 Comments

  1. Woooo!!! We’re back baby. Ok so first order of business should be to sign GMMB to an extension – he’s earned it after that thumping last night. Then GMMB should sign Mathieu Perreault to an extension. Finally the city of Montreal should start planning the parade route – Lord Stanley is finally coming back home.

    • Aww c’mon man. OK, so they got off to a rough start and finally got their first win, albeit against a team not figuring to be anywhere near the playoffs. But what the hell, they gotta start somewhere.

      Imagine the angst had they LOST to Detroit and gone 0-6! Likely be somewhere at the level of that in Toronto where the hand-wringing must be audible after a 7-1 sh&t-kicking against a team without Crosby, Malkin and a couple of other key players.

    • It is so encouraging to see someone start the day with such a heaping helping of positivity and hope!

  2. After the two quick goals , they pretty much stopped playing or caring . Keefe basically said as much postgame . I’d be much more worried about that at the 6 game mark than the middling results in the nation.

    • Dollars to donuts, Matthews and Marner care. However their frustration must be tremendous. How Keefe thinks sticking an at-best slow 3rd liner on their wing would lead to a balanced offence is beyond me. After 6 games (Matthews has played 3) Marner has the lone assist and they’re a combined -8, with no pp points.

  3. Leafs/Pens: Certainly not the game result I was hoping for (was hoping for an OT game)

    Leafs… flat, discombobulated, undisciplined , unhinged …… TERRIBLE

    Pens…. Without 5 of their top 6 skaters…. On fire, disciplined, motivated, confident, crisp, energized

    Great game Jarry. Fantastic game Pettersson …. 1-3-4 and a +5

    Krakken/‘Nucks…. I did enjoy the opening ceremonies and the building certainly had energy. Good back and forth…. Garland goal broke their backs

    Panthers…. Just keep plugging away…. Bobo finally earning his keep

    Habs…. monkey off their backs

  4. Real fans don’t get excited by a win or upset by a loss, real fans know its a long season and there will be ups and downs, winning and losing streaks.

    Chris Kreider somehow manages to “accidentally” injure his opponents while running goalies and hitting the numbers at the boards.
    He should have dropped the gloves with Tkachuk and put it to bed last night instead of having the Sens circle the date on the calendar for retribution.

    Last year’s “final four” TBL, Habs, NYI and VGK have all gotten off to slow starts this year, something to consider for the schadenfreude folks out there.

    In my opinion, when it comes to Ovechkin/Gretzky I can probably count on one hand Wayne’s amazing goals and on one hand Ovie’s plain ones.
    Huge exaggeration of course but you get the drift.

    • Maybe the Sens should be looking to level Brown who pushed Kreider into Murray? Maybe Murray since he frail as a Pringle.

      This was FAR from a dirty play.

      You can’t still be salty over Price getting run over can you? That’s 7 years ago. And again Kreider is not only hooked down by one Canadien to make that happen but two!

      • my Hab friends still cry Kreider is a dirty player…..because it was a playoff game and was skating with the puck to the net and Habs D took out one of his edges….

        No reason for Kreider to fight Brady last night

    • Habfan – Ovechkin has scored over 40 percent of his goals on the power play and almost half of those are one timers from the left side. Don’t see how those are highlight real goals but ok. He probably has the greatest shot in nhl history but nobody saw the ice and scored goals like Gretzky. That Mcdavid kid may give Gretzky a go but, Ovechkin is not in the same class.

    • My children get super excited by a win and quite disappointed in a loss… you calling them not real fans!?!?

      • Just so we are all clear that it is HF30 not I who has this opinion. I am exactly like your kids. Sports is entertainment. It is a distraction from the stressors in our daily lives. If we can’t get excited over a win or get frustrated over a loss then what’s the point? I’ll bet HF30 will let us know soon… he knows everything and he is always right – if you don’t believe me, just ask him yourself.

      • Habsman67, HF30 needs to write a hockey blog himself, making sure to turn all comments off of course.

    • So you’re a “real” fan, HF30? Excuse me if I get pissed off with brutal efforts against teams without their top players? Don’t mind me if my view of Mike Babcock gets more positive by the day.
      You just keep being you, humming along, singing a song.

    • Thank the hockey gods that a REAL fan has chimed in!

    • BCLeafFan

      “excited by a win or upset by a loss”

      You’re right regarding reacting to good play, bad play, wins, losses etc are expected to various degrees.

      I should have been clearer, for example you get pissed off with brutal efforts against teams without their top players, but you don’t stop supporting your team.
      As a what I call real fan, you don’t jump off and on the bandwagon and that was my reference point..
      cheers.

  5. Even though Kris Letang was in Covid protocall last night he still ended up a minus 3 …

    • Credit where it’s due. That was funny.

    • Is Brian Boyle the Pens’ enforcer?

  6. kreider seems pretrty good at ‘accidently’ craching goaltenders…

    • Watch the clip before you go there. Then watch the Price clip.

      He plays a crash the net game with speed or full on in front of the net, people pull him down from behind like in the Price situation, he’s going to kill your goalie. You push him in front like Brown did, he’s going to hit the goalie. No call on either play. Is this another conspiracy theory now?

      The NHL loves Kreider?