NHL Morning Coffee Headlines – November 13, 2021
Alex Ovechkin moves up again on the all-time goal-scoring list, Jack Eichel undergoes surgery, and more in today’s NHL morning coffee headlines.
GAME RECAPS
NHL.COM: Alex Ovechkin tallied his 742nd career NHL goal while Conor Sheary scored the game-winner late in the third period as the Washington Capitals defeated the Columbus Blue Jackets 4-3. Ovechkin overtook Brett Hull to move into fourth place on the all-time goal-scoring list. Garnet Hathaway netted two goals for the Capitals while Sean Kuraly replied for the Jackets with two goals.
Washington Capitals captain Alex Ovechkin (NHL Images).
SPECTOR’S NOTE: Ovechkin now sits 24 goals behind Jaromir Jagr for third place. At his current rate of production (12 goals in 14 games), the Capitals captain could surpass Jagr by mid-January.
The Buffalo Sabres upset the Edmonton Oilers 3-2 thanks to two goals by Dylan Cozens and a 33-save performance by Dustin Tokarski. Oilers forward Leon Draisaitl tallied twice to lead the league with 14 goals and 28 points while teammate Connor McDavid collected an assist to extend his season-opening points streak to 13 games. The Sabres improve their record to 6-5-2.
An overtime goal by Auston Matthews lifted the Toronto Maple Leafs to a 2-1 victory over the Calgary Flames. William Nylander set up both goals by the Leafs, who’ve won seven of their last eight contests. The Flames are winless (0-2-1) in their last three games.
Carter Hart turned aside 39 shots to backstop the Philadelphia Flyers over the Carolina Hurricanes 2-1. Joel Farabee and Zack MacEwen netted third-period goals to give the Flyers the win.
The Chicago Blackhawks have three straight wins under interim head coach Derek King as they nipped the Arizona Coyotes 2-1 on Dylan Strome’s game-winner in the third period. Patrick Kane collected two assists as the Blackhawks improve their record to 4-9-2. The Coyotes, meanwhile, have just one victory (1-12-1) thus far.
HEADLINES
LAS VEGAS REVIEW-JOURNAL: Golden Knights center Jack Eichel underwent successful artificial disk replacement surgery in Denver on Friday. He’s expected to spend three weeks in Denver recovering before returning to Las Vegas for the remainder of his expected three-month rehab.
OTTAWA SUN: The Senators will play the Pittsburgh Penguins tonight in Kanata and the Calgary Flames on Sunday despite their COVID-depleted roster. Nine Senators are currently on the COVID protocol list.
The league instructed the club to cancel practice for the third time this week on Friday to contain the spread of the coronavirus. The Senators had hoped to convince the NHL to postpone several games until some of the players are well enough to return to action.
SPECTOR’S NOTE: According to the report, the league sympathizes with the Senators’ plight but hopes to avoid rescheduling games until the club has almost no more players left to recall from their AHL affiliate.
While I understand the league’s reluctance to face rescheduling games as they did last season, they’re not doing the Senators any favors here by forcing them to ice a significantly depleted lineup. There’s also the risk of spreading the virus among themselves or their opponents. The good news (so far) is no other players have tested positive since Thursday.
Speaking of the Senators, defenseman Erik Brannstrom will be sidelined for up to eight weeks with a broken hand suffered during Thursday’s loss to the Los Angeles Kings.
SPORTSNET: Seven San Jose Sharks players (Erik Karlsson, Timo Meier, Marc-Edouard Vlasic, Kevin Lebanc, Jake Middleton, Matt Nieto and Radim Simek) and head coach Bob Boughner have returned to the active roster since being placed in COVID protocol on Oct. 30.
SAN JOSE HOCKEY NOW: Karlsson, Middleton and Boughner described how their contracting COVID-19 affected their families. They were among the first of five others on the club to recently test positive for the coronavirus.
Karlsson said his wife and two-year-old daughter also tested positive. While his daughter is doing well, his wife is still dealing with symptoms. Middleton, meanwhile, had to put his girlfriend and their dog into a hotel during the 10 days he was in COVID protocol. Boughner’s parents were visiting when he got his positive test. He immediately quarantined himself into a hotel while his parents returned to Canada safe and sound.
SPECTOR’S NOTE: The report also indicated the Sharks organization is fully vaccinated. Neither Karlsson, Middleton or Boughner know where or when they were exposed to COVID.
NHL.COM: The department of player safety suspended Vancouver Canucks defenseman Tucker Poolman for two games for high-sticking Colorado Avalanche forward Kiefer Sherwood on Thursday.
TSN: Braydon Coburn announced his retirement yesterday after 16 NHL seasons. The 37-year-old defenseman tallied 234 points in 983 games with the Atlanta Thrashers, Philadelphia Flyers, Tampa Bay Lightning, Ottawa Senators and New York Islanders. He won the Stanley Cup with the Lightning in 2020.
SPECTOR’S NOTE: Best wishes to Coburn and his family in their future endeavors.
Leon the neon lighting it up…. Leading the league in pts and goals;
Leon gets 2; McD keeps points streak alive ; all while losing to Sabres…. Who had that tri-fecta bet last night??
I’m one happy Pengy….last night…
The two Metro head to head games were won in reg (no bonus points !!)👍👍👍
Leafs win in OT👍👍👍
Argos win (against our hated rivals in the Hammer); clinch 1st in East and a bye to the EF👍👍👍👍
A perfect day today would be regulation wins for Leafs, Pens, Bruins, Jackets, Blues, and Stars; and a Riders’ win ver the Elks 🤞🙏🤞🙏🤞🙏
why do you use all of these thumbs up and praying hands signs like you are a teenager?
Why do you care?
ESPN understandably shows their incredible love for McDavid, such as on this week’s edition of The Point
but how come neither ESPN, nor the media itself, doesn’t give Draisaitl the attention? He and McDavid are truly Messier and Gretzky v2.0.
Draisaitl is a great player but the media seems to think his stats are to due McDavid, which is a shame
and why doesn’t ESPN nor TNT schedule more Oilers games, especially when they are on the road in the East? The game vs Boston should have been on one of those channels, instead of being on ESPN+
ESPN never had an issue showing the Lakers every week but we us in the US barely ever see the Oilers on TV
Our son got to know Braydon Coburn when he was a high school student and says he is quality person. All the best to him and his family.
Déjà vu all over again??
You can say that again!!!
Not sure how these double posts happen?
Hey pengy
You only get to collect on one ticket…lmao
$$$$
Hey Kal
So true
Welcome back Kal El…. Haven’t seen you post in a while
Don’t Be surprised if the bruins actually win today. Their secret weapon, Oscar Steen’s on the way up from Providence. I’ll tell you I haven’t this excited since I was accidentally locked in the closet with Mary Lou Littenhauser. Sweeney just grasping for straws now knowing he’s got a team loaded with talentless misfits.
Love to know what Ovie’s workout and supplement routine is. dude is turning back the clock
propose to a hot model …
Jack Echel said he feels great and he went out for a walk; also reported the disc removed was a mess.
A ways to go yet, but this is going to be interesting to watch and potentially be a bad look for Buffalo.
Already a bad look for Buffalo, Caper, before this. Remember the players who wanted out of Buffalo independent of the Eichel situation?
Eichel recap: The Sabres held out demanding a ridiculous price for Eichel given his situation, let time slide by when they could have gotten players that would have immediately helped, and looked petty in their treatment of Eichel in the process. Buffalo wouldn’t let Eichel have the procedure of his choice, yet other teams were willing to do so.
Had they been willing to move Eichel before the season started, they might have gotten better players, all ready to play, instead of having to accept and injured Tuch. Surely there was a discount due to Eichel’s not being ready for, what, another three months even now?
It is hard to imagine with all the bad feelings from a number of different players how any player sees Buffalo as a destination of choice.
Lj, I don’t see Eichel back till late March early April. 3 months is too soon imo.
LJ,
You say you read the Buffalo newspapers. Please check out Saturday’s article in the Buffalo News by Mike Harrington. He does a good job of pointing out the plus/minuses of how the Eichel situation was handled and the plus/minuses of Eichel himself.
interesting tidbit; In 2015 Boston exchanged their 5th round pick with Minnesota for Minny 2016 5th round pick.
Minnesota selected with the 135th pick Kirill Kaprizov.
Minny late target of Kaprizov seems to have paid off.
Like everything regarding Eichel, premature statements about nothing yet determinant of the outcome.
I have no idea what the outcome will be, the gamble of course being his ability to play and at what level.
Buffalo got a power forward and a highly touted young C as well as a 1st and 2nd pick for a third.
It will take at least 3 months to determine how VGK came out of this deal and probably longer for the Sabres.
Any speculation at this point is baseless
I don’t think it is entirely baseless HF30.
We know how BUF has handled it so far, and there have been no reports about insurance balking at this procedure. Now we don’t know that for sure, but if the procedure was not insured, it would have been helpful for BUF to state that as this has played out in the press and hasn’t been a good look for them PR wise. At least in my opinion along with others.
So if the company that would be on the hook for the most of the contract is fine with the procedure, and they do understand risk better than anyone, one would think the the risk isn’t that much higher than the fusion procedure.
Again, we don’t know that this will be covered, but I haven’t seen any reporting that it isn’t.
The insurance company seems like a good arbiter in this situation IMO.
Regardless I am rooting for the guy.