NHL Morning Coffee Headlines – November 27, 2021

by | Nov 27, 2021 | News, NHL | 17 comments

Alex Ovechkin reaches another goal-scoring milestone, Andrei Vasilevskiy and Joe Pavelski each reach career benchmarks, Kirill Kaprizov leads the Wild to a lopsided victory, and more in today’s NHL morning coffee headlines.

NHL.COM: Washington Capitals captain Alex Ovechkin tallied the 28th hat trick of his career as his club held off the Florida Panthers 4-3. Ovechkin is now tied with Bobby Hull and Marcel Dionne for the sixth-most hat tricks in NHL history. He’s also one goal shy of tying Dave Andreychuk’s record for the most career power-play goals (274). Tom Wilson and Evgeny Kuznetsov each had three points for the Capitals. The Panthers played without Anthony Duclair as he was a late scratch with a lower-body injury and considered day-to-day.

Washington Capitals captain Alex Ovechkin (NHL Images).

Joe Pavelski reached the 400 career goal plateau by scoring twice in a 3-1 victory over the Colorado Avalanche. Dallas goaltender Jake Oettinger left the game in the second period following a collision with Avalanche forward Nicolas Aube-Kubel but returned for the third period. The Stars (9-7-2) have won five of their last six games. Cale Makar netted the only goal for the Avalanche.

Tampa Bay Lightning goaltender Andrei Vasilevskiy made 17 saves for his 200th career win and his second straight shutout to blank the Seattle Kraken 3-0. Pierre-Edouard Bellemare’s first goal of the season was the game-winner while Steven Stamkos netted his 11th goal of the season.

Kirill Kaprizov scored and set up three others as the Minnesota Wild romped to a 7-1 thumping of the Winnipeg Jets, handing the latter their fifth straight loss and chasing Connor Hellebuyck from the Jets net after he gave up four goals on 14 shots. Mats Zuccarello scored two goals and Kevin Fiala collected two assists.

Artemi Panarin broke a 2-2 tie in the third period as the New York Rangers tallied three unanswered goals on route to a 5-2 win over the Boston Bruins. Panarin and Bruins winger Brad Marchand each received misconduct penalties in the final seconds of the game after an exchange of words between the benches led to the Rangers winger throwing one of his hockey gloves at Marchand.

SPECTOR’S NOTE: The New York Post’s Larry Brooks cited two sources claiming Marchand invoked Russian president Vladimir Putin and said no Russian players like Panarin. It’s believed the club has contacted the league about Marchand’s remarks.

Panarin took a leave of absence from the Rangers last season to deal with allegations made by one of his former Russian coaches claiming he assaulted a woman in Latvia a decade ago. The coach has close ties to Putin, whom Panarin had singled out for criticism in the past. The allegations were eventually revealed to be unfounded.

The Anaheim Ducks got a 34-save shutout performance from Anthony Stolarz in a 4-0 win over the Ottawa Senators, handing the Sens (4-13-1) their 10th loss in their last 11 games. Rickard Rakell and Trevor Zegras each had two points while Troy Terry netted his 13th goal of the season.

SPECTOR’S NOTE: The Ottawa Sun’s Bruce Garrioch reports Senators goaltender Matt Murray was a healthy scratch and is expected to be placed on waivers later today. The move is seen as a “wake-up call” for Murray, who hasn’t performed up to expectations this season.

Garrioch reports there are teams struggling between the pipes this season (Arizona Coyotes, Buffalo Sabres) who could use an experienced starter. However, Murray’s $6.25 million cap hit makes it unlikely he’ll be claimed.

The Toronto Maple Leafs picked up their eighth win in their last nine contests by downing the San Jose Sharks 4-1. John Tavares and William Nylander each had a goal and an assist while Joseph Woll kicked out 34 shots for the win. Earlier in the day, the Sharks announced general manager Doug Wilson is taking a temporary medical leave from the club to deal with a non-COVID-related illness.

SPECTOR’S NOTE: Best wishes to Wilson for a quick and full recovery.

A four-goal second period powered the Carolina Hurricanes over the Philadelphia Flyers 6-3. Sebastian Aho scored two goals and Jesperi Kotkaniemi had a goal and an assist as the Hurricanes set a franchise record for requiring the fewest games (19) to reach 15 season-opening wins. The Flyers have dropped five in a row.

An overtime goal by Alex DeBrincat set up by Patrick Kane lifted the Chicago Blackhawks over the St. Louis Blues 3-2. The Blackhawks (7-11-2) were down 2-0 but rallied back on goals by Jujhar Khaira and Brandon Hagel. The Blues have now lost seven of their last nine contests.

Nashville Predators captain Roman Josi had a goal and an assist as his club doubled up the New Jersey Devils 4-2. Josi now has 20 points in as many games this season. Andreas Johnsson also had a goal and an assist for the Devils, who have lost five of their last six.

Tristan Jarry turned aside 25 shots and Kasperi Kapanen scored the only goal as the Pittsburgh Penguins shut out the New York Islanders 1-0 to pick up their fifth straight win. The Islanders (5-10-2) have lost eight straight.

A 39-save effort by Elvis Merzlikins gave the Columbus Blue Jackets a 4-2 win over the Vancouver Canucks. Jack Roslovic scored the tie-breaker in the third period for the Jackets (12-6-0) while the Canucks’ record sinks to 6-13-2.

The Buffalo Sabres broke a four-game losing skid with a 4-1 win over the Montreal Canadiens. Tage Thompson tallied two goals for the Sabres (8-10-2). The Canadiens (5-14-2) are 1-9-1 on the road this season. Earlier in the day, the Sabres placed forward Drake Caggiula on injured reserve.







17 Comments

  1. Well, as I said in a response to Iago yesterday, the best bet for Ottawa would be to find some way to send Murray to Belleville to hopefully get his act together (at least 10 games) and now we see the team intends to put him on waivers today.

    Assuming no one puts in a claim (not a chance) that paves the way to do just that. One other – albeit remote – possibility is that some team shows an interest IF the Senators hold back a good chunk of that $6.25 mil. With 2 years to run after this, they could easily afford to hold back $2.5 mil per and if something like that pops up they should jump at the chance. The return would naturally be minimal.

  2. I rushed home from work to watch the 3rd period of the bruins Rangers game for what? This!?! Unless Sweeney can pull a rabbit out of his yahoo and swing some meaningful trades I won’t be watching the b’s this year. At the beginning of the reg season I thought they’d have difficulty beating the elite teams, but thought they would do okay against the good teams turns out they can only win against the bottom dwellers what a Mess?!? Why does Sweeney still have job ?!? if my job performance isn’t favourable I’m history. Sweeney has failed multiple times to right the ship and has failed 2015 draft that would have been enough to fire a lot of gm’s. This is a disaster!

    • I agree that Sweeney should be fired because he is a terrible GM; however, he was hired as GM about a week before the 2015 draft so he was basically only the person announcing the names so he cannot be blamed for that debacle. The scouting department also needs to be overhauled.

    • Rick can’t blame 2015 on Sweeney.

      I believe this team is built for a deep playoff run; however, got to get there first.

      Boston is on the outside looking in and are in the worst case as for draft position goes.

      The don’t have alot of desirable assets to trade to improve the present squad.

      Rask will sign, and moving Debrusk as a reclamation product, there really isn’t more to do other then give up draft picks.

      With 9 ex 20 goal scorers on the roster hopefully some will start to find the back of the net.

      • Cappy, I know this isn’t exactly gonna turn your frown upside down but you and a few others on this site I actually like. a few I respect but don’t like and others well, let me put it this way if I said what I really feel, my comments wouldn’t make it on here.

        I disagree with you on your first remark. Sweeney is totally responsible for the 2015 draft he even admitted here in 2021 that they didn’t get it right. Regarding “ this team is built for playoffs” , Says Who? Have you watched this team lately. They cave in even when they have the lead and in their own they look at times like a bunch of cats in a roomful of rockers, with the exception Chuck, even Carlo has looked a little frazzled at times the rest of the d yuk, Goalie situation, feeble Ullmark flat out stinks and lately Swayman has looked very ordinary.
        Hall sometimes he looks like he’s not really into it. First line is not the best line in hockey anymore I wouldn’t even put em in the top five. Foligno couldn’t score on my grandsons neighbourhood street hockey team Sweeney needs to do something that doesn’t involve calling up the career ahlers in Providence.

      • For some reason this post made me think about Steve busemi smearing lipstick on and erasing capers name from his to kill list.

  3. A nod to a late comment from yesterday.
    BnG,
    Your trade proposal between Pittsburgh and Montreal is a variation of something you have been mentioning and is based on a false premise that the Habs are looking to unload players.

    Pens fans here have spent the last year wanting to dump Zucker and Pettersson. Habs are not looking to trade Gallagher or Chiarot and neither Z or P would impact the team positively.

    Habs have all kinds of problems that I maintain are systemic with a coaching staff that is committed to long term success of a defensive structure that the players either dislike or having trouble adapting to.

    Petry didn’t forget how to play hockey, neither did Chiarot or Savard yet they are everywhere but the right place on the ice.

    • That last sentence, switching to Senators’ names, describes Ottawa’s play to a T over the past month. Maybe it’s time for the team and Smith to part ways because they certainly don’t resemble the team that finished last season’s final 45 games. Nor can everything be blamed on goaltending.

    • Habfan30–Intuitively, it seems that the Canadiens’ man defense you described a few days ago would be simpler to play than a zone defense. If that is so, might there be factors other than the defensive system causing the players to be out of position?

    • Montreal would never trade Gallagher for Zucker … more typical delusion …

    • Well Chicago changed coaches and systems and their goals against per game got cut in half since he did it.

      Systems matter.

      Doesn’t matter if it the players who can’t do it the way coach wants, bottom line is they are not. Change it.

      Haven’t watched them enough to know, but makes sense to me.

    • Francis S

      Why does a man D seem simpler than zone D intuitively?

      They are totally different systems and players need very different skill sets for each.

      I don’t want to get into details but Jeff Petry has 2 points, is frequently out of position as opposed to being in the running for best D the past few years with 40 pt production.

      • I look on intuition as a sort of personalized guess, so look at my explanation as nothing more than my guess.

        I see man defense as being simpler because I see it essentially as a defender keying on one player or one of certain players of the other team. Somewhat like a guy who was assigned to “shadow” Gretzky–positioning isn’t too complicated, he goes where Wayne goes.

        I see zone coverage as being more complex, since the defender is required to be aware, not only of where he’s supposed to be, but where his teammates are and where the opposition is.

        In my scheme, I’m not considering player attributes and skill sets that would cause a player to be better suited to play one system over another. I’m simply puzzled over the reason Canadiens players like Petry, Chiarot, and Savard were not positionally confused when they played a zone defense, but are everywhere but the right place when playing a man defense, which at least as I described it, is relatively not very confusing.

      • The zone requires players to switch off, but most teams do it so the players are, or should, be accustomed to it. Keeps them closer to the scoring areas as a rule as well.

        The problem I have with man is that if one guys gets beat, one on one, the next decision is difficult and usually results in leaving someone else open to cover for the guy who got beat.

        Don’t play man against the Oilers, Leafs, COL etc. You will get burned.

      • Got it, Ray. And you’ve made me anxious to check the scores of Habs games with those teams. You’ve been the voice of logic for so long, I almost hope the Habs trounced them.

        They’d better get used to man fast.

  4. #46 leaves and the Bruins and sign depth to fill in the holes …. Look at the players they signed as FA and include Reilly & Smith … that’s a mess

    • I actually like the smith and Reilly signings, what made my blood run cold was when the Worst gm in Boston History Sweeney goes out grabs Mr fragile never score again Foligno, busts Huala, Nosek & Forbort. Red Light Ullmark can join the list as well. Tell you what Joe I’ve never been a Rask fan, but the bruins need him right now, Swayman has looked very ordinary lately. Getting a good 2nd line centre is crucial, but a good d is very important, because other than Mac, Carlo has been marginal, the rest stink