NHL Morning Coffee Headlines – January 17, 2022

by | Jan 17, 2022 | News, NHL | 19 comments

The Canucks down the Capitals, the Oilers struggle to halt their tailspin, and more in today’s NHL morning coffee headlines.

Vancouver Canucks center Elias Pettersson (NHL Images).

  NHL.COM: Elias Pettersson scored two goals as the Vancouver Canucks doubled up the Washington Capitals in the only NHL game on the schedule yesterday. Bo Horvat and J.T. Miller each had a goal and an assist while Thatcher Demko picked up the win with a 31-save effort as the Canucks snapped a three-game losing skid. Capitals captain Alex Ovechkin tallied his 26th goal of the season to tie Edmonton Oilers forward Leon Draisaitl for the league lead.

NBC SPORTS: Edmonton Oilers captain Connor McDavid is among several of his teammates at a loss to explain their club’s tailspin in the standings following a 6-4 loss to the 30th overall Ottawa Senators on Saturday. “We’ve talked about it over and over and over again in that room and obviously we haven’t found an answer yet,” a dejected McDavid told reporters following Saturday’s game.

The Oilers began the season 16-5-0. They’re 2-10-2 in their last 14 and have fallen out of playoff contention in the Western Conference.

SPECTOR’S NOTE: Like Steve Tambellini, Craig MacTavish and Peter Chiarelli before him, general manager Ken Holland has failed his team. Lousy goaltending, a porous defense and lack of scoring punch behind McDavid and fellow superstar Leon Draisaitl accounts for the Oilers’ woes this season.

It’s up to Holland to fix this mess. So far, his only solution seems to be entertaining the idea of adding free-agent winger Evander Kane and his personal baggage into a fragile dressing-room environment. Some observers suggest replacing head coach Dave Tippett might provide a spark but it won’t overcome the obvious roster issues.

SPORTSNET: Washington Capitals defenseman John Carlson, Los Angeles Kings forward Adrian Kempe, and Vancouver Canucks winger Conor Garland are among the latest players added to the NHL’s COVID protocol list.

NHL.COM: Today is the last day for fans to vote for the final players from each division in its “Last Man In” polling.

THE BUFFALO NEWS‘ Mike Harrington reports Sabres defenseman Jacob Bryson will miss the next two games with an upper-body injury. He has seven points in 32 games this season.







19 Comments

  1. The Oil should just bite the bullet and gas Ken Holland. He has no clue how to manage a team in this cap Era. Everyone knew what they needed, and he goes out and blows the roast on Hyman.
    I dislike the Oil, so far me it’s good to see.
    How many years before McDavid wants out?
    With that said, he could certainly help matters by applying himself on defense like he does on offense. The rink is 200′.

    • and I’m sure if Holland ever met you he would feel the same …

      • That’s probably the first time you’ve been close to being right, Ed.
        Bless your heart.

  2. Just to clarify, the Senators are currently 29th overall but with 7 games in hand on Chicago (24th), 6 on each of Seattle, Buffalo, Philadelphia and 5 on each of Montreal, Arizona and Columbus.

    In their past 14 – to compare to Edmonton – they are 7 6 1 with 4 of those losses coming when they were forced to play with upwards of 9 regulars out with Covid to add to 3 others with injuries – 2/3 of the roster – while some notable teams have not had to play 1 such game, having their games postponed immediately.

    • Aaahhhhh!!!

      It’s zombie George!

    • Heh…. Welcome back George …. Good to see u on here

    • Good to see you back George . I like reading your comments

    • Glad to see you posting. Hope you’ve been well, George.

    • Happy New Year George, glad to see you’re back!

      Speaking of back…that was quite a bit of snow this morning.

      • Heh. Tell me about it. Haven’t been on recently due to “other” issues which are resolved (for now anyway) but today we had a 1:00 pm appointment at a Service Ontario outlet in Stittsville – if one of my sons hadn’t offered to drive us in his 4-wheel drive truck I’d have postponed.

        Drove there and back using the 417 and we were in there for about 2 minutes for the updated cards. But we must have seen 100 stuck cars in on- and off-ramps and a bunch more on Carp Road/Stittsville Main. Front-wheel drive cars are useless in this. An estimated 2 feet in some areas – and still snowing.

  3. Road hockey everywhere canceled today…. There’s a friggin foot of snow outside and still falling (forecast says it will continue until 4) 💩💩💩💩💩

    Thank-you ‘Nucks for beating Caps

    Hoping for a reg or OT Pens win in LV tonight…. If so… Pens in 3rd Metro, Caps in WC spot

    Expecting some players back (from Covid tonight) ; Ruhweedel in press box an ABSOLUTE MUST (Ruhweedel now at 4 games in a row that were absolutely horrific [compared to normally just “very poor”] )

    Kudos to Dominge on excellent play on Sat 👍👍👍👏👏👏👏

  4. Agree George this year is the year of the schedule, and this will not bear well for Oilers. Their next 10 games are extremely hard. If they lose to Calgary and the other short term future games go as the should according to team quality. It could be a complete disaster in a month.

    Can anyone imagine them becoming a seller at the TDL?

  5. Hi Lyle

    I made a post and also responded to George but the posts aren’t showing?

    • I can see your posts, Pengy. Try clearing your browser’s cache and see if that rectifies the issue.

      • Thanks Lyle

        I had done that, and also had tried to see my posts from iPhone and computer…. Didn’t show until much later

        I blame it on the snow …LOL

  6. Holland inherited a powerhouse Red Wings team and ran it into the ground by trading away draft picks, bad free agent signings and insane contracts. Quite the resume for his current job. Though I’m a Blue Jackets fan, I would enjoy seeing the Oil return to something resembling their glory days. But that won’t happen with Holland in charge.

    • Holland didn’t inherit anything. He was part of the organization forever leading up to the cups. Was the director of scouting, the assistant GM in the 10 years prior to him getting GM job in 97. Then won 3 more cups.

      Ya, he sucks.

      • Ray, careful now, you’re making sense again.

    • Ya BCLeafFan, no GM is perfect, and I would agree that his tending gamble has backfired this season as Smith can’t stay healthy.
      Not unpredictable when the guy is 39.
      Is that a reasonable risk for a team that wants to contend?

      But what we don’t know is what starting quality goaltenders were available? And for what cost?

      He determined that the cost wasn’t worth the benefit of what he already had, which got the Oilers into the playoffs each of the last 2 seasons.

      Still time to turn it around, but best get on it pretty darn quick.