NHL Morning Coffee Headlines – April 7, 2022
Alex Ovechkin reaches another scoring milestone during Wednesday’s games plus updates on Carey Price, Jason Zucker and more in today’s NHL morning coffee headlines.
GAME RECAPS
NHL.COM: John Carlson scored twice and set up two others as the Washington Capitals held off the Tampa Bay Lightning 4-3. Washington Capitals Alex Ovechkin had a goal and an assist as he became the 21st player in NHL history to reach 1,400 career points. He has 43 goals this season. The Capitals have a firm hold on the final Eastern Conference wild-card berth with 86 points. The Lightning, meanwhile, sit seven points ahead of the Capitals in the first wild-card spot as they’ve won just four of their last 10 games.
Washington Capitals captain Alex Ovechkin (NHL Images).
SPECTOR’S NOTE: Capitals forward Garnet Hathaway missed this game with a non-COVID-related illness.
Calgary Flames defenseman Michael Stone had a goal and an assist in his 500th career NHL game as his club doubled up the Anaheim Ducks 4-2, handing the latter their 13th loss in their last 14 games. Johnny Gaudreau and Andrew Mangiapane each collected two assists while Elias Lindholm scored his 36th goal of the season. The Flames (93 points) opened a seven-point lead over the Edmonton Oilers atop the Pacific Division standings.
Third-period goals by Jordan Kyrou and Ryan O’Reilly gave the St. Louis Blues a 4-1 victory over the Seattle Kraken. Ville Husso got the win by stopping 28 shots as the Blues sit one point behind the second-place Minnesota Wild in the Central Division with 90 points.
The Vancouver Canucks kept their slim playoff hopes alive by dropping the Vegas Golden Knights 5-1, snapping the latter’s five-game win streak. Elias Pettersson scored twice and set up two others, J.T. Miller and Oliver Ekman-Larsson each collected two points and Thatcher Demko kicked out 33 shots. With 76 points, the Canucks sit six points back of the Golden Knights, who are one point behind the Dallas Stars for the final Western Conference wild-card berth.
Detroit Red Wings forward Sam Gagner scored twice (including his 500th career point) as his club upset the Winnipeg Jets 3-1. Thomas Greiss got his first win since Feb. 17 with 32 saves. The Jets are tied with the Canucks but have lost three straight.
SPECTOR’S NOTE: The Canucks and Jets have little room for error in their quest to secure a playoff berth. Both clubs have 11 games remaining and must win almost all of them while the clubs ahead of them (Golden Knights, Stars and Nashville Predators) will have to lose most of their remaining contests.
HEADLINES
MONTREAL GAZETTE: Carey Price is traveling with the Canadiens during their current two-day road trip to New Jersey and Toronto. However, he will not be playing in those games. Rookie defenseman Justin Barron remained in Montreal as he’s nursing a leg injury suffered during Tuesday’s game against the Ottawa Senators.
SPECTOR’S NOTE: Price seems to be getting closer to returning to action for some of the Canadiens’ remaining games in the schedule. He’s expected to continue practicing with his teammates during this road trip.
TRIBLIVE.COM: Pittsburgh Penguins winger Jason Zucker returned to full practice yesterday with his teammates. He’s listed as day-to-day with a lower-body injury but was skating on the second line with Evgeni Malkin. The oft-injured Zucker was hurt during a game last week and had to be helped from the ice.
SPORTSNET: Elliotte Friedman reports the NHL Players Association held its first meeting with player agents in three years.
PA executive director Donald Fehr remains confident the players will be protected against potential revenue losses from the Arizona Coyotes temporarily moving to a 5,000-seats venue starting next season. He also agreed with NHL commissioner Gary Bettman’s prediction that the players could fully repay their escrow debt to the owners by 2024-25.
The PA and the league will also continue conversations about filing no-trade lists with NHL Central Registry.
OTTAWA SUN: It’s believed Senators owner Eugene Melnyk, who passed away on March 28, signed off on entering a bid to build a major events center at LeBreton Flats before his untimely death. The area is located 10 minutes from downtown Ottawa. The deadline to submit bids to the National Capital Commission was Feb. 28. An update is expected today.
CHICAGO SUN-TIMES: The Blackhawks are unveiling a new season-ticket membership program reducing the cost for 84 percent of seats under that plan after conducting surveys and receiving feedback from fans. The Blackhawks’ average attendance (18,418) is the NHL’s fifth-highest but the club’s long sellout streak ended earlier this season.
Just want to see what you guys think Regarding the NHL, and War & Killings in Ukraine.
All the companys that have pull out of Russia and ban on lots of other sports and international Sports all over.
Should Russian NHL hockey players be Band from playing Professional NHL…Hockey Spots in 🇺🇸USA & 🍁Canada for the 2022/23 Season…..?
Your thoughts…❓
I don’t think the NHL should ban any Russian players, although I wonder what the Canadian and USA governments might do with their visas and work papers. I have heard that both governments aren’t renewing any Russian visas and other work-related papers.
It makes zero sense to punish Russian Athletes.
Some are against Putin, like Panarin. You’d punish them for what exactly?
Even those who ‘support’ Russia, how do you know their real opinion on the matter? They might fear for their familly back home and won’t talk against Russia publicly…
Then their is the whole legal side. Player assosiation will be all over that if NHL bans Russians. This will end up costing more to the league and could drag for a long time. Won’t look good for a league that does not need any more drama…
Finally, you want sanctions that will hurt Russia, not their people. You want a way to stop the war, not vangence to fill your ego.
You don’t think the sanctions aren’t hurting Russia’s people? You can bet they are. And the more you hurt the greater the internal pressure on him to either step down – or forcibly removed.
This isn’t a minor skirmish we’re seeing here – it’s a full-blown Nazi-like invasion of a sovereign state.
Of course we don’t know the true thoughts of the Russian players (other than Panarin) – which is precisely why it would be a bloody crime to allow them to continue t rake in the millions. They can’t relay the truth of what’s happening in Ukraine to their family-friends back home because that SOB has made it a 15-year prison sentence for anyone uttering anything other than the state version.
And do you really think the NHL player’s Association’s stance is going to make a morsel of difference to Biden or Trudeau should they decide to bow to public pressure to take such action? In a pig’s eye.
The longer that murderous SOB prolongs that atrocity – and events like the Bucha massacres continue – the harder the lines will be taken by the U.S., Canada and others around the world as polls show and ever-increasing demand within each that they get off their respective asses and adopt stronger measures.
Those Russian athletes playing professional – and Major Junior – hockey, soccer, tennis, golf (?) around the globe will be among the specific targets if, for no other reason, than adding to the internal pressure on Putin to step down (or be forcibly removed) from power.
“Just let them play hockey” will be seen as nothing more than the bleating of ill-informed fans.
I seriously doubt any team will waste a draft pick on a Russian later this year. I wouldn’t even allow them into the country to attend – IF the draft in Montreal will be a “live” one in light of the ever-increasing positive cases that are winding up in hospitals in Quebec, Ontario and other provinces (I assume they’re experiencing the same ratio of relentless infections in the U.S.).
You and I disagree on this one George.
Agree with Sergei above that we don’t penalize the players and also agree we don’t know their true opinions on the matter.
I get the businesses and go after those that have profited from the regime, fair game IMO and they should.
But I also don’t think they will work he chooses who is an Oligarch, not the other way around so they have zero leverage. I’m not even sure the sanctions will work, even though I really wish they would. I don’t think he gives a crap about his own people as long as he has enough to fund this war and keep himself in power.
IMO this will end 1 of 2 ways and neither of those will happen for a long time.