NHL Morning Coffee Headlines – May 19, 2022
The Flames and Hurricanes win the opening games of their respective second-round series, the Lady Byng Trophy finalists are revealed, the Kings extend GM Rob Blake, the Predators re-sign coach John Hynes, and more in today’s NHL morning coffee headlines.
GAME RECAPS
NHL.COM: The Calgary Flames drew first blood in the “Battle of Alberta” by downing the Edmonton Oilers 9-6 in Game 1 of their second-round series. Calgary blew a 6-2 lead as the Oilers rallied to tie the game before the Flames scored three unanswered goals in the third period for the win.
Calgary Flames winger Matthew Tkachuk (NHL Images).
Matthew Tkachuk tallied a hat trick, Johnny Gaudreau collected three assists, Andrew Mangiapane and Rasmus Andersson each had a goal and two assists and Blake Coleman scored twice for the Flames. Connor McDavid had four points, Leon Draisaitl three points and Zach Hyman tallied twice for the Oilers, who pulled goalie Mike Smith after he gave up three goals on 10 shots in just over six minutes early in the first period.
SPECTOR’S NOTE: This was a wild throwback to high-scoring ’80s-style hockey though the two clubs had far more low-scoring games during their previous playoff games back in their rivalry’s heyday. This was a wildly entertaining match to kick off this series but I daresay we’ll see more closer-checking games as this series progresses.
An overtime goal by Ian Cole gave the Carolina Hurricanes a 2-1 victory over the New York Rangers in Game 1 of their second-round series. Filip Chytil opened the scoring in the first period for the Rangers, who clung to that narrow lead until Sebastian Aho tied it late in the third period. Hurricanes goaltender Antti Raanta made 27 saves while Rangers netminder Igor Shesterkin stopped 24 shots.
SPECTOR’S NOTE: The Rangers controlled the play for most of this game. However, Hurricanes coach Rod Brind’Amour’s line shuffling in the third provide the spark his club needed to find a way to win.
HEADLINES
NHL.COM: Winnipeg Jets winger Kyle Connor, Carolina Hurricanes defenseman Jaccob Slavin and Minnesota Wild blueliner Jared Spurgeon are this year’s finalists for the Lady Byng Memorial Trophy, awarded to the NHL’s most gentlemanly player.
SPECTOR’S NOTE: Some will wonder why Spurgeon made the cut given he was fined $5,000.00 for cross-checking St. Louis Blues winger Pavel Buchnevich in Game 1 of their first-round playoff series. This award honors regular-season performance and the votes were likely cast before the start of the postseason.
TSN: The Los Angeles Kings have signed general manager Rob Blake to a new three-year contract.
SPECTOR’S NOTE: No surprise here. Blake’s done a good job rebuilding the Kings since taking over as their GM.
THE ATHLETIC: A source claims the Nashville Predators have signed head coach John Hynes to a new multi-year contract. An official announcement is expected at the Predators’ end-of-season press conference on Thursday.
SPECTOR’S NOTE: The Predators weren’t expected to qualify for the playoffs this season. Hynes’ coaching played a key role in the club exceeding expectations.
BOSTON HOCKEY NOW: Bruins GM Don Sweeney said his contract with the club has yet to be extended but he expects a resolution should be reached soon.
PHILLY HOCKEY NOW: The Philadelphia Flyers will be meeting with former New York Islanders coach Barry Trotz, who interviewed with the Winnipeg Jets earlier this week.
SPECTOR’S NOTE: Trotz is said to be weighing his options as to his next NHL coaching gig. There’s been speculation linking Trotz to the Vegas Golden Knights. So far, however, there’s no indication they’ve scheduled an interview with him.
VEGAS HOCKEY NOW: Speaking of the Golden Knights, captain Mark Stone underwent back surgery on Wednesday. A timeline for when he’ll return to the ice isn’t expected until a month into his rehab.
OTTAWA SUN: Senators forward Tim Stueztle’s participation in the IIHF World Championships has been derailed by a knee strain. The injury isn’t serious but he faces a two-week recovery period.
NHL.COM: Florida Panthers defenseman Ben Chiarot was fined $5,000.00 for head-butting Tampa Bay Lightning forward Ross Colton during Game 1 of their second-round series.
SPECTOR’S NOTE: Incidents of head-butting among NHL players have been on the rise recently. The league should do more to address this but I don’t hold out much hope given their foot-dragging on other disciplinary issues over the years.
NHL.COM: Ratings for the opening round of the 2022 Stanley Cup playoffs were the highest since the advent of cable television.
SPECTOR’S NOTE: That’s because of the league’s return to ESPN and the additional coverage TNT and TBS in the United States. Something that should’ve happened a long time ago.
Offer Sheet update:
Here are the updated Offer Sheet compensation tiers for the 2022 off-season.
The updated tiers represent an increase of roughly 2.21% over last years thresholds, which is 50% of the average player salary increase of 4.42% for 2022.https://t.co/fTuH7jqThF pic.twitter.com/8Z2eu40hcn
— CapFriendly (@CapFriendly) May 18, 2022
Wow…. Last night was 80’s night in Alta
I love high scoring games. Very exciting. So weird to see three goalies with top goalie performer of the night (only @865) actually take the loss (Kosk gets loss as Oil had tied it 6-6; so he became goalie of record).
When it got to 6-6… even though Oil were being heavily outshot…. I actually thought they just might pull the complete comeback
McD another sick night…. Bobbing and weaving…. 4 points
So many goals… the time-keeper/penalty box official gets confused and let’s out (of the box) the wrong player on a penalty plus offsetting penalties situation; (Tkachuck) who then scores a goal before the next whistle.
The V by Flames…. Well deserved…. Again nigh 50 shots….
But letting the explosive Oil back in to the game after being up 2-0 only 56 seconds into game; and later being up 5-1 and 6-2… and then letting Oil tie it up 6-6….. Flames need to address that
Canes/Rangers also a very exciting game….spectacular saves at either end…. OT…. Goalers duel…. Raanta over Shesterkin
Two completely different types of games…. Both exciting…. Great entertainment
Hope tonight’s games are just as exciting
It wasn’t the wrong player that got out of the box. The rule is that Calgary gets to decide who comes out of the box first, they chose Tkachuk.
Hi Premiere
I was on the same understanding as you at the time
However my comment was based on the play-by-play and colour commentators who said Flames would normally have choice in multiple player penalties; however with the exception of off-setting minors that came after an initial call against one team; but on the same play; and in that case; the original first penalty player, is the one that must come out first
No idea if your/my first thoughts on the play (full choice by team getting concurrent penalties) are correct; or if commentators were correct ( Offsetting penalties post original penalty on same play nullifying the choice)…, either way it added to the full entertainment value of the whole game
15 goals brought me warp speed back to the mid-late 80’s….. wouldn’t we all love to be 3 1/2 decades younger
Hell, I’d settle for 3 1/2 years!
Re “ Bruins GM Don Sweeney said his contract with the club has yet to be extended but he expects a resolution should be reached soon.”…. I believe there are a couple of Bruins posters here who are 🤞ing and 🙏ing that this does not happen
I stayed up to watch that Calgary-Edmonton free-for-all and thought for a second that I had tuned into an NBA game. Complete opposite of the Rangers-Hurricanes tilt which I thought (and hoped) would end up in a rare 1-0 ending. Rangers deserved that one with their largely dominating play, but Raanta was as good as Shesterkin.
Wow! for you to stay up past your curfew of 9 is an incredible but chancey achievement Happy 85th Georgie happy birthday to you.
Don’t rush me Ricky – it’s 84th … and anyway I prepared by taking a long nap in the afternoon 🙂
you don’t look a day over 90
But I feel over 90 most mornings. If you’re lucky you’ll be there one day …
yes McDavid had 4 points……..and was a minus 1.
Caper, yesterday when we were discussing the observations made by Steve Simmons in his article about the Leafs, you wrote:
“George O, take the leafs out and put in any number of teams and it holds true. The NHL has been littered with career years, I don’t know why but maybe the compressed schedule. Playing tired teams 3 games in 4 nights etc. I do expect to see some stats rescinding next season. Not sure how many career years consecutively players normally have; but hard to imagine 4 players with established careers having career years back to back.”
That got me wondering so I did a bit of research and, eliminating the 2021 and 2020 final standings (just 56 and 70gp) I compared this past season to the 2019, 2018 and 2017 final standings when all played the full 82 games, looking at the goals against for all sub-.500 teams for each season.
In 2017 there were 8 such teams with a total of 2,005 ga. In 2018 it was 10 teams with 2,687 and in 2019 it was 9 teams with 2,439ga.
This season just ended there were 12 sub-.500 teams giving up 3,516 goals so it looks like your observation is bang on.
Just look at how many point per game or close to ppg players there have been recently. There’s definitely an upward trend which is good, I think.
GeogeO for fun i goggle NHL 2021 with career years.
First thing that came up was “5 Minnesota Wild Players having Career years.”
Kirill Kaprizov
Marcus Foligno
Ryan Hartman
Jon Merill
Mats Zuccarello
Kirill only 2nd season in the NHL for argument sake you can drop his name. The other 4 have established NHL careers.
Foligno scored 23 goals previous high in 9 seasons 13
Zuccarello 79pts in 70 games previous high 61pts in 81gp in 2015-2105
Hartman 35g 65pts 82gp previous high 19 goals 31pts in 2016-2017
Merrill 20pts previous high 15pts 2018-2019
************************************
Chris Kreider NYR scored 51 goals 77pts in 81gp his previous high 28g 53pts 75gp in 2016-2017
It seems 2021 – 2022 was a career year.
And for Minnie they didn’t include Fiala having a career year? Sure looked like that to me.
George O, Fiala, Eriksson Ek, Gaudreau and Brodin all had career years. Add them to the previous 5; 9 players on one team with career years.
Ny Rangers.
This is what happens when you show up for 40 minutes of a game. Probably the most structured game I’ve seen NY play all year.
But then when you don’t show up after 2 periods thinking a 1 goal game is enough, this is what bappens.
CO, I thought the Rangers had that in the bag. Has to be an extremely disappointing loss.
I would image Kakko didn’t sleep well, that would’ve sealed the deal.
For some reason the hoary old “Katy-bar-the-door” mentality kicks in in those types of games – despite the fact history shows it almost never works. Certainly not against powerhouse offenses.
In football the same mentality is the “prevent defense” – give them the short yards but guard against the long bomb. Joe Montana used to pick that approach apart like a surgeon.
Re those “Lady Byng” nominees – wouldn’t you love to see NHL teams drive voters nuts and at the same time perhaps force the NHL to abandon that insipid award for something better by nominating players like Tom Wilson, Austin Watson, Brad Marchand, Mark Borowiecki, Matthew Tkachuk ….
What’s wrong with honoring players who perform at a high level without taking needless penalties. I have a lot more respect for those players than those you mentioned. None of those guys are “shrinking violets” either. Slavin, for example, logs big minutes against the Hurricanes’ top opponents. Look at previous winners like Barkov, Kopitar, O’Reilly, St. Louis, Datsyuk, Sakic, Francis, Sakic, Gretzky and so on. Those guys could be counted on to play well without taking penalties, especially in big games. Kopitar, O’Reilly and Datsyuk played hard minutes in two-way roles and never resorted to cheap shots or allowed themselves to get suckered into taking retaliatory penalties.
I’d take a team full of those guys over those you mentioned anytime.
Yeah … but call it something else. Maybe after a deceased super star who epitomized the qualities you cite who doesn’t yet have a trophy named after him – Beliveau comes to mind.
Yeah, good luck with that. Pundits have called for trophies like the Art Ross, Norris, Selke, Hart and Calder to be renamed. The league has refused and I can see their point. After all, if you start renaming trophies now, what’s to stop calls for the same thing in 50 or 100 years’ time. Rather than focus on the “Lady Byng” name, focus instead on the caliber of the players who get the award.