NHL Morning Coffee Headlines – October 20, 2022

by | Oct 20, 2022 | News, NHL | 14 comments

All three of Wednesday’s games end in 4-3 scores plus the latest on Gabriel Landeskog, Aaron Ekblad, Jake Muzzin and more in today’s NHL Morning Coffee Headlines.

GAME RECAPS

NHL.COM: An overtime goal by Neal Pionk lifted the Winnipeg Jets over the Colorado Avalanche 4-3. Pionk finished the night with two goals while Jets goalie Connor Hellebuyck made 30 saves for the win. Mikko Rantanen scored twice for the Avalanche while Valeri Nichushkin had a two-point game.

Colorado Avalanche winger Gabriel Landeskog (NHL Images).

SPECTOR’S NOTE: Both clubs were without a key player in this contest. The Avalanche announced before this game that Gabriel Landeskog underwent arthroscopic knee surgery and will be sidelined for 12 weeks. The Avs captain had surgery last March on his knee and returned for the playoffs but it continued to bother him throughout the offseason and sidelined him through training camp and the start of this season.

Meanwhile, Jets winger Nikolaj Ehlers was sidelined by an undisclosed injury and remains questionable for Thursday’s game against the Vegas Golden Knights. The club also announced that head coach Rick Bowness will return on Saturday from his bout with COVID-19.

St. Louis Blues defenseman Justin Faulk scored two goals, including the game-winner in overtime, to defeat the Seattle Kraken 4-3. Blues winger Vladimir Tarasenko collected three assists while goalie Jordan Binnington got the win with a 32-save performance. Alex Wennberg and Oliver Bjorkstand each had two assists for the Kraken, who are 1-2-2 in their first five games.

SPECTOR’S NOTE: Blues winger Pavel Buchnevich missed this game with a lower-body injury.

The Florida Panthers got two goals from Carter Verhaeghe as they held off the Philadelphia Flyers 4-3 to hand the latter their first loss of the season. Aleksander Barkov, Matthew Tkachuk and Sam Bennett each collected two assists while Travis Konecny and James van Riemsdyk were among the Flyers’ goal scorers.

SPECTOR’S NOTE: The Panthers played this game without top defenseman Aaron Ekblad, who was placed on long-term injury reserve with a lower-body injury. There is no timetable for his return, which is bad news for the Panthers’ already thin blueline depth. Speaking of the Flyers, they claimed center Lukas Sedlak off waivers from the Colorado Avalanche.

HEADLINES

TORONTO SUN: The Maple Leafs placed defenseman Jake Muzzin (neck) on injured reserve. Meanwhile, head coach Sheldon Keefe walked back his critical comments aimed at his elite players following their 4-2 loss to the Arizona Coyotes on Monday.

SPECTOR’S NOTE: The Leafs lost two games of their first four games to teams they should easily defeat (Arizona, Montreal) and barely won the other two games. That has a number of their followers already on edge. Keefe’s clarification drew criticism from social media with some suggesting that it’s indicative of the Leafs’ fragility this early in the season.

DETROIT HOCKEY NOW: Red Wings forward Jakub Vrana has entered the NHL/NHLPA Player Assistance Program and will be out of the lineup for an indefinite period.

SPECTOR’S NOTE: Here’s hoping Vrana gets the help he needs to resume his playing career and get his life back on track away from the arena.

WASHINGTON HOCKEY NOW: Capitals winger Connor Brown (lower body) has been placed on injured reserve.

NHL.COM: Buffalo Sabres defenseman Ilya Lyubushkin is day-to-day with an undisclosed injury.

MONTREAL GAZETTE: Goaltender Jake Allen has returned to the Canadiens lineup. He missed Monday’s game against the Pittsburgh Penguins as his wife was giving birth to the couple’s third daughter.

SPECTOR’S NOTE: Congratulations to the Allen family on their new arrival.

TWINCITIES.COM: Jordan Greenway makes his season debut with the Minnesota Wild. The 25-year-old winger underwent off-season shoulder surgery. He also underwent procedures to have a cyst removed from his ankle and to have his wisdom teeth removed.

SPORTSNET’s Elliotte Friedman reported New York Rangers forward Dryden Hunt and Vancouver Canucks winger Phillip Di Giuseppe were placed on waivers yesterday.

THE ATHLETIC: Former Detroit Red Wings defenseman Danny DeKeyser signed a PTO contract with the AHL’s Toronto Marlies.

CALGARY SUN: The city of Calgary and the Flames organization have restarted formal talks on the construction of a new arena. Negotiations fell apart last year over cost overages weeks before construction was to start on a $650 million project.

SPECTOR’S NOTE: Wake me when you’ve got a deal. And yes, I believe they will hammer out a deal.







14 Comments

  1. why not just build the Flames new arena on the Sutter ranch? 🙂

  2. Move them to glendale. They have decent areana

  3. A depleted Flyers team seems to be responding – so far anyway – to Tortorella’s coaching.

    Losing Ekblad on top of Weegar suddenly has that Florida D looking awful ordinary.

  4. Bruins run and gun will only last until they lose a few games. Unless you have the d and goalie to back it up it ain’t gonna work. Still need to add some pieces. Sign Pastrnak’ already!

    • Rinse and repeat

  5. Panthers suddenly have over 6mil of cap space. Chychrun grew up in SoFla and parents still live there. Hmmmm

    • Heh. Cue the rumors Slick62. And you can bet that scenario won’t be overlooked by a columnist somewhere.

      Although, on second thought … just what they need – replace their star D who is on LTIR with a D who is repeatedly dealing with a myriad of injuries and is, in fact, still recovering from a wrist surgery.

      • Haha. Did read somewhere that Chychrun is traveling with team on road trip. Could be playing soon?

  6. Just wondering. Is it time for the Avs to start worrying about Landeskog’s long-term Health? This is the third of the last four years that he’s missed significant time to injury. His knee injury could be turning into a chronic problem. He’s about to turn 30, an age when many players start to break down.

  7. Best wishes for Vrana to get any help he needs. Watching him play this year, the look on his face showed a man uncomfortable with himself.

    From the Wings perspective, losing Vrana, Bertuzzi, and Fabbri has undermined Yzerman’s efforts this off season to improve Detroit’s depth scoring. We will see if guys like Rasmussen , Zadina, Soderblom, or Veleno can step up to fill the void.

  8. Seems to be a lot more injuries to start the year then I remember. Lot of good plYwr out all over nhl

  9. The play by Mason Appleton on Neal Pionk OT goal was a thing of beauty.

    The Av’s were on the forecheck with the puck, goes around the boards McKinnon coming behind Winnipeg net, skating hard up the wall to grab the Puck; Appleton hurry’s up pinches off Mckinnon while facing toward Colorado net and a shot little pass to Pionk for a 2 on 1 and Pion scores.

    Not sure why but for me, it was such a smart hockey play. Most players would’ve have went chest first into the boards to cut off McKinnon, whereas Appleton turn his body where he was the only player who could make a play on the puck. Subtle but a thing of beauty to watch.

    • Pionky Tonk Man had himself a game.
      Not sure about the Morrissey-Pionk combo but for one game I’ll take it. Appleton looked good for once this year let’s hope this is a catalyst for him moving forward. Personally I had both him and Harkins on the waiver wire last week.

  10. Isn’t the Carter Verhaeghe a nice storey and inspiration to any hockey player playing in the minors.

    Drafted in the 3rd round 82nd overall by Toronto in 2013.
    In 2018 put on waivers by Tampa and cleared.

    Got his first game in the NHL in 2019-2020 season with the Tampa Bay Lightning. 6yrs after being drafted.

    scored 9 goals in 52 games that season followed
    by:

    18g in 43gp Florida
    24g un 78gp Florida

    on a $1m per year contract

    This season on July 28th signed a three-year deal worth $12.5 million.

    It took Carter Verhaeghe 6yrs from being drafted to make it to the NHL showing perseverance, dedication and hard work results doesn’t always show up in year 2, 3 or 4 sometimes it takes a little longer.