NHL Morning Coffee Headlines – November 28, 2022
The Kraken keep rising in the standings, the Canucks are clawing their way back into playoff contention, plus the latest on Panthers captain Aleksander Barkov and more in today’s NHL Morning Coffee Headlines.
GAME RECAPS
NHL.COM: An overtime goal by Daniel Sprong lifted the Seattle Kraken to a 5-4 victory over the Anaheim Ducks. Matty Beniers had a goal and two assists for the Kraken (13-5-3) as they pick up their fifth straight win. Mason McTavish and Adam Henrique scored in the third period for Anaheim to force overtime as their record falls to 6-15-1). Ducks forward Trevor Zegras collected three assists.
Seattle Kraken center Matty Beniers (NHL Images).
SPECTOR’S NOTE: With the win, the Kraken moves one point ahead of the Dallas Stars for second place in the Western Conference standings with 29 points. Beniers leads all NHL rookies this season with 18 points. Meanwhile, Ducks goaltender John Gibson left the game in the third period with an undisclosed injury.
Vancouver Canucks forward Andrei Kuzmenko scored in overtime to nip the San Jose Sharks 4-3. Kuzmenko, Elias Pettersson and J.T. Miller each collected two points as the Canucks (9-10-3) have won five of their last six games. Luke Kunin scored twice and Erik Karlsson picked up two assists for the 7-13-4 Sharks.
SPECTOR’S NOTE: The Canucks have overcome a poor start to this season. With 21 points, they’re one point out of a wildcard berth in the Western Conference. Kuzmenko’s been a key part of that improvement. After netting just two points in his first seven NHL games, he now has 19 points in his last 14 contests, including two game-winning goals.
The Winnipeg Jets thumped the Chicago Blackhawks 7-2. Pierre-Luc Dubois and Saku Maenalanen each scored twice while Kyle Connor and Josh Morrissey each had three-point performances as the Jets improved to 13-6-1. Taylor Raddysh and Jujhar Khaira replied for the Blackhawks (6-11-4) as their winless skid reached seven games.
SPECTOR’S NOTE: Since their 4-2-0 start, the Blackhawks have won only twice in their last 15 games. Jets forward Morgan Barron collected an assist as he returned to action for the first time since being sidelined by an injury on Oct. 30. With 27 points, the Jets are fourth in the Western Conference.
Minnesota Wild winger Kirill Kaprizov had a goal and two assists as his club held off the Arizona Coyotes by a score of 4-3. Joel Eriksson Ek collected two assists for the Wild (10-9-2) while Matias Macelli also picked up two assists as the Coyotes slid to 7-10-3.
SPECTOR’S NOTE: Macelli sits second among this season’s rookie scorers with 13 points but he’s their leader in assists with 12.
The Ottawa Senators downed the Los Angeles Kings 3-2 on an overtime by Claude Giroux. Brady Tkachuk, Tim Stutzle and Thomas Chabot each had two points as the Senators boosted their record to 8-12-1. Arthur Kaliyev scored both goals for the Kings (12-9-3) as they’ve dropped four of their last five contests.
SPECTOR’S NOTE: This was a big win for the struggling Senators as they salvage four points from this four-game western road trip.
HEADLINES
FLORIDA HOCKEY NOW: Panthers captain Aleksander Barkov will be sidelined for the next two games with a non-COVID-related illness.
EDMONTON JOURNAL: The Oilers placed forwards Kailer Yamamoto and Ryan McLeod on injured reserve.
WGR 550: The Buffalo Sabres placed forward Riley Sheahan on unconditional waivers for the purpose of terminating his contract after he declined to report to their AHL affiliate in Rochester.
DAILY FACEOFF: Former Canucks coaching staff member Rachel Doerrie filed a complaint with the British Columbia Human Rights Tribunal last week. She alleges she was discriminated against by the team and assistant general manager Emilie Castonguay for her mental and physical disabilities.
Doerrie, who has PTSD and a heart condition, was hired by the Canucks in January as an analyst and promoted to the coaching staff on Aug. 1. She indicated she had revealed her medical conditions to Canucks president of hockey operations Jim Rutherford during the hiring process. She was terminated from her position in September.
The Canucks issued two statements saying they “strongly disagreed” with Doerrie’s allegations.
The win by Ottawa in L.A. was encouraging for their fans, of course, but what impressed me was the two-way effort from every 5 on 5 shift (both L.A. goals came on the pp), the the fact they cut down on the shots on their goalie to 27 while firing 39 at Quick. That’s the sort of effort needed game-in game-out if they are to have any hope of moving up in the standings.
@George
What coach is Ottawa waiting to hire ?
Boudreau?
I doubt it. The only one in hockey more stubborn than Dorion is Bettman. And he’s determined that Smith is his coach regardless. Besides, with the way the Canucks are rebounding they’d be insane to fire Boudreau.
Babs! or may Quenneville….
I doubt we’ll ever see Quenneville coaching, again. Not after being implicated in that sexual harassment scandal in Chicago. Don’t forget that he stepped down from the Florida position early last season because of that.
Paul, meant to ask you the other day – is the local media now less focused on Ohio State after that clobbering by Michigan and, perhaps, giving more coverage to the Blue Jackets?
George,
You’re joking, right? Pavlov’s dogs got nothing on people from Central Ohio. When one of the local news shows needs a ratings boost, they promo some story loosely connected with OSU football and, like the fools they are, half of Central Ohio (and portions of Cleveland, Akron and Dayton) sit through the show just to find out that the 3rd string center had a dentist appointment.
LOL
i remember the fanfare and raised expectations when Q and his police escort chugged down oakland park blvd enroute to the arena. and panthers announcer randy moller all but guaranteeing a stanley cup in sunrise. don’t see him getting back anytime soon if at all.
I’m betting that Bettman will block any attempt to hire Quenneville and Bowman. Think about it. He’s hinted that he’ll block that kid Montreal drafted from playing. Yet, that kid simply did something immature and stupid. Q and Bowman are quite mature adults who actively engaged in the cover up of a criminal activity.
Oh yeah – both are history now.
I played rugby with the Balmy Beach club in the 70’s and, at a tournament at the University of Virginia, we played Ohio State. They had a football warmup doing stride jumps and sounding very loud but they did not have a clue about rugby. It was a slaughter but, after the game, we all walked over to The Library, a pub near the playing field and a good time was had by all.
And the Library is still there despite certain developers trying to clean up the University district.
I remember Toronto Balmy Beach in the old IRFU/ORFU – along with the London Lords, Kitchener-Waterloo Dutchmen and Sarnia Imperials. Pretty good league at the time and, up to 1955, they were part of the Grey Cup playdowns. Some very good football players were in the IRFU/ORFU at various time, including Cookie Gilchrist and a damned good QB named Bob Celeri, out of the Univ of California and 2 seasons on the NFL.