NHL Morning Coffee Headlines – March 17, 2023

by | Mar 17, 2023 | News, NHL | 15 comments

The Panthers and Canadiens tie a record for most first-period goals, Sidney Crosby reaches another scoring milestone, Connor McDavid tops 130 points on the season, and more in today’s NHL Morning Coffee Headlines.

GAME RECAPS

NHL.COM: The Florida Panthers and Montreal Canadiens combined to tie a league record for most first-period goals with 10 as the Panthers romped to a 9-5 victory after scoring seven in the opening frame. Matthew Tkachuk had a goal and three assists while Aaron Ekblad and Carter Verhaeghe each tallied twice for the 34-27-7 Panthers (75 points), who moved to within three points of the New York Islanders for the final Eastern Conference wild-card berth. The Canadiens have dropped eight of their last nine and fell to 27-36-6 on the season.

SPECTOR’S NOTE: The Panthers also set a franchise record for most goals in one period.

Pittsburgh Penguins captain Sidney Crosby collected two assists for his 18th career point-per-game season in a 4-2 loss to the New York Rangers. Chris Kreider scored twice while Mika Zibanejad and Vincent Trocheck each had two points as the Rangers (39-19-10) hold third place in the Metropolitan Division with 88 points. The Penguins (34-24-10) continue to cling to the first Eastern wild-card spot with 78 points and two games in hand over the Islanders.

SPECTOR’S NOTE: Crosby now sits second in most point-per-game seasons. Wayne Gretzky is the leader with 19 seasons. The Penguins activated Ryan Poehling off long-term injured reserve for this game.

Edmonton Oilers center Connor McDavid (NHL Images).

Edmonton Oilers captain Connor McDavid surpassed 130 points on the season with a goal and an assist to defeat the Dallas Stars 4-1. Mattias Janmark scored two goals as the Oilers improved to 38-23-8 and hold third place in the Pacific Division with 84 points. The 37-19-13 Stars cling to first place in the Central Division with 87 points.

SPECTOR’S NOTE: McDavid is the first player to reach 130 points in a season since Mario Lemieux and Jaromir Jagr did it in 1995-96.

The Boston Bruins got a 36-save performance from Jeremy Swayman in a 3-0 shutout of the Winnipeg Jets. Trent Frederic, Pavel Zacha and Tomas Nosek scored for the Bruins (51-11-5) as they sit on top of the overall standings with 107 points. The Winnipeg Jets sank to 38-29-3 and hold the final Western Conference wild-card berth with 79 points.

SPECTOR’S NOTE: Bruins defenseman Derek Forbort left the game in the second period with a lower-body injury. Earlier in the day, the Jets announced Sam Gagner (hip surgery) is done for the season.

Tampa Bay Lightning captain Steven Stamkos scored twice and collected an assist while Alex Killorn scored in the shootout to nip the New Jersey Devils 4-3. The 41-22-6 Lightning (88 points) moved within one point of the second-place Toronto Maple Leafs in the Atlantic Division. Timo Meier tallied twice and Nico Hischier had two assists for the Devils (44-17-7). With 95 points, they sit one point back of the first-place Carolina Hurricanes in the Metropolitan Division.

The Colorado Avalanche picked up their fourth straight win by holding off the Ottawa Senators 5-4. Mikko Rantanen had a goal and two assists while Nathan MacKinnon collected three assists for the 39-22-6 Avalanche, who sit third in the Central Division with 84 points. Tim Stutzle had three assists for the Senators (33-31-4) as they sit eight points out of the final Eastern wild-card berth with 70 points.

Calgary Flames forward Tyler Toffoli scored twice and added two assists in a 7-2 thumping of the Vegas Golden Knights. Blake Coleman also had two goals for the Flames as they improved to 31-24-14 (76 points) and move within three points of the Jets for the final Western Conference wild-card spot. It was Jonathan Quick’s first loss (4-1-0) with the Golden Knights (42-21-6) as they hold first place in the Western Conference with 90 points.

A four-goal second period carried the Los Angeles Kings over the Columbus Blue Jackets 4-1. Pheonix Copley made 29 saves for the 40-20-9 Kings, who sit one point back of the Golden Knights in the Western Conference standings. The Blue Jackets (21-39-7) sit dead last in the overall standings with 49 points.

An overtime goal by Vince Dunn lifted the Seattle Kraken to a 2-1 victory over the San Jose Sharks. Oliver Bjorkstand scored the game-tying goal and Philipp Grubauer stopped 31 shots as the Kraken improved to 38-23-7 and hold the first Western wild-card berth with 83 points. William Eklund scored his second goal in as many games for the 19-36-14 Sharks.

The Chicago Blackhawks got a 35-save effort from Alex Stalock to upset the Nashville Predators 2-1. Lukas Reichel and Joey Anderson scored for the 24-38-6 Blackhawks while Roman Josi replied for the 34-25-7 Predators (75 points), who sit four points out of the final Western wild-card spot.

Arizona Coyotes forward Travis Boyd scored twice in a 3-2 win over the Vancouver Canucks. Elias Pettersson had a goal and an assist for the Canucks. The Coyotes 26-32-11 extended their points streak to seven games while the Canucks dropped to 29-33-5.

IN OTHER NEWS…

STLTODAY.COM: St. Louis Blues goaltender Jordan Binnington received a two-game suspension by the NHL department of player safety for roughing Minnesota Wild forward Ryan Hartman on Wednesday.

THE ORANGE COUNTY REGISTER: Anaheim Ducks goaltender Anthony Stolarz underwent season-ending knee surgery. His expected recovery time is six to eight weeks.

DETROIT HOCKEY NOW: Red Wings defenseman Ben Chiarot could be sidelined on a week-to-week basis with an upper-body injury.

ESPN.COM: The Arizona Coyotes signed Josh Doan to a three-year entry-level contract. He’s the son of former Coyotes captain Shane Doan.







15 Comments

  1. Now that’s scoring…. 10 goals first period 👍👍👍

    Verhaeghe… 2G , +4 last night; season 82 game pace ….42-31-73 ; +16….. only $4.2 M AND for another 2 years…worked his way out of the ECHL… would have been great if Leafs had kept him

    Cats going to get in to WC spot??

    McD McD McD….. just hand him his 4 awards now… be done with it!!

    Knights…. Went to the Quick well too often… a one off game? Or were they giving him too much workload?

    Pens v Blueshirts….

    Good onya ….

    Guentz…. Another 30 G season

    Sid….now just 1 behind tying record (Gretzky…19) for number of seasons averaging at least a PPG

    Jarry….certainly held the fort (912); but Shesterkin was Shesterkinish

    Game outcome itself….Result as I expected pre-game and from the first minute Blue-Shirts onslaught…

    overall game…. Rangers the better team…. 2 points deserved…..

    that said…, hard to stomach (as a Pens fan) when GWG is scored when the goal scorer himself should have been penalized AND an elbow to the head (deliberate or not; was an elbow to the head, which is an automatic penalty [intent is irrelevant]) eliminating a player for the rest of the game…. NOT penalized.

    Again, Rangers deserved the 2 points….. but they also deserved those two key penalties

    • To put Sis’s accomplishment in perspective…. He (@ 35) is sitting right now at 15th all time in points…..

      No Steckel…. He’d be in 9th place right now; and would move past Mario (8th right now) some time next season; and if he only averages 70-75 points /year for the balance of this contract (2 more years)…. He’d be in 5th or 6th

      Dang that Steckel

  2. Happy SP’s Day ☘️ ☘️☘️☘️☘️☘️

    Pengy & Fam

    • Indeed a pint of Ricards red will be in my future today

      • 😀

  3. 🍁Mc-Jesus congrats on 130 pts….👌

    Oilers have 13 games left, and Can 97 get the 13 Goals for 70 on the year, Can He do it…⁉️
    oilers looked very good agaist theDallas Stars last night Young Stu Skinner played a Great Game in Goal again last night… and Janmark 2 goals 😃

    • Hi Willie

      A stretch…. Can he? Yes possible

      But I’m thinking that playing time will be a major factor… if with 3 or 4 games left Oil are basically locked in whatever position they are in…. They’ll likely then parse back his minutes and save him for playoffs

      They have two games (each I believe) v Kings and Knights….. win those 4 in reg…. Shot at Pac 1 is in their grasp….. lose all 4 in reg…. it’s WC likely

      I believe it’ll be between those two extremes…. So likely counting on more time for him

      Key game in Krakenville Sat aft

      • The way the west is going for the last month or so with the top 6 teams winning consistently, I can see this going to the wire for playoff seeds.

        In the Pacific for sure, and ya Pengy that’s a big one against Seattle. The Oil beat Dallas last night, but you would rather not play them in RD 1.

        Would like LA to falter, but instead they are heating up. Another team that plays that grinding, won’t go away hockey.

        Playoffs are gonna be interesting however this shakes out. No easy outs, especially if the Markstrom and the Flames figure it out and get hot down the stretch.

  4. Winnipeg outplayed Boston in the 1st and 2nd period. First shift of the game sloppy defensive coverage by the jets left Frederick alone in front of the net, he potted his 15th of the season. Wonder how many folks had Frederick with at least 15 goals.

    Texting with my brother who was watching on a streaming app, determine a 3 minute from live play.

    Carlo was Boston best dman last night; although Lauko didn’t get much ice time, he was very noticeable when on the ice.

    Pastrnak man this player gives the puck up a ton and so easily, hopefully he plays a stronger game playoff time.

    Grzelcyk with his usual cough ups under pressure and he can make some tape to tape passes when time permits.

    Zacha with his career high 18th goal of the season, this was a solid trade by Sweeney.

    Bertuzzi, setup the Frederick goal 40 seconds in other then that i didn’t take notice of him; however he was selected 2nd star of the game.

    Lots of Bruin fans in attendance and it looked like we all stay to watch the goalie hug and there was a huge round of applause for that thing. Weird how something so trivial can bring folks together.

    Winnipeg played hard and Scheifele and Connor who were benched for a time during their previous game; not last night. Scheifele 25:47 toi and Connor 24:55 toi lead all forwards and they played well but couldn’t finish.

    entertaining fast pace game.

  5. Binnington is cancer for his team. I hope Armstrong signs him to an 8 year deal in his next contract….bwahahaha

    Plus, I live in St. Louis and to hear all of the Blues fans defend his actions…. they deserve each other for many years to come. He had one GREAT season. Since then, he’s kind of been entitled. At least in his own mind.

    • He’s also got his name on the Stanley Cup.

      • So do a lot of players, that actually have some class. He has none. Again, hope he stays with the Blues for a long time.

      • That was a kind response starsfan. Idda went with
        “So does Tom Wilson “

      • Binnington was outstanding against my Bruins in 2019 final.

        Binnington is a either a total snap case who can’t deal with adversity, or it is simply an act when he is getting lit up for 5 and he wants to go pout in the dressing room for a while.

        I dunno which, but would bet $20 on the latter.

  6. And watching him skate off the ice, trying to pump up the fans…It’s kind of like…”Hey, I REALLY screwed up here but if I can get the fans behind me, maybe it was all for the better”. He’s a real Douche Canoe.