NHL Morning Coffee Headlines – April 4, 2023

by | Apr 4, 2023 | News, NHL | 24 comments

The Stars and Wild clinch playoff berths, the three stars of the week are revealed, and more in today’s NHL Morning Coffee Headlines.

GAME RECAPS

NHL.COM: The Dallas Stars clinched a playoff berth by defeating the Nashville Predators 5-1. Jason Robertson had a goal and three assists to become the first player to reach 100 points since the franchise moved to Dallas in 1993-94. With a record of 42-21-14, the Stars hold first place in the Central Division with 98 points. The Predators dropped to 38-30-8 and remain five points out of the final Western Conference wild-card berth.

Dallas Stars winger Jason Robertson (NHL Images)

The Minnesota Wild also secure a postseason spot despite dropping a 4-3 decision to the Vegas Golden Knights on a shootout goal by Reilly Smith. Wild winger Matt Boldy tallied his 30th goal of the season as his club also has 98 points with a record of 44-23-10 to sit second in the Central on the basis of regulation wins. Pavel Dorofeyev tallied twice for the Golden Knights (48-22-7) as they sit atop the Western Conference with 103 points.

SPECTOR’S NOTE: Golden Knights center Chandler Stephenson missed this game due to illness. Meanwhile, the Wild announced winger Mason Shaw suffered a season-ending torn ACL in his right knee on Saturday.

Seattle Kraken goal-scoring leader Jared McCann tallied his 36th and 37th goals in an 8-1 drubbing of the Arizona Coyotes. With the win, the Kraken (42-26-8) opened a three-point lead over the Winnipeg Jets for the first Western Conference wild-card spot with 92 points. The 27-38-13 Coyotes have dropped eight straight games.

HEADLINES

NHL.COM: Tampa Bay Lightning goaltender Andrei Vasilevskiy, Edmonton Oilers forward Leon Draisaitl and Boston Bruins winger David Pastrnak are the NHL’s three stars for the week ending April 2.

TSN: Montreal Canadiens center Sean Monahan (groin surgery) and forward Alex Belzile (fractured leg) are done for the season.

SPECTOR’S NOTE: The Canadiens have lost an NHL-leading 670 man-games to injury. It’s the second straight season they suffered that dubious honor having led the league with 731 in 2021-22.

Some of those injuries were due to bad luck and some were unavoidable over the course of gameplay. Nevertheless, there is genuine concern among Montreal fans and pundits over those unusually high numbers. The Canadiens will reportedly conduct an internal review into its medical treatment, rehab and training procedures during the offseason.

CAP FRIENDLY: reports the Columbus Blue Jackets will receive the Los Angeles Kings’ first-round pick in 2023 after the latter clinched a playoff berth on Sunday. That was part of the conditions of the March 1 trade that saw the Jackets ship goaltender Joonas Korpisalo and defenseman Vladislav Gavrikov to the Kings.

OTTAWA SUN: NHL analyst Nick Kypreos was spotted with Toronto-based billionaire Steve Apostolopoulos and his representatives during Saturday’s game between the Senators and Toronto Maple Leafs at Canadian Tire Centre. That group is among several bidding to purchase the Senators. It’s not known what role Kypreos has with the group.

SPECTOR’S NOTE: General manager Nick Kypreos? Kidding! Or am I? (insert winky face here).

STLTODAY.COM: The Blues are the latest team to opt out of wearing Pride jerseys during their warmups on Pride Night. However, the players will use rainbow tape on their sticks and Pride-themed pucks. The club announced the decision was made to focus on positive actions being taken to support and affirmation to the LGBTQIA-plus community.

SPECTOR’S NOTE: The report observed that the club wore Pride jerseys and tape during warmups last season, with auctioned Pride jerseys, sticks, hats and bags raising nearly $25,000.00 for charity. I wonder what’s changed since then? Hmmm…

THE HOCKEY NEWS: Carson Briere, son of former NHL star and Philadelphia Flyers interim general manager Daniel Briere, has been removed from Merseyhurst Men’s Hockey Team. He faces charges for damaging the wheelchair of a disabled fellow student at a pub in Erie, Pa last month.







24 Comments

  1. Lyle, re “General manager Nick Kypreos? Kidding! Or am I? (insert winky face here).”

    had this been posted 3 days ago I would have laughed and said “good one – had me for a minute there until I checked the calendar …”

    Now, all I can say is, you’d better be kidding !!!

    • Kyper GM Doug Maclean will surely be the president than. Who is coaching lol

    • šŸHey George,

      Go to Edit at top of Screen, and look down to bottom you will see Emoji & Symbols,

      Chick on that you will get lots of intresting stuff…..šŸ‘Œ

    • Yep JZ

      Not bigā€¦. 175 Lbs

      and this id but a Small sample size ā€¦. But heā€™s:

      7-2-9 and + 5 in just 13 GP this yearā€¦. 79th overall pick looking like a McCrimmon McWinner pick

  2. Carson Briereā€¦, complete bonehead moveā€¦. a-hole move!!!

    Kypper GM?
    Kypper and hockey knowledgeā€¦. Oil and water

    I think Kypper and Apostolopolous were just seen on ā€The Duunfuurthā€ grabbing a Souvlaki

    Big games tonight for the West

    Regulation wins by Predz and Oil; move Predz to nipping at Jets heals for final WC spot; and Oil nipping at Knights for 1st Pac Div

    Kraken certainly spanked the lowly Yotesā€¦. At least it was done in front of more than 4,600!! Hoping and praying for a nay vote

    Pensā€¦. Iā€™m absolutely not counting on a win tonight (Devils)

    Cats win with a Pens loss (even in OT)ā€¦. Pens once again outside looking inā€¦..

    Impact of Hexburkie???

    Have a ponder re 3rd lineā€¦..

    Carter/Kappy/McG (avg age 31.3) 82 game pace combined:

    39-44-83; AND -27

    Vs

    McC ; Sprong; Turbo (avg age 27.7) ā€” 82 game pace combined:

    85-78-163; AND + 52

    ANDā€¦.. Ponder the Dā€¦..

    Marino/Matheson (avg. age 27); combined 82 G pace:

    20-57-77; plus 22

    Vs

    Petry/Rutta (avg. age 33.5) ; 82 game combined pace:

    12-42-54; plus 5

    Lets not forget TDL ā€¦.

    2nd, 3rd, 5th , 7th, * out the door

    Bonino ; Kulikov; Granlund (combined 23 games playedā€¦. 5 points)ā€¦.average age 32.9; averaging 6ā€™0ā€, 193 lbsā€¦. inā€¦. AND noteā€¦. Granlund and his $5M Cap hit in for 2 more years!!!!

    *McGinn moved in trade

    All the aboveā€¦..Thatā€™s several kicks in the gnads

    HexBurkie must be fired

    • Pengy, Chrism, Pens fans and Canuck fan.

      Just read that Pittsburgh was working on a deal with the Canucks for JT Miller and it included 2 1st round picks; however Penguins could flip Zucker and deal didn’t happen.

      as per Frank Seravalli

      • Iā€™m guessing that was for last summer?

        Or was it this TDL??

      • Pengy it was this tdl

      • Iā€™d have taken miller and two firsts for zucker. Shame it didnā€™t happen

      • Thanks Caper

        Iā€™d have insisted on Dumo; Kappy; McG also go over in deal

        Certainly could have used JTM as 3C

        But JTM in; Zucker out as the only roster flip in the trade; only marginally would have helped them this year

        JTM in at 3C; then who takes Zuckerā€™s spot

        If JTM just filled Zuckerā€™s spot in top 6ā€¦ top 6 improves marginallyā€¦. would have still been left with crappy bottom 6, Dumo and Ruhweedel

        Soā€¦. Glad that trade didnā€™t go down

        At least Pens can pick in top 17 this yearā€¦. Hoping they can snag man-boy Colby Barlow

      • Chrisms

        Miller and 3 firsts for Zucker; or hard pass

    • Hextall is the quickest GM in Pens history to accumulate 100 wins. Might take a little longer than 2 shortened + 1 regular season to see the plan through.

  3. #1 son just texted me a pick from a hockey blog site where their algorithm projections of the games left in the regular season has 1st WC in East as Pens with 96 points AND Sabres getting in with 94ā€¦..

    Now thatā€™s a broken algorithm written by grade 1 drop outs

    Sabres leap-frogging Panthers AND Isles while getting 13 (of a possible 14 pointsā€¦. With remaining gamesā€¦..Canes, Rangers, Devils who are all trying for 1st in Metro; as well as v Cats, Wings; Sens; Jackets)

    A serious OMG!!!

      • So, the Senators, who currently sit with 80 points with 5 games left, will lose all 5 and get 1 point from an OT/SO loss???

        Oh-kay. I realize they have some significant injuries but If that alone transpires that’s some algorithm.

      • Yeah

        I have no idea what kind of data they are using (previous match-ups???)ā€¦. But they certainly canā€™t be using sound mathematical models

        Perhaps they are doing a Diane Chambers (if you saw that episode) ā€¦ picking by jersey colours and state flowers

        Doh!!

        Now if that crazy model comes through in proper projections for BOTH Sens and Sabresā€¦. I think you and I owe the following as penance for our posts on thisā€¦.

        Iā€™ll drink a warm can of Cream Soda

        Youā€™ll enjoy an XL Timā€™s

        Deal?

      • If I have to drink Tim Sludge then you’ll have to down a large Jamaica Blue Mountain.

      • George

        Done

        If their prognostications on Sens AND Sabres come true; Iā€™ll have my EA order another bagā€¦. Drink (very reluctantly) a full cup; then donate (as I did last time) the remainder of the bag to a homeless shelter

        Youā€¦. Will gleefully enjoy an XL Timā€™sā€¦. A fantastic beverage!!!!

      • As soon as I see Eklund and Hockeybuzz I know thereā€™s really no point in reading it.

      • LOL>

  4. The Blues have a number of Russians on their club and while this is not an issue for us here in the states it still remains a huge issue for Russian players and their families. Not saying either position is right but the recent flareups in the former Soviet Union, the war in Ukraine and such may have some determining factors around the celebration of diversity on a large stage.

    • That’s the easy excuse. I live in St. Louis and grew up in St. Louis. Very conservative town. People, for the most part, are still mostly rednoocks here and are extremely homophobic… I’m guessing that they felt pressured by the league to even have a night like this. And this year they have the “easy out”. Just sayin’

      • lived in the Lou my entire life, disagree with the sentiment but everyone is entitled to an opinion. The sale of the jerseys didn’t generate much charitable dough ($25k is a chunk but lets be honest, it isn’t life changing money).

        All in all, not sure the juice is worth the squeeze. Could ask the players to each donate $1K and get better stuff done. Hell, I’d be super down for taking a 1% take out of the Blue Note Sports Shop if this was super important.

        Not trying to bash anyone but getting things done requires money and getting money requires work not show, so…uplift costs 1% at the Blue Note Shop and those “rednecks” you refer to will never know.