NHL Morning Coffee Headlines – November 23, 2023

by | Nov 23, 2023 | News, NHL | 30 comments

Cale Makar outduels Quinn Hughes as the league’s top defensemen face off for the first time this season, the Bruins and Golden Knights each reach 30 points, the Oilers continue to flounder, and more in today’s NHL Morning Coffee Headlines.

NHL.COM: Cale Makar and his Colorado Avalanche defeated Quinn Hughes and his Vancouver Canucks 5-2 in this season’s first meeting between the NHL’s top-two defensemen. Makar had a goal and an assist to extend his points streak to eight games for the Avalanche as they improved to 12-6-0 while Hughes collected an assist for the 13-6-1 Canucks. Mikko Rantanen, Valeri Nichushkin and Jonathan Drouin also each had a goal and an assist for the Avs.

Colorado Avalanche defenseman Cale Makar (NHL Images).

SPECTOR’S NOTE: Hughes remains the current league scoring leader with 31 points while Makar is third with 29 points. They each tallied 20 points thus far in November.

Avalanche center Nathan MacKinnon had x-rays following this game after blocking a shot with his right leg midway through the third period. Teammate Josh Manson received a game misconduct during the second period for cross-checking Canucks winger Brock Boeser. Meanwhile, Canucks defenseman Mark Friedman left the game in the second with an undisclosed injury.

The Boston Bruins were one of two clubs to reach 30 points this season by downing the Florida Panthers 3-1. Linus Ullmark made 27 saves while Charlie Coyle, John Beecher and Jake DeBrusk scored for the 14-1-3 Bruins, who sit atop the overall standings with 31 points. Anton Lundell replied for the 12-6-1 Panthers.

An overtime goal lifted the Vegas Golden Knights to a 2-1 win over the Dallas Stars. Adin Hill stopped 31 shots while Michael Amadio also scored for the Golden Knights (14-4-2), who sit atop the Western Conference and second in the overall standings with 30 points. Roope Hintz tallied for the 12-4-2 Stars (26 points) as they hold a two-point lead over the Avalanche on top of the Central Division.

SPECTOR’S NOTE: Golden Knights defenseman Alec Martinez missed this game with a lower-body injury.

A four-goal first period powered the Carolina Hurricanes over the Edmonton Oilers 6-3. Seth Jarvis and Teuvo Teravainen each had two points for the 11-7-0 Hurricanes while Pyotr Kochetkov made 13 saves as he replaced Antti Raanta in the first period when the latter was pulled for precautionary reasons with an undisclosed ailment. Zach Hyman scored twice for the Oilers (5-12-1) while Stuart Skinner was replaced in net by Calvin Pickard. Mattias Janmark returned to the Oilers lineup after missing nearly a month with a shoulder injury.

SPECTOR’S NOTE: Porous goaltending and sloppy defense once again doomed the Oilers, whose brief lift following their recent coaching change has evaporated after three straight losses. The pressure is mounting for Oilers management to do something to acquire a goalie. I’ll have more in today’s Rumors update.

New York Rangers goaltender Jonathan Quick collected his 60th career NHL shutout in a 1-0 blanking of the Pittsburgh Penguins. Quick kicked out 32 shots while Alexis Lafreniere netted the only goal as the Rangers (13-3-1) sit in first place in the Metropolitan Division with 27 points. Tristan Jarry stopped 35 shots for the 9-9-0 Penguins.

The Columbus Blue Jackets snapped a nine-game winless skid (0-7-2) with a 7-3 drubbing of the Chicago Blackhawks. Zach Werenski collected four assists while Boone Jenner scored twice for the 5-11-4 Blue Jackets. Blackhawks center Connor Bedard scored his 10th goal of the season to lead all NHL rookies.

SPECTOR’S NOTE: Blackhawks winger Corey Perry was a healthy scratch from this contest. Teammate Taylor Hall missed this game dealing with an undisclosed injury.

A three-goal first period carried the Detroit Red Wings over the New Jersey Devils 4-0. Lucas Raymond, Dylan Larkin, Robby Fabbri and Moritz Seider tallied for the Red Wings (9-6-3) while goalie Alex Lyon made 16 saves for the shutout. Vitek Vanecek stopped 24 shots as the struggling Devils slipped to 8-8-1 (17 points) on the season.

SPECTOR’S NOTE: After going 7-3-0 in their first 10 games, the Devils have dropped five of their last six and sit 14th in the Eastern Conference standings.

The Winnipeg Jets nipped the Tampa Bay Lightning 3-2 on an overtime goal by Adam Lowry. Josh Morrissey and Mark Scheifele also scored while Connor Hellebuyck stopped 31 shots as the Jets won their fourth straight and improved to 11-5-2. Steven Stamkos and Brayden Point replied for the Lightning (9-6-5) as they overcame a 2-0 deficit to force the extra frame.

Speaking of overtime wins, the Washington Capitals downed the Buffalo Sabres 4-3. Dylan Strome scored the winner and collected an assist while John Carlsson had two helpers for the 10-4-2 Capitals. Sabres rookie Zach Benson netted his first career NHL goal as his club slipped to 8-9-2 on the season.

SPECTOR’S NOTE: Capitals center Evgeny Kuznetsov missed his second straight game due to illness.

The New York Islanders downed the Philadelphia Flyers 3-2 to snap the latter’s five-game win streak. Brock Nelson tallied twice while Ilya Sorokin turned aside 34 shots as the Isles improved to 7-6-5. Cam York and Joel Farabee replied for the 10-8-1 Flyers.

St. Louis Blues center Kevin Hayes snapped a 5-5 tie in the third period to give his club a 6-5 victory over the Arizona Coyotes. Shorthanded goals by Nick Leddy and Alexey Toropchenko in the second period helped the Blues improve their record to 10-7-1. Matias Maccelli, Nick Bjugstad and Michael Carcone each had two points as the Coyotes dropped to 8-9-2.

The Nashville Predators picked up their third straight win by doubling up the Calgary Flames 4-2. Juuse Saros made 24 saves while Ryan McDonagh picked up two assists for the 8-10-0 Predators. Jacob Markstrom kicked out 41 shots for the 7-9-3 Flames.

Montreal Canadiens goaltender Sam Montembeault made 30 saves and Alex Newhook scored twice to hold off the Anaheim Ducks 4-3. Mason McTavish scored two goals and added an assist as his club overcame a 3-1 deficit before Newhook’s winning goal late in the third period. The Canadiens (8-9-2) snapped a four-game losing streak while the Ducks (9-10-0) have dropped four straight.

SPECTOR’S NOTE: Montembeault was the hero for the Canadiens in this one as he made several big saves for the win in this contest.

The Seattle Kraken crushed the San Jose Sharks 7-1. Oliver Bjorkstrand had a goal and three assists while Eeli Tolvanen scored twice and collected an assist as the Kraken improved to 8-8-5. Mike Hoffman scored for the Sharks as they remain at the bottom of the overall standings with a record of 3-15-1.

SPECTOR’S NOTE: Sharks winger Kevin Labanc missed this game with an upper-body injury.







30 Comments

  1. I watched Oiler games the last few weeks only because that’s all that’s on and I realized Connor and Leon are not very good defensively. They both need to be leaders and stop pouting on the bench and look after their own zone first. Doesn’t seem to matter if they are up 2 or down 4 they play the same style. Sure goaltending isn’t very good but they give up so many grade A chances.

    • Ya Lyle I would have switched the porous defense and sloppy goaltending. Grant Fuhr himself wouldn’t be winning hockey games for this team. The amount of 2 on 1’s and even 3 on 1’s are just head scratching. It’s like shinny men’s league defense. Codi Ceci should not still be in the league. Darnel is not worth that money and is at best a 4/5 guy. The whole team needs to basically turn into the 90’s Devils to turn this around.

    • If that Hurricane’s 5th goal is indicative of the Oilers team defense, then I have a hard time pinning this on the goalies.

      Necas, 1-on-4 in the slot, remains untouched! 4 guys, nobody picks him up. Gets off a grade-A shot. Just to put icing on the cake, he gets the rebound for the goal….again untouched?! What is that defensive scheme?

      • I didn’t think the first 3 goals were Skinner’s fault. He should have stopped the 4th.

        Edmonton’s defensemen need some help from the top forwards.

        BrindAmour being able to match up Staal’s line + Slavin against Edmonton’s top two players for two periods was a coaching mistake by Edmonton.

    • Obe I saw Mike Rupp break down the Oilers team defensive play and you got it, Leon and Conner glide in the d zone looking for the breakout pass while their men they are responsible for a in the slot all alone taking target practice at the goalie. While the defense and goaltending isn’t great their forwards have no clue about backchecking or physical play and don’t care apparently. I don’t think they can ever win in the playoffs, if they get there, with the current construction of the team, get some grinders to so the dirty work and a demanding coach and inevitably trade one of the big two.

    • Re Mcdavid & Leon
      As 2 of the Top 5 Centres in the NHL,

      -They should each be centring there own lines
      -They should play with 2 line mates 90% of the time -They need 10 games on seprate lines to get it going.

      The Defence was Just Horrible Again last night…

      Skinner had an other bad game,
      Pickard played quite well he probably needs a few starts in a row to get his game going,❓

      The Next 4 game look tough…! best chance of a win is against the /ducks,🤔

      The other 3 teams will be VERY VERY hard to Beat
      Caps, Jets, & Vegas🙈
      at the end of the Month in the Western Conference they will be 18 to 25 point+ Behind the Top 7 teams in the west. Will it be worth trading for a goaltender then…❓
      More than likely wait till the lottery draft is done to see when the Oil pick and go from there in a
      Big Trade to move out Jack Campbell & his $5.M contract for 3 more years and prospects and a the first pick pick in 2024……❓

  2. Besides Hyman the Oilers are in big trouble. You can blame the goalies all you want and they are a big part of this. But this is just a bad team right now.

    Btw Benson’s first NHL goal wow! That will go down as one of the best first ones ever.

  3. In his article this morning in the Ottawa Sun indicating that Coach D. J. Smith needs to cut down on ice time for some of his top players due to a heavy schedule looming, Baines writes:

    “It’s not strange to see a defenceman play more than 20 minutes (against Detroit, Jake Sanderson played 26:53, Jakob Chychrun played 23:56 and Artem Zub played 20:08; against Minnesota, Sanderson played 25:55, Chychrun played 22:34 and Zub played 20:39), but Ottawa’s forwards were also on the ice a lot (against Detroit, Claude Giroux played 26:54, Tim Stutzle played 25:57, Brady Tkachuk played 22:08 and Mathieu Joseph played 20:08; against Minnesota, Stutzle played 25:19, Tkachuk played 21:00, Joseph played 21:11 and Giroux played 20:16).”

    Do we really need the word “played” repeated 14 times in one short paragraph? This guy must get paid by the word!

    • “Do we really need the word “played” repeated 14 times in one short paragraph?”

      What would you prefer? He’s talking about how much these guys played. What word would you sub for played?

      • I’m with George, by that point the ‘played’ is implied.

        how about:

        Jake Sanderson played 26:53, Jakob Chychrun-23:56, and Artem Zub-20:08.

      • Exactly. Hole crap garth, would you find it impossible to understand if only the minutes were shown?

    • He Geroge
      Sens should look at Calgary and trade
      for a d/man, big physical LD man Nikita Zadorov
      or
      RD-man Christopher Tanev

      The Sens may need to put in a 3rd or 4th pick to make it happen…….?

      • Ottawa has no need for a $3,750,000 3rd pairing D (which he’d be in their line-up with Chabot due back soon) and big Tyler Kleven getting the AHL ice-time he needs now prior to being called up sometime early in the 2nd half.

        Chychrun and Zub are both physical as well as + in their stats and also contribute offensively.

        Would Zadorov be an improvement over Hamonick? Marginally – but certainly not worth relinquishing anything substantial to get him, not to mention clearing several million in cap space to take him on … and then have to deal with his pending UFA status.

    • I agree with nurse n ceci..think they should get all the defense from the minors.. they’d probably be better than these 6 defense they got…shake it up …they forgot HOW to stick to their men in front of the net an quit getting caught on 2 on 1’s…forwards help by back checking

  4. Edmonton needs to shock their team with a blockbuster trade! Nothing else is working!2 of the best OFfensive players in the world being wasted!Maybe they should play some defense!

  5. Lyle since it’s Thanksgiving I wanted to take this opportunity to thank you for your daily presentation of recaps, news, opinions and rumors. Your site is my first stop every morning at breakfast and throughout the day as well. I know the work you put in on a daily basis and I’m sure I speak for everyone in saying thank you and we appreciate all you do. Also to all the followers of this page a Happy Thanksgiving to all.

    • Well, thanks Snold49. But just to clarify, here in the Great White North we celebrate Thanksgiving in October – gives those of us who celebrate Christmas an extra month for our innards to recover before we do it all again 🙂

    • Well said!

    • Thanks, Snold49. And Happy Thanksgiving to you and to my other American readers.

  6. Quick looked like a disastrous signing from day one, and even more horrific in preseason.

    What looked like the worst signing in the off-season is quickly (no pun intended) starting to look genius!

  7. Until Connor McDavid and Leon Draisaitl realize at the moment they are part of the problem and stop pouting on the bench while consoling each other, this team is going nowhere fast.

    Their defensive play is bad, if they did some proper coverage in their own zone and tried as hard to keep the puck out of their net as they do to put the puck in the other net, more wins will follow.

    There is no team defensive structure on the Oilers, the goaltender is hung out to dry on numerous chances.

    The fix is in the defensive zone, defenseman coming back, forwards coming back and picking up the man. How one player in the o-zone is able to get a great scoring chance and then able to score on his own rebound; that is a bad goalie, that’s is just terrible defense.

    Stop shaking your head on the bench, you know the cameras are on you, stop consoling each other and realize it’s time to step up and be a leader in the defensive zone.

    • All of this is indicative of poor or substandard leadership.
      That’s the problem. The rest is just compounded.
      The systems are adequate. The players being rolled out are not.
      RNH and Gagner are no longer enough to pull the others along.

      You will never win if your best players aren’t your best people.

      Hard work trumps talent when talent refuses to work.

    • Caper and other posters, I don’t think this is a simple as blaming individual players, but ya they are the leaders and pouting and getting mad won’t get it done. And your right about the cameras being on you, and you know they are.

      This has never been just on the tenders, but at the start of the season it was the biggest problem and it obviously cost them games. Then the heat came to pick it up and get wins, and players started trying to do too much in their own end, instead of just their job. They also switched from a man structure in their own end, to the zone or box plus 1 that requires making reads and switching off guys. Appears some guys simply don’t get it. Plenty of good teams use it including BOS and VEG.

      Seems like they don’t trust that anymore either. So they don’t trust their teammates and they don’t trust the structure, because the same players keep making the same mistakes, over and over again.

      McDavid was Edmonton’s best defensive forward down their 14-0-1 stretch run and in the playoffs each of the last 2 years. Also been playing hurt, which he will never say publicly but what the press knows here.

      If you want the 2 worst defensive players on the Edmonton Oilers, they are Bouchard and Draisaitl.

      Ekholm, Nurse and Ceci are their best defensive D.

      • So, Ray, at what stage do the fingers start pointing at the architect of this mess? How many coaches have to go before someone in authority comes to the logical conclusion that Toe Blake or Scotty Bowman in their prime couldn’t win with this combination of 6 players making over 52% of the cap joined by a bunch of guys named Joe, and tells Holland to take a hike?

      • Well George, they aren’t gonna trade McD, Draisaitl or Nurse. And to be fair to Holland, he has been to the conference finals and then the 2nd round last year. Vegas said themselves they were the toughest team they played in the playoffs. So they appeared vey close to giving it an even better run.

        Holland blew the Campbell signing when there were warning signs. (His kid and scout was reportedly the one pushing for him which is a terrible look in these parts). But other than that his moves have been pretty solid looking the cards he was dealt.

        Woodcroft had one of the best winning %’s in the entire NHL when the season started. He’s toast, so is the next step the GM? That won’t fix this year, but fresh eyes …….

        I dunno, but they are quickly playing themselves out of a playoff spot. The hill is really steep already.

        Someone mentioned a trade to snap them out of it. If it was me it’s Bouchard. He just doesn’t get it in his own end and will cost a fortune long term because he puts up points and runs the PP like a champ. But he doesn’t get it, or won’t do it.

        Trades at a time like this will usually make you worse long term. Ask Oiler fans how Chia did when he got panicky.

        I can’t remember ever seeing a team that was that good, play so bad to start a season. But anybody who has watched them for last few weeks, to Obe’s point above, knows they have no clue right now. Flippin’ amazing.

      • Yeah, it is ridiculously early to start saying the hole is insurmountable … but, man, that is some deep hole. Right now, the 2 WC slots are held by St. Louis and Seattle, each with 21 points.

        Edmonton, just to pull up behind those slots, would need to climb over 5 teams – Minnesota, Nashville, Calgary, Arizona and Anaheim – and have at least one of St.Louis, Seattle, L.A. Vancouver, Vegas, Winnipeg, Colorado and Dallas collapse from here to the end.

    • Well stated Caper!

  8. If the Oilers are really interested in Allen, Montembeault remaining unsigned is surely an issue. If the Habs move Allen before Montembeault is signed, Monty’s gains the bargaining advantage. In fact I bet that is exactly the complication.

    • Lj
      I don’t think either of those goalies move the needle to get the oil to play offs IMHO

      • Totally agree. Their malaise goes way beyond goaltending.