NHL Morning Coffee Headlines – November 4, 2023
The Devils fall to the Blues and lose Jack Hughes, the Flyers defeat the Sabres, Sidney Crosby approaches another milestone, and the Rangers get bad news on Adam Fox and Filip Chytil. Details on these and other stories in today’s NHL Rumor Mill.
GAME RECAPS
NHL.COM: St. Louis Blues center Kevin Hayes scored his first two goals of the season in a 4-1 victory over the New Jersey Devils. Hayes finished the night with three points while Jordan Binnington made 33 saves for the Blues, who improved their record to 4-4-1. Curtis Lazar replied for the Devils (6-3-1), who lost scoring leader Jack Hughes to an upper-body injury in the first period when he lost his balance and crashed into the boards behind the Blues net.
St. Louis Blues center Kevin Hayes (NHL Images).
SPECTOR’S NOTE: Hughes played one more shift and left the game before the end of the first period. Following the game, Devils coach Lindy Ruff said the 22-year-old center would be reevaluated on Saturday.
Three first-period goals carried the Philadelphia Flyers over the Buffalo Sabres by a score of 5-1. Travis Konecny scored his ninth of the season to move into a tie for the NHL goal-scoring lead with Detroit’s Alex DeBrincat and Anaheim’s Frank Vatrano. Bobby Brink and Joel Farabee each collected two points for the 5-5-1 Flyers. Henri Jokiharju scored for the Sabres as they dropped to 5-6-0.
SPECTOR’S NOTE: Flyers goaltender Carter Hart (mid-body) and center Sean Couturier (lower body) missed this game and are listed as day-to-day. Meanwhile, Sabres defenseman Mattias Samuelsson left this game with a lower-body injury.
Both clubs are off to surprising starts this season. The Flyers were expected to be near the bottom of the standings while the Sabres were considered a playoff contender. There’s still a long way to go in this season for both clubs but it’s safe to say that the Flyers have exceeded expectations thus far while the Sabres have not met theirs.
HEADLINES
PITTSBURGH HOCKEY NOW: Penguins captain Sidney Crosby will be appearing in his 1,200th career NHL game when his club faces off on Saturday against the San Jose Sharks.
SPECTOR’S NOTE: Crosby is already the Penguins’ all-time leader in games played. He will tie Owen Nolan for 127th overall on the league’s all-time list.
NEW YORK POST: The Rangers placed defenseman Adam Fox on long-term injury reserve with a lower-body injury. Fox was sidelined by a leg-on-leg hit from Carolina Hurricanes center Sebastian Aho on Thursday. They also placed center Filip Chytil on injured reserve with an upper-body injury that occurred during the same game.
SPECTOR’S NOTE: Those are significant losses for the Rangers. Fox is their top defenseman while Chytil centered their third line. The absence of former Norris Trophy winner Fox hurts the most given his workload as their blueline linchpin.
CBS SPORTS: Florida Panthers center Sam Bennett is listed as week-to-week with a lower-body injury. He’s already missed the first seven games of this season due to an injury.
DAILY FACEOFF: Anaheim Ducks head coach Greg Cronin was fined $25,000.00 by the NHL “for unprofessional conduct directed at the officials” during Monday’s game against the Pittsburgh Penguins.
TSN 1200: Ottawa Senators defenseman Artem Zub will remain sidelined for at least the next two games as he continues to recover from a concussion.
EDMONTON JOURNAL: The Oilers sent defenseman Philip Broberg to their AHL affiliate in Bakersfield on Friday.
SPECTOR’S NOTE: Broberg struggled to play up to expectations this season and lost his spot on the Oilers’ blueline to Vincent Desharnais.
Oilers defenseman Philip Broberg to their AHL affiliate in Bakersfield on Friday. He is not ready for the NHL, he needs a full year in the AHL
RD man Vincent Desharnais is playing well for his 2nd year, they should put
Desharnais with Ekhom
Bouchard with Nurse
and move
Cody Ceci to the 3rd paring with Brent Kulak,
Ceci is playing way over his head in the top paring
williew – I don’t see the Oilers enough to dispute your suggestion – but if Ceci has been playing top pairing mostly, your solution isn’t born out by the stats.
Edmonton currently sits with a 2 6 1 5pts record after 9 games played, scoring 22 while giving up 38 for an overall -16.
Among their D so far, Ceci is the ONLY one with a + rating, having played all 9 games with 0g 2a 2 pts, 2 pim and a +2.
The only other D without a minus rating is Desharnais who has played in 7 games with 1g 0a 1 pt – pim and an E +/-
Evan Bouchard leads the D in points in 9gp with 3g 6a 9 pts 2pim but is a -6.
Darnell Nurse has also played 9 games with 1g 1a 2 pts 6 pim and a -3.
Mattias Ekholm, in 8 gp, has 0g 1a 1pt 6 pim and is also a -3.
Brett Kulak, in 9 gp, has 1g 1a 2 pts 2 pim and sits at -2.
Where is the “bad” showing up in Ceci’s top pairing performance?
Hey George,
you have some good coments there..
Ceci is on the ice with Leon & Connor and that when the play is in th other end, thats why his stats look good❗️
I have watched 7 of the last 9 games, the guy is playing Brutal again
Ceci and Nurse are not a good paring together
Nurse just runs around way to much,and end up out of position a lot… trying to do to much, I really think he needs to get a new d-partner would love them to give Desharnais a shot with nurse….
but at the end of the day they will need to trade Ceci and a pick out for a out a Good Defencive RD d/man
i think.
Bouchard is the offencive d/man now Tyson barrie has gone and doing well.
But when you watch the game he is the only d/man on the ice and the 4 forwards.. they are all up front leaving Bouch as the only player at the Blue line… thats when a number of his -point’s come from and some defencive misplays as a young player.
The Oiers goaltending has not been great, however Campbell has played very well at time’s and getting better each game,
Young Skinner look like he has the 2nd year blues… A lot of this has been the poor defencive play they just have not gelled as a d/core.. im not sure if its this new systems d-coach Dave Manson have put in or if its just not a good mix…..🤔
The forwards also are not coming back to help out as fast as they need to,.
Sam Ganger Made the top 6 look poor in his first game back, he was a horse.
Today the Oil Re-called Big RW Raffiel Lavoie from Bako
I hope the play him in the top 6 tonight…👍
Agree on the tending Willie.
The Oil have the puck more than their opponents, get more scoring chances, more HD chances (by quite a bit).
Different guys are taking turns making big mistakes, Ceci made one last game on a bad pinch. But overall has played well, for Ceci. So has Nurse for the most part.
Willie, when Ceci and Nurse are on the ice together they get mostly D-zones starts, against the toughest competition. Same as last year. They get the tough minutes, not the juicy ones.
Brain farts, and tenders haven’t kept any of them out of their net. Also their shooting % is way down vs normal.
The goals will start going in, the brain farts usually go away. The tending????
We’ll see.