NHL Morning Coffee Headlines – January 11, 2024
Nathan MacKinnon extending his points streak plus the latest on Connor Bedard, Corey Perry, Cutter Gauthier and more in today’s NHL Morning Coffee Headlines.
GAME RECAPS
NHL.COM: Colorado Avalanche center Nathan MacKinnon tied a franchise record for the longest season-opening home points streak in a 3-0 win over the Vegas Golden Knights. MacKinnon collected an assist to extend his streak to 23 games, tying Hall-of-Famer Joe Sakic. Valeri Nichushkin scored twice and Alexandar Georgiev had a 25-save shutout for the 27-12-3 Avalanche, who sit third in the overall standings with 57 points. Jiri Patera stopped 32 shots for the Golden Knights (23-13-5) as they sit second in the Pacific Division with 51 points.
Colorado Avalanche center Nathan MacKinnon (NHL Images)
SPECTOR’S NOTE: Avalanche defenseman Josh Manson missed this game with an undisclosed injury. Teammate Miles Wood was sidelined by an illness. Meanwhile, Golden Knights forward William Carrier is listed as week-to-week following surgery for an upper-body injury.
The Dallas Stars thumped the Minnesota Wild 7-2. Esa Lindell had three assists while Mason Marchment and Nils Lundkvist each had two points for the Stars (24-11-5) as they sit third in the Central Division with 53 points. Matt Boldy had a goal and an assist while Jesper Wallstedt made 27 saves in his NHL debut for the 17-19-4 Wild.
A shootout goal by Sean Couturier gave the Philadelphia Flyers a 3-2 victory over the Montreal Canadiens. Owen Tippett and Morgan Frost scored in regulation as the Flyers overcame a 2-0 deficit while Jamie Drysdale picked up an assist in his first game with his new club. Cayden Primeau stopped 37 shots for the 17-17-6 Canadiens while the Flyers (21-14-6) sit third in the Metropolitan Division with 48 points.
SPECTOR’S NOTE: The Flyers dominated most of this game but Primeau stole a point for the Canadiens in this contest.
HEADLINES
NBC SPORTS CHICAGO: The Blackhawks announced rookie star Connor Bedard underwent surgery to repair a fractured jaw. He’ll be sidelined for six to eight weeks. The 18-year-old center suffered the injury on Jan. 5 after being checked by New Jersey Devils defenseman Brendan Smith.
SPORTSNET: Corey Perry is cleared to sign with a new NHL team after meeting this week with league commissioner Gary Bettman. The 38-year-old winger’s contract was terminated by the Chicago Blackhawks on Nov. 30 for engaging in what the club called unacceptable conduct that violated the team’s workplace rules and his standard player contract.
Perry subsequently issued an apology, adding he was seeking treatment for his struggle with alcohol. He’s now an unrestricted free agent.
SPECTOR’S NOTE: It didn’t take long for speculation to arise over which club Perry might sign with. Bob Stauffer of Oilers Now believes five or six clubs could be in the mix with Stauffer suggesting the Oilers should be looking into it.
Perry remains well-respected around the league. It wouldn’t be a surprise if he signs with a new club before the March 8 trade deadline, making him eligible to play in the 2024 Stanley Cup playoffs.
NHL.COM: Prospect winger Cutter Gauthier declined to go into details as to why didn’t want to sign with the Philadelphia Flyers. His decision forced his trade earlier this week to the Anaheim Ducks.
Gauthier told the Ducks podcast “Light The Lamp” on Wednesday that the decision was a personal matter between himself, his family and his agent. He also addressed rumors claiming former Flyers center Kevin Hayes influenced his decision. “I would like to specifically say that he had zero, zero conflict with anything that had to do with the trade…(Hayes) had nothing to do with the situation at hand. “
As for his plans going forward, Gauthier intends to focus the remainder of his sophomore season with Boston College, who have a good shot at winning the Beanpot tournament and the NCAA championship. After that, he intends to sign an entry-level contract with the Ducks.
SPECTOR’S NOTE: Gauthier’s within his rights to keep his reasons for spurning the Flyers a private matter. Nevertheless, it will only serve to stoke a rumor mill that’s been churning furiously over why he made that decision.
Speaking of Hayes, Flyers head coach John Tortorella went off on the reporter who claimed the Blues center was involved in Gauthier’s choice.
“It just pisses me off that you guys throw that around and affect someone’s life”, said Tortorella. The Flyers bench boss acknowledged that he and Hayes had a problem regarding his playing time last season. Nevertheless, Tortorella praised him as “a good man” and called the reporter’s story “bullshit”.
EDMONTON JOURNAL: Oilers captain Connor McDavid wasn’t pleased with a review of an offside call that wiped out teammate Zach Hyman’s goal during the club’s 2-1 win on Tuesday over the Chicago Blackhawks. “If it takes 15 minutes to determine whether it’s offside or not, it probably doesn’t matter,” he said following the game.
The officials shut the game down for over six minutes reviewing the play from different angles before deciding that Leon Draisaitl’s skate blade might’ve been a centimetre offside and that he held the puck a fraction of a second too long.
SPECTOR’S NOTE: The offside reviews, like the goal reviews, are taking way too long to reach conclusions. The league must do something to address this. I understand they want to ensure they’re reviewing every angle closely. However, they’re sometimes reaching their decisions long after the fans have seen it for themselves on the arena jumbotron.
THE BUFFALO NEWS: The Sabres are awaiting word about Jeff Skinner as he underwent a series of tests for an upper-body injury.
TORONTO SUN: The Maple Leafs recalled Ilya Samsonov from their AHL affiliate but will continue to assess the struggling goaltender closely.
OTTAWA SUN: Forward Shane Pinto can now practice with his Senators teammates. He has only five games remaining in his 41-game suspension for violating the league’s sports-wagering rules.
MONTREAL HOCKEY NOW: The Ducks claimed defenseman Gustav Lindstrom off waivers from the Canadiens.
TORONTO SUN: The NHL Players Association officially unveiled a new in-house education program called “Line Change”, which instructs players in training each other in identifying potential mental health issues. Twenty players, including Calgary Flames captain Mikael Backlund, have already taken part in the three-hour session.
Keith Pelley is expected to be announced as the president and chief executive of Maple Leaf Sports and Entertainment (MLSE), which owns the Toronto Maple Leafs, the NBA’s Toronto Raptors, the CFL’s Toronto Argonauts and the MLS club Toronto FC. Pelley is a former president of Rogers Media and of Bell Media’s TSN.
A few years ago some Montreal fans were having a bird about Jordan Harris not signing and playing 4 years of college, Mass kid wanting to become a free agent and sign with Boston.
He signed with the Habs eventually.
Adam Fox didn’t sign with Calgary.
Jimmy Vesey didn’t sign with Nashville.
Kevin Hayes didn’t sign with Chicago.
It’s part of the decision making in the draft just as taking a kid like Michkov from Russia.
As for the Flyers/Habs game last night, the Habs had an extra skater all night, posts and crossbar, they stole a point.
Give Primeau some credit too. He is hopefully coming into his own as an NHL goalie.
Habfan30 we can never forget Lindros who wouldn’t sign with Quebec
Blake Wheeler drafted 5th overall wouldn’t sign in Phoenix
Do like Torts not many who would call out a reporter.
Quitter Goatee-eh has not addressed why he was so rude to the club that courted him and drafted him. So that just leaves the media to dig in and speculate all the more! So, I will remain with the Flyers perspective that Briere and Jones did no wrong with him, and that Quitter was simply teed-off that they would not sign him last April when he wanted to be a pro, and the Flyers simply asked him to wait a year when he could probably make the team. His tantrum only got him traded to a lesser team.
Lesser team? not so much!
JZ
Totally his choice. Flyers got fair return good hockey trade for both teams. Players owe the team that drafts them zip 100% upto the player
Yep – no big deal. It happens to many teams. Did Philly gripe when they ended up with Lindros due to the same situation ? Detroit has had a few over the recent past, but not any big names. Nothing here to gripe about – let’s move on.
Very least he should have met with them at some point and told them he would not sign or report. Ghosting them is weak.
On the flip side he didn’t go public and make it a spectacle and also tank his trade value. I think the kid handled it very well.
“Gauthier initially told the Flyers that he wouldn’t join them last summer, a year after they drafted him. Briere said he purposely didn’t announce Gauthier’s reluctance or comment publicly on his increasingly awkward relationship with Philly’s top prospect.
“It was to try to protect the kid,” Briere said. “We were hoping that at some point he would change his mind. He had already changed his mind. He looked at us at the draft and told us he was built to be a Flyer, wanted to be a Flyer, and then a few months later, told us that he didn’t want to be a Flyer, didn’t want to play for the Flyers.”
He ghosted them AFTER telling them he would not sign in Philly.
Philly choose not to announce this publicly, which Briere says was to protect the kid, but obviously it was also to protect their assets value. Smart move.
Love what Tortorella did.
Get rid of the offside review & shootout while they are at it. Mistakes will happen from time to time , thats’s life.
My issue with the offside review is the length of time AFTER the entry that the review encompasses.
I have no issue with the review of offsides on a 2-on-1 that leads immediately to a goal.
I have a problem with the removal of a goal that happened 38 seconds (for example) AFTER the zone entry.
The main issue I have with the offside review is that it’s one-sided. You can only review to take a goal away but you can’t review it to give a scoring chance back on a play that was onside but called offside. There have been plenty of odd-man rushes called offside that were onside. Plus does it matter if a player was millimetres offside?
If they keep the review, then the officials should only be able to watch the replays at full speed and not be able to slow it down or zoom in.