NHL Morning Coffee Headlines – January 16, 2024
Marc-Andre Fleury moves into second place on the all-time wins list, shutout performances by Tristan Jarry, Jeremy Swayman and Ukko-Pekka Luukkonen, Mark Stone nets a hat trick, and more in today’s NHL Morning Coffee Headlines.
GAME RECAPS
NHL.COM: Marc-Andre Fleury picked his 552nd career victory to move past Patrick Roy into second place on the all-time wins list as the Minnesota Wild blanked the New York Islanders 5-0. Fleury made 21 saves for his first shutout of the season, moving into 12th all-time in that category with 74. Joel Eriksson Ek scored twice for the 18-20-5 Wild. Islanders goalie Ilya Sorokin got the hook following the second period after giving up three goals on 32 shots as his club slipped to 19-14-10 (48 points), sitting one point out of the final Eastern Conference wild-card berth.
Minnesota Wild goaltender Marc-Andre Fleury (NHL Images).
SPECTOR’S NOTE: Wild defenseman Jonas Brodin returned to the lineup after missing 17 games due to injury. Meanwhile, they placed captain Jared Spurgeon on injured reserve as he won’t return until after the All-Star break from Jan. 27 to Feb. 6.
Pittsburgh Penguins goalie Tristan Jarry picked up his fifth shutout of the season by stopping 22 shots in a 3-0 win over the Seattle Kraken, snapping the latter’s nine-game win streak. Jarry is now tied for the league lead in shutouts with Arizona’s Connor Ingram. Sidney Crosby netted two goals for the 21-15-6 Penguins (48 points), who sit one point out of the final Eastern wild-card spot. Seattle goalie Joey Daccord stopped 30 shots as his win streak ended at eight games. The Kraken (19-15-9) sit behind the Edmonton Oilers for the final Western Conference wild-card spot with 47 points with the Oilers holding three games in hand.
SPECTOR’S NOTE: The Kraken were without Matty Beniers, Andre Burakovsky and Vince Dunn as they are listed as day-to-day.
The Boston Bruins blanked the New Jersey Devils 3-0 with Jeremy Swayman turning aside 31 shots for his third shutout of the season. David Pastrnak and Brad Marchand each had two points for the 26-8-9 Bruins, who moved into second place in the overall standings with 61 points.
Nico Daws made 33 saves for the 22-16-3 Devils (47 points) as they sit two points out of the final Eastern wild-card spot.
Buffalo Sabres goalie Ukko-Pekka Luukkonen made 27 saves to shut out the San Jose Sharks 3-0. Casey Mittelstadt had a goal and two assists for the 19-21-4 Sabres. Kaapo Kahkonen stopped 32 shots for the 10-31-3 Sharks, who’ve lost 14 of their last 15 games.
SPECTOR’S NOTE: Earlier in the day, the Sabres moved sidelined winger Jeff Skinner (upper body) to injured reserve.
Vegas Golden Knights captain Mark Stone collected his first regular-season NHL hat trick in a 4-1 victory over the Nashville Predators. Logan Thompson kicked out 34 shots for the Golden Knights (25-14-5) as they hold second place in the Pacific Division with 55 points. Luke Evangelista scored the only goal for the 24-19-1 Predators as they hold the first Western wild-card berth with 49 points.
The Columbus Blue Jackets upset the Vancouver Canucks 4-3 on a shootout goal by Kirill Marchenko, snapping the latter’s five-game win streak. Dmitri Voronkov tallied twice while Elvis Merzlikins made 27 saves for the 14-21-9 Blue Jackets. Casey DeSmith stopped 41 shots while J.T. Miller had two points for the 29-11-4 Canucks, who remain on top of the overall standings with 62 points.
SPECTOR’S NOTE: Following the game, Merzlikins told reporters that he has requested a trade. On Friday, he claimed that he hadn’t asked to be traded but that he and Blue Jackets management mutually agreed to pursue a “new scenario”, which was interpreted as the club seeking a trade for the unhappy netminder.
As I noted in my column with The Hockey News, Merzilikins’ contract ($5.4 million annual average value through 2026-27, 10-team no-trade clause) could make it difficult to move him during this season.
Anaheim Ducks winger Alex Killorn scored twice, including the winner in overtime, in a 5-4 upset of the Florida Panthers. Adam Henrique and Frank Vatranov each collected two points for the 15-27-1 Ducks. Sam Bennett potted two goals for the 27-13-3 Panthers as they hold second place in the Atlantic Division with 57 points.
SPECTOR’S NOTE: Panthers captain Aleksander Barkov left this game in the third period with a minor lower-body injury but he’s expected to play on Wednesday against the Detroit Red Wings. Ducks center Leo Carlsson returned to action after being sidelined on Dec. 21 with an ACL injury.
The Los Angeles Kings scored four third-period goals to snap an eight-game winless skid with a 5-2 victory over the Carolina Hurricanes. Trevor Moore scored twice and Phillip Danault had a goal and two assists for the Kings (21-11-8) as they hold third place in the Pacific Division with 50 points. Jordan Martinook and Jack Drury replied for the 24-14-5 Hurricanes as they sit third in the Metropolitan Division with 53 points.
SPECTOR’S NOTE: Kings forward Blake Lizotte left this contest midway through the first period with a lower-body injury.
Before the game, the Hurricanes honored Justin Williams by inducting him into their Hall of Fame. He spent eight seasons of his 19-year NHL career with the Hurricanes, helping them win the Stanley Cup in 2006 and retiring with them in 2020. Williams is known as “Mr. Game 7” as he holds the NHL record for the most Game 7 points in a playoff career with 15.
A late goal by Joel Armia lifted the Montreal Canadiens to a 4-3 upset of the Colorado Avalanche. Jake Allen turned aside 32 shots while Nick Suzuki and Cole Caufield each had two points for the 18-18-7 Canadiens. Cale Makar had a goal and two assists for the 28-13-3 Avalanche, who remain one point behind the first-place Winnipeg Jets in the Central Division with 59 points.
SPECTOR’S NOTE: The Avalanche were without winger Valeri Nichushkin as he has entered the NHL/NHLPA player assistance program. He will be out for an indefinite period. Here’s hoping he gets the help that he needs.
The Philadelphia Flyers picked up their fourth straight win by doubling up the St. Louis Blues 4-2. Carter Hart stopped 28 shots while Owen Tippett scored the game-winning goal for the 24-14-6 Flyers (54 points) as they sit one point ahead of the Hurricanes in second place in the Metropolitan Division. Brayden Schenn had two assists for the Blues (21-19-2) as they’ve dropped three of their last four games.
HEADLINES
NHL.COM: Vancouver Canucks center Elias Pettersson, Calgary Flames winger Blake Coleman and Colorado Avalanche goaltender Alexandar Georgiev are the league’s three stars for the week ending Jan. 14.
MLIVE.COM: The Detroit Red Wings are still awaiting word regarding the severity of Patrick Kane’s lower-body injury. The 34-year-old winger left Sunday’s game against the Toronto Maple Leafs and didn’t return. The injury is not believed to be related to his surgically repaired hip.
NBC SPORTS CHICAGO: One week after suffering a fractured jaw, Connor Bedard has resumed practicing with his teammates wearing a non-contact jersey and sporting a full face shield. However, he’s expected to remain sidelined for six to eight weeks.
DAILY FACEOFF: Former NHL stars Jaromir Jagr and Ryan Smith highlight the IIHF 2024 Hall of Fame class.
Anyone who thinks Kane’s hip wasn’t at least part of the reason he left the game needs to watch the video a couple more times.
There is a reason no one has succeeded in a complete return to nhl after such a procedure
Hopefully not but odds are against a healthy Kane in nhl
Congrats to Marc-Andre Fleury
as he picked his 552nd career Win moveing past Patrick Roy into second place on the all-time wins list as the Minnesota Wild…👍
I wonder if they the wild Ask MAF if he would like a trade to a contending team before the trade deadline….❓
The Wild have been very poor over the past 6 weeks posting a 2-7-1 record from December
till now. there are way to many teams infront of the Wild they look like thay have a very slim to No chance of making the playoffs now sitting in 13th spot❗️
So…the three top winning goalies of all time are Canadian, French-Canadian? Growing up in Canada, you never hear Canada (Quebec) being a hockey gold mine for goalies as well as players. It was always, Sweden, or Russian or anything but Canadian but here we are, proof in the pudding that the top 3 most successful goalies who won the most games and had long consistent GOAT careers happen to be Canadian. Don’t mean to sound off like the xenophobe like Cherry but maybe Canadians will see just how amazing so many players there are that come from Canada.
Quebec was a goalie factory for many years, in fact 2/3 of NHL goalies were from Quebec a few decades ago.
Those days are long gone, mainly as the famed goalie school of the Allaire brothers closed.
True that HF30, the Quebec dominated the position for quite a while.
Another theory of why we see fewer top CDN tenders than we used too, is the way minor hockey now works in much of Canada.
The top guys get segregated onto these top teams that often dominate the local and provincial leagues. They then get segregated even more and travel around and play together in the big tournaments. IE – couple teams from AB, play the top teams from the other provinces etc.
The same goalies stay with these teams because they keep winning, and when you are on a teams that good, that well coached, you face fewer chances and rubber. Hence your improvement gets stunted as for much of the year you are on one of the best teams.
The thinking being you want the late bloomer, but big, talented guys who get shelled regularly because they adapt, learn and improve.
I dunno, but thought it was interesting. Kinda makes sense too. Back in the day the Q had a reputation of being a more wide open league, so maybe the goalies got better because they had more in game training tracking and stopping pucks.
Patrick Roy’s dominance as the Habs goalie was the major factor. Because of him, many Quebec kids wanted to be goalies. That was long ago. He’s gone from the Habs for nearly 30 years and retired as a player for over 20.
Canada has to figure out why they don’t seem to be producing great goalies like they used to,
Where did you grow up? Because I grew up north of Edmonton and I KNEW that the best goalies were coming out of Quebec. Others like js giguere, plante, luongo, Jose Theodore…
I honestly have no idea where you got the “never hear about Canada being a hockey gold mine for goalies.” Literally everyone has consistently gone on and on about the great Canadian goaltenders… there may be more European ones lately though… but look how many Canadian greats there have always been! Some of whom pulled the National Team’s butts out of the fire… here’s looking at you Bill Ranford!
The Colorado/Montreal game was interesting on a few levels.
Joel Armia had another great game once again show how frustrating a player he is. He seems to check out for long periods and then rides a streak for a few games showing wicked talent, very reminiscent of Rene Bourque.
Nathan MacKinnon is an incredible hockey player, we all know it but when you watch him play, wow.
Habs young D stood up well, which is a good sign for the future.
I don’t see Colorado often but they seem pretty weak defensively, Habs had 34 SOG and that is uncommon for them.