NHL Morning Coffee Headlines – January 24, 2024
The Oilers win their 14th straight game, Nikita Kucherov regains the scoring lead, the Devils re-sign general manager Tom Fitzgerald, and more in today’s NHL Morning Coffee Headlines.
GAME RECAPS
ESPN.COM: The Edmonton Oilers picked up their 14th consecutive win by downing the Columbus Blue Jackets 4-1. Warren Foegele and Evander Kane each had a goal and an assist for the 27-15-1 Oilers, who sit third in the Pacific Division with 55 points. Dmitri Voronkov scored for the Blue Jackets (14-23-9) as they dropped to the bottom of the Eastern Conference standings with 37 points.
SPECTOR’S NOTE: The Oilers need just three more wins to tie the league record of 17 straight wins currently held by the 1992-93 Pittsburgh Penguins.
Tampa Bay Lightning winger Nikita Kucherov (NHL Images).
Tampa Bay Lightning winger Nikita Kucherov regained the league in the NHL scoring race (80 points) with a hat trick and an assist in a 6-3 victory over the Philadelphia Flyers. Anthony Cirelli collected two assists for the Lightning (25-18-5) as they moved past the idle Toronto Maple Leafs into third place in the Atlantic Division with 55 points. Cam Atkinson had a goal and an assist for the 25-17-6 Flyers, who have lost three straight but remain in second place in the Metropolitan Division with 56 points.
SPECTOR’S NOTE: Kucherov sits three points ahead of Colorado Avalanche center Nathan MacKinnon in the scoring race…Earlier in the day, the Lightning announced forward Austin Watson is listed as week-to-week with a lower-body injury.
Meanwhile, the Flyers announced before this game that goaltender Carter Hart was on an indefinite leave of absence for personal reasons…They also placed winger Owen Tippett on injured reserve.
The Vegas Golden Knights nipped the New York Islanders 3-2 thanks to a 40-save performance by Adin Hill. Ivan Barbashev and Nicolas Roy each had a goal and an assist for the 28-14-6 Golden Knights as they sit second in the Pacific Division with 62 points. Brock Nelson and Jean-Gabriel Pageau replied for the 20-16-11 Islanders (51 points) as they sit two points behind the Detroit Red Wings for the final Eastern Conference wild-card berth.
Speaking of the Red Wings, they dropped a 5-4 decision to the Dallas Stars. Roope Hintz tallied twice and collected an assist while Wyatt Johnston collected three assists for the Stars (28-13-6) as they sit in third place in the Central Division with 62 points. Dylan Larkin and Lucas Raymond each had two points for the 24-18-5 Red Wings.
An overtime goal by Tomas Hertl gave the San Jose Sharks a 3-2 upset victory over the New York Rangers. Mackenzie Blackwood stopped 29 shots for the 13-31-4 Sharks (30 points). Adam Fox had a goal and an assist for the Rangers (29-15-3), who hold first place in the Metropolitan Division with 61 points but have won just three of their last 10 games.
The Minnesota Wild picked up their third straight win by dropping the Washington Capitals 5-3. Marcus Johansson tallied twice while Filip Gustavsson made 30 saves for the 21-21-5 Wild (47 points) as they move within four points of the final Western Conference wild-card spot. Anthony Mantha scored two goals for the 22-17-6 Capitals (50 points) as they sit three behind the Red Wings for the final Eastern wild-card berth.
SPECTOR’S NOTE: Capitals defenseman Ethan Bear was a healthy scratch from this game as Rasmus Sandin returned from injury.
St. Louis Blues winger Brandon Saad scored twice, including the winning goal as his club rallied to a 4-3 win over the Calgary Flames. Nick Leddy picked up three assists while Jordan Binnington turned aside 32 shots for the Blues (23-20-2) as they sit three points out of a Western wild-card spot with 48 points. Yegor Sharangovich had a goal and an assist for the 21-21-5 Flames (47 points) as they dropped their third straight contest.
The Anaheim Ducks doubled up the Buffalo Sabres 4-2. Jakob Silfverberg tallied two goals while John Gibson made 28 saves for the 16-30-0 Ducks. Jordan Greenway had a goal and an assist for the 20-23-4 Sabres.
SPECTOR’S NOTE: Ducks rookie Olen Zellweger collected an assist in his NHL debut. Meanwhile, the Sabres announced before this game that defenseman Erik Johnson would miss this contest and Wednesday’s matchup with the Los Angeles Kings.
Ottawa Senators goaltender Joonas Korpisalo made 24 saves in a 4-1 victory over the Montreal Canadiens. Shane Pinto scored his first goal of the season for the 18-24-1 Senators while Johnathan Kovacevic replied for the 19-21-7 Canadiens, who have lost three straight games.
SPECTOR’S NOTE: Kovacevic returned to the Canadiens lineup after being out of the lineup for the last three games. Winger Tanner Pearson played his first game since being sidelined on Dec. 9 with an upper-body injury while defenseman Arber Xhekaj was recalled from their AHL affiliate in Laval.
HEADLINES
NEW JERSEY HOCKEY NOW: The Devils yesterday announced they’d reached an agreement with general manager Tom Fitzgerald on a multi-year contract extension. He’s also been promoted to president of hockey operations.
SPECTOR’S NOTE: Fitzgerald has done a good job rebuilding the Devils back to respectability despite their struggles this season. He signed Jack Hughes and Jesper Bratt to reasonable long-term contracts, acquired Timo Meier, Dougie Hamilton, Tyler Toffoli and Ondrej Palat and drafted Luke Hughes and Simon Nemec. His biggest challenge remains addressing his club’s inconsistent goaltending.
THE SCORE: Los Angeles Kings head coach Todd McLellan has called out center Pierre-Luc Dubois. “At the end of the day, whether PL gets four minutes or 24 minutes, he has to be a difference-maker,” said McLellan.
The Kings acquired Dubois from the Winnipeg Jets last summer and signed him to an eight-year contract worth an average annual value of $8.5 million. He’s managed just nine goals and 19 points in 44 games this season.
SPECTOR’S NOTE: That’s not the kind of positive impact the Kings envisioned when they traded for Dubois. It’ll be interesting to see whether McLellan’s remarks light a fire under the 25-year-old center.
CBS SPORTS: The Seattle Kraken activated goaltender Philipp Grubauer off long-term injury reserve and sent Chris Driedger to their AHL affiliate in Coachella Valley.
DAILY FACEOFF: The Toronto Maple Leafs activated winger Ryan Reaves from injured reserve and designated winger Tyler Bertuzzi as a non-active roster player as he and his wife await the birth of their child.
The Kings must be experiencing buyer’s remorse after seeing what a selfish center Dubois is.
Too early for buyers remorse and McClellan is obviously trying to light a fire under PLD. He’s only half a season into an 8 year contract. Too early to panic. If we’re still having this conversation next year then it’ll be a problem.
Re; Sen’s
Is Shane Pinto the Straw that Stirs the Drink in Ottawa……❓
Its only been 2 game’s back with the Sens and they look like a diffrent team out there……..🤔
I wouldn’t bet on it.
Re $7.M Goaltending Duo in Ottawa….
Joonas Korpisalo @ 4.5 X $4.M still Very looks shaky… same with back up Anton Forsberg @ 1.5 X $2.75M…thats the big problem in Ottawa.
Would like to see more of young 23 yr old
Mads Søgaard to see what he has got…..
Hope he is up full time next season🤔
if they could trade one of the above like Forsberg,
Nobody is taking Korpisalo the way he is playing right now…
We shouldn’t be comparing winning streaks in the OT and shootout era with those from the past. Oilers have 2 OT and one SO win. In 1979-80, Philly had a 35 game unbeaten streak. That’s a better comparable. And the Flyers had a nine game stretch of consecutive wins within their unbeaten string. So far, Edmonton has two 4 game winning streaks.
Of note, Toronto was not one of the teams unable to beat Philly. All other Original Six teams were included in the streak.
Ooops, Leafs were part of the Flyers unbeaten streak. Lost in Philly and tied in Toronto. The article I read appears to contain several erroneous opponents in the list of games, when compared against hockey-reference.com.
lol i just posted about PLD yesterday. Regardless of where he did or didn’t want to play; he is a good hockey player who can dominate.
There certainly seem to be a lot of players leaving their teams for personal matters. I don’t recall this being a thing. Not saying it’s a bad thing.
Carter Hart played in 26 games for Philly, this could be a major blow to the flyers, depending on how long Carter is away from the team.
Just reading this article about
The 5 Member’s of the 2018 JR Team Canada to Turn them self in to london Ontario Police…⁉️
A number of players taking indefinite leave of absence from the NHL teams over the past
few days….
https://www.tsn.ca/hockey-canada/report-five-members-of-canada-s-2018-wjc-team-told-to-surrender-to-london-police-1.2066984
Alex Formenton was granted an indefinite leave of absence from his Swiss team.
https://twitter.com/clahanna/status/1750182942444233009
Wow, that add clarity to the recent leave of absent.
We will know the 5 names, we already assume to know two names. unless i missed another leave of absent
Dillon Dube 2 days ago. No idea if related to this, but was on the 2018 WJR roster.
Carter Hart on indefinite leave from Philly.
Certainly appears that Drake Batherson is not one of the five.
And now Micheal McLeod and Cal Foote have received indefinite leave of absence from NJD.
That are 5 players from that team that have left their current team.
https://twitter.com/NJDevils/status/1750202758324490322
I guess we now know who the five players are. Obviously we don’t know for sure but all these players suddenly being granted leave cannot be a coincidence.
To add on the NJD issues as they think a goalie will cure all the defensive problems a new goalie won’t improve that D corp and the one way forward play…Good luck Fitz on the extension you might need that to survive.
The Last 2 *Name’s just came out 10 minutes ago from 5 team members JR Team Canada Unlawful Rape !!
*1-Micheal McLeod. NJ
*2-Cal Foote. NJ
3-Carter Hart. Philly
4-Dillon Dube. Calgary
&
5- Alex Formenton Ottawa, who was told to leave the team 2.5 years ago
As a father of 2 girls late 20s & early 30s
I hope they through the Book at them….
& LOCK them up for 20 years+ EACH..‼️✔️✔️ and Band them from the NHL for Life…
If $68 million won’t motivate Dubois, nothing will. He’s in vacation mode after getting his cash.
Drake Batherson not named . Goes to show we should not speculate . Not sure how many times I read and believed he may have been involved .
Swany, true that.
Same is still true now.
Ray, 100% should not judge before they have there day in court for sure .
So true Swany. I have not followed the story closely but have read a number of articles over the past couple of years. The two most prominent names were Formenton and Batherson. And now it certainly appears Jake was not involved.
The NHL teams knew whether or not any of their own players were implicated. Batherson signed a multi year contract this past summer whereas Hart and Foote signed one year deals. Dube and McLeod are both in the final year of their second contracts. So, no team commitments beyond this season. Just a coincidence?
Hammer . I 100% think the NHL knew . The teams that signed these guys took a chance it might not come out. The NHL could not punish anyone until after the police finshed there investigation . Crazy how long some things take .