NHL Morning Coffee Headlines – February 27, 2024
Oilers captain Connor McDavid reaches two milestones, the three stars of the week are unveiled, Valeri Nichushkin returns to the Avalanche, and more in today’s NHL Morning Coffee Headlines.
GAME RECAPS
NHL.COM: Edmonton Oilers captain Connor McDavid collected two assists in a 4-2 win over the Los Angeles Kings to reach the 90-point plateau for the eighth consecutive season. Evan Bouchard, Leon Draisaitl and Ryan Nugent-Hopkins each had a goal and an assist for the 34-20-2 Oilers, who sit third in the Pacific Division with 70 points. Trevor Moore and Alex Laferriere replied for the Kings (29-18-10) as they hold the first Western Conference wild-card berth with 68 points.
Edmonton Oilers captain Connor McDavid (NHL Images).
SPECTOR’S NOTE: McDavid is the sixth player to reach 90 points in eight straight seasons, sitting in a tie for the third-most all-time with Jari Kurri, Dale Hawerchuk and Marcel Dionne. Wayne Gretzky is the all-time leader with 13 followed by Mike Bossy with nine.
The Oilers’ superstar also netted 70 assists for the fourth straight season to become the sixth player to reach that milestone. Gretzky is the all-time leader in that category with 13, followed by Bobby Orr (six), Adam Oates (five) Peter Stastny and Guy Lafleur (four each).
By the way, McDavid also stretched his home points streak to 23. With 91 points, he’s third among this season’s leading scorers.
The Seattle Kraken upset the Boston Bruins 4-3 on a shootout goal by Kailer Yamamoto. Philipp Grubauer made 29 saves for the Kraken as they improved to 25-22-11 (61 points) and sit five points out of the final Western Conference wild-card spot. David Pastrnak scored twice and collected an assist for the Bruins (34-12-14) as they collected a point to move into second place in the overall standings with 81 points.
SPECTOR’S NOTE: This is the sixth straight game that has gone to overtime or a shootout for the Bruins, winning just two of those. Speaking of the Bruins, defenseman Derek Forbort was a healthy scratch after missing a team meeting.
An overtime goal by Bo Horvat gave the New York Islanders a 3-2 win over the Dallas Stars. Ilya Sorokin kicked out 30 shots for the 24-20-14 Islanders. Rookie Logan Stankoven scored his first NHL goal and collected his first assist for the Stars (35-16-9), who hold first place in the Central Division with 79 points.
SPECTOR’S NOTE: Before the game, the Stars announced that forward Tyler Seguin is listed as week-to-week with a lower-body injury.
The Washington Capitals defeated the Ottawa Senators 6-3. Hendrix Lapierre tallied twice while Aliaksei Protas had a goal and two assists for the 27-21-9 Capitals. Brady Tkachuk and Shane Pinto each had a goal and two assists for the 25-28-3 Senators.
SPECTOR’S NOTE: The Capitals’ John Carlson reached a franchise milestone by moving past Calle Johansson into first place for most games played by a defenseman with 984. He’s also third all-time on their games-played list behind Alex Ovechkin (1,401) and Nicklas Backstrom (1,105).
Earlier in the day, the Capitals announced winger T.J. Oshie is week-to-week with an upper-body injury while Nic Dowd (upper body) is day-to-day.
HEADLINES
NHL.COM: Minnesota Wild winger Kirill Kaprizov, Toronto Maple Leafs winger Mitch Marner, and New York Rangers goaltender Igor Shesterkin as the league’s three stars for the week ending Feb. 25, 2024.
COLORADO HOCKEY NOW: Valeri Nichushkin has been cleared to return to practice with the Avalanche. The 28-year-old winger entered the NHL/NHLPA player assistance program on Jan. 15 and is now in the follow-up care phase.
SPECTOR’S NOTE: No word yet as to when Nichushkin will be cleared to resume playing but it’s good news for the Avalanche that he’s a step closer to doing so.
STLTODAY.COM: The Blues activated defenseman Justin Faulk (lower body) off long-term injured reserve. He could be in the lineup for Tuesday’s game against the Winnipeg Jets.
PHILLY HOCKEY NOW: Flyers defenseman Jamie Drysdale is reportedly week-to-week with an upper-body injury.
Boston has played 22 games that gone into OT! That s a third of their entire season! Does that make sense?
Sr Both Boston and NYI have played in 22 OT games.
Not sure what the streak is for consecutive ot games , 6 seem like a long one.
Boston has not won a regulation game in 10 games.
The bruins are not good enough to blow any team out of the water, but strong enough defensively and goaltending to keep them in games.
Yes. I agree with both of you. They just need to be a little more aggressive and not sit back with their 3rd period leads If things tilt to much Monty needs to call time out and get a reset
That pretty much sums it up Caper.
But will add some of what I have been seeing of late.
They get hemmed in their own zone and give up shots and chances for longer than previous years. They got slightly out chanced last night against a not that good a team. 35 scoring chances against is quite a few, they had 32.
But, they defend home plate. High danger chances, all situations, were 18 to 9 in the B’s favor.
When you consider the B’s took 5 of 6 penalties, it isn’t that bad of an outcome.
The B’s have a high SV% and a better than average shooting %.
IMO, they get to the dirty/scoring areas and defend the same areas better than average.
Or maybe they just have good tenders and Pasta!
But I think there is more to it than that.
Since the AS break this is how I thought the Bruins would play all year ..overrated D.. not much secondary scoring & no team physicality …
That’s a lot Sr – some others are fairly close – see here
https://www.statmuse.com/nhl/ask?q=nhl+team+overtime+records+2023-2024
Par for the course for the witless Senators. Beat Dallas and Vegas – two top teams – then ooze on into Washington and be blown out 6-3 – with Korpisalo giving up 2 goals on 10 shots … and Forsberg waving at 4 in 10.
20 bloody shots against and they’re blown away!
Consistency of effort? This bunch can’t even spell the three words.
Every time I feel some glimmer of hope they lay that type of turd on the ice.
If the goaltending isn’t fixed next season, it will be more of the same.
The more I look at some of Dorion’s signings I get livid.
Consistency comes with age. The Sens are still a young team. I’m not saying that’s their only issue but it’s quite common for young teams to trip over themselves be it in the regular season or playoffs.
Re; Capitals hamerSenators 6-3.
Korpisalo that guy is an Albatross for the Sen’s
As long as he is in Ottawa the Sen’s are going
No Where…Sen’s let in 6 Goals in the first 2 periods
Sen’s need a Starter in Net and they need to be Very Creative in a trade to get a good starter like
Saros or Ullmark before next season starts,
-A 1st pick
-A LD man, one of these two Chabot or Chychrun
-A Goaltender dump Korpisalo
-A good Prospect like a RD Lassi Thomson
For
one of these two Goaltender Saros or Ullmark,❓
Then Fix the D… If not this will continue to be a common score for the Sen’s going forward
williew, IMO, if the Sens were willing give up a 1st and a guy like Chabot, Chychrun or your suggestion from yesterday – Norris, that deal would be done. In a heartbeat.
When a team gives up that much for a tender like Saros, I will stand corrected, but they don’t.
As a Bruins fan, I wish they would, and I am wrong about that. I think Ullmark has more value than Saros.
I think the majority of folks on here thought Korpisalo was a risky signing. He has had as many poor years as good years, and it’s not like LA stepped up to give him what he was asking for, and he played pretty good for them.
yes, I was immediately unimpressed with that Korpisalo signing… especially the term!
In the grand scheme 4m is not as much as some goalies get so retaining some salary might be good.
One of the current backups (they’re not starters) needs to go. Neither one is comfortable with the pressure of being a starter.
I would not be surprised if they waive him to see if there are any takers… there won’t be.
Bruins are the overtime loser point Champs !
Not yet tied with nyi per Caper
It would a lot more fun if wins in regulation were worth three points rather than two. Rather than cautious strategy to ensure at least one point, we might actually see teams go for the win.
Fans who pay big bucks to watch might get their money’s worth once in a while.
The Bruins haven’t learned how to lose in regulation – they need to correct that.
3pt games sadly, will never happen because then the parity we see in the standings will not exist and bad teams will look a lot worse than they already do with the hard numbers to prove it.
BCLeaf Fan
Thats a great idea.. 3 points for an OT Win….
Would make it very exciting for the Fans👍