NHL Morning Coffee Headlines – May 15, 2024
The Bruins stay alive against the Panthers, the Oilers tied their series with the Canucks, and more in today’s NHL Morning Coffee Headlines.
GAME RECAPS
NHL.COM: The Boston Bruins avoided elimination by nipping the Florida Panthers 2-1 in Game 5 of their best-of-seven second-round series. Jeremy Swayman made 28 saves, Charlie McAvoy had a goal and an assist and Morgan Geekie scored for the Bruins. Sam Reinhart replied for the Panthers, who hold a 3-2 series lead. Game 6 will be in Boston on Friday, May 17.
Boston Bruins defenseman Charlie McAvoy (NHL Images).
SPECTOR’S NOTE: Swayman was superb while McAvoy played his best game of this series for the Bruins. Their penalty killers also stepped up, successfully nullifying four Panthers power-play opportunities. The Bruins played without captain Brad Marchand, who missed his second straight game with an upper-body injury.
Panthers head coach Paul Maurice wasn’t pleased with his club’s listless start to this game. He laid into his players with an expletive-laden “pep talk” on the bench during the first TV timeout in the second period. The Panthers improved after that, with Reinhart scoring 11 seconds later.
The Bruins unsuccessfully challenged a crucial goal by the Panthers in Game 4. This time, it was the Panthers as their challenge of McAvoy’s goal didn’t go their way.
A late goal by Evan Bouchard lifted the Edmonton Oilers to a 3-2 victory over the Vancouver Canucks, tying their second-round series at two games apiece. Bouchard and Leon Draisaitl each had a goal and an assist while Calvin Pickard made 19 saves to win his first NHL playoff start. Conor Garland and Dakota Joshua scored for the Canucks as they overcame a 2-0 deficit in the third period before Bouchard’s game-winner for the Oilers. The series returns to Vancouver for Game 5 on Thursday, May 16 at 10 pm EDT.
SPECTOR’S NOTE: Canucks head coach Rick Tocchet wasn’t happy with the performance of center Elias Pettersson. “He needs to get going,” Tocchet said. “I don’t know what else to say.” Pettersson has four points in 10 games during this postseason.
The Canucks coach didn’t stop there, claiming there were “five or six” other players who must step up their play. “You can’t win if you have five, six, or seven passengers. It’s playoff hockey. One of those guys can be the hero for us next game, but they’ve got to step up.”
Tocchet didn’t indicate who those other players were but it wasn’t top players like Quinn Hughes, J.T. Miller and Brock Boeser. Those three have consistently played well in this series.
Oilers forward Adam Henrique missed his second straight game with an undisclosed injury.
PLAYOFF NOTEBOOK
NEW YORK POST: Rangers winger Artemi Panarin’s recent scoring slump has contributed to his club’s two losses to the Carolina Hurricanes in their second-round series. He had two game-winning goals and four assists in the first three games but was held pointless in the following two games. Panarin was held to two shots while being on the ice for four five-on-five goals against.
SPECTOR’S NOTE: The Rangers hold a 3-2 lead over the Hurricanes in this series with Game 6 on Thursday. It could go the Blueshirts’ way if Panarin regains his scoring touch.
THE HOCKEY NEWS: Depth scoring was a key factor in the Hurricanes’ victories over the Rangers. They’ve had 15 players with at least one goal in this postseason.
COLORADO HOCKEY NOW: Avalanche superstar Nathan MacKinnon shouldered the blame for his club’s loss to the Dallas Stars in Game 4 of their second-round series. “Yeah, we stunk early. I was bad. I got to be better, especially early,” he said following an optional skate on Tuesday.
SPECTOR’S NOTE: The Stars hold a commanding 3-1 series lead over the Avalanche and can wrap it up with a win on Wednesday in Dallas.
THE DALLAS MORNING NEWS: Stars forward Roope Hintz underwent tests for an upper-body injury suffered during Game 4. Defenseman Chris Tanev also left that game following a hit by Avalanche forward Ross Colton. Stars coach Pete DeBoer said Tanev looked fine yesterday.
IN OTHER NEWS…
SPORTSNET: An overtime goal by John Tavares gave Canada a face-saving 7-6 win over Austria in the 2024 IIHF World Championships. Austria overcame a 6-1 third-period deficit to force the extra frame.
SPECTOR’S NOTE: The number of countries considered easy pickings for Canada in international competition has steadily shrunk over the past two decades. Austria nearly burned them for letting up after taking what seemed to be a commanding lead into the third period.
WINNIPEG SUN: The Jets interviewed former St. Louis Blues coach Craig Berube regarding their vacant head coaching position. They’ve also expressed interest in Sheldon Keefe after he was fired by the Toronto Maple Leafs last week. Meanwhile, Jets assistant coach Scott Arniel has also expressed interest in the job.
THE ORANGE COUNTY REGISTER: The Anaheim Ducks announced they will not renew the contracts of assistant coaches Newell Brown and Craig Johnson.
Meanwhile, Ducks assistant general manager Rob DiMaio has left the Ducks for personal reasons. He was also the GM of their AHL affiliate in San Diego. Mike Stapleton takes over as Ducks assistant GM while Rick Paterson takes over the San Diego job.
TORONTO SUN: Scotiabank Arena in Toronto is undergoing a $350 million upgrade during the summer. It’s not expected to affect the Maple Leafs or the NBA’s Raptors’ schedules for next season.
Valiant effort by Bruins to stay alive and bring the series back to Boston! They finally won some face offs and had a much better possession game!Still it looked to me thatFla. Seemed to only play in stretches!
The officiating was wildly inconsistent and an consistently wild during this game.
To hear Gary Galley say “whoa….after watching that 30 second sequence behind the net and seeing no calls, it makes the first period penalty to Boston look like a soft call”
nO sHYT Gary.
The Panthers are taking diving to an extreme including their goalie who launched himself into a Bruins player in front of the net so he “couldn’t make a save”. Nice try Bob.
Bruins fans….. you all need to send Swayman an early Christmas card.
He de man
Not sure if they will come back and win the series; but that effort was certainly a good one.
I’m loaded with Rangers in my pool so the outcome of this series to me is irrelevant.
Need high scoring victory for Rangers tomorrow.
Hoping Rangers get to conference final (at least) but think Bobrovski (over Swayman) would be the preferred (by Rangers) goalie to shoot at
Bruins if being truthful have a real good AHL roster with exceptional goaltending and they work like dogs. They are missing high end talent Pasta literally has zero help. They should have some cap space to add a player or two not sure still what to do with Jake he seems to show up and than disappear. Trade one of the goalies for a good young player and extend the other time for the Bus to get the call up.
Feel the same way Obe, although AHL roster might be a bit of a stretch, I get your point!
When your throwing Geekie out there to center your top line, you lack top shelf offensive talent. He’s an NHL player, no doubt, who is having a career year averaging half a point a game this season. Chew on that. Seattle didn’t qualify him last off season. Good story, but not many 2nd RD winners will have a guy like him centering their top line when the other guys aren’t injured.
The opposition is countering with Barkov.
The B’s created some offence by defending last night. Winning battles, getting the puck back, and finally starting to generate with speed through the zone and getting some rush chances. Did what they had to. Should we have hope?
McAvoy, who has been taking some shots on the ice and off, some deserved, was great last night. Their best player.
The lack of offence up front forces him to try and generate from the back end and mistakes can ensue. And I would 100% expect that Monty is encouraging it. He basically said the same thing when he defended Charlie to the media. The guy is trying to do it all. Less is usually more with D-men, but the B’s haven’t been generating remotely enough offence up front, what else are they supposed to do? Plus McAvoy drills guys, clean too. And takes his share to make plays. The guy is a tough as nails gamer and their future captain. I’ve had a dog named Ray, I currently have one named Bob, next one will be named Charlie.
Should try to keep Jake IMO, we need some guys who can bring some O, as frustrating as he can be. Hopefully he and his agent are reasonable and he wants to stay.
Obe, the bruins have a good bottom 6 players. Unfortunately they don’t have much in the top 6 position.
Getting very little out of the top 2 Centers. It is what it is and they need to play a certain system to have success.
This is bonus season. The Bruins with no 1st, 2nd or 3rd round pick, so not losing anything in draft picks and many folks had them outside the playoffs.
Home is need to be advantage, take it to 7.
As long as Lyles brought up the subject of the world championship, Binnington certainly allowed some soft ones in the third period.
At least your guys are in first.
We only have one win (Germany).
and Nedjelkovic let in 4 on 16 shots vs Slovakia; two of which he definitely should have had.
We better beat France tomorrow; or book an early flight home.
Times are tough if you are watching that tournament! I d rather watch the WNBA!
Crazy talk
Sr
Catching hi lights only. Following generally. Will watch if we get to Gold Medal game. So I’m not counting on it.
Shoreorrpark
Crazy talk is right. Slovakia!!!!
Oil & Canucks
Pickard played Great for the Oilers last night, he shook of some rust for not playing in weeks it was
A solid 1st 2 periods & then the canucks got two lucky goals in the 3rd,
Leon continues to play well, nice to see Nuge get on the score sheet at last.
Just waiting on the offence to kick in 5 or 6 goals in the next game from the Oil Thursday night in Vancouver i hope…..
Stu Skinner has looked Very Slow and Tired in the Vancouver Series,
Expect Pickard to start Thursday….👍
Monty was making sure the ref knew the panthers were diving.
Paul Maurice ripping into his team and doing a ballerina move to show what he thought of his team play.
Is Brady Tkachuk injured? he was not noticeable last night.
Back to Maurice, remember he quit on the Jets and said he couldn’t do anymore for the team.
I think he quit because he had players on the roster that wouldn’t play the style he wanted them to play.
Maurice loved Blake Wheeler and commented on Wheeler that he (Maurice) would go thru a wall for him.
Maurice likes physical in your face style of hockey and he is getting his players to buy into that style. There was a couple players in Winnipeg top 9 that were not going to play that style.
Times are tough if you are watching that tournament! I d rather watch the WNBA!
Brady Tkachuk play for the Sen’s…
&
Mathew Tkachuk play for the Panthers,..
yes he was a bit of a no show last night maybe thats one of the reasons it set Paul Maurice of the Deep End….😂
He gets under Everyones Skin… We are sure Happy we dont see him in Alberta with the Flames & Oilers…❗️😂
Was at the Canada Austria game… was laughing my butt off.
Great day for Austrian hockey…
Binnington couldn’t stop a beach ball… was beat clean on an unobstructed shot beyond the top of the circle.
Expected the Team Canada to get more physical at 6-4… it was the Austrians who got more physical.
Expected a blowout… got to witness some hockey history.
A great day for Austrian hockey.
zimmer, all good for the game. Anyone on that Austrian roster not “owned” by an NHL team who might attract interest?