NHL Morning Coffee Headlines – September 26, 2024
Recapping Wednesday’s preseason action, injury updates, and more in today’s NHL Morning Coffee Headlines.
NHL PRESEASON GAME RECAPS
NHL.COM: An injury to Los Angeles Kings defenseman Drew Doughty overshadowed his club’s 3-2 victory over the Vegas Golden Knights. Doughty injured his left leg during the first period and had to be helped off the ice. Head coach Jim Hiller said the blueliner will be further evaluated when the Kings return to Los Angeles.
Los Angeles Kings defenseman Drew Doughty (NHL Images).
Jake DeBrusk scored two goals in his preseason debut with the Vancouver Canucks as his club rallied to nip the Calgary Flames 4-3.
The Tampa Bay Lightning overcame a 7-5 deficit for an 8-7 win over the Florida Panthers. Conor Geekie tallied twice (including the game-winner) and picked up an assist and Darren Raddysh scored two goals and added two assists for the Lightning. Jesper Boqvist had a goal and two assists for the Panthers.
Three goals in the final 5:32 of the second period carried the Washington Capitals over the New Jersey Devils 5-3. Dylan Strome and Brandon Duhaime each netted two goals for the Capitals.
Columbus Blue Jackets forward Kent Johnson had a goal and an assist and Elvis Merzlikins and Zach Sawchenko combined for a 31-save shutout to blank the St. Louis Blues 3-0.
SPECTOR’S NOTE: This was also the Blue Jackets’ first preseason home game. The club remembered Johnny Gaudreau with an emotional pregame tribute video and 13 seconds of silence in honor of his Blue Jackets’ uniform number. A suspected drunk driver killed Johnny and his brother Matthew on Aug. 29.
Winnipeg Jets defenseman Neal Pionk scored a goal and collected three assists in a 6-1 victory over the Edmonton Oilers.
The Dallas Stars downed the Minnesota Wild 5-2. Jamie Benn and Miro Heiskanen each scored for the Stars.
Detroit Red Wings forward Lucas Raymond scored the go-ahead goal in a 4-2 win over the Chicago Blackhawks. Connor Bedard collected an assist for the Blackhawks in his preseason debut.
HEADLINES
TSN: New York Rangers winger Artemi Panarin is day-to-day with a lower-body injury. Rangers defenseman Ryan Lindgren is expected to miss “several weeks” with an upper-body injury, putting his status for their Oct. 9 season opener in question.
OTTAWA SUN: Senators forward Claude Giroux awoke Wednesday morning to find his vehicle stolen from his home overnight. He and his wife tracked it via GPS but were told they could only report the theft to Ottawa police at 10 am. The Girouxs don’t expect the vehicle to be recovered.
SPORTSNET: Utah Hockey Club forward Nick Bjugstad is listed as week-to-week with an upper-body injury and is expected to miss the start of the regular season.
TSN: A desire for his son to play in North America led to Nikolay Kulemin’s professional tryout offer with the Ottawa Senators. The 38-year-old winger last played in the NHL in 2017-18 with the New York Islanders and spent the past six seasons in the KHL.
“He and his wife tracked it via GPS but were told they could only report the theft to Ottawa police at 10 am. The Girouxs don’t expect the vehicle to be recovered.”
WHAT?!?!!? They know where it is but doubt it can be recovered? This is really sad!
That’s not the first second or third time that’s happened. People put air tags in them. Tell the police where they are exactly. Police can’t or won’t drive over and do anything. State of things in Ontario and Canada wide actually.
Zub out with an undisclosed libby and seeing a specialist. That’s not good.
No, losing RD Zub to start the season not ideal, to say the least.
I doubt they want to move Jensen up alongside Sanderson on the first pairing … better to leave him with Chabot on the 2nd duo.
Hamonic is not an option to play on the 1st pairing, which leaves Bernard-Docker, with either Hamonic going from 7th D to the 3rd pairing with Kleven, or perhaps p.t.o. Calen Addison going alongside Kleven. Yikes.
Another possibility is keeping Yakemchuk on the main roster and playing him alongside the dependable Sanderson, with everything else remaining the same.
Over the past 2 seasons Zub has missed 42 games – or 25%. In that regard he reminds me of Anton Volchenkov. A warrior … but missing in action far too frequently.
If he’s out long-term, and the decision is to keep Yakemchuk, then play him with Sanderson, Chabot with Jensen and Bernard-Docker with Kleven and keep Hamonic as the 7th D.
Once Zub is cleared to go, and if Yakemchuk is showing that he can handle the load, then make the best deal possible for Zub and move on. No point in continuing with two revolving-door D-men (Chabot being the other). It’s too disruptive of any cohesion in overall defense.
Thieves likely disabled the GPS by 10 AM. Friend of mine knows a tradesman who had an expensive pickup in his driveway. Vehicle’s security system alerted him of a theft in process. He tracked the pickup on his iphone. GPS was disabled within one minute.
Organized rings are even stealing construction equipment. Some businesses don’t bother calling the police, they locate the equipment using GPS tracking and then send a specialist “crew” to recovery the stolen machinery.
Maybe Claude should give some of his buddies from his days as a Flyer a call?
Seems pretty darn easy to steal cars these days, have to think there is a way to make it more difficult. Simple PW protection ought to do it.
The Jackets were fueled by the emotions of the evening. There is a strong possibility that they will have that little extra all season in memory of Johnny Gaudreau.
Sad when people respond on this site about stolen cars! Let s hope CBJ have a good season after this summers tragedy! Still Don t know why the NHL has players playing in meaningless exhibition games! I think Doughty and LA and Lindgren and the Rangers might agree with me!
Not sure why Lindgren was tasked with fighting in the first place. Ben Harpur , Edstrom, Rempe in the lineup, why is an often injured guy like Lindgren dropping the gloves?
Bruins … it looks like Tyler Johnson has a very good shot at making the team and will need a contract. If so with the Bruins having 8.6 million in cap space Johnson will eat into that … If Sway wanted less than the $10 million reported in a few spots say around the 8.6 that they have a deal would’ve been completed already … I guess the question to ask is where do the Bruins get the $$ to pay Sway …
Bruins … Bussi is going to be a good goaltender in the NHL when given a chance .. no expert but having seen him play a half dozen times he looks just about ready to make the jump … Problem is if he makes team out of camp he won’t be able to be sent back down to minors without clearing waivers and that just won’t happen he will get claimed …
Joe, he won’t have any options left period. If he starts the season in the AHL it won’t matter when or why they bring him back up … he’ll have to stay. So, if they think he’s ready now and they don’t get Swayman signed, they may as well keep him up.
Joe,the Bruins have several players they could trade! They are overloaded with bottom 6 forwards that they can’t all play!