NHL Morning Coffee Headlines – October 10, 2024
Recapping Wednesday’s games, the Kraken sign Joey Daccord to a contract extension, and more in today’s NHL Morning Coffee Headlines.
GAME RECAPS
NHL.COM: Montreal Canadiens goaltender Sam Montembeault turned in a 48-save shutout to blank the Toronto Maple Leafs 1-0. Cole Caufield tallied for the Canadiens. Leafs netminder Anthony Stolarz stopped 26 shots.
Montreal Canadiens goaltender Sam Montembeault (NHL Images).
SPECTOR’S NOTE: This was the first shutout loss for the Leafs since Nov. 20, 2021. Before this game, the Leafs placed netminder Joseph Woll (lower body) on injured reserve, raising questions about his reliability as their starter this season.
Sidelined Canadiens winger Patrik Laine received a loud ovation from the Montreal crowd during the pregame introductions. The 26-year-old winger is out for two-to-three months with a sprained knee.
The New York Rangers got 29 saves from Igor Shesterkin in a 6-0 drubbing of the Pittsburgh Penguins. Chris Kreider scored two goals, Alexis Lafreniere had a goal and an assist and Jacob Trouba collected two assists for the Rangers. Tristan Jarry made 35 stops for the Penguins.
SPECTOR’S NOTE: This was a complete team victory by the Rangers, getting scoring from their top-six and bottom-six forwards to dominate the Penguins throughout this contest.
Winnipeg Jets goaltender Connor Hellebuyck had a 30-save shutout to down the Edmonton Oilers 6-0. Mason Appleton had a goal and two assists while Mark Scheifele and Adam Lowry collected a goal and an assist each. Oilers goalie Stuart Skinner was lifted in favor of Calvin Pickard after giving up five goals on 13 shots.
SPECTOR’S NOTE: One could blame the flat-footed Oilers’ loss on the dreaded “Stanley Cup Final hangover.” However, The Athletic’s Daniel Nugent-Bowman cited inexperience on right defense, a slower lineup, and a penalty kill still working in new personnel for the loss.
Earlier in the day, the Oilers reclaimed forward Raphael Lavoie off waivers from the Vegas Golden Knights, who had claimed him off waivers earlier in the week.
An overtime goal by Connor Zary lifted the Calgary Flames to a 6-5 victory over the Vancouver Canucks. Flames winger Anthony Mantha and Canucks center J.T. Miller each had a “Gordie Howe hat trick” (goal, assist, fighting major) and Canucks winger Brock Boeser tallied twice.
SPECTOR’S NOTE: This was a wild one as the Canucks jumped to a 4-1 lead in the first period only to see the Flames rally to take a 5-4 lead in the third. Miller, who was playing in his 800th career regular-season game, tied it with 1:37 remaining in regulation, sending the game to overtime and Zary’s game-winner.
Miller also laid a hard hit against Flames forward Kevin Rooney in the first period. A stretcher was called but Rooney left the game under his own power. That led to Mantha and Miller squaring off later in the period, resulting in their fighting majors.
Canucks forward Pius Suter missed this game with an upper-body injury.
The Vegas Golden Knights defeated the Colorado Avalanche 8-4. Ivan Barbashev scored two goals and picked up two assists and Jack Eichel collected four assists for the Golden Knights. Mikko Rantanen tallied a hat trick and Nathan MacKinnon had two helpers for the Avalanche.
SPECTOR’S NOTE: Alexandar Georgiev’s shaky goaltending and defensive breakdowns led to this ugly loss for the Avalanche. Georgiev gave up five goals on 16 shots before being replaced by Justus Annunen.
IN OTHER NEWS…
THE SEATTLE TIMES: The Kraken signed goaltender Joey Daccord to a five-year contract extension with an average annual value of $5 million. He earned that deal with a breakout performance last season, sporting a record of 19-18-11 with a 2.46 goals-against average and a save percentage of .916.
SPECTORS’ NOTE: Daccord, 28, is in the final season of a two-year deal worth an AAV of $1.2 million. It’s a significant raise and could prompt questions about starter Philipp Grubauer’s future with the Kraken. He’s signed through 2026-27 with an AAV of $5.9 million and a 10-team no-trade list.
THE TENNESSEAN: Nashville Predators goalie Juuse Saros was in practice yesterday despite being listed as day-to-day with a lower-body injury. He remains uncertain for their season-opener on Thursday against the Dallas Stars.
THE BUFFALO NEWS: Sabres forwards JJ Peterka (concussion) and Zach Benson (lower-body injury) hope to be in the lineup for their club’s home opener on Thursday against the Los Angeles Kings.
THE FOURTH PERIOD: Speaking of the Kings, they’re in line to host the 2025 NHL Draft.
Broken record – Penguins coach Mike Sullivan refuses adjust to faster teams.
not sure he had the forward assemble to adjust to the Rangers game. The Rangers 3rd line seemed to be a few gears up on whoever the Pens had on the ice with them
Wow. I’m not a gambling man but those “overs” last night must have paid big time.
Happy for Joey “Ok” Daccord. Liked him in Ottawa.
NY – Pittsburgh, Only one player finished with a +/- 0 from either team in this game. I don’t think I’ve ever seen that before?
Beauvillier was everywhere in that game. Without question their most visible player.
That is a bit Captain Obvious …. Mancini is the one, and he was on the ice for 17.27on D for the Rangers … how could he become the ONLY one of about 40 players to not be on the ice for a second in a 6-0 romp?
“That is a bit weird …”
When your overall “team speed” ranges from slow — slower — to stop it’s hard to adjust. The Penguins are going to experience a lot of those types of games this season. The tinkering has to stop and the re-build needs to begin.
This has been recognized for a while now by a number of beat writers, including Josh Yohe of the NY Times who wrote, last December, “The Penguins are slow. Not outrageously slow or anything. They still have a few players who can really motor. But the Penguins, in my estimation, are average at best in terms of team speed. Probably a tad below average. Given that they’re also small and lacking in any semblance of physicality (except for John Ludvig, who I really like) the lack of speed is a real problem.
It used to be their superpower. I don’t think we can say that anymore.”
Of course, in their infinite wisdom they have since exposed Ludvig to waivers and he was promptly snatched up by Colorado a few weeks ago.
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The whole Dec 1963 NY Times article can be seen here
https://www.nytimes.com/athletic/5114911/2023/12/06/penguins-power-play-problems/
“Dec 2023 ….” lol – they’re not THAT old!
I have a solution George. Trade all the slow , bad players and contracts for younger , faster , better players with good contracts! It’s simple!
Sometimes you need to throw 3 bad players / contracts at a team to make it even more tempting for the opposing sucker, I mean gm. But that’s what it takes sometimes!
“So you won’t take Accari straight up for Mcdavid? What if we throw in Hayes and Jarry? I mean that’s 3 for one, and I’m really losing this deal because 3 is more than 1! “
LOL, that’s certainly the mindset of some. The multiple canoes for a big battleship has been around since …. well … fantasy leagues came into vogue.
On another topic, looking at those scores last night makes you wonder if even 7 pre-season games are enough to get teams into regular-season mode – at least insofar as the defensive side of the game is concerned.
6 – 0 NYR over Pittsburgh – 29 shots on Shesterkin – 41 on Jarry who, unlike the other lop-sided games, was left in to take the full brunt himself
6 – 0 Winnipeg over Edmonton – 30 shots on Hellebuyck – just 20 on Skinner and 5 goals – 7 on Pickard – 1 goal
8 – 4 Vegas over Colorado – Colorado puts 32 shots on Hill and pots 4 goals … but just 16 shots on Georgiev by Vegas – 5 goals and 4 shots on Annunen – 2 goals
In the one close multiple-goal game, a 6-5 OT win by Calgary, both goalies stayed in – Vladar gives up 5 goals on 25 shots while Silovs allows 6 on 26 shots
Then you get the other extreme where both goalies are stars of the game with Montembeault posting a SO facing 46 shots while Stolarz stops all but 1 of 27.
George, I do see a lot of people complaining about star players playing in preseason for injury.
IMO, and this will not be a popular one.
Why play guys in preseason you KNOW are not going to be a part on the starting roster? Unless they’re a bubble type player that COULD make the jump?
I’d want to concentrate more on team chemistry than worry about guys 3-4 years away from making the jump. It just seems like a waste of time.
I only watched the NY-Pittsburgh game last night. So I’ll only comment on that game.
Jarry was not good. Plain and simple. The team in front of him was also not good. (Its early) Sheterkin made a few key saves but was far from spectacular as you’d think in a shut out. At one point Pittsburgh was outshooting NY 10-3 in the first period. Then went 10 minutes without a shot on NY. NY took that deficit to a 18 or 19 to 10 over Pittsburgh. I think Shesterkins biggest problem in that game was finding a way to not fall asleep.
Edmonton is going nowhere with Skinner in the net. It’s time to face facts!
And do what? Who is available representing a possible significant improvement … and what will it cost the Oilers to land him?
Huh? Didn’t the Oil get to game 7 of the SCF with Skinner in net a few months ago?
Seems a bit better than nowhere, but maybe that’s just me.
I can name about 25 teams who would be happy to be going “nowhere”, if that’s the current definition.
I think it’s a bit early to hit the panic button on any player or team just yet. I think 2 games will be a better window. 1 game just isn’t enough.
I will literally NEVER understand knee jerk reactions like this.
I refuse to judge a team or its players too harshly until the 30 game mark (unless they are just tanking and sinking in all sorts of ways)
Exactly. Early season? s&^t is gonna happen … in effect, much of the first several games is almost like an extension of pre-season.
In that way it’s similar to baseball. Early season games almost always produce several eye-popping hitting marks – HRs, batting average etc … until the pitchers start mixing in more of the breaking stuff, change-ups.
It takes time. By the U.S. Thanksgiving we’ll start to see the wheat being separated from the chaff.
So what you are saying Saint is that Montreal won’t go undefeated this year and Montembeault won’t get 82 shutouts???🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣
Well, I just heard a rumor that Montembeault’s new theme song is The Anvil Chorus, with the “pings” of hit iron running through his head. 🙂
I’m guessing 90% of Penguins fans would take Skinner over Jarry in a heartbeat.
Re Skinner🍁
this is his 3rd season even when he was in the AHL
he was a slow starter, same with the NHL Slow starter, they should have played him the final 4 pre-season game to get him going ❓
jets played very well last night, Oilers d are going to need time to jell….
The bottom line is you’re never as good as you think you are,and you’re never as bad as you think you are! You usually somewhere in between! Games 1-5 seem more like an extension of the preseason to me! Remember the Oil started 2-9 and we know where they ended up!
If you’re a bubble team wins to start the season are just as important as wins at the en of the season.
The past few years have seen the race go down to the wire and once your in a hot goalie can carry you.