NHL Morning Coffee Headlines – October 16, 2024
In today’s NHL Morning Coffee Headlines, the Blue Jackets honor Johnny Gaudreau in their home opener, Capitals captain Alex Ovechkin reaches an assist milestone, the struggling Oilers picked up their first win of the season, and more.
GAME RECAPS
NHL.COM: The Columbus Blue Jackets honored Johnny Gaudreau before their home opener against the Florida Panthers on Tuesday.
With Gaudreau’s family on the ice, the Jackets raised a banner with his number 13 in a pregame ceremony. During the opening faceoff, the Jackets started without a left winger, which was Gaudreau’s position. Both teams didn’t move following the puck drop, letting the puck come to rest where Gaudreau would’ve stood, and remained in place for 13 seconds.
Once the game resumed, the Panthers held off the Blue Jackets 4-3. Sam Reinhart had a goal and two assists and Spencer Knight made 35 saves for his first win in 21 months. Sean Monahan scored for the Blue Jackets and pointed to Gaudreau’s banner to honor his long-time friend and former Calgary Flames teammate.
SPECTOR’S NOTE: Blue Jackets defenseman Erik Gudbranson left the game with an upper-body injury after accidentally colliding with Monahan during the second period. Jackets coach Dean Evason described the injury as “not looking good”. That suggests Gudbranson could be sidelined for some time.
Washington Capitals captain Alex Ovechkin had two assists, including the 700th of his NHL career, as his club doubled up the Vegas Golden Knights 4-2. Logan Thompson made 24 saves for the win over his former team and Jakub Vrana scored on his first shot in his return with the Capitals. Victor Olofsson and Jack Eichel replied for the Golden Knights.
SPECTOR’S NOTE: Ovechkin becomes the sixth player in NHL history to score 700 goals and collect 700 assists. He joins Wayne Gretzky, Gordie Howe, Jaromir Jagr, Marcel Dionne, and Phil Esposito. He’s also the 60th player to reach the 700-assist plateau.
Ovechkin has three assists in two games but still seeks his first goal of the season and remains at 853 career goals. He remains 41 goals behind Gretzky’s record of 894.
The Golden Knights also lost Olofsson late in the third period when he injured his left leg. Vegas coach Bruce Cassidy said it didn’t look good but hopes it’s not severe. Olofsson was seen on crutches after the game.
An overtime goal by Leon Draisaitl lifted the Edmonton Oilers to a 4-3 victory over the Philadelphia Flyers, snapping their season-opening three-game losing skid. Draisaitl finished with a goal and an assist and Connor McDavid collected two assists as they were put on the same line for the first time this season. The Flyers opened the scoring with a 2-0 lead as rookie Matvei Michkov tallied the first two goals of his NHL career.
SPECTOR’S NOTE: A big comeback win by the Oilers, perhaps signaling that the slumbering Stanley Cup finalist is finally awakening from its season-opening slumber. It was a disappointing finish for the Flyers but their promising rookie Michkov finally breaks through after being limited to an assist in his first two games.
The Dallas Stars extended their season-opening win streak to 4-0-0 by nipping the San Jose Sharks 3-2 on a shootout goal by Wyatt Johnston. Matt Duchene and Roope Hintz scored for the Stars while Tyler Toffoli and former Star Ty Dellandrea replied for the Sharks.
SPECTOR’S NOTE: The Stars played without forward Tyler Seguin and defenseman Matt Dumba. Seguin is day-to-day with a lower-body injury while Dumba (lower body) is week-to-week.
Meanwhile, the Calgary Flames are also 4-0-0 after beating the Chicago Blackhawks 3-1. Matt Coronato had two goals and goaltender Dustin Wolf turned aside 31 shots. Nick Foligno had the only goal for the Blackhawks.
Minnesota Wild goaltender Filip Gustavsson made 27 saves and tallied an empty-net goal in a 4-1 victory over the St. Louis Blues. Kirill Kaprizov collected two assists while Jakub Lauko scored the game-winner. Mathieu Joseph replied for the Blues.
The Tampa Bay Lightning won their home opener by beating the Vancouver Canucks 4-1. Brayden Point, Brandon Hagel and Anthony Cirelli each had a goal and an assist for the Lightning. Conor Garland had the lone goal for the Canucks.
SPECTOR’S NOTE: This game was the first professional sports event in Tampa Bay since the second of back-to-back hurricanes in the region.
Four unanswered third-period goals lifted the Seattle Kraken to a 7-3 win over the Nashville Predators. Jaden Schwartz, Jared McCann, Oliver Bjorkstrand and Adam Larsson each had a goal and an assist for the Kraken. Michael McCarron, Tommy Novak and Brady Skjei scored for the Predators, who’ve dropped their first three games of the season.
SPECTOR’S NOTE: The Predators may have “won” free agency by signing Skjei, Steven Stamkos, and Jonathan Marchessault but that hasn’t resulted in significant improvement thus far.
Head coach Andrew Brunette said his team deserves to be where it is right now, claiming they’re playing firewagon hockey. “We’re trying to be cute. We’re trying to show how talented we are to everybody. But we’re not really playing with a purpose,” he said.
The Carolina Hurricanes got a 23-save performance from goalie Pyotr Kochetkov in his season debut to double up the New Jersey Devils 4-2. Hurricanes rookie Jackson Blake tallied his first career NHL goal. Jack Hughes and Nico Hischier replied for the Devils.
IN OTHER NEWS…
RG.ORG: James Murphy reports NHL Deputy Commissioner Bill Daly said he doesn’t see any reason for concern regarding the next round of collective bargaining with the NHL Players’ Association. Those talks are expected to begin in 2025.
Daly also admitted he’s surprised by the league’s strong and fast comeback from the COVID-19 pandemic. He believes the COVID period created a stronger demand and appreciation from fans for the live product, and feels the game is in better shape than ever before.
SPECTOR’S NOTE: Daly also discussed the Utah Hockey Club and the league’s 4 Nations Face-Off in February. Follow the link above for the full interview.
TORONTO STAR: The good news for the Maple Leafs is John Tavares is out of sick bay. The bad news is William Nylander has caught the flu bug and is questionable for Wednesday’s game against the Los Angeles Kings.
THE HOCKEY NEWS: The Buffalo Sabres hope to have JJ Peterka in the lineup when they face the Pittsburgh Penguins on Wednesday. He’s been sidelined for the last two games after suffering a concussion in Czechia. Peterka was a full participant in practice on Tuesday.
DAILY FACEOFF: Utah Hockey Club defenseman Sean Durzi is out for the foreseeable future with an upper-body injury.
NEW JERSEY HOCKEY NOW: Devils goaltender Jake Allen set an NHL record with his 3-0 win over Utah on Monday. He’s the first goaltender to secure a win against 33 NHL clubs in his career.
The Jackets tributes for Gaudreau were very touching in their understated fashion. Very fitting and matching his style of play.
One wonders if, having been built on the old Ohio Penitentiary grounds, if Nationwide Arena and the Jackets are cursed. Besides Gaudreau and Kivlieniks, Brittany Hughes was killed in a freak accident when an Espen Knutson shot deflected up to the second tier of seats and hit her in the head.
The person’s name that was struck by a puck at the Blue Jackets and passed away is Brittanie Cecil. She was there to celebrate her birthday. I was there for the game and it happened in front of me. The puck actually hit two other people before hitting her in the side of the head.
She walked out of the arena and went to Children’s Hospital. They failed to notice that artery was torn in her neck and she ended up passing from complications from that.
Depending upon what happens Thursday against the Devils, Ottawa could soon be scouring the market for a more reliable back-up goalie.
Ullmark likely won’t be available with that “strain” hampering him, so here we go again with “3 goals on 9 shots” Forsberg – backed again by “4 goals on 15 shots” Sogaard.
As long-time play-by-play voice of the Senators, Dean Brown, observed, the Senators need 16 wins from their back-up if they have any hope of making the playoffs. What they can’t do is wait around all season for Forsberg to “get his game back.”
And please, no snarky suggestion from the cheap seats that Ottawa should trade for Korpisalo. That ship has sailed.
Along the lines of what I posted the other day re the unreadiness of Ottawa’s goalie prospect Mads Sogaard for the NHL, Bruce Garrioch has this to say in this morning’s Ottawa Sun
“In 28 games in the NHL over the past four seasons, the 23-year-old Sogaard has posted an 11-10-3 record with a 3.53 GAA and a .881 save percentage. Those stats aren’t encouraging and he doesn’t look ready for prime time.”
No he does not. Staios has to make another move … and soon.
The problem with trading for a goalie is you don`t really know what you`re getting when he gets to you. The goalie you just traded for may look good and have great numbers with the he that he was playing for, but until he gets to the new team and plays a few games, you`re really not sure what you`re getting.. You trade for a dman and he`s 1 of 6 so his new team can control to a greater degree how much and when he gets on the ice during a game. Whereas with a goalie you put him in the game and he`s there in all situations. A coach only has 1 option, pull him and a GM can`t keep trading for more goalies. Right now it`s kind of a no win situation for Ottawa. The team has to play more of a defence first game until either they can trade for someone or one of their incumbents gets their game back. Time is what Ottawa needs right now and a lot more commitment to the defensive side of their game from all of the players on the ice not just the bottom 2 lines. You don`t want to rush Ullmark back that`s for sure
You put it exactly. The goalie position is THE biggest crap shoot of all the various positions.
But at some point you simply have to roll the dice. Waiting around for Forsberg to get back to his best performances could be fatal in terms of their playoff aspirations, while constant experimenting with Sogaard, going by his performance at the NHL level so far, won’t be any better.
I fully realize that the prospect of Staios finding someone willing to trade an established back-up probably ranges from slim to none and, even if he does, it won’t be cheap in terms of what they’d need to relinquish. But he’s probably sniffing around to test the waters.
I agree that the team has to play a defense-first style, but in many ways that’s exactly how they approached that game against L.A. – at least until Forsberg was pulled after giving up L.A.’s 3rd goal at the 5.31 mark of the 2nd period on a total of 9 shots. The first 2 goals in the 1st period came by the 10-minutes mark when L.A. had all of 4 shots.
Nothing can deflate a team more than seeing 2 soft goals get by the goalie when you were skating your butts off to keep the shots to an absolute minimum.
That they pulled out a win in that one should not be seen as a regular happenstance.
And I agree, The last thing they’d need right now is to rush Ullmark back into action out of panic and see him aggravate whatever is ailing him.
Heh … that’s why it amazes me how some see a GM’s job as simple. They earn whatever they’re paid.
A lot of fingers crossed in Ottawa right about now, Yogi.
And you`re right George nothing worse than a team working their butts off and the goalie giving up a couple of softies or even if your team scores to pull ahead or tie a game and 30 seconds later you give a goal. That`s why when Staios signed Ullmark to that extension, he did it for 4 years not 7 or 8, I was impressed. I believe goalies need to be paid better, but, because everything is so unpredictable year to year, the term is what I`d refuse to give them.
Re Sen’s goaltenders
What about Martin jones…❓
when Joseph Woll went down with injury and Ilya Samsonov was placed on waivers.
At one point, Jones had a seven-game stretch where he went 5-2-0 with a .953 SV%, allowing just nine goals in that span.🤔
Its maybe to early to panic, give them both a couple of games…??
The tribute video that the Jackets presented and the raising of Gaudreau’s number 13 was a class act. I could not hold back the tears.
Well done, Columbus. 😇
It was mentioned somewhere is this column that they should rename the Lady Byng trophy after Gaudreau! The NHL should come up with some trophy or award to be named after him! It would be a great thing for the league to promote good,character people playing the game!
Lyle, and idea as to why, exactly, we see these sorts of paper transactions, especially at this stage of every season, it seems
Yesterday, Ottawa “loaned” Sogaard and Gaudette to AHL Bellevile. Today, both were reinstated to the Ottawa roster.
What, exactly, does that accomplish insofar as transactions are concerned? How would it be any different if they had simply kept both in Ottawa?
Cap savings George, Pridham in Toronto is the master at it. That`s the reason sites like Capfriendly give the dailey cap hit. Even sending a player down for 1 day saves a team a few bucks towards the cap
Ahh, makes sense, thanks Yogi.
I suppose what the paper transaction does is register the use of an “option” and, if used too often with the same individual that player would eventually have to clear waivers?
Once you waive a player and he clears a team can move him up and down for 30 days before they have to waive him again
Heh …. I can see, then, why some players earn the nickname yo-yo!
Dylan Gambrell and Brendan Lemieux placed on waivers by Columbus and Carolina