NHL Morning Coffee Headlines – October 21, 2024
The Jets remain undefeated, the latest on Linus Ullmark and Anthony Duclair, former Oilers Philip Broberg and Dylan Holloway fitting in well with the Blues, and more in today’s NHL Morning Coffee Headlines.
GAME RECAPS
NHL.COM: The Winnipeg Jets overcame a 2-0 deficit to defeat the Pittsburgh Penguins 6-3 on three unanswered third-period goals by Adam Lowry, Mason Appleton and Nino Niederreiter. Eric Comrie stopped 39 shots and Nikolaj Ehlers had two assists for the Jets, extending their season-opening record to 5-0-0 for the first time in franchise history. Lars Eller tallied twice and Alex Nedeljkovic made his season debut with a 31-save effort for the Penguins.

Winnipeg Jets winger Nikolaj Ehlers (NHL Images).
SPECTOR’S NOTE: Long-time Winnipeg forward Bryan Little signed a one-day contract with the club to retire as a Jet and was honored by the club in a pregame ceremony. Little suffered a perforated eardrum after being struck on the head by a puck on Nov. 5, 2019, ending his playing career. His 843 career games with the Jets are the second-longest in franchise history.
Pittsburgh’s sloppy defense proved costly in this contest. Meanwhile, struggling Penguins starter Tristan Jarry was a healthy scratch as Joel Blomqvist backed up Nedeljkovic.
Jets fans serenaded the Penguins with a chant of “Where is Rutger?” in the closing moments of this game, referring to forward Rutger McGroarty, who forced a trade to the Penguins this summer after telling the Jets he had no intention of signing an entry-level contract with them. The Penguins demoted McGroarty to their AHL affiliate last week.
Colorado Avalanche forward Ross Colton scored two goals in a 4-1 victory over the San Jose Sharks, handing the latter their sixth straight loss (0-4-2). Cale Makar had a goal and two assists while Nathan MacKinnon collected two assists. William Eklund scored for the Sharks.
SPECTOR’S NOTE: The Avalanche placed winger Jonathan Drouin (upper body) on injured reserve before this game.
Third-period goals by Adrian Kempe, Alex Laferriere, Kevin Fiala and Mikey Anderson lifted the Los Angeles Kings over the Anaheim Ducks 4-1. Ducks goalie Lukas Dostal made 34 saves in a losing cause.
SPECTOR’S NOTE: Dostal kept the Ducks in this contest but their porous defense couldn’t contain the Kings, who outshot them 19-5 in the third period.
HEADLINES
OTTAWA SUN: The Senators sent goaltender Mads Soogaard back to their AHL affiliate in Belleville. It’s considered the clearest sign that sidelined starter Linus Ullmark is set to return to action when the Senators face the Utah Hockey Club on Tuesday.
NEW YORK POST: The Islanders’ decision to place forward Julian Gauthier on waivers Sunday implies Anthony Duclair’s leg injury might not be as serious as originally feared. Duclair suffered the injury during Saturday’s game against the Montreal Canadiens. There was no update on Duclair’s condition on Sunday.
STLTODAY.COM: Defenseman Philip Broberg and forward Dylan Holloway have paid early dividends for the St. Louis Blues. The duo were signed away from the Edmonton Oilers by offer sheets in August.
Broberg has six points in as many games with the Blues earning quality minutes alongside defense partner Justin Faulk. Holloway has two points skating on the third line with Brayden Schenn and Mathieu Joseph.
SPECTOR’S NOTE: The departures of Broberg and Holloway contributed to the Oilers’ slow start to this season. Their loss is the Blues’ gain as both players appear to fit in well with their new teammates.
THE HOCKEY NEWS: Toronto Maple Leafs goaltender Joseph Woll revealed he’s been dealing with “a little bit of groin tightness” since the club’s final practice before the regular season. He’s been on injury reserve since last Wednesday.
YARDBARKER: Former NHL defenseman Anton Stralman officially announced his retirement to become coach of a women’s football club in Sweden.
Stralman, 38, spent 16 seasons in the NHL with the Toronto Maple Leafs, Columbus Blue Jackets, New York Rangers, Tampa Bay Lightning, Florida Panthers, Arizona Coyotes and Boston Bruins from 2007-08 to 2022-23. He had 63 goals and 230 assists for 293 points in 938 regular-season games and 26 points in 113 playoff contests.
THE HOCKEY NEWS: Former Bruins defenseman Jakub Zboril signed a five-year contract with HC Dynamo Pardubice in the Czech Extraliga.
SPECTOR’S NOTE: Chosen 13th overall by the Bruins in the 2015 NHL Draft, Zboril struggled to crack their roster full-time. He appeared in 76 games between 2018-19 and 2022-23, finishing with 16 points.
Re “Pittsburgh’s sloppy defense proved costly in this contest. ”
The entire team’s sloppy defense has been costly every game this season
Nedjelkovic wants a couple of last night’s back; ditto for a couple by Jarry and a couple by Blomquist
All other goals against so far this season were either unstoppable (complete screen, multiple bounce, tip deflections, etc) or nigh unstoppable (2 on Oh, 3 on Oh)
Take out the unstoppable and nigh unstoppable and our goalies save percentages are up there
Winning 3 out of every 7 games is likely to continue unless the sloppy defensive play (all Pens not just the defensemen ) dramatically improves
Re McGroarty chants by Jets fans. Certainly don’t blame them.
Dubas trades for him but then lets him be sent down instead of the likes of Accari.
Also a bit of salt in the wound as Yaeger has 13 points in 7 games so far.
Unlikable Stan has been a wonderful hire as GM by the Oil.
I am sure Stan will garner enough blame as Gm on his own. The offer sheets, and reactions to them was more on Jeff Jackson (spending to the cap on UFA) and Holland (nurse contract and all the nmc on other contracts) than anything he did. Lets judge him and his work at the end of the season
Alan Pinder-Moss, as I haven’t run across any posts by you before, I’m going out on a limb here and file that under acid sarcasm – lol 🙂
But hey, slow starts aren’t new to the Oilers, for whatever reason. Booth those offer-sheet guys were around last season and, on this date at that time they had played 4 games and were 1 – 3 – 0 for 2 pts with 11gf and 17ga for a minus 6,
This season they have played 2 more games over the same opening stretch and have gone 2 – 4 – 0 for 4 pts, scoring 12 goals while giving up 24 for a -12.
8787 that is the case with the penguins, they are sloppy. the avalanche are equally as sloppy at times, not unique in fact to any team but if you play like that consistently, it is not a good sign of things to come. IMHO though, i have seen th penquins a few times so far more than some other teams and overall look much better than the last few years. so, perhaps not all is bad down in pittsburgh? when youdon’t get good goaltending either, that dosen’t help any. it’s early, we will see!!
I agree somewhat with you Tommy Boy
But it is not a goaltending issue for the Pens. Not at all.
Sure the save percentage of the three is bad (artificially raw score bad); but an extremely high majority of the goals against were unstoppable or nigh unstoppable by any goalie. Shesterkin is not stopping a goal that bounces 3 times in 3 directions; or full screens, 3 on Ohs; etc.
Top 3 lines (in first few games) overall better (offensively) than last two years. Not so over last couple of games
Defensively, at least this early in the season, the entire team is way worse than last year
I’ve stated many times how bad Accairi and Hayes are defensively and also stated that letting the far superior, younger, bigger, faster P-O J go for nothing and replaced by Grzylyk was a huge mistake. Huge!!!
Yes they are a problem
But the entire team, including Crosby, Letang, Karllsson, Malkin; are playing a very poor defensive game. Very poor.
Would sitting (or demoting) both Accairi and Grzylyk ;; replacing them with McGroarty and Lilejegren (by trade acquisition) help? Absolutely it would. Absolutely!
Would it be enough to stimulate the overall record (3 wins in 7) back into a playoff (Wildcard team) going forward?
Certainly not if the rest of the team continues to play so poorly defensively
It would be a start though
I’m confident the following roster would have had a fair shot at WildCard spot
Crosby Beauvillier Rust
Malkin Rackell Bunting
Eller McGroarty O’Connor
Glass Pulljarvi with Poulin Or Pominoriv OR Puustinen
Letang Pettersson
Karllsson P-O J
Shultz OR Addison OR Clurman OR Brunicke OR Liljegren; Graves
Jarry
Blomquist
Note: Hayes+ Accairi + Gryzlyk + Lizotte= $10.2 M in Cap space!
Note: take away those unstoppable and nigh unstoppable goals against; here is the Pen’s goalies save percentage this year:
Blomquist : 121/126 (960)
Jarry: 58/63 (921)
Nedjelkovic : 30/33 (909)
i guess what i am saying is although you are right, the pens look sloppy throughout the lineup defensively; the avalanche as well, they only play defense when their is a fire lit under them by bednar. actually , he preaches it all the time but they seem to think they know more? i’m saying overall. i like what i see from the penquins so far. but i am not crazy about jarry; he is very leaky. georgiev has been bad but the avalanche are sloppy too consistently. it’s an easy correction: crosby , letang and malkin are supposed to be the leaders? just like Mackinnon, rantannen and makar, some times, they are the biggest offenders and then we like to come down hard on the goaltenders. That young goaltender: blomquist, he looks better than jarry to me? maybe , the same for Annunen?
Got it
Sorry for misunderstanding
Fully agree with sloppiness top to bottom
Disagree however re Jarry
Zero chance at all re all but 4 of his goals against this year, then add the one where he misplayed the puck
With that; effectively he is “really” 921 save percentage this year so far
Way too much was made of Nedjelkovic’s “run” last spring; where in fact the winning was all due to offense and his actual goaltending was poor
He was brought in after a Jarry 3 game stint where literally there was zero defensive play by Pens:
In those 3 games were a total of 15 goals were scored against; but he was completely screened on 6, 2 breakaway goals (plus 4 breakaways he stopped) ; 2 2on1 goals, and 3 multi bounce goals…. Only 2 of the 15 he actually had a reasonable chance at
Then Sully went with Nedjelkovic:
Nedjelkovic from Feb 20 to end of last year: save percentage was only .88 (59 goals against in 506 shots)
Last 18 games
13 of 18 with save percentage of .89 or less .
7 of those .84 or less.
4 of those .81 or less;
2 in the 700’s
As George has pointed out re Jarry; look at the overall performance when evaluating his work
Nedjelkovic is not as good as Jarry; and I’m not just looking at last night where he should have had 3 of those; I’m talking overall career with Penguins
Regardless of who we have in net; even if it were Patrick Roi circa 1986; Hasek from a few years later; or Shesterkin now….. the current overall sloppy defensive play by Pend would see many goals going in
EVERY Pen (top to bottom) is playing very poor defensively
Since I’ve only seen 1 Avs game this year; hard for me to accurately summarize/comment on their defensive play
The one game I did see; yes, very sloppy
The big difference between the two teams; I can easily see Avs righting the ship
Hard to see Pens in that same light
Avs will be playoff bound for sure
Pens (unless there is something dramatic done) will not
Looking forward to potentially getting Bedard’s cousin in ‘26
Here’s a prediction:
By December 15 there will be no further angst about either Colorado or Edmonton.
There will, on the other hand, be lots of angst when it comes to Pittsburgh, Ottawa, Montreal, Detroit, Buffalo.
Agree mostly with that George
I wouldn’t however, be surprised if either Sens or Habs are back in Wildcard mix by Christmas
Pens have no one to blame but themselves! Crosby had them sign his buddies and Okayed the trade for Karlsson! Then he resigns there forcing the front office to ditch any type of retool or rebuild!When you best players are all in their late 30 s something is wrong!Buffalo is similar in a different way! The Eichel trade keeps haunting them! And losing Rhinehart was a big mistake! What does Adams-have on Pegula,he is one of the worst GM s in the league!