NHL Morning Coffee Headlines – October 5, 2024
The Devils down the Sabres in the opening game of the 2024-25 season, a recap of preseason action, Utah Hockey Club names a captain, and more in today’s NHL Morning Coffee Headlines.
DEVILS WIN FIRST GAME OF THE 2024-25 NHL SEASON
NHL.COM: The New Jersey Devils defeated the Buffalo Sabres 4-1 in the opening game of the 2024-25 season before 16, 913 fans at O2 Arena in the 2024 NHL Global Series in Prague, Czechia.
New Jersey Devils goaltender Jacob Markstrom (NHL Images).
It was a game of firsts for several Devils’ offseason additions. Jacob Markstrom made 30 saves for the win in his first game with the Devils, Johnathan Kovacevic and Paul Cotter picked up their first points (one goal, one assist each) with the club, and Sheldon Keefe got his first win as their head coach.
Owen Power scored for the Sabres. Game 2 of their Global Series is Saturday.
SPECTOR’S NOTE: The Sabres also made some offseason changes and have a new head coach (Lindy Ruff) but produced the same old result. The Buffalo News’ Lance Lysowski pointed out that they once again gave up an early multi-goal deficit, failed to capitalize on scoring opportunities, and couldn’t overcome their mistakes.
RECAPS OF FRIDAY’S PRESEASON GAMES
NHL.COM: New York Islanders forward Mathew Barzal had a goal and four assists to defeat the New York Rangers 5-2. Bo Horvat tallied twice and Anthony Duclair scored and collected two assists. Adam Fox had a goal and an assist and K’Andre Miller picked up two assists for the Rangers.
The Ottawa Senators nipped the Detroit Red Wings 4-3 on an overtime goal by Noah Gregor. Ridly Greig and Carter Yakemchuk each had two assists and Anton Forsberg made 30 saves for the Senators. Marco Kasper scored two goals for the Red Wings.
Pittsburgh Penguins center Lars Eller scored two goals and set up two others as his club thumped the Columbus Blue Jackets 7-3. Noel Acciari tallied twice and Rutger McGroarty and Jesse Puljujarvi each had a goal and two assists for the Penguins.
SPECTOR’S NOTE: The Blue Jackets placed winger Dmitry Voronkov (upper body) on injured reserve earlier in the day. Captain Boone Jenner missed this game after suffering an upper-body injury during practice.
Carolina Hurricanes defenseman Shayne Gostisbehere’s overtime goal lifted his club to a 2-1 win over the Tampa Bay Lightning. Martin Necas picked up two assists for the Hurricanes. Anthony Cirelli replied for the Lightning
The Minnesota Wild defeated the Chicago Blackhawks 6-1. Mats Zuccarello had a goal and two assists while teammates Brock Faber, Marco Rossi and Jonas Brodin each scored a goal and picked up an assist. Seth Jones scored for the Blackhawks.
Winnipeg Jets goaltender Connor Hellebuyck made 32 saves to backstop his club to a 3-2 victory over the Calgary Flames. Kyle Connor snapped a 2-2 tie late in the third period for the Jets. Jonathan Huberdeau and Mikael Backlund scored for the Flames.
SPECTOR’S NOTE: Flames winger Yegor Sharangovich left the game in the third period after an awkward fall. He was still being evaluated following the game.
The Vancouver Canucks downed the Edmonton Oilers 4-1. Arshdeep Bains and Jake DeBrusk each had a goal and an assist and Elias Pettersson picked up two assists for the Canucks. Evan Bouchard scored for the Oilers.
A shootout goal by Cutter Gauthier lifted the Anaheim Ducks to a 3-2 win over the San Jose Sharks. Gauthier also scored in regulation. Vitek Vanecek made 40 saves for the Sharks.
SPECTOR’S NOTE: The Sharks sent goaltender Yaroslav Askarov to their AHL affiliate earlier in the day. Askarov made headlines in August with his refusal to join the Nashville Predators’ farm team, resulting in his trade to the Sharks.
Askarov was expected to challenge Vanecek and Mackenzie Blackwood for one of the two goaltending jobs on the Sharks. However, an injury combined with solid camps by Vanecek and Blackwood sends Askarov to the AHL to start the season.
IN OTHER NEWS…
THE HOCKEY NEWS: The Utah Hockey Club named Clayton Keller as their team captain. The 26-year-old was their leading scorer last season with 33 goals and 76 points.
SPECTOR’S NOTE: Keller is the club’s first captain since Oliver Ekman-Larsson was traded to the Vancouver Canucks in 2021.
TSN: Los Angeles Kings defenseman Drew Doughty underwent successful surgery on Friday to repair his fractured ankle. He remains month-to-month.
SPORTSNET: The Toronto Maple Leafs announced that Nick Robertson, Jake McCabe, and Calle Jarnkrok are listed as day-to-day with injuries.
LAS VEGAS SUN: The Golden Knights signed winger Tanner Pearson to a one-year, $775K contract after joining the club last month on a professional tryout offer.
DETROIT HOCKEY NOW: Red Wings goaltender Jack Campbell entered the NHL/NHLPA player assistance program.
SPECTOR’S NOTE: Campbell’s performance deteriorated noticeably over the past two seasons. Here’s hoping he gets the help he needs to get his life and career back on track.
DAILY FACEOFF: Ethan Bear is among the players placed on waivers Friday. The Washington Capitals defenseman is in the second season of his two-year contract with an average annual value of $2.062 million.
CHICAGO HOCKEY NOW: Former NHL forward Artem Anisimov, 36, officially announced his retirement on Friday. From 2008-09 to 2020-21, he tallied 180 goals and 196 assists for 376 points in 771 regular-season games with the New York Rangers, Columbus Blue Jackets, Chicago Blackhawks and Ottawa Senators. He also had 17 points in 43 playoff contests.
Thank God preseason is almost over! Tired of seeing no names in the scoring summaries and goons trying to impress management by being overly physical!Next year maybe an 84 game schedule with the long layoff in February is the way to go! To many injuries to big name players is a waste of time! I see more players already getting maintenance days already,before the season has started!
The final games for each this weekend should consist mostly of regulars.
Last night, in Detroit, Ottawa met the 5-regular requirement with Gregor, Greig, MacEwen, Bernard-Docker and Forsberg
Detroit, meanwhile, iced 13 regulars – Larkin, Raymond, DeBrincat, Compher, Tarasenko, Kane, Motte, Seider, Chiarot, Maata, Gustafsson, Edbinsson and Lyon.
Overly aggressive, fighting tends to be more perception than reality.
Brady Tkachuk fights more often than Arber Xhekaj or Ryan Reaves something I doubt most people would have thought,
To my eye Tkachuk tends to initiate most of his fights as opoosed to the other two, but I could be wrong on that.
Last season Tkachuk engaged in 6 fight. Xhekaj dropped them 7 times and Reaves 4.
Of course, both Tkachuk and Xhekaj are out there a hell of a lot more often than Reaves.
The fact that Tkachuk fought 6 times as a top forward tells you that Ottawa needs to get more players with toughness involved!
The point is that they have a similar number of fights, you can look back year by year and the pattern holds through the years.
Does that mean Tkachuk is a goon? Or does it mean that there is a role for a fighter anothers gero is your stand up guy.
The rats have to be dealt with as the refs don’t do it.
I hear you … and I agree … I just became curious as to the actual number for each.
That’s the main reason Ottawa went out and got Perron, Cousins and will likely keep Janek up (he has no options left anyway).
Ottawa…
Carter Yakemchuk
He played more than 24 minutes Friday night agaist the Wings & set up the OT Winner.
Should the Senators send him back to junior hockey for another season
He’s the Senators’ leading pre-season scorer, with seven points…. ⁉️
williew, the main reason they’d consider sending him back to Major Junior is to work on his skating – especially backwards. The last two games you could see he tends to stumble a bit when defending that way. and last night, while on the pp he had to backtrack suddenly, seemed to loose his footing, and Kasper went around him … only a good save by Forsberg prevented a short-handed goal.
On the other hand, they did play him 24 minutes, he IS the leading points producer so far in the playoffs, and showed he has all the tools need to stay. They’ll give him at least the 9 games and if he’s kept up they’ll likely make him available for the World Juniors, which takes place in Ottawa anyway. He can “work on his skating” here in Ottawa as well as in Calgary … AND under the eyes of the coaches here.
WillieW,give him the 10 game tryout before you have to commit! Nothing to lose,great experience! Boston was headed that way with Poitras! Then when they decided to keep him he hurt his shoulder,had surgery and was out the rest of the year after 33 games! Proceed with caution!
SR and George,
You both have very good points,
personaly i would like him to go bak to the
Calgary Hitmen and continute to develope there he has all the tool and yes skating backwards is an area
to work on
Maybe they use him for 8 games and save two games to cover injury’s…..
he is going to be very good for tthe sens….👌
4 more p.t.o. hopefuls sent packing
Gustav Lindstrom by Anaheim
Aiden McDonough and John Leonard by Florida
Logan Brown by Tampa
And Ottawa just released RD Calen Addison RD from his p.t.o, while Columbus signed Kevin Labanc to a 1-year $775,000 contract. He’d been with New Jersey on a p.t.o. … didn’t see where NJ released him … assume that anyone on a p.t.o. can sign anywhere if offered a firm deal.
Colorado claimed LD John Ludvig off waivers from Pittsburgh today
I would like to see a change in the Player Safety Personnel role.
Rather than George Parros or an ex-player of his skills, I would prefer to see someone like Jonathan Toews, Jerome Iginla, Scottie Niedermayer or Peter Forsberg, a more respected , better rounded ex-player as head of the committee.
George,
As for Perron & Cousins, they play a style like Greig then Tkachuk. They are agitators like Darcy Tucker style than a fighter with skill like Tkachuk. Perron has skill, but he is more likely to hack, slash, spear or cross-check someone than drop the mitts.
I have been a Marty St. Louis fan as the head coach of the Habs, but I believe he has just sent a dangerous message, not only to the Sens but to the entire league that the Habs CAN BE intimidated.
“Meanwhile, head coach Martin St. Louis told TSN’s Kenzie Lalonde that the team’s top line will not play Saturday after the two team’s physical preseason contest earlier this week.”
I’d suggest Marty is trying to get the refs attention. No player or team is dumb enough to think that running Habs is going to get them to put their top players in the box during the regular season.
Xhekaj really messed up trying to throw that hit on Stutzle. Marty is trying to defuse that. Good coach and smart move in a meaningless game.
How about Paul Kariya for that job?
As for Perron and Cousins, we’ll see. Janik will drop the gloves, as will big Tyler Kleven.
On another topic, I see where Buffalo is off to another stuttering start, dropping both overseas to an OK but far from great New Jersey.
The Devils got 2 goals from Cotter in the 4-1 and 3-1 wins, and one from each of Meier, Casey, Hischier, Noesen and Kokecevic, with Markstrom stopping 30 of 31 yesterday for NJ, and Luukkonen 16 of 19 for Buffalo (there was one empty-netter b NJ)
Today, Levi stopped 34 of 37 for Buffalo while Allen stopped 17 of 18.
Oh, and lest we forget, there’s also Zack MacEwen
https://www.hockeyfights.com/players/22800
I’d be surprised if anything breaks out tonight. The season is about to start and the last thing either team wants to see is a key player lost to something stupid in a nothing game. I know none among Tkachuk, Grieg. Stutzle or Chabot will start for Ottawa.