NHL Morning Coffee Headlines – October 24, 2024
The Capitals defeat the Flyers, Blues forward Robert Thomas and Utah defensemen Sean Durzi and John Marino sidelined by injuries, and more in today’s NHL Morning Coffee Headlines.
NHL.COM: The Washington Capitals downed the Philadelphia Flyers 6-3 in Wednesday’s only game.
Washington Capitals captain Alex Ovechkin (NHL Images).
Connor McMichael tallied twice, Pierre-Luc Dubois had a goal and an assist and Alex Ovechkin scored his 855th career goal for the Capitals. Owen Tippett and rookie winger Matvei Michkov each had a goal and an assist for the Flyers as they scored three goals after falling behind 4-0 before Dubois and Ovechkin put the game out of reach.
The Capitals have won five straight games while the Flyers have lost six in a row (0-5-1).
SPECTOR’S NOTE: Ovechkin is 40 goals away from breaking Wayne Gretzky’s record of 894.
The Flyers are struggling but Michkov has been a bright spot for them. He leads all rookies with seven points in as many games.
STLTODAY.COM: Blues forward Robert Thomas will miss six weeks with a fractured ankle after blocking a shot during Tuesday’s loss to the Winnipeg Jets.
NHL.COM: The Blues activated Oskar Sundqvist (knee) from injured reserve.
SPECTOR’S NOTE: The Blues could find it difficult to replace Thomas’ offense during his absence. He led the club with a career-best 86 points in 2023-24 and is second in points with six this season.
THE SCORE: Utah Hockey Club defensemen Sean Durzi and John Marino will be sidelined for a while. Durzi will miss four to six months following surgery on his right shoulder while Marino will be out three to four months after having a procedure on his back.
Durzi had two points in four games this season before his injury. Marino was acquired from the New Jersey Devils during the offseason but had yet to suit up with Utah because of his back.
In a related move, Utah called up defenseman Maveric Lamoureux.
SPECTOR’S NOTE: Utah is 4-2-1 despite the absences of Durzi and Marino. If their right-side defense begins to suffer as the season progresses, they could seek help in the trade market.
SPORTSNET: Montreal Canadiens defenseman Justin Barron is listed as day-to-day with an upper-body injury following a hit by New York Rangers blueliner Jacob Trouba on Tuesday. There was no penalty on the play and Trouba won’t face supplemental discipline.
TAMPA BAY TIMES: The Lightning placed forward Conor Sheary on waivers. It’s unlikely that another club will claim Sheary and his $2 million annual average value through 2025-26. Instead, he could be demoted to the Lightning’s AHL affiliate in Syracuse.
TSN: Justin Schultz signed a one-year contract with HC Lugano in Switzerland. The 34-year-old defenseman spent 12 seasons in the NHL (2012-13 to 2023-24) with the Edmonton Oilers, Pittsburgh Penguins, Washington Capitals and Seattle Kraken, tallying 71 goals and 324 points in 745 regular-season games and 43 points in 82 playoff contests, winning two Stanley Cups with Pittsburgh in 2016 and 2017.
SPECTOR’S NOTE: Schultz reportedly had offers of two-way contracts from some NHL clubs but was waiting for a one-way deal. He was expected to play in Europe if he didn’t get a suitable NHL proposal.
COLORADO HOCKEY NOW: The Avalanche assigned forward Calum Ritchie back to the Oshawa Generals of the OHL.
THE HOCKEY NEWS: Former NHL goaltender Michael Leighton is among the 2025 inductees into the American Hockey League Hall of Fame. He’s fifth all-time in wins (250) and the league’s all-time shutout leader with 50. He made the All-Rookie team in 2002 and won the Baz Bastien Memorial Award as best goaltender in 2008.
SPECTOR’S NOTE: Leighton played 110 games in the NHL from 2002-03 to 2016-17 with the Chicago Blackhawks, Nashville Predators, Philadelphia Flyers and Carolina Hurricanes. He’s best known among NHL fans for backstopping the Flyers to the 2010 Stanley Cup Final.
With the Flyers off to an ugly start (7gp 1 5 1 3 pts 17gf 31ga -14), no significant injuries to blame, and nestled at the bottom of the Metro, you have to wonder when Tortorella’s future becomes a topic of discussion.
Individual performances are generally bad up and down the line, and while Michkov may be in the Calder conversation thanks to his 3g 4a 7 pts start to the season, he is also a glaring -9.
Same applies to just about everyone else (minus 10s sported by Konecny, Drysdale, Frost, Zamula, minus 8 by Farabee, minus 7 by Tippett, minus 6 by Laughton), and the goalies … well, as Tortorella himself observed “they scare the Hell out of me.”
Nor does the schedule provide much of a glimmer of hope with a back-t0-back coming up vs Minnesota and Montreal, then Boston, St. Louis, Boston Again, Carolina, Tampa, Florida, San Jose, Ottawa.
Mind you, that didn’t prevent Bedard from being named rookie of the year – and he was a whopping minus 44!
These are the type of stats that show why many analysts no longer look at +/- for individual players as much.
They don’t really show a full picture.
True – but while not necessarily the be-all and end-all of statistical analysis, they are indicative of something that, if nothing else, requires improvement.
I doubt there isn’t one coach who doesn’t examine that stat over a specific stretch of games in order to try and pinpoint a trend.
If you look at Chicago’s stats for last season, Dickinson played 82 games and was a +4, while Anderson was a +5 over 55 gp.
And the Flyers may not be the only team making organizational changes as the season progresses.
On December 15, 2023 the WC slots East and West had teams with 34 points after roughly 31gp.
As of today there are, including Philadelphia, 9 teams currently playing at a sub-.500 pace that have played 6 to 8 games. Listed below is their record to date along with the % pace they’d need to play at from here to December 15 in order to get to 34 points by December 15:
San Jose – 7 0 5 2 2pts .143 – .667
Nashville – 6 1 5 0 2 pts .167 – .640
Edmonton – 7 2 4 1 5 pts .357 – .604
Chicago – 7 2 4 1 5 pts .357 – .604
Montreal – 7 2 4 1 5 pts .357 – .604
Philadelphia – 6 1 4 1 3 pts .250 – .620
Colorado – 7 3 4 0 6 pts .439 – .583
Buffalo – 8 3 4 1 7 pts .438 – .587
Pittsburgh – 8 3 4 1 7 pts .438 – .587
The only teams I can see turning their seasons around fairly soon in order to be in contention by December 15 are Edmonton, Nashville and Colorado. with a young Buffalo a maybe.
To put the % paces needed from here on in order to reach 98 pts – which was the average required last season to secure a WC slot – there were 10 teams that registered 100 pts or more out of the seasonal 164 available, and following is the % pace of each:
NYR 114 – .695; Dallas 113 – .689; Carolina 111 – .677; Winnipeg and Florida 110 each – .671; Vancouver and Boston 109 each – .665; Colorado – 107 – .652; Edmonton 104 – .634; Toronto 102 – .622
For the current sub-.500 teams here is the % pace each would need from their current total in order to reach 98 pts:
San Jose – .640; Nashville .632; Philadelphia ,625; Chicago and Montreal .620; Buffalo and Pittsburgh .615; Colorado .613; Edmonton .612
And just to be clear, I’m not ignoring Ottawa’s chances of getting back to the playoffs.
Right now, after 6 games and a possible 12 points, their 8 pts has them playing at a .667 clip. Under NO circumstances do I see that continuing the rest of the way. In fact, to reach 98 points from this stage they’d need to play at a .592 pace the rest of the way, which would represent a .116 increase over their last season clip of .476.
Possible? Yes. Likely? I doubt it. I can see them improving to a seasonal .553 pace – an improvement of .077 over last season – but leave them with 92 pts – about 6 short.
And that is predicated upon a healthy Ullmark not missing any more starts … doubt about which is fast creeping into the equation.
George O ,Torts shelf life may be coming to an end! His MO is to give a struggling team a shot of energy and the longer 2-3 years he lasts it starts to fade with him getting all over his players! Losing the Hart kid in goal was a tough break!
Worse break for his victim.
Absolutely!In no way am I condoning what all those players did!