NHL Morning Coffee Headlines – November 14, 2024
A natural hat trick for the Avalanches’ Mikko Rantanen, a milestone game for Oliver Ekman-Larsson, the latest on Mika Zibanejad, Erik Karlsson and more in today’s NHL Morning Coffee Headlines.
GAME RECAPS
NHL.COM: A natural hat trick by Mikko Rantanen propelled the Colorado Avalanche to a 4-2 victory over the Los Angeles Kings. Rantanen also picked up an assist to finish the night with four points while teammate Nathan MacKinnon chipped in three assists as the Avs picked up their third straight win. Adrian Kempe tallied twice for the Kings.
Colorado Avalanche winger Mikko Rantanen (NHL Images).
SPECTOR’S NOTE: Rantanen’s natural hat trick was the third in franchise history. He has 12 goals, joining four others atop the league’s goal-scoring leaderboard. Meanwhile, Kings goaltender Darcy Kuemper left this game in the third period with an apparent lower-body injury.
The Toronto Maple Leafs overcame a 3-1 deficit to defeat the Washington Capitals 4-3 on an overtime goal by John Tavares. William Nylander and Mitch Marner scored in the third period to send the game into the extra frame. Aliaksei Protas had a goal and an assist for the Capitals.
SPECTOR’S NOTE: Oliver Ekman-Larsson reached a notable milestone as the Leafs defenseman played in his 1,000th NHL regular-season game. Jani Hakanpaa played over 15 minutes in his season debut with the Leafs.
Capitals head coach Spencer Carbery wasn’t pleased with his club’s third-period collapse, calling it “just embarrassing”. Meanwhile, newly-acquired Capital Lars Eller didn’t join the team for this game but is expected to be in the lineup for Friday’s game against the Avalanche.
The Detroit Red Wings blew a 2-0 lead but recovered to beat the Pittsburgh Penguins 3-2. Simon Edvinsson scored in overtime while Patrick Kane had a goal and an assist for the Wings. Bryan Rust and Anthony Beauvillier rallied the Penguins to force the extra period.
SPECTOR’S NOTE: The Penguins honored Evgeni Malkin’s 500th career goal in a pregame ceremony. Malkin reached the milestone against the Buffalo Sabres on Oct. 16th. He joined Washington’s Alex Ovechkin as the second Russian-born player to reach the 500-goal plateau. Penguins forward Blake Lizotte left this game in the second period after being struck in the face by a puck.
Utah Hockey Club goaltender Karel Vejmelka made a career-high 49 saves in a 4-1 upset of the Carolina Hurricanes. Nick Bjugstad tallied twice and Michael Kesselring had two assists for Utah, who killed off a seven-minute Carolina power-play in the third period. Hurricanes forward Martin Necas scored to extend his points streak to 11 games.
The Vegas Golden Knights held off the Anaheim Ducks for a 3-2 victory. Pavel Dorofeyev scored what proved to be the winning goal and Shea Theodore had two assists for the Golden Knights. Lukas Dostal stopped 36 shots for the Ducks.
HEADLINES
THE ATHLETIC: New York Rangers center Mika Zibanejad is trying not to get buried in negativity as he attempts to play his way out of his early-season slump. He has 11 points in 14 games but has a plus-minus of minus-6 and has only scored twice.
“I will never be able to fully explain what it is when you’re in this situation,” said Zibanejad. “You have the mantras. You have the sayings to yourself. ‘Forget about the mistakes.’ ‘Just next action.’ ‘Next game, next shift.’ It’s harder than it sounds.”
SPECTOR’S NOTE: Zibanejad’s position as one of the Rangers’ best players and among their highest-paid comes with intense pressure to perform well. A slump can take a mental toll the longer it goes on, especially when the player starts putting more pressure on themself to overcome the issue.
DAILY FACEOFF: Sweden’s former national team coach Johan Garpenlov doesn’t believe Pittsburgh Penguins defenseman Erik Karlsson is good enough to play for the country’s 4 Nations Face-Off team in February. He pointed out that Karlsson’s defensive shortcomings could be an issue for Sweden in the tournament.
SPECTOR’S NOTE: Karlsson’s poor defensive play has been an issue for the Penguins this season. Nevertheless, he was among the first six players chosen for Team Sweden.
BOSTON HOCKEY NOW: Bruins defenseman Hampus Lindholm is expected to miss weeks with a lower-body injury suffered during Boston’s 3-2 win over the St. Louis Blues on Tuesday.
SPECTOR’S NOTE: This is a big setback for Boston’s blueline. They’re already missing Andrew Peeke, who’s out week-to-week with an upper-body injury. His 20:51 of ice time per game is second among Bruins skaters.
TSN: Buffalo Sabres defenseman Mattias Samuelsson is sidelined indefinitely with a lower-body injury. Forward Tage Thompson (lower body) and goaltender Ukko-Pekka Luukkonen (undisclosed ailment) are day-to-day.
THE BUFFALO NEWS: The Sabres reclaimed goaltender James Reimer off waivers from the Anaheim Ducks.
THE HOCKEY NEWS: The New York Islanders placed defenseman Mike Reilly (upper body) on injured reserve.
TSN: A trial by jury of five former Canadian World Junior players charged with sexual assault is scheduled for Apr. 22, 2025. It is expected to last eight weeks.
Former NHL players Dillon Dube, Carter Hart, Michael McLeod, Cal Foote and Alex Formenton were charged earlier this year in connection with an alleged sexual assault in a London, Ontario hotel room in June 2018.
Must be frustrating for the Colorado Avalanche group! They have arguably 3 of the top 10-15 players in the league and they sit at one game above 500!
Turns out hockey isn’t basketball…
@Sr
Great team
Need a goalie
Not that big a slight to suggest Karlsson shouldn’t be on the national team. The Swedes are stacked on the blueline.
Hedman, Dahlin, Ekholm, Larsson, Forsling, Andersson, Lindholm.
All can defend, all can skate, play against top competition regularly, and most are big. Pretty attractive attributes when playing against teams with high end offensive players like Canada and the US.
Who would you take out to add Karlsson? Maybe you want him for the PP, but he that much better on it than Dahlin or Hedman? If so not by much, if at all.
Which of the 4 countries has a better group than than that?
Lindholm injury might take care of the issue for them,
I feel like more of the world is finally seeing what Sens fans have always seen with Karlsson.
The only reason Karlsson looked good defensively for a while on the Sens roster is he was paired with guys like Methot.
The only reason he won the Norris two years ago was because he scored a lot of points on a team that had no one else to do so.
He’s always been flashy with almost no defense responsibility.
George and I warned the Pens fans about this and they scoffed… until now…
If Karlsson came with a cap hit of 4 million there`d be 31 teams lined up to trade for him. Methot would make Chabot look a lot better right now, wouldn`t he. Methot allowed Karlsson to use his main skills. Karlsson and Tavares are 2 guys every team would love to have , but not worth their cap hits at this point of their careers
You been watching Tavares?
So very true, Yogi. In fact, there’s a whole slew of players around the league whose age and production may not be seen as in keeping with their cap cost, but who would quickly find a job which, although at something considerably less than their peak years … would still be a pretty good income, all things considered.
Too bad there isn’t some sort of “re-negotiation clause” in the agreement to allow that approach.
And speaking of the maligned (in some quarters) Tavares, here he goes again with his point-a-game pace (so far 17gp 16 pts +3) and scoring when it’s needed most – like last night’s comeback win in OT.
When we were posting yesterday about the Ottawa-Toronto game, and how flat the Leafs were, I singled out Stolarz as the one bright spot in that game. But I should have included Tavares who gave it his all throughout. In fact, there were at least 3 occasions where he was robbed by Ullmark at a time when a goal could have changed the flow of the game.
Yeah, maybe the disgruntled can point fingers at him because he’s pulling down $11 mil … but having him at around $6 mil would benefit any team.
Yep 100% George. It seems to be those 7 or 8 year deals that come back to haunt. I remember when Luongo offered to take less so Vancouver could trade him. 8 year deals might put more money in the players pockets, but doesn`t always play out the way they want towards the end of their careers
Heh. Yeah. And one of them had the bald-faced temerity to suggest Ottawa should take Karlsson back from the Penguins in a trade! And he was serious!
Speaking of whom – he hasn’t been back pretty much since the season began after boldly guaranteeing Pittsburgh would be back in the playoffs by the end of this season.
He might still think so – but looking at it mathematically that would be Uber-confidence. Right now they have 15 points after 18 games played – a points % of .417.
In order to get to 94 points – likely the cut-off for a WC slot this season – they’d need to play at a .617 clip the rest of the way. And pass 5 or 6 teams on the way.
I think it has finally dawned on more and more of the Penguins fans in here that they are about to embark upon a long, painful re-build, with little to zero chance of dealing any of their high-priced players who all possess varying M-NTC, while looking at very little in return for the few they could possibly deal (Puljujarvi, Bunting, etc).
They are about to experience the kind of wandering in the wilderness for season after season that has plagued Ottawa, Buffalo, Detroit as well as a few others out West.
There is no quick fix here.
I remember… I do not remember who the person was that suggested it, but I felt like I almost broke a rib laughing at the prospect.
Especially as the Sens defense is only NOW rounding out rather nicely… EK would have completely ruined what is happening now. And imagine the headache Staios would have with the cap…
There was a boat load of people who thought Toronto should pursue Karlsson at all costs despite his cap hit or his defensive flaws
haha, I remember that too Yogi
I have no problem with “wandering in the wilderness” after 3 cups. And i’m sure many fans of other teams would have no issues with that too if their team had 3 cups.
Which team won more cups in the last 20 years? Pens 3, Hawks 3, Bolts 3, Kings 2…
I dunno. I’m one of the Sens fans that watched Eric a lot in Ottawa. While people complain about his defensive laspes…..he controlled the puck and play so much I put him up with ORR on my top defensemen of all time. And like Orr his career has been cut short with injury. He probably should have retired after his last Norris. If puck possession metrics are so important, how people can discount his abilities when he always has it on his stick. The year Doughty won his, I think Karlsson should have won that one too.
Pittsburgh fans, take a good look at who you are becoming,the Chicago Black Hawks Hoping for the first pick in the draft chasing a kid like Bedard!
Karlsson was awesome for the Sens, let’s not rewrite history. Injuries and age have left him a shell of his peak. It happens in sports.
I am not rewriting anything. Just stating that he had a team structure that allowed him to be that good and keep puck possession and his first pass was the best they had since Wade Redden’s best years.
But his faults shone through when he lost that supportive structure.
I also feel like there was an ego factor there…
Two goals that the Avalanche gave up are indicative of what the story is with the team: goaltending and slack defensive effort in front of said goaltender! When they do decide to play defense, look what happens magically: 0 shots on goal by LA in 2nd? It’s not rocket science. The team that has goaltending and a commitment to defense will be in good shape most of the time? And the Avalanche have skill coming out of their ears but when they don’t do the basics, they don’t win!!!!!
I see Drouin is finally activated off the IR list.
Finally got a chance to watch the 3rd period of the Leafs Caps game. Wow those goal reviews really need to be reviewed. 3 goal reviews in the 3rd and they only got 1 right. The Carlson goal should`ve stood, Dowd barely touched Woll and it would`ve never changed the outcome. The Lorenz goal should`ve counted, hard to imagine a player kicking it in with his upper thigh. Only the Knies deflection they got right, even though the ref was in a bad position to make that call. Lucky guess I`d say, but the right call. Dowd sure cost the Caps the win in the end, what a stupid and selfish play he made and for all those who keep saying Tavares is too slow. Carlson couldn`t catch him, at the end of overtime no less. Any hope of resigning Tavares for 4 or 5 million is long gone
Yogi I saw that the call on Knies goal was admitted to be an error by the reviewers in the room in Toronto. They said his stick did make contact below the crossbar however his stick was above it before it made contact ending with they got it wrong but it moot now. LOL there’s someone taking ownership there.
I think Carlson’s goal was called off because they want to implement some sort of Brett Hull rule again. I too think there wasn’t enough to be called off but maybe there was and we haven’t seen it.
The Lorenz goal is an iffy one. If it was say, his crotch or body other than his arms/hands it would have been a goal. His thigh though? I don’t know. He looked like he jumped and did kick or it could have been his momentum. Calls like that where it could be either momentum or deliberate action will always be wrong to someone.
Ron if you listen to the ref when he made the announcement, the goal wasn`t disallowed because of a distinct kicking motion. The ref said the goal was disallowed because it was put in using his leg, which is a first. The Knies goal from the side angle looks like a good goal, but when you see it from directly from behind, it does appear to be a high stick. But you have to remember what the ref`s call was and they make the call based on that and the ref was in no position to see it properly. Joe Bowen and Jim Ralph thought it was clearly a goal till they saw the back view. Then they changed their minds and agreed with the refs call. On the the Carlson goal, Dowd did make contact with Woll, but it was so insignificant, it didn`t affect the play. For a league that`s starved for goals, to waive them for basically nothing is plain stupid. Since to overturn a goal based on what the ref `s call, one of the factors they should look at is whether the ref was in a good position to make his call in the first place
Oh yeah – those coach’s challenges also tend to drag on and on and on … meanwhile. some poor D gets 2 minutes for “delay of game” – usually while killing a penalty – if a zone-clearing attempt rolls up and over the glass — when it would take all of about 30 seconds to get a new puck and a face-off.