NHL Morning Coffee Headlines – November 2, 2024
A four-point performance for the Panthers’ Aleksander Barkov in Finland, a hat trick for the Jets’ Nikolaj Ehlers, the three stars and rookie of the month for October are revealed, and more in today’s NHL Morning Coffee Headlines.
GAME RECAPS
NHL.COM: Florida Panthers captain Aleksander Barkov had a goal and three assists to lead his club over the Dallas Stars 6-4 in the first of two NHL Global Series games between the two clubs in Tampere, Finland.
Florida Panthers captain Aleksander Barkov (NHL Images).
Sam Reinhart scored twice and collected an assist and Aaron Ekblad picked up three assists for the Panthers. Esa Lindell had a goal and an assist for the Stars.
SPECTOR’S NOTE: Barkov put on a show in his hometown before a sellout crowd of 12,786 fans at Nokia Arena. The second game of the series between the two clubs is Saturday starting at noon EDT.
Winnipeg Jets winger Nikolaj Ehlers tallied a hat trick to lead his club to a 6-2 victory over the Columbus Blue Jackets. Jets defenseman Josh Morrissey had a goal and an assist while teammate Kyle Connor collected an assist to extend his season-opening points streak to 11 games. Blue Jackets goalie Elvis Merzlikins stopped 38 shots.
SPECTOR’S NOTE: The league-leading Jets are the first team to reach 10 wins this season.
Minnesota Wild winger Kirill Kaprizov had two goals and an assist to beat the Tampa Bay Lightning 5-3. Wild forward Mats Zuccarello picked up two assists. Victor Hedman had two helpers for the Lightning.
SPECTOR’S NOTE: Kaprizov is the first player to crack this season’s 20-point plateau (21). He also set a franchise record with his seventh straight multi-point game.
The Calgary Flames got a 22-save shutout from Dan Vladar to blank the New Jersey Devils 3-0, snapping a four-game losing skid. Blake Coleman scored two goals and Jonathan Huberdeau netted his fifth of the season. Devils netminder Jacob Markstrom made 29 saves in his first game against his former club since being traded to New Jersey in June.
SPECTOR’S NOTE: Devils forward Nathan Bastian left the game in the first period with a jaw injury following a fight with Flames forward Ryan Lomberg.
New York Rangers goalie Igor Shesterkin kicked out 40 shots in a 2-1 victory over the Ottawa Senators. Artemi Panarin scored his seventh of the season and Alexis Lafreniere had a goal and an assist for the Rangers. Adam Gaudette scored for the Senators, who outshot the Rangers 41-18.
SPECTOR’S NOTE: Shesterkin was the difference-maker in this game as he continues to make the case to become the NHL’s first $12 million per season goaltender.
The New York Islanders ended a three-game losing streak by nipping the Buffalo Sabres 4-3. Isles forwards Bo Horvat and Maxim Tsyplakov each had a goal and an assist and Ilya Sorokin turned aside 32 shots for the win. Jason Zucker had a goal and an assist for the Sabres.
SPECTOR’S NOTE: The Islanders entered this game without forward Mathew Barzal, who returned home after suffering an upper-body injury. Blueliners Adam Pelech and Mike Reilly left this game with upper-body injuries.
HEADLINES
NHL.COM: Colorado Avalanche defenseman Cale Makar, Jets winger Kyle Connor and Wild winger Kirill Kaprizov were the league’s Three Stars for October 2024. Philadelphia Flyers winger Matvei Michkov was named Rookie of the Month for October.
COLORADO HOCKEY NOW: Avalanche winger Valeri Nichushkin skated with the club’s skill coach Toby Petersen and another staff member after the team finished its practice on Friday. Nichushkin can join his teammates in practice once he receives clearance from the league. He’s serving a six-month suspension as part of Phase 3 of the NHL-NHLPA player assistance program and could receive that clearance by mid-November.
THE PROVINCE: Thatcher Demko was on the ice before the Vancouver Canucks’ practice on Friday but continues to make slow progress recovering from a knee injury. Meanwhile, winger Dakota Joseph is close to returning to the lineup after recovering from offseason surgery for testicular cancer.
TSN: Former Ottawa Senators forward Alex Formenton has filed a $20.5 million lawsuit against Newports Sports Management Inc. and his former agent, Wade Arnott, alleging negligence, breach of contract, and breach of fiduciary duty. Formenton is among five former NHL players charged with sexual assault related to an alleged incident in London, Ontario, in 2018.
DAILY FACEOFF: NHLPA executive director Marty Walsh announced the formation of the union’s first-ever CTE Advisory Committee.
Winnepeg has two of the best wingers in the game today! Connor and Ehlers are off to great starts! The peg would be smart to sign Ehlers! If you look around the league,everyone seems to be looking for top 6 forwards!
I can see why Shesterkyn believes he’s worth $12 mil per.
Ottawa may not have gotten the 2 points, but they have to know in their minds that they can skate with any team, and if they keep putting out total effort like last night in a hard building in which to play, they’ll do OK.
Right now, though, Shesterkyn has at least 4 of them talking to themselves.
since 2012 Shesterkin has not had a season over 3.00 GAA or under .900 pct in any league . He’s the real deal, he was fantastic between the pipes last night.
Rangers gave the Sens alot of rebound chances and missed coverage too often. Igor was on last night.
Rangers giving up that many chances will not be good come spring.
ds, I’m not so sure it can automatically be determined that the Rangers “gave” Ottawa anything …. Ottawa’s relentless forechecking – from this vantage point anyway – had just as much – if not more – effect on producing their chances.
It seems the lessons learned from the two losses in Vegas and Colorado, where Ottawa also held edge in play for most of both games -but lost both thanks to a combined 3 & a half minutes where they tried to coast – has finally begun to sink in. It showed in the complete dominance over St. Louis as well as for the entire game last night during which the Rangers were held to 18 shots.
The rewards of consistent effort is finally becoming obvious to this young group, which has been operating without the services of Pinto (a C), Zub (a RD) and Perron (a LW).
None will apparently be back any time soon, and if their replacements continue to play well and the team gets results, it wouldn’t surprise me to see any of the 3 involved in trades (with the exception of Perron who, I think, still has a major role to play at LW).
Tonight against Seattle – and without a morning skate – it will likely take half the opening period to “get their legs” – and Seattle will know that and come out strong – so the D and G will need to step up to prevent falling behind by 2 or 3 goals.
@george you are not wrong. the rangers struggle with attacking teams ala sens , panthers etc… they seem to beat the Canes because of the Canes weaknesses
As a hockey fan ive expected more from the Sens core the past few years…and they have D that can move the puck too
A couple of days ago, pointing to last night’s game at MSG, I posted that, win or lose, as an Ottawa fan I’d be happy with a game where they gave total effort throughout. They did just that.
Giving up a goal on the first shot by NY at the 3.03 mark, where Norris coughed up the puck and Ullmark was screened by Hamonic wasn’t encouraging, but by the end of the period they had held the Rangers to 5 shots total while firing something like 17 or 18 at Shesterkin.
That continued to the 2.56 mark of the 3rd when NY scored their 2nd on a pp and, in the past, this is where they’d normally collapse like a $4 tent, but instead it seemed they doubled their effort and did everything by get one by Shesterkin.
There is certainly no complaint about lack of effort.
Ottawa played a great game, the first Ranger goal you hang on Norris. Coming out of his zone, he has to protect the puck. It was like he had a big neon sign above him asking somebody please come take the puck away from me. Hamonic had little time to react, but he still could`ve put a little more effort into blocking the shot instead of screening Ullmark. Little things change the course of the game, especially that early in the game. You play a different game when you`re down early. Overall Ottawa looked good. NY giving Shesterkin 13 million per shouldn`t be any problem, giving it to him for 8 years may be the problem. That`s what makes Ullmark`s deal look so good. THE TERM
Term is definitely the potential killer on just about any large annual cap hit, but especially when the recipient is already in his late 20s.
Re : formation/creation of CTE Advisory Committee.
Glad to see this. A long time coming
Gary, there IS a correlation
Shesterkin: $12 M or not; he is a difference maker.
Every team wants a Shesterkin type backstopping them
Continued performances like last night throughout season; how does he not get $12 M