NHL Morning Coffee Headlines – December 22, 2024
Check out the recaps of Saturday’s action and more in today’s NHL Morning Coffee Headlines.
GAME RECAPS
NHL.COM: Winnipeg Jets goaltender Connor Hellebuyck made 19 saves for his league-leading fourth shutout of the season to blank the Minnesota Wild 5-0. Cole Perfetti had a goal and two assists as the Jets sat atop the overall standings with 49 points. It’s the fourth straight loss for the Wild.
Winnipeg Jets goaltender Connor Hellebuyck. (NHL Images).
SPECTOR’S NOTE: Hellebuyck tied Jonathan Quick and Tim Thomas for the most shutouts in one calendar year by an American NHL goaltender.
Boston Bruins captain Brad Marchand scored to extend his points streak to nine games in a 3-1 victory over the Buffalo Sabres. Charlie Coyle and Morgan Geekie also scored for the Bruins, who hold third place in the Atlantic Division with 38 points. JJ Peterka replied for the Sabres, who are winless in 13 straight games (0-10-3).
SPECTOR’S NOTE: So much for the Sabres’ hopes of reaching the playoffs. Stick a fork in ’em, they’re done. What a waste.
The New York Islanders upset the Toronto Maple Leafs 6-3. Bo Horvat led the way with a goal and two assists and Anthony Duclair had an assist in his return to action after missing 28 games with a leg injury. William Nylander scored twice for the Leafs.
SPECTOR’S NOTE: Leafs captain Auston Matthews missed this game as his status remains uncertain after re-aggravating the upper-body injury that sidelined him for nine games in November. Meanwhile, the Leafs sent goaltender Matt Murray back to their AHL affiliate and recalled Dennis Hildeby to back up Joseph Woll.
An overtime goal by Leon Draisaitl lifted the Edmonton Oilers to a 3-2 victory over the San Jose Sharks. Connor McDavid collected two assists as the Oilers have won seven of their last eight games. Rookie goalie Yaroslav Askarov kicked out 38 shots for the Sharks as they’ve dropped seven of their last eight (1-6-1).
SPECTOR’S NOTE: Draisaitl moved into second place in the NHL scoring race with 51 points, four behind Colorado Avalanche center Nathan MacKinnon.
Ottawa Senators defenseman Jake Sanderson scored 15 seconds into overtime to beat the Vancouver Canucks 5-4 in an entertaining back-and-forth contest. Shane Pinto scored twice and collected an assist for the Senators as they picked up their sixth straight victory, winning eight of their last nine games. Quinn Hughes had a goal and two assists and Brock Boeser tallied two goals for the Canucks, who’ve dropped three straight (0-1-2).
SPECTOR’S NOTE: The Senators (38 points) hold a three-point lead over the Pittsburgh Penguins for the final wild-card berth in the Eastern Conference. Meanwhile, the Canucks (39 points) hold the first wild-card spot in the Western Conference.
Speaking of the Penguins, they were blanked 3-0 by the New Jersey Devils. Nico Hischier had a goal and two assists while Jacob Markstrom only had to make 12 saves for the shutout. Tristan Jarry stopped 25 shots for the Penguins. The Devils sit first in the Eastern Conference with 47 points, two back of the league-leading Jets.
The Vegas Golden Knights picked up their seventh win in their last eight games with a 6-2 win over the Seattle Kraken. Golden Knights captain Mark Stone had a goal and two assists as his club sits in first place in the Pacific Division with 47 points, two behind the league-leading Jets.
Nashville Predators defenseman Nick Blankenburg scored in overtime to nip the Los Angeles Kings 3-2. Predators winger Filip Forsberg had two assists while captain Roman Josi collected an assist in his return to a lineup after missing four games with a lower-body injury. Quinton Byfield and Alex Laferriere scored as the Kings overcame a 2-0 deficit to force OT.
Calgary Flames forwards Jonathan Huberdeau, Blake Coleman, Matt Coronato and Connor Zary each had a goal and an assist to defeat the Chicago Blackhawks 6-4. The win pushed the Flames (39 points) into the final Western Conference wild-card spot. Blackhawks forwards Connor Bedard and Tyler Bertuzzi finished the night with three points each.
The Montreal Canadiens picked up their third straight win by downing the Detroit Red Wings 5-1 to sweep their home-and-home series. Patrik Laine scored his eighth straight power-play goal while Nick Suzuki and Lane Hutson each collected two assists. Joe Veleno tallied the Wings’ only goal as they dropped their third straight game.
Philadelphia Flyers forward Owen Tippett scored in overtime and collected three assists in regulation in a 5-4 victory over the Columbus Blue Jackets. Travis Konecny had three assists and Morgan Frost tallied two goals for the Flyers to snap their three-game losing skid. Blue Jackets forward Dmitri Voronkov collected two assists.
IN OTHER NEWS…
TSN: New York Rangers forward Matt Rempe was offered an in-person hearing by the league’s department of player safety for boarding and elbowing Dallas Stars defenseman Miro Heiskanen during Friday’s game between the two clubs.
The hearing will take place over Zoom on Sunday. Rempe could face a suspension of six games or more.
DAILY FACEOFF: Former NHL players Sam Gagner, Josh Jooris and Matt Irwin will be part of Canada’s roster for the upcoming Spengler Cup tournament in Davos, Switzerland. Canada has won the tournament a record 16 times but hasn’t taken home the title since 2019.
SPECTOR’S NOTE: The Christmas holidays are the most wonderful time of the year for international tournaments with the Spengler Cup and the World Junior Championships.
MLIVE.COM: Long-time Detroit sports broadcaster John Keating announced his intention to retire at the end of the Red Wings season. He’s covered the Red Wings and MLB’s Detroit Tigers since 1997.
Losing to Colorado after leading 4-0 was the start of their downfall…they’ve never recovered from that loss.
Lucky 13. The Sabres are not an expansion team of the Washington Capitals era. They have a fair roster.
They have fired the GM and coach. What is left to do? The owner spoke to them and they still continue to lose.
Win games. They are not doing that. Those who have been around longer tasked with improving the team are not doing their job. In this situation, Kevyn Adams is on the clock. Adams is going down a dangerous road to a previous Sabres general manager who was far worse.
The identity of the Sabres for most of this playoff drought has been that of a Soft team
– physically and mentally. I’m not advocating for a bunch of Neanderthals but their multiple former GM’s have been unable to find the correct balance of skill and grit and Adams has taken this level of “softness” to a new level.I
I saw the Boston/ Buffalo game last night in Boston! Buffalo played without Dahlin their best player!Buffalo for most of the night was the better team! Boston really got lucky!Buffalo has a core of good young players ,but they are missing one key component,solid goaltending! Look what Linus Ullmark has done for Ottawa,a similar team to Buffalo with a solid core of young talent!
Dahlin missing another game with similar “back spasm” issues that kept him out seven games instead of the initial prognosis of one game is concerning.
I do not think the Sabres’ medical and strength and conditioning staffs are providing the best care for the team.
Bruins will trade Swayman and Frederick to Sabres for Pekka and Cousins
Are you feeling alright?Mrbruin4
I would make this deal if I was in control of the Bruins. I would not if I was in control of the Sabres.
UPL will be better than the self appointed “market setter”
Fred will never be more than a half pt per game middle six option, whereas Couzens has 1 pt per game potential.
I strongly dislike Jeremy Swayman and his act.
I have to agree with Sr. I too watched the Boston game and Buffalo, overall, held the edge in play throughout. If you haven’t seen them play much and simply look at their horrible W-L record and scan down their list of D you might, at first, expect to see glaring minus stats up and down the list. But that’s not the case.
Power 34gp 5 17 22 -4; Dahlin 26gp 6 13 19 +3; Byram 34gp 4 14 18 -1; Clifton 31gp 0 7 7 E;
Samuelsson 19gp 2 2 4 -4; Jokiharju 26gp 1 2 3 +2; Bryson 19gp 0 2 2 -7
Giving up an average of 29.36 shots against per game – which ranks right there with several of the top teams in the league – is more than satisfactory for a better record, but the goaltending has been something else entirely
Luukonen 8 11 3 3.12 .892; Levi 2 6 0 3.97 .876; Reimer 1 4 0 3.04 .888
That average of .881 save % is what is contributing the most to their long winless streak … that has to be addressed along with inconsistent offense from their F group. The top line is doing reasonably well:
Zucker (34gp 8 14 22 +1) – Thompson (29gp 16 9 25 +3) Tuch (34gp 9 16 25 +8)
but the inconsistency and offensive anemia (with a couple of exceptions) shows up graphically from lines 2 to 4:
Peterka (32gp 10 14 24) – not bad in that regard, but he also sports a -10 – Cozens (34gp 7 8 15 -10) – Krebs (33gp 3 7 10 -3)
Quinn (27gp 3 4 7 -15) – Kulich (24gp 4 1 5 -3) – Lafferty (24gp 1 0 1 -1)
Malenstyn (34gp 2 4 6 -2) – McLeod (24gp 6 9 15 +1 – he’s doing his part at C) – Kubel 16gp 1 1 2 -2)
Extra F – Benson (28gp 4 6 10 -6)
All in all, it’s clear they need better goaltending first and foremost along with better (and expected) offense from the likes of Cozens, Krebs, Quinn and, not least, more attention to the 2-way game from lines 2 to 4. Whether they can find that without gutting the roster in desperate attempts to right the ship is the $64,000 Question. But they just aren’t as bad as this losing streak might indicate.
Goal tending : Edmonton faced a good one last night and barely got away with a win.
I look at Buffalo’s goaltending and wonder what they can do other than improve. Perhaps fire their goaltending coach. Or make a trade. Their trio has various levels of NHL experience. What to do?
The problem with the goaltending issue is, they would not be the only team looking around trying to improve at that position, and with the competition they might have to over-pay to get one.
Up front, they do have F doing reasonably well at Rochester (Rosen and Murray as examples) – why not bring a couple up and sit a couple who are struggling to see if it can light a fire under their butts? Can’t hurt.
It’s like I posted the other day George. The Sabres have had leads in most of the games during their current losing streak. Sometimes multiple goal leads. The problem is obviously holding and building on leads.
This boils down to two things. The first is soft play, especially soft defensive play. I watched their game against the Habs a few nights ago. Their defensive play is non existent. More importantly, however, is that there is a culture of losing on that team. They just don’t know how to win.
Quite similar in that respect (don’t know how to win) to the Senators for the past while, Howard, although Ottawa at least never did fall into a 14-game winless stretch at any time.
But they had to – as a team – learn how to consolidate a lead, which their current 9 game points streak shows might have finally sunk in.
George the +/- and the save % don`t always tell the real story. For a goalie the question is where are the goals coming from. If Buffalo is giving up a lot of in close goals, then the goalies save % may not be a good indicator. The problem maybe the dmen not clearing in front of the net good enough or clearing the rebounds. Defence issuch a complicated issue for teams because it involves 6 players most of the time and any one of the six can make others look bad. In the Toronto game Buffalo jumped out to a quick 2-0 lead before blowing it. Levi wasn`t Buffalo`s problem in the end. The forwards didn`t help the dmen and the dmen didn`t help Levi. To me Buffalo lacked a true lead on the ice and on the bench. Buffalo could use a guy like J.T. Miller, even if he does ruffle a few feathers
All good points, Yogi. In hockey there are so many factors to consider that – true enough – don’t show up in the stats we routinely see.
Kevyn Adams’ mismanagement of the Sabres and misconduct disrespecting and dishonoring his team, the game, and the league should earn him a request to explain his actions to Gary Bettman.
If Adams was doing his job making the necessary roster improvement acquisitions, the Sabres would not be having this unexpected skid.
Buffalo has looked decent on paper on and off for a decade. most teams lack that highend talent that they always seem to have….. ROR eichel Dahlen tage etc..
they have 2 rocks on D and their center depth of Tage Cozens McLeod Krebs is solid…..
dont get it
The Senators got a good enough start from rookie goalie Levi Merilainen – especially in the 3rd when they were out-shot 11-2 – to upset Vancouver in OT – once again potting the winner just seconds into OT as they have done in their past 3 extra-frames.
And having 3rd line C Pinto continue with his re-discovered offense hasn’t hurt in giving them 3 wins to start their 9-game road swing. Ullmark will have to be sharp tonight in Edmonton, though, for this to continue.
George O,with Pinto finding his game they have the perfect trade piece in Norris to get that top 4 Defensemen they need! A perfect trade would be him for Carlo! 2 players with some injury,or concussion issues ! But in today s NHL,NMC and NTC are tough to maneuver!
Sr, that suggestion might have had merit earlier in the season .. but the way things are unfolding now, Norris isn’t going anywhere any time soon.
With Zub due to return from his broken foot after the Christmas break, they have the RD they need to shore up that position, putting him back with Sanderson on the 1st pairing, leaving Jensen with Chabot (who have been playing great together) and Bernard-Docker alongside Kleven on the 3rd pairing, who also have been more than holding their own. That will put the slow-footed Hamonic back as the 7th D – where he belongs.
Up front they also have F David Perron due back around the same time. His start to the season was curtailed by the medical condition of his infant daughter, understandably causing an extended absence from the line-up, and when he did return, the lack of action caught up to him with a lower-body strain. His veteran savvy and scoring ability will definitely help on the bottom 6 in the second half.
Right now they sit 2 points back of Boston for 3rd in the Atlantic, and with 2 games in hand And considering their shaky start to the season, suddenly they find themselves just 6 points back of Toronto and Florida and with a game in hand on each.
Their 104 goals scored are 13 better than Boston and just 2 less than Toronto, while their 95 goals against is better than Florida and Boston and just 2 more than Division-leading Toronto.
In short, they have become competitive.
If they do anything in the area of trade it will be to find a more consistent back-up goalie if, when Forsberg returns (also after the break) he continues with his inconsistency. He has the talent to do so (and was a very good back-up up until 2 seasons ago). He also has 2 of the team’s 5 league-leading SOs so the ability is certainly there.
Matt Rempe should get at least 10 games maybe more.22 games played he registers nine major penalties and four game-misconducts.
It is obvious the Rangers have no desire to reel this guy in and sooner than later he will put a player out of the game.
He’s starting to make Tom Wilson look like a choir biy!
“choir boy”