NHL Morning Coffee Headlines – January 11, 2025
Recaps of Friday’s games, the Jets’ Quarter-Century Team is revealed, Bruins stars Brad Marchand and David Pastrnak push back against a rumor of tension between them, and more in today’s NHL Morning Coffee Headlines.
GAME RECAPS
NHL.COM: Montreal Canadiens captain Nick Suzuki’s overtime goal lifted his club to a 3-2 victory over the Washington Capitals. Cole Caufield and Josh Anderson also scored for the Canadiens, who outshot the Capitals 30-17 to pick up their ninth win in their last 11 games. Jakob Chychrun and Lars Eller replied for the Capitals, who picked up a point and sit in first place in the Eastern Conference with 59 points.
Montreal Canadiens captain Nick Suzuki (NHL Images).
SPECTOR’S NOTE: The Canadiens (43 points) moved within one point of the Columbus Blue Jackets for the final Eastern Conference wild-card berth and two points of the Boston Bruins for the first wild-card spot. Capitals goaltender Charlie Lindgren suffered an upper-body injury midway through this game following a collision with Suzuki, who was pushed into Lindgren by Capitals winger Brandon Duhaime.
Detroit Red Wings forward Patrick Kane collected three assists to lead his club over the Chicago Blackhawks 5-3. Lucas Raymond, Alex DeBrincat and Marco Kasper each had a goal and an assist as the Wings picked up their sixth straight victory. Blackhawks winger Teuvo Teravainen tallied twice and Connor Bedard picked up an assist to extend his points streak to nine games.
SPECTOR’S NOTE: The Red Wings are one point behind the Canadiens in the Eastern Conference wild-card chase, with the Ottawa Senators (41 points) and New York Rangers (40) close behind.
The Los Angeles Kings collected their fifth straight victory with a 2-1 win over the Winnipeg Jets. Adrian Kempe extended his goal streak to four games by snapping a 1-1 tie in overtime. Alex Turcotte also scored for the Kings while Mark Scheifele replied for the Jets, who’ve won once in their last five games (1-2-2).
SPECTOR’S NOTE: The Jets are tied with the Vegas Golden Knights with 59 points but the latter holds first place in the overall standings with a game in hand and one more win. Jets defensemen Josh Morrissey and Dylan Samberg were in the lineup for this game. Morrissey had left Tuesday’s game against the Nashville Predators while Samberg was sidelined for over a month with a broken foot.
Carolina Hurricanes goaltender Dustin Tokarski made 14 saves to shut out the Vancouver Canucks 2-0. Jordan Staal and Andrei Svechnikov scored for the Hurricanes. The Canucks are winless in their last four (0-2-2) and cling to the final Western Conference wild-card spot (46 points) one point ahead of the Calgary Flames.
SPECTOR’S NOTE: Canucks center Elias Pettersson returned to the lineup after missing six games with an undisclosed ailment.
Utah Hockey Club center Barrett Hayton scored with 1:32 remaining in the third period in a 2-1 victory over the San Jose Sharks. Nick Schmaltz also scored and Fabian Zetterlund replied for the Sharks.
HEADLINES
NHL.COM: Connor Hellebuyck, Mark Scheifele and Josh Morrissey highlight the Winnipeg Jets’ Quarter Century Team.
The trio comprised part of the First Team with Blake Wheeler, Dustin Byfuglien and Ilya Kovalchuk. Forwards Kyle Connor, Nikolaj Ehlers and Bryan Little, defensemen Jacob Trouba and Toby Enstrom and goaltender Ondrej Pavelec made up the Second Team.
SPECTOR’S NOTE Kovalchuk was the franchise’s biggest star when they were the Atlanta Thrashers, scoring 328 goals and 287 assists for 615 points in 594 games from 2001-02 to 2009-10. That included two 52-goal seasons and two 90-plus point campaigns.
BOSTON HOCKEY NOW: Bruins captain Brad Marchand and teammate David Pastrnak blasted WEEI radio host Rich Keefe for claiming Pastrnak was refusing to play on Marchand’s line.
“I know reporters have a job to do, and that job is to report on the team, and usually you try to be fact-based,” said Marchand. “But when there’s just blatant lies told in the media, that’s where there’s a problem.”
Marchand explained he and Pastrnak haven’t played together much this season because the team is trying their scoring depth through the lineup. He rejected Keefe’s claim that Pastrnak was a problem in the dressing room, calling him one of the most-loved guys in the room.
Pastrnak said he initially thought Keefe was making fun of him. “I know how I feel about Marchy. We love each other. I have a huge amount of respect for him.” He called the report “100 percent false”, saying he and Marchand had a good laugh over it.
EDMONTON JOURNAL: Oilers winger Evander Kane underwent knee surgery requiring four to eight weeks of recovery. This surgery puts his rehab from last fall’s abdominal surgery on hold.
SPECTOR’S NOTE: If Kane is sidelined for the rest of the regular season, this could also affect the Oilers’ plans for the March 7 trade deadline. I’ll have more about that in today’s Rumors update.
THE ATHLETIC’s Aaron Portzline reports Columbus Blue Jackets center Sean Monahan has a sprained right wrist but no fractures. He’s been placed on injured reserve and will be reevaluated once the swelling subsides. Monahan suffered the injury against the Pittsburgh Penguins on Jan. 7.
LAS VEGAS REVIEW-JOURNAL: Ivan Barbashev is expected to return to the Golden Knights lineup against the New York Rangers on Saturday. He missed the last 10 games with an upper-body injury.
CALGARY SUN: Flames center Conor Zary won’t require surgery following a knee-on-knee hit from Anaheim Ducks defenseman Drew Helleson. However, he will be sidelined indefinitely but is expected to return later this season.
OTTAWA SUN: The Senators signed sophomore center Ridly Greig to a three-year contract extension with an average annual value of $3.25 million. Greig, 22, is in the final season of his entry-level contract.
TORONTO SUN: Former Maple Leafs Patrick Marleau and Jake Muzzin joined Leafs star John Tavares in separate appeals of the Canada Revenue Agency’s ruling on their signing bonuses. The trio are contesting the CRA’s 2023 reassessments that claimed their signing bonuses should’ve been taxed at the highest bracket of 50 percent, rather than the 15 percent they’ve paid.
SPECTOR’S NOTE: The Province’s Patrick Johnston cited a former NHL executive who believes the players will lose their appeals. He thinks it’s obvious what the bonuses are: merely an effort to say a certain portion of their wage should be taxed in a particular way compared to the rest.
The entire Eastern Conference looks to be in the running for the last 2 wild card spots! Should make the next 6 weeks very interesting leading up to the deadline! I can see teams being both buyers and sellers! Boston soap opera just an indication of a tumultuous season in Beantown!
Sr, last night 4 teams (Montreal, Detroit, Vancouver and Utah) reached the half-way mark in the schedule, bringing the total to date to 27 – 3 of which are already up to 44gp (NJ, Boston and San Jose).
Tonight, Ottawa, Dallas and Calgary will each play their 41st, while for Tampa and L.A. (who had 1 game postponed due to those devastating fires) their 41st will come on Jan 12 and 13 respectively.
At that point, in order to compare all teams’ records at the half-way mark of the schedule, I’ll list the East and West Conference Wild Card Standings after 41gp for anyone who’s interested.
Hi George
You seem to be able to easily locate past standings etc.
When was the last time that at mid-season (basically now) that there was a WC spot held by a 511 winning percentage team?
It’s possible (with a Blues, Stars, Panthers and Sens regulation wins today) that after tonight a 500 team (Boston then) would hold a WC spot at the point where almost all (per your above just Lightning & Kings would still have not reached) teams have reached mid-season
At the same time; with a Flames Victory today,low Western WC team would be at 573
George, sorry/not sorry you didn’t get your wish last night. Look at it this way. There is light at the end of the tunnel for Notre Dame. The only problem is it’s a silver bullet train.
8787, I don’t think there is such an animal as a record of WC teams at the half-way point of a season. Certainly none that I could find. What I’m doing this season is simply jotting down the record of each team as it reaches game 41.
And don’t forget, since the WC concept was introduced in 2013, there have been drastically shortened seasons which would probably distort the % pace of teams at those half-way points.
One thing I do know is that NO WC team has ever won the Stanley Cup. The closest was Nashville in 2017 when they lost to the Penguins 4 – 2. That was the season Pittsburgh beat Ottawa in the Eastern Finals in game 7 in double OT in Pittsburgh. Ottawa’s last trip to the playoffs, in fact.
Pupinabox, Ohio State and Notre Dame should be a classic.
I should also point out that, when listing all teams’ records at the 41-game mark, there won’t be one holding a WC slot at a .511 pace.
In the East, Boston and Montreal, after 41gp each, are at .537 and .524 respectively. That’s changed since, of course, with teams having played anywhere from 39 to 44gp.
\
In the West, after 41gp, Colorado is .622 and Vancouver .561.
George, I believe LA was the 8th seed in the West when they won one of their recent Cups.
Don’t think so. When they won their last cup in the 2013-14 season they had finished 3rd in the Pacific. The previous season was a shortened 48-game affair.
And just to clarify, when I say the WC concept was introduced in 2013, I meant the 2013-14 season
https://www.reddit.com/r/hockey/comments/13g510u/nhl_pr_the_panthers_became_the_third_wild_card/?rdt=60156
Looks like Forsberg is in nets tonight for Ottawa in Pittsburgh, which bodes well for the Penguins.
In addition, the Senators are missing Amadio, Bernard-Docker, Hamonic, Perron, Gregor and, of course, Ullmark.
For the Penguins, Malkin is day-to-day) and Tomasino on IR.
George O I like your chances better than the Fla./ Bruins game today!At least the game is at1 today and won t interrupt the NFL playoffs!
So far so good, Sr. 2-1 Boston and they’re controlling the pace … so far.
Bingo. Although they gave up a point, the Bruins got 2. Good game.
George O Swayman stole the game! Offensive explosion for your Sens
Several monkeys got off several backs in that Ottawa-Pittsburgh tilt – Pinto with 2, Stutzle, Batherson and 3 set-ups for Giroux. Nice to see the kid Merilainen get a SO.
And good for the Bruins to see Swayman get in a groove like that.
George
You could have 2 more key injuries happen and it may not matter
It depends on which “Pens” team shows up
If it’s a Pens squad that literally doesn’t have but 1 or two defensive wary and/or 200’ minded players out there (cite 1/2 of Pens games this year) then walk in the Park for Sens
If it’s the hard forechecking , full energy Pens (Cite maybe 2-3 full games all year; and cite Pens of 1st period vs Oilers); then look out.
I predict ….. anything.
Any result (from either team having a blowout to a 0-0 game after 65 mins decided by round 10 SO goal).
You literally never know what Pens team will show up.
I’m hoping for a regulation Win; but will not be surprised by any result.
And you literally never know which Senators team will show up either … so it could be a doozy!
My hope is they come out determined to get 2 points tonight and hope that Forsberg has one of his decent games (over 3 periods – also something you literally never know), because tomorrow they have to go home to face Dallas with Merilainen in nets.
I was surprised to see Merilainen in todat against Pittsburgh, which means they toss Forsberg to the wolves tomorrow at home against Dallas (who do have to play in Montreal tonight so it’s at least a back-to-back for both … be interesting to see who Dallas goes with in goal tonight).
It was Oettinger, which means DeSmith goes tomorrow in Ottawa against Forsberg.
As a Hab fan did not see this big push coming fun to watch. But any sort of losing streak could be right back to last place only up on Buffalo by 6 points .
Crazy how tight the east is this year. Tough game tonight on a back to back in Dallas but they are hot.
Go Habs Go
Last night Carolina played their 5th game in seven days. The scheduling anomaly was a result of a make up game that had to be scheduled between two back to backs. One way to prevent that from happening again is for the NHL to quit scheduling two back to backs in a 7 day period which happens three times in Carolina’s schedule.
During last nights TV broadcast they made a comment that Brind’Amour’s coaching record on the second day of a back to back is the best in the history of the NHL for coaches that have coached in 75 or more of those games.
George, Berube finally gave an update on Stolarz, they`re hoping Stolarz gets on the ice later next week. So, I`d say at least a couple of weeks away from the sounds of it and I`m being optimistic
Yogi, Ottawa and Toronto in the same boat there – both # 1 goalies out for lengthy periods and both teams hoping for at least some consistency from whoever they start in the meantime. And not always getting it.