NHL Morning Coffee Headlines – January 27, 2025
Recapping Sunday’s action, the Rangers and Golden Knights unveil their Quarter-Century Teams, and more in today’s NHL Morning Coffee Headlines.
RECAPS OF SUNDAY’S GAMES
NHL.COM: Colorado Avalanche forward Artturi Lehkonen scored with 15 seconds remaining in the third period to nip the New York Rangers 5-4, ending the latter’s 10-game points streak. Cale Makar had two goals and an assist and Nathan MacKinnon collected two assists for the Avalanche, who hold the first Western Conference wild-card berth with 60 points. Artemi Panarin and Vincent Trocheck each had a goal and an assist for the Rangers (52 points), who sit three points behind the Tampa Bay Lightning for the final Eastern Conference wild-card spot.
SPECTOR’S NOTE: Martin Necas had two assists and Jack Drury scored his first goal with the Avalanche. The pair were acquired from the Carolina Hurricanes on Friday in the Mikko Rantanen trade.
The Ottawa Senators defeated the Utah Hockey Club 3-1, vaulting into third place in the Atlantic Division with 56 points. Leevi Merilainen stopped 34 shots, Claude Giroux and Tim Stutzle each collected two points, and Brady Tkachuk scored to end a 10-game scoring drought. Clayton Keller scored for Utah, who’ve lost two straight games.
SPECTOR’S NOTE: Ottawa forward Josh Norris returned to the lineup after missing the last two games for precautionary reasons. The Senators’ victory dropped the Boston Bruins into the top wild-card Eastern spot (55 points) and the Lightning into the final wild-card berth.
Winnipeg Jets forward Gabriel Vilardi (NHL Images).
Winnipeg Jets forward Gabriel Vilardi scored twice and collected two assists in a 5-2 win over the Calgary Flames. Kyle Connor had a goal and two assists for the Jets (71 points), who’ve won three straight and moved into a tie with the first-overall Washington Capitals. MacKenzie Weegar and Nazem Kadri replied for the Flames, who hold the final Western wild card with 55 points.
SPECTOR’S NOTE: The Capitals hold first overall with two games in hand. Flames defenseman Kevin Bahl missed this game with an undisclosed injury.
The Vegas Golden Knights defeated the Florida Panthers 4-1. Tomas Hertl scored to extend his points streak to nine games, Nicolas Roy collected three assists while Adin Hill turned aside 32 shots as the Golden Knights sit first in the Pacific Division with 66 points. Anton Lundell scored for the Panthers, who remain second in the Atlantic Division with 61 points.
SPECTOR’S NOTE: Golden Knights defenseman Alex Pietrangelo is withdrawing from the 4 Nations Face-Off tournament in February. He is tending to an ailment and preparing for the remainder of the Golden Knights’ season.
Minnesota Wild forward Matt Boldy had three assists and Marcus Foligno had a goal and an assist in a 4-2 victory over the Chicago Blackhawks. The win snapped a two-game losing skid for the Wild, who sit third in the Central Division with 62 points. Seth Jones and Frank Nazar replied for the Blackhawks.
SPECTOR’S NOTE: The Wild scratched forward Yakov Trenin and defenseman Declan Chisholm from this game.
HEADLINES
NHL.COM: The New York Rangers unveiled their Quarter-Century Team on Sunday.
Goaltender Henrik Lundqvist, defensemen Adam Fox and Ryan McDonagh, and forwards Artemi Panarin, Chris Kreider and Mika Zibanejad comprised the First Team.
The Second Team featured forwards Jaromir Jagr, Mats Zuccarello and Derek Stepan, defensemen Dan Girardi and Marc Staal, and goaltender Igor Shesterkin.
The Vegas Golden Knights also revealed their Quarter-Century Team.
Forwards Jack Eichel, Mark Stone and William Karlsson, defenseman Alex Pietrangelo and Shea Theodore, and goaltender Adin Hill made up the First Team.
The Second Team is comprised of goaltender Marc-Andre Fleury, defensemen Alec Martinez and Brayden McNabb, and forwards Jonathan Marchessault, Reilly Smith and Chandler Stephenson.
SPORTSNET: New Jersey Devils captain Nico Hischier is day-to-day with an upper-body injury suffered during their 4-3 win over the Montreal Canadiens on Saturday.
THE MERCURY NEWS: The San Jose Sharks placed defenseman Jan Rutta on injured reserve with a lower-body injury.
TAMPA BAY TIMES: Lightning defenseman Emil Lilleberg will have a hearing with the department of player safety for a hit on Detroit Red Wings forward J.T. Compher on Saturday.
THE PROVINCE: Vancouver Canucks prospect Jonathan Lekkerimaki is being evaluated after crossing head-first into the boards during an AHL game on Saturday.
East Race
It’s Very close, from 6th place Sen’s to 11th place NYR❗️
6th @-50, G Ottawa. 56 pts
7th @-51 G Boston 56 pts
8th @-48 G Tampa Bay 55pts
9th @-50 G Columbas 55 pts
10th @-49 G Montreal 53 pts
11th @-49 G NY Rangers 52 pts
Hopefully the Sen’s get Starting Goaltender L.U. back very Soon
Sen’s have 3 Injuries,
G, LU is the big one,
F, Noah Gregor
D,Bernard-Docker
the Sen’s may need to add a Scorer before the deadline,
Thats if David Peron dose not get Going
in January they are only scoring
2-3 Goal’s max in a game🤔
And now Cousins.
Jensen was nursing something.
They’ll get a much needed break of a few days here before Thursday’s tilt against the best team in the league.
I think they’re being the perfect level of cautious with Ullmark. Bad back’s can become chronic. You just signed him.
they don’t have much to trade away for goal scoring help unfortunately
It’ s a bummer Perron hasn’t worked out. He could be considered a trade acquisition if he comes in and does what he’s supposed to do come the end of the season and play off time.
Sens don’t need any more scoring. The talent and ability is there.
There is a coach that has implemented a defensive structure that didn’t exist before.
When your forwards have defensive awareness drilled into them production declines but your wins increase,
Sens fans need patience
Agree on the patient approach HF30.
I don’t think any WC team should be adding at the TDL unless the player acquired has term on his deal. Like COL did.
If you’re in a WC spot, especially with an inexperienced core like OTT, you’re not winning the cup. If they can get in and get an upset in RD 1, that is a very, very successful season IMO. Just getting in is positive progress.
Ya sure, anything is possible, but if you live in the real world, the odds are stacked against you. Like huge.
My Bruins shouldn’t either if they are still in the hunt at the TDL. That would be foolish. They ain’t winning anything this season, and Sweeney already knows it.
Exactly. Despite a seemingly excessive rash of key and lengthy injuries (# 1 goalie Ullmark, bottom 6 Fs Amadio, Perron, Gregor and now Cousins, RDs Zub, Hamonic, Bernard-Docker, coupled with shorter-term but still key elements Sanderson, Norris, Greig and Pinto), here they are, after 50gp, just 6 points out of 1st in their Division (Toronto), having scored 17 goals less but 8 fewer relinquished, and 5 pts back of 2nd (Florida) with 30 less goals scored but also 16 less given up. And winning games they would probably have lost in recent past seasons (like last night against Utah and the night before against Toronto). This also marked their 3rd straight week-end back-to-backs during which they have gone 6-0.
Now the injured are slowly coming back (Zub, Amadio, Perron, Hamonic), with Ullmark looking like he’ll return Thursday, which raises the question, which of the rookie Merilainen and the veteran Forsberg makes way. A short couple of weeks ago, with the way Merilainen was handling the pressure, the consensus was that Forsberg would likely get waived (and probably claimed). Now, with the recent improved play of Forsberg, they will no doubt instead option Merilainen (who is waiver-exempt and was an emergency call-up in the first place) to AHL Belleville where both goalies – Sogaard and Malcolm Subban – are currently injured. All Merilainen has done is post a 7-3-1 record with a 2.44 goals-against average and a .915 save %. Who said life was fair?
Ya, Forsberg could get claimed George, so have to send the kid down.
But man, he kinda saved the day when they lost their tenders and even after Forsberg got back. Stick tap Merilainen.
Maybe they could get a mid range pick back or something for Forsberg, I dunno. But that’s risky too. Hot 22 yr old tenders, often don’t stay hot.
So true, Ray. What makes the decision easier is that Merilainen is waiver-exempt and when he does go back to Belleville he’ll get plenty of work with both Sogaard and Subban currently out with injuries.
Another positive for the Senators during the rash of injuries was the the experience gained by rookie call-up D Sebrango and Matinpalo, both of whom handled themselves very well, thereby solidifying their positions as reliable options down the stretch, along with Fs like Ostapchuk and Reinhardt (before he, too, got hurt).
This not only gives management and coaching – not to mention the rest of the roster – reasonable confidence in the abilities of those system prospects should the need to call them up again occurs, but it could also enter the equation if and when Staios is examining trade offers or considering offering trade scenarios of his own.
if the situation was better in Belleville they’d carry all three. They have the room with some clever juggling.
Yeah, there was that possibility. But with Belleville a mere 3 hours and a bit away by car and barely half an hour by air, it’s far better to keep a young goalie like Merilainen busy rather than sitting in the press box when not dressed as a starter or back-up.
Hey habfan30
Re the Sen’s poor goal scoring
They have only Sored 2 goals in the past 5 games
and 1 3 goal game of the past 6 Games
Leevi Merilainen young kid has has kept this in the Race..👌
and
Anton Forsberg has posted his Best numbers of GA, 2.81 in the past 5 year’s ‼️… thats YTD….
All the teams in the East are crawling into the 4 nations break,trying to tread water and get injured players back! Looks like Boston is banking on getting a lift when their top 2 defensemen Mcavoy and Lindholm return! Could be interesting what they do with Marchand!Injuries play a huge part as Pietrantonio asked out to rehab for the rest of the season after the break!
Besides the goalies the rangers teams are singularly unimpressive. Fox and panarin could maybe be argued as great. But the rest are just… good.
Kinda like the Stanley Cup champions Florida – besides Bobrovsky, they too were singularly unimpressive. Ekblad, Barkov and Tkachuk maybe be argued as great. But the rest were just … good.
Yeah. I might have shoehorned bure into that list… even though it would have only been parts of three seasons. Was luongo the other goalie? I’d consider him a great.
Fox and Panarin are pretty great. Not a lot of players the last 5 years producing more than Panarin..
Mcdonagh , Zuccarello, Jagr all Very good players.
I find these quarter century thing a bit pointless, but oddly absent? Messier, Leetch, Shannahan, Fleury, Lindros, Bure???? Alright, Bure was cut short but?
I can’t believe I’m asking a question about a completely useless thing, but is it because they were on the downside o their careers early 2000’s?
Not sure the thought process here. But Mario made the pens despite not pkaying a ton in this century.
Bingo!
Well I guess my thought process is , why are these players I mentioned missing from that list?
Bures time in NY was very short. 50 games over 2 seasons. Where Lemieux played his entire career in Pittsburgh.
Staal over Leetch?
Stepan makes it over Messier / Lindros? Huh?
Again, I don’t see much meaning in these teams anyway. But some obvious guys left off and some head scratchers put in.
*****Out of Pittsburgh today….
All players are Avalable via Trade..
EXCEPT Sid, He wants to stay.
So that puts all the Crosby Rummers to bed ..
End of story.
Sid want’s play out his last 2 years there.. wants to stay there…
More info to come…⁉️👍