NHL Morning Coffee Headlines – March 16, 2025
Alex Ovechkin is within eight goals of breaking the all-time goals record, Sidney Crosby reaches another milestone, the Rangers regain a playoff spot, and more in today’s NHL Morning Coffee Headlines.
NHL.COM: Washington Capitals captain Alex Ovechkin tallied his 887th regular-season goal in a 5-1 win over the San Jose Sharks. Ovechkin also collected an assist while teammates Tom Wilson, Pierre-Luc Dubois and Lars Eller each had two assists. Macklin Celebrini replied for the Sharks.
Washington Capitals captain Alex Ovechkin (NHL Images).
SPECTOR’S NOTE: The Capitals are tied with the Winnipeg Jets with 96 points but the latter holds first place in the overall standings with 46 wins.
The Pittsburgh Penguins extended their winning streak to four games by defeating the New Jersey Devils 7-3. Connor Dewar scored two goals and Philip Tomasino had a goal and an assist for the Penguins. Jesper Bratt had three assists for the Devils, who sit third in the Metropolitan Division with 78 points.
SPECTOR’S NOTE: Penguins captain Sidney Crosby collected an assist to tie Wayne Gretzky for fourth place for most points with one franchise with 1,669. Gordie Howe leads the pack with 1,809, Steve Yzerman is second with 1,755, and Mario Lemieux is third with 1,723.
The Ottawa Senators collected their sixth straight win by doubling up the Toronto Maple Leafs 4-2, handing the latter their fifth loss in their last six games. Three answered goals by David Perron, Claude Giroux and Michael Amadio gave the Senators the win. William Nylander and Auston Matthews scored for the Leafs.
SPECTOR’S NOTE: The Leafs slipped to third place in the Atlantic Division with 81 points, with the Senators (77 points) only four points behind, holding the first Eastern Conference wild-card berth.
Tampa Bay Lightning forward Anthony Cirelli scored two goals in a 6-2 victory over the Boston Bruins. Victor Hedman, Nick Paul and Darren Raddysh each had a goal and an assist as the Lightning tied the Leafs with 81 points. Elias Lindholm and Marat Khusnutdinov scored for the Bruins (68), who sit four points out of the final Eastern wild-card berth.
SPECTOR’S NOTE: The Lightning holds second place in the Atlantic Division with 33 regulation wins, while the Leafs have 31.
Speaking of the final Eastern wild card, the New York Rangers (72 points) took sole possession of that position by blanking the Columbus Blue Jackets 4-0, knocking the Jackets (70 points) out of that spot. Igor Shesterkin had a 21-save shutout,t while Vincent Trocheck scored twice. The Blue Jackets have dropped five of their last six games.
SPECTOR’S NOTE: Rangers defenseman Adam Fox collected an assist in his return from an eight-game absence with an upper-body injury. The Blue Jackets have been this season’s feel-good story by exceeding expectations to contend for a playoff berth. However, they’ve been wobbling over the past half-dozen games and are in danger of falling further behind the Rangers and Canadiens.
The Montreal Canadiens kept pace with the Rangers with a 3-1 victory over the Florida Panthers. Cole Caufield had a goal and an assist and Sam Montembeault made 21 saves as the Canadiens sit one point behind the Rangers and one point ahead of the Blue Jackets.
Speaking of wild-card races, the Vancouver Canucks (73 points) hold a two-point lead over the Calgary Flames for the final Western berth following a 6-2 win over the Chicago Blackhawks. Elias Pettersson, Conor Garland and Pius Suter each had a goal and an assist for the Canucks. Ryan Donato had two assists for the Blackhawks.
SPECTOR’S NOTE: Canucks center Filip Chytil left the game after being hit from behind into the boards by Blackhawks forward Jason Dickinson, who was not penalized. There was no postgame update on his condition. Blackhawks star Connor Bedard received his second straight 10-minute misconduct following a scuffle late in the third period.
St. Louis Blues forward Jordan Kyrou tallied a hat trick to lead his club past the Minnesota Wild 5-1. Brayden Schenn had a goal and an assist for the Blues, who are 8-2-2 in their last dozen games and sit two points behind the Canucks. Jake Middelton scored for the Wild, who hold the first wild-card spot with 79 points but have only three wins in their last 10 contests.
The Los Angeles Kings nipped the Nashville Predators 1-0 on an overtime goal by Quentin Byfield, extending his goal streak to six games. Darcy Kuemper turned in a 24-save shutout as the Kings (81 points) moved one point ahead of the Edmonton Oilers into second place in the Pacific Division. Justus Annunen turned aside 20 shots for the Predators.
Carolina Hurricanes goaltender Pyotr Kochetkov made 26 saves to blank the Philadelphia Flyers 5-0. Mark Jankowski tallied twice while Sebastian Aho and Taylor Hall each had a goal and an assist for the Hurricanes, who won six straight games and hold second place in the Metro Division with 86 points. The Flyers have lost six of their last seven games.
The Buffalo Sabres upset the Vegas Golden Knights 4-3 on a shootout goal by Alex Tuch. Rasmus Dahlin scored the tying goal with 14 seconds remaining in the third period. Adin Hill stopped 37 shots for the Golden Knights, who hold first place in the Pacific Division with 86 points.
Both Alex Ovechkin and Sidney Crosby getting close breaking Wayne Gretzky records!
The unofficial start of the Leafs first round defeat started last week. Yes, I’m a Leafs fan.
I agree Kinger !!!
Let’s go Blue Jays Clap Clap clap-clap-clap!
Ahh come on you guys. Quit crepe-hanging. OK, they’re in a bit of a funk right now – so, too, are a few other top teams. I bet they break out of it tonight at home against Calgary.
In the meantime, they have 81 pts, same as Tampa, just 4 back of Florida and with a game in hand.
And last night it wasn’t as if they faced a bottom-feeder. Ottawa has been on a hot streak, along with the Habs (who beat Florida last night), and in fact – with a couple of exceptions out West, I don’t think the league has been this close to complete parity in a very long time.
No George Ottawa played a great road game. One has to give them a lot of credit, they out played, out worked the Leafs for most of the night. Ottawa may do some damage in the playoffs if anyone takes them lightly. Green has done a great job coaching this year, something I didn`t give him credit for at the beginning of the year. I had reservations on whether Green was good enough to get the job done. He has learned from past mistakes, nice to see. The only thing that was missing from a couple of Leafs post game comments about “we played good but need to clean up a few mistakes” (cough cough Matthews) was “this is a recording” at the end. It`s got Berube pissed and saying the players need to be accountable, every player. I don`t think Berube has the backing from management to do it and certain players know that. Giving Matthews the “C” was their first mistake, not holding all the players accountable right from the beginning was their 2nd and how they`ve seemed to handle Matthews mystery ailment was next and last the Marner contract, soap opera. I can see Toronto losing in the first round and Rogers cleaning house. I still do think Berube was the right choice to coach
There’s no excuse for not registering a single shot over a 20-minute period of NHL hockey. The boys aren’t showing much urgency or spirit.
There are exceptions of course. The young Russian we got from Minny might be a steal. Big motor on that kid. Decent hands and a touch of flair to boot.
I forgot how it felt to root for a sub-par club.
Oh, well. Better effort next game, I suppose.
Shoreorrpark,team had an adrenaline rush the first 2 games! Reality set in yesterday! Really hoping for a top ten draft pick this year! Most of what I have read says the draft has a lot of good C candidates! Desperate need for the Bruins! Reports on the Minten kid seem good so that s a start!The last 4 games Boston played against playoff teams in Fla,TB and Ottawa! Yesterday TB showed them what a playoff team is!Sweeney s decisions in this years draft will decide if we are looking at a Retool or Rebuild!
Sr
Yes the goal should be top 10 pic. The higher the better. The team has some good assets but doesn’t have good chemistry imo. They just don’t really fit together. This off season will be interesting as they have alt of $$$
Ya gonna take some getting used too SOP. I quit watching it after 2.
I don’t know what Sweeney does this off season, we are kind of stuck in nowhere’sville. We have some quality players, weak prospect list, and currently in the bottom third of the league.
To me that means multi year project and need to take it easy this off season with the UFA’s. Take on some $$ to get quality for few assets, or even some picks or prospects to take a really bad contract. Even at this year’s draft.
Get to floor, cool your jets IMO.
That Khusnutdinov kid has some skill, he’ll get a good chance in Boston.
Connor Bedard gets mugged after the whistle and gets a misconduct…….for?
Maybe the refs should concentrate on making the calls on the ice instead of “teaching the kid a lesson”
He’s in Chicago on a terrible team with little exposure for now but this kid stands up for himself and the refs better get used to it.
Control the game, not Bedard.
You might notice that McDavid, McKinnon, Matthews and a couple of others get the same treatment from the refs and the NHL. For a league that trying to showcase it`s players and compete for attention with the NFL, NBA and baseball for tv time and revenue, head scratcher the treatment the star players get. Bettman at his finest
I hope now that those who were calling the acquisition of David Perron by Staios at a $4 mil per stipend a mistake and that he should be moved before the trade deadline, finally see his value.
After starting the season on a long leave of absence due to a medical issue with his infant daughter (thankfully resolved), and then suffering an injury when he did return resulting in another lengthy term out of action, he has since been the veteran presence and factor in his games played envisaged by the GM.
If they can stay in a playoff spot over their remaining 16 games (not a given by any means as there are 5 teams breathing down their necks, not the least of which are the Habs who they play in Montreal on Tuesday – TOLD you some weeks ago not to write them off Howard and LJ), his true value will be even more important in those games.
George, I’m not packing it in nor am I belittling Ottawa’s great push. Montreal have come a long way too.
If the Leafs fail again in the playoffs, this could finally be the summer of massive change. That’s why they play the games .
On the other hand, it’s in the 70’s F, some golf courses are open and the Blue Jays look like they have improved.
Life is good.
Right now Rangers (537 win %) are in last Eastern WC spot . 537 equates to 88 points at year end.
I’m not saying 88 gets you in; but 90 is looking not out of the realm
To get to 90:
Sens (now at 583); need only do 406 from now until year end;
Rangers (537); need 600 clip to EOY
Habs (538); 594
Jackets (530); 625
Wings (515) ; 688
Bruins (500); 786
If 91 is cut off:
Sens (583); 438
Rangers (537); 633
Habs (538); 625
Jackets (530); 656
Wings (515) ; 719
Bruins (500); 821
As at now, I have pretty fair confidence in Sens getting in.
Last WC spot????
Hoping it isn’t Rangers (Pens own their 1st rounder).
Heh, BCLeaf Fan, I hear ya.
I saw an interesting comment by HabFan30 the other day where he mentioned the Habs have 11 players with 10 goals or more and that implication of having scoring ability spread over a wide % of their roster got me curious as to how the others stack up in that regard.
Montreal: 11 Caufield (33); Suzuki (20); Laine (16); Gallagher (15); Slafkovsky (14); Newhook (13); Evans (12); Armia (11); Dach (10); Anderson (10); Heineman (10) – with a chance of adding 2 more in Dvorak (7) and Matheson (6).
Florida 10 Reinhart (32); Tkachuk (22); Bennett (22); Marchand (21); Barkov (17); Verhaeghe (17); Lundell (15); Rodrigues (14); Samoskevich (13); Boqvist (12) – with a chance of adding 3 more in Forsling (9); Luostarinen (9) and Sturm (7)
Tampa 9 Guentzel (32); Point (32); Hagel (31); Kucherov (28); Cirelli (22); Paul (20); Bjorkstrand (17); Chaffee (12); Hedman (12) – with a chance of adding 2 more in Gourde (6) and Geekie (6)
Ottawa 9 Tkachuk (27); Stutzle (20); Batherson (18); Zetterlund (17); Pinto (16); Gaudette (16); Giroux (14); Cozens (13); Greig (11) – with a chance of adding 2 more in Amadio (9) and, based upon his production since returning to the line-up, Perron (5).
Toronto 8 Nylander (37); Tavares (27); Matthews (24); Knies (24); Marner (21); McMann (17); Laughton (11); Robertson (11) – with a chance of adding 2 more in Rielly (7) and Holmberg (6).
Columbus 8 – Marchenko (25); Johnson (21); Fantilli (21); Werenski (20); Voronkov (20); Olivier (15); Monahan (14); Kunin (11) – with a chance of adding 4 more in Silinger (9); Prvorov (7); Danforth (17) and Chinakhov (7)
Detroit 8 – DeBrincat (31); Larkin (27); Raymond (22); Kane (17); Kasper (12); Copp (10); Berggren (10); Rasmussen (10) – with a chance of adding 4 more in Tarasenko (9); Seider (7); Compher (7); Ervinsson (7)
NY Rangers 7 – Panarin (29); Trochek (20); Kreider (18); Cuylle (17); Miller (16); Zibanejad (15); Lafreniere (15); – with a chance of adding 1 more in Brodzinski (7).
Boston 5 – Pastrnak (34); Geekie (22); Zacha (13); Mittelstadt (12); Lindholm (12) – with a chance of adding 3 more in Koepke (9); Mcavoy (7) and Kastelic (5)
Yes, but what HF30 didn’t mention is that the Habs have only 4 scorers in the top 200.
I had a mild case of “George” and added the totals of the top 5 scores and the results were …. well, kind of what you would expect.
The teams with the best top 5 are safely in the playoffs. The teams whose top 5 totals are appreciably below this group are not.
The only curiosity is that Ottawa and Montreal’s top 5 are tied with 98, and Ottawa is sitting pretty.
LJ, saw this on the ESPN site … never really paid much attention to the details of standings tie-breakers, and this surprised me somewhat and will certainly be a factor given that a lot of teams – East and West – are apt to wind up with the same number of points
“If it comes down to the regulation-wins tiebreaker at season’s end, the Rangers have an upper hand over all the rest, with 29 in that column, compared with 23 for the Jackets, Red Wings and Bruins, and just 22 for the Habs.”
Yep. Last year the Wings lost out on a playoff spot for while they were tied with Washington, Washington had more regulation wins. A cautionary tale about the value of a single point over an 82 game schedule.
And look at the Wings this year …