NHL Morning Coffee Headlines – March 29, 2025
The Blue Jackets regain the final Eastern Conference wild-card berth, Brad Marchand gets a point in his debut with the Panthers, Jets stars Connor Hellebucyk and Mark Scheifele set franchise records, and more in today’s NHL Morning Coffee Headlines.
RECAPS OF FRIDAY’S GAMES
NHL.COM: The Columbus Blue Jackets regained the final Eastern Conference wild-card berth, overcoming a 5-3 deficit to defeat the Vancouver Canucks 7-6 on a shootout goal by Kent Johnson. Boone Jenner and Dante Fabbro each had three points for the Blue Jackets (75 points), who hold that wild card for the first time since March 14. Aatu Raty scored twice and Kiefer Sherwood and Pius Suter collected three assists each for the Canucks (81 points), who sit four points behind the St. Louis Blues for the final Western Conference wild-card spot.
Columbus Blue Jackets captain Boone Jenner (NHL Images).
SPECTOR’S NOTE: The Jackets have won two straight in a shootout after going 1-7-1 over their previous nine games.
Carolina Hurricanes winger Jackson Blake had a goal and two assists to defeat the Montreal Canadiens 4-1. Second-period goals by Taylor Hall and Sebastian Aho gave the Hurricanes the win. They sit second in the Metropolitan Division with 92 points. Josh Anderson scored for the Canadiens (75 points), who’ve dropped out of the final Eastern wild-card spot after going 0-3-2 in their last five games.
SPECTOR’S NOTE: Carolina winger Andrei Svechnikov scored in his first game since missing the last seven games with an upper-body injury. Hurricanes defenseman played in his 915th consecutive NHL regular-season game, moving into fourth place on the league’s all-time Ironman list.
An overtime goal by Mason McTavish lifted the Anaheim Ducks to a 5-4 win over the New York Rangers. Leo Carlsson had a goal and three assists as the Ducks a 4-2 deficit to force the extra frame. J.T. Miller, Adam Fox and Alexis Lafreniere each had a goal and an assist for the Rangers (75 points), who have one win in their last six games (1-5-1) to sit outside the Eastern wild card.
SPECTOR’S NOTE: The Blue Jackets, Canadiens and Rangers each have 75 points, but the Jackets hold the wild card with a game in hand over the Canadiens and two games in hand over the Rangers. The New York Islanders are one point back and the Detroit Red Wings are three points back.
Brad Marchand set up Sam Bennett’s overtime goal in his debut with the Florida Panthers as they nipped the Utah Hockey Club 2-1. Bennett scored both goals for the Panthers as they picked up their seventh straight home win, regaining first place in the Atlantic Division with 91 points. Sean Durzi scored for Utah.
Winnipeg Jets goaltender Connor Hellebucyk made 24 saves for his league-leading seventh shutout in a 4-0 win over the New Jersey Devils. Alex Iafallo tallied twice for the Jets, who’ve overtaken the Washington Capitals for first place in the overall standings with 104 points. New Jersey defenseman Luke Hughes was a late scratch for precautionary reasons with a lower-body injury. The Devils are third in the Metropolitan Division with 83 points.
SPECTOR’S NOTE: The Jets are the first team to reach the 50-win plateau this season. Hellebucyk’s shutout set a single-season franchise record. Scheifele also set a franchise record for the most multi-point games with 201, surpassing former teammate Blake Wheeler.
The Vegas Golden Knights defeated the Chicago Blackhawks 5-3. Victor Olofsson scored two goals and William Karlsson had three assists for the Golden Knights, who sit atop the Pacific Division with 96 points. Blackhawks forward Ryan Donato tallied his first NHL hat trick.
HEADLINES
DAILY FACEOFF: Anthony Di Marco provides a breakdown of what led the Philadelphia Flyers to fire head coach John Tortorella on Thursday, citing a source claiming a series of consistent events since the March 7 trade deadline culminated in his dismissal.
NBC SPORTS PHILADELPHIA: Cam York and the Flyers are moving past a reported incident that led to his benching on Thursday against the Canadiens. He said he took full responsibility for his actions.
The benching was described as for disciplinary reasons. The Athletic’s Kevin Kurz reported Friday that an incident occurred between York and Tortorella during Tuesday’s 7-2 loss to the Toronto Maple Leafs. Daily Faceoff’s Frank Seravalli claimed the incident was a heated verbal exchange between the two men.
SPECTOR’S NOTE: General manager Daniel Briere said it wasn’t any one thing that prompted the decision to replace Tortorella. Nevertheless, the incident with York contributed to their decision to make a coaching change following the incident.
THE ATHLETIC: Vancouver Canucks head coach Rick Tocchet has been suggested by some pundits as a full-time replacement for Tortorella behind the Flyers bench. However, Thomas Drance cited a team source saying the club fully intends to use their club option next season to retain Tocchet. They also prefer to negotiate a contract extension for Tocchet this summer.
STLTODAY.COM: Blues winger Pavel Buchnevich returns to action on Saturday against the Colorado Avalanche after missing four games with an illness. The Blues also signed top prospect Jimmy Snuggerud to an entry-level contract.
TAMPA BAY TIMES: The Lightning will honor Ryan McDonagh for reaching the 1,000-game plateau during a ceremony before Saturday’s game against the New York Islanders. McDonagh reached the milestone on Thursday against the Utah Hockey Club.
RG.ORG: Ryan Lindgren is enjoying his fresh start with the Colorado Avalanche after being traded by the New York Rangers before the March trade deadline. The 27-year-old defenseman is due to become an unrestricted free agent on July 1 but his current focus is on helping the Avalanche win.
TSN: Minnesota Wild defenseman David Jiricek is out for the season with a lacerated spleen. He suffered the injury playing for their AHL affiliate in Iowa and is expected to fully recover before the start of next season.
DAILY FACEOFF: Matt Larkin looks at whether last month’s 4 Nations Face-Off adversely affected the overall performance of the players who participated in the tournament.
THE ATHLETIC: NHL attendance is seeing nearly league-wide gains heading into the final stretch of the 2024-25 regular season. The biggest gainers include the Winnipeg Jets, Florida Panthers, Washington Capitals and San Jose Sharks.
Slavin?
Burns. Still playing top pair D at 40 years old.
Edmonton and Calgary face off tonight. Easy two points for Calgary. Rod should be in net. Of course he should have been in net months ago.
St.Louis should be thanking JJ and Stan for developing Broberg and Holloway for them. For Edmonton to leave them for peanuts. A lot of the current success of St.Louis is due to that simple fact.
APM,Don t forget the coaching change with Montgomery.
O.K. I want the Oilers taking full credit for developing them for the Blues.
Claiming that level of credit would only make their decision not to match the offer-sheets look even more foolhardy.
I know, I know … the cap … but it seems to me teams like Vegas and Florida wouldn’t make that sort of error in judgement … they’d have matched and worried about how to balance the books later.
Sr, I agree on Monty he was able to use the 4 nations break as the opportunity to install his system since he wasn’t there for training camp. However prior to that he put Holloway with Kyrou and created a deadly combination of speed and skill.
As far as Holloway goes Edmonton let him go when they could have matched the offer sheet. Even now some Oilers fans claim that he wouldn’t be playing as much or putting up these numbers had he stayed even though he is out scoring 2 of free agents they signed combined. And he is a point per game player under Monty with a sample size of over 50 games. I think he’s only going to get even more dominant than he is now and he’s dominating games every night. Don’t be surprised when he and Kyrou get placed with Thomas in the near future, playoffs hopefully.
While it’s never been confirmed many believe the prize in the offer sheets was Broberg and Holloway was included to make it difficult for Edmonton to match both so the Blues could get Broberg. They wanted Holloway for sure especially since the Oilers didn’t have much of a plan to give him ice time but the cornerstone was Broberg. Turns out they ended up with 2 cornerstones to build on.
Marchand out of Sick Bay
Spells trouble for the rest of the division
Tkachuk – how far away is he ?
Dread the fact of having to go up against them in the playoffs
Lindgren is a good addition to the Avalanche. Same for Coyle and Nelson. More difficult to play against. GO AVS!!!
St. Louis will cause havoc in the first round of the playoffs
Binnington might be the difference maker
St. Louis has a deep farm system , crafty manoeuvring by Armstrong, picks etc
They will be a force in the very near future
Ken Don t forget who signed Tory Krug and Justin Faulk as free agents and they had Schenn on the trade block earlier this year!
@Sr
Armstrong dug himself out of that hole with Faulk and Krug
Who knows how true the Schenn rumours were
He probably wanted the moon for him , therefore a deal could not be done , plus he has a rich contract
Wish Leafs could have landed him . I didn’t have a great feeling on Laughton
Treliving tell me “Nikita – you are a nice guy , but we are trading you I said Brad , no problem , GO LEAFS GO , It’s Business , I don’t worry !
Grenenkin plus a first – Jesus !
Ken, without a doubt on Armstrong although Faulk has found his game again under Monty and has played valuable minutes while Parayko has been sidelined. Also don’t overlook the trade for Fowler who has played top pair since his arrival and also stepped up in Parayko’s absence.
With 11 games left in their schedule – 9 at home – 2 away – the acid test for the Senators starts tonight – at home – against Columbus, playing the 2nd of a back-to-back, followed tomorrow by a back-to-back of their own in Pittsburgh.
They have to get a win in at least one of them to keep themselves decently ahead of the horde still legitimately battling for that 2nd WC slot –
Columbus 11 games left – 6 at home 5 away, Montreal 1- games left – 6 at home – 4 away,
NYR 9 games left – 4 at home – 5 away,
NYI – 11 games left = 5 at home – 6 away,
Detroit – 10 games left – 4 at home – 6 away
Montreal 10 games left
George, yesterday you tried valiantly to point out the final eastern Wild Card spot is anyone’s.
I expected the Habs to lose last night; I didn’t expect them to be so thoroughly outplayed they had 7 shots through 2 periods at a critical time in the schedule. I give them no chance to make the playoffs. None. Zip. Nada. Zero.
How bad were they? Ray Bark has now said he is reconsidering becoming a Habs fan.
I guess the silver lining in this collapse is that the Habs get a clear picture on what they do and don’t have for next year.
LJ, all I can do is point out that, while the Habs have been struggling over their past 10 games, none among the others battling for that final spot are exactly wracking up the wins
NYI 4 – 3 – 3 11 pts
Mtl 3 – 4 – 3 9 pts
Clb 3 – 6 – 1 7 pts
NYR 3 – 6 – 1 7 pts
Det 3 – 7 – 0 6 pts
Bos 2 – 7 – 1 5 pts
And, as I post this at 4:38 om EDT, the Islanders are down 4-3 to Tampa with about 5 minutes left (although in this one they were down 4-0 heading into the 3rd and have scored 3 straight.
Well, the Islanders lost 5 – 3 so their past 10 is now the same as Montreal’s – 3 – 4 – 3 9 pts. If Montreal, in your projection, doesn’t make it, which among that group do you see getting in?
My guess is Columbus. They got Monahan and another regular back so that will help, as the Habs flail like an octopus falling from a tree.
GeorgeO,Ottawa deserves that home schedule after what they went through at the beginning of the year. Perfect time for some home cooking.
Lindgren is a good addition to the Avalanche back end. It’s more of what we needed and the same for Coyle and Nelson. GO AVS!!!!
Sorry for double post!
Ken, without a doubt on Armstrong although Faulk has found his game again under Monty and has played valuable minutes while Parayko has been sidelined. Also don’t overlook the trade for Fowler who has played top pair since his arrival and also stepped up in Parayko’s absence.
Sorry for the double comment my fingers are too fat. Apparently my brain also.
@Snold 49
Cooper, the Washington coach , Kasper maybe ? Brind ‘ Amour are dominate great coaches
Armstrong and Zito are the modern day Sam Pollocks of the NHL
I know Florida has a very deep , well regarded scouting staff as well !