NHL Morning Coffee Headlines – April 4, 2025
A milestone game for Cale Makar as the Avalanche clinch a playoff berth, the Senators and Canadiens strengthen their wild-card positions, the Blues match a franchise record, the league plans to address LTIR issues with the NHLPA, and more in today’s NHL Morning Coffee Headlines
RECAPS OF THURSDAY’S GAMES
NHL.COM: Colorado Avalanche defenseman Cale Makar tallied his 30th goal of the season in a 7-3 victory over the Columbus Blue Jackets, clinching a playoff berth in the Western Conference. Makar also collected two assists while Nathan MacKinnon, Charlie Coyle and Devon Toews also each had a goal and two assists for the Avalanche as they sit third in the Central Division with 98 points. Sean Monahan, Zach Aston-Reese and Boone Jenner replied for the Blue Jackets, who sit four points out of the final Eastern wild-card berth with 77 points.
Colorado Avalanche defenseman Cale Makar (NHL Images).
SPECTOR’S NOTE: Makar is the ninth defenseman in NHL history to record a 30-goal season, and the first to do so since Mike Green (31) in 2008-09. He also reached the 60-assist and 90-point plateaus, becoming the first defenseman to achieve consecutive 90-point campaigns since Paul Coffey and Al MacInnis in 1990-91. Makar joins Coffey, Raymond Bourque, Denis Potvin and Bobby Orr as the only blueliners in NHL history to have 30 goals and 60 assists in one season.
The Ottawa Senators nipped the Tampa Bay Lightning 2-1, strengthening their grip on the first Eastern wild-card spot while snapping the latter’s four-game win streak. Linus Ullmark stopped 31 shots while Shane Pinto and Jake Sanderson scored for the Senators (86 points), giving them a five-point lead over the Montreal Canadiens. Brandon Hagel netted his 34th goal for the Lightning (93 points), who remain three points behind the Atlantic Division-leading Toronto Maple Leafs.
SPECTOR’S NOTE: The Senators also reached the 40-win plateau for the first time since 2016-17, when they last clinched a playoff berth. They got this win without team captain Brady Tkachuk. He remains day-to-day with an upper-body injury.
Speaking of the Canadiens (81 points), they got a 4-1 win over the Boston Bruins to open a two-point lead over the New York Rangers for the final Eastern wild card. Brendan Gallagher and Nick Suzuki each had a goal and an assist and Cole Caufield tallied his 35th goal of the season. Elias Lindholm replied for the Bruins, who’ve dropped 10 straight games and sit last in the Eastern Conference with 69 points.
SPECTOR’S NOTE: With 81 points, Suzuki is the first Canadiens player to reach the 80-point plateau since Alex Kovalev in 2007-08. Caufield is the first Hab to score 35 goals in a season since Max Pacioretty in 2016-17. In other Canadiens news, they’ve reportedly signed prospect goaltender Jacob Fowler to an entry-level contract.
The last time the Bruins finished last in the Eastern Conference was in 1996-97. They also finished last overall, selecting Joe Thornton with the first overall pick in the 1997 NHL Draft.
The St. Louis Blues tied their franchise-record win streak of 11 games by squeaking past the Pittsburgh Penguins 5-4 on an overtime goal by Robert Thomas, who also collected an assist in regulation. Jake Neighbours tallied twice while Jordan Kyrou had a goal and an assist for the Blues, who surged past the Minnesota Wild (89 points) into the first Western wild-card berth with 91 points. Penguins rookie Rutger McGroarty collected his first NHL points with a goal and an assist.
SPECTOR’S NOTE: Blues forward Dylan Holloway left this game after the first period with an upper-body injury. There was no post-game update regarding his condition. Penguins center Evgeny Malkin missed his fourth straight game with an upper-body injury.
Calgary Flames forward Blake Coleman scored twice to down the Anaheim Ducks 4-1. Dustin Wolf made 26 saves and Yegor Sharangovich picked up two assists for the Flames (84 points), putting them five behind the Wild in the Western wild-card race. Olen Zellweger replied for the Ducks, who were officially eliminated from the postseason chase.
The Edmonton Oilers’ 3-2 win over the San Jose Sharks was overshadowed by Leon Draisaitl’s departure in the second period with an undisclosed injury. Draisaitl picked up an assist before he left the game while teammate Jeff Skinner had a goal and an assist for the Oilers, who sit third in the Pacific Division with 93 points. Tyler Toffoli picked up his 28th goal for the Sharks.
SPECTOR’S NOTE: Draisaitl recently returned from an injury. There was no postgame update regarding his current status. The absence of their leading scorer is cause for concern for the Oilers, who are also without team captain Connor McDavid, defenseman Mattias Ekholm, and starting goalie Stuart Skinner. Meanwhile, Sharks defenseman Shakir Mukhamadullin missed this game with an upper-body injury and is still being re-evaluated.
Winnipeg Jets goaltender Eric Comrie kicked out 26 shots to shut out the Vegas Golden Knights 4-0. Mark Scheifele netted his 37th goal of the season as the Jets tied their franchise record with their 52nd win, sitting three points ahead of the Washington Capitals atop the overall standings with 108 points. The Golden Knights hold first place in the Pacific Division with 98 points.
SPECTOR’S NOTE: Jets winger Nikolaj Ehlers left this game in the third period with an injured left leg. In his post-game interview, head coach Scott Arniel indicated that he felt Ehlers’ injury wasn’t too serious.
The Dallas Stars picked up their seventh straight win by defeating the Nashville Predators 5-1. Wyatt Johnston extended his goal streak to six games while Mikko Rantanen, Matt Duchene, Jason Robertson and Mason Marchment each had two points as the Wild sit second in the Central Division with 104 points. Steven Stamkos replied for the Predators.
SPECTOR’S NOTE: Rantanen became the third-fastest Finnish-born NHL player to reach the 700-point plateau, achieving the milestone in 645 games. Jiri Kurri was the fastest (483 games) followed by Teemu Selanne (541). Stars captain Jamie Benn missed this game with a “maintenance issue”, ending his streak of 371 consecutive games played.
Los Angeles Kings forwards Kevin Fiala and Trevor Moore scored 44 seconds apart for a 4-2 victory over the Utah Hockey Club. Darcy Kuemper turned aside 28 shots and Drew Doughty had a goal and an assist for the Kings (95 points), moving within three points of the first-place Golden Knights in the Pacific Division. Lawson Crouse and Jack McBain scored for Utah.
SPECTOR’S NOTE: Utah forward Dylan Guenther suffered a broken nose, two black eyes and nine stitches during Tuesday’s game against Calgary, but suited up for this contest wearing a protective bubble cage attached to his helmet. “I mean, your nose is a long way from your legs. It doesn’t really affect you,” he said.
IN OTHER NEWS…
TSN: Pierre LeBrun reported negotiations on a new collective bargaining agreement between the NHL and the NHL Players’ Association began this week. The league intends to bring up the ongoing issue of long-term injury reserve where players on LTIR return in time to skate in the playoffs. That’s been a contentious issue because several teams soar over the salary cap during the playoffs because there is no cap in the postseason.
SPECTOR’S NOTE: Whether the two sides can find an adequate solution remains to be seen.
One suggestion is the salary cap should be extended to the playoffs, but that issue can be seen as penalizing teams for having injured players. Another suggestion was having sidelined players scheduled to return by the opening round of the playoffs prevented from playing in that round, but that would unfairly punish them for getting injured, which could violate Canadian and American labor laws.
NEW YORK POST: Islanders winger Anthony Duclair has been granted a leave of absence from the team after head coach Patrick Roy publicly criticized his play following a recent loss. Roy told reporters that he and Duclair had a good discussion following the incident, and the winger is taking time off to reflect.
SPECTOR’S NOTE: That raises questions over whether Duclair is done for the season and about his future with the Islanders.
DAILY FACEOFF: Michigan State forward Isaac Howard, University of Denver defenseman Zeev Buium, and Boston College forward Ryan Leonard are the 2025 Hobey Baker Memorial Award finalists. Howard is a Tampa Bay Lightning prospect, Buium is a prospect of the Minnesota Wild, and Leonard recently joined the Washington Capitals on an entry-level contract.
There are conflicting reports as to Jacob Fowler. Brian Wilde of Global News is reporting that he’s signed an ATO with Laval of the AHL, which would allow him to seek late season and playoff action there and that he will sign his ELC with the Habs after the season ends, to take effect next season.
Fowler can sign an ELC starting next year and sign with Laval for the remainder of this year at the same time, he doesn`t have to wait till the end of the season to sign an ELC to start next year. It`ll push his eligibility for RFA and UFA back a year, that`s all
Howard the Gazette is reporting Fowler signed an ELC with the Habs.
Yes, looks like he signed for the rest of this year in Laval and then 3 year ELC.
Anthony Duclair, over the course of his 11-year NHL career, has had stops at over a full quarter of the league’s 32 teams (9 different ones), and has invited criticism at every one of them. Just before Ottawa got him in a deal, his coach at Columbus, John Tortorella, said “he doesn’t know how to play the game …” Seems he doesn’t know how to negotiate either because, in Ottawa, he publicly fired his agent and took over contract negotiations himself with Pierre Dorion – who advised strongly against the move – and when he balked at every offer, Dorion decided not to extend a qualifying offer and he departed as a free agent. He doesn’t have many bridges left to burn.
Fair, George, fair. What he has been is a one season wonder everywhere he’s gone. Some questionable business decisions certainly. Coaches don’t like him but his teammates do.
In this instance, as a closet NYI fan. I’ll say – wrong guy to sign by a GM way past his prime. Two wrongs don’t make a right, because I’ll include Roy as another wrong hire. He’s an awful NHL coach. He’s a junior coach. That’s it. He’s used to barking at people (kids) and getting the most out of them. Give him a 9 million dollar grown man ego to deal with and it’s like oil and water.
Gretzky was a better coach. Exactly. He wasn’t. So many people just hear his name an hand him a Jack Adams. Terrible hire.
Isles need to clean house.
Maybe Duclair is going for Mike Sillinger’s record of having played for 12 different NHL teams!
That’s certainly one way to get into the record books.
Kind of like goalies facing Ovechkin from here to the end – if he scores 3 to tie Gretzky before they run out of games this season, there’s a record-book entry waiting to happen for some goalie out there.
Looking at Sillinger’s stats over his 17 season career after being taken in the 1st Round – 11th overall – by Detroit in 1989, you have to wonder what prompted so many moves.
It’s not like he was useless offensively. In 1049 games played he scored 240 goals and 308 assists for 82-game averages of 19g 24a 43 pts, adding 11g 7a 18n pts in 43 playoff games.
Here are his numbers at each stop along the way:
Detroit 129gp 14 45 59
Anaheim 77gp 15 26 41
Vancouver 138gp 28 32 60
Philadelphia 52gp 11 14 25
Tampa 121gp 27 27 54
Florida 68gp 17 25 42
Ottawa 13gp 4 4 8
Columbus 135gp 38 48 86
Arizona 60gp 8 6 14
St. Louis 64gp 27 24 51
Nashville 31gp 10 12 22
NY Islanders 141gp 42 45 87
George, I knew Sillinger for a little bit, a long time ago. I had just moved to Regina for a work opportunity and a co-worker who knew I still played baseball, asked me to play on their tournament fastball team. Sillinger played a few tourneys with us that summer. Wanna say 1992, maybe 93.
Good guy to have a beer with & a good ball player, go figure.
By all accounts he was a coachable, smart player, and like I said, normal dude, so not a dressing room issue. Like you said, he had skills and could skate at the NHL level. Seemed to get traded to a playoff team quite often at the deadline, which means he played the right way.
Good, not great player who teams wanted at the TDL it seems. My guess is he took the higher dollars to play on a not good team, then got moved to a better team at the TDL, rinse repeat.
Thanks Ray – very plausible explanation of his many moves.
Just two questions.If the Leafs win theie division and Montreal gets the last wild card position, would the Leafs and Canadiens meet in the first round? Everyone seems to be talking about a possible Toronto and Ottawa matchup, but what about Montreal?
The top Division team in each Conference gets to play the 2nd WC holder, while the 2nd best Divisional team plays the first WC holder.
I doubt Toronto will catch Washington, so unless Montreal catches and passes Ottawa, dropping them to the 2nd WC slot, it will be Washington vs Montreal and Toronto vs Ottawa – as of today.
That`ll be some good hockey to watch. Ottawa scares me in the match up, but it`ll be a great series. Looking forward to it
I still stand by my comment from last year which is that unless the injured player can play in at least 1 of the last 3 games of the regular season, they should not be playoff eligible until game #4. That would make the stakes of playing with the cap a lot more dicey.
GeorgeO I hope your Sens get Toronto. What will the core 4 do when Tkaczuk hunts them down.Should be good to hear the Toronto press on that series.
Sr, Tkachuk – like his brother – has to get healthy first in order to play his “normal” feisty game.
And I am not totally convinced that Ottawa won’t be caught by either Montreal or NYR for that 1st WC spot.
Yes, of their remaining 7 games, 6 are at home … but on the season they are 22 11 2 at home, so that alone is no guarantee. In 4 of them they play Florida, Columbus, Montreal and Carolina so, no easy road ahead.
George no guarantee Toronto finishes 1st either
Heh, with the exceptions of Winnipeg, Dallas and Washington at one end of the scale, and Chicago and San Jose at the other, no team is guaranteed to finish where they stand now, that’s for sure, Yogi. Great to see things this close with 6 or 7 games left.
Am I missing something, Lyle, anyone:
What is so difficult about having a salary cap apply in the playoffs by allowing a team to have all its players available, but requiring the starting line up’s total salary to fit in the regular season cap?
LJ – as Lyle will attest, I’ve been harping on this for years now. Alas, to no avail.
Lyle can correct me here, but the response I’ve heard (mainly from Lyle, himself) basically boils down to the fact that the Cap isn’t in the CBA, so it therefore doesn’t ‘exist’. And keeping someone who is otherwise healthy from working, without a contractual reason, is generally illegal.
Now, can this be (relatively) easily fixed in the next CBA: Yes.
Will they fix it? TBA
…that the PLAYOFF Cap isn’t in the CBA…
I don’t understand, Whalercaner.
Roster limits and regular season salary caps both limit who and how many can play so it can’t be ok to “limit” a player’s ability to play and not at the same time.
No disrespect to your attempt to help, but the explanation sounds like Schrödinger’s Cat quantum mechanic’s theorem.
Whether a collective agreement clause or league rule, the salary cap is real and clearly applies.
@Whalercane giving somebody a day off with pay isn`t illegal in Canada or the States. Making a change to the CBA isn`t just up to the NHL, the NHLPA has to agree to it, so easy is out the window. Besides the NHL already has rules that cover the LTIR, they just don`t enforce them
LJ. Makes total sense to me and seems to be the most fair solution to dealing with long term injuries. Whalercane, don’t teams already keep healthy players from playing – i.e. the healthy scratch?
This is where I’m going to defer to others.
I want to see the Cap applied throughout the playoffs, and think it’s ridiculous that it isn’t.
I was just trying to explain – apparently poorly – the reasoning(s) that I had seen.
Every player not on LTIR counts against the cap, since the would count in your scenario.
Somehow teams would have to do the impossible, remove players equaling the returning player.
There is no mechanism in place to do that.
If anything there could be audits by league appointed Drs.
Players on LTIR shouldn’t be allowed to practice with the team.
Maybe TDL has to be removed so teams have the ability to re-jig the lineup for cap compliance.
The only thing the TDL does is establish if a player is eligible to play in the playoffs. Any player acquired after the TDL can`t play in the playoffs in the NHL or the AHL that year. It doesn`t prevent teams from re-gigging their line up as you put it. Players can be traded, put on waivers after the TDL. Players who are on the LTIR aren`t allowed to practice or even skate with the team. Players that are on the IR can skate with the team, but can`t participate in contact drills
Habfan30:
Teams balance rosters in the regular season by removing players to fit in others to gain cap compliance and roster limits all the time.
Cap compliance is the reason LTIR factors into roster decisions. So there is not just existing mechanisms but requirements. Why do you say this is impossible?
Despite all the replies trying to help me understand still don’t explain why a cap can’t be applied to playoff rosters.
Let’s remember the purpose of the salary cap: to impose a level playing field for teams so wealthy teams don’t render small market teams irrelevant.
Given that the playoffs are more prestigious than the regular season and provide smaller market teams a revenue boost they otherwise would not have, why oh why is there not a cap in the playoffs?
And why in the interest of equal footing is there a now some talk of addressing the advantage non tax states have against the regular season cap but no salary cap in the playoffs?
I give up on this.
I think it’s worth mentioning that players technically aren’t paid for the playoffs. their salaries are fixed based on the 82-game schedule. I do think – contractually, and legally, that somehow comes into play here as well.
NHL likes the attention of the trade deadline. If cap applies to playoffs those teams far less likely to pursue rentals. Teams out of the playoffs need those trades too to build for the future.
I agree with whalercane’s solution. I also get why they have LTIR. If you are a good team, say OTT, and Brady gets hurt and is done for the regular season and playoffs, you should be able to replace him. Teams winning windows are only so long.
The playoffs is where it gets tricky, when the player comes back after the regular season. And it can and does happen.
So the solution of being cap compliant prior to that game seems like the only feasible solution I have hard.
Agree chrisms, it does likely play a factor into not changing the existing rules. And it does help the rebuilding teams, 100%.
Chrisms- you are likely onto something. This topic was brought up at the last GM meetings in March but nothing was resolved and the idea of having the salary cap for the playoffs was deemed “too simplistic” by the NHL. I don’t know what that means, but in general, a solution that is “simple” usually is a good thing. I believe that the salary cap was brought in to keep parity in the league but apparently parity is only important during the regular season – go figure.
I’m open to independent medical evals. But that’s about it. The system as it stands works fine. Players arnt paid in the playoffs, ostensively, so no salary no cap. Fans constantly say they want the best players playing in the biggest games. And all teams play by the same rule.
Ray Bark, a delayed response to your “warm” wishes for the Habs yesterday (yeah, and I waited for last night’s game to end in case this bit me – LOL):
You should know that those who have been good and had a near death experience report that the closer the got to the Pearly Gates the louder the chants of “Ole, Ole, Ole!” became. They report seeing happy people in red drinking champagne from 24 silver chalices.
Thos who have been bad and had a near death experience report that the words Gates of Hell change to Boston Gardens as you get closer. Lots of loud moans. The only thing Bruin is sulphur. And the drink to jour every day is a body temperature yellow liquid with a head on it that tastes nothing like beer.
Death bed conversions are never persuasive, Ray. There is still time to repent …
I’m an atheist LJ, but was raised catholic so get the references. Even an alter boy!
Hopefully I’ll have enough time to reconsider last minute, because if I switch now I’ll have to look myself in the mirror for the rest of life.
I hate that Ole, Ole, Ole song, chant, or whatever the F that is. Not as much as a Savardian Spinorama, or Mario Trembley as a person, but pretty darn annoying.