NHL Morning Coffee Headlines – May 12, 2025
Mikko Rantanen leads the Stars over the Jets, Sergei Bobrovsky backstops the Panthers over the Leafs, the goaltenders for the Quarter-Century Team are revealed, and more in today’s NHL Morning Coffee Headlines.
RECAPS OF SUNDAY’S PLAYOFF ACTION
NHL.COM: Dallas Stars winger Mikko Rantanen had a goal and two assists to lead his club to a 5-2 victory over the Winnipeg Jets in Game 3 of their best-of-seven second-round series.
Dallas Stars winger Mikko Rantanen (NHL Images).
Alexander Petrovic broke a 2-2 tie in the third period when he attempted to kick the puck up to his stick, but it fluttered toward the Jets’ net and deflected in off goaltender Connor Hellebucyk. After a lengthy review, it was declared a good goal, which seemed to unsettle the Jets, as Rantanen quickly made it 4-2. Wyatt Johnston put the game out of reach later in the period.
Roope Hintz and Thomas Harley each had a goal and an assist for the Stars. Kyle Connor and Nino Niederreiter replied for the Jets.
The Stars lead the series 2-1, with Game 4 in Dallas at 8 pm ET.
SPECTOR’S NOTE: Rantanen remains on a torrid scoring pace, leading this postseason with 18 points in 10 games. He’s the first player in league history to have five three-point games through his first 10 contests in a postseason. The Stars winger has to be considered the favorite thus far for the Conn Smythe Trophy as playoff MVP.
Following the game, Jets coach Scott Arniel expressed his displeasure with the ruling on Petrovic’s goal. “The rule states that if the puck gets kicked, if it hits a body or a stick of anybody else other than the goaltender, it counts as a goal,” said Arniel. “It hit our goaltender’s stick and went in the net. That is no goal. So they said that (Hellebuyck) propelled the puck in. I haven’t seen the word propelled in the rule book.”
Florida Panthers goaltender Sergei Bobrovsky stopped 23 shots to shut out the Toronto Maple Leafs 2-0 in Game 4 of their second-round series.
Carter Verhaeghe and Sam Bennett scored for the Panthers, who tied the series at two games apiece. Joseph Woll made 35 saves for the Leafs.
SPECTOR’S NOTE: The Panthers dominated Toronto’s scorers. Their victory might’ve been more lopsided if not for Woll’s goaltending. What few quality scoring chances the Leafs had were turned aside by Bobrovsky, who is dialled in after his shaky performances in the first two games of this series.
The Leafs’ frustration boiled over in the dying seconds when forward Max Domi hit Florida captain Aleksander Barkov from behind, sparking a melee at the buzzer. Panthers winger Matthew Tkachuk appeared to threaten William Nylander that he’d come after the Leafs winger in the next game.
Game 5 of this series is in Toronto on Wednesday, May 14 at 7 PM ET.
HEADLINES
NHL.COM: The final six players named to the league’s Quarter-Century Team were revealed on Sunday, all goaltenders.
The list includes Hall-of-Famers Martin Brodeur, Patrick Roy, Henrik Lundqvist and Roberto Luongo. Marc-Andre Fleury and Carey Price rounded out the list, with both goalies likely to become Hall-of-Famers.
Vegas Golden Knights captain Mark Stone is listed as day-to-day after suffering an undisclosed injury during Game 3 of their second-round series with the Edmonton Oilers. He’s listed as questionable for Game 4 on Monday in Edmonton. The Oilers hold a 2-1 lead in that series.
EDMONTON JOURNAL: Oilers goaltender Calvin Pickard remains day-to-day with a lower-body injury and won’t play in Game 4 against the Golden Knights.
THE HOCKEY NEWS: Washington Capitals defenseman John Carlson hopes for a quick turnaround from a poor performance in Game 3 of his club’s second-round series with the Carolina Hurricanes. Carlson was on the ice for all the Hurricanes’ goals in a 4-0 loss.
Speaking of the Hurricanes, forward Jordan Martinook and defenseman Jalen Chatfield left Game 3 with injuries, but they’re expected to be ready for Game 4 on Monday.
DAILY FACEOFF: Catherine Dubois of the Montreal Victoire scored in quadruple overtime to give her club a 3-2 victory over the Ottawa Charge in Game 2 of their PWHL semifinal series, tying it at a game apiece.
SPECTOR’S NOTE: This isn’t an NHL story, but a quadruple overtime in a postseason is worth mentioning. It was the longest game in PWHL history, and the second-longest professional hockey game ever played in Montreal.
The teams combined for 121 shots, with the Charge outshooting the Victoire 65-56, with Montreal goalie Ann-Renee Desbien making a record 63 saves.
Been long enough I would think for Rants to have a proper photo in Dallas gear. Why does it take so long these days to update the images? Not picking on Lyle, this happens all the time all over the place.
https://www.nhl.com/stars/player/mikko-rantanen-8478420
I watched quite a bit of that Ottawa-Montreal PWHL game and was impressed by the competitive play.
It’s great to see the league not only getting TV coverage, but well-attended by an obviously growing fan base AND expanding to 8 teams next season, with Seattle and Vancouver joining Boston, Minnesota, Montreal, New York, Ottawa and Toronto, followed by 2 more entries the following year.
Maple Leafs vs Panthers, now we have series! who do you like?
I don’t like either of them.
The Leafs are starting to take a page out of the Panthers playbook in seeking to deliberately injure the Florida stars. Especially that little puke Max Domi. His last second cross check/charge/hit from behind on Barkov merits a suspension for at least the rest of this series.
George I understand your point. But two wrongs don’t make a right.
The major difference between Domis hit and the crap the Panthers pull is that Domis hit was a clear intent to injure and violation of the rules coming with a few seconds left in a game which had already been decided. That cannot go unpunished.
It’s obviously up to the league to fairly discipline cheap shots and dirty play. I think we can all agree that they’re doing a horrible job at it,
Howard, first off, not a Max Domi fan, not the first time he has done stuff like this. And normally I would agree, throw the book at him. And I think he will get a game, maybe more.
But, the league hasn’t thrown the book at the Panthers, far from it. And they have been the league leaders with this type of cheap sh*t over the past two post seasons. Not a close 2nd IMO.
I posted on here last week that the players need to take matters into their own hands as the league has left them no choice. I mentioned Bennett, Tkachuk and Ekblad specifically.
Neither of them presented the opportunity where a payback shot wouldn’t negatively impact a game the Leafs needed. The opportunity was there with Barkov, Domi took it.
When Bennett accidently on purpose hit Stolarz in the head when he was vulnerable, and they lose him for multiple games (in just another example of Florida BS), no suspension, no fine, then you knew there would be retribution, sooner or later. That is what the hit by Domi was about, and I would bet my truck on it.
I believe the phrase is “F around and find out”.
Not a fan of this stuff, but I 100% understand why Domi did it, and of course somebody did. He just happened to be the guy out there when opportunity knocked. And yes he was looking for that opportunity.
With the general goonery used by Florida to intimidate (injure) their opposition, I suspect we’re going to see some of the teams start loading up for bear in the playoffs, much like the Canadiens did against the Flyers circa 1975. And as great as Bobby Clarke could be, I still detest him for his disgusting actions against the Russians. Unfortunately, that’s what a few of the Panthers are capable of as well, and the league needs to take some action to stop that s*it now before someone really gets hurt.
Ray, Rock, I totally understand your points and do not disagree. The league has let far too much of the crap the Panthers are doing go unpunished. And this is its reward.
But two wrongs do not make a right. What makes Domis actions worse is that it was an obvious attempt to injure a star player done in the waning seconds of a game whose outcome was not in doubt. The NHL cannot let this go unpunished.
We can all agree that the NHL’s enforcement has been haphazard and uneven. The league has to get serious about this too.
It’s clearly been reduced to a fight fire with fire approach … and you can’t blame the Leafs for going down the road all too frequently opened by the Panthers.
Any team that adheres to the “two wrongs don’t make a right” standpoint against a bunch of wood-choppers like the Panthers, will be quick exits.
In the end, it’s the League’s responsibility to call the games properly. They don’t do it and the players take over. ‘Twas ever thus.
Howard whether a player gives a cheap shot at the 2 minute mark or the end of the game, it`s still a cheap shot ans should be dealt with by the NHL. Domi gets fined 5000 bucks by the NHL, Florida players walk away scott free, AGAIN. Is there bias here, with out a doubt. Florida is the NHL`s slaphot 2025. The Hanson brothers may make an appearance for Florida yet this year. Domi`s stupidity gets a pouring of outrage, strangely that same moment of stupidity happened about 20 times in that game, the other 19 aren`t even worth mentioning. Bennett`s hit on Stolarz who probably won`t play again this year didn`t draw any reaction outside of Toronto, not from the refs, not from the NHL, and not by opposition fans. The NHL has 2 sets of rules, one for the teams they want to win and another for the Canadian teams. Just ask Winnipeg about the joke of a call that decided their game. Maybe hab fans enjoyed their series with the Caps. I know McDavid plays every game with the weight of 19 teammates on his back along with 2 or 3 oppositions players each game, but that`s OK. As long as Domi doesn`t touch a Florida player, then the opposition fans are up in arms and the NHL reacts in unheard of speed. But the one thing that bothers me is the way Maurice snapped his fingers and got the refs to review the Larsson hit, trying to get a 5 minute penalty out of a minor. The real joke was it took the refs about 2 seconds to review the hit and call it a minor as it should`ve been. But the fact that Maurice got the review for it is troubling, when Bennett`s elbow couldn`t get the time of day
Yogi I certainly agree that a dirty hit is a dirty hit whenever it occurs. However a cheap shot that occurs in the middle of a closely contested game can be explained, though not justified, as occurring as a result of the tense heat of battle. The time and situation of Domi’s cheap shot clearly point to an attempt to injure the other teams star player.
I do agree that the teams Bettman wants to win play some role.
Ok Howard please explain Bennett`s elbow on Stolarz and Kulikov`s elbow on Marner. Both elbows were deliberate, both were late and had no bearing on the play and if you go back and watch the game you`ll Domi`s hit was no more deliberate and had no more intent to injure than any of the others in the game. I`m talking both teams here not just Florida. The Domi call was just like an opportunity for the refs and the NHL to send a message to Toronto and don`t forget at the end of the game Marchand dropped his gloves and threw a few punches and Tkachuk threatened Nylander, heard by many, not even a thought given to those. Same in the Jets Stars game where Marchment whacked the ref with his stick intentionally and got no response from either the refs or the NHL. That`s normally an ejection followed by a lengthy suspension. Talk about sending a crystal clear message to the Jets
It’ll take a lot more that two wrongs to make right all the crap the Panthers have done — The Lightning want to be in line for a few licks. Eckblad has made elbowing into an art…after the Hegel hit it take an active imagination to call the subsequent ones an “accident”. He should be sitting on about a ten gamer for repetitive attempts to injure — successful attempts, I might add.
Well said, Howard. I don’t like the Panthers’ cheap antics and there were many here who, correctly, called them out.
But that doesn’t justify Domi’s or Eckman-Larrson’s hits, and calls for players to take things into their own hands will lead to poor hockey, suspensions and injuries.
The solution is for the laughably named department of player safety to hand out suspensions and have on ice officials enforce the rules.
Florida is 10 times worse than than the leafs for dirty plays nobody mentions the the chicken wing to Marner head.
I’ve made myself pretty clear on my stance with regards to the Panthers LJ no need to dive deep into the list of what they have done. With that George that the DOPS ship has sailed and is irrelevant. Not the solution as it has chosen not to be.
Ya Howard it was late and dirty, agree 100%. But it was also just like Tkachuk’s hit on Guenzel last round with a couple seconds left and the game over. No fine, no suspension, and it’s not like Tkachuk doesn’t do this stuff repeatedly with a long history. It was intentional and he knew exactly what he was doing.
IMO 2 wrongs do make a right in this situation. If you fed the Leaf players truth serum I would bet 90%, would agree. It’s us vs them. Either let them continue to do it to you or you stand up and give it back. That is the only thing that will stop this going forward. They really have no choice, and they all know it.
If it escalates, and it very well might, then just maybe the league gets off their ass and does something.
Just kidding! They won’t do sh*t.
Top 5 playoff takeaways to date
1- Max Domi is a slime ball
2- Hellebuyck is not a playoff goalie
3- Auston Matthew’s is over rated
4- Brad Marchand is a playoff stud
4- NHL reffing has gotten worse year after year.
Just say that you`re a die hard Florida fan Obe, considering Domi would fit in perfectly on the Florida team
The bigger question for the Leafs might be, what’s the matter with Matthews? Increased opponent attention aside, 2 goals in 10 playoff games by your top goal scorer is not a formula for success.
In fact, if you look back over their past 19 playoff games, he has a total of 3 goals.
Does Mathews have an injury?
Going back 19 playoff games? I don’t think that’s the case. He just doesn’t seem to be able to take it to the next level once the stifling checking of playoff hockey kicks in. Nor is he alone by any stretch when it comes to that.
Matthews seems to be easily intimidated, not only has his goal production dropped in the playoffs, regular season pace would equate to 13 goals/82 games, the distance from which he shoots has become greater. I thought maybe he needed glasses and he couldn`t wear contacts he was off by so much. But it appears he`s in a hurry to get rid of the puck, so`s not to get hit. If you`re not much of threat to score, then there`s less reason to get I guess
I’m in the – I think he has an injury camp.
I get it’s 19 games, but that doesn’t mean he isn’t hurt this year, nor does it mean he is.
He missed significant time this year, flew to Europe for treatment, doesn’t look right. Had a below average year as well.
It was a new interpretation of the rule book in Dallas. Refs acknowledged that the puck was kicked at the net but blamed Helle for not making the save. I don’t think this was the kind of kick at the net that the league designed the rule to stop but it was a highlight in a poorly officiated game. Most would agree that the Jets were the better team until that ruling. Jets players rightly made no excuses about the collapse saying that they need to be ready to play regardless of how the review goes.
Marchment agrees that the officials were off their game when he screams a little at them before whacking the shin of the referee with his stick and heading off the ice. No ambiguety about the action – I can’t see any way the league can turn a blind eye to the incident. Intentional contact with the referee when you are angry is a no-no.
I think its time for Comrie to start game 4 in Dallas. Back to Hellebyck in Winnipeg for the rest of the series after that. This way he gets a break to clear his head and then continue as the #1.
The two wrongs don’t make it right just gives clear passage to te unchecked bullies and dirty players when legal action (refs and DOPS) isn’t taken.
If TML don’t respond they are called too soft and not built for the playoffs.
The physicality has been matched and the Panthers felt the series slipping away so they have resorted to their true selves as they did to Tampa.
Domi just showed them that TML can and will respond in kind after all earlier in the game Kulikov’s boarding/elbow to Marner’s head went unpunished, no DOPS fine either.
Auston Matthews is obviously hurt, he’s not getting his shot off at all, when the playoffs are over we’ll hear about it it.
When I wrote that two wrongs don’t make a right I was referring to the leagues perspective not the Leafs perspective.
And Domi has now been hit with a $5000 fine. Does he have to pay all at once or can he get an installment plan? Does Bettman take credit cards?
A star player will be seriously injured before this series is done. And the league will have itself to blame.
Howard, that may have happened already. Stolarz appeared to have serious concussion symptoms, his season may be over and he’s been a star goaltender for the Leafs this year.
Shouldn’t the coach come under some scrutiny at some point? Pretty sure that, if coaches were suspended when their players were repeat offenders, things would change quickly.